united by the recollections of common glory, and a happy coincidence in principles and views. After five years' well-meant endeavours, supported by the representatives of Russia, and equally long evasions and delays on the part of the Porte-after several points of the negotiation relative to the execution of the treaty of Bucharest seemed to be already settled-a general insurrection in the Morea, and the hostile invasion of the chief of a party, unfaithful to his duty, excited in the Turkish Government and nation, all the emotions of blind hatred against the christians in it, without distinction between the guilty and the innocent. Russia did not hesitate a moment to testify its just disapprobation of the enter prise of Prince Ypsilanti. As protector of the principalities, it approved of the legal measures of defence and suppression adopted by the Divan, at the same time insisting on the necessity of not confounding the innocent part of the population with the seditious, who were to be disarmed and punished. These counsels were rejected, the representative of his Imperial Majesty was insulted in his own residence, the chief Greek Clergy, with the Patriarch at their head, were subjected to an infamous capital punishment, amidst the solemnities of our holy religion. All the christians, without any distinction, were seized, plundered, and massacred without trial; the remainder fled. The flame of insurrection, far from abating, spread meantime on every side. In vain did the Russian ambassador endeavour to render the Porte a last service. In vain did he show, by his note of the 6th of July, 1827, a way to safety All and to reconciliation. After he had protested against the crimes and ebullitions of rage, unparalleled in history, he found himself obliged to obey the commands of his sovereign, and to leave Constantinople. About this time it happened that the powers allied with Russia, whose interests equally required the maintenance of general peace, were eager to offer and to employ their services for the purpose of dispelling the storm which threatened to burst over the infatuated Turkish government. Russia, on her part, delayed the remedy of her own just grievances, in the hope that it should be able to conciliate what it owed to itself, with the moderation that the situation of Europe, and its tranquillity, at that time more than ever endangered, seemed to require. Great as these sacrifices were, they were fruitless. the efforts of the emperor's allies were successively baffled by the obstinacy of the Porte, which, perhaps, equally in error with respect to the motives of our conduct, and the extent of its own resources, persisted in the execution of a plan for the destruction of all the christians subject to its power. The war with the Greeks was prosecuted with increased acrimony in spite of the mediation, the object of which then was, the pacification of Greece. The situation of the Divan, notwithstanding the exemplary fidelity of the Servians, became, from day to day, more hostile towards them; and the occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia was protracted, notwithstanding the solemn promises made to the representatives of Great Britain, and even notwithstanding the manifest willingness of Russia, as soon as those promises were given, to restore its former relations with the Porte. So many hostile measures could not fail in the end to exhaust the patience of the emperor Alexander. In the month of October, 1825, he caused an energetic protest to be presented to the Ottoman ministry; and when a premature death snatched him away from the love of his people, he had just made the declaration that he would regulate the relations with Turkey according to the rights and the interests of his empire. "A new reign began, and furnished a farther proof of that love of peace which the former government had left as a fair inheritance. Scarcely had the emperor Nicholas ascended the throne, when he commenced negotiations with the Porte to settle various differences which concerned only Russia; and on the 23rd of March and 4th of April, 1826, laid down, in common with his majesty the king of Great Britain, the basis of a mediation which the general good peremptorily called for. The ardent wish to avoid extreme measures guarded his conduct. As his imperial majesty promised himself, from the union of the great courts, a more easy and speedy termination of the war which desolates the East, he renounced on the one hand the employment of every partial influence, and banished every idea of exclusive measures in this important cause. On the other hand, he endeavoured, by direct negotiations with the Divan, to remove a farther impediment to the reconciliation of the Turks and the Greeks. "Under such auspices the conferences at Akermann were open ed. The result of them was the conclusion of an additional conven tion to the treaty of Bucharest, the terms of which bear the stamp of that deliberate moderation which, subjecting every demand to the immediate principles of strict justice, calculates neither the advantages of situation nor the superiority of strength, nor the facility of success. The sending of a permanent mission to Constantinople soon followed this concession, on which the Porte could not sufficiently congratulate itself; and the treaty of the 6th of July, 1827, soon confirmed, in the face of the world, the