The New York herald., 1870-11-14
Russia Moving In tho Game Of War-The
Eastern Question.

| me Engl5h government ana people are
again in the midst Of one Of their periodical
alarms over the Russian bugbear. Our special
telegraphic dispatches from London inform US
of the hasty movements OF couriers between
the Cabinet of st. James and the British en-
bassies at st. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Vienna,
Florence and Constantnople: all arising out
of the report that the Russian fleet is in move
ment to the Dardanees. The English gov
ernment realizes now, too late, that its cow
ardly policy in abandoning England's former
ally, France, and allowing her to be crushed
by the military power of Germany, has been
as unwise as it was weak, and that now there
is no impediment to the realization by Russia
of any views which she may have in respect
to Turkey or the control of the Black Sea.
Further news, in confirmation of this state
ment, is to tho effect that the Russian Minister
to London has given to the British Cabinet the
reading of communication from Prince
Gortschakoff, demanding the revision of the
treaty of 1856, by which Russia
was shut out from the Bosphorus and the
Dardanelles, and that the like demand
has been simultaneously communicated to the
| Courts of Berlin, Vienna and Constantinope.
OF course the meaning of all that is that the
Russian government is determined to take
advantage of the opportunity now afforded by
the downfall of France as a military power to
wipe out and annul treaty which not only
cripples her power, but is an offence to her
dignity. We have no doubt that, while Rus
sia may be free from meditating any inroad
on the territory or rights of her Mussuman
neighbor, there is foundation for the belief that
she is resolved to destroy the treaty Of 1856,
and to obtain the freedom Of the Dardanelles
and the Black Sea. And what Power will
gainsay her, or take up the gauntlet which she
thus throws down? In the meantime the
excitement in England is said to be intense,
and the fears Of great European complications
are spreading. Russia and Prussia are said
to be in secret alliance and, ii so, the two
partners have decidedly the game in their
hand, as against all the other Powers of
Europe.
The covetousness with which Russia looks
upon Turkey and watches for the opportunity
of seizing Censtantinople is 50 generally
/ y
an article Of political faith. There is hardly
statesman or journal in Europe or in America
that does not entertain the firm conviction that
Russian policy has no other end in view than
the conquest of Constantinople. Without
entering into an abstract discussion of the
question we will simply recall few historical
facts which will shed completely new light
| upon it.
| Since the year 1929 Russia has had at least
| dozen opportunities to march to CONSTANT
| nople with the greatest ease. In that year the
victorious army of the Emperor Nicholas was
at distance Of only fifty miles from Constanti-
nople. Marshal Diebitsch, who was command
ing it, despatched courier to the Emperor
Nicholas informing him that he could be at
Constantinople in forty y-eight hours without any
hindrancs; that he was called for by all the
Christian population of the city, and that the
Sultan and his five hundred wives had already
packed up their trunks to 60 over to Asia.
The Emperor, on receiving the message,
convoked at st. Petersburg council of all
the great statesmen of the empire and sub
mtted the question to them in the following
terms :-'sIs it the interest of Russia to accele-
rate the downfall Of Turkey and to occupy
Constantinople ?" The council unanimously
decided that it was not, and that as long as
| Turkey could be maintained it ought to be by
Russia. 1t is to be added that at that time
Charles x. was reigning in France and giving
his warmest support to Russia; that Austria
was under Russian control; that Prussia
bowed to the dictates of Nicholas that, conse-
quently, he had only to fear England, and
that, with the Russian occupation of the Dar-
daneles, the maritime power of England was
not to be feared.
In 1910 Mehemet Ali, the Pacha of Egypt,
supported by France, was at the doors of Con-
stantinOple with victorious army. The Sui
tan applied for aid to the Emperor Nicholas,
and an army of fifty thousand soldiers, under
the command of General Mouravieff, was sent
to his relief. Mehemet Ali was defeated and
the Sultan was saved. The Russian govern
ment claimed no other reward for it's services
than privileges and guarantees for the security
and prosperity Of the Christian populations of
the East. Mouravieff's army withdrew after
| OiucA A"u OCCH ie-eoluUilSAcu, auu W Wills uay,
on the Asatic shore of the Bosphorus, a
monument is the witness of that act Of Rus
sian bcnevolence to Turkey.
In 1S4S the whole of Europe was in revolu-
ton. Austria was on the very point Of being
crushed by Hungary in civil war. Italy was
also in arms against Austria. Nothing could
have been easier to the Emperor Nicholas,
then at the height Of his power and glory.
than to march to Constantinople and to oppose
to Great Britans interference an accom-
plished fact. Instead OF doing that the Empe-
ror Nicholas used his power for the re-estab-