The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-03-15
New Era In tho :fIistory or Nations.


Guard"
New Era I'm tho History or Nations.
The struggle in VIII ich quasi religious dis
pute between Russia and Turkey is about to in
volve several, ard PERHAPS the whole, of the
European powers, Is locked upon by reflective
minds as embracing higher aud weghtier con-
siderations than sr e probably apparent to those
whose passions az d interests are engaged in it.
It presents all the evidences of one of those
painful throes in which civilization seeks to
burst through the barriers opposed to its pro-
gress by political selfshness 1t is, in fact,
neither more nor less than the beginning Of a
great social and political movement, the precise
action and limits Of which it would defy the
keenest sagacity to fix. There may be SOM
thing wanting to complete the character that
we have ascribed to it; but that will, in all
probability, be supplied by the necessity that
will be sooner or later imposed upon us of
bringing Spain to stern reckoning for the
outrages committed upon our commerce by the
Cuban authorities No time can be better
adapted than the present for the settlement of
that long protracted and heavy account The
maritime powers Of Europe have too much on
their hands to be able to give effect to the
secret treaty that exists between them in refe-
renee to our future action upon Cuba; and if the
President and his Cabinet have only courage
enough to act with the decision and prompt
ness that become the government of great
nation, they will soon bring about So
luton of this Cuban question in the only
way in which it can ever be permanently or
satisfactorily solved. The effect of immedi-
ate and energetic action would he not merely
to obtain full reparation for the wanton insults
That have been offered our flag, but to bring
the influence of this country to bear on the de
cison of the questions that are about to distract
and divide the world, and to place it at once in
the position that it is destined to occupy as one
Of the great controlling powers of the age.
The struggle that has commenced between
Russia and Turkey has been represented by the
journals of Western Europe as the result of eff
forts on the part of the stronger power to OPP
press the weaker, and to wrest from it part, il
not the whole, of its territories. IF we diyest
our minds, however, of the impression which
to produce, and examine dispassionately the
events which, during the last two centuries,
have brought Russia and Turkey into such fire.
quent collision, we will find that it is attribut-
able rather to the operation of an organic law
which governs empires, institutions, creeds, and
even human nature itself, than to the ambition
of individual rulers. In fact, the present con-
test is merely a continuation Of that long war
of principles which began with the subjugation
of the Roman empire by Christianity, found its
middle term in the expulsion of the Greeks from
Constantinople by Mahommedan invaders and
is now entering upon its third, in the efforts Of
the former to regain the ground which they had
lost. We must not suffer ourselves to
he deluded into the notion that this is
mere struggle between persons and dynas-
ties. Whatever may be its issue, there are
great elementary principles involved in it,
which will continue in full vitality as long as
there is an opposing influence to that Of Chris
tianity AS well might the Western Powersat-
tempt to arrest the ocean in its bed.as to pre-
vent the refux Of Greek civilization into Asia.
1t Is now the turn of Mahommedanism to recede
before the banner of Christ, ard the crescent will
have to give place to the cross, on the mosque
OF st. Sophia. What the Greek rulers of the
South lost by their vices and their effeminacy,
those of the North will regain by their hardi-
hood and energy. Even in our own time, Con-
stantinople may again become the seat Of an
other byzantine empire, dffusing the light of
Christianity and the blessings Of civilization
throughout the whole continent of Lesser Asia.
Such, it appears to US, is the manifest desti-
ny " Of Russia, as tie instrument in the hands
of God for the accomplishment of those great
designs Of which the revolution in China is but
the foreshadowing Who can doubt but that
this most remarkable event of modern times is
the herald Of mighty changes, in which Chris
tiauiiy will as usual be made the potent agent
Of civilization? The part that Russia is des-
tined TO play in this great work of human regenc-
ration seems to be clearly marked out by the
finger of Providence, and the combined efforts
of all the European governments cannot pre-
vent the f'rlf'ment OF that destiny. The inter-
vention organized by the Western Powers in
this contest between Christianity and Mahom-
mechanism is, therefore, false and unnatural
position, and will generate some extraordinary
and sudden outbreak or revolution within the
dominions Of the rulers who commit themselves
to IL.
The Western Powers should have held them
selves aloof from dispute in which neither their
e, lngs nor their interests were engaged. Eu-
opc had, in fact, nothing TO do with the quarrel.
{ i at least thousand years, or thirty genera
ions, IN aayanss II we political and religious