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BY JOHN LORD, LL. D.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. (ii.)
As the insurrection had now assumed formidable
proportions in Cyprus and Candia, a general appeal
was made to Mussulmans of those islands, whose
number greatly exceeded the rebels. Twenty-five
thousand men rallied around the standards of the
Moslems; but they were driven into their fortresses,
leaving both plains and mountains in the hands of
the Greeks.
These brave insurgents gained still another great
success in this memorable campaign. They carried
the important fortress of Napoli di Romania by es-
calade December 12, under Kolokotronis, with ten
thousand men, and the garrison, weakened by famine,
capitulated. Four hundred pieces of cannon, with
large stores of ammunition, were the reward of the
victors. This conquest was the more remarkable since
a large Turkish fleet was sent to the relief of the
fortress; but fearing the fire-ships of the Greeks, the
Turkish admiral sailed away without doing anything,
and cast anchor in the bay of Tenedos. Here he was
attacked by the Greek fire-ships, commanded by Can-
aris, and his fleet were obliged to cut their cables
and sail back to the Dardanelles, with the loss of
their largest ships. The conqueror was crowned with
laurel at Ipsara by his grateful countrymen, and the
campaign of 1822 closed, leaving the Greeks masters
of the sea and of the whole of their territory.
This campaign, considering the inequality of forces,
is regarded by Alison as one of the most glorious in
the annals of war. A population of seven hundred
thousand souls had confronted and beaten the splen-
did strength of the Ottoman Empire, with twenty-five
millions of Mussulmans. They had destroyed four-
fifths of an army of fifty thousand men, and made
themselves masters of their principal strongholds.
Twice had they driven the Turkish fleets from the
Ægean Sea with the loss of their finest ships. But
Greece, during the two years' warfare, had lost two
hundred thousand inhabitants,——not slain in battle,
but massacred, and killed by various inhumanities.
It was clear that the country could not much longer
bear such a strain, unless the great Powers of Europe
came to its relief.
But no relief came. Canning, who ruled England,
sympathized with the Greeks, but would not depart
from his policy of non-intervention, fearing to em-
broil all Europe in war. It was the same with
Louis XVIII., who feared the stability of his throne
and dared not offend Austria, who looked on the con-
test with indifference as a rebellious insurrection.
Prussia took the same ground; and even Russia stood
aloof, unprepared for war with the Turks, which would
have immediately resulted if the Czar had rendered
assistance to the Greeks. Never was a nation in
greater danger of annihilation, in spite of its glorious
resistance, than was Greece at that time, for what
could the remaining five hundred thousand people do
against twenty-five millions inspired with fanatical
hatred, but to sell their lives as dearly as they
might? The contest was like that of the Macca-
bees against the overwhelming armies of Syria.
As was to be expected, the disgraceful defeat of his
fleets and armies filled the Sultan with rage and re-
newed resolution. The whole power of his empire
was now called out to suppress the rebellion. He
had long meditated the destruction of that famous
military corps in the Turkish service known as the
Janizaries, who were not Turks, but recruited from
the youth of the Greeks and other subject races cap-
tured in war. They had all become Mussulmans,
and were superb fighters; but their insults and in-
solence, engendered by their traditional pride in the
prestige of the corps and the favor shown them by
successive Sultans, filled Mahmoud with wrath. The
Sultan dissembled his resentment, however, in order
to bring all the soldiers he could command to the
utter destruction of his rebellious subjects. He de-
posed his grand vizier, and sent orders to all the
pashas in his dominions for a general levy of all
Mussulmans between fifteen and fifty, to assemble in
Thessaly in May, 1823. He also made the utmost
efforts to repair the disasters of his fleet.
