THE YEAR 1853 AND THE YEAR 1876. A PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. 6 'GUARANTEE,' august master,' 'good faith,' 'his Majesty's well-known magnanimity'—'the Pruth,' 'the Danube,' the Balkan;' Bulgaria, high-road to Constantinople,'—the air once more is so charged with the language of Czarinas and Czars, and the names of their neighbours' landmarks, that—judging only from the unstudied sounds—one might fancy the strange fitful drama which I long ago traced in these pages to be now again acting before us. And indeed, though along with sharp contrasts, there is many a point of real likeness between the story of 1853 and the one we now see going on. Amongst the foremost of the causes which help to bring about this recurrence, there must be reckoned that crusading spirit of the north which, though stirring the heart of the millions much more deeply than the mind of their rulers, is nevertheless very steadfast. a |