that Russia's ambition is to sit in pride in the city of Constantine. But Russia's ambition goes further than the Golden Horn; and the enthronement of the Romanoffs in the seat of the Eastern Cæsars, with the supplanting of the Crescent by the Cross on the dome of St. Sophia, would be but poor satisfaction to the aspirations and efforts of generations, if the war ships of the great Northern power were still excluded from Mediterranean waters. It is singular, too, that the Turk should have the conviction that his fate in Europe is to be sealed by the hand of Russia, and that from the day he entered Constantinople up until the present he has been able to point to the gate which would witness his departure.

It is not so easy to account for the origin of the ambition and determination on the one hand, and this apparently ineradicable conviction on the other. Such sentiments, however, are most naturally traceable to the circumstances attendant on conquest and defeat. In a qualified form, younger and older, we find them in different parts of Europe. We find them connected with Alsace and Lorraine. We find them giving a meaning to what is known as Irredentism in Italy. We find them at the root of the historic difficulties between England and Ireland. We can but imperfectly imagine the humiliating effect produced on the Christian mind of Eastern Europe by the fall of Constantinople, and the passing of the governing power from Christian into Mussulman hands. No such shock had been experienced in Europe since the fall of the Western Empire; and it is but truth to say that, amid all the changes which Europe has witnessed during the last five hundred years, she has witnessed nothing to be compared in its sweepingly revolutionary character to the conquest and occupation of the Eastern seat of empire by the Turks. It was not only the humiliation of numerous races of people-it was the humiliation of a faith. It was in some respects the most damaging blow which Christianity had received in fourteen centuries. Hope of recovery, however, was not extinguished by defeat or the loss of power. A day of reckoning and of restoration must come. In the course of the centuries Russia has gradually come to the front, claiming to be the representative of the Christianity of the East. To her, therefore, have fallen as by natural inheritance the sentiments which were begotten among the Christian populations of the East by the triumphs of Mohammedanism in the first half of the fifteenth century. The Turk has never been thoroughly at home on this side of the Bosphorus; and he is as well assured that his doom is fixed as Russia is certain of her coming triumph.

In the course of the years the avenging of Christianity has become identified, in the Russian mind, with a sentiment which is purely national, and the desire to expel the Turks from Constantinople is less an impelling force or a controlling motive than the desire for expansion in the direction of the Mediterranean. Since the early years of the present century the great Northern power, like an eagle in his lofty aerie, has sat and watched for his opportunity, never failing to try his chances, now playing the game of diplomacy and now playing the more hazardous game of war, winning or stealing as has been most convenient, and in spite of the opposition of combined Europe almost forcing the conviction on the world at large that ultimate success is only a question of time.

In the early fall we had a fresh illustration of the persistent pressure to which we have alluded. and for some days it seemed as if Europe was on the verge of a war, probably the most sweeping in its range and the most disastrous in its consequences ever witnessed in. the history of mankind. Russia, contrary to existing treaties, had forced the consent of the Sultan to allow her to pass a certain class of war ships through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. As usual on all such occasions, the cry of alarm was raised; and AustriaHungary, Germany, Italy and Great Britain were loud in their demands for explanations, and ap-, parently not only ready, but eager, to unsheath the sword. The peculiar feature of the situation was that France, which was one of the principal parties in the last great combined effort against Russia, and pledged to the defense of those very treaties with the violation of which the Northern power is charged, seemed prepared to go back upon herself and take the side of her former enemy. Happily, the other treaty powers interested in and pledged to the preservation of the status quo acted with consideration and caution; and the war fever, which for some days raged with great fierceness, gradually subsided. The Sultan denied having made concessions beyond such as had been reserved by him in the existing treaties.