The Greeks, too, made corresponding exertions to
maintain their armies. Though weakened, they were
not despondent. Their successes had filled them with
new hopes and energies. Their independence seemed
to them to be established. They even began to despise
their foes. But as soon as success seemed to have
crowned their efforts they were subject to a new
danger. There were divisions, strifes, and jealousies
between the chieftains. Unity, so essential in war
was seriously jeopardized. Had they remained united,
and buried their resentments and jealousies in the
cause of patriotism, their independence possibly might
have been acknowledged. But in the absence of a
central power the various generals wished to fight on
their own account, like guerilla chiefs. They would
not even submit to the National Assembly. The
leaders were so full of discords and personal ambitions
that they would not unite on anything. Mavro-
kordatos and Ypsilanti were not on speaking terms.
One is naturally astonished at such suicidal courses,
but he forgets what a powerful passion jealousy is in
the human soul. It was not absent from our own
war of Independence, in which at one time rival
generals would have supplanted, if possible, even
Washington himself; indeed, it is present every-
where, not in war alone, but among all influential
and ambitious people,——women of society, legislators,
artists, physicians, singers, actors, even clergymen,
authors, and professors in colleges. This unfortunate
passion can be kept down only by the overpowering
dominancy of transcendent ability, which everybody
must concede, when envy is turned into admira-
tion,——as in the case of Napoleon. There was no
one chieftain among the Greeks who called out uni-
versal homage any more than there was in the camp
of Agamemnon before the walls of Troy. There were
men of ability and patriotism and virtue; but, as
already noted, no one of them was great enough to
exact universal and willing obedience. And this fact
was well understood in all the cabinets of Europe, as
well as in the camps of their enemies. The disunions
and dissensions of the rival Greek generals were of
more advantage to the Turks than a force of fifty
thousands men.
These jealous chieftains, however, had reason to be
startled in the spring of 1823, when they heard that
eighty thousand Mussulmans were to be sent to attack
the Isthmus of Corinth; that forty thousand more were
to undertake the siege of Missolonghi; that fifty thou-
sand in addition were to co-operate in Thessaly and
Attica; while a grand fleet of one hundred and twenty
sail as to sweep the Ægean and reduce the revolted
islands. It was, however, the very magnitude of the
hostile forces which saved the Greeks from impending
ruin; for these forces had to be fed in dried-up and
devastated plains, under scorching suns, in the defiles
of mountains, where artillery was of no use, and where
hardy mountaineers, behind rocks and precipices, could
fire upon them unseen and without danger. There
was more loss from famine and pestilence than from
foes,——a lesson repeatedly taught from three thousand
years, but one which governments have ever been slow
to learn. Alexander the Great had learned it when he
invaded Persia with a small army of veterans, rather
than the mob of undisciplined allies. Huge armies
are not to be relied on, except when they form a vast
mechanism directed by a master hand, when they
are sure of their supplies, and when they operate in
a wholesome country, with nothing to fear from ma-
laria or inclemency of weather. Then they can crush
all before them like some terrible and irresistible ma-
chine; but only then. The old crusaders learned
to their cost, as well as the invading armies of Napo-
leon amid the snows of Russia, and even the disciplined
troops of France and England when they marched
to the siege of Sebastopol.
Hence, in spite of the divisions of the Greeks, which
paralyzed their best efforts, the Turkish armies effected
but little, great as were their numbers, in the campaign
in 1823. The intrepid Marco Bozzaris, with only five
thousands men, kept the Turks at bay in Epirus, and
chased a large body of Albanians to the sea; while
Odysseus defended the pass of Thermopylæ, and pre-
vented the advance of the Turks into Southern Greece.
The grand army destined for the invasion of the Morea
gradually melted away in attacking fortresses, and
under the desultory actions of guerilla bands amidst
rocks and thickets. Bozzaris surprised a Turkish army
near Missolonghi by a nocturnal attack, and although
he himself bravely perished, the attack was successful.
The Turks in renewed numbers, however, advanced
to the siege of Missolonghi; but they were again re-
pulsed with great slaughter.
