n Asia, partly in Europe, and partly in Africa.

Stretching over a vast expanse behind the Sultan is _India_--that India,
which has been for centuries the coveted treasure-house of the world. With
his back turned upon this marvellous India, the Sultan's face is turned
toward Europe, where six great Empires are looking with eager and longing
eyes at the golden prize behind him in the East; and each glaring
suspiciously and defiantly at the other at the slightest move toward the
coveted land, to which the Ottoman Empire bars the way.

So you can see that disturbing the Turk while he is butchering Christians
might be dangerous business for these Great Powers.

England knows that Russia is watching her opportunity to slip in at the
first opening, and may get to the prize first. And Russia, and Germany,
and the rest all alike fear the same thing of each other. If any one of
them _alone_ should make a move against the Turk,--the rest, like a pack
of wolves, would be at her throat in an hour.

So the Powers must all act together or in _concert_. And this is what is
known as the "Concert of Europe."

And this much talked-of Concert of Europe has for its chief object the
preservation of the _balance of power._ That is, not permitting any one of
the European States to become very much more powerful than it already is,
and thus disturb the _equilibrium_ of the whole.

This delicate condition of affairs regarding Turkey is known as the
"Eastern Question." And it is considered so important because, more than
any other, it threatens the "balance of power."

Whether Russia, or England, or Germany would be richer after an upset in
Turkey, no one can tell. But it is pretty certain that new maps would have
to take the place of your old ones, with the familiar outlines of some of
the European States much altered.

So the Christian Powers have been for a century trying not to hear the
cries of anguish and terror coming from the Ottoman Empire, because
European diplomacy has decided that the only safe course is to let the
"unspeakable Turk" stay where he is; and the Sultan, secure in his foul,
crime-stained old Empire, which is tottering and crumbling under his feet,
laughs softly, and rubs his hands in pleasant satisfaction, and the
butchery goes on.

But recently the cries from Armenia became so piercing, so heartrending,
and so prolonged, that the Christian people in Europe would stand it no
longer. They demanded that, come what