Sixty Years a Queen Part 15

[Sidenote: The "Sick Man."]

"We have on our hands a sick man--a very sick man; it will be a great misfortune if one of these days he should slip away from us before the necessary arrangements have been made."

This sentence, spoken on January 9, 1853, by Nicholas, Czar of Russia, to the British Minister at St. Petersburg, Sir George Hamilton Seymour, supplied a phrase which has become historic, and remains as appropriate to the present state of Turkey-in-Europe as it was forty-four years ago.

The Ottoman Empire in Europe had become an anachronism, not because it was a heritage won by mediaeval conquest, for that may be a.s.signed as the origin of almost every European State, but because the Turk maintained his rule in modern times by mediaeval methods. In the days when nations were kept in subjection by the violence of their governors, the Turk had been a standing menace to all Europe, for he was as powerful as any Christian Monarch; but in proportion as the other nationalities acquired the solidarity which follows on the growth of const.i.tutional rights and the limitation of absolute rule, he became a terror only to the subject races within the Ottoman dominions. To the rising tide of Western civilisation he opposed the breastwork of philosophic indifference, though the ancient Saracen instinct for war still caused him to adopt eagerly the successive inventions in military armament. The weakest princ.i.p.ality had nothing to fear in the nineteenth century from Turkish invasion, but the most powerful states had realised that it would be a formidable task to make the Porte comply with the concert of Europe--such is the quality of genuine _vis inertiae_. Nevertheless the real guarantee for the integrity of the Ottoman Empire had come to be--not her army and fleet, nor the fervour of her Moslem subjects--but the mutual jealousy and suspicion existing between other Powers regarding the disposal of Ottoman territory. It had come to this, then, that the Christian states acquiesced in the continuance of the Ottoman Empire in Europe as a kind of buffer state--a barrier against such a collision of interests and ambitions as might revive warfare on a Napoleonic scale. The heirs of the "sick man" dreaded his death because of the conflict sure to ensue among his heirs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _C. J. Staniland, R.I._}

THE LARGEST GUN OF 1837.

The ill.u.s.tration shows a gun's crew working the 67-cwt. gun, which was the largest in use in the early part of Her Majesty's reign. It threw a solid shot of 68 lbs. weight. At the Rotunda at Woolwich there is a gun of this size which was used in the trenches at Sebastopol, and had its trunnions shot away.]

Three European Great Powers were more closely affected than others by the Eastern question--Russia, by reason of her office as guardian of the Eastern Church, as well as by her hereditary policy of absorbing neighbouring territories--Austria, on account of her claim to the Danubian provinces of the Porte--and England, because she could not suffer the advance of Russia between her and her Asiatic dominions. The interest of England may seem to have been less direct than that of the other Powers; nevertheless, the continual encroachment of Russia in Asia, and the steady extension of the Russian frontier towards that of British North-West India, had so powerfully impressed British statesmen with the danger of a collision in that quarter, that the integrity of the Ottoman Empire had become a cardinal principle in the Continental diplomacy of England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LARGEST GUN OF 1897.

The huge 110-ton guns of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitch.e.l.l, & Co. are mounted in the _Sanspareil_ and _Benbow_, and the _Victoria_ carried two of them to the bottom when she sank. There are considerable disadvantages attaching to the use of artillery so enormous, as will be understood when it is stated that the cost of each round fired with full charge and armour-piercing projectile is 200; that the gun would become practically useless after firing 75 rounds of this description (of course a much smaller charge is used when practising); and that the energy developed amounts to 60,000 foot-tons--about enough to lift the whole ship six feet in the air. For these and other reasons the 67-ton gun shown on next page is now being supplied in preference to the larger one. The 110 ton gun is capable of piercing a solid ma.s.s of wrought iron 30-1/2 inches thick, at a distance of 1,000 yards; the much smaller 92-inch (22-ton) gun was tested in 1887, and threw a shot nearly 12 miles, its trajectory rising to a height greater, by 2,000 feet, than that of Mont Blanc.]

[Sidenote: Projects of the Emperor Nicholas.]