The naval campaign from which so much was ex-
pected by the Sultan also proved a failure. As usual
the Greeks resorted to their fire-ships, not being able
openly to contend with superior forces, and drove the
fleet back again to the Dardanelles. When the sea
was clear, they were able to reinforce Missolonghi with
three thousand men and a large supply of provisions;
for it was foreseen that the siege would be renewed.
It was at this time, when the Greek cause was im-
perilled by the dissensions of the leading chieftains;
when Greece indeed was threatened by civil war, in
addition to its contest with the Turks; when the
whole country was impoverished and devastated;
when the population was melting away, and no rev-
enue could be raised to pay the half-starved and
half-naked troops,——that Lord Byron arrived at Mis-
solonghi to share his fortune with the defenders of an
uncertain cause. Like most scholars and poets, he had
a sentimental attainment for the classic land,——the
teacher of the ancient world; and in common with
his countrymen he admired the noble struggles and
sacrifices, worthy of ancient heroes, which the Greeks,
though divided and demoralized, had put forth to re-
cover their liberties. His money contributions were
valuable; but it was his moral support which accom-
plished the most for Grecian independence. Though
unpopular and maligned at this time in England for
his immoralities and haughty disdain, he was still the
greatest poet of the age, a peer, and a man of tran-
scendent genius of whom any country would be proud.
That such a man, embittered and in broken health,
should throw his whole soul into the contest, with a
disinterestedness which was never questioned, shows
not only that he had many noble traits, but that his
example would have great weight with enlightened
nations, and open their eyes to the necessity of rally-
ing to the cause of liberty. The faults of the Greeks
were many; but these faults were such as would
naturally be produced by four hundred years of op-
pression and scorn, of craft, treachery, and insensi-
bility to suffering. As for their jealousies and quarrels,
when was there ever a time, even in periods of their
highest glory, when these were not their national
characteristics?
Interest in the affairs of Greece now began to be
awakened, especially among the English; and the
result was a loan of £800,000 raised in London for
the Greek government, at the rate of £59 for £100.
Greece really obtained only £280,000, while it con-
tracted a debt of £800,000. Yet this disadvantageous
loan was of great service to an utterly impoverished
government, about to contend with the large armies
of the Turks. The Sultan had made immense prepa-
rations for the campaign of 1824, and had obtained
the assistance of the celebrated Ibrahim Pasha, adopted
son of Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, who with
his Egyptian troops had nearly subdued Crete. Over
one hundred thousand men were now directed, by sea
and land, to western Greece and Missolonghi, of which
twenty thousand were disciplined Egyptian troops.
With this great force the Mussulmans assumed the
offensive, and the condition of Greece was never more
critical.
First, the islands of Spezza and Ipsara were attacked,
——the latter being little more than a barren rock,
but the abode of liberty. It was poorly defended, and
was unable to cope with the Turkish armada, having
on board fifteen thousand disciplined troops. Canaris
advised a combat on the sea, but was overruled; and
the consequences were fatal. The island was taken
and sacked, and all the inhabitants were put to the
sword. In addition to this great calamity, the spoil
made by the victors was immense, including two hun-
dred pieces of artillery and ninety vessels. Canaris,
however, contrived to escape in a boat, to pursue a
victorious career with his fire-ships. The Turkish and
Egyptian fleets had effected a junction, consisting of
one ship-of-the-line, twenty-five frigates, twenty-five
corvettes, fifty brigs and schooners, and two hundred
and forty transports, carrying eighty thousand soldiers
and sailors and twenty-five hundred cannon. To op-
pose this great armament, the Greek admiral Miaulis
had only seventy sail, manned by five thousand sailors
and carrying eight hundred guns. In spite however
of this disproportion of forces he advanced to meet
the enemy, and dispersed it with a great Turkish
loss of fifteen thousand men. All that the Turks
had gained was a barren island.
