The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-10-19

Our latest adyices from Europe indi-
cate the outbreak of a general war, upon
the eastern Question:" SO called. This
question is really as old as the crusades
of the Middle Ages, when Asia and Eu-
rope met in arms on the Plains of Pal
estine. 1t was then a war OF religions
and races; it Is essentially the same
now. For this reason it attracts the at
itention OF all Christendom; and the
world is on tip-toe to watch its every
movement. 1t is felt that the peace Of
three continents is now poised on the
scepter of the Russian Car.
Why this momentous issue, SO mate
rally involving the interests and feel
ings of different nations and of various
races, should thus come to depend upon
the will of the Russian Emperor, is one
of those problems SO frequently arising
in the development OF races and the
establishment Of dynasties. Research
into the remote causes of the present
impending war will show that they are
but the outcroppings of dynastic policy
as old as the Russian Empire. That
policy, inherent in the crown of Russia,
has received the name of PanslaVism.
Its essential feature and purpose are to
collect and consolidate under the sway
of one scepter all the peoples and the
tribes Of the Slavic race, OF which the
Russian throne is both the religious eX-
pOnent and the political defender. 1t
was upon this Panslavistic policy that
the Russian Empire originated, and by
This it has grown TO its present colossal
proportions.
The origin Of the Empire of the Slavi
may be traced a thousand years back,
TO the middle of the ninth century
Their home was OH the bleak and barren
plateaux east of the Baltic. Discomfort
impelled them to migrate eastward into
the interior of Northern Asia, where
they found cognate tribes, and founded
barbaric kingdom. Around this nu-
cleus oJher Slavic tribes soon clustered.
A century later their monarch visited
Constantinople and there, becoming en-.
amored of Greek princess, he married
her and adopted the faith OF the Greek
Church Of Byzantium. Returning to his
northern home he required his subjects
TO embrace the same faith; and for nine
hundred years this has been the religion
Of the whole Slavic race.
This led to a treaty with the Greel
Empire, and thereby the new Slavic
kingdom was defended from the Tartari
on the one hand and the Teutons on tht
other. Thus strengthened, it received
new accessions of territory and OF sub.
jects. BY the middle OF the 10Th cen
tHry they had become so strong as tt
overawe all surrounding opposition. Al
the downfall OF the Greek Empire before
the Turkish invasion, in 1853, this Slavic
power, then known as Russia, had 6
population OF but six millions, and they
confined in the interior OF Asia. ItwaS
not till three hundred years ago that they
possessed single ship or single sea
port. But they had pushed their con
quest eastward till in 1920 they haC
reached the Pacific, and not long after
wards crossed Behring's Straits ant
planted colony in America. They
next spread westward into the north o
Europe till they reached the great sea-
and sounds of the Atlantic. 1t was no
till 1871, one hundred and fifty years
ago, that she acquired the spot on whicl
her mighty capital OF St. Petersburg
now stands.
But wherever the Slavic race wa
found, there Russia rapidly extende
her sway. Formerly it was suppose
that the amalgamation of those Asiati
tribes was no more than heterogeneou
compound, weak from its own yastne ss
But when the Swedish conqueror wa
crushed at Pultowa, and when Ma
poleon's army Of four hundred thousan
trained troops was rolled back in ruin
hOm Moscow, Europe discovered tina