The Sun.
London, England, 1825-11-10 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

MR. EDITOR-It is said, how truly is not yet '
generally known, that one of the leading mem-
bers of the Holy Alliance is anxious that some-
thing should be done in regard to the Greeks,
who have now been so long struggling, single-
handed, to obtain their freedom. There are, no
doubt, many cogent reasons which must induce
Russia to desire the emancipation of the Greeks ;
not, indeed, because she feels the least sympathy
in the cause of national independence, but be-
cause she earnestly desires to hasten the decay
of the Ottoman empire. The all-grasping am-
bition of that power cannot be satisfied with the
many fine provinces it has already torn from
Turkey ; but these secret yearnings would be
very unbecoming in one of the staunch supporters
of legitimate Governments, and must be, conse.
quently, more carefully concealed.
Bearing in mind the fundamental principles of
the a!liance of which Russia is a powerful mem-
ber, we hear, indeed, of an inclination, on her
part, to patronize the cause of the Greeks, but
this is to be done, some how or other, without
losing sight of the indefeasible rights which the
Ottoman Porte possesses over the inhabitants of
Greece. Now, it will be somewhat curious to
see on what grounds the Cabinet of Saint Pe-
i
tersburgh will rest this said indefeasible right
of the Porte over its present Greek subjects. The
only right which the Sultanposseses over the Greeks
is the right of conquest, the most flimsy and un-
certain of all possible rights, since it depends
wholly upon the smiles of fortune, than which no-
thing can possibly be more uncertain. Are the
Holy Allies prepared to maintain that the right
of conquest establishes the indefeasible right of
the victor to the country of the vanquished ?
When we see in what manner the Holy Allies
have shared among each other countries that were
formerly independent states, and recollect that
the success of their arms alone enabled them thus
to enlarge their dominions, we cannot for a mo-
ment doubt that they will answer the above
qrtestion in the affirmative. Yet, in point of fact.
this indefeasible right is pretty nearly the same
which any robber may assert over the property
which he has acquired by violence. Now, as the
forcibly depriving an individual of what belongs
to hlrn, does not, and cannot, give the spoiler any
just right to what he has thus got in his posses-
sion, neither can the forcible invasion and occu-
pation of any country destroy the rights of its in-
-habitants to national independence. They have
been deprived by force, and by violence, of that
which was their inherent right. Their weakness
compels them to submit to its loss : but it can
never efface the first claim they have upon it;
and they would be deserving of contempt did they
not seize the first opportunity that offers to re-
bover.that which force alone compelled them to
surrender. Now this is eminently the case in re-
gard to the Greeks. The only rig-ht which the
Otttirnan possess over this once free and happy
country, is that of conquest. It was by force of
arms, and by that alone, that the Turkish Sul-
tans reduced the Greeks to a state of the most
abject, the most galliug servitude. Victory
alone gave the imperial city into the hands of
Mahomet If., and placed this fortunate Mussul-
man upon the throne of the Christian Caesars.
The fall of this throne casts a foul and an indeli-
ble stain upon the monarchs of Christendom, who
witnessed the lamentable catastrophe of the cross
rand the triumph of the crescent, with the most
selfish, the most reprehensible apathy. This
criminal indifference had well nigh proved fatal
to the_Christian world : and it was a long time
doubtftil whether the victorious Mussulmans
might not reduce the whole of Europe under the
withering yoke of the Koran. But providence
had ordaiued it otherwise. Greece alone fell a
prey to the most barbarous invaders ; and the
once
_formidable empire of the Caesars, was level-
led with the dust.
The Greeks now became the slaves of their
ruthless conquerors ; and heavy indeed was the
burden of their yoke ! Despised as a nation,
and still more despised as the worshippers of
Christ, they were subjected to every species of
vexation, of indignity, and of outrage. In vain
did they look round for relief. The crescent
which occupied the place of the cross on the
dome of Saint Sophia, told them they were
now but slaves ; and the indifference of their
Christian brethren warned them that their slavery
must be lasting. The land where freedom once
flourished in all,its luxuriance, where every echo
resounded with the praises of liberty, now dis-
played only the deplorable picture of oppression
and only re-echoed with the groans of an oppress-
ed and suffering people.
Now what man shall dare assert, that a nation
Otos -deprived of its national independence, thus
enslaved by a brutal and a tyrannical conqueror,
thus exposed to every species of indignity which the
grossest ignorance, united to the most ferocious
disposition can inflict, must tamely bare its back
to the lash, deliver up its neck to the executioner,
abandon its women and its virgins to the lust of
its tyrants, and not make one effort to remove
such galling s oppression ; or that such an effort
' when made, deserves to be stigmatized as a
rebellion against the indefeasible rights, of its
' sanguinary oppressors ! By the sword the
Greeks were forcibly deprived of their na.-
tional independence, and by the sword they have
an undoubted right forcibly to recover it whea-
-1 ever they find the opportunitY of so doing.—
What, indeed, binds the Greek to the Turk ?
' That which binds the slave to his master—force,
and force alone. Theirs.was no willing surrender
of independence, no willing acknowledgment' of
a foreign yoke, no willing submission to a horde
. of foreign barbarians. No. They preserved
their hatred for the religion and the persons of
• their conquerors; they preserved their own
guage, their own manners, their own religion, and
with it, their right to their own national hide-
; pendence. With them, the sacred flame of pa-

ft
triotism lay smothered, but not extingatsile"h'ioe
awaited only a favorable opportunity 10
,;ifith
again with all its original splendour, and ra.g`ither
a degree of intensity which, it is hoped) of the
the mighty efforts of the sworn enemies;leo,
Christian Faith, nor the lukewarmnessl9ll: e able
the hostility; of Christian Princes, will Pe
effectually to oppose.