[War. Russia and Turkey.] Convention of Ackermann (No. 131), made them still weaker by favouring, on the coasts of the Black Sea, and even in our vicinity, the slave trade, pillage, and disorders of all kinds. Nay more: then, as now, ships bearing the Russian flag were detained in the Bosphorus, their cargoes sequestrated, and all the stipulations of the Commercial Treaty of 1783 openly violated. This took place at the very moment when the purest glory and the most beneficent victories in a sacred cause crowned the arms of His Majesty the Emperor Alexander of immortal memory. Nothing hindered him from turning his arms against the Ottoman Empire. But that Monarch, a pacific Conqueror, superior to every feeling of resentment, avoided even the most legitimate opportunity of redressing his own wrongs, and would not interrupt the peace restored to Europe by generous exertions, and with noble intentions, so soon after he had contributed to its establishment. His situation offered him immense advantages, of which he forbore to avail himself, with the view of entering, in the year 1816, into negotiations with the Turkish Government, founded on the principle and the wish to obtain, solely by amicable arrangement, securities for peace and for a faithful adherence to existing Treaties, as well as for the maintenance of reciprocal, satisfactory, and pacific relations, securities which the Emperor's victorious arms might have extorted from the Porte, then unable to resist him. Such great moderation was not, however, duly appreciated. For five years together, the Divan was unmoved by the conciliatory overtures of the Emperor Alexander, and endeavoured to tire out his patience-to dispute his rights-to call in question his good intentions-and even to defy the superiority of Russia, which was restrained solely by a desire to preserve the general peace, by carrying her forbearance to its utmost limits. And yet a War with Turkey would not in any way have embarrassed the relations of Russia with her principal Allies. No Convention of Guarantee, no political combination, connected the fate of the Ottoman Empire with the healing Acts of 1814 and 1815, under the protection of which civilised and Christian Europe reposed after her long dissensions, and saw her Governments united by the recollections of common glory, and a happy identity of principles and views. After five years of benevolent and unabated exertion on the part of the Representative of Russia, and of tergiversations and delays on the part of the Porte,-when several points of the [War. Russia and Turkey.] negotiation relative to the execution of the Treaty of Bucharest appeared to be settled,-a general insurrection in the Morea, and the hostile invasion of Moldavia by the Chief of a Party, unfaithful to his duty, re-excited in the Turkish Government and nation all the emotions of blind hatred against its Christian tributaries, without distinction between the guilty and the innocent. Russia did not hesitate a moment to testify its just disapprobation of the enterprise of Prince Ypsilanti. As Protector of the Principalities, it approved of the proper measures of defence and suppression adopted by the Divan, at the same time insisting on the necessity of not confounding the innocent part of the population with the seditious, who were to be disarmed and punished. These counsels were rejected; the Representative of His Imperial Majesty was insulted in his own residence; the chief Greek Clergy, with the Patriarch at their head, were subjected to an ignominious punishment in the midst of the solemnities of our holy religion. The most eminent Christians were seized, plundered, and massacred without trial; the remainder fled. The flame of insurrection, however, far from abating, spread on every side. In vain did the Russian Minister endeavour to render the Porte a last service. In vain did he point out, by his note of the 6th July, 1821, a way to safety and to reconciliation. After he had protested against crimes and ebullitions of rage, unparalleled in history, he found himself obliged to obey the commands of his Sovereign, and to leave Constantinople. It was at this time that the Powers, the Friends and Allies of Russia, equally interested in the maintenance of general Peace, offered and employed their good offices for the purpose of dispelling the storm which was about to burst over the infatuated Turkish Government. Russia, on her part, delayed to redress her own just grievances, in the hope that she should be able to reconcile what she owed to herself with the forbearance required by the situation of Europe, and its oftenthreatened tranquillity. Great as these sacrifices were, they were fruitless. All the efforts of the Emperor's Allies were successively baffled by the obstinacy of the Porte, which, perhaps equally in error with respect to the motives of our conduct, and the extent of its own resources, persisted in the execution of a plan for the destruction of the Christian population, subject to its power. The war with the insurgent Greeks was prosecuted with increased acrimony, in spite of the measures which from that time had for their object the Pacification of Greece. The attitude of the Divan, [War. Russia and Turkey.]