(the Russian ambassador,) wrote the Duke of Wellington in January, 1825, "would be disposed to soften it" (the refusal) "as much as pos-' sible, but I don't think he can, as the harsh part of the communication is the resolution that we shall have nothing to say to any questions between the Emperor and the Turks or the Greeks." As the Porte refused to send any answer to a note from the Czar in December, 1824, demanding the release of the Servian deputies, the evacuation of the Principalities, and the appointment of a hospodar according to treaty, Alexander sent an ultimatum in October, 1825, from Taganrog, where he died six weeks later, inquiring the reason of his last note having received no reply, and recapitulating his demands. "A crisis," wrote Wellington, (who had acknowledged that no great power was likely to put up with the insults from a weaker one, which Russia had received from Turkey,1) "had arrived in this long-pending question even before Alexander's death. The Turks are . aware that the patience of the Emperor of Russia has been at length wearied out, and that the commencement of the war has only been intercepted by that event which has devolved his power and his projects into younger hands." On the accession of the Emperor Nicolas, a military insurrection broke out in S. Petersburg, and the Shah of Persia receiving an exaggerated account which gave him the idea that the whole Russian Empire was revolutionised, thought it a wise moment to invade Russia. This war distracted the Emperor's attention in the first two years of his reign, and his brother Constantine, who had abdicated the throne in his favour, and was seventeen years his senior, so had naturally much influence over him, was averse to a war on behalf of the Greeks. "I own," wrote this ferocious prince to his old tutor La Harpe in 1828, "that while pitying the Greeks, I do not think their cause just, and cannot approve of the emancipation of a people for revolt against one's neighbour. Justice will always remain justice, it is immoveable. The Greeks are a people conquered by the right of arms, and recognized as belonging to the Turks by treaties." But the Turks taking advantage of this respite to commit fresh massacres, and having begun to exchange Egyptian colonists in the Morea for the native Greeks, who were sold into Africa as slaves, war was at length declared by Russia, whose armies advanced as far as Adrianople, but "The terms of the ancient treaties between Russia and Turkey," he writes, "permit the Greeks," i.e., Christians in Turkey, "to exercise the rites of their religion unmolested, to rebuild their Churches, and to be free from persecution." faithful to a promise not to enter Constantinople, she concluded peace within a few days' march of the capital. The Duke of Wellington though opposed to the war throughout, lest assisting insurgents should lead other discontented nations to follow their example, particularly our subjects (as they were then) in the Ionian Isles, still owned that he wished the Russians had broken their promise and taken Constantinople, in which case there would have been an end of the Eastern Question and the Ottoman Empire. "We must reconstruct a Greek Empire and give it Prince Frederick of Orange or Prince Charles of Prussia, and no power of Europe ought to take anything for himself excepting the Emperor of Russia, a sum for his expenses," he wrote in anticipation of this event. The treaty of peace made Wallachia and Moldavia independent of Turkey, except by the payment of an annual tribute, and in 1857 they were united into the Principality of Roumania under Prince Charles of Hohenzollern, a member of the royal family of Prussia. The treaty signed at Adrianople also gave autonomy to Servia and made Greece a separate kingdom, but she has hardly yet recovered from the effects of that long revolutionary war. The historic fame of Greece perhaps gained for her more partizans than her calamities in western Europe, and the strong feeling in her favour led to the battle of Navarino in 1827, when the Turkish fleet was destroyed by a smaller number of English, French, and Russian ships, and 6,000 Greek slaves chained to the guns were blown up in some of the Turkish ships by the Turks themselves to prevent their release. It was at this time that Lamartine wrote his ode, "To you, O kings, and earthly powers, "If from the Tiber to the Seine, In that fair land, whose classic flood, Can not one arm be raised to save A nation from a yawning grave, That unborn tongues your names may bless, Who aid her in her great distress ?" Correspondence. [The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of the Correspondents.] To the Editor of the Churchman's Companion. Answers. HOLY WEEK AND EASTER ON THE RIVIERA. SIR,-As another Lent approaches, it brings to me the memory of Holy Week and Easter Day in last year spent at that favourite Spring retreat for the Anglican invalid, Cannes. And I thought that some of your readers, whether spending their Lent and Easter in exile upon the shores of the Mediterranean, or (more happily) at home in their own country and their