" In the darkest hour of
the barbaric dominion it was truer to say, "Scratch a Tartar and you
find a Russian." It was the civilisation that survived under all the
barbarism. This vital romance of Russia, this revolution against Asia, can
be proved in pure fact; not only from the almost superhuman activity of
Russia during the struggle, but also (which is much rarer as human history
goes) by her quite consistent conduct since. She is the only great nation
which has really expelled the Mongol from her country, and continued to
protest against the presence of the Mongol in her continent. Knowing
what he had been in Russia, she knew what he would be in Europe. In
this she pursued a logical line of thought, which was, if anything, too
unsympathetic with the energies and religions of the East. Every other
country, one may say, has been an ally of the Turk; that is, of the Mongol
and the Moslem. The French played them as pieces against Austria; the
English warmly supported them under the Palmerston regime; even the young
Italians sent troops to the Crimea; and of Prussia and her Austrian vassal
it is nowadays needless to speak.
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