faith
of the pilgrims, and put an end to such sacred juggleries as the one
described above, which outrivals the most superstitious practices of
ancient or modern Paganism! And it is for the predominance of this same
church that the autocrat of Russia has now plunged Europe into a war which
may prove one of the bloodiest that modern times have witnessed, and
proclaimed a Graeco-Russian crusade against the Ottoman Porte and its
Christian allies! This last-named circumstance may, I think, render it not
uninteresting to my readers to know the manner in which this question is
viewed by Russians of elevated rank and superior education. I would
therefore recommend to their attention a little pamphlet(123) recently
published in English by an accomplished Russian, who had studied at the
University of Edinburgh, and had enjoyed friendly intercourse with the
most eminent characters of that learned body, leaving with all those who
had known him a most favourable impression of his personal character and
talents. His opinions, therefore, are not those of an ignorant fanatic, or
a hireling of the Government, but must be considered as an expression of
those entertained by the upper classes of Russian society. He compares in
this pamphlet the position of Russia towards the followers of the Eastern
Church in Turkey, to that of England towards the Protestants of other
countries, saying:--

"You translate the Bible into all living languages, not excluding the
Turkish idiom, and you distribute the holy volumes to the shopkeeper of
Constantinople, and to the shepherd who tends his camels amidst the ruins
of Ephesus. We are not as laborious propagators of the faith; but yet we
would fain intercede in favour of the Turk when your copy of the Bible has
converted him to the Christian faith, and who, by the law of the land,
must have his head cut off for this transgression. Mark that the
obligation is much more binding on us than it is on you, and not the less
binding from the job having been begun by yourselves. The Turks are spread
amongst the Greeks and surrounded by them. There are ten thousand chances
to one, that if the Moslem be converted at all, it is to that creed of
which the church stands in his immediate eye, and that creed is ours. But,
strange to say, it is because of that very chance that we are to be
prohibited from meddling in the matter. With the French and with the
English the case is far different. They, indeed, we are told, c