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    the Eastern question , or , as we should rather call it now the Russian question . It is a matter of histwy ' that the chief object of Prince Menschikoff's mission was to demand the Protectorate of the Christians of the Greek Church resident in the Turkish dominions , « nd , by implication , the protectorate of all the Christians in Turkey , excepting those of the Latin Church , -who look to France and Austria for protection . We Shave repeatedly shown the absolute incompatibility

    • with the independence of the Porte as a Sovereign Tower of such a preposterous assumption . But from -the very outset of these protracted negotiations , from the moment when Prince Menschikoff was escorted to his embassy by a fanatical mob as the bearer of these overweening demands , aggravated by the contempt of all diplomatic decencies displayed by the ambassador , the dispute between the Sultan and the Czar was ostentatiously paraded at St . Petersburg as the battle tfif the Crescent and the Cross . The invasion of the

    . territories of an ally in contemj . t of treaties , the infraction of the public law ' of Europe , was the act of a new crusader going forth to fight for the " orthodox faith . " We know that at St . Petersburg there was a religious procession , a proclamation to the people , directly appealing to the passions of a race who are taught to believe that Nicholas is the holy apostle of God , if not , by some mysterious incarnation , G ' , d himself . We know that in the Principalities the arrival of the invading army was hailed by Te Deums in the Greek churches , and we read this week that by imperial ukase a new church is to be erected at Ismail to

    commemorate the passage of the Russian armies . We Jiear , moreover , that the Czar has assumed a ne \ 7 title of ominous and awful import ; he now calls hira-¦ celf the " God-Fearing , " and hia sons , as if to distinguish themselves from other and less religious royal families , are to be styled in addition to their other titles , * ' Believers in God / ' All these assumptions of titles , these proclamations , these processions , these Te Deums , Eire evidence enough that in the eyes of the Muscovite party ^ represented by Prince MenschikofF , and to which Nicholas , notwithstanding his German associations , is fatally attached , and of which M . dc Nesselrode is the diplomatic instrument , this Turkish

    question is a Holy War . Christian Europe is expected to sympathise with the Cross upheld by ^ Nicholas against the standard of the Prophet . Christian Europe is to speak and think of the Moslem as savages and pagans , but of the Cossack hordes as Christians and believers . Let us be permitted , then , to consult authentic and independent testimony as to that Church , as it is at home , which the Czar champions abroad . Let us examine the right and title of Nicholas to the office of Defender of the Faith and champion of the Cross . We shall then perhaps be the better able , in a religious point of view , to appreciate the hnportnuce of ousting the Turk from Constantinople , and giving the keys of the Dardanelles to the Czar .

    It will be seen that the Russian Greek Church , us it is at present constituted , of which the Czar is the Sovereign Lord and Pope , was wrenched from the Patriarchate by force of bribery and persecution ; that it waa finally and completely secularized and subdued to its actual helplessness by Peter the Great , who took more credit to himself for enslaving and debasing the religion of the State than for all his other mighty acts of organization ;

    tlint ever sinco his day tho Russian Greek Church ban been a degraded slave of pollution , idolatry , corruption , covetousness , debauchery ; its priests drunken and ignorant hypocrites , its formularies a blasphemous adultera ' - tion , its convents brothels , its holy synod a packed committee of priests bought and drilled by an nido-dcuiunp , its solemn rites a pretext for robbery , its daily lifb and practice- a brutul Fetiehism , its Goil tho Czar . This is the Church to which we uro invited to look as

    tho Ornsatler of tho nineteenth century , as tho sworn uxtorminutor of Paganism , as the avenger of tho Crows . In Turkey , whero tho " infidel" still reigns , we shall lind the Christian population in the enjoyment of far othftr rights and privileges than Protestants enjoy in Spain or Italy , or Catholics in Russia ; nay , an wo have Mow , limn the- Greek Christian Church itself in Russia . Ai- o we to exchange the Crescent for tho Cross , in order that instead of " God is ( Hod , and Mtihomet is his Prophet , " the conquerors of Constant inoplo may shout ; , " ( Jod is ( . Sod , and Nicholas is his Prophet ; " or rather ,

    "Nieho-1 «» in God , and MenschikoH" is his Prophet ! " Wo eonflliulo these introductory remarks with u caution to en-» 'hiiHiust ; H iigiiinsl ; an unconditional acceptance of that Greek Empire notion which wo doacribod to our renders homo weeks since , and which has found ho bold and ablo » iu utlvoeaey in Knglitnd . Wo do not . sny that u Christian Knipiro at CoiiRtuntinoplo may not bo on tho scroll ° f distant eventualities ; porlutpn u Greek Christian Mnpiro j perhaps u Christian Podnrafcion ; but wo win not forgot that a Christian Grook Empivo ia tlio I'Qwnnco , of n |} otho . rn , which peculiarly flutters

