LIMITATIONS- OF THE :ANTI-RUSSIAN QUESTION. Belfast, 19th September 185O. the.--I
have read with great interest the letter of "E. A. F." in your number of the loth; but I feel quite at a leas to understand the connexion between his views on past-history and on present politics. Mr. Bridges Adams, and other writers of the War party, have not expressed any desire to see Russia degraded and ruined : they do not wish to aee Russia reduced to the state of Spain or Turkey ; for this could only arise from in- ternal causes of decay. But E. A. Elms himself furnished us with a pre- cedent for what we aim atia the case of Russia. France, in the time of the first Napoleon, was defeated, but not ruined ; forced to give up.her conquests and her projects of conquest, hut nothing that affected truly national rights. So in the present case. We will not—we cannot—destroy the national inde. pendenee of Russia ; but let us keep the Crimea, which is not truly Russian soil, but only a base of operations against Constantinople and the Mediterra.
E. A. F. also refers to the opposition given of old to Turkish ambition by powers actually threatened—Venice, Poland, and Austria. This is cer-
tainly a case in point. The Byzantine empire then occupied the place, poli- tically as well as geographically., of the Ottoman Porte at present. Can E. A. F. mean that the Western Pcavers of that age acted wisely in leaving the Byzantine empire to its fate ? And who now occupy the place, with re- gard to the Eastern question., which was then not unworthily filled by Austria, Poland, and Venice ? The two latter have ceased to exist. Austria is neutralized by the results of Russian intrigue and Viennese infatuation during the revolutionary years. The nearest effective resistant* is to be hand in.France and England. It ismatter of regret-that there should be so few effective political powers in the world. The time was when every independent state was a power on greater or less magnitude. Such a time may come again. We cannot restore it suddenly: but we can do much to make its restoration possible, by re- straining the progress of the Power which has destroyed Poland, crushed Hungrily, despoiled Sweden, and paralyzed Germany. We are in arms net for our own rights alone, but for those of the smaller states as well : and Sardinia, at least, understands this. When I speak of the smaller states,I do not exclude Greece. Russian as- cendancy in the East would deprive the Greeks of independence and freedom, giving nothing in exchange to the nation, and-only a share in the adminis- tration of a huge despotism to individuals. No doubt, the Greeks sympathize with Russia now ; but it does not follow that they would likes Ilmaian des- potism weighing on themselves.
We ought to make allowance for the anomalous position of Greece, which makes the Greeks politically restless. The Greek race has its natural ca- pital at Constantinople; and a Greek kingdom, cut off from Constantinople, excluding Crete and Thessaly, and having its capital at Athens, is as great an absurdity as would be an Irish kingdom cut off from England, excluding U lster and Dublin, and having its capital at Tara. J. J. M.
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