disinterested principles proclaimed by the protocol of the 4th of April. "While this convention duly recognized the rights and the wishes of an unhappy people, it was to conciliate them by an equitable combination with the integrity, the repose, and the true interests of the Ottoman empire. The most amicable means were tried to induce the Porte to accept this beneficent convention; urgent entreaties called on it to put an end to the shedding of blood. "Confidential overtures, which unfolded to it all the plans of the three courts, informed it at the same time, that, in case of refusal, the united fleets of the three courts would be obliged to put an end to a contest which was no longer compatible with the security of the seas, the necessities of commerce, and the civilization of the rest of Europe. "The Porte did not take the least notice of these hints. A commander of the Ottoman troops had scarcely concluded a provisional armistice, when he broke the word he had given, and led, at length, to the employment of force: the battle of Navarin ensued. This was the necessary result of evident breach of faith, and open attack. This battle itself gave Russia and its allies another opportunity to express to the Divan its wishes for the maintenance of the general peace, and to urge it to consolidate this peace-to extend it to the whole of the Levant, and to establish it on conditions which the Ottoman empire should add to the reciprocal guarantees attending them, and which, by reasonable concessions, would gain for it the benefits of perfect security. "This is the system-these are the acts to which the Porte replied by its manifesto of the 20th of December, and by measures which are only so many breaches of the treaties with Russia-so many violations of its rights-so many violent attacks on its commercial prosperity-so many proofs of a desire to bring upon it fresh embarrassments and enemies. "Russia, now placed in a situation in which her honour and her interests will not suffer her any longer to remain, declares war against the Ottoman Porte, not without regret, after having, however, for sixteen years together, neglected nothing to spare it the evils which will accompany it. The causes of this war sufficiently indicate the objects of it. Brought on by Turkey, it will impose upon it the burden of making good all the expenses caused by it, and the losses sustained by the subjects of his Imperial Majesty. Undertaken for the purpose of enforcing the treaties which the Porte considers as no longer existing, it will aim at securing their observance and efficacy. Induced by the imperative necessity of securing for the future inviolable liberty to the commerce of the Black Sea and the navigation of the Bosphorus, it will be directed to this object, which is equally advantageous to all the European states. "While Russia has recourse to arms, she thinks that far from having indulged in hatred to the Ottoman power, or of having contemplated its overthrow, according to the accusation of the Divan, she has given a convincing proof that if she had designed to combat it to the utmost or to overturn it, she would have seized all the opportunities for war which her relations with the Porte have incessantly presented. "Russia, nevertheless, is very far from entertaining ambitious plans; countries and nations enough already obey her laws; cares enough are already united with the extent of her dominions. Lastly, Russia, though at war with the Porte, for reasons which are independent of the convention of the 6th of July, has not departed, and will not depart, from the stipulations of that act. It did not, and could not, condemn Russia to sacrifice her earlier important rights, to endure decided affronts, and to demand no indemnity for the most sensible injuries. But the duties which it imposed upon her, and the principles on which it is founded, will be fulfilled with scrupulous fidelity, and strictly observed. The allies will find Russia always ready to act in concert with them in the execution of the treaty of London, always zealous to co-operate in a work which is recommended to its care by religion, and all the feelings which do honour to humanity, always inclined to make use of its situation only for the speedy fulfilment of the treaty of the 6th of July, not to make any change in its nature and its effects. "The emperor will not lay down his arms till he has obtained the results stated in this declaration; and he expects them from the bene diction of him to whom justice, and a pure conscience, have never yet appealed in vain. "Given at St. Petersburg, 14th (26th) April, 1828." ANSWER of the PORTE to the RUSSIAN MANIFESTO. "Men of sound judgment and upright minds know, and reflection united with experience clearly proves, that the principal means of preserving order in the world and the repose of nations, consists in the good understanding between sovereigns, to whom the Supreme Master, in the plenitude of his mercy, has intrusted, as servants of God, with absolute and unlimited power, the reins of government, and the administration of the affairs of their subjects. It results from this principle that the solid existence and maintenance of this order of things essentially depend upon an equal and reciprocal observation of the obligations established between sovereigns, which ought, therefore, to be respected in common, and