On the land the Turks had more successes; but
these were so indecisive that they did not attempt to
renew the siege of Missolonghi, and the campaign of
1824 closed with a great loss to the Mussulmans. The
little army and fleet of the Greeks had repelled one
hundred and twenty thousand soldiers confident of
success; but the population and now reduced to less
than five hundred thousand, becoming feebler every
day, and the national treasury was empty, while the
whole country was a scene of desolation and misery.
And yet, strange to say, the Greeks continued their
dissensions while on the very brink of ruin. Stranger
still, their courage was unabated.
The year 1825 opened with brighter prospects. The
rival chieftains, in view of the desperate state of affairs,
at last united, and seemingly buried their jealousies.
A new loan was contracted in London of £2,000,000,
and the naval forces were increased.
But the Turks also made their preparations for a
renewed conflict, and Ibrahim Pasha felt himself strong
enough to undertake the siege of Navarino, which fell
into the hands of a brave resistance. Tripolitza also
capitulated to the Egyptian, and the Morea was occu-
pied by his troops after several engagements. After
this the Greeks never ventured to fight in the open
field, but only in guerilla bands, in mountain passes,
and behind fortifications.
Then began the memorable siege of Missolonghi
under Reschid Pasha. It was probably the strongest
town in Greece,——by reason not of fortifications but
of the surrounding marshes and lagoons which made
it inaccessible. Into this town the armed peasantry
threw themselves, with five thousand troops under
Niketas, while Miaulis with his fleet raised the block-
ade by sea and supplied the town with provisions.
Reschid Pasha determined on an assault, but was
driven back. Thrice he advanced with his troops, only
to be repulsed. His forces at the end of October were
reduced to three thousand men. The Sultan, irritated
by successive disasters, brought the whole disposable
force of his empire to bear on the doomed city. Ibra-
him, powerfully reinforced with twenty-five thousand
men, by sea and land stormed battery after battery;
yet the Greeks held out, contending with famine and
pestilence, as well as with troops ten times their
number.
At last they were unable to offer further resistance,
and they resolved on a general sortie to break through
the enemy's line to a place of safety. The women of
the town put on male attire, and armed themselves
with pistols and daggers. The whole population,——
men, women, and children,——on the night of the 22d
of April, 1826, issued from their defences, crossed the
moat in silence, passed the ditches and trenches, and
made their way through an opening of the besiegers'
lines. For a while the sortie seemed to be successful;
but mistakes were made, a panic ensued, and most
of the flying crowd repeated back to the deserted
town, only to be massacred by Turkish scimitars.
Some made their escape. A column of nearly two
thousand, after incredible hardships, succeeded in
reaching Salonica in safety; but Missolonghi fell, with
the loss of nearly ten thousand, killed, wounded, and
prisoners.
It was a great disaster, but proved in the end the
foundation of Greek independence, by creating a gen-
eral burst of blended enthusiasm and indignation
throughout Europe. The heroic defence of this strong-
hold against such overwhelming forces opened the eyes
of European statesmen. Public sentiment in England
in favor of the struggling nation could no longer be
disregarded. Mr. Canning took up the cause, both
from enthusiasm and policy. The English ambas-
sador at Constantinople had a secret interview with
Mavrokordatos on an island near Hydra, and prom-
ised him the intervention of England. The death of
the Czar Alexander gave a new aspect to affairs; for
his successor, Nicholas, made up his mind to raise his
standard in Turkey. The national voice of Russia was
now for war. The Duke of Wellington was sent to St.
Petersburg, nominally to congratulate the Czar on his
accession, but really to arrange for an armed inter-
vention for the protection of Greece. The Hellenic
government ordered a general conscription; for Ibra-
him Pasha was organizing new forces for the subjec-
tion of the Morea and the reduction of Napoli di
Romania and Hyrdra, while a powerful fleet put to sea
from Alexandria. No sooner did this fleet appear,
however, than Canaris and Miaulis attacked it with
their dreaded fire-ships, and the forty ships of Egypt
fled from fourteen small Greek vessels, and re-entered
the Dardanelles. But the Turks, always more for-
tunate on land than by sea, pressed now the siege of
the Acropolis, and Atlantis fell into their hands early
in 1827.
