and consummate art, had cast around rashness, levity, and, I fear, guilt!" "Thank God! it is, as I hoped, my dear Philip, on your side," said I; "and I think I may venture to assure you that half what you have told me will suffice to give to the smiles of your bride a warmth and sunshine, amid which that of Italy will never be missed."

He shook his head incredulously, and sighing, exclaimed, "What would I not give to see them on her own dear lips!"

We were near an opening in the old rugged yew hedge; I suddenly drew my nephew within it, and the fair listener stood confessed. The tears of joy, irradiated by such a blush, and such a smile as I have seldom seen but on the cheek of a daughter of England. "Give her your confidence, Philip," said I; can you doubt further?"

transition from despondence to ecstasy. I took a hand of each in mine, and ratified this solemn union of hearts with a truly parental blessing.

"Uncle," said Philip, in a tone of manly firmness," you will assist me to get civilly rid of yonder host of idlers, and the false friend who hoped, by their means, to disgust me with my country, and estrange me from my bride. You shall make me an Englishman after your own heart." "Uncle," whispered Lady Jane, with the most insinuating softness, you will invite us to your cottage, won't you, till a few more comforts are added to our home, to make it all that an English home should be ?"

I carried them with me in triumph. I introduced them at Dunbarrow to the worthy and the wise among their compatriots. I saw at my own tranquil fireside their once threatened wedded bliss assume the imperishable hues of eternity. I saw, not only without reluctance, but with delight, a youthful figure in my mother's sacred chair, and a second Emma beneath the picture of my sainted bride. They staid, only to grow too dear; they left me, at length, to know, for the first time, what it truly is TO BE ALone.

THIS Country has long been a proud one; and on nothing has she prided herself more, than on her unsullied honour, and her reverence for the law of nations. She did not indulge this pride, until the right of indulgence was nobly earned. Until recently the lofty spirit of her sons shone in the acts of her rulers; and she stood at the head of the world, as a splendid example of all that could be upright and chivalrous-as the only nation incapable of violating its faith, and staining its integrity. She disregarded provocation, and disdained seduction; she endured injuries, and incurred losses, in maintaining inviolate the sacred principles of national right and justice. During the war, France and other nations trampled upon everything that had previously borne the name of public law-her existence was in danger-she was threatened with extinction by a confederacy alike

VOL. XXIII.

powerful and lawless-public law towards herself was annihilated—and all this only rendered her integrity the more scrupulous and magnanimous. On various occasions she disregarded the most tempting opportunities of adding largely to her trade, wealth, and power, not because her availing herself of them would have been unjust, but because the justice of it was not wholly above question. Public law found defenders alike in her Courts of Justice, her Legislature, and her fleets and armies-in her learning, her eloquence, her treasure, and her blood. She was its champion, preserver, expounder, and enforcer.

Such, we say, was the case with this proud country until recently. In her late changes, nothing has been spared; and she has reversed her principles and conduct touching national law and right. The conduct she is following in respect of Turkey

D

ing the grounds on which the interference is defended.

and Greece, is directly opposed to everything she previously professed and practised; and it is utterly subversive of every obligation which, in right and justice, one nation owes to

another.

That Turkey obtained Greece in the same manner in which this country obtained various of her possessions, will be denied by no one. In respect of the means of acquisition, Greece is as much the right of Turkey, as British India, British America, and Ire. land, are the right of Britain.

On this point, the right of Turkey is not disputed by the most romantic and unscrupulous friend of Greece. But it is not argued, but asserted, that Turkey destroyed the right given her by conquest, by the manner in which she governed her Greek subjects. If this be admitted, there cannot be any such right as that of conquest. Public law has nothing to do with forms of government; it divides not the subject from the ruler, it treats the nation as a whole; and it attaches to the right of conquest no conditions as to manner of governing. We of course say this with reference to the interference of one nation with another. Turkey had a clear right to govern her Greek subjects according to her own mode, so far as other nations were concerned, provided there was nothing in this mode which affected the rights of other nations. It is not even asserted that the rights of other nations were injured by the manner in which Greece was governed. We are not inquiring whether the Greeks were justified in revolting, for this has nothing to do with the question before us.

