Russia had just defeated Persia, and by this victory got access to the Asiatic provinces of the Turkish empire; it had therefore to defend the frontiers on both sides.  Russia had not yet entered into Circassia, and could therefore rally all her forces; she had not yet abolished the Poland of 1815, and could leave it without garrisons; she had not yet roused the hatred or the jealousies of Europe.  She had engaged all the natural allies of the Porte into a combination for rousing the populations of her enemy, and by her diplomacy she gained the power of bringing her fleet into the Mediterranean, for blockading the ports of Turkey; and Navarino opened for her the Black Sea, where she had thirteen men-of-war.  Not disturbed by the Porte, by Circassia, by Poland, by France, or by England, she had prepared two years for this war, whilst her enemy, passing through a terrible crisis, was without money, without an organized army, without a fleet, without other resources than the feeble Mussulman population on the seat of war.

Twenty-four years have altered the balance.—­Turkey has now the enthusiastic support of her Mussulman population.  The Christian population, with the only exception of Bulgaria, partakes of this enthusiasm.  All the warlike tribes, from Albania to Kurdistan, are now supporting the authority of the Sultan.  Mehemet Ali is gone; Arabia and Syria are again under the dominion of the Sultan.  Servia has made peace, and has become the support of Turkey, offering her, in case of a Russian war, 80,000 men.  The Principalities have become the enemies of Russia; they had too long to suffer from her oppression.  The public revenue has doubled.  Turkey has organized a regular army of 200,000 men, equal to any other, and besides, the militia, She has distinguished generals—­Omer Pasha, Gruyon.  Her fleet is equal to the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, and her steam-fleet superior to the Russian.  She has for allies all the people from the Caucasus to the Carpathians.  The Circassians, the Tartars under Emir Mirza, the Cossacks of the Dobroja, by whom the electric shock is transmitted to Poland and Hungary, form an unbroken chain, by which the spark is carried into the heart of Europe, where all the combustible elements wait for the moment of explosion.  Twenty-four years ago Turkey was believed to be in a decaying state; it is now stronger than it has been for the last hundred years.

Russia, during this time, has been unable to overcome the resistance of Circassia; and, cut off from her south-eastern provinces, she cannot attack Turkey in the rear.  The Caucasian lines furnished her, in 1828, with 30,000 men; Poland with 100,000; the two countries require now an army of observation and occupation of 200,000 men; the Danubian principalities absorb again 50,000.

The Russian fleet remains as it was in 1828—­thirteen men-of-war then, thirteen now:  and whilst, in 1828, she had scarcely an enemy in Europe, she has now scarcely one friend, except the kings.  All her enemies, whom she has defeated one by one, have combined against her—­Poland, Hungary, the Danubian principalities, Turkey, Circassia.