With respect to the secret articles regarding the indemnities, it is stipulated that the indemnity of 1,500,000 ducats for commercial losses shall be paid within eighteen months, in four different in stalments; that 100,000 ducats shall be paid upon the ratification of the treaty; 400,000 six months after; 500,000 in other six months; and the remain ing 500,000 at the conclusion of the eighteen months. Upon the payment of the first instalment, and the execution of the article respecting Servia, which is contained in the convention of Ackerman; and the delivery of the fortress of Giurgevo, the Russian army shall within a month evacuate Adri anople, Kirk-Kilissa, Burgos, Ste. Upon the pay ment of the second instalment, the Russians shall retreat over the Balkan; and that Bulgaria, with all the towns between the Danube and the Euxine, shall be evacuated on the payment of the third in stalment.
The military indemnity is fixed at ten millions of ducats, to be paid in such a manner as the empe ror of Russia shall determine on an appeal of the porte to his generosity and magnanimity; and in or der to render this payment as easy as possible, Russia consents to take in part payment an equiva lent in such goods as may be agreed upon. But until the entire payment be made, the Russians shall hold the fortress of Silistria and the princi palities of Moldavia and Wallachia.
In reviewing this treaty, we can regard it in no other light than a hollow truce. The interests of the Ottoman and the Muscovite can never amalga mate. By a series of regular and successful en croachments, Russia has been extending her fron tiers southward. and will not stop until she has the Mediterranean for her southern boundary. The porte stands in the way of this favourite project, and his safety depends upon resisting it to the ut most; but for the last century he has never come in collision with his powerful adversary without the loss of territory or influence. The Ukraine first excited the cupidity of the Muscovite: next the Crimea; and then Bessarabia with the boundary of the Pruth. Ile has now reached the Danube: his next boundary will be Mount Ilinmus; and then the Sea of Marmora and the _Egean sea.
Greece however, it is to he hoped, is now for ever beyond the grasp of Russia. Her repeated en deavours to stir up rebellions in that country by her emissaries and her gold. though always accom panied with the promise of freedom to the Grecian chiefs, were uniformly prosecuted merely with the selfish view of creating a diversion in her own fa vour when at war with the porte; for whenever her purposes were accomplished, the deluded Greeks were left to their fate; and consequently every at tempt to throw off their Turkish fetters served only to make their oppressors load them with heavier chains. Gladly, indeed, would the Czars have con
verted this beautiful country into a Russian pro vince, and would willingly have bartered for it the richest jewel in their crown; but their ambition and cupidity have hitherto been restrained only by the difficulty of the enterprise.
The same selfish policy has dictated the present interference of the Russian autocrat in the libera tion of Greece. It cannot be presumed that he, who lords it over a nation of slaves, can have one feeling in common, in such a cause, with the en lightened sovereigns of Great Britain and France, who rule over free-born men. His uniform object has hitherto been territorial aggrandisement and political influence; and his admiral, count Heyden, when he prevailed upon his colleagues in command to destroy the combined fleet in Navarin, had in view ulterior measures, which these officers could not have contemplated. Great Britain and France, by thus admitting the interference of Russia in ob taining a favourite measure, have enabled her to reward herself with a princely remuneration; for we have no hesitation in maintaining, that it was to the destruction of the Turkish fleet, and to the dis solution of the Turkish janissaries, that Russia was mainly indebted for her ultimate success in her con flict with the Ottoman Porte. Had this fleet been preserved for the defence of Varna and the coasts of the Euxine, the Russian army would never have crossed the Balkan; or if it had, and the disbanded janissaries of Adrianople had been true to their country's cause, instead of harbouring resentment against their prince, count Diebitsch, deprived of supplies and reinforcements by sea, would in all likelihood have experienced the fate of Peter the Great on the Pruth, at Falczi. Russia, however, is now triumphant, and she may insist upon her adversary paying the uttermost farthing of his bond; but torrents of blood must flow before her plans of aggrandisement be completed; and she may perhaps never again find such a union of cir cumstances so favourable to her views. She may have also learned, from her own practice and ex perience, that a treaty made in the hour of peril is considered no longer obligatory when the danger is past; and the present ruler of Turkey will not let slip any opportunity of retaliating upon the foe of his house the wrongs and injuries which have been accumulating for a century.