When, therefore, the Greeks revolt ed, they were, in public law, as much the subjects of Turkey as the inhabitants of British possessions are the subjects of Britain. However just their grounds for appealing to arms might be to themselves, they were still, in such law, neither more nor less than subjects rebelling against their lawful government. Other nations had not the smallest right to interfere.

We will now ask, has anything taken place during the contest to change the character it bore at its commencement, and to justify the interference of other nations? We shall gain the most satisfactory answer, by examin

Before the monstrous league between Britain, France, and Russia was formed, the most zealous partizans of Greece, men capable of asserting anything that was calculated to benefit their cause, never once ventured to say, that the lawful rights and interests of other nations were injured by the contest. They called on other nations to interfere, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the Greeks on account of the orgin and religion of the Greeks, and of the manner in which the latter had been treated by Turkey.

On the point of origin, it cannot be necessary for us to speak. To say that national law and right ought to be trampled on in favour of the Greeks, because their ancestors, ages ago, were renowned in arts and arms, is to say what common sense and common honesty alike brand with reprobation. It is doctrine which all must abhor, save maniacs and robbers. If it were adopted, what would it lead to? The great powers ought immediately to give independence to Italy; they ought to re-establish the Jews in their long-lost country. The great Catho lic nations ought to liberate the Irish Catholics from what the latter and their champions call the tyranny of England; and to restore to the Romish Church of Ireland its lost possessions and splendour. Almost every atrocity that a nation, or a combination of nations, could commit, might be easily justified by this doctrine. When it is remembered what ancient Greece was in her glory, it ought likewise to be remembered what she was in her fall; if the present Greeks be the descendants of her heroes and sages, they are likewise the descendants of her demagogues, tyrants, traitors, and profligates. The absurd nonsense touching "classical recollections" calls for no farther notice.

In regard to religion, have the Turks made war on the Greeks for professing Christianity? No, must be the answer of all. The religion of the Greeks never had anything to do with the contest; they did not at the outset take up arms to defend it, and it has never since been the object of attack: they were allowed to profess it, and they knew that, if they were subdued,

nations in interfering, not only to humanize it, but to make the Greeks independent, is below notice.

they would still be allowed to profess it. The sole object of Turkey, from first to last, has been to reduce them to subjection. The whole the partizans of Greece can say on this point is, the Greeks are Christians, and the Turks are not; but religion forms in no degree the object of contention on either side. This is perfectly decisive against the right of other nations to interfere on the score of religion. Catholic France, Austria, &c., have just as much right on this score to make Ireland independent, by force of arms, as Britain, France, and Russia, have to interfere between Greece and Turkey.

We have already said sufficient to dispose of the point touching the manner in which the Greeks have been treated by Turkey. If other nations had a right to interfere on this point, any confederacy of foreign nations has a right to render the West India slaves, or the East India subjects of this country, independent; or, such a confederacy has a right to overturn almost every continental government. It is ridiculous to draw distinctions in despotism and slavery by the rule of more or less; and to argue that one despot, or keeper of slaves, has a right to make war on another for being more despotic, or treating his slaves more harshly, than himself. The doctrine of interference on this point, strikes at the foundation of all national independence, and at the existence of all national government. If it be admitted, any nation or combination of nations can, at all times, plead a right to dictate to, and overturn, the governments of other nations at pleasure. The partizans of Greece have always been the loudest, when the Greek question was not in sight, in enforcing the principle of non-interference-in insisting that one nation has no right to interfere in the internal concerns of another. Applied to the case before us, this principle declares that foreign nations have no right to interfere between Turkey and her Greek subjects.