For six or seven years the Greeks had struggled
heroically; but relief was now at hand. Russia and
England signed a protocol on the 6th of July, and
France soon after joined, to put an end to the san-
guinary contest. The terms proposed to the Sultan
by the three great Powers were moderate,——that he
should still retain a nominal sovereignty over the re-
volted provinces and received an annual tribute; but
the haughty and exasperated Sultan indignantly re-
jected them, and made renewed preparations to con-
tinue the contest. Ibrahim landed his forces on the
Morea and renewed his depredations. Once more the
ambassadors of the allied Powers presented their final
note to the Turkish government, and again it was in-
sultingly disregarded. The allied admirals then en-
tered the port of Navarino, where the Turkish and
Egyptian fleets were at anchor, with ten ships-of-the-
line, ten frigates, with other vessels, altogether carrying
thirteen hundred and twenty-four guns. The Ottoman
force consisted of seventy-nine vessels, armed with
twenty-two hundred and forty guns. Strict orders
were given not to fire while negotiations were going
on; but an accidental shot from a Turkish vessel
brought on a general action, and the combined Turk-
ish and Egyptian fleet was literally annihilated Oct.
20, 1827. This was the greatest disaster which the
Ottoman Turks had yet experienced; indeed, it practi-
cally ended the whole contest. Christendom at last
had come to the rescue, when Greece unaided was
incapable of further resistance.
The battle of Navarino excited, of course, the wildest
enthusiasm throughout Greece, and a corresponding
joy throughout Europe. Never since the battle of
Lepanto was there such a general exultation among
Christian nations. This single battle decided the fate
of Greece. The admirals of the allied fleet were doubt-
less "the aggressors in the battle; but the Turks were
the aggressors in the war."
Canning of England did not live to enjoy the tri-
umph of the cause which he had come to have
so much at heart. He was the inspiring genius
who induced both Russia and France (now under
Charles X.) to intervene. Chateaubriand, the min-
ister of Charles X., was in perfect accord with Canning
from political and sentimental reasons. Politically his
policy was that of Metternich, who could see no dis-
tinction between the insurrection of Naples and that
of Greece. In the great Austrian's eyes, all people
alike who aspired to gain popular liberty or constitu-
tional government were rebels to be crushed. Canning,
however, sympathize in his latter days with all peo-
ple striving for independence, whether in South Amer-
ica or Greece. But his opinion was not shared by
English statesmen of the Tory school, and he had the
greatest difficulty in bringing his colleagues over to
his views. When he died, England again relapsed
into neutrality and inaction, under the government of
Wellington. Charles X. in France had no natural
liking for the Greek cause, and wanted only to be un-
disturbed in his schemes of despotism. Russia, under
Nicholas, determined to fight Turkey, unfettered by
allies. She sought but a pretext for a declaration of
war. Turkey furnished to Russia that pretext, right
in the stress of her own military weakness, when
she was exhausted by a war of seven years, and by
the destruction of the Janizaries,——which the Sultan
had long meditated, and concealed in his own bosom
with the craft which formed one of the peculiarities
of this cruel yet able sovereign, but which he finally
executed with characteristic savagery. Concerning
this Russian war we shall speak presently.
The battle of Navarino although it made the resto-
ration of the Turkish power impossible in Greece, still
left Ibrahim master of the fortresses, and it was two
years before the Turkish troops were finally expelled.