scrupulously executed. "It is equally well known to the whole world, and incontestible, that, with regard to the treaties, conventions, and stipulations, for peace and friendship, concluded under diplomatic forms with Russia, as a neighbouring power, the Porte has constantly exercised the greatest care in respecting the duties and rights of good neighbourhood, and in availing herself of all proper means for consolidating the bonds of friendship between the two nations. "God, all powerful, be praised for this, that the Sublime Porte has, since the commencement of her political existence, observed those salutary principles more than any other power; and, as the confidence of the Porte is founded on the precepts of the pure and sacred law, and of the religion which Mussulmans observe in peace as well as war, and having never consulted any thing but the law, even in the slightest circumstances, she has never deviated from the maxims of equity and justice, and, as is generally known, has never been placed in the situation of compromising her dignity by infringing, without any legitimate motive, treaties concluded with friendly powers. - of "The court of Russia has, however, without any motive, disturbed the existing peace, has declared war, and invaded the territory of the Sublime Porte. Russia alleges that the Sublime Porte has caused this war, and has published a manifesto, in which she accuses the Porte of not having executed the conditions of the treaties of Bucharest and Akerman, having punished and ruined the Servians after having promised them pardon and amnesty,-of having demanded fortresses in Asia which were essentially necessary to Russia, of having, without regard to the two provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia, punished with death the most distinguished men of Greece, with having, while publicly declaring that Russia is a natural enemy of the Mussulman nation, endeavoured to provoke to vengeance, and direct against her, the bravery of all the Mussulman people, of having signed the treaty of Akerman with mental reservation, seized the cargoes of Russian ships, and instigated the court of Persia to make war upon Russia; and, finally, it is made a subject of complaint, that the pachas of the Porte were making warlike preparations. It is these, and other charges of the same nature, that Russia has brought forward, a series of vain inculpations, destitute of all real foundation. It will be proper to make each the subject of a reply, founded on equity and justice, as well as on the real state of the facts. Though Russia has published that these are the principal motives for the declaration of war, it is, however, generally known, that the war which terminated with the treaty of Bucharest was commenced by herself. In fact, before that war, the Porte had, on just and legitimate grounds, dismissed the Waivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia, and Russia then pretended that these dismissals were contrary to treaties; and though the Sublime Porte represented in an amicable manner things under the real aspect, Russia refused to listen to the reasons advanced; and as she continued to insist in her pretensions, the Sublime Porte, with the sole view of preserving peace, and of maintaining the relations of friendship, did not hesitate to restore the dismissed Waivodes, without paying attention to the consequences of such a condescension. But while Russia declared herself fully satisfied, and under the ministry of Gahib Pacha, then Reis Effendi, officially notified, through the first interpreter, counsellor Fonton, that the differences and difficulties existing on that account, between the two courts, were completely removed, she im mediately and unexpectedly, made an attack on the side of Chotien and Bender. According to the regular course, the Sublime Porte demanded explanations from the Russian ambassador, who tried to deceive, and formally disavowed what had taken place, adding that Russia was in a state of peace and friendship with the Sublime Porte; that if war had been intended, the ambassador must necessarily have known it; and that it could only be supposed that the Russian troops had some motive for advancing. "When the fact was finally proved, the Sublime Porte was under the necessity of resisting; but having a natural repugnance to war and the shedding of blood, she imposed on herself a sacrifice, and signed the treaty of Bucharest. Russia did not respect the treaty. Among other infractions, instead of evacuating the Asiatic frontier, according to the basis and the tenor of the treaty, she unjustly annulled that article, and regarded with indifference all the well-founded remonstrances of the Sublime Porte. Finally, the Russian plenipotentiaries at Akerman, having altered and misinterpreted the pure sense of the treaty, and being no longer able to answer the convincing arguments of the Turkish plenipotentiaries, declared that a long space of time having elapsed since the article in question had been executed, the fortress claimed could not be given up. To such language the Turkish plenipotentiaries might well have replied, that if the nonexecution, in due time and place, of articles officially stipulated, warranted a total renunciation, the other articles, the more or less prompt fulfilment of which was demanded of the Sublime Porte, might also remain in statu quo. But |