It would appear from this that the proportion of Europeans in Turkey in Europe to Asiatic Turks is as 13,877,552 to 700,000. The proportion of Christians to Muhammadans, including renegade Albanians, Slavonians, &c., as 12,867,552 to 1,710,000. The proportion of Greek Christians to Romanists or Latins is 11,207,132 to 500,000. The proportion of Slavonian Greeks to Hellenic Greeks is as 2,186,000 to 900,000, or possibly 1,000,000. The proportion of Christians of the Greek Church, including the Rumani, Bulgarians, Illyrians, and Zinzares, with the Slavonians, is as 12,407,132 to 1,000,000 at the utmost. So much for an Hellenic empire. G. D. P. estimates the Greeks in European Turkey, the islands and coasts of Asia Minor, as 4,800,000; the estimate is too great; but if we admit the Greeks of Asia Minor and of the islands into the consideration, then we must counterbalance it by the number of the other populations, Turkish, Turkman, Kurdish, and Arab, on the one side, and of other Christian communities, Syrian, Greek, Maronite, Nestorian, and Jacobite, on the other.

It is evident that in Turkey in Europe the most powerful nation is the Slavonian, which numbers 2,186,000 souls, and counts 2,000,000 more in the Austrian dominions. Ami Boué estimates the slave population altogether at 5,000,000; of whom 3,000,000 belong to the Greek Church, about 1,000,000 to the Latin Church, and nigh 1,000,000 are Muhammadans. The Slavonians, as a nation, are neither partial to Russians nor Greeks. The next in power and industry is the Bulgarian; third on the list comes the Rumani, crippled by Russia; fourth, the Greek; and fifth, the Turk. A great number of Rumani live under Russian and Austrian rule; the total population is estimated at 5,700,000 souls.

By assuming the protectorate of the Greek Church in Turkey in Europe, it has been too much taken for granted that, whilst serving the interests of Christianity, Russia is establishing a political supremacy. This would, to a certain extent, be unavoidable; but any practical results would be ultimately overbalanced by the antagonism of nationalities, more especially the Slavonian, the Wallachian, the Bulgarian, and the Greek. The duty of such a protectorate is called for from Russia from

its position, its political power, and its religious sympathies; and the benefit derived from such a protectorate by upwards of 13,000,000 out of 14,000,000 of inhabitants of Turkey in Europe, ought to be too dear to Christianity at large to make it a subject of political jealousy, and the upholding of that duty imposed upon the Tsar as a traditionary and hereditary moral, social, and religious obligation-a matter of war. In case of war breaking out between Russia and Turkey upon such a question of protectorate, the results even of the overthrow of Osmanli dominion in Europe could not be solely advantageous to Russia; the nationalities above enumerated must be taken into consideration; Austria is concerned on the Danube and in the western provinces, where she is evidently prepared to defend her interests at all hazards; and England and France could have moved in unison at such a juncture to settle the protectorate of the East, with far greater effect, and in a far nobler attitude, than when badly bound together to uphold a dominion of barbarian Mussulmans a people they cannot but despise-and a cause which sets the rapacity and bigotry of 1,000,000 of Turks against the interests of 13,000,000 of Christians.

It is a fact of no small insignificance, that while a portion of the press, which has generally to rely for information upon difficult questions like this upon what topics come to hand through the contemporary and the foreign press, diplomatic documents, parliamentary discussions, and whatever other materials which present themselves of facile access, supports the policy of government in attacking Russia and upholding the antiChristian policy of Turkey, that no pamphlet or book, originating as such better digested publications generally do, from authors personally versed in the matter in dispute, which has come in our way, follows out the same principles, but more or less ardently embraces the same or an analogous view of the question which we have adopted from combined long consideration and experience.

The anonymous author of "Russian Turkey; or, a Greek Empire the inevitable Solution of the Eastern Question," is a Hellenic Greek, who can see nothing so desirable as the simple revival of a Byzantine Hellenic empire to the total neglect of Slavonian, Wallachian, Bulgarian, and other interests, although each of the three first are numerically far greater than the Greek population of Turkey in Europe. But although we do not agree with the author as to the solution of the Eastern question, some of the arguments by which he establishes the superior claims of the Greeks over the Turks, are of prominent interest at the present moment, as applicable to all those poor Christians who groan and travail under the iron sway of a bigoted Muhammadan despotism.