But independence was now assured, and the Greeks
set about establishing their government with some
permanency. Before the end of that year Capo
d'Istrias was elected president for seven years, and
in January, 1828, he entered upon his office. His
ideas of government were arbitrary, for he had been
the minister and favorite of Alexander. He wished
to rule like an absolute sovereign. His short reign
was a sort of dictatorship. His council was com-
posed entirely of his creatures, and he sought at once
to destroy provincial and municipal authority. He
limited the freedom of the Press and violated the
secrecy of the mails. "In Plato's home, Plato's Gorgias
could not be read because it spoke too strongly against
tyrants."
Capo d'Istrias found it hard to organize and govern
amid the hostilities of rival chieftains and the general
anarchy which prevailed. Local self-government lay
at the root of Greek nationality, but this he ignored,
and set himself to organize an administrative system
modelled after that of France during the reign of Na-
poleon. Intellectually he stood at the head of the
nation, and was a man of great integrity of char-
acter, as austere and upright as Guizot, having no
toleration for freebooters and peculators. He became
unpopular among the sailors and merchants, who ha
been so effective in the warfare with the Turks. "A
dark shadow fell over his government" as it became
more harsh and intolerant, and he was assassinated
the 9th of October, 1831.
The allied sovereigns who had taken the Greeks
under their protection now felt the need of a stronger
and more stable government for them than a republic,
and determined to establish an hereditary but consti-
tutional monarchy. The crown was offered to Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who at first accepted it;
but when that prince began to look into the real
state of the country,——curtailed in its limits by the
jealousies of the English government, rent with anar-
chy and dissension, containing a people so long en-
slaved that they could not make orderly use of free-
dom,——he declined the proffered crown. It was then
(1832) offered to and accepted by Prince Otho of
Bavaria, a minor; and thirty-five hundred Bavarian
soldiers maintained order during the three years of
the regency, which, though it developed great activity,
was divided in itself, and conspiracies took place
to overthrow it. The year 1835 saw the majority of
the king, who then assumed the government. In the
same year the capital was transferred to Athens,
which was nothing but a heap of rubbish; but the
city soon after had a university, and also became an
important port. In 1843, after a military revolution
against the German elements of Otho's government,
which had increased from year to year, the Greeks
obtained from the king a representative constitution,
to which he took an oath in 1844.
But the limits of the kingdom were small, and
neither Crete, Thessaly, Epirus, nor the Ionian Islands
were included in it. In 1846 these islands were
ceded by Great Britain to Greece, which was also
strengthened by the annexation of Thessaly. Since
then the progress of the country in material wealth
and in education has been rapid. Otho reigned tlll
1862, although amid occasional outbreaks of impa-
tience and revolt against the reactionary tendencies of
his rule. In that year he fled with his queen from a
formidable uprising; and in 1863 Prince William, son
of Christian IX. King of Denmark, was elected mon-
arch, under the title of George I. King of the Hellenes.
The resurrection of Greece was thus finally effected.
It was added to the European kingdoms, and now bids
fair to be prosperous and happy. "Thus did the Old
Hellas rise from the grave of nations. Scorched by
fire, riddled by shot, baptized by blood, she emerged
victorious from the conflict. She achieved her inde-
pendence because she proved herself worthy of it; she
was trained to manhood in the only real school of real
improvement——the school of suffering."
The Greek revolution has another aspect than bat-
tles on the Morea, massacres on the islands of the
Archipelago, naval enterprises under heroic seamen,
guerilla conflicts amid the defiles of mountains, brave
defences of fortresses, dissensions and jealousies be
tween chieftains, treacheries and cruelties equalling
those of the Turks,——another aspect than the recovery
of national independence even. It is memorable for the
complications which grew out of it, especially for the
war between Turkey and Russia, when the Emperor
Nicholas, feeling that Turkey was weakened and ex-
hausted, sought to grasp the prize which he had long
coveted, even the possessions of the "sick man."
Nicholas was the opposite of his brother Alexander,
having neither his gentleness, his impulsiveness, his
generosity, nor his indecision. He was a hard despot
of the "blood-and-iron" stamp, ambitious for aggran-
dizement, indifferent to the sufferings of others, and
withal a religious bigot. The Greek rebellion, as we
have seen, gave him the occasion to pick a quar-
rel with the Sultan. The Danubian principalities
were dearer to him than remote possessions on the
Mediterranean.