But the Emperor Nicholas of Russia had convinced himself that the "sick man" was at the point of death, and that it was essential to the peace of Europe that his heirs should divide the inheritance before his demise. The sentence at the head of this chapter was spoken by the Czar when he revived proposals which he had made to the Duke of Wellington and Lord Aberdeen, then Foreign Secretary, on the occasion of his visit to England in 1844. These proposals had been embodied in a celebrated memorandum drawn up by Count Nesselrode, to the effect that the Turkish Empire should be maintained in its integrity as long as possible, but that as soon as its fall could be averted no longer, England, Austria, and Russia should act on a common understanding and divide the dominion among themselves. Nesselrode's memorandum had been received and placed in the archives of the Foreign Office, and no disclaimer of a.s.sent to the propositions therein had ever been made on the part of Her Majesty's Government. Silence is often a.s.sumed to indicate consent, so when Nicholas, believing in 1853 that the Porte was indeed on the point of dissolution, renewed his proposal for a part.i.tion of the Turkish Empire, it was at least excusable that he should reckon on the co-operation of Great Britain. Lord Aberdeen, who had been Foreign Secretary when the Czar was in England in 1844, was Prime Minister in 1853. Nicholas disclaimed any intention of a Russian occupation of Constantinople; he suggested that Bulgaria and Servia might be const.i.tuted independent States under Russian protection, and declared that he would acquiesce in the annexation of Egypt and Candia by Great Britain. All this, and much more, he explained to Sir Hamilton Seymour, a.s.suring him that if Great Britain and Russia came to an understanding on the subject, it mattered nothing to him how the other Powers might view it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _John Leech._} {_From "Punch."_

THE OLD 'UN AND THE YOUNG 'UN.

Old Nicholas (Emperor of Russia): "Now then, Austria; just help me to finish the Port(e)."

The Emperor of Russia, disappointed in his overtures to England, endeavoured to obtain the a.s.sistance of Austria against Turkey.]

[Sidenote: The Custody of the Holy Places.]

[Sidenote: Prince Menschikoff's Demand.]

At this juncture a fresh controversy was stirred in connection with Ottoman rule. In the sixteenth century a treaty was concluded between the Sultan and Francois I., King of France, whereby the custody of the Holy Places in Palestine had been committed to the monks of the Latin Church, who were placed under the protection of the Crown of France.

Subsequently firmans had been granted to the Greek Church, conferring rights at variance with the exclusive guardianship claimed by the Latin Church. Incessant disputes arose on a ludicrously minute point, such as might have puzzled diplomatists in the era of the Crusades, but one which seemed strangely out of keeping with statesmanship of the nineteenth century, namely, "whether, for the purpose of pa.s.sing through the building into their grotto, the Latin monks should have the key of the chief door of the Church of Bethlehem, and also one of the keys of each of the two doors of the Sacred Manger, and whether they should be at liberty to place in the Sanctuary of the Nativity a silver star adorned with the arms of France." The French Republic, and afterwards the French Empire, as heirs of the Crown of France, championed the cause of the Latin monks, even threatening to occupy Jerusalem; until, in February 1853, the Porte issued a firman in order to reconcile in a reasonable way the conflicting claims of the two Churches. But reason was the last influence to prevail in an unreasonable quarrel. Russian forces, before the issue of the firman, had already begun ma.s.sing on the frontiers of Moldavia, and immediately after the issue of the firman, Prince Menschikoff arrived at Constantinople with a numerous military suite, endeavoured to force on the Porte an agreement establishing a Russian protectorate of Christians within Turkish Dominions, and threatened a rupture of diplomatic relations unless this was agreed to at once. Reschid Pasha asked for a delay of five or six days to consider such a momentous question; it was refused; whereupon the Ottoman Council promptly declined to become a party to the proposed convention.

Menschikoff immediately left Constantinople; the Russian Government continued warlike preparations, which were met by similar measures on the part of the Porte, as a simple measure of self-defence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by Thiele._} {_Chancery Lane._

THE LARGEST GUN OF 1897.

The deck of H.M.S. _Repulse_ cleared for action; the captain of the barbette is taking the enemy's distance. The 67-ton guns in the foreground are the largest which are now being built; they are lowered behind the steel shield by hydraulic machinery for charging.]

[Sidenote: Russian Invasion and The Vienna Note.]

