The Emperor of Russia believes it may be true that
the strength of Russia consists in isolation from the West, and, according to a Viennese account, said to be accurate, he has adopted a new and singular plan for confirming the separateness of his Court. He has sanctioned the betrothal of his Heir-Apparent to the Princess Militza, daughter of the Prince of Montenegro, who hardly belongs to the Sovereign, Houses, but who is of the Greek Orthodox faith. He is about,' moreover, to promulgate a family law under which the Heir. Apparent must always marry a lady born in the Greek Church, a restriction which would confine his choice to the Princesses of the Balkan Peninsula, or his own subjects. The report, though given in much detail, still needs confirmation ; but it tallies exactly with the general drift of the ideas known to be current at the Russian Court ; and it may be worth remembering, in con- nection with a belief which is widely entertained in Bulgaria, and for which there was certainly foundation some time since, that the true Russian candidate for the Bulgarian Throne is the Prince of Montenegro. As he would inevitably claim Macedonia also, and so bar for ever the Austrian road to the 2Egean, that would mean war at once.
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