Russia has again won a decisive point in her Eastern policy by awaiting the opportunity. Patiently waiting was her old-time policy; but in 1852 Czar Nicholas became a little over-confident, and plunged into war with Turkey. When he thought he had the game in hand, the allied powers came to the rescue of the sultan. By this impulsive move the aim of Russia’s ambition was set back at least fifty years. So said the political prophets at the time, and so it has proved in the main. Since then she has waited. At the close of the Crimean War, under the treaty of Paris, says the San Francisco Chronicle, “Russia was prohibited from maintaining any war vessels or arsenals on the Black Sea; but in 1870, after the overthrow of Louis Napoleon and the isolation of England, Russia declared the provision of the treaty of Paris, so far as it applied to the Black Sea, to be no longer in force. A European conference held in London in 1871 ratified this action of Russia, but the passage of the Dardanelles by any of her war vessels remained prohibited. The treaty of Berlin, made in 1877, in which France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Great Britain participated, confirmed this prohibition, and it is still in force. Since then, however, great changes have taken place in the political relations of the great powers. France and Russia have become close allies. Hence France declines now to join with England in protesting against the passage of Russia’s war-ships. Germany has obtained large railroad concessions from Turkey in Asia Minor, and is an applicant for other favors of equal value from that government. She, consequently, holds aloof in the present crisis. Italy and Austria-Hungary have special interests in the Mediterranean, the latter at the head of the Adriatic, and they are naturally opposed to Russian encroachment.” But last September the sultan gave consent to Russia’s taking four unarmed torpedo-boat destroyers through the straits into the Black Sea. Of course, England protested, but the vessels were taken through in the night, and for a time it was unknown where they were. England lost track of them, and both the Russian and Turkish authorities denied that the passage had been made. But that goes for little or nothing in Eastern diplomacy. Now it is known that the vessels have made the passage, and all the treaties on the subject have been ignored. The sultan has, so far, paid no attention to the protest of England, Italy, and Austria; and Russia will probably go on with offensive and defensive works on the shores of the Black Sea. As neither France nor Germany are any longer allies of England in this contention, they both hold aloof from the controversy so far—and the “Eastern question” is still a question in political circles.