And oh! Almighty father of humanity! is there no power on earth to stop this execrable annihilation of human and national rights, of freedom and independence?--though there is a Republic powerful enough to do so--a Republic founded upon the very principles which the despotic powers have put under an inexorable ban! Gentlemen, I have dwelt perhaps too long on the condition of Europe; but it was necessary to show that though there be no Russian eagles, painted over the public offices in Germany, Italy, France, still the Russian frontier is really extended to the Atlantic. People of free America, beware, ere it be too late! Hurriedly and by sudden violence, all civil and religious liberty must, for the repose of absolutism, be trampled out of Europe; and by more deliberate perpetration, by diplomacy, persuasion, and gold, the way must be prepared to trample it out elsewhere by ulterior violence. And here I claim permission to say something about the most dangerous power of Russia, its DIPLOMACY. It is worthy of consideration that while Russia starves her armies and underpays her officials, who live by peculation, still, abroad she devotes greater resources to her diplomacy than any other power has ever done. Acting on the maxim that "men are not influenced by facts, but by opinions respecting facts"--not by "things as they are," but by "things as they are believed to be," she finds it easier and cheaper, through a diplomatic agency, to impress the world with a belief in a strength she has not, than to try to organize or attain that strength. And to come to that aim, Russian diplomacy is not restricted to diplomatic proceedings. Brilliant saloons of fascinating ladies, as well as marriages, are equally departments of Russian diplomacy. The secret-service money at the disposal of all other diplomatists, is always limited, and has only been exceptionably used. But every Russian diplomatist, in whom confidence is reposed, has _unlimited credit_, and is allowed to disburse any sum to achieve an adequate result. Their traditional experience teaches them how to attain their point; their discretion can be relied on, and they understand every possible means of reaching men directly and indirectly, pulling frequently the strings of thoroughly unconscious puppets. Constantinople is the great workshop of diplomatic skill, worthy of more close interest than has hitherto been bestowed upon it from America--because there will be struck the most dreadful blow to the independence of Europe. In Constantinople, when Russia wishes to turn a grand vizier out of office, it does not attack him: it praises him rather, and spreads the rumour of having him in its pay; and it is sure that foreign influential diplomatists will then turn out for it the hated grand vizier. When on the other hand a grand vizier is wavering in his position, and Russia likes him to continue in office, it attacks him with ostentatious publicity.