    Russian diplomatists . It was a Christian Greek Empire that Russia thought of when she fought for the independence of Hellas , and assisted France and England at Navari no , in blowing up the fleets of " our oldest ally . " It is a Christian Greek Emperor that Russian soldiers are taught to fight r for , and . Russian gold to bring into the intellectual currency of Europe . We now invite the attention of our readers to the following extracts from a work on the Russian Question , by a French gentleman who has passed many years in that country in diplomatic and consular appointments . Let us remark how he , an eye-witness and an experienced observer on the spot , describes the Russian Greek Church : — A . ETJSSIAN EMPEKOR ' S RESPECT FOR THE CHURCH .

    The Emperor Alexander , in the course of a progress through the interior of his empire , was induced by a fit of devotion to enter a chnrch in a village . He was received by the priest with the usual ceremonial , with the exception , however , of the benediction , the priest not venturing to hold out his hand for the imperial kiss . " Hold out your hand , then , " said the Emperor in a low voice ; but the priest , more frightened than ever , would not budge . Then Alexander burst in a rage . " Will yon hold your hand out or not , you idiot ? " The priest obeyed trembling .

    simoitf / in the greek . To the fixed stipend which the priests receive from the landlords they add casual fees and Impositions ; and it is in these that their cupidity has full swing . Since Peter the Great , the tariff of the church has not been reformed , and as the prescriptions ot that emperor have become , through the change in the value of money , totally inapplicable , the priests have no other standard by which to regulate their salaries than their own arbitrary caprices . Simony is with them a daily ' practice . They sell the sacraments . A priest has been known to refuse to carry extreme unction to a dying person whose family objected to pay what the priest demanded . The seigneur interfered and with great difficulty succeeded in arranging the dispute between the two parties .

    THE CONVENTS . Let us enter the convents . It is into them that any spark of life yet remaining to the phantom of the Russian Greek church has fled . Men of science and virtue are to be found within their walls ; but as tlief-o men never step beyond tho threshold of their cells , their science and virtue are of no profit but to themselves , and a few monastics who live under the same roof . Such among them as leave the cloister to assume the dignity of bishop or archbishop , forfeit by that step of their independence , and are nothing more than decorative pontiffs , with whom , no doubt , the Czar

    is fond of adorning his throne , but whoso mitre he would * mercilessly break if ever it covered a head which had the audacity to think for itself . Wo know to what a pitch of servility the profession of a courtier was carried by that old Metropolitan of St . Petersburg , under whom was consummated the act which united the Greek Catholics established in the empire to the Russian orthodox church . An v . npamlleled scandal was that transaction , and well does it illustrate the very human fashion in which religious matters are treated in Russia . After having in vain exhausted every description of violenco against the unfortunate dissidents , even to the

    brutality of a licentious soldiery , after having imposed upon them a . catechism fabricated by schismatics—ser mons fabricated by schismatics ; after having condemned to punishments , ridiculous as disgraceful , those of their pastors who rejected these impious classification : !—after Laving , in a word , heaped upon them every excess of persecution , the imperial Government resolved upon what it deemed peremptory measures . It ; replaced the priests of the Greek Catholic church , whom it had ejected from their parishes , by Russian priests , and

    dechired by ukase that , as the Hock could not belong 1 to another faith than that of their pastor , the union of the two churches was henceforth an accomplished fact . So true is it that tho Russian church is nothing' but a form . It is true that , it would have been difficult , oven for tho ( ienoral of cavalry who presides over tho holy synod , to find any other means of conversion . When Protestant subjects of the ( V . ar are asked whether they would change their religion , and be baptised in tho orthodox fuitli , their reply is , " What ! do you think a man elian-jres bis religion t . o descend , in the hciu ' o Y "

    To roturn to tho convents . If thoHo inhabited by inon uro , to a '' certain degree-, entitled to reaped ; for the seienuo and virtue they contain , those which nerve as a mfugo for womon uro generally remark-. iblo only for tho ignorance and debauchery they conceal . Many and Btmngo facts have been recounted about ; those convent : s , mid I might udd many nfcill inoro strange , which < lWy contradiction . J 5 u . () why enlarge upon a mihjucb « o rtiiHgUHtingP Tho rokspoofc wo owo to tho rowdop commands a reserve- which wo will not bron , U , L . © fc tho " orthodox "

    nuns sleep in their shroud of infamy ; others may stir the mud which we refuse to touch . ORTHODOXY NOT MORALITY . Where goes that movjih ?—where goes that shopkeeper ?—where goes that employe ? who , as they pause before a church , turn suddenly round , sprinkle themselves with a few si gns of the Cross , bend their backs , and murmur mechanically three or four syllables of a prayer . One goes to his bureau to rob the State ; another to his counter to defraud his customers ; another to a wineshop to get drunk . In fact , there is no connexion between the orthodox Church and virtue . It is mere gymnastics .