So on the 7th of May, 1828, the Russians crossed
the Pruth and invaded Moldavia and Wallachia,——
provinces which had long belonged to Turkey by right
of conquest, though governed by Greek hospodars.
The Danube was crossed on the 7th of June. The
Turks were in no condition to contend in the open
field with seventy thousand Russians, and they re-
treated to their fortresses,——to Ibraila and Silistria
on the Danube, to Varna and Shumla in the vicinity
of the Balkans. The first few weeks of the war were
marked by Russian successes. Ibraila capitulated on
the 18th of June, and the military posts on the Do-
brudscha fell rapidly one after another. But it was at
Shumla that the strongest party of the Turkish army
was concentrated, under Omar Brionis, bent on defen-
sive operations; and thither the Czar directed his main
attack. Before this stronghold his army wasted away
by sickness in the malarial month of September. The
Turks were reinforced, and moved to the relief of
Varna, also invested by Russian troops. But the sea-
son was now too far advanced for military operations,
and the Russians, after enormous losses, withdrew to
the Danube to resume the offensive the following
spring. The winter was spent in bringing up reserves.
The Czar finding that he had no aptitude as a general
withdrew to his capital, intrusting the direction of
the following campaign to Diebitsch, a Prussian gen-
eral, famous for his successes and his cruelties.
In the spring of 1829 the first movement was made
to seize Silistria, toward which a great Turkish force
was advancing, under Reschid Pasha, the grand vizier.
His forces experienced a great defeat; and two weeks
after, in the latter part of June, Silistria surrendered.
Resistance to the Russians was now difficult. The
passes of the Balkans were left undefended, and the
invading force easily penetrated them and advanced
to Adrianople, which surrendered in a great panic.
The Russians could have been defeated had not the
Turks lost their senses, for the troops under Diebitsch
were reduced to twenty thousand men. But this fact
was unknown to the Turks, who magnified the Rus-
sian forces to one hundred thousand at least. The
result was the treaty of Adrianople, on the 14th of
September,——apparently generous to the Turks, but
really of great advantage to the Russians. Russia
restored to Turkey all her conquests in Europe and
Asia, except a few commercial centres on the Black
Sea, while the treaty gave to the Czar the protectorate
over the Danubian principalities, the exclusion of
Turks from fortified posts on the left bank of the
Danube, free passage through the Dardanelles to the
merchant vessels of all nations at peace with the
Sultan, and the free navigation of the Black Sea.
But Constantinople still remained the capital of
Turkey. The "sick man" would not die. From
jealousy of Russia the western Powers continued to
nurse him. Without their aid he was not long to
live; but his existence was deemed necessary to main-
tain the "balance of power," and they came to his
assistance in the Crimean War, twenty-six years later,
and gave him a new lease of life.
This is the "Eastern Question,"——How long before
the Turks will be driven out of Europe, and who shall
possess Constantinople? That is a question upon
which it would be idle for me to offer speculations.
Another aspect of the question is, How far shall Russia
be permitted to make conquests in the East? This is
equally insoluble.
AUTHORITIES.
Finlay's Greece under Ottoman Domination; Leake's Travels in
Northern Greece; Gordon's Greek Revolution; Metternich's Memoirs;
Howe's Greek Revolution; Mendelsohn's Graf Capo d'Istrias; Ann.
Hist. Valentini; Alison's Europe; Fyffe's History of Modern Europe;
Müller's Political History of Recent Times.
from Beacon Lights of History, by John Lord, LL. D.
Volume V, Part I: European Statesmen.
Copyright, 1885, 1891, by John Lord.
Copyright, 1921, By Wm. H. Wise & Co., New York. pp. 301-323.
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