al rights, and Protestantism grew up under the
protecting wings of the Ottoman power.

The respect for municipal institutions is so deeply rooted in the minds
of the Turks, that at the time when they became masters of the Danubian
provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, they voluntarily excluded
themselves from all political rights in the newly acquired provinces;
and up to the present day, they do not allow that a mosque should be
built, or that a Turk should dwell and own landed property across the
Danube. They do not interfere with the taxation or with the internal
administration of these provinces; and the last organic law of the
Empire, the Tanzimat, is nothing but the re-declaration of the rights of
municipalities, guaranteeing them against the centralizing encroachment
of the Pashas. Whilst Czar Nicholas is about to convert the Protestant
population of Livonia and Estland to the Greek church by force and by
alluring promises, the liberal Sultan Abdul Medjid grants full religious
liberty to all sects of Protestantism. But we are accustomed to look
upon Turkey as upon a third-rate power, only because in 1828 it was
defeated by Russia. Let us now see how the balance stood at that time,
and how it stands now.

In 1828 the Turkish population was full of hatred on account of the
extermination of the Janissaries. The Christian population were ready to
rise against the government, on account of the events of the Greek war.
Albania was in revolt, because it was opposed to the system of
conscriptions for regular military service. Anatolia was discontented on
the same ground. Mehemet Ali possessed Egypt, and paralyzed the action
of the government in Arabia and Syria. Servia had just laid down arms,
but had not yet concluded peace. The Danubian principalities, though
unfavourable to Russia, were not hearty in support of the Porte, and
remained apathetic under the occupation of Russia. The revenue did not
exceed 400,000,000 piastres (20,000,000 dollars), and was insufficient
for a second campaign. The new army was not yet organized, and amounted
only to 32,000 men, without tried generals. The fleet had been destroyed
at Navarino. The foreign diplomatists had left the empire, and the
capital was exposed to an attack of the enemy. In such a position no
European government could have risked a war.

Russia had just defeated Persia, and by this victory got access to the
Asiatic provinces of the Turkish empire; it had therefore to d