Such, however, was the wild enthusiasm awakened among the subjects of the Porte by the Russian invasion, that, to prevent an insurrection in Constantinople, the Sultan was literally compelled to declare war; and the declaration agreed to by the grand council was signed on the twenty-seventh of September, and published by manifesto on the third of October, announcing the declaration of war against Russia in case the Principalities were not evacuated by the twenty-fourth of that month. Still, however, confident hopes were entertained by the western powers, and by the civilized world, that war would yet be avoided.

Meanwhile Omar Pasha had summoned Prince Gortschakoff to evacuate the provinces within fifteen days, solemnly assuring him that noncompliance would lead