The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-07 00:00:00

TURKEY•

Nearly the whole of the first page of the _Mats
of yesterday is filled with an article on the Eastern
question, but it is chiefly a notice of the view taken
of it by the German journals. We extract, there-
fore, only the concluding portion, in which the
Debats expresses its opinion respecting the jealousy
of France that has been displayed on this ques-
tion :

"The mot d'ordre is now given in Germany as in Eng-
land. What has brought about the Oriental com-
plication is not the mission of the Count de Lein-
ingen or that of Prince Menschikoff ; it is the
protectorate of the Catholics claimed by France at
Jerusalem. We must be permitted on this subject
to remark that every time the Eastern question is
renewed, Europe appears always to arrange, matters in
such a manner that it is a, French question which is said

to spoil all, and which prevents Europe from energeti-
cally protecting the independence of the East. In 1839
the victories of Ibrahim Pacha threatened Constanti-
nople. The European Powers interfered to prevent the
fall of Sultan Mahmoud. But suddenly a French ques-
tion appeared through the Eastern one. The object was
no longer to prevent the preponderance of Egypt in the
Ottoman Empire, but that of France in Egypt. The
pretended ambition of France, and her moral aggrandise-
ment, became the object of all the jealousies and of all
the resistance of Europe. It was not the Ottoman Em-
pire which was saved, as the result has too clearly
shown ; it was France which was checked. Such was
the solution of the Eastern question in 1840 ; such was the
manner in which the interest of Europe against
France was substituted for that of Europe in favour
of the Ottoman Empire. In 1840, Europe, instead of
endeavouring to bring the dying to life, preferred leavir.g
him in his agonies, and endeavoured to destroy or weaken
one of his heirs in order to render the succession more
advantageous to the survivors. In 1853, we have
not for some time seen how it would be possible to
substitute a French question in place of the Ottoman
one. France, for instance, did not appear to take fire
for the Montenegrins, as she did in 1840 for Egypt. She
has scarcely had time since 1848 to think of the East, and
she has cared little about it. When then can the hand
of France be found in the affairs of the East ? How can
it be shown that it is France that has again lighted up
the Eastern question ; that it has caused the perils of
Constantinople ; that it is against France' and against
her preponderance in the East that it is necessary to
take precautions ; that there is, in short, in 1853 as in
1840, a French question whiuh-predominates over the
Ottoman one ? The thing wias difficult to be done, but
it was accomplished. It• is now agreed in Europe that
the question is not of Constantinople, but of Jerusalem ?
What do you say of Prince Menschikoff, who caused the
dismissal of a Turkish Minister by not going to see him ;
of the fleet of Sebastopol ; of the Russian armies on
the banks of the Black Sea ; of the protectorate
claimed and exercised by Russia over eleven millions
of Ottoman subjects ? You hear nothing of it. The
question is of the key of the Holy Sepulchre
and of the chapel of Bethlehem. That is the principal
affair. To send an English fleet under pretence of
protecting Constantinople, but in reality to deliver into
the hands of France the keys of the Holy Sepulchre, is
a piece of dupery of which Protestant England is not
capable. Let us, in the first place, prevent France from
triumphing at Jerusalem, as we prevented her in 1840
from triumphing at Alexandria. Constantinople may
afterwards become what she may. This is how the
question of the Holy Places has been skilfully substi-
tuted for the Ottoman question, and France left alone in
1853 as too Catholic, in the same way as in 1840 as too
Egyptian. To reduce France to a state of 'isolation ap-
pears in Europe a question of more importance than to
guarantee the independence of Constantinople ; and that,
in our opinion, is the greatest danger for Constanti-
nople."