Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/41

CONTENTS. XXXVli CHAPTEE XVI. Count Nesselrode, ......... 356 .State of the Czar after knowing that the fleets of 1'rance and England were ordered to the mouth of the Dardanelles, . 357 His complaints to Europe, ....... 358 Their refutation, 358 The Vienna Conference, ........ 359 The danger of being entangled in a separate understanding with France, ......... 360 The French Emperor's ambiguous ways of action. . . . 360 His diplomacy seems pacific, . . . . . . .361 Yet he engages England in naval movements tending to pro- voke war, 362 The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, 362 The Sultan's ancient right to control them, . . . 363 Policy of Russia in regard to the Straits, .... 364 The rights of the Sultan and the five Powers under the Treaty of 1841, '.364 How these rights were affected by the Czar's seizure of the Prin- cipalities, 364 Powerful means of coercing the Czar, 365 Importance of refraining from a premature use of the power, . 365 The naval movements in which the French Emperor engages England, 365 Means well fitted for enforcing a just peace were so used as to provoke war, ......... 368 CHAPTER XVII. Lord Stratford's scheme of pacification, ..... 369 The ' Vienna Note,' 370 Agreed to by the four Powers and accepted by Russia, . . 371 The French Emperor does nothing to thwart the success of the Note, 371 Lord Stratford had not been consulted 372 The 'Vienna Note' in the hands of Lord Stratford, . . 374 The Turkish Government determines to reject it unless altered, 376 The Turks at variance with the rest of Europe, but stand firm, 376 And are unexpectedly proved to be right in their interpreta- tion of the Note, ........ 377 What their dispute with Russia still was, .... 377