This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...Austria, but England, which by the Tripartite Treaty of Paris had engaged to 'guarantee the independence and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, ' was bound to regard with extreme jealousy the proposition of Powers which were known to be unfriendly to the Porte, all the more that one of these Powers, France, was a party to the guarantee, on the obligations of which she was already turning her back. So divergent were the views of the various Powers, that it seemed at one time as if the Conference would break up, and the Eastern question be again thrown open. But at length a middle course was agreed upon of establishing an identity of institutions in both Provinces, but with a separate ministry for each, two elective assemblies, and a Central Commission, which was to prepare the laws common to both Principalities. After nineteen days of discussion in the Conference a Convention embodying the future Constitution of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia on this basis was signed on the 19th of August; and thus one great subject of disquietude was for the moment put to rest. The result was a mortifica tion to Austria and to the Porte, for although the Conference had not adopted the principle of a complete union of the Principalities under a foreign prince, yet it was obvious that this must sooner or later follow by the mere pressure of events.4 Accordingly, the first act of each of the Provinces was to elect the same Hospodar, Prince Couza, as their head, a step which, probably from an oversight, the terms of the Convention had not prohibited. The inconvenience of the union, imperfect in form, but practically complete, was removed in November 1861 by the consent of the Sultan to a complete administrative union during the life of Prince Couza. This w...