solution would please nobody, perhaps not even
Roumania herself. A league of the five Balkan kings, with Roumania as
_primus inter pares_, is the dream of a remote future, and until it can be
realised, Constantinople cannot assume its natural position as capital of
the Balkan peninsula.

Sec.14. _Russia and Constantinople._--In short, as matters stand to-day, there
is only one power which can replace the Turks as master of Constantinople,
and that power is Russia. The Russians could not of course incorporate the
city in their empire for reasons of geography; and this fundamental fact
destroys at a blow the numerous objections which might have told against
the occupation, if Constantinople had been contiguous to the Russian
dominions. It would obviously be necessary to establish a special
autonomous administration under a Russian governor. It is by no means
impossible that Russia would be satisfied with the expulsion of the Turks
and the internationalisation of Constantinople as a free port under a
Christian prince or a commission of the Powers. But, though admirable
in theory, such a solution would give rise to endless complications and
disputes. Unless the Western Powers can trust Russia sufficiently to leave
her in full possession, they must make up their minds to bolstering up the
impossible Turk for a further period of years. Such a surrender to the
unreasoning and ignorant prejudices of a previous generation would be a
sure prelude to the collapse of our alliance with Russia, which it is the
vital interest of all British patriots to uphold at all costs. Happily,
"the fear of Russia," as of a strange and unknown colossus, is dying out,
vague fancies inevitably yielding to the hard logic of facts. The Disraeli
policy in the Near East must give place once and for all to the broader
conceptions of Gladstone, tempered by the cautious statesmanship of
Salisbury. The greatest of the Christian Powers must be allowed to replace
the cross upon the dome of Saint Sofia. The religious appeal of such a
change is clear enough, nor need there be any anxiety on economic grounds.
There is nothing to prevent Constantinople from becoming a free port under
the Russian flag, and filling a similar place to that which the free port
of Trieste would occupy under the flag of United Italy. Indeed it may be
confidently assumed that the change would give an extraordinary impetus to
trade in the whole eastern Mediterranean. The recent history o