Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/411

BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. oG9 CHAPTER XVII. Lord Stratford, it would seem, was unconscious chap. xvii of his power over the mind of Nicholas, and did not understand that it rested with him to deter- stratford'a mine whether the Czar should he politic or raging. pacincaUoa He did not know that, as long as he Avas at Therapia, every deed, every word of the Divan was regarded as coming from the English Ambas- sador ; and that the bare thought of the Greek Church in Turkey being under the protection of Canning,' was the very one which would at any moment change the Czar from an able man of business to an almost irresponsible being. Tak- ing the complaints of Paissia according to their avowed meaning, the English Ambassador faith- fully strove to remove every trace of the founda- tion on winch they rested ; and having caused the Porte to issue firmans perpetuating all the accustomed privileges of the Greek Church, ho proposed that copies of these firmans should be sent to the Court of St Petersburg, together with a courteous Note from the Porte to Count Nessel- rode, distinctly assuring the Chancellor that the VOL. 1. 2 A