IX.

Lord
Stratford's

return.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAP. ON the morning of the 5th of April 1853, the Sultan and all his Ministers learned that a vessel of war was coming up the Propontis, and they knew who it was that was on board. Long before noon the voyage and the turmoil of the reception were over, and, except that a corvette under the English flag lay at anchor in the Golden Horn, there was no seeming change in the outward world. Yet all was changed. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe had entered once more the palace of the English Embassy. The event spread a sense of safety, but also a sense of awe. It seemed to bring with it confusion to the enemies of Turkey, but austere reproof for past errors at home, and punishment where punishment was due, and

* The corvette which brought the great Eltchi was the Fury, commanded by Captain Tatham.

+ Since the original publication of this work, Captain Tatham has been so good as to communicate with me, and to confirm in decisive terms my above account of the awe inspired by Lord Stratford's return as 'most accurate.' The Captain was present at the first audience, and he assures me that the spectacle afforded by the manner and bearing of the great Ambassador and the evident awe of the Sultan is one he will never forget.'

IX.

an enforcement of hard toils and painful sacrifices CHAP. of many kinds, and a long farewell to repose. It was the angry return of a king whose realm had been suffered to fall into danger. Before a day was over, the Grand Vizier and the Reis Effendi had begun to speak, and to tell a part of what they knew to the English Ambassador. They did not yet venture to tell all. Things which they had told to Colonel Rose they did not yet dare to tell to the great Eltchi. They did not, perhaps, mean to conceal from him, but they shrank from the terror of seeing his anger when he came to know of Prince Mentschikoff's demands for a Protectorate of the Greek Church. If they were to confess that they had borne to hear such a proposal, the Eltchi might think that they had dared to listen to it. Lord Stratford, observing their fear, imagined that it was Prince Mentschikoff who had disturbed their equanimity. This combination,' said he, of alarm, seeking ' for advice, and of reluctance to entrust me frankly with the whole case, is attributable to the threatening language of Prince Mentschikoff, and to the character of his proposals.' But 'his view of the cause of this tendency towards suppression is displaced by observing the frankness of the disclosures which the Turkish Ministers had long before made to Colonel Rose: the truth is that Lord Stratford was unconscious of exercising the ascendancy which he did, and, imagining that men gave way to him because he *Eastern Papers,' part, i. p. 107 et seq.

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VOL. I.

I

*

СНАР.

IX.

was in the right, he never came to understand the awe which he inspired. However, by degrees the Turkish Ministers went so far as to tell him that 'since the arrival of Prince Ments'chikoff, the language held by the Russian Embassy to them had been a mixture of angry

' complaints and friendly assurances, accompanied 'with positive requisitions as to the Holy Places ' in Palestine, indications of some ulterior views, ' and a general tone of insistence bordering at 'times on intimidation.'* They declared that as to what the ulterior views were, 'there was still 'some uncertainty in the language of Prince 'Mentschikoff. In the beginning he had sounded the sentiments of the Porte as to a defensive 'alliance with Russia, but, receiving no encour'agement, had desisted from the overture. His

intentions were now rather directed to a remodelling of the Greek Patriarchate of Constantino'ple to a more clear and comprehensive definition ' of Russian right under treaty to protect the Greek and Armenian subjects of the Porte in religious ' matters, and to the conclusion of a formal agree'ment comprising those points.' Then eager to place themselves under Lord Stratford's guidance, but still shrinking from a disclosure of the whole truth, the Turkish Ministers entreated the Ambassador to tell them how to meet the demands which, although they only spoke of them hypothetically, had been already made by Prince Mentschikoff.

Lord Stratford instantly saw that he must * Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 125.

IX.

resistance

koff's de

mands.

cause the question of the Holy Places to be kept CHAP. clear of all the other subjects of discussion which Prince Mentschikoff might be intending to raise, His plan of for it was plain that the vacillation of the Porte to Mentschiin regard to the sanctuaries (though it had sprung from a desire to avoid giving offence to either of two great Powers) had given Russia fair grounds of complaint on that subject; but the Czar had nothing else to complain of, and it was clear, therefore, that if the one grievance which really existed could be settled, every hostile step which Russia might afterwards take would place her more and more in the wrong. 'Endeavour,' said Lord Stratford, in charging the Turkish Ministers, 'to keep the affair of the Holy Places separate from the 'ulterior proposals (whatever they may be) of 'Russia. The course which you appear to have taken under the former head was probably the

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best, and I am glad to find that there is a fair prospect of its success. Whenever Prince Ments'chikoff comes forward with further propositions, 'you are at perfect liberty to decline entering into 'negotiation without a full statement of their I nature, extent, and reasons. Should they be ' found on examination to carry with them that degree of influence over the Christian subjects of 'the Porte in favour of a foreign Power which 'might eventually prove dangerous or seriously 'inconvenient to the exercise of the Sultan's legitimate authority, His Majesty's Ministers 'cannot be doing wrong in declining them.'* * Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 125.

6

เ

CHAP. But then, added the Ambassador-and his words IX. portended some counsels hard to follow-this

Commencement of the

tween Prince Mentschikoff and

ford.

⚫ will not prevent the removal by direct sovereign authority of any existing abuse.'*

6

Gradually the Turkish Ministers told more, and on the 9th of April Lord Stratford knew that Russia was demanding a treaty engagement, giving her the protectorate of the Greek Church in Turkey; and being now in communication with Prince Mentschikoff, he succeeded, as he believed, in penetrating the real object which Russia had in view. That object,' he said, 'was to reinstate the Russian influence in Turkey on an exclusive basis, and in a commanding and stringent form.' In other words, Prince Mentschikoff, with horse and foot and artillery and the whole Sebastopol fleet at his back, was come to depose the man whom they called in St Petersburg 'the English 'Sultan.' On the other hand, Lord Stratford was not willing to be deposed. The struggle began.

The severance of the question of the Holy struggle be- Places from the ulterior demands of the Czar was not an object to be pursued for the sake of order Lord Strat- and convenience only. On the contrary, it bade fair to govern the result of the diplomatic conflict; for the Montenegro question having disappeared, and Russia having committed herself to the avowal that she had no complaints against the Sultan except in regard to the Holy Places, a settlement of that solitary grievance would leave the ulterior demands so baseless that any attempt to enforce *Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 125.