A large portion of the British public are led by their anti-Russian feeling to believe that no convention is necessary; but the pages of every modern work written on Turkey, and the experience of every individual traveller or resident, teem with evidences of the insolent extortion, persecution, and outrage committed by the Turkish authorities on the Christian population, more especially when at a distance from the head government. Look to the massacre of the Nestorians-an exploit of only three or four years back! The Turkish invasion of Montenegro was distinguished by scenes of bloodshed and atrocious profanations that proved the Turkish tiger had not forgotten his old relish for Christian blood.

There is another point of view in which the subject remains to be considered. England and France are united to support the Turkish empire -nominally out of regard for treaties and to protect an old ally, really to check the ambitious designs of Russia. Now it remains to be considered, would the position of Turkey in Europe be worse in its social and commercial relations towards us under any other domination than that of the bigoted Muhammadans? The Turks have been liberal in their treaties of commerce with us; beyond that they have done little or nothing to unfold the resources of their vast empire: industry and commerce are, it is well known, in the hands of the Rayahs, or Christian subjects. The condition of the country might improve under Russian domination, but not to the extent that is desirable. Russia has shown itself semi-barbarian in many of her institutions-in her steadfast adherence to an old feudal system, the serfdom of peasants, in a military organisation out of all reasonable bounds, in religious bigotry, in jealousy of foreigners when in Russia, in despotic rule at home, in her system of espionage, in her commercial monopolies and restrictions, in the peculation common among employés, and as flagrant as in Turkey. This is not the nation then to see at Constantinople-the Queen city of Europe-this is not the power to evolve the resources of the finest provinces of the world, to pour their social and commercial wealth into the lap of humanity at large, and to open the great thoroughfare of the Eastern and Western worlds. But there is nothing in the antecedents of the native Christians opposed to a belief that their social and commercial spirit would have a liberal tendency.

"When Englishmen," says G. D. P., "are told of the possible loss of the English commerce in Turkey, ought they not, my lord, to ask themselves whether these 12,000,000 will cease to consume English goods because they have become free?"

The trade in corn from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, which has become of vital importance to England, is in the hands of the Christians. This is another point of view, from which, considering the inevitable decline and fall of the Turkish empire, and the expenses, difficulties, and dangers attendant upon propping up the old tiger-like carcase, makes it so important to duly weigh the advantages of such a support as compared with that of the native Christians, even to letting Russia have her own way till the time comes for the settlement of the true Eastern question-that of the government of Constantinople and the provinces-when England and France could come forward to back the claims of 12,000,000 of Christians, instead of, as at present, supporting the barbarian dominion of 2,000,000 of Muhammadans (in Turkey in Europe 900,000). Commerce, religion, self-interest, ordinary caution, ultimate results, all point to the same conclusion. Even if the interference of England and France were to stave off for the present the fall of the Porte, it would be delaying an inevitable result.

"Let me ask your lordship," writes G. D .P., "if it be likely, in the present state of the world, that the industrious, active 12,000,000 of Christians will allow themselves any longer to be enslaved for the sake of 700,000 drones ?"

But the interference of England and France will most likely not settle the question in favour of the Turks even for the present moment, and then what will be the result of the false step taken? To use once more the words of G. D. P., "What politician, aware of the disposition Russia

has shown by her retirement from Hungary, to avow that she entertains no notion of further aggrandising her power towards the West--who is there, I say, my lord, can suppose that if an opportunity be afforded her, she will not indemnify herself for such self-denial by turning towards the East? Is not England, my lord, about to afford her that occasion? Are you not, by this resistance to the religious freedom of the Christians of the Greek Church, putting arms in the hands of Russia ?-pointing out to her vast territories, the priceless gem of the whole world stretching out before her; and do you not actually, while seeming to oppose, place all of them within her grasp ?"

Three more pamphlets, one entitled "Hints on the Solution of the Eastern Question;" another, "The Eastern Question in relation to the Restoration of a Greek Empire;" and the third, put forth in French at Athens, called "A Few Words on the Eastern Question," have been published in advocacy of Hellenic interests, and the same interests are now represented in this country in a weekly paper called the Eastern Star.

