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about to conduct his Embassy, or of the kind of CHAP. proposals which he was about to press upon the Porte, they indicated that the Cabinet was alarmed for the fate of Turkey.

The despatch which supplied Lord Stratford with his instructions, announced to him that, in the then critical period of the fate of the Ottoman Empire, be was to return to his Embassy at Constantinople for a special purpose. Then, after recording once more the fact that the duty of maintaining the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire was a principle solemnly declared and acknowledged by all the great Powers of Europe, the despatch informed Lord Stratford that it was his mission to counsel prudence to the Porte, and forbearance to those Powers who were urging compliance with their demands. In Paris he was to remind the French Government that the interests of France and England in the East were identical, and was to explain the fatal embarrassment to which the Sultan might be exposed if unduly pressed by France upon a question of such vital importance to the Power from which Turkey had most to apprehend. At Vienna he was to give and elicit fresh declarations of the conservative views entertained by the two Governments. Then, proceeding to Constantinople, the Ambassador was to inform the Sultan that his Embassy was to be regarded as a mark of Her Majesty's friendly feelings towards His Highness, but also as indicating the opinion which Her Majesty entertained of the gravity of the circumstances in which there was reason to fear the

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danger.

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CHAP. Ottoman Empire was placed. In regard to any part which he might be able to take in conducing to a settlement of the question of the Holy Places, the discretion of the Ambassador was left unfettered. The Ambassador was directed to warn the Porte that the Ottoman Empire was in a position of peculiar The accumulated grievances of foreign nations,' continued Lord Clarendon, which the 'Porte is unable or unwilling to redress, the maladministration of its own affairs, and the increasing 'weakness of executive power in Turkey, have caused 'the allies of the Porte latterly to assume a tone ́alike novel and alarming, and which, if persevered lead to a general revolt among the Christian subjects of the Porte, and prove fatal to the inde'pendence and integrity of the Empire

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in, may

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trophe that would be deeply deplored by Her Majesty's Government, but which it is their duty to represent to the Porte is considered probable and 'impending by some of the great European Powers. 'Your Excellency will explain to the Sultan that it is with the object of pointing out these dangers, and with the hope of averting them, that Her Majesty's Government have now directed you to proceed to Constantinople. You will endeavour to convince the Sultan and his Ministers that the 'crisis is one which requires the utmost prudence on their part, and confidence in the sincerity and 'soundness of the advice they will receive from you, to resolve it favourably for their future peace and 'independence.' Then (and probably at the sug

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gestion of Lord Stratford himself) the Ambassador CHAP. was to press upon the Porte the adoption of the reforms which his intimate knowledge of the affairs of Turkey enabled him to recommend; and then, disclosing the effect already produced upon the mind of the Government by the challenge to which our accustomed policy in the East had just been subjected by the press, the despatch went on:-Nor will you disguise from the Sultan and his Ministers that perseverance in his present course must end in alienating the sympathies of the British nation, and making it impossible for Her Majesty's Government 'to shelter them from the impending danger, or to overlook the exigencies of Christendom, exposed to 'the natural consequences of their unwise policy and reckless maladministration.' Finally, the Ambassador was told that, in the event of imminent danger to the existence of the Turkish Government, he was to despatch a messenger at once to Malta, requesting the Admiral to hold himself in readiness; but Lord Stratford was not to direct him to approach the Dardanelles without positive instructions from the Government at home.

Thus, so far as concerned the power of turning for aid to physical force, the Ambassador went out poorly armed; but he was destined to have an opportunity of showing that a slender authority in the hands of a skilled diplomatist may be more formidable than the absolute control of great armaments intrusted to a less able Statesman. Lord Stratford was licensed to do no more than send a

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CHAP. message to an Admiral, advising him to be ready to go to sea; and, slight as this power was, he never exhausted it; yet, as will be seen, he so wielded the instruction which intrusted it to him as to be able to establish a great calm in the Divan at a moment when Prince Mentschikoff was violently pressing upon its fears, with a fleet awaiting his orders, and an army of 140,000 men.

CHAPTER IX.

IX.

Stratford's

ON the morning of the 5th of April 1853, the Sul- CHAP. tan and all his Ministers learned that a vessel of war was coming up the Propontis, and they knew Lord who it was that was on board. Long before noon return. the voyage and the turmoil of the reception were over, and, except that a frigate 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 an enforcement of hard toils and painful sacrifices 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