XI.

CHAP. church and an hospital at Jerusalem, and also as to the privileges which should be conceded to Russian subjects, monks and pilgrims; but the Note objected to entertain that portion of the Russian demands which went to give Russia a protectorate of the Greek Church in Turkey.*

Mentschikoff's an

On the following day Prince Mentschikoff sent an gry reply. angry reply to this Note, declining to accept it as an answer to his demand. He stated that he was instructed to negotiate for an engagement guaranteeing the privileges of the Greek Church as a mark of respect to the religious convictions of the Emperor; and if the principles which formed the basis of this proposed mark of respect were to be rejected, and if the Porte, by a systematic opposition, was to persist in closing the very approaches to an intimate and direct understanding, then the Prince declared with pain that he must consider his mission at an end, must break off relations with the Cabinet of the Sultan, and throw upon the responsibility of his Ministers all the consequences which might ensue. The Prince ended his Note by requiring that it should be answered within three days.t

His pri

vate audience of the Sultan.

On the second day after sending this Note, Prince Mentschikoff was to have an interview with the Grand Vizier at half-past one o'clock; but before that hour came the Prince took a step which had the effect

of breaking up the Ministry.

Without the concur

rence, and apparently without the previous know

*May 10. 'Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 196.

+ May 11. Ibid. p. 197.

XI.

causes a

ledge, of the Ministers, he found means to obtain a CHAP. private audience of the Sultan at ten o'clock in the morning. The Sultan did wrongly when he submitted to receive a foreign Ambassador without the advice or knowledge of his Ministers, and the Grand Vizier had the spirit to resent the course thus taken by his Sovereign; for upon being sent for by the Sultan immediately after the audience, he requested This permission to stay at home, and at the same time gave change of up his seals of office. The new Ministry, however, at Conwas formed of men who, as members of the Great nople; Council, had declared opinions adverse to the extreme demands of Russia.* Reshid Pasha became the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and this was not an appointment which disclosed any intention on the part of the Sultan to disengage himself from the counsels of the English Ambassador.

If the Sultan had erred in granting an audience without the assent of his Ministers, he had carried his weakness no further. It soon transpired that Prince Mentschikoff had failed to wring from the Sultan any dangerous words. It seems that when the Prince came to press his demands upon the imperial ear, he found the monarch reposing in the calmness of mind which had been given him by the English Ambassador five days before, and in a few moments he had the mortification of hearing that for all answer to his demands he was referred to the Ministers of State.t In the judgment of Prince Mentschikoff, to be thus + Ibid. p. 195.

* Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 194.

Ministry

stanti

but fails to

shake the

Sultan.

CHAP. answered was to be remitted back to Lord Stratford. It was hard to bear.

XI.

Mentschikoff violently

presses his

Prince Mentschikoff began his intercourse with the new Foreign Secretary by insisting upon an immediate demands. reply to his Note of the 11th of May. Reshid Pasha asked for the delay of a few days, on the ground of the change of Ministry. This reasonable demand was met at first by a refusal, but afterwards by a Note which seems to have been rendered incoherent by the difficulty in which Prince Mentschikoff was placed; for, on the one hand, a request for a delay of a few days, founded upon a change of Ministry, was a request too fair to be refused with decency; and on the other hand, the violent orders which had just come in from St Petersburg enjoined the Prince to close the unequal strife with Lord Stratford, and to enforce instant compliance, or at once break off and depart. The Note began by announcing that Reshid Pasha's communication imposed upon the Russian Ambassador the duty of breaking off from the then present time his official relations with the Sublime Porte; but it added that the Ambassador would suspend the last demand, which was to determine the attitude which Russia would thenceforth assume towards Turkey. The Note further declared that a continuance of hesitation on the part of the Ottoman Government would be regarded as an indication of reserve and distrust offensive to the Russian Government, and that the departure of the Russian Ambassador, and also of the Imperial Legation, would be the inevitable and immediate consequence.

XI.

Council

made by

under the

By the voices of forty-two against three, the Great CHAP. Council of the Porte determined to adhere to the decision already taken; and on the 18th, Reshid The Great Pasha called upon Prince Mentschikoff, and orally determine imparted to him the extreme length to which the Turkish Government was willing to go in the way of concession. The honour of the Porte required, he said, that the exclusively spiritual privileges granted under the Sultan's predecessors, and confirmed by His Majesty, should remain in full force; and he declared that the equitable system pursued by the Porte towards its subjects demanded that the Greek Clergy should be on as good a footing as other Offers Christian subjects of the Sultan. He added that a the Porte firman was to issue proclaiming this determination advice of on the part of the Sultan. In regard to the shrine Lord at Jerusalem, Reshid Pasha was willing to engage that there should be no change without communicating with the Russian and French Governments. Reshid Pasha also consented that a church and hospital for the Russians should be built at Jerusalem ; and in regard to all these last matters connected with the Holy Land, the Porte, he said, was willing to solemnise its promise by a formal convention. These overtures were made in exact accordance with a Paper of advice which Lord Stratford had placed in the hands of Reshid Pasha five days before.* Virtually Reshid Pasha offered Prince Mentschikoff everything which Russia had demanded, except the *Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 196.

Stratford.

CHAP. protectorate of the Greek Church in Turkey,*—that he refused.

XI.

Mentschi

koff replies

by declar ing his mission at

an end.

The representa

tives of the four Powers

Instantly, and without waiting for the written statement of the proposals orally conveyed to him by Reshid Pasha, Prince Mentschikoff determined to break off the negotiation. On the same day he addressed to the Porte an official Note, which purported to be truly his last. In this he declared that, by rejecting with distrust the wishes of the Emperor in favour of the orthodox Greco-Russian religion, the Sublime Porte had failed in what was due to an august and ancient ally. The refusal, he said, was a fresh injury. He declared his mission at an end; and after asserting that the Imperial Court could not, without prejudice to its dignity and without exposing itself to fresh insults, continue to maintain a mission at Constantinople, he announced that he should not only quit Constantinople himself, but should take with him the whole Staff of the Imperial Legation, except the Director of the Commercial Department. The Prince added, that the refusal of a guarantee for the orthodox Greco-Russian religion obliged the Imperial Government to seek in its own power that security which the Porte declined to give by way of treaty engagement; and he added that any infringement of the existing state of the Eastern Church would be regarded as an act of hostility to Russia.t

Prince Mentschikoff's departure did not immediately follow the despatch of this Note, and on the * Eastern Papers,' p. 205, and see p. 252. +18th May. Ibid. p. 206.