been more or less influenced; and we shall conclude our observations by pointing out shortly the probable effect of the execution of the stipulations of the Treaty upon the general interests of Europe, and upon the Turkish Empire itself. As the political condition of the Morea and the Islands will approach much nearer to absolute independence than that of Wallachia and Moldavia, fewer causes of dispute between the paramount and feudatory states actually exist, and, consequently, fewer occasions of real or pretended interference on the part of the protecting authority can possibly arise. The right of protection, moreover, being vested in an union of great European powers, is less subject to the suspicion of being asserted for purposes of ambition; and the chance of disturbance to the general tranquillity of Europe, on that account, is materially diminished. We will add, that as the political independence of the Morea and Islands (ultimately bringing with it improvement in government and municipal institutions) must ameliorate the condition, and give full developement to the industry and enterprise, of the inhabitants, the intercourse with the new state must become more valuable to this and all other commercial countries. To Europe therefore, generally, the pacification of Greece, proposed by the Allied Powers, can bring no ground of real apprehension; while its consequences are the immediate satisfaction of the demands of humanity, and the future improvement of a very interesting quarter of Christendom. In regard to the continuance of the Turkish Empire in Europe, and to its capacity of resisting any schemes of conquest which the present or future monarchs of Russia may entertain, it may fairly be doubted whether the direct separation of provinces, which it required little encouragement from Russia to place in a state of insurrection, can operate as a diminution of defensive strength: on the contrary, it may be assumed that Russia will have lost one of the modes of attack upon the Ottoman Empire, and that the establishment of a Christian government for European Turkey, under the sole protectorate of Russia (a favourite object with the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh,) has been taken from the range of probability. It is certainly to be lamented that the view taken by the Austrian Government of the right or expediency of interference between the Turks and Greeks, should have differed from that of the parties to the Treaty of London; but neither the feelings nor interests of that power were so mixed up with the progress or result of the contest as those of Russia and Great Britain; and it therefore, perhaps, neither accorded with the principles of its foreign policy, nor the maxims of its domestic organisation, to co-operate with the insurgent provinces in a struggle to emancipate themselves from the jurisdiction of a nation that still ruled them with all the character of a foreign conqueror. We have endeavoured to avoid, in viewing this important subject, either the language or the prejudices that are to be found in the different authors who have written on the war in Greece; but we cannot pretend to divest ourselves of satisfaction at the prospects which the independence of Greece holds out of rescuing Christian countries, favoured by nature and hallowed by genius, from positive misery, and hitherto hopeless degradation.

Six months have elapsed since the above observations on the Treaty of London were written; and although the question at issue has been complicated by the introduction of a separate ground of war between the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan, yet, as the former monarch has

distinctly expressed his continued adherence to the engagements contracted by the three great powers under the Treaty of London, the ge neral applicability of the argument remains unaffected. The address of the Sultan to his subjects, upon which the separate ground of war chiefly rests, must, as matter of diplomatic controversy, be admitted to bear the construction given to it by the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh; at the same time, the equitable and operative construction of that document, as well as of the proceedings of the Sultan immediately subsequent to the Battle of Navarino, ought to be, and might have been, governed by a fair consideration for the peculiar and semi-barbarous character of the Turkish Government: that consideration, if allowed more weight in the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, would have left the general question free from the complication of a war commenced on distinct and individual grounds, and therefore requiring separate arrangements for the maintenance of future tranquillity, and separate compensations for past injuries and hostilities. In justice, however, to the conduct of the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, it must be allowed that no ordinary degree of prudence and forbearance was required to resist a sympathy with the national feelings on the issue of the Turkish proclamation.

