Page:Wallachia and Moldavia - Correspondence of D. Bratiano whit Lord Dudley C. Stuart, M.P. on the Danubian Principalities.djvu/9

 all the governments; everything pointed out the present as a propitious moment; and she has set to work.

She mans a formidable fleet at Sebastopol and holds it ready to sail at a moment’s notice; she concentrates in the Southern Provinces three Corps d’Armee, with numerous artillery, provisions, and all the necessaries for a long campaign; and all this without a word spoken, only leaving it to be said that we are on the eve of a great war, and that the Ottoman Empire is to be dismembered. At the same time she induces Austria to make similar demonstrations on the Turkish frontiers, and has permitted, or rather enjoined, her to send to Constantinople the insolent ultimatum which is so well known, and which the Porte has not dared to reject.

The Porte once terrified, humiliated, demoralised, Russia has opened her mouth Prince Menschikoff has already arrived at Constantinople, as the alter ego of the Emperor Nicholas, with an imperial suite, consisting of generals, admirals, and aides-de-camp of the Czar. Nevertheless, Russia, not to give the lie to all the precedents of her policy, and, perhaps, give herself a terrible blow, will not declare war against Turkey; will not say to the Turks that they must retire to Asia and give place to her; for she knows that they are still in a position to offer a formidable resistance, and that very likely England and France will take their part. She will not make open war for many months. Russia is only warlike in obscurity ; she never strikes but in the dark,—the broad day ever finds her sword in the scabbard. Besides it is not through waves of blood that she can arrive at the domination of Turkey. Her plan of siege consists in creeping upon it nearer and nearer every day, in order to dismantle it little by little, to seize one by one the strongholds that serve Turkey as ramparts, and thus some day to take possession almost without a blow. For the present moment then, ready and determined as she is to seize Turkey, she will not even touch that country; she will content herself with demanding from her some traffic—some trifle—the cession for example of a portion of the territories of the Danubian Principalities, or the simple occupation