m, and patriotism." Russian Christianity, like
Russian Tsardom, is derived from the old Roman empire of Constantinople.
The Russian Church is a branch, and far the most important branch, of the
Greek Orthodox Church, which drifted apart from the Catholic Church, which
had its centre at Rome, and finally separated from it in the eleventh
century. As the greatest Orthodox Christian power in the world, Russia
naturally regards herself as the rightful protector of all Orthodox
Christians. Her mortal enemy, with whom so long as he remains in Europe any
lasting peace is impossible, is the Turk; and her eyes are ever directed
towards Constantinople, as the ancient capital of her faith. The spirit of
the Crusades is far from dead in the Russian people; the Crimean War, for
example, was fought in that spirit.

It will be at once apparent that Russia takes and must continue to take
a profound interest in the Christian peoples of the Balkans. Greeks,
Roumanians, Servians, Bulgarians and Montenegrins all belong to the
Orthodox Church; all have been engaged throughout the nineteenth century
in a struggle for existence against the common foe, Islam. Moreover, all
except the two first-mentioned peoples are allied to Russia by ties of race
as well as by religion, since they are members of the Slavonic stock. To
the average Russian, therefore, the bulk of the Balkan peninsula is as
much Russia Irredenta, as the north-east coast of the Adriatic is Italia
Irredenta to the average Italian; and as a matter of fact there is a good
deal more to be said for Russia's case than for Italy's. There is, however,
another great power which possesses interests in the Balkans and which
is viewed by Russia with a suspicion and dislike hardly inferior to that
entertained towards Turkey--I mean the empire of Austria-Hungary. A
Catholic state, controlled by Germans and Magyars, Austria-Hungary contains
in its southern portion a population of over seven million Slavs, some
three millions of whom are of the Orthodox faith. The Dual Monarchy has
constantly outraged national and religious feeling in Russia by her
treatment of this Slavonic population, and her annexation in 1908 of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, both of them Slavonic countries, was regarded as an open
challenge to Russia.

It is not therefore surprising that the Tsar has intervened in the present
crisis. Had it refused to come to the assistance of Servia when Austria
attacked her, the Russian Governme