We have also "The Turks in Europe; a Sketch of Manners and Politics in the Ottoman Empire," by Bayle St. John (Chapman and Hall), at once explicit and detailed in its condemnation of the ignorance, incapacity, and misrule of the Turks, attesting the impossibility of the Ottoman empire continuing to exist as part of the European system, and embracing the purely Hellenic side of the question. To this we have only to answer, that the Hellenic Greeks in European Turkey are at the best only as 1,000,000 to 12,000,000 Slavonian, Illyrian, and Rumani Greeks. They are neither as warlike as the Servians or other mountaineers, nor as industrious or persevering as the Bulgarians, and barely excelling the Rumani in the arts of life. Their claim could only be a separate Byzantine or Macedonian nationality, or an incorporation with the kingdom of Greece. Events will, however, no doubt precipitate measures. In a war of religion, the bigoted Turk will assail every Christian alike, and more especially his Rayah subjects, whom he suspects of sympathy with the Muscovite. The Greek, backed by the hostile demonstration of Russia and its avowed religious sympathies, will retort, collisions will occur, and numerous complications of the so-called Eastern question will speedily arise, among which may be enumerated the further sources of complication arising from the fanaticism of the Turks themselves, which only the other day threatened the stability of the empire, and which cannot yet but be productive of excesses that will hasten the fate of Osmanli dominion. According to the latest information, mediation was for the moment triumphant. The three following points are said to be established:-1. That Reshid Pasha signs the Russian ultimatum. (It was certain that Russia would gain its point notwithstanding the presence of the fleets.) 2. That the fleets of the naval powers retire from the Egean Sea. 3. That the Emperor of Russia declares to the Porte that he purposes never to make the concessions on the part of Turkey a pretext for interfering in Turkish temporal affairs, and in any way prejudicing the sovereignty of the Sultan. No mention is here made of an evacuation of the principalities. On the contrary, the emperor is fortifying the military stations along the Danube, and avowedly intends to prolong the occupation till he is indemnified for

the expenses incurred in litigation and oppression. As the first instalment of the indemnification for similar expenses incurred in 1848, 49, and 50, has only as yet been paid, two indemnifications will be incurred, and the principalities mortgaged beyond power of redemption. Such is the policy of Russia: she gains her ultimatum and two provinces, and she awaits, with an armed front on the Danube, the progress of events.

Of works of a different character, and not especially adapted to the present crisis, may be mentioned "The Ansyreeh and Ismaeleeh: a Visit to the Secret Sects of Northern Syria; with a view to the Establishment of Schools." By the Rev. Samuel Lyde, B.A., late chaplain of the Anglican Church at Beyrout. (Hurst and Blackett.) A very interesting work, devoted to an excellent purpose-that of raising a so-called Anysreeh Fund. This fund is to be devoted to the foundation of a mission and the establishment of schools among these curious sectarians, whose vaunted secret, Mr. Lyde justly enough says, probably consists of nothing more than a few unintelligible prayers, a medley of Christianity and Muhammadanism, and a trivial, if not obscene rite. The only objection we have to make to this little unassuming work is, that by a principle only recently introduced among travellers, and which cannot be too energetically denounced and too loudly condemned, Mr. Lyde passes over altogether without notice the much more extensive labours and inquiries of the Hon. Mr. Walpole in the same field. This is a system that will never do.

Another work connected with the East is designated "The Thistle and the Cedar of Lebanon," by Habeeb Risk Allah Effendi, M.R.C.S., and Associate of King's College. (James Madden.) It is written, as the name indicates, by a native Syrian, who describes his early career and national associations, intermingling with his pictures all the small-talk and scandal of the Levant, more especially detailing the circumstances connected with the strange marriage of a well-known military gentleman; the eccentricities of Sayid Ali, formerly one of the interpreters to the Euphrates' expedition; the amours and intrigues of "an old English official," and the vulgar exactions of some English travellers. We doubt very much one statement-viz., that at the bombardment of Acre the Egyptian and Syrian soldiery did not resist the British-nay, even spiked their guns, because the said British were fighting for the Sultan. Risk Allah might as well tell us that the Egyptians, Syrians, and Arabs, let the Turks beat them at Nizib because they, the said Turks, were fighting for the Sultan. It happened, unfortunately, that the Egyptians and Syrians beat the Turks. The guns Risk Allah saw spiked were most likely so disabled by our boat parties that effected a gallant landing at more than one point during the engagement.

The remainder of Risk Allah's work is occupied with details of his visit to this country, the kindness shown to him, and his education and social successes. These reflect the highest credit upon his general character and abilities. The work has been revised for the press by the Reverend Mr. Witts, and it attests how much has been made of the author by the noble and the educated of the land. The raising of a fund for the establishment of a hospital and schools at Bayrut is also earnestly advocated.