Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 290, 28 September 1891 — The Future Time of Trouble. [ARTICLE]

The Future Time of Trouble.

Since the Crimean war, an astonishing revolution has taken place in the attitude of the Nations in Europe. Russia, as soon as she could, refused to be bound by treaty obligations, and has ever since directed her attention and energy to the carrying out of that inspired document, — the testament of Peter the Great. France, one of the chief parties to an allianee to maintain the Ottoman Empire, was crushed by Prussia in 1870. Prussia was too much in sympathy with Russia, at the time, to interfere with her movements against Turkey later. England with her own affairs demanding all her attention, could not without France help Turkey. Austria had not recovered from the blow she received from Prussia; Italy, was too much occupied with stripping the Pope of his temporal power and making Rome the Capital of the Nation. The sudden and overwhelming humiliation of France changed the plan and attitude of the European Powers. New and entirely different combinations have been the result, and to-day we see Russia, with France allied to her, assuming an aggressive attitude. She has obtained a forced concession from the Turkish Government, She proposes to make use of the latter to coerce Egypt out of England's grasp in which effort France takes a large interest.

By the sudden overthrow of France, the Muscovite saw her opporunity, and accordingly in 1890, she astonished the powers of Europe in the fall of that year, by deliberately disregarding the stipulations of the treaty of 1856. The restrictions put upon her after the termination of the Crimean war were set aeide, just at the moment when none of the powers were in a condition to enforce it. Several

reasons were given by the Russian government at the time for this act on her part, but the real reason was the fulfillment of Russia's duty as mapped out in Czar Peter's will, to possess Constantinople and drive the Crescent from the soil of Europe. This desire has been cherished as a sacred legacy, left to Russia by that famous Prince. Becoming at the early age of sixteen, sole emperor, he enjoyed a prosperous reign of thirty-seven years, to 1725, and at his death left a "last will and testament," in which were certain important unstructions for his successors to follow, and whieh has been religious observed up to the present time. The 9th article of said will, enjoined upon his successors and his people, the following policy:

"To take every possible means of gaining Constantinople and the Indies, (for he who rules there will be the true Sovereign of the world); excite war continually in Turkey and Persia; establish fortresses in the Black Sea; get control of the sea by degress, — and also of the Baltic, which is a double point necessary to the realization of our project; accelerate as much as possible the decay of Persia; penetrate to the Persian Gulf; re-establish, if possible by the way of Syria, the ancient commerce of the Levant; advance to the Indies, which are the great depot of the world. Once there we can do without the gold of England."

To ehow how persistently this line. of policy has been follōwed, the following facts will show : — I *In 1696, Peter wrested the Sea | of Azov from thē Tark& and kepl it. Next, €atherine won Cri-1 mea. In 1812, Alexander I, obtain«d Moldāvia, by the peaee of Bucha-1 rest, and the Province Bessarabia. Nicholas won the yight of free navigation of the Black Sea, the Dardanelles, and the Danube; but his inordinate greed, led him into the Crimean war, by whieh he lost Moldaviia, and the right of navigating the Danube, and the unrestricted navigaūon of the Black Sea. This was no doubt a«severe repulse to Kussia, but it did not extinguish its designs upon the Ottoman power, nor did it contribu|e in any essential degree t0 tbe st>ability of the Ottoman Empire. Patiently biding her time, Russia has been watching &nd waiting, and in 1870, when all the Western nations were watching the Franco-Prussian war, she announced to the Powei» that she would be no longer bound by the treaty of 1856, whueh restricted her use of the Black Sea; and since that time that sea has been, as it was hundreds of years ago, to all intents and purposes, a murc Rus-

Governor Sir Hudflon Lowe, of the Island oi St. Helena, gives the following opinioo, of hia illustrious charge, while a prisoner on that Islatid, showing how well Napoleon Bonaparte understoo°d the designs of Russia and §he importanee of her contemplated movementa: —

u ln the course of a few years, Russia will have Constantinople, part of Turkey, and all of Greeee, This I hold to be as certain as if it had already taken plaee. All the cajolery and flattery that Alexander practiced upon me was to gain my consent to effect that object. I would not give it, for seeing that the equilibrium oĪEurope would be destroyed/ Qnce mistress of Constantinople, Bussia . all ,tge commerce of the Mediterratie}ih, becomes a navai power, and then God knows what may happen. The object of my invasion of Rusaia was to prevent this, bv the interposition between her and Turkey of a new state, whieh I meant to eall into existence as a barrier to her Eastern encroachments. ,J . • (To be Continuod.)