As to what has been said against the mode in which the war has been carried on, it in truth applies as much to the Greeks as to the Turks. The one side has been as cruel as the other. The worst of the cruelty was, howéver, abandoned years since. The assertion that this mode justified other

The three nations which are now acting the part of national plunderers and pirates, have, however, in assertion, gone much beyond even the Greek Committee, and the very London-Greek newspapers. In their treaty they represent that the war injured other States. A treaty concluded for purposes of piracy and spoliation could not well have any other basis than falsehood. Did the war involve the rights and interests of any other State? No. Did it endanger the internal or external tranquillity of any other State? No. Putting aside the piracies of the Greeks, no other nation suffered in the least from the war, in either right, interest, or apprehension. The pira cies were committed solely by the Greeks, and not a charge was ever made against Turkey for trenching in the smallest degree on the property and rights of other countries. Did these Greek piracies give to other nations the right to dismember Turkey and make Greece independent? We will insult no man's common sense by giving the reply.

It has indeed been alleged by the Treasury scribes, in defence of the treaty, that if this treaty had not been concluded and acted upon, Russia could scarcely have been prevented from invading Turkey. The defence is worthy of its parents and their cause. Why did Russia wish to invade Turkey? Had she been injured or insulted? Had she wrongs to redress, or dangers to avert? No. She had received from Turkey neither injury nor provocation; the war affected in no shape her lawful interests and tranquillity. She could not invent, and her degraded British apologists could not invent, a single pretext for her attacking Turkey on her own account: her sole pretence was-the independence of the Greeks for their own sake; her real object was-her own rapacious and lawless aggrandisement. This cannot be denied by the partizans of the Greeks-by the menials of Government-or even by that Lord Dudley, whose name is affixed to this eternally infamous treaty of piracy and spoliation.

The threat, therefore, of the Russian despot and his barbarians, that they would invade Turkey in defiance

that the Greeks could offer no farther resistance. When the treaty was concluded, the Greeks were in reality subdued; had it not been formed, the war before this would have been terminated "through the means at the disposal of the Sublime Porte."

We are not quarrelling with partialities and wishes in favour of the Greeks. They have nothing to do with the question before us. This question is—ARE BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA, SANCTIONED BY NATIONAL LAW AND RIGHT, IN INTER➡ FERING AS THEY HAVE DONE IN THE

of every principle of national law and right, was a sufficient cause for England to league herself with them to dismember Turkey, in defiance of every principle of national law and right; it was a sufficient cause for Britain to league herself with them to do in reality all they threatened to do, and to furnish them with pretexts for doing it. The mere threat, independently of right and wrong, justice and injustice, was a sufficient cause for her to league herself with them. Had she no alternative? Had she no interests to protect, no honour to consult-no duty to listen to? The threat of Russia did not alter, in the least, the nature of the contest between Turkey and Greece; and to justify the treaty by it, is to proclaim the Ministers of Britain to be destitute of sense and honesty, and to sink British honour to the lowest point of degradation.

When this country acknowledged the independence of the South American republics, she declared she did so on the ground, that they had practically secured their independence, and established within themselves regular government. What was the case with the Greeks on these matters when the treaty was concluded? Nothing worthy of being called law, order, and government, could be found among them. As to their independence, all confessed that they were utterly unable to conquer it, and that, without foreign assistance, they would be compelled to submit. The treaty does not even hint that it was possible for them to acquire their independence by their own efforts; on the contrary, it speaks only of the probability that they might be reduced to subjection by Turkey. With consistency in fic tion perfectly incredible, it states that the termination of the war, " through the means at the disposal of the Sublime Porte, appears still remote." While we admit that nothing but deplorable ignorance could have led Lord Dudley to affix his signature to an assertion so outrageously at variance with truth, we deeply lament that an Englishman could be found so deplorably ignorant. At the time when Lord Dudley and his colleagues were giving being to the assertion, their own newspapers were proclaiming to the world that the Greek cause was hopeless, that

e contest was virtually ended, and

CONTEST BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY? If the reply be in the ne◄ gative, such partialities and wishes will not diminish in the least the criminality of the interference. It has 'been said by a Treasury print, that the interference was forced upon the respective governments by national feeling. On the part of our own coun◄ try, this is wholly untrue; it is refuted by the fact, that the nation is unanimous, almost beyond precedent, in reprobating the interference. The Greek Committee-most unexceptionable witnesses-can testify, that no public enthusiasm ever existed in favour of the Greeks; the papers in their interest loudly vituperated the public for its apathy in the matter. In so far as public feeling went with the Greeks, it only amounted to cold, careless opinion; and it was always strongly opposed to any intermeddling on the part of Government. But if national enthusiasm had been carried to the highest point in favour of the interference, Ministers would have deserved impeachment had they obeyed it, without any reference to its justice. Every honest man will abhor these abominable attempts to give the decision of questions of law and right to popular enthusiasm. They strike at everything dear to the individual, the nation, and the human race.

On this point we may observe, that, as a people, the Greeks have had the fewest possible real claims on the sympathy of the people of this country. In moral character, they rank, as a whole, almost lower than any other people upon earth. They have exhibited, throughout the contest, a natural disposition of the worst description, They have fought from personal interest and animosity; but nothing

has been seen among them that could be mistaken for genuine patriotism. Their chiefs, their military commanders, - their statesmen,their rulers, have displayed the most revolting selfishness, falsehood, cupidity, knavery, and contempt for their country. Of late, they have been almost a nation of pirates; their piracies have been carried on, on such a scale, as to involve in the guilt both government and people. Their repayment for all that the British people and British Government have done for them, has been-robbery! While this country was squandering her blood and treasure, and trampling on public law in fighting their battles, they were almost, as a people, warring against her -plundering her ships, and maltreat ing her seamen.

We have shown, that, up to the time, and at the time, when the treaty was signed, nothing could be found to justify the interference. We will now glance at the treaty.

The three great powers-or, to speak more properly, the three great national pirates-bind themselves by it to offer their mediation to the Ottoman Porte, and to accompany the of fer with a demand for an immediate armistice between the Turks and the Greeks. This armistice is to be the indispensable condition to the opening of any negotiation.

Now, as affectation of honour may occasionally be found among thieves, it might have been expected that the three powers would, in their piratical manifesto, affect to place the belligerents on an equality. As the most nefarious treaties generally abound the most with professions of justice and impartiality, it might have been expected that this treaty would be filled with bombast in favour of justice and impartiality, from beginning to end. The three pirates, however, shamelessly acknowledge in it, that their object is to compel one of the belligerents to submit to their own terms, for the benefit of the other. The offer and demand are to be made to Turkey; but nothing is said of the Greeks. They bind themselves to offer their mediation. Amidst honest and honourable nations, the term mediation means an endeavour to make peace between two belligerents, on

terms equally fair to both on terms giving no unjust advantage to either; but it appears that the term has a very different meaning amidst piratical and lawless nations. By their treaty, the mediation of the three great piratical and lawless ones is thisthey place before Turkey the most insolent, unjust, injurious, revolting, and degrading conditions-conditions to which the Greeks have not the smallest claim-and, on the score of mediation, they allow her no alternative. The Greeks are vanquished; they have nothing before them but almost immediate unconditional submission, and, when they are in such circumstances, the three powers de mand from Turkey, that she shall resign all sovereignty over them, with this exception-she shall receive an annual fixed tribute from them, and have some undefined veto in the choice of their authorities: they demand, moreover, that all Turks shall be perpetually banished from Greece, and that the Greeks shall take possession of their property, on giving an indemnity.

A treaty like this-a treaty distinguished as much by absurdity as by depravity-could never have been drawn in any civilized and educated country; it is evidently the composition of some of the Russian barbarians. We will not disgrace any member of even the present imbecile Ministry, by charging him with writing a sentence of it. It was, doubtlessly, sent hither by the Northern Autocrat, with the gracious message-Sign it, or my armies shall march to Constantinople! and Lord Dudley and his colleagues obeyed in terror, without reading it. Its conditions are more injurious and degrading to Turkey than a demand for the complete independence of Greece would have been. It makes her responsible to other nations for the actions of Greece, while it takes from her all control over these actions; it makes her answerable for all the Greek government may do, while it deprives her of all influ ence over the conduct of this government; it gives her a vague negative in the nomination of the Greek authorities, while it prohibits her from interfering in the administration of Greek affairs. The tribute and veto are worthless, when weighed against