A History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815 (Volume 5) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: If at that moment the British Ministry had calmly reviewed the position, it would probably have directed Stratford to tell the Porte that, should it persevere in declining to adopt the Vienna note, it would be left to deal with Russia alone. Unhappily, instead of taking this course, it followed the example of Austria and France1 in asking Russia to accept the Forte's amendments. The Czar naturally declined to make any further concessions to the Sultan; his minister drew up, for the private information of his master, a statement of the reasons which made it impossible for him to do so. This statement, communicated in confidence to the Russian Minister at Vienna, found its way?it is not known how?into a Prussian paper.2 Europe was suddenly startled at finding that the Czar placed an interpretation on the Vienna note different from that which the Power which had drawn it up, and the Powers which had adopted it, intended it to bear. The nations, indeed, which had been parties to the conference attached a different significance to the circumstance. Austria redoubled her efforts . England to induce the Porte to accept the note; England support The formally declined to recommend it any further.3 By Vienna note, this course the solid cohesion of the four Powers was dissolved. Prussia followed Austria in leaning towards the Russian side, while France readily supported the British Ministry in its novel determination to uphold the Porte. Years afterwards,4 a member of the British Cabinet declared in his " Recollections " that, if he had been Prime Minister in 1853, he would have insisted on the acceptance of the Vienna note. It is, unfortunately, certain that the man who penned this sentence in his old age gave very different advice to hiscolleagues in 1853.l But on both occasions he see...