Under Peter the Great, the policy of Russia developed itself more fully.  In 1696, he rendered himself master of Azof, and, in 1698, obtained the right to pass the Dardanelles, and to maintain, by that route, commercial intercourse with the Mediterranean.  He had emissaries throughout Greece, and particularly applied himself to gain the clergy.  He adopted the Labarum of Constantine, “In hoc signo vinces”; and medals were struck, with the inscription, “Petrus I. Russo-Graecorum Imperator.”  In whatever new direction the principles of the Holy Alliance may now lead the politics of Russia, or whatever course she may suppose Christianity now prescribes to her, in regard to the Greek cause, the time has been when she professed to be contending for that cause, as identified with Christianity.  The white banner under which the soldiers of Peter the First usually fought, bore, as its inscription, “In the name of the Prince, and for our country.”  Relying on the aid of the Greeks, in his war with the Porte, he changed the white flag to red, and displayed on it the words, “In the name of God, and for Christianity.”  The unfortunate issue of this war is well known.  Though Anne and Elizabeth, the successors of Peter, did not possess his active character, they kept up a constant communication with Greece, and held out hopes of restoring the Greek empire.  Catharine the Second, as is well known, excited a general revolt in 1769.  A Russian fleet appeared in the Mediterranean, and a Russian army was landed in the Morea.  The Greeks in the end were disgusted at being expected to take an oath of allegiance to Russia, and the Empress was disgusted because they refused to take it.  In 1774, peace was signed between Russia and the Porte, and the Greeks of the Morea were left to their fate.  By this treaty the Porte acknowledged the independence of the Khan of the Crimea; a preliminary step to the acquisition of that country by Russia.  It is not unworthy of remark, as a circumstance which distinguished this from most other diplomatic transactions, that it conceded to the cabinet of St. Petersburg the right of intervention in the interior affairs of Turkey, in regard to whatever concerned the religion of the Greeks.  The cruelties and massacres that happened to the Greeks after the peace between Russia and the Porte, notwithstanding the general pardon which had been stipulated for them, need not now be recited.  Instead of retracing the deplorable picture, it is enough to say, that in this respect the past is justly reflected in the present.  The Empress soon after invaded and conquered the Crimea, and on one of the gates of Kerson, its capital, caused to be inscribed, “The road to Byzantium.”  The present Emperor, on his accession to the throne, manifested an intention to adopt the policy of Catharine the Second as his own, and the world has not been right in all its suspicions, if a project for the partition of Turkey did not form a part of the negotiations of Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit.