of Europe, and thus the tax upon her imports is laid really upon the consumers at home. But is not this an entirely inadequate view of the whole subject? It is necessary to observe the general result upon the nation at large; it is necessary to compare the Russia of to-day with the empire one hundred years ago; or, we may observe only the change which has been wrought in a quarter of a century by the influence of this very system which freetrade condemns. If it be conceded, for argument's sake, that the tax imposed upon foreign goods has been paid by the inhabitants of Russia, has there been rendered to them. and the country at large no equivalent for this money?

A new life has been infused into all parts of the empire, an increased activity marks every department of society; roads have been opened, canals have been dug, railroads have been constructed, steamboats have been placed on rivers; factories have been built, villages have sprung up, and local markets have been opened for the productions of the soil. The establishment of one principal manufacture has called into existence a host of dependent but connected branches, and countless new modes of industry, and new sources of wealth, have been discovered by the inhabitants. By such means new desires spring up, new wants are created, and ingenuity seeks the method of supply. Thus mind is stimulated to effort, the intellectual power of the country is increased and guided to profitable action.

Capital accumulates, and is expended upon the refining arts of life; a higher taste is cultivated in architecture, dress, and furniture; a love for the beautiful is created, the fine arts are cherished, and a literature appears. These are the processes by which civilization advances toward perfection; upon such a career Russia has entered, and the aspect which she has presented in the terrible conflict that tested her powers, is proof conclusive of the efficacy of that system in creating the elements of national strength, while the extent of her present eastern commerce reveals the rapid progress she is making. If a mighty system of national industry, which lays its quickening

hand upon the multitudinous resources of the land, creating wealth and sending it through the empire by ten thousand new channels, can be produced simply by the tax on imports, certainly it is a most profitable expenditure for the nation, yielding dollars in return for cents invested.

Nothing, however, is clearer than that the active competition of the home-workers speedily brings down the cost of the domestic article to the price at which the foreign goods could be purchased if the trade were free to the foreign rival; and the protection granted to the manufacturer, instead of becoming a tax upon industry, provides new and more profitable employment to labor, multiplies the comforts of the industrial classes-who are, in consequence, better fed, better clothed and educatedwhile the general awakening and stimulus of thought leads, in the end, to mechanical invention, discoveries in science and art, and the higher creations of genius.

The rapid advance of the Northern State, and the new career upon which she has entered, have awakened the jealousy of England, and aroused her fears; and, lest her own commercial supremacy should be endangered, she sends forth fleets and armies to extinguish, if possible, this new light of civilization which is dawning upon the world; and in order to protect, in this manner, her own monied interests, she is willing that millions of lives should be sacrificed, and that the Papal despotism should, through France, be re-established in Europe. But it will prove an abortive effort. Sclavonic civilization has become a mighty fact-its march is eastward, and the Euxine and the Hellespont must yet be the center of its life.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.

In a religious point of view, the contest in the East lay between the Russian Church on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic on the other. The two leading powers in the conflict head these two great divisions of nominal, if not real Christianity. Protestantism, as a religious interest, did not enter into the war.

England armed for national aggrandizement, or, to speak with greater precision, to prevent what she deemed the undue expansion of a rival power, which might lessen her comparative importance, and perhaps diminish her actual strength. She did not wage war to establish the Protestant religion in the East, much less the American type of Protestantism. If she gains her commercial ends, she will rest content. The character of the Russian Church then becomes an exceedingly interesting subject of inquiry.

Without understanding the nature of that religion which is the faith of fifty millions of Russians, we can form no correct judgment upon the influence which Russia would exert upon Turkey and the East should she gain the ascendancy there. If the world is called upon to choose between the Papacy and the Russian Church as a ruler of the East, we ought to understand the distinctive features of each. As has been already remarked, the Russian Church, though adopting the Greek rite, and constituting

indeed the Greek Church of modern times, must not be confounded either with the Greek Church in Turkey or in Greece.

The latter have shown a persecuting spirit which the Russian Church has not manifested. The three divisions doubtless sympathize with each other to a certain degree; but the Church of Russia will eventually control and give character to the others, unless the Allies succeed in forcing her back and repressing her growth. Many-perhaps most in America-confounding the Greek with the Russian Church, charge upon the latter the spirit of persecution which assailed our missionaries in Turkey and Greece, and are therefore led to suppose that the Papal Church and that of Russia are of similar character; and thousands unjustly imagine that both are equally bigoted, persecuting, and corrupt. England endeavors to persuade the world that civilization has less to fear from the Papacy than from the Church of Russia. This opinion most certainly has no foundation in truth, but yet it is often expressed.

It is important, therefore, for Americans to make themselves acquainted with the facts connected with this question, and form for themselves an independent judgment. With the character of the Roman Catholic Church, its spirit, its aims, and its doctrines, the United States have been made familiar; and a nation that has been goaded to an almost universal uprising against its insolent demands, and its plots against Republican liberty, will have very little confidence that liberty will be promoted through its influence either in Europe or the East. Indeed, one of the most cogent reasons why the Americans were sparing of sympathy with the Allies in the character and aims of that war, was, that just in proportion as success attended them, would the Papacy be strengthened, and in that exact ratio, also, must the cause of human freedom be weakened in Europe, for the Papacy and despotism are natural and inseparable friends and supporters of each other.

The characteristics of the Russian Church are less known to the people of the United States. Russia has not emptied her population by millions upon our shores, nor sought to colonize our territories for religious ends; and no bands of priests or Jesuits have been ordered on from St. Petersburg as spies upon our proceedings, and to subvert, if possible, our institutions. We lack, then, those means of judging Russia which are unfortunately so abundant in the case of Rome. Still the doctrines of the Church of Russia are sufficiently well known, and her practice, history has recorded. It will be found that, in essential doctrines, there are almost no points of comparison with the errors of Romanism. As a religious system, the distinction between it and the Papacy is broad and palpable, as a comparative exhibition of their theories will show; and, from this comparison, what the nations have to fear from each may be clearly seen.

The Roman Catholic claims to be the one only true Church-the one universal Church, whose dominion, of right, and by the authority of God, extends over all the world, that there neither is, nor can be, salvation for any without her pale, and that all who reject her authority and refuse her ordinances, are heretics, to be punished whenever and wherever she has the power, and are to be regarded as in rebellion against God. Nor is this a claim to spiritual dominion, or in matters of faith only. She claims, as the vicegerent of Jesus Christ on earth, to wield in his name supreme power in all things, and to exercise a rightful control over all governments and rulers of the

earth.

This involves not only the right, but the duty, to suppress all Protestant or other States, whether republics or monarchies, that refuse submission to her will, and this supposed duty she has constantly endeavored to perform, either by force or intrigue, and hence her unwearied efforts to subvert the government of the United States, her war upon the Bible, her assault upon our schools, her efforts to control the ballot-box. Hence, also, her intrigues at