the Sultan according to a special mode concerted for this occasion between the two Courts, in order to confide the administration of these provinces to the most worthy candidates, and those who enjoy the highest renown among their fellow countrymen. For this time also, the two Hospodars shall only be named for seven years, the two Courts reserving to themselves, one year before the expiration of the term fixed by the present arrangement, to take into consideration the internal state of the Principalities, and the services which may have been rendered by the two Hospodars, in order to consult together on ulterior mea

sures.

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Art. 4. The disturbances which have recently agitated the Principalities having shown the necessity of furnishing to their Governments the support of a military force capable of promptly repressing any insurrectional movement, and of insuring respect for the established authorities, the two Imperial Courts have agreed to prolong the presence of a certain part of the Ottoman and Russian troops who now occupy the country: and more particularly to preserve the frontier of Wallachia and Moldavia from aggression from without, and it has been decided that there shall be left there for the present from 25,000 to 35,000 men of each of the two Powers. After the re-establishment of tranquillity on the said frontiers there shall remain 10,000 men of each until the completion of the work of organic improvement, and the consolidation of the internal tranquillity of the two provinces. The troops of the two Powers shall afterwards completely evacuate the Principalities, but

shall remain within such a distance that they can immediately re-enter them in the event of serious circumstances arising in the Principalities again calling for the adoption of that measure. Independently of this, care shall be taken to complete without delay the re-organisation of the native militia, in such a manner that it may by its discipline and effective strength offer a sufficient guarantee for the maintenance of legal order."

The Principalities had been after this treaty entirely evacuated by the forces of the Emperor and the Sultan, and the only case in which either were to be permitted to enter them again, was "in the event of serious circumstances arising in the Principalities "that is, to repress internal disturbances. Of course this did not give Russia the shadow of a pretext to occupy the provinces as a measure of coercion to compel the Sultan to accede to her demand of a convention. It was an act of violence which threw infinite difficulty in the way of further negotiation, for it roused the national feeling of Turkey, and evoked a spirit of resistance and patriotic ardour on which neither the Emperor nor the rest of Europe had calculated.

When the news reached Constantinople that the Russian forces had crossed the Pruth, the population there became much excited, and at the instance of the Seraskier (Commander-in-Chief) Mehemet Ali, who was at the head of what may be called the war party in the Turkish Councils, the Sultan dismissed from the Ministry Reshid Pasha and Mustapha Pasha who were strongly opposed to any precipitate measures

which might effectually compromise the interests of peace. Owing, however, to the active interference of Lord Stratford, the Sultan was induced to reconsider the step he had taken, and the two displaced Ministers were recalled and reinstated in their posts.

The Ottoman Porte now drew up a formal protest against the invasion of the Moldo-Wallachian provinces, and issued it from the Foreign office on the 14th of July. The following are the most important passages of the document:

"It is seen by the official communications which the Sublime Porte has made to the Great Powers, that she does not hesitate to give sufficient assurances, capable to dispel the doubts which have led to the discussions relative to the rights, to the spiritual privileges, and to the other immunities which thereunto belong, and in the possession of which the Greek churches and the Greek priests are placed by His Majesty the Sultan. Far from thinking of withdrawing any part whatever of these privileges, or even of restricting their enjoyment consecrated by use, His Imperial Majesty glorifies himself in confirming them publicly; and, faithful to the maxims of justice and clemency, places them in a position of safety from all prejudice, by means of a solemn act confirmed by his hattischeriff, and which has been communicated to all friendly Governments. Such being the case, it would be useless to encumber the question with a mass of details. It will suffice here to state, that, on one side, the demand of the Russian Ambassador, notwithstanding certain modifications, whether as to terms or whether as to form, remained at the end

inadmissible, for the reasons just now explained; while, on the other side, it became without any real object, on account of the solemu guarantees spontaneously given by the Sovereign himself in the face of the whole world. These incontestible facts suffice to absolve the Sublime Porte from all obligation to explain further on the subject of the religious privileges. It is incontestibly evident that the independence of a sovereign State is null if among its attributions is not preserved that of refusing, without offence, a demand which is unauthorised by treaties, and whose acceptance would be at the same time superfluous as to the ostensible object, and not less humiliating than injurious to the high party which declines it.