. notwithstanding the exemplary fidelity of the Servians, became daily more hostile towards them; and the occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia was protracted, notwithstanding the most solemn promises made to the Representative of Great Britain, and notwithstanding the desire of Russia, from the time when these promises were distinctly made, to renew its former relations with the Porte. So many hostile measures could not fail at last to exhaust the patience of the Emperor Alexander. In the month of October, 1825, he caused an energetic Protest to be presented to the Ottoman Ministry; and when a premature death snatched him from the love of his people, he had just made the declaration, that he would regulate the affairs of Turkey according to the rights and interests of his Empire. 23rd March A new reign commenced, and furnished further proofs of a love of Peace, a noble inheritance, which had been bequeathed to it by the preceding reign. Upon his accession to the throne, the Emperor Nicholas commenced negotiations with the Porte, in order to settle various differences which concerned Russia alone, and afterwards, on the 1826 (No. 129), laid down, in concert with His Majesty the King of Great Britain, the bases of an Intervention which the general good peremptorily demanded. An evident wish to avoid extreme measures guided his conduct. On the one hand, as His Imperial Majesty promised himself from the union of the Great Courts, a more easy and speedy termination of the War which desolates the East, he renounced the employment of all separate influence, and disclaimed all idea of exclusive measures in this important question. On the other hand, by his direct negotiations with the Divan, he endeavoured to remove a further Impediment to the reconciliation of the Turks and the Greeks. Under such auspices the Conferences at Ackermann were opened; the result of them was the conclusion of an additional Convention to the Treaty of Bucharest, the terms of which bear the stamp of that deliberate moderation, which, subjecting every demand to the immutable principles of strict justice, consults neither advantage of situation, superiority of strength, nor facility of success. The sending of a permanent Mission to Constantinople soon followed this reconciliation, at which the Porte expressed its satisfaction in the strongest terms:soon afterwards the Treaty of the 6th July, 1827 (No. 136), confirmed in the face of the world the disinterested principles proclaimed by the Protocol of the 4th April (No. 129). This [War. Russia and Turkey.] Treaty, while it advocated the rights and the wishes of an unfortunate people, sought to conciliate them, by an equitable arrangement, with the integrity, the repose, and the true interests of the Ottoman Empire. The most amicable means were tried to induce the Porte to accept the stipulations of this beneficent Act; urgent entreaties were addressed to it to put an end to the effusion of blood. The Porte was warned by the most frank communications, which unfolded to it all the plans of the three Courts, that in case of refusal, the united fleets of the three Courts would be obliged to put an end to a contest which was no longer compatible with the security of the seas, the necessities of commerce, and the civilization of the rest of Europe. The Porte paid no attention to these warnings. A Commander of the Ottoman forces had scarcely concluded a provisional Armistice, when he broke the word he had given, and resorted to the employment of force. The battle of Navarino ensued:* but this battle, the necessary result of an evident breach of faith, and of a flagrant aggression, even this battle gave Russia and her Allies another opportunity to express to the Divan its wishes for the maintenance of Peace, to invite the Porte to contribute to its restoration, to extend it to the whole of the Levant, and to establish it on conditions which should connect the Ottoman Empire with the reciprocal guarantees by which they would be accompanied, and which, by reasonable concessions, would gain for it the benefits of perfect security. Such is the system, such are the acts, to which the Porte replied by its Manifesto of the 20th December, and by measures which constitute so many breaches of the Treaties with Russia --so many violations of its rights-so many grave attacks on its commercial prosperity-so many proofs of a desire to bring upon her fresh embarrassments and enemies. Russia, thus placed in a situation in which her honour and her interests will not suffer her any longer to remain, declares War against the Ottoman Porte, not without regret, but after having, for sixteen years together, neglected nothing to spare the Porte this calamity. The causes of this War sufficiently indicate its objects. Brought on by Turkey, it will impose upon that Power the burden of making good all the expenses caused by it, and the losses sustained by the subjects of His Imperial Majesty. UnderThe Battle of Navarino was fought on the 20th October, 1827. |