Nothing is now so clear as that the Emperor of Russia has been most grossly deceived with respect to Turkey; but it is just to admit that the error has been also shared by many who should know better. Prince Menschikoff, during his short sojourn at Constantinople, had only time to insult the Sultan and his government, but also time to rouse a spirit of resentment and resistance. The backwardness of Turkey in civilisation was taken as a proof of her weakness and her deficiency in moral courage. But, with all her shortcomings, the old Mussulman spirit still subsisted amid the ruins of her former glory. It has been said that there are qualities which are effaced or destroyed by refinement, but there are others which live without it, though the occasion may have seldom occurred to call them forth. Turkish patriotism was regarded as a byword, Turkish loyalty as a mockery; Turkish courage was more than doubtful; and nothing remained of the daring valour which, in other times, made Christendom quail before the Crescent, except that vigour of faith which once distinguished the children of the Prophet: and even that, we were led to believe, had degenerated into a brutal and ignoble fanaticism, capable of vulgar crime, but unequal to a single act of heroism. The arrogant envoy of Russia rendered an essential service, not to his imperial master, but to his intended victim. His insults roused the dormant spirit of the Mussulman. The Ottoman army was undisciplined—unprovided with the commonest necessaries; the navy was but the melancholy remnant of Navarino; the Sultan’s authority was weakened by internal abuses and disorders; his territory dismembered by the separation of Greece, and by the all but successful rebellion of Egypt. Those to whom he looked for aid or protection against his colossal foe were long cold, if not hostile to him; yet Turkey rose with a courage and a dignity which have extorted applause, and won respect, even from those who were most indisposed to her cause, politically and religiously. She summoned her children about her; appealed, _not_ to the relentless fanaticism of their creed, but to their manlier and nobler instincts; and after making every sacrifice, every concession consistent with self-respect, to appease or disarm her unscrupulous and faithless enemy, who was bent on her destruction, drew the sword in the cause of her independence. Whilst still uncertain whether she was to maintain the struggle alone and unsympathised with, against fearful odds, she advanced to the contest with a bravery worthy of better times, and with a success which has astonished her friends as well as foes. The feelings which Prince Menschikoff believed he could most safely outrage were those which quickened the nation into life and vigour. The Emperor of Russia was astonished at a result so different from what he was led to expect. The advices which had reached him from his friends in London,