Page:Note of an English republican on the Muscovite crusade (IA noteofenglishrep00swiniala).pdf/5



Amid and above the many voices now jangling around what is called the Eastern Question, the sound of one voice like the blast of a trumpet has at length rung its message in all English ears after a sufficiently well-known fashion to a sufficiently unmistakable purport. A preacher who defends the gallows, an apostle who approves the lash, has lifted up his voice against oppression, and has cursed 'the unspeakable Turk' by all his gods: in the name of Francia and in the name of Mouravieff the champion of Eyre Pasha in Jamaica has uttered his sonorous note of protest against the misdeeds of Achmet Aga, in Bulgaria. For all sincere and lifelong admirers of the greatest English writer now living among us in an old age more peaceful though not more noble than was granted to the one Englishman we can remember yet greater in genius and in heart than he, it must be no small satisfaction, though it cannot but be no small surprise, to discover that there is actually