England on leave, and resigned the embassy, which had always been distasteful to him. Palmerston refused to accept the resignation, and after a couple of years (during which he was sent to Switzerland to mediate in the civil war of 1847, but arrived after the submission of the Sunderbund, and only in time to save Neufchatel from the violence of the victorious democrats), he resumed his position at the Porte, in March 1848, holding communications with the several powers on his way at their respective capitals. Within two months of his return to the embassy he obtained the restoration of Reshid Pasha and the reform ministry to office, in the place of the reactionaries who had profited by the elchi's departure to regain their ascendency at the Porte; and during the next two years he secured a firman admitting christian evidence in criminal trials, brought up the Mediterranean fleet in concert with France in support of Turkish independence against Russia and Austria, sustained the Porte in its generous protection of Kossuth and the other Hungarian refugees, in the teeth of the threats of the two emperors, and carried various valuable reforms in commercial and other matters. In 1852 he again visited England, but had hardly arrived when the critical state of affairs at the Porte brought him back to his post, with the title of Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, which was suggested by his family's ancient connection with St. Mary Redcliffe at Bristol. Prince Mentchikoff had taken advantage of his absence to press, with threats, upon the Porte the old claim of a Russian protectorate over the christian subjects of the Ottoman empire; and, in the want of the firm will and ‘formidable mind’ of the ambassador to help them, the Turks were on the verge of yielding. And ‘now, at a time when Europe had fastened its eyes upon the czar, and was watching to see how the ambassador of All the Russias would impose his master's will upon Turkey, the Emperor Nicholas was obliged to hear that his eternal foe, travelling by the ominous route of Paris and Vienna, was slowly returning to his embassy at the Porte.’
Stratford de Redcliffe's conduct of the negotiations which terminated in the Crimean war has been made classical history by Mr. Kinglake, who has told how he fought the unequal duel with Prince Mentchikoff, whose clumsy threats were no fit weapon wherewith to parry the shrewd thrusts of his practised antagonist; how he preserved his imperturbable gravity when awarding to the Russian the lofty privileges of a Greek doorkeeper for a church at Jerusalem, or the patriarch's inalienable right to superintend the repair of a dilapidated roof, and the other inanities of the Holy Places dispute; and how he marshalled the ambassadors of the four powers against Russia, when it came to defending the Porte against the forcible imposition of a Russian religious protectorate. ‘Lord Stratford had brought to a settlement the question of the Holy Places, had baffled all the efforts of the Emperor Nicholas to work an inroad upon the sovereign rights of the sultan, and had enforced upon the Turks a firmness so indomitable and a moderation so unwearied, that from the hour of his arrival at Constantinople they resisted every claim which was fraught with real danger—but always resisted with courtesy—and yielded to every demand, however unjust in principle, if it seemed that they might yield with honour and safety.’ Stratford had indeed so guided the policy of Turkey that it had secured the sympathy of Europe. The home government approved every step, and England and France applauded his victory over Mentchikoff; the admiral of the Mediterranean squadron was ordered to obey the behests of the ambassador, and the united fleets of France and England moved up near the Dardanelles. ‘The power to choose between peace and war went from out the courts of Paris and London and passed to Constantinople. Lord Stratford was worthy of this trust, for being firm and supplied with full knowledge, and having power by his own mere ascendency to enforce moderation upon the Turks, and to forbid panic, and even to keep down tumult, he was able to be very chary in the display of force, and to be more frugal than the government at home in using or engaging the power of the English queen. … Entrusted with the chief prerogative of kings, and living all his time at Therapia, close over the gates of the Bosphorus, he seemed to stand guard against the North, and to answer for the safety of his charge’ (Kinglake, i. 182, 190, Cabinet ed.).
The Russian ultimatum, demanding the suzerainty over the thirteen million christian subjects of the sultan, was rejected by the Turks under the guidance of Stratford, and Prince Mentchikoff retired in a rage from Constantinople. In all that had happened the czar saw the hand of his arch-enemy Canning, the man who had opposed him steadfastly ever since his accession. The discomfiture of Mentchikoff wrought the czar to a pitch of infuriated anger. In a fit of madness he ordered his armies to cross the Pruth and occupy the Principalities on 2 July 1853. The result was the Crimean war.