    Do you believe , for instance , that all those saints in frames , who invariably adorn the Russian houses , sanctify the abode , and the masters thereof ? Why , these saints are found even in brothels . True , that ; the faces of the saints are veiled . Happy indeed are those saints if they don't incur the displeasure of those who invoke them . I have known a St . Nicholas , who was implored by a thief to assist his enterprise , and responded faintly to his appeal , mercilessly whipped . Once some monks discovered in the vaults of a monastery an old dried corpse

    It was canonized . Then came miracles , gifts , and offerings to the pious recluses . Soon after there was a terrible drought . The distressed peasantry rushed in crowds to the monastery to beg for rain , trying , at the same time , to tempt a miracle by presents which the priests could appreciate . The rain came not . Then these peasants were furious at having been tricked . During the night they scaled the walls of the monastery , broke into the church , and after dragging the saint from his shrine , stripped him of his finery , and smashed him .

    Saints of this kind are not rare in Russia . Formerly they were discovered almost daily : it was a speculation . Lately , the Emperor Nicholas has shown himself less facile in granting canonization . When he was recently applied to on behalf of an old scrag of a corpse' discovered at Kasan , which , it was averred by those who pleaded its cause , was fully as deserving of the honour of saintship as any of its predecessors , " Well , then , you may make this one a saint , " said tho Emperor ; but " let it he the last . "

    IDOLATRY . The images , which the Russians multiply to such an excess in their churches , and in the interior of their houses , are painted upon canvass or upon wood . Never any statues or reliefs . The Russian Church proscribes them as heterodox . All the Church permits is to cover the most precious images with gold and silver tinsel , so cut as to leave only the head and tho arms exposed . There are few nobles , and still fewer tradesmen , who have not one of these luxurious images suspended at one of the angles of their drawing-rooms , or

    of their bed-rooms . In the isbas , or huts of tho peasantry , the place of honour is under tho little chapel , which tho family images adorn : it is in that corner that respectable persons ami distinguished visitors are seated . Tho moitjilcs aro seriously angry if you do not understand this peculiar compliment , and still more if you do not mako the first bow to their saint . Such is the general usage in Russian houses . Tho bogs ( images ) take precedence of all . This does not prevent many transactions in their presence which aro hazardous enough to Christian perfection . These orthodox Logs aro ho indulgent !

    THE VKINCIVLIO" OF RUSSIAN 1 'OLITICS . Russia lias no principle . Two things only are sacred in her eyes—Interest and Force : the ono which points out the end , the other how to attain it . Be what you will , if in this double point of view Russia perceives in you the opportunity of un effective concurrence , sho will bo your ally . THIS ltUBHTAN- UUEIMC OIUTUOir . What is tho Russian Greek Church ? It is tho Roman-catholic Church reduced <; o a stato of potriiieation . *

    I'HK RKI . IGIOUB KLKSCKNT IN TUB KASTMUN QUKSTION . In spito of tho repented ultimatums of Prince Menaohikou "—in spito of tho notes and circulars of M . do Nossolrodo—in spile even of tho manifesto of tho Emperor Nicholas—no one woems as yefc ¦<;<> appreciate nt its true value tho r 6 t < : wliich Russia woolen to nmko tho religious element play in tho Eastern question . This yf ilv , in a word , in' purely nominal ; it servos as a pretext ., it cannot , be a principle , Hut has this not nlwuyts boon tho caseP Without , the Dardanelles , Russia has ijofc the key of her house . That mot of tho Kinperor Alexander resumes tho wholo question . Russia wants Constantinople . MKNSOHnvOIfl ! Til 10 JUl'flHIONAKY .

    Go now to tit . Petersburg . What a magnificent outburwt of ontbusiHNin you find there 1 But do you boUcvo that thoHO JtH «» i « n « of uolito uooioty {< te talon ) ,

    Untitled Article

    September 24 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER 919

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 919, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2005/page/7/