In Russia, the liberation of Greece, or rather the vindication of the wrongs of the Greek Church, excites the religious enthusiasm of all classes in the nation and the army, from the Emperor to the soldier and peasant. Ambition is thus stimulated, and even disguised by a higher motive; and it is not extraordinary that the diplomatic fetters of the Treaty of London should have been at first joyfully shaken off by the Crusaders of the Greek Cross, burning for conflict with the barbarian tyrants of Constantinople. Constantinople, the monument for centuries of Christian degradation and of Mahomedan triumph, would indeed be the spolia opima of a Russian army; and, unquestionably, Napoleon, at the head of the legions of France, could not have resisted an equivalent temptation. The obstacles, however, to the successful issue of such an undertaking are to Russia so considerable, as to subdue the most adventurous spirit in her army and councils to more moderate pretensions. It would be idle to imagine that the Turks are, in a military point of view, equal to a contest with the courage and discipline of the Russian army, perhaps yielding in those qualities to none in Europe; but the great and almost insuperable difficulty, is the supply of the invading army through provinces upon which the misgovernment of centuries has inflicted all the evils of sterility. Travellers passing through Bulgaria and Romelia are, except in the principal towns, ill supplied with the common necessaries of life; and but little effort on the part of the Turks is required to place those scanty sources of supply beyond the reach of an enemy. Similar difficulties existed in the military operations of the Russians in their Persian campaigns; but the enemy was decidedly inferior in military qualities to the Turks, and the scene of war presented fewer defensible points, whether natural obstacles from mountains and rivers be considered, or towns capable of protracted resistance. In the result, however, of the Persian war, we may look for what may be the ultimate pretensions of the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh indemnification for the expenses of war provoked by the folly of a barbarian government. From the Shah of Persia, Russia re

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ceived indemnification in cession of territory and payment of money; but the Russian battalions had possession of the second city in Persia, and had nearly annihilated the best and only disposable army. The effect of both these sufficiently appalling events was heightened by the want of energy in the characters of the King of Persia and of the Prince Abbas Meerza.

In the present conflict, the defiles of the Balkare have to be passed, with all the impediments of a large army; Shumla and Adrianople cannot be overlooked; and the capability of resistance in Constantinople itself probably exceeds the whole defensible strength of the Persian Empire; but, above all, the personal qualities of Sultan Mahmood, not unworthy the best days of the House of Othman, ensure the vigorous application of his resources to the defence of his European provinces and capital. On the whole, therefore, we have a right to infer that the difficulty of the undertaking, and the slowness of the progress towards success, will induce the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh to fall back upon the Treaty of London, and the results contemplated therein, as the most probable termination of the present hostilities; while those hostilities, together with the destruction of the fleet at Navarino, must convince the Sultan that, although the Contracting Powers may still accept his consent to the proposed independence of the Morea and the Islands, any farther attempt on his part to resist that measure will not be permitted, and would be wholly unavailing. The Treaty of London will thus receive its accomplishment in the pacification of Greece and the maintenance of the integrity of European Turkey.

THE SANCTUARY.

In Israel was many a Refuge City,
Whereto the blameless homicide might flee,
And claim protection, sustenance, and pity,
Safe from the blood-avenger's enmity,
Until the law's acquittal sent him thence,
Free from offence.

Round old cathedral, abbey-church, and palace,
Did we ourselves a sanctuary draw,
Where no stern creditor could glut his malice,
And even criminals might brave the law;
For judge nor justice in that charter'd verge
Their rights could urge.

Those times are gone: felons and knavish debtors
May mourn the change, but who bewails their case?
For why should God and King be made abettors
Of guilt and fraud-the champions of the base?
Never may such a desecration stain,

Our land again!

But all are not divested of their charter :
One refuge still is left for human woes.
Victim of care! or Persecution's martyr!
Who seek'st a sure asylum from thy foes,
Learn that the holiest, safest, purest, best,
Is man's own breast!

There is a solemn Sanctuary founded

By God himself,-not for transgressors meant ;
But that the man oppress'd, the spirit-wounded,
And all beneath the world's injustice bent,
Might turn from outward wrong, turmoil, and din,
To peace within.-

Each bosom is a temple; when its altar,
The living heart, is unprofaned and pure,
Its verge is hallowed: none need fear or falter
Who thither fly-it is an ark secure,
Winning, above a world o'erwhelm'd with wrath,
Its peaceful path.

O Bower of Bliss! O Sanctuary holy!
Terrestrial antepast of heavenly joy!
Never, oh! never, may misdeed or folly
My claim to thy beatitudes destroy!
Still may I keep this Paradise unlost,
Where'er I'm tost.

E'en in the flesh, the spirit disembodied,
Uncheck'd by time and space, may soar elate,
In silent awe to commune with the Godhead,-
Or the Millenium Reign anticipate,
When earth shall be all sanctity and love,
Like Heaven above.

