XI. Cause of the change. * CHAP. with the English Ministers (though it professed to be acting in unison with 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 off 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. Inferred tenor of the fresh despatches. 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: 'French fleet has been ordered to Salamis. The Emperor is justly indignant. . You must bring your mission to a close forthwith. Be peremptory both with the French and the Turks. If the *Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 98. The 6 XI. French Ambassador is obstinate enough upon the CHAP. 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 'discussion about our ulterior demands. But if the 6 6 • French Ambassador throws no sufficing difficulties 6 in the way of the settlement of the question 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 6 'suade; you can threaten. Strike terror. Make the our preparations in Bess- 'members the position of the 4th and the 5th corps d'armée, and the forwardness of his naval prepara XI. CHAP. tions, he conceives he has a right to expect 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 pursuit of gain. The Emperor cannot and will not endure that his Representative, supported by the forces of the Empire, should re'main 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 supports them. Therefore demand private audiences of the Sultan, and press upon his fears. If your last demands, whatever they may be, are rejected, quit Constantinople immediately with your whole suite, and carry away with you the whole staff of our Legation.' Mentschikoff's de mand for a protector ste of the Greek On the day after receiving his despatches Prince Mentschikoff had a long interview with Rifaat Pasha, and strove to wrench from him the assent of the Turkish Government to the terms already submitted in Turkey 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, it may be said with accuracy that, from the first to the last, she always required the Porte to give her an instrument which should have the force of a treaty engagement, and confer upon her the right to insist that the Greek Church and Clergy in Turkey should con XI. Effect which would be produced ing it. tinue in the enjoyment of all their existing privileges. CHA P. 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 by conceda 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 foreign Prince, as to carry with it a virtual sovereignty over ten or fourteen millions of laymen. All this had been seen by Lord Stratford and by The negothe Turkish Ministers; and when Prince Mentschikoff which fol VOL. I. L tiations CHAP. pressed the treaty upon Rifaat Pasha he was startled, XI. lowed the demand. 6 as it would seem, by the calmness and the full knowledge which he encountered. The treaty,' said Rifaat Pasha, 'would be giving to Russia an exclusive pro'tectorate over the whole Greek population, their 'clergy, and their Churches.'* The Prince, it would seem, now began to know that he had to do with the English Ambassador, for he made the alteration before adverted to in the draft of his treaty, and on the 20th of April read it in its amended shape to Lord Stratford, and assured him that it was only an explanatory guarantee of existing treaties, giving to the co-religionists of Russia what Austria already possessed with regard to hers. Lord Stratford on that day had approached to within forty-eight hours of the settlement of the question of the Holy Places, which he deemed it so vital to achieve; and it may be easily imagined that, in the remarks which he might make upon hearing the draft read, he would abstain with great care from irritating discussion, and would not utter a word more than was necessary for the purpose of fairly indicating that his postponement of discussion on the subject of the ulterior demands was not to be mistaken for acquiescence; but all that for that purpose was needed he fairly said, for he observed to Prince Mentschikoff that the Sultan's promise to protect his Christian subjects in the free exercise of their religion differed extremely from a right conferred on any foreign Power to enforce that protection, and *Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 153. |