turned to
their homes; and, although powerless to act in concert, succeeded so
well in stirring up a feeling of animosity against the government, that
the spring of 1850 found the malcontents in a better position than ever
for the renewal of the war. But rebellion had now reached its
culminating point, and the sudden appearance of Omer Pacha, who threw
himself with impetuous daring into the heart of Bosnia, gave a very
different colouring to events. To form a just estimate of the
difficulties which he had to overcome, ere order could be re-established
in this confused chaos, it is necessary briefly to recapitulate the
various conflicting elements, revolutionary and otherwise, which had
been brought into play, the aim and inevitable result of which must have
been the utter destruction of this unhappy empire.

There are those who profess to believe that Russia has no malevolent
designs upon Turkey, and who bring forward many plausible reasons in
support of their opinion; but this number has very materially diminished
since the disclosures which preceded the late Russian war. The character
of the Turkish people, their religion, and their social and political
institutions, may all have tended to produce the calamitous state of
affairs. Yet when we probe the matter to the bottom, there we find the
root of all evil--Russian policy and imperial ambition. It is not to say
that this monarch or that was desirous of annexing by conquest, and
holding by force of arms, a gigantic empire. Such a thought were
madness. Far more subtle is the scheme which was, and is, inherent in
every Russian ruler. It has been, and still is, their own
aggrandisement, direct or indirect, based upon the ruins of Turkey. Ably
and laboriously have they worked to effect that which still seems as
distant as ever. No sooner were the bloody days of 1828-9 past, than
they applied themselves afresh to the work of disorganisation, and in
this appeared to succeed too well. They had launched the Slave against
the Turk, and then the Christian Slave against the Mussulman Slave,
whilst at the same time the Asiatic Turk--the Turk _pur sang_--was
struggling throughout Anatolia against the reformed and European Turk.
It now remained to find a pretext to justify her in effecting an armed
intervention, that cloak for so much that is arbitrary and aggressive.
This was soon found in an insignificant rising of the Bulgarians,
brought on by her roubles lavishly dispensed by o