The Express.
London, England, 1858-08-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST )4.

SPORTING

A SPECIAL EDITION el the " EXPRESS,"
esataiaiag the malts of the day's Bar* Is pub-
tithed wog mein dating the Sporting Season, at
eta &desk.

Mix who have resided in tropical cl;matss relate
wonderful stories of the doings of wHe ante. A
respectable householder leans against a wooden pillar
of his dwelling and tumbles through it ; sr he sits
down on a solid.looking bench and finds hhaself
deposited on the floor. He takes doe.' from a shelf
some long undisturbed book, and finds nothing left
bat the cover. The white ants, those industrious
workers in the dark, have been mining diligently,
leaning the exterior sound and una.tered, but making
the interior • were flimsy skeleton. Now this is the
sort of operation that his been performed in Turkey
to a wonderful extent by the protecting Powers.
Exhibiting a pra;mworthy solicitude about
keeping the geographical outline of the country
intact, they have quietly sapped the strength
of the Government by removing large section.
of the population practically from under its moral
influence and control. Were anything better saheb-
toted we should have little to say on the natter,
but this iv not always the case. Russia, Austria,
and France are the white ants of Turkey. Remits
has laboured diligently te teach the Greek OdlieliCa
of all shades to look up to her es their real sove-
reign—their protector in OW of oppression, their
supporter when a chance offers far doing a little hit
of oppression on their own account. France has
done the same once for the Latin Christians, and
eaten& her protectorate over a very wide field,
including every seat that professes a shadow of obe-
dience to the POPE. Austria, in right of her
mixed races, Greek and Catholic, substitut w herself
for either Russia or France as occasion may offer,
or sides with one or the other of them as as
according to circumstances. It mrit be confessed
also, that, not to be quite out of the fashion, Eng-
land and Prussia have established • Protestant
Bishopric at Jerusalem ; but the business of religious
diminution does not sees to thrive in our hands; it
has come to a GOBAT, and is appenatly only another
element of discord added to that headquarters of
religions "rows," the Holy City.

The aims of Russia, Austria, and Franco have,
however, the advantage of being clearly defined.
Russia proposes to push her frontier on to the Danube,
and after that as it may please Providence ; Austria
looks upon &feria as properly here, and the Danube
and the Drave as her natural boundaii throughout
their whole coarse. France, having been from time
immemorial the protector of the Latin Christians,
and Syria being their chief locality, she considers
that country as destined sooner or later to fall into
her hands. She doubtless salves her conscience by
the reflection that wonders have been effected in
Algeria, and that Syria, under her rale, would be a
happier land for its inhabitants, sad a blesiag• to
Europe, instead of what it now is. England is out
of the hunt. We want non of the SULTAN'S
territory, unless it be perhaps a piece of the
Holy Land, as a place where religions enthu-
siasts might blow off their superfluous steam,
emd iadulge in all sorts of polemics with all sorts of
Cluinians, varying their operations by trying to
eonvert the Jews. In nicer seriousness, has England
any policy with regard to Turkey, and if so, what
L it? We have • sort of negative policy, which
consists in watching that her neighbours do not
nibble off pieces of her territory, but we do not pea•
vent the whits ant basinss from going on; aad the
Turkish empire, with its geographical features in-
tsct, may nevertheless be as unstable as a house of
cards, and practically parcelled out among foreign
potentates. Our policy should be to strengthen
Turkey, to raise the people, and with them
to raise their rulers. There is but one alietual
mode of doing this—commerce. Stimulate the
sommercial spirit of the people, and you will do
more to annihilate the fanaticism of Islamism than
armies of missionaries or congresses interminable
could 'obese.
Is thagra•t wealth of England, in the energy
and commercial astuteness of our countrymen, we
have • weapon which has ere now proved itself
tore than • match for vast military power and
elaborate diplomatic combinations. We hare tried
the system of opposite( asibeseador to =baseman at
Constantinople, sad consul to coeval is other parts
of the East, and the result has been either barren
triumphs, profitless to to and to Turkey, or, still
oftener, positive defeats in the struggle to retain
lefinence among the people. It is union to
Amy the fact, English prestige plays a very
eseondary part in the Levant, and barely
mikes to suable es to afford the necessary protec-
tion to our own subjects, or to obtain justice for our
co-religionists. Why sot try the other system, and,
by making Turkey and its subjects our debtors for
wealth and 'alight's/met, lay the foundation of a
more permanent and profitable influence which shall
eo•nterbalanes that of the ether powers, which is
chiefly beard on religious grounds, and, at the same
time, strengthen the hands of the Turkish Govern-
ment ? The Turk, •he gerAino Osmanli, has aue
et,
the enterprising trader in his nature, belt there is
hardly a poetise of the Seism= empire without •
large admixture of the Greek, Armenian, or Arab
sternest in it, where the spirit of traffic can be easily
stimulated, and where the advantages of an im-
proved state of physical well-being would be as
ewe appreciated. There is no country offer-
ing a wider and more promising field far tom-
menial enterprise than Turkey. Syria has been
proved to be admirably adapted, among other things,
for the growth of cotton, and the English Govern-
ment has recently forwarded a supply 0 the Sea
Island seed to that country. Bat this is mot all that
Is wanted. Capital and labour an equally, nalemeary,
bet they will not flow thither unless sure of being
left unmolested, and of enjoying the protection of
the law, firmly and honestly administered. Roads