been, she will continue to be the active and uncompromising enemy both of the Greek Church and the Protestant.

Between the Protestant Church and the Greek or Russian, there is no hostility beyond that which has sprung from local and temporary causes. Still, probably, these will not coalesce, their mission and fields of action are different, and their work in the future will be apart, though there appears no reason at present why they should be rivals or enemies. Much will depend upon the future position of England. Were she the friend of Russia, then England, America and Russia, might together spread Christianity over the East.

The only safety, however, of this nation lies in acting in view of the present temper and policy of the leading powers of Europe. The causes that led to the attack on Russia, which leagued France and England in hostility to us, are not only in existence still, but they will work with greater intensity in the future.

Russia, at the head of the Greek Church, is more earnestly intent than ever upon carrying her government and her religion over the East. She is fully determined to gain back from the oppressing and usurping Turk the city of the Eastern Empire which he wrested from her mother church. Russia will not pause until another mighty effort has been made to establish herself upon the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean. Already, if the English Press is correct, she has a new fleet upon the Black Sea, and the Allies have done Russia a priceless service by compelling her to substitute a navy of modern ships for the worthless. old "three-deckers" which were sunk at Sebastopol.

France is gathering to herself the nations which form the Papal Church, and aiming to restore throughout the world, west as well as East, the lost prestige of the Latin Church, and obtain the power and the glory of its political head. The United States aims to extend her political and religious life, the power of Protestantism, and of free institutions over this continent. She demands room and liberty to expand, unhindered by any power of Europe, over the

whole field of her proper dominion; and while it is not necessary that she should conquer either north or south of her present territory, she will never permit, and cannot without peril to her life, a hostile monarchial power to be established on her border with the avowed purpose of checking her progress. It is somewhat more difficult to foresee the future position of England. Her policy is not controlled by attachment to a church or faith as Russia and the Latin nations are; the commercial idea is her pole star, and this fact alone deprives her of half her power, for no nation can be truly great whose chief motive of action is the making of money. In no case, however, is it safe for the United States to trust for a moment upon the friendship or even neutrality of England. She will cheer on every nation that may attack us, and aid them to the extent of her power, and this will be done for a long time to come in spite of the influence of the liberal party.

It is vain to suppose that England will ever be generous enough to feel willing that we should become greater than herself. Her desire to see us "taken down" will be stronger with her than any other feeling. The present monarchial, aristocratic England, cannot be the friend of the United States.

It seems at first sight not improbable, that so soon as France shall reveal somewhat more clearly her design of a grand combination of the Latin Powers which might be used against England, she might separate herself and seek alliance with Russia or America, or both, against France.

Will she dare to do this? France is at her doors with an army that she cannot match, and could either Russia or America help her with troops upon her own soil? Could they do this if disposed. Will not England find hereafter her only safety in favoring the designs of France precisely as she now does, and did in the Crimean war?

There is no safety for the United States, except to prepare herself to meet the hostility of France and England united. It may not for the present manifest itself in actual

war; that will depend alone upon circumstances, but not far in the future the collision must come.

It is simply impossible that England and France, Russia and America, should pursue their several lines of national policy and not come into conflct. These, policies, on the other hand, cannot be abandoned; the national life is bound up in them. Russia must go forward, to pause is for the nation to die. France is urged on by the traditions, histories, and ambitions of a mighty race. England feels that her existence is at stake, and no man can doubt the future course of America in regard to foreign interference with this continent who sees the determination of the North in this war to maintain our nationality.

A great conflict then lies in the future. Let us carefully study the resources and power of these four nations, beginning with the only one that promises to be our friend, perhaps our ally-Russia. It behooves Americans now, if never before, to understand what Russia really is.

CHAPTER XV.

THERE SHOULD BE AN AMERICAN OPINION OF RUSSIA.

Although Russia has become the most powerful nation of Europe, she remains in great degree unknown. Her advance upon Europe and the East has been as steady, as resistless, as mysterious, as the descent of a glacier from the Alps. All the force of earth can neither turn the glacier backward, nor divert it from its course, nor even arrest its progress; nor can science fully explain the force that pushes forward the enormous mass. There remains, however, the fact, that year by year it encroaches more and more upon the valley below. Each summer melts off a little of its solid front, but still the icy boundary of to-day is beyond the line on which it rested a year ago.

So with Russia. Her colossal proportions are expanding still, her frontier line is moving on, plowing its way like the edge of the glacier through all obstacles, and though we hear continually of losses she incurs, and of defeats which she suffers, we find that notwithstanding all, she has been moving on, and has established herself in new pos sessions, at the very moment when the rest of Europe was rejoicing over her supposed discomfiture. Statesmen, polit

war; that will depend alone upon circumstances, but not far in the future the collision must come.

It is simply impossible that England and France, Russia and America, should pursue their several lines of national policy and not come into conflct. These, policies, on the other hand, cannot be abandoned; the national life is bound up in them. Russia must go forward, to pause is for the nation to die. France is urged on by the traditions, histories, and ambitions of a mighty race. England feels that her existence is at stake, and no man can doubt the future course of America in regard to foreign interference with this continent who sees the determination of the North in this war to maintain our nationality.

A great conflict then lies in the future. Let us carefully study the resources and power of these four nations, beginning with the only one that promises to be our friend, perhaps our ally-Russia. It behooves Americans now, if never before, to understand what Russia really is.