EASTERN QUESTION, in popular usage, is the problem of the future disposition_ of the Turkish empire and its territory, as related to the supposed designs of Russia, and to the interests of other European nations, England and Austria in particular. Voltaire, in the time of Catherine II., characterized Turkey as " the sick man," and for a hundred years it has been an assumption of European diplomacy that the empire was on the roadto disintegration and death. In these circumstances, Russia, from her geographical position and in accordance with her traditional policy, waits for an oppor tunity to seize and absorb the territory of " the sick man. Other European nations, each for reasons of its own, dread such an extension of Russian domination. Austria, if Turkey should be despoiled, would naturally claim for herself a slice of the territory; and England fears that if Constantinople should fall into the possession of Russia, the highway to her eastern possessions would be closed, and Russia become dominant in that quarter. The question, moreover, assumes a religious aspect, Turkey being a. Mohammedan power, and Russia finding an excuse for aggressive designs in the assumed necessity of affording protection to the Christian populations in the Turkish empire. England, on the other hand, though at the head of the Christian powers, yet
being anxious to preserve the autonomy of Turkey as a subservient empire, is placed in a position of seeming indifference to the wrongs which Russia is so zealous to redress. The Crimean war of 1854-56 had its origin in the desire to check the advance of Russia, and the treaty of Paris put that power under sharp restrictions. Russia, by the recent invasion of Turkey, roused again the hostility of the European powers, which found expression in the treaty of Berlin, greatly limiting the fruits of the Russian con quest, and putting that empire under annoying restraints. Turkey was made to promise certain reforms, which, if carried into effect, would deprive Russia of excuse for further aggressions; but the promise has not been and is not likely to be fulfilled: it is doubt ful indeed whether the fulfillment is within the power of Turkey. The eastern question, therefore, has not yet reached a permanent solution, nor is its approach to such a solu tion now evident, especially as complications arising from the claims of Greece to an adjacent portion of Turkish territory are assuming (1880) a more threatening aspect.