efend the
frontiers on both sides. Russia had not yet entered into Circassia, and
could therefore rally all her forces; she had not yet abolished the
Poland of 1815, and could leave it without garrisons; she had not yet
roused the hatred or the jealousies of Europe. She had engaged all the
natural allies of the Porte into a combination for rousing the
populations of her enemy, and by her diplomacy she gained the power of
bringing her fleet into the Mediterranean, for blockading the ports of
Turkey; and Navarino opened for her the Black Sea, where she had
thirteen men-of-war. Not disturbed by the Porte, by Circassia, by
Poland, by France, or by England, she had prepared two years for this
war, whilst her enemy, passing through a terrible crisis, was without
money, without an organized army, without a fleet, without other
resources than the feeble Mussulman population on the seat of war.

Twenty-four years have altered the balance.--Turkey has now the
enthusiastic support of her Mussulman population. The Christian
population, with the only exception of Bulgaria, partakes of this
enthusiasm. All the warlike tribes, from Albania to Kurdistan, are now
supporting the authority of the Sultan. Mehemet Ali is gone; Arabia and
Syria are again under the dominion of the Sultan. Servia has made peace,
and has become the support of Turkey, offering her, in case of a Russian
war, 80,000 men. The Principalities have become the enemies of Russia;
they had too long to suffer from her oppression. The public revenue has
doubled. Turkey has organized a regular army of 200,000 men, equal to
any other, and besides, the militia, She has distinguished
generals--Omer Pasha, Gruyon. Her fleet is equal to the Russian fleet in
the Black Sea, and her steam-fleet superior to the Russian. She has for
allies all the people from the Caucasus to the Carpathians. The
Circassians, the Tartars under Emir Mirza, the Cossacks of the Dobroja,
by whom the electric shock is transmitted to Poland and Hungary, form an
unbroken chain, by which the spark is carried into the heart of Europe,
where all the combustible elements wait for the moment of explosion.
Twenty-four years ago Turkey was believed to be in a decaying state; it
is now stronger than it has been for the last hundred years.

Russia, during this time, has been unable to overcome the resistance of
Circassia; and, cut off from her south-eastern provinces, she cannot
attack Turkey in the rear. The Caucas