own Church, might be interested in an Anglo-Catholic Priest's recollections of the edifying devotions which suit the national character of our Gallican brethren. I do not intend to interrupt my simple recital with Protestant ejaculations, which would be as impertinent as the complaints of a Roman Catholic because our lawful Ritual of Sarum is not conformed to that prescribed by the Vatican. It will be quite obvious to my intelligent Anglican readers that much of the Ceremonial which he may witness with satisfaction abroad, would be unedifying and unlawful in England. Palm Sunday shone upon us in company with a little stream of the simple parishioners of Cannes, ascending the hill which is crowned by the Parish Church. No one was without his bough of palm, or olive, or laurel. Each of our Anglican group carried a fresh green palm-branch curiously platted, one of which is now hanging dry and yellow upon my study wall. Many of the children had provided themselves with miniature Christmas trees loaded with fruit and sweetmeats. While the aspect of the old Church, embowered with these many and various boughs waving in the hands of the crowded congregation, was very picturesque, the actual Palm Procession was not imposing. It straggled down from the Altar after the reading of the palm Gospel and the Benediction of the boughs, in the unceremonious manner to which the ritualism of Anglican processions has not yet descended. I thought of the stately uniform march with which cross and banners, surplices and cope sweep round the aisles and up the nave of some Churches in England, and I wished our own ceremoniarius was at hand to realise by contrast the success of his own precise rule over man and boy. The chants also which they select are strangely dreary and unpopular, so that the singing is confined to a Cantor or two and a few little boys. The ceremony when the procession reached the west was very interesting. Priest and choir were shut out in the porch, while the hymn, "All glory, laud, and honour" was sung by the Cantors inside, the chorus being taken up by the choir outside the closed door; and at its conclusion a knocking was heard from without, the great west door was thrown open, and the whole procession led in the celebrant, while they sang Psalm xxiv. and the hosannas of the Gospel. In the Mass the chief feature was the singing of the Passion Gospel (S. Matthew xxvi., xxvii.) The musical rendering of these sacred words is now happily used as one of the chief devotional exercises of Holy Week in London at S. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey,and some parish Churches, but the solemn power of the Passion music can hardly be realised elsewhere than in the midst of the Celebration of those Divine Mysteries for which it was originally composed. The deep bass which indicated the voice of our LORD, sounded among the other voices with increasing tenderness until after His last cry, the whole congregation fell on their knees for a space. The Mass of Maundy Thursday was a Grand Mass in cloth of gold Vestments, the Epistle being the same as in our Communion Office, while the Gospel is the 13th chapter of S. John ending with the 15th verse, which contains the "Mandate" that gives the name to the day. There were a large number of Communicants (making somewhat prematurely their Easter Communion) including the Deacon, Sub-Deacon, and Ceremoniarius, and all the men in the choir. At the conclusion, the Celebrant carried in Procession the Reserved Sacrament to a "Reposoir," (a shrine glowing with flowers and candles,) specially erected for that day. At the close of this ceremony, while the choir sang Vespers, the Curé went round the Church to all the Altars, uncovered them, extinguished the candles, and laid the candlestick and crucifix flat. The High Altar he washed, leaving the Tabernacle wide open, and then the Church was left dark, empty, and bare, except where the shrine of the Blessed Sacrament appeared radiant with lights and flowers, lace and silk. The afternoon and evening were spent by the faithful in visiting these "Resting Places" in the different Churches of the town, and in presenting their alms to various objects of charity gathered in the porch, represented by an ecclesiastic claiming "Peter's Pence," a nun holding a plate for her community, an orphan pleading for herself and her little sisters, besides halt, and lame, and blind, who are always at hand to join the ranks of beggars in these countries of promiscuous charity. Maundy Thursday is a goodly day for almsgiving. But I must pass on to Good Friday. The office of Matins" on that day consisted of three devotions, described in the calendar as "Chant de la Passion," ," "Adoration de la Croix," "Messe de Presanctifiés." The first part was the singing of the Passion Gospel (S. John xviii.) with the same touching devotion as on Palm Sunday, followed by acts of intercession for the Church, the Pope, the Ecclesiastical Orders, the Catechumens, persons in all conditions and necessities, the Jews, and the Pagans. Then came the Adoration de la Croix. A large crucifix was uncovered, (to