On July 2 the Russian army under Prince Gortchakoff crossed the Pruth and occupied the Turkish territory of Moldavia and Wallachia. Of course this was an act of war, but no collision actually took place, and representatives of the four Great Powers--Austria, France, Great Britain, and Prussia--met at Vienna in July and agreed on a Note embodying terms for the peaceful settlement of the dispute. It were natural to expect that a doc.u.ment of such moment should have been framed in language of the utmost precision and incapable of bearing ambiguous interpretation. Nevertheless this short Note contained five pa.s.sages so vague and ambiguous that they might have been construed into giving away the whole case of Turkey, though this was undoubtedly far from the intention of the authors. Russia, perceiving her advantage, accepted the Note at once; but the Ministers of the Sultan declined to do so, unless the five objectionable pa.s.sages were modified. Nesselrode stated explicitly the reasons which prevented Russia from agreeing to any modification. These reasons enlightened the British Cabinet for the first time as to the construction put on the Note by Russia, which was directly contrary to that intended by the Four Powers.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

_R. Simkin._}

A. 11th Light Dragoons.

B. 12th Lancers.

C. 5th Dragoon Guards.

D. 1st Lifeguards.

E. Private, Rifle Brigade.

F. Private, Line.

G. Private, Grenadier Guards.

H. Officer, Infantry of the Line.

J. Officer, 13th Light Dragoons.

K. Officer, 2nd Dragoon Guards.

L. Gunner, Field Battery, R.A.

M. Trooper, 8th Hussars.

UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH ARMY IN 1837.]

England, therefore, was compelled to acquiesce in Turkey's refusal to sign the Note, at the same time urging her not to regard the occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia as an act of war. The state of affairs towards the end of September is concisely described in a note written by Prince Albert to Baron Stockmar: "Meyendorff is in the Vienna Cabinet; Louis Napoleon wishes for peace, enjoyment, and cheap corn; the King of Prussia is a reed shaken by the wind; we are paralysed through not knowing what our agent in Constantinople is or is not doing; the Divan has become fanatically warlike and headstrong, and reminds one of Prussia in 1806; the public here is furiously Turkish and anti-Russian."

On October 5 the Porte issued a formal declaration of war. On the 14th the combined fleets of England and France, which were lying in Besika Bay, moved into the Dardanelles on the invitation of the Sultan.

Mediation was at an end.

[Sidenote: Destruction of the Turkish Fleet.]

A Turkish squadron of twelve sail in the Black Sea were attacked on the 30th while lying at anchor at Sinope and completely destroyed, with the loss of 4,000 men, leaving only about 400 alive. The news of this ma.s.sacre, enacted almost under the very guns of the allied fleet, spread like wildfire through France and Great Britain, and ignited every warlike spirit that still slumbered. It was alleged that the Turkish admiral had hauled down his flag before the overwhelming force which attacked him, and that the Russians had paid no attention to this signal of surrender.

[Sidenote: Resignation of Lord Palmerston.]

The Cabinet was much more divided in opinion than the nation. Lord Palmerston, the Home Secretary, startled the nation by resigning office on December 16, not, however, as was generally a.s.sumed, on account of difference about the Eastern Question. "No one," wrote Prince Albert, "will believe the true cause of his retirement--his dislike of Lord John's plan of Reform, and treachery is everywhere the cry. It is the Eastern Question that has turned him out, and Court intrigues!"

Everybody, in fact, believed that Palmerston had left the Cabinet rather than a.s.sent to abandoning Turkey to the tender mercies of Russia. Prince Albert was vehemently accused by a portion of the Press of being favourable to the designs of Russia: how far this was from the truth people afterwards came to learn from his own letters written while these events were in progress. The cry went forth that Palmerston was the only man who could save the honour of England; in a few days he withdrew his resignation and confidence was restored.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

_R. Simkin._}

A. Trooper, 17th Lancers.

B. Trooper, 10th Hussars.

C. Trooper, 2nd Life Guards.

D. Private. Coldstream Guards.

E. Trooper. 1st Royal Dragoons.

F. Private, King's Royal Rifles.

G. Officer, Royal Artillery.

H. Officer, Line.

J. Officer, Black Watch.

K. Gunner, Royal Horse Artillery.

L. Private, Line.