army, drove past the residence of the Ottoman minister in the Greek capital, with the Greek colors displayed from his carriage-box, and followed by some one hundred and fifty of the new legion. The Enosis and the Crete, it was currently re ported, had been equipped for blockade-running, with Armstrong guns, ammunition, etc., supplied from the government arsenal at Nauplia and the dock-yard at Paros. The refugees from Crete, who had fled from the scenes of war in their own country to Argos and Ægina, and who were now desirous to return to their homes and accept the amnesty of the Sultan, were, it was alleged, prevented by the Greek mobs from so doing, and M. Bulgaris had persistently refused to protect or assist them.

The Turkish minister at Athens, Photiades Bey, who is a man of talent, a friend of Christian culture, and a Greek, was, therefore, ordered by the Porte to demand of the Greek government a direct assurance that it would prevent the departure of troops destined to reenforce the Cretans and the blockaderunners, and that it would extend help to the Cretan refugees. At the same time, Photiades Bey was to inform the Athens cabinet, that, in case of any rupture, the ports of the Ottoman empire would be closed to Greek vessels, as all Greek subjects would be ordered to depart from Turkey within a fixed time.

The following is a summary of the circular addressed by M. Delyanni, Greek minister of foreign affairs, to France, Great Britain, and Russia, in reply to the formal inquiry of the three protecting powers as to the actual condition at the time of relations between Greece and Turkey. It bears date Athens, (Nov. 27,) Dec. 9. "The four points brought into prominence by the Sublime Porte, and to which the Greek government is expected to reply, are: The dissolution by the Hellenic government of the volunteer corps of Petropoulakes; 2d. A prohibition against armed Greek vessels making voyages to Crete; 3d. Protection for fugitive Cretan families on Greek territory who desire to return to their homes; 4th. Respect for the rights of the Porte and treaties." The Greek minister then goes on to explain to the three powers:

"The government of King George could not dissolve the corps of Petropoulakes, or any other corps of its citizens, proceeding, at their own peril,

to fight abroad, the constitution of the state not permitting it to interfere with the liberty of Hellenic subjects, and the law of nations not compelling it to do so. With regard to these volunteers, the Hellenic government has taken some means to pursue and bring back, by force, to their ranks soldiers of the line who had deserted to follow Petropoulakes. For nearly three years, during which the insurrection in Candia has lasted, several hundreds of volunteers have gone and returned from there, without that being considered proof of ill-will on the part of the royal government, or as a violation of the law of nations and of existing treaties. The royal government will continue to perform what its neutrality (qualified as described) imposes upon it, by not permitting officers and soldiers in its regular service to join the bands of the recruits referred to. The government of the king has never permitted, and will not permit in future, armed Greek vessels in its ports to continue to supply with provisions the insurgents of Crete; but the institutions of the country do not allow, and the law of nations does not compel it to prevent, ships, belonging to individuals, or to commercial associations, undertaking this service at their own peril. ... The government of his majesty has accorded already, and will continue to accord, its protection to every Cretan emigrant who should desire to reënter Crete. . . . . More than forty convoy-ships have already left, and the government of the king has never hesitated, in spite of the much-excited national sentiment in Greece in consequence of affairs in Candia, to use the police in arresting the violence exercised by other Cretans to prevent the intended departure of some of their countrymen for home. As to the fourth point, the reference of which is obscure, the government of his majesty has never failed to respect treaties, etc., and has even been obliged to invoke that respect on the part of others, etc."

The admissions made by the Greek foreign minister, his defiant tone under a diplomatic guise, astonished all Europe when this document was printed, as may well be supposed. But the dispute between the two governments was almost brought to a crisis by Hobart Pasha, in command of the Turkish squadron, who, at the beginning of December, put to sea as a sort of appui to the remonstrances of the Porte already addressed to King George. He fell in with the celebrated Greek blockade-runner, the Enosis, which had just successfully landed about 900 of the troops of Colonel Petropou lakes in the service of the Cretan committee, at the southeastern cape of Crete, and was on her return to Syra on the 14th of December. When at about four miles from land, the Turkish vice-admiral fired an unshotted gun to bring to the Enosis, to which the latter replied, hulling the corvette Izzidin

which accompanied the frigate bearing the flag of Hobart Pasha, having swept the decks of the latter vessel by a previous shot, which, however, did little damage. The Enosis was pursued into the roadstead of Syra, where the Turk demanded the surrender of the Greek, which the Syriots refused. Here the activity of Hobart Pasha was brought to a stand-still by the interference of French naval authorities, who advised him to renounce his idea of blockading Syra to cut out the Enosis, until he received further instructions from his government. The Ottoman admiral desisted, upon condition that the Enosis should be conveyed to the Piræus by a Greek frigate, and handed over to the constitutional authorities, which it was promised him should be done.

