The leading principle of the cabinet of St. Petersburg for the last hundred years, has been the agglomeration of Poland, and the expulsion of the Turks, whom they are desirous of driving back as far as the Black Sea. Poland has fallen; nor was it in the power of any government to prevent the ruin of that fated country. A strong antipathy, a deep, unmeasured hatred, exists between the Poles and Russians; they are two races ready to fall upon each other; two giants, armed at all points, constantly contending during six centuries. The most unpopular of all proceedings at Moscow, at Kalouga, at Novogorod, and in the old castles of the ancient nobility, was the erection of Poland into an independent kingdom, organised by Alexander,[47] which occasioned murmurs of dissatisfaction on every side. The other object of Russia, the fall of Turkey, will also take place sooner or later; it cannot be prevented, and, if the government will not undertake it, the people will do it themselves. Saint Sophia is required to crown the patriarchate of the Greek Church. Of this Europe is well aware; she delays the explosion until the proper time has arrived, and determines the various shares beforehand: but to prevent it altogether is beyond her power. And some day we shall hear that the Russians, with the cross as their banner, have marched to the succour of their brethren, and that another empire of Constantine has arisen on the Bosphorus. It is so written in the book of fate! [47] _Vide_ art. Pozzo di Borgo.