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Nevertheless, the Sublime Porte does not in any way retire from its friendly and profoundlysincere desire not only to fulfil all its engagements towards Russia with the most scrupulous exactitude, but further, to give it such entirely new proof of its cordial dispositions as is compatible with the sacred rights of its sovereignty, and with the honour and the fundamental interests of its empire.

"The Sublime Porte is even prepared to reiterate the assurances promised in the letter of the 4th (16th) of June, written in reply to that of his Excellency Count Nesselrode, bearing date the 19th of May (O.S.); and it is still disposed, if an arrangement of a nature to satisfy Russia can be arrived at without prejudice to the sacred rights of the Sultan, to send an ambassador extraordinary to St. Petersburg, to seek, in concert with the Russian Cabinet, the means of arriving at that end.

"As regards the passage in the

policy towards the Powers, it prefers reserving them in the expectation of a spontaneous return of Russia to a line of action more conformable to its declarations. It is with a view to remove every obstacle to that return that it restricts itself at present to protest against the aggression of which it has just right to complain. It thinks thereby to offer to the whole world an additional proof of the moderation of the system it has adopted since the commencement of this affair. It abstains from any hostile act; but it declares that it in no manner consents to the entrance, from time to time, of troops into the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, which are integral parts of the Ottoman empire, regarding them as a house without a master."

Porte from such acts have been fruitless, and even the solemn word which the Sultan had given to us on the occasion has been violated.

"Having exhausted all the means of persuasion, and all the means of obtaining in a friendly

manner the satisfaction due to our

just reclamations, we have deemed it indispensable to order our troops to enter the Danubian Principalities, to show the Porte to how far its obstinacy may lead it. Nevertheless, even now, it is not our intention to commence war: by the occupation of the Principalities we wish to have in our heart a pledge which will guarantee to us in every respect the re-establishment of our rights.

We

"We do not seek conquests: Russia does not need them. demand satisfaction for a legitimate right openly infringed. We are ready even now to stop the movement of our troops, if the Ottoman Porte engages to observe religiously the integrity of the privileges of the Orthodox Church. But if obstruction and blindness obstinately desire the contrary, then, invoking God to our aid, we will leave to his care to decide our difference; and, placing our full hope in his all-powerful hand, we will march to the defence of the Orthodox faith.*

The feeling with which the war is regarded by the Russians as a holy enterprise against infidels guilty of oppression towards the members of the Greek Church, is exhibited in the following translation of some stanzas of a popular song which appeared in St. Petersburg about this time, called "The Song of a Russian Warrior:"

"From the summit of the Balkan our brethren stretch out their hands to us with hope and prayer. Their sufferings are not unfelt by us. Russia has compassion on them, and goes forth to combat for them. VOL. XCV.

The Russian Government afterwards declared that the occupation of the Principalities was in consequence of the act of England and France in sending their combined fleets to Besika Bay, near the

entrance to the Dardanelles. But a very slight attention to dates disproves this assertion. On the 31st of May, the day on which Count Nesselrode wrote to Reschid Pasha, announcing that in a few weeks the Russian troops would cross the Pruth, the English fleet was at Malta, and the French fleet at Salamis; and it was not until the 2nd of June that instructions were sent to Admiral Dundas to proceed to the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles. Similar orders were about the same time issued

by the French Government to their fleet. Now information of these instructions did not arrive at St. Petersburg before the 17th of June, so that the intention of Russia to take temporary possession of the Principalities was avowed by her Chancellor more than a fortnight before the act

"It is there that our ancestors received the holy baptism which rescued them from the darkness of idolatry. There is the sanctuary of our faith. It is there that the chalice of salvation restored them to life.

"The mother of orthodox Russia, Kiew, holy and sublime city-is she not the goddaughter of Constantinople? Those traditions are sacred to us. They contain the promise and the pledge of destinies which are gathering strength in silence.

"We go forth to chastise the proud, to avenge our altar, insulted by the impious. Burst forth, then, holy war ! let our cry, the precursor of victory, be raised! That cry is-All for the God of Russia-for the Czar of the Russians.""

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