ain from examining here the motives for this change, because we
believe it is very difficult to lift the veil which covers the mysteries
of the political inconstancy of the Cabinet of St. James's; and leaving
the solution of this enigma to time, that great OEdipus of history, we
will here make only this remark, that English diplomacy has allowed a
favourable opportunity to escape for taking the initiative in all the
great questions which concern the general interests of civilization, and
this notwithstanding the hopes which Lord Salisbury's circular for an
instant caused us to entertain. However, the propitious moment has not
yet passed away. France, which appears at this moment to be holding
aloft the standard of the policy first enunciated by the Marquis of
Salisbury, serves not only the interests of Greece and of Europe, but
also those of England.

Beware of the North! In the triumph of the Panslavist idea there is not
only the absorption of Hellenism, there is something of still more
general interest, which for some time past should have furnished
European diplomacy with matter for reflection, before the icy blast of
the North, changing our fears into realities, obliges diplomacy to
submit to accomplished facts.

Europe to-day, in proceeding with the execution of a decision of the
Congress, is not only doing a work of importance, but also a work of
justice in repairing the wrong which she formerly committed in narrowing
the limits of the Greek kingdom, and hindering the physical development
of its people. The political prophets of the time when this new European
State was created--Palmerston, Leopold of Belgium, Metternich--were
unanimous in pointing out how doubtful was the future of this nation,
which had not the elements necessary to a regular life, and which,
consequently, was incapable of fulfilling the exalted mission which
Europe had confided to it in creating it. What was the cause of this
niggardliness of the Powers towards a nation full of youth and activity,
at the very moment of its creation? Mr. Gladstone has already told us in
this REVIEW.[76]

Greece, which, more than all the other Eastern races, had always the
_pre-eminence_ intellectually and morally, might, in concert with the
West, and making herself, so to speak, the organ of its views in the
East, become a powerful barrier against that torrent of Slavism which
for some time past has threatened to overwhelm the Balkan peninsula.

In that ethn