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viz. by the retreat of the general and the staff, while the troops remain. But General Mouravieff takes care to relieve us from all doubt on that head, and repeats to whoever will listen to him, that the military frontiers of Russia are not the Danube but the Egean, not Silistria but the Dardanelles.

The talk about the evacuation of Silistria is intelligible enough as regards the opinion of England, as regards opinion at Constantinople, as regards the obtaining of eighty millions of piastres from the Sultan. So far we understand it, and therefore so far do we believe it. We also can perfectly believe the evacuation of Silistria in the month of August, if the Dardanelles have by that time received a Russian garrison. We should also think that moment well calculated for such an operation, both from the season, which would then be too far advanced for military operations against her, and because the news of the event would arrive in England subsequent to the first of September, when the Commons of England, and His Majesty's responsible advisers will be engaged partridge shooting.

LETTER FROM ST. PETERSBURGH.

April 24.

THE orders given by the Emperor for the assembling in the port of Revel of all the ships of war in the Baltic begin to advance in their execution, which had been retarded by the badness of the weather. Every ship capable of being put into commission will repair to Revel during the month of May, excepting those which may be indispensable elsewhere as stationary guard-ships, or charged with correspondence. The sailors and artillery will be definitively organized there, and divided into separate crews, according to the arrangement proposed by Admiral Meller, which is already in active operation in the arsenals of the Black Sea, and from which the best results are expected. No one can flatter himself with knowing the object of the Emperor with regard to these two fleets, which at the present moment are stronger than they have perhaps ever been; but it is easy to comprehend, whatever may be the projects of the Emperor, that whether they be offensive or defensive will depend on many events.

An Aide-de-camp of his Majesty and other general officers have set out on missions relative to the army of the South, towards which nearly 30,000 men have been directed from the other governments. This arrangement especially refers to the line of the Pruth and that of the Dneister, and it is not supposed that it has any connexion with Ekaterinoslaw. It is certain at least that the cantonments and the garrisons of Bender, Kherson, Ismaïl are considerably augmented.

That which cannot be concealed by all the dissimulation of diplomacy and the employment of the means of which the Emperor alone really holds the thread, is the efforts to detach one by one from English policy all the secondary powers. The forms of government in Sweden, Denmark, and Holland are not those of this place; nothing there is so concentrated, and besides the spies of the Cabinet of London serve as well as those of the Cabinet of Petersburgh. It is consequently known that the neutrality of France has been promised to these three Courts, in the event of a conflict taking place between England and Russia, and that, whilst making every effort to guarantee it, it is insinuated in terms sufficiently intelligible, "that

"the resentment of Russia against those less power"ful states, which should not have taken her side,

might have disastrous consequences on their "future state, without any continental government "being willing to defend them." The situation of Sweden gives room for reflection on these probabilities. As for Holland, the King is as stout a Russian as the Crown Prince of Prussia and the

kings of the south of Europe, but he is differently situated.

UKASE RESPECTING THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.

AN Ukase has lately appeared in the various journals regarding the Armenian church. A few weeks ago the announcement was made from Constantinople that the Armenians of the Ottoman dominions had been placed under the religious supremacy of the Armenian Patriarch in the Russian dominions. The statement of such a fact would seem of itself calculated to call forth the indignant remonstrance of this country, and the no less indignant remonstrance of a national opposition, if we had one, against the Foreign Diplomacy which does not perceive such monstrous conspiracies as these, or the Foreign Policy which does not assume such an attitude as to prevent their success.

After every element of discord has been cast over those unhappy countries, and when they are reduced to a state of convulsion or desperation, we of course shall say-Such is the decree of Fate, and Russia inherits by Right Divine. We will return to the political use made by Russia of Eastern creeds in our next Number.

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