signify the stripping of our SAVIOUR'S garments, and the rending of the veil of the Temple,) and held aloft by the Celebrant, then laid upon the ground while the Choir sang the Reproaches and the Pange Lingua (the hymn which we know in translation as Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle.") The "Mass of the Presanctified Elements," which consists of the Communion of the Priest upon the Host that had been consecrated and reserved the day before, is in accordance with the ancient custom which forbids the Act of Consecration on the day of the death of the Great High Priest. The early morning services of Easter Eve were quietly and solemnly said in a violet cope, but the mid-day ceremony was the "First Mass of Easter," (a Grande Messe in white vestments,) with all the bells in the tower, all the instruments and voices in the larger gallery, bursting forth at the "Gloria in Excelsis." For us, however, Easter had no real beginning until the sun of the Resurrection morning shone into a little chamber where a sick Priest celebrated the one Eucharist for a Priest more sick, who lay in his bed with a little congregation around him. In this Communion we might well forget sickness, and pain, and death. The Grand Mass at the Parish Church was too much for us. It was crowded to suffocation, every candle at every Altar and in every chandelier was lighted, the summer sun streamed through the clerestory windows, and by the time that the incense added its fragrance to all this heat, we could endure it no longer, but went forth (leaving the happy crowd to their own Eucharist,) to rejoice with thankfulness in the pure air, and clear sky, and a fresh sea smell that greeted us on the summit of the hill. Thus may the Easter Joys of the Catholic Church be shared even by an alien in a strange land, if only that Anglican alien will claim his own heritage of sympathy with Catholics throughout the world. And this sympathy should be strengthened, not only by faith in the invisible Unity of the Body of CHRIST (even when open Communion with His members is refused,) but also by an intelligent appreciation of the distinctive characteristics of various dioceses and parishes. On arriving at a new place, I should inquire of the landlord or servants of the Hotel or Pension about the services of their Churches; then I should visit these Churches and explore for myself, reading the notices and making inquiries of the clerical or lay ministers; at the religious bookshop I should purchase what the French call "La Semaine Religieuse"-a calendar of the events of the diocese; also the "Paroissien," or "Parishioner's Manual," always contains useful instructions about the services, together with private prayers, is in short a "Common Prayer Book," with personal devotions interspersed. Furnished with these aids to " a reasonable service," I should join myself on, with external respect and an inner sympathy, to my fellow-worshippers at the Celebration of the Divine Mysteries. I am aware that there is another question which forces itself upon the mind and the practice of the Anglican Catholic upon the continent, and that is— his attitude towards the services which are ministered by our own clergy to our own countrymen. This is a very difficult subject, and with your permission, I will defer the consideration of it to another letter.Yours, &c., D. ELSDALE. ENGLISH GRAMMARS. SIR, A STUDENT will find what he needs in "The Elements of English Grammar and Composition, including the Analysis of Sentences simplified for Beginners," by A. K. Isbister, M.A., LL.B., Head Master of Stationers' School, London. It is published by Longmans, and is certainly the best English Grammar in existence, avoiding the endless, unphilosophical Rules (so-called) of Lindley Murray, and the equally false revolutionary systems of Morel and others. Among the good points of Mr. Isbister's Grammar we may mention the dividing of verbs into two conjugations -one the modern and the other the ancient; and the use of the absolute case. I regret that he does not employ the term Accidence instead of Etymology; that he should speak of nouns being inflected to express gender; that he should puzzle children with such needless distinctions as "co-ordinative" and "sub-ordinative" conjunctions, and that he omits the vocative case. A wise teacher will make several corrections of this kind, and he will then find the Grammar sufficient for the practical purposes of education. The copy of the Grammar which I possess is called "a new edition,” and I have no idea at all how long the work has been in existence; but it is doubtless capable of still further improvement. Especially the Conjugation of Verbs might be simplified: there are really no "Gerunds" in English; and there are only two tenses in the Subjunctive Mood. Also the chapters on the Analysis of Sentences might well be curtailed. Yours, &c., GRAMMARIAN. DRAWING CLUB. SIR,-I have lately started a Drawing Club, for which I am anxious to have some more members. If any of the readers of the Churchman's Companion would like to join, I should be most happy to send them the rules. |