The Shasta courier., 1869-02-20
Importance Of Constan tinople.

The speciality of Constantinople. the
virtue for which men have fought for It far
twelve hundred years, is just this, that any
strong man who holds it and the territory
Immediately north of it can hit ANYBODY
ne likes without being hit in return. He
strikes out at ease; while his adversary
hits his knuckles against pillars. That
does not matter if he is weak, like the later
Greek, or worn-out barbarian, like the
Turk; butsuppose he is at once strong and
aggressive. A Romanof master of Con-
stantinople would have an unassailable
depot or fortress, with huge dockyard.
the Sea of Marmora, on the eastern side
inaccessible to any flag but his own; huge
close harbor, the Bosphorus, in front; and
huge fortress, which he would build at
very slight expense-for twenty 100 pound
ers on Monsell carriages, would shut the
entrance against anything but a bird
upon the west. He could build fleets for
ever which nobody would ever see, and
could strike any place in the Mediterranean
without chance Of rcprisals If engineers
may be trusted, any man in the profession,
with European working, couple of mil
lions, and absolute power, could place Con-
stantinople beyond the reach of assault,
making it a fortress to which Cronstadt,
would be toy-and British feet with
a Napier on board did not take Cronstadt.
Nobody would be able to get near it an Y
more than to get near Tobolsk, while its
owner could get near anybody, as the vice
roy of Tobolsk cannot do. He would be a
loug-armed boxer, master at once of the
Mediterranean and the Black Sea, of the
mouths of the Danube, the mouths of the
Volga, and the mouths of the Nile; would
control or menace the northern coast of the
Mediterranean, where the present is so
great, threatening Marseilles, and Naples,
and Athens and Trieste all at once, and of
the southern coast, where the future is so
possible. Moreover, he would be driven.
partly by the prestige of his capital, which
would make it the resort of all the discon-
tented in Western Asia, partly by his own
natural hunger for beautiful properties
easily acquired, for revenue, in fact,-to
conquer Asia Minor and Egypt, which
would lie, as it were, at his doors and, if
he were decently prudent, would ask him
to come in The Fellahs would accept
Satan if he rid them of the Pasha, and let
them have their lands as Russian villagers
in the interior have the lands. This would
be to seize the fairest countries of Asia
and the only country in Africa worth hav-
ing; to possess regions which, wisely gov
erned, would yield endless cash, and open
routes to any conquest the Gar might,
from judgment or ambition, or even caprice,
heartily desire. Behind, in the cold north,
would lie myriads of obedicnt soldiers by
his side, timid, though jealous enemies
in front, rich population, ready to be
serfs. The Czar would be an armed man
in porch ready to rob any passenger
weaker than himself, but almost unassail-
able by the police of the world He might
not wish to assail anybody-that is pos
sible theory about any politician-but he
would have every temptation to do it, he
could not be hurt if he did, and he would
be very much pressed by those around him
to try, more pressed than Indian viceroy
is to annihilate the last vestige of native
independence. He would be surrounded,
in fact, by races who need strong order,
to whom he could give strong order, and
whose conquest would therefore seem an
act of mercy. No doubt he could, if too
dangerous, be resisted in the end. The
rise of America has altered all European
conditions, and it is difficult to conceive the
power to which the English-speaking peo-
pies, once united in offensive and defensive
alliance, could not dictate terms of peace,
or rather the ultimate limits of war But
the statesmen of Europe have hitherto held
it wiser not to let affairs arrive at so ex-
treme point of tension, to insist that no
power should rise to such hight as to be
unassailable, to lay down the proviso that
nation which has natural advantages such
as Russia has in her SHOWS and size, and
England in her insular position, should not
be equal to conquer other and equal ad-
vantages, and thus combine many modes
of attack with very few necessities for de-
fence. The statesmen may be wrong in
their opinions-we by no means deny it
but they are not wrong in their facts
namely, that Russia, in getting CONSTANT
nople, would get hundred opportunities
of attack without incurring one extra liz
bility for defence that Constantinople is
the natural fortress of the world, the one
position in which it might be possible to
build up power that would compel the
remainder Of mankind, if they liked inde-
peudence, to sleep always under arms
London Spectator.
GENTLEMAN in T,ondon fell IN love