All things considered, it is not wonderful that the treaty powers concerned in the preservation of the European equilibrium, when made aware of what were called the new privileges accorded to Russia, without their knowledge or consent, were seized with alarm. The notorious Eastern Question-a question which has been the fruitful source alike of wars and of treaties-it was naturally concluded, was up again for solution. Solution meant war; and on this occasion it was really difficult to foresee what proportions the

war might assume. It was the Eastern Question in one of its most difficult and perplexing aspects. As every well-informed reader is aware, there are connected with this general question many subordinate questions. Sometimes the Eastern Question, as in the late Russo-Turkish War, has centred in one or other of the Balkan countries. Sometimes, as in the case of the Crimean War, it has centred in Russia's assumed right to protect the Holy Places. Sometimes it has centred in the navigation of the Danube, or other so-called border rights or privileges in that region. At one time it was a matter chiefly affecting Grecian interest. At another time it was a difficulty between the Sultan and the governing power in Egypt. Not long since, it was mainly a question of rights in the Black Sea. But of all the subordinate questions which have as yet given birth to war, or in any serious way commanded attention, it is difficult to imagine that any one of them could be of more importance than that relating to the privileges of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. These privileges cover the whole scheme of Russian ambition to the southwest. As soon as the great Northern power shall acquire a right of way for her war ships through the straits she will have accomplished her long-cherished purpose; she will have become a Mediterranean power, and made a most decided advance toward the full realization of her highest ambition. It is not venturing too far to say that from the moment Russia feels that she has a right equally with Turkey, Austria, France, Italy and England to float her ironclads and to unfurl her sails in Mediterranean waters an entirely new era will have dawned upon Europe, and that a new Europe will follow. The balance of power will be effectually and forever changed.

The difficulty has apparently been gotten over for the present. The fact remains, however, that Russia has gained a point; and the question which has been opened is precisely of such a nature as forbids us to believe that it will not lead to trouble on some early day. The eagerness with which Russia is pushing forward the work at Vladivostok, and the increasing necessity which she will experience for making use of the Dardanelles, may revive the difficulty at any moment; and should Russia prove imperative and unyielding, we can see no issue but war. It is not easy, in fact, to exaggerate the gravity of the situation. In order that the reader may have a clear and approximately correct idea of what is meant by the Eastern Question, in this Dardanelles connection, it is necessary that we should enter into some historical details.

an ambition to become one of the controlling powers of Western as well as of Eastern Europe. She desires a free and full right of way to and from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean; but she desires also to occupy and to rule in Constantinople. It is well, however, to bear in mind that Russian Czars are not the only persons who have set covetous eyes on the Queen City of the East; and the conclusion is a natural one that the city and its surroundings, which have proved so much of a temptation, must have attractions of no ordinary kind.

On one point all visitors and writers agree, that for situation Stamboul is without a rival among the cities of the earth. In describing it Gibbon exhausted the resources of his matchless eloquence, and succeeding writers, poets and historians have loudly echoed his eulogy. It is not only beautiful for situation it is admirably adapted alike for a trade emporium and for the seat of imperial power. Standing on the confines of Europe and Asia, on the west or European side of the Bosphorus, on an undulating slope, its domes and minarets gleaming in the clear blue above and around, it presents a most attractive aspect to the approaching visitor as he sails up the straits. To the north of the city is the splendid and capacious harbor known as the "Golden Horn," or "Sweet Waters," about eight miles long and at no point more than half a mile in width. It is of sufficient depth to float the largest vessels, and is capable of receiving at least one thousand two hundred sail of the line. To the north of the Golden Horn, and connected with the city by two pontoon bridges, is the commercial suburb of Galata, winding around the base of a hill, on the summit of which is Pera, where are the residences of the foreign ambassadors. eastern or Asiatic side of the Bosphorus rises the picturesque suburb of Scutari. As the stranger approaches the city, one of the first objects which meets the eye is the famous Seraglio, or Palace of the Sultan, which occupies the apex of the triangle on which the city is built. In his usually grandiloquent way, Alison says: "No words can express the beauty of the city of Constantinople, with its charming suburbs of Pera, Galata and Scutari, when seen from the waters of the Hellespont. It presents an assemblage of charming objects such as are not to be seen in a similar space in any other part of the world. It has not the magnificent background of the Bay of Naples, nor the castellated majesty of Genoa ; but in the perfection of the scene, the harmony of all its parts, and the homogeneous nature of the emotions which it awakes, it is superior to