Page:Wallachia and Moldavia - Correspondence of D. Bratiano whit Lord Dudley C. Stuart, M.P. on the Danubian Principalities.djvu/17

 TO LORD DUDLEY COUTTS STUART.

London, 27th May, 1853.

My Lord,—The letter with which you honoured me from Petersham has suggested to me some considerations on the affairs of the East, which I take the liberty of submitting to your appreciation, before you fix the attention of Parliament on the question of the Danubian Principalities.

In your excellent letter, my lord, you ask, with patriotic anxiety, whether the inhabitants of the Principalities will consent to become the instruments of aggrandising the power of despots ; or whether, as you hope, they will range themselves on the side of those who wish to see all the peoples in the enjoyment of the nationality which belongs to them, and of a reasonable liberty: for in the solution of the European question, say you, much will depend on the line of conduct they shall have adopted. Without doubt, my lord, the destiny of the peoples depends much, I might say solely, on their wisdom and their energy; and since we are speaking here of the Danubian Principalities, I esteem myself happy in being able, once more, to assure you that their inhabitants, far from letting themselves be caught by the perfidious advances of Russia, repel with horror whatever comes to them in the name of the Czar, and that they are firmly determined to resist his audacious enterprises, if need be, by force of arms. I may add, that several letters I have just received, agree in informing me that light is also beginning to dawn amongst their neighbours, the Christians of Turkey, properly so called. It appears that Russia has, of late, so worked and tormented them, in order to make them accept her protectorate, that she has ended by opening their eyes to her real intentions. For my own part, I have the firm hope that ere long all will understand that the administration of Turkey, however imperfect, irregular, and even arbitrary it may sometimes be, is infinitely preferable to that of Russia—constantly and systematically tyrannical, cruel, and rapacious ; and that, consequently, Christians are as much interested as the Mussulman in