How sweet to turn from anguish, guilt, and madness,-
From scenes where strife and tumult never cease,-
To that Elysian world of bosom'd gladness,

Where all is silence, charity, and peace;

And, shelter'd from the storm, the soul may rest
On its own nest!

When, spleenful as the sensitive Mimosa,

We shrink from winter's touch and nature's gloom,

There may we conjure up a Vallombrosa,

Where groves and bowers in summer beauty bloom, And the heart dances in the sunny glade

Fancy has made.

But, would we dedicate to nobler uses
This bosom Sanctuary, let us there

Hallow our hearts from all the world's abuses;
While high and charitable thoughts and prayer,
May teach us gratitude to God, combined

With love of kind.

Reader! this is no lay unfelt and hollow,
But prompted by the happy, grateful heart
Of one who, having humbly tried to follow
The path he counsels, would to thee impart
The love and holy quiet which have blest
His own calm breast.

Н.

WALKS IN ROME AND ITS ENVIRONS.-NO. XIV.

Roman Society.-The Family of Spain. -Godoy, Prince of the Peace, &c. &c.

"Per far ottimo un re, convien diefarlo."-Alfieri.

THE first thing I saw, on turning the Capitol, was a good living comment on the fallen fortunes of the Forum. The Corso was full-it was the bewitching hour of the evening promenade. Cavalieri, ices, lame horses, shattered caritelles, were in requisition. I could write a volume on such glories, and still leave them inexhaustible. The pleasures of the Corso are the only little ripple on the glassy tide, the "molle e lieto" of an Italian existence, and just sufficient to give that joy to their external sensibilities which is necessary to keep in current their health and spirits. They come out here, after a lounging morning in their cool rambling palaces, whilst day is still visible on the summits of the city, but not to be seen or see ;-twilight has already begun below. The Italian is not vain: she cares for one only in the crowd; passion supersedes every thing,-and where is the Italian who is not either in, or about to be, in love?

I had not advanced very far, and was grieving over the narrowness of the streets and the inequality of the footway, in the true complaining spirit of an Englishman, when I perceived a sort of gash or interval in the procession. I made an effort to cross, but, to my great delight, was stopped by a monster of an equipage, which I saw bearing slowly down upon me through the dust, with six horses, black, draylike, and colossal; interminable traces; and a large lumbering vehicle behind them, adorned with a race of solemn-looking domestics, half-lost in cocked hats and jack-boots of portentous dimensions. This was followed by a second, and a third, and then, at some distance, by the crowd. As they passed, the passengers took off their hats, whispered behind me "La sua Maestà," and went on. It was the family and suite of the King of Spain, the Spanish Ex-Court, Charles and his Queen, the Queen of Etruria, the Duchess of Chably, &c. on their evening drive. These three carriages, which contain as many establishments, I soon found to be an important portion of every ceremony at Rome. Its ruins cannot be more appropriately tenanted: the immense cemetery requires such spectres, to give it its proper effect.

Rome, however, regards the matter in a better light. She piques herself, amongst her many other titles to the gratitude of mankind, on being the neutral ground, on which, like Ilis of old, the rumours and hostilities of fortune, as well as men, are fated to expire. She has been long celebrated for the wings of protection which she extends to the lame and blind, the "invalids" of broken down dynasties. Alfieri said of Prussia, that it was one great barrack-Rome is one entire convent, where names little less noted than those of Charles V. may gradually let themselves down into happiness and obscurity from the worship and envy of mankind. The cells were pretty well occupied when I saw them; the hospital had supplicants from almost every quarter of the earth. Here decay is a matter of course: no one is ashamed of the imbecilities of old age, when every thing is mouldering and dying around one. Reverses are no great surprises or stimulants to a man who all the morning has been sitting on the shattered Colossi of the Cæsars. I was much edified by the procession: it is moral and consoling;-such a dance of death, if studied in the proper spirit, would be worth half the Sunday sermons of England. The little greatness of courts is here made a subject of tangible experiment. Democrats and Royalists cannot get into a better lecture-room: they may here throw off respectively a portion of their ultraism, and learn to salute each other's prejudices with civility.

One of the most notable of these performers was this very sovereign of whom I have been speaking, and his family. He had been filched of his crown by better or less conscientious players, and bowed his head as to