XX. ment at CHAP. advanced season, be little likely to leave Sebastopol;' and he then went on to suggest that, if the Russians were to be hindered from attacking the Turks, it would be fair that the Turks should be restrained from molesting the coast of Russia. The rest of the conversation related to the pending negotiations; and, upon the whole, it was plain that the first decision of the English Cabinet was looked upon as the natural result of the engagement at Sinope, that it would certainly not lead to a rupture,* and that at length the Russian Government was in a fit temper to receive the proposals for peace which the four Powers (with the concurrence this time of Lord Stratford, and with the extorted assent of the Turks) Announce- were now again bringing to St Petersburg. But whilst this fair prospect was opened by the unceasing toil of the negotiators, there were messengers then adopted journeying from Paris and from London to the Court of St Petersburg; and they carried an announcement that the Western Powers were resolved to execute the harsh and insulting scheme of action which had been forced upon the acceptance of Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet by the Emperor of the French. Of course it was not to be expected that the friendly spirit in which the Russian Government had received the first and unbiassed decision of the English Cabinet would even for one moment survive an announcement of the scheme which only some ten days later our Government had been brought to adopt. It was one thing for the Western Powers *Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 359. St Peters burg of the scheme finally by the Western Powers. XX. to enforce the neutrality of the Black Sea, and CHAP. another and a very different thing to announce to the sovereign of a haughty State that, even although he might be bent on no warlike errand, still, upon the very sea which washed his coastupon the very sea which filled his harbours-he was forbidden to show his flag. tiations On the 12th of January 1854, the Emperor Nicholas was forced to hear-to endure to hearthat, upon peril of an unequal conflict with the combined fleets of the Western Powers, every ship that he had in the Euxine must either be kept from going to sea, or else must sail by stealth, and be liable to be ignominiously driven back into port. The negotiation, which had seemed to be almost The negoripe for a settlement, was then ruined. The Em- are ruined. peror Nicholas did not declare war against the Western Powers; but, as soon as he received the hostile announcement in a form which he deemed to be official, he withdrew his representatives from Paris and London. The Governments of France Rupture of and England followed his example; and on the 21st relations. of February 1854, the diplomatic relations between Russia and the Western Powers were brought to a close. Moreover, the Czar prepared to undertake an The Czar invasion of the Ottoman dominions. diplomatic prepares to invade Turkey. On the 4th of January 1854, the fleets of England Fleets and France moved up and entered the Euxine. enter the Euxine. XXI. error of the Czar in occupying Wallachia. CHAPTER XXI. CHAP. IN a military point of view, and upon the supposition of there being no understanding between Russia and Military Austria, the seizure of the whole of Wallachia by a Russian army is a dangerous measure; for, after reaching Bucharest, the line of occupation has to bend at right angles, ascending the northern bank of the Danube between an enemy expectant and an enemy already declared, till at length it touches the frontier of the Banat, at a distance from Moscow of not less than a thousand miles. To be in fitting strength at a point thus situate would imply the possession of resources beyond those which Russia could command. Of this Pasha tage. The General at the head of the Turkish army was Omar Pasha; and it chanced that he was a ful advan man highly skilled in the art of bringing political views to bear upon the operations of an army in the field. He knew that, in protruding his forces into Lesser Wallachia, the Emperor Nicholas was committing a military fault; and he also inferred that political reasons and imperial vanity would make the Czar cling to his error. He also knew that, for the |