Page:Note of an English republican on the Muscovite crusade (IA noteofenglishrep00swiniala).pdf/17

 Russia, the murder of Rome by France. If he should now speak on this matter, it would be that he has some right to speak; and if we should give ear to him, it would be that we have some reason. Not from his mouth of gold need we fear to receive a message that would bid us cast out the devils of Ottoman misrule by the Muscovite Beelzebub, the prince of the devils of despotism. There are yet men who have a right—though, alas, there may now be no nation which can claim it—to speak without rebuke words of justice and of mercy, to be heard without reminder or appeal. But not of these, unhappily and shamefully for us all, is the first living writer of England. The best comfort we can take in this evil case is to remember that the same charge cannot be