Whilst Englishmen and Frenchmen were reading the details and developments of this episode at sea, the remainder of the correspondence between the minister of Turkey at Athens, and the Greek foreign minister, M. Delyanni, was published -that immediately preceding the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the two countries. We make an epitome, carefully embracing all the points, as space is wanting for the documents entire. In a note dated December 10th, Photiades Bey, in the service of Turkey, wrote:

"The cabinet of the Sultan does not consider it necessary to search for proofs of its sincerity, etc., toward the government of his Hellenic majesty. The history of the Cretan insurrection for the last three years is known, and there is little need now to enumerate the machinations concocted publicly, and under the eyes of the Greek authorities, by committees sitting in the capital of the kingdom itself, with the object of fomenting and maintaining that insurrection against the will of the immense majority of the inhabitants of Candia. The history of civilized countries is without an example of the contempt with which the law of nations has been treated by these committees. They have spared neither threat nor falsehood to the poor islanders to oblige them to take up arms against their legitimate sovereign. Bandits, under the name of volunteers, have been sent into Crete, and, by menace and fear, a portion of the unhappy people have been induced to emigrate into Greece to find there only misery and suffering. Deceived and abused, they preferred to return to their allegiance and their country, but spite of their entreaties and the intercessions of the Porte, they have not been allowed to depart; they have been kept back, in some instances by force of arms, and the few who have regained their own land have done so at the risk of their lives.

"Although tranquillity has been restored in Crete, and the rebellion, save a few roving bands in the mountains, been put down, the Hellenic leaders have persisted in raising fresh volunteers, and have kept the Cretan fugitives from returning to their homes, the easier to deceive public opinion, in Greece and Europe, as to the entire suppression of the rebellion. The documents exchanged during two years between the Turkish and Greek governments bear evidence of these facts as well as of the Sultan's moderation, though each protestation of the Porte has been invariably met with a reply equivalent to a non-reception, or a declaration of real or assumed impotency. This state of things, growing worse and worse, has deprived the Turkish cabinet of any hope of a speedy return, on the part of Greece, to sentiments of justice and respect for the laws of nations."

Here follows a list of the grievances of Turkey laid at the door of the Hellenic cabinet, among which are: a declaration made by a former minister of King George, that Greek government funds paid for and kept the blockade-runner, the Crete, at the time in active service; another ministerial declaration embodying the project of snatching Crete from Turkey at any cost; outrages unpunished upon Ottoman soldiers, and the causes of complaint already adverted to; active aid to the rebellion, disrespect of treaties, retention in Greece of Christian subjects of the Porte, etc. This note ends with the Turkish ultimatum-a final official demand, upon the Hellenic government, under five separate heads: 1st. Dispersion of volunteers and prevention for the future; 2d. Disarming of the Enosis, Crete, and Panhellenion, or, at any rate, a closing of the Greek ports to them; 3d. Permission to Cretans to return into Crete with aid and protection where necessary; 4th. Punishment for aggressions upon Ottoman soldiers; 5th. Respect for treaties. Without a full and perfect assent to which five points, the Turkish legation was to quit Athens.

The Greek minister replied to the foregoing ultimatum of the Sultan, by generalities or empty retort, in a despatch dated the 15th December, the gist of which is the substance of what he stated to the three powers, as answer to the Turkish charges, in his circular (as above given) of the 9th December. The tenor of Mr. Delyanni's despatch of the 15th is supercilious and confident, and anticipates hostilities with complacency. Relying perhaps on the habitual timidity of the Porte, the ministers of King George refused to pledge themselves that

the intrigues, or even the open acts of hostility, of which the Greeks by their own showing had been the authors for a term of years, should be brought to an end—and the Greek government in fact rejected the Turkish ultimatum. "The demands of the Porte are just and reasonable," said the London Times of the 18th December. "They amount simply to this: that the Greek government and people shall cease to carry on war against the Sultan."

The grounds assumed by Greece and the language of her ministers seemed to indicate at the outset that King George was supported in his position by some powerful ally, since a war between Turkey and Greece was simply absurd. All eyes turned upon Russia as the power interested by tradition in hectoring indirectly the Turk, and in promoting any war or rebellion which might weaken or occupy the sick man. The true line of the great powers appearing, upon reflection, so manifestly to be one of neutrality in the quarrel, and the statement that joint attempts at mediation at Athens had been made by Russia with France and England, seconded likewise by Prussia, seemed, however, to dissipate for the time the suspicion touching the northern power and her clandestine manoeuvring.

The proceedings of Turkey were on all sides acknowledged to be dignified and just, and conscientiously observant of the common interests of peace. By her moderation, since 1854, the Porte, as a European power according to the treaty of Paris, had gained respect, and even a certain prestige among the statesmen of other countries, and the most democratic and republican journals in England and France condemned the conduct of King George's cabinet and people. "The government at Athens," said the London Daily News-the organ of radical John Bright-"has taken wrongful advantage of its own comparative irresponsibility as a protected state, of its insignificance, and of its insolvency, to bark and nibble at the much-abused and long-suffering Turk, as one sees a pert and froward little terrier bark and nibble at a goodnatured mastiff, with a muzzle on its jaws."

The despatch from Mr. Delyanni, in answer to the complaints of Turkey, was considered by the Paris press, almost without