XI. Peaceful aspect of the negotiation. CHAPTER XI. CHAP. WHILST the question of the Holy Places was approaching its solution, Prince Mentschikoff went on with his demand for the protectorate of the Greek Church in Turkey; but the character of his mission was fitfully changed from time to time by the tenor of his instructions from home. On the 12th of April, the peaceful views which had prevailed at St Petersburg some weeks before were still governing the Russian Embassy at Constantinople; and Lord Stratford was able to report that the altered tone and demeanour of Prince Mentschikoff corresponded with the conciliatory assurances which Count Nesselrode had been giving in the previous month to Sir Hamilton Seymour. But on the following day all was changed. Fresh despatches came in from St Petersburg. They breathed anger and violent impatience, and of this anger and of this impatience the causes were visible. It was the measure adopted in Paris, several weeks before, which had rekindled the dying embers of the quarrel at St Petersburg, and the torch was now brought to Constantinople. Angry despatches from St Petersburg. XI. change. It has been seen that, without reason, and with- CHAP. out communication with the English Ministers * (though it professed to be acting in unison with Cause of the them), the French Government had ordered the Toulon fleet to approach the scene of controversy by advancing to Salamis; and it was whilst the indignation roused by this movement was still fresh in the mind of the Emperor Nicholas that the despatches had been framed. Moreover, at the time of sending of the despatches, the Czar knew that by the day they reached the shores of the Bosphorus, the man of whom he never could think with temper or calmness would already be at Constantinople, and he of course understood that, in the way of diplomatic strife, his Lord High Admiral the Serene Prince Governor of Finland was unfit for an encounter with Lord Stratford. He seems, therefore, to have determined to extricate his Ambassador from the unequal conflict by putting an end to what there was of a diplomatic character in the mission, and urging him into a course of sheer violence, which would supersede the finer labours of negotiation. From the change which the despatches wrought in Prince Mentschikoff's course of action, from the steps which he afterwards took, and from the known bent and temper of the Czar's mind, it may be inferred that the instructions now received by the Russian Ambassador were somewhat to this effect: The French fleet has been ordered 'to Salamis. The Emperor is justly indignant. spatches. *Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 98. Inferred tenor of the fresh de СНАР. 'You must bring your mission to a close forth'with. Be peremptory both with the French and 'the Turks. If the French Ambassador is ob'stinate enough upon the question of the Holy 'Places to give you a tenable ground on which 'you can stand out, then hasten at once to a rupture upon that business without further dis'cussion about our ulterior demands. But if the 'French Ambassador throws no sufficing diffi'culties in the way of the settlement of the ques'tion of the Holy Places, then press your demand 'for the protectorate of the Greek Church. Press 'it peremptorily. In carrying out these instructions, you have full discretion so far as concerns 'all forms and details, but in regard to time the 'Emperor grants you no latitude. You must force your mission to a close. By the time you receive 'this despatch Stratford Canning will be at Constantinople. He has ever thwarted His Majesty 'the Emperor. The inscrutable will of Providence 'has bestowed upon him great gifts of mind 'which he has used for no other purpose than to 'baffle and humiliate the Emperor, and keep down 'the Orthodox Church. In negotiation, or in 'contest for influence over the Turks, he would " overcome you and crush you, but his instructions do not authorise him to be more than a mere 'peaceful negotiator. You, on the contrary, are supported by force. He can only persuade; you can threaten. Strike terror. Make the Divan 'feel the weight of our preparations in Bessarabia ' and at Sebastopol. Dannenberg's horsemen are 6 close upon the Pruth. When the Emperor re'members the position of the 4th and the 5th corps d'armée, and the forwardness of his naval preparations, he conceives he has a right to ex'pect that you should instantly be able to take 'the ascendant over a man who, with all his hellish ability, is after all nothing more than the representative of a country absorbed in the pur'suit of gain. The Emperor cannot and will not ' endure that his Representative, supported by the 'forces of the Empire, should remain secondary 'to the English Ambassador. Again the Emperor commands me to say you must strike terror. 'Use a fierce insulting tone. If the Turks remain 'calm, it will be because Stratford Canning sup'ports them. Therefore demand private audiences ' of the Sultan, and press upon his fears. If your last demands, whatever they may be, are reject'ed, quit Constantinople immediately with your 'whole suit, and carry away with you the whole 'staff of our Legation.' 6 Rifaat CHAP. XI. koff's de mand for a protectorate assent of the Greek Church in On the day after receiving his despatches, Prince MentschiMentschikoff had a long interview with Pasha, and strove to wrench from him the of the Turkish Government to the terms already Turkey. submitted to the Porte as the project for a secret treaty. And although it happened that in the course of the negotiations on this subject Russia submitted to accept many changes in the form or the wording of the engagement which she required, may be said with accuracy that, from the first to the last, she always required the Porte to give it CHAP. her an instrument which should have the force would be conceding it. XI. of a treaty engagement, and confer upon her the Effect which right to insist that the Greek Church and Clergy produced by in Turkey should continue in the enjoyment of all their existing privileges. It was clear, therefore, that if the Sultan should be induced to set his seal to any instrument of this kind, he would be chargeable with a breach of treaty engagements whenever a Greek bishop could satisfy a Russian Emperor that there was some privilege formerly enjoyed by him or his Church which had been varied or withdrawn. It was plain that for the Sultan to yield thus much would be to make the Czar a partaker of his sovereignty. This seemed clear to men of all nations except the Russians themselves; but especially it seemed clear to those who happened to know something of the structure of the Ottoman Empire. The indolence or the wise instinct of the Mussulman rulers had given to the Christian 'nations' living within the Sultan's dominions many of the blessings which we cherish under the name of 'self-government;' and since the Greek Christians had exercised these. privileges by deputing their bishops and their priests to administer the authority conceded to the 'nation,' it followed that the spiritual dominion of the priesthood had become blended with a great share of temporal power. So many of the duties of prefects, of magistrates, of assessors, of collectors, and of police were discharged by bishops, priests, and deacons, that a protectorate of these ecclesiastics might be so used by a powerful for |