If we were called upon to work out "the end," or final result of the war between Russia and the Western Powers from the data supplied by the campaign of 1824, we might conclude with the North British that "no prophetic eye could foresee its results."

The grounds of this conclusion are, first, that so long as neutrality is maintained by Austria and Prussia the heart of Russia cannot be pierced by the lance of the Allies. Will she then give in? Secondly, the campaign in Asia has thus far been in favour of the Russians, and disastrous to the Turks. Thirdly, the intervention of the Austrians between Russia and the Porte, whatever it may be in appearance, is in effect favourable to Russia. Fourthly, the revolutionary condition of Europe is a defence for the Czar in being an embarrassment for the Allies. Fifthly, the jealousies that may arise between them may change the face of affairs. Sixthly, Prussia, whose sympathies are Russian, may declare for the Czar, and so open a way for him into France, by which the seat of the war would be transferred from the east to the west. Seventhly, the Autocrat’s ally, winter, is at hand, which will suspend all attacks by sea and land; and eighthly, the firmness and endurance of Nicholas may exhaust the patience of his adversaries, and dry up the resources of Turkey, which may die before he obtain possession of the carcase.

From these considerations we might conclude that Russia would triumph in the end; but then there is to be considered on the contrary, the bravery of the Turks and the great wealth and power of England and France, whose fleets and armies have all proved themselves superior to the Russians. England has once withstood the world in arms, what, therefore, may not England and France combined effect against a single power. When we look at this side of the shield we see no prospect for Russia, but an humble acceptance of peace at the dictation of her imperious foes! Here then are two opposite conclusions; whose eye is so prophetic as to foresee which of them shall become the truth? The North British writer responds, "There is no prophetic eye can foresee the results of the present war!"

To this conclusion I have no objection apart from the word or testimony of God. No one could have foreseen the end of Napoleon I, judging from the contemporary circumstances that environed him at the epoch of Marengo and Austerlitz; neither from similar considerations can the issue of the present war be predicted—the Allies may conquer or Russia triumph for any thing we can tell apart from the Scriptures of truth.

According to these, matters are progressing finely with reference to the end revealed. In promoting this the things to be accomplished are—

The mission of Austria at this stage of the business has evidently been to release Russia from active warfare against Turkey, and to act as a break upon the chariot wheels of the Anglo-French alliance, that it might not effectually cripple Russia and put an end to the war which has a higher and more glorious result than any proposed by Lord Aberdeen and Napoleon III, who are mere subordinate actors in the play. God’s moves upon the political chessboard are admirable. Sinope brought the declaration of war; Silistria, the Austrians into the Principalities; this, the invasion of the Crimea, the fall of Sevastopol (?) What then? God knows, but the Powers do not, for "all beyond is chaos" to them!

If the Anglo-French force instead of landing in Turkey had left Omar Pasha to contend with the Russians on the Danube, and had straightway invaded the Crimea, the junction of Luder’s battalions with Menschikoff’s would have been effectually prevented and the conquest of that peninsula facilitated. This would have been a great embarrassment for Russia, from which, however, it has been delivered and enabled to concentrate its forces against the enemy by the intervention of Austria. With the sanction of the short-sighted rulers of France and England, Austria has been permitted to make a separate treaty with the Porte by which she has been allowed to take possession of the Principalities as trustee for Turkey, to which she promises to restore them at the end of the war! The Anglo-French army arrived in Turkey, but instead of hastening on to the scene of action, it wasted the summer in doing nothing, and at length arrived at Varna where there was nothing for it to do; for just at this crisis the Russians raised the siege of Silistria and retired across the Danube, while Austria entered like a wedge between them and the Allies, and persuaded them very politely not to trouble themselves any farther in that direction!

What then had 70,000 French and English come all the way from home to do? To give their "moral support" to Omar Pasha and to die of the pestilence! They had marched up the hill and seen their friends "covered with glory;" were they to face about and march down again? What awaited them at home? A general outburst of scornful derision. To return would be disgrace and ridicule—revolution perhaps in France, and impeachment of the English ministers. Hence orders were received to do something, and that something is the capture of Sevastopol if they can.

But look at Austria; there she is in the Principalities—a rearguard to Russia; hereafter, perhaps, the advance of a Russo-Austrian tempest, destined to sweep over the city of Constantine like a whirlwind from the north. It is not probable that Austria will ever voluntarily evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia. When the second stage of the current war converts Germany, France, and Italy into the arena of the strife, Austria cannot remain in status quo. Whatever bearing she may now sham towards the Anglo-French alliance, war in Italy with the French there can only be Anti-Austrian, and therefore a Russo-Austrian contest for supremacy over the west. In such an eventuality as this, the days of Turkey are numbered. The Sultan cannot demand the evacuation of the Principalities so long as he is at war with Russia. Austria can therefore hold Wallachia and Moldavia, continue at peace with Turkey, and with Russia, her ally as at present, carry on war with France, which may be at the same time in amity with the Sultan and at enmity with Austria. Thus through Austria Turkey may be insulated and kept in leading-strings until the war in the west has given the western Leg and Toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image their last premillennial form; and Russia and Austria released from that work; that what remains may be consummated, that namely which consists in bringing Persia, Cush, Phut, and Togarmah, with all their bands, under Gog, or the completing of the image that it may stand on its feet of iron and clay on the mountains of Israel previous to its fall.

A refusal to evacuate the Principalities on the part of Austria may cause the Anglo-French to seize on Egypt and Palestine, notwithstanding their agreement not to appropriate the property of others. Treaties will not bind Napoleon longer than it serves his turn to observe them, and his faithlessness will become a plea of justification for the British government to follow his example. As usual, pretences will not be wanting for excusing violence and spoiling their friends. The plunder of a traveller is the common property of the thieves until an heir is provided in the rogue who has sagacity and ingenuity enough to escape the halter; so of the future plunderers of the Turk, whose possessions in the east may be appropriated by France and England as "material guarantees;" but in the event of France being brought under the Protectorate of Gog, and Turkey being over-run by the Northern King, Egypt and Syria will fall to England, and the Ottoman Empire will be no more.

EDITOR.

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