aldermen and common councilmen, and the philosopher may hope that the pale of toleration may now be indefinitely extended. The Sultan did not reply directly to this part of the address, but he included its tenour in the explanation he gave of his journey. He said, 'I have two objects in view in visiting this and other parts of Europe-one to see, in these centres of civilization, what still remains to be done in my own country to complete the work which we have begun; the other to show my desire to establish, not only among my own subjects, but between my people and the other nations of Europe, that feeling of brotherhood which is the foundation of human progress and the glory of our age.'

"This does, indeed, fairly represent the political object of the Sultan's journey. Abdul Aziz is a man of energy and activity, and of good sense, which only requires knowledge and experience. To emerge from the haughty and unintelligent seclusion of Constantinople, and to visit those countries of which a Turkish ruler hears so much and knows so little, might naturally please an active prince still young, and perhaps weary of a monotonous life in which the most extended migration is from one palace of the capital to another. The present Sultan's lot has been cast in an age when the influence of the West has increased almost to supremacy in the more accessible parts of his Empire. Frankish dress and habits of life, the inventions of the West in all their endless variety,

are every year penetrating the country more deeply, and modifying, if not destroying, the old usages of the people."

The first effect of the Sultan's western visits is a proof of Moslem apostasy, or of "drying up of the Euphrates," most striking. On August 20, 1867, at a grand council of ministers, the Sultan presiding, it was resolved that a new Council of State be created, consisting of ten Mussulmans and ten Christians.

The following indication of another fruit of the Sultan's visit to Europe is very suggestive. At a meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, held at Maidstone, his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury said:" You all know the Sultan has been here lately, the enemy, or supposed enemy, of Christianity. I was informed by the Prince of Wales a few days ago, that in answer to an entreaty to him to protect his Christian subjects, the Sultan's answer was-and a most remarkable one I will not only protect my Christian subjects, but I will protect Christianity.' I think that a most remarkable answer."

Turning from this extraordinary and rapid liberation of the emperor "of the faithful," from the hereditary and obligatory usages of upwards of 300 years, the same journal describes the disintegration which goes on without the two actions originating in opposite quarters, but conducting to the same resultthe drying up of the last lingering pool in the channel of the "great river Euphrates."

Already the Porte

"The success of Hellenic sympathizers in the island will call forth new exertions on the mainland. The volunteers, whose employment on Mount Ida has come to an end, will seek a new field for their exploits on the skirts of Pindus or Olympus. Thessaly, Epirus, province after province, will be up in arms. The Athenian Cabinet, emboldened by impunity, will set no limits to its flagrant breach of neutrality. The mines which Russian agents have long been laying on the Danube will be ready for explosion. Meanwhile the dispersion of the war-clouds so lately gathering on the Rhine gives place to new diplomatic combinations in which the Court of St Petersburg will easily take the lead. would be too happy if it had only the Cretans, the Greeks, and all its Christian subjects to deal with ; but jealousy of Germany has thrown France into the toils of Russia, and the dread of isolation is enlisting Prussia and Italy to play into their great neighbour's ranks. The pressure on the Ottoman comes from the West no less than from the North. The Sultan's consent, first to the independence, then to the autonomy, of Crete, has been hitherto stoutly withheld; but his advisers are coming once more to the charge, and they propose a suspension of hostilities in Crete, and a reference of the quarrel between a Sovereign and his subjects to an International Commission to be appointed by the Porte in conjunction with the Great Powers.

"What the grievances of the islanders, and of all

their fellow-believers throughout the Empire, may amount to, we have learnt from the diplomatic and consular reports laid by Lord Stanley before the House of Commons. As regards Crete itself, we can hardly imagine how many of the 150,000 Christians and 75,000 Mussulmans among whom the island is divided may have escaped the massacres said to have been perpetrated by the combatants on either side. But, supposing that the population, however reduced, continues to maintain its former proportions, it is evident that the wishes of the majority will not be satisfied without the extermination or the expulsion of the minority. Willing or not, the Christians have hitherto found it possible to live under Mussulman rule, but wherever the Cross has taken the place of the Crescent no instance of a Turk submitting to the Giaour's sway occurs. The depopulation of the Mahomedan districts in Crete-and no less in Epirus, in Thessaly, and throughout at least European Turkey -is what Russia and her French, Prussian, and Italian allies seem coolly to contemplate; and it is no wonder if the Porte, gathering courage from despair, declares that it will run the chances of a second Navarino, and succumb to open enemies rather than execute itself at the bidding of false friends.

"From the combination of so large a number of European Powers against Turkey England hitherto, and more lately also Austria, have shown a decided disposition to keep aloof. The dissolution of the

Ottoman empire, or even the bare danger of it, fulfils the most earnest wishes of Russia, and enables her to repair her Crimean losses. Whatever conquest the Greek or the Sclave may achieve on the Bosphorus or the Danube, she looks upon it as so much clear gain for herself. France, too, on her own side, is, at this very moment, entertaining Ismail Pasha, with an eye to the Suez canal and the Syro-Egyptian borders. With the emancipation of the Eastern Christians the cause of Panslavism is bound up. The blow which is aimed at the Ottoman equally threatens the Austrian, and if the fall of the former suits the purposes of Russia and France, the ruin of the latter offers Prussia and Italy a vast field for aggrandizement. As for England, it is not easy to say what she may have to lose or to gain by the portentous changes in prospect. The solution of that ominous, long-impending Eastern question which has so perplexed our statesmen, seems now inexorably coming on, and it could hardly find us more unprepared. It is difficult to say, however, by what foresight or pre'vision on our part the catastrophe could have been either averted or even materially delayed."

The North German Gazette, quoted in the Times of July 31, 1867, observes,-"The East appears to be approaching a crisis, if an intervention of the Powers in the interest of humanity may be so called. Omar Pasha's victories would seem to be unimportant, and the news from Candia of cruelties exercised by the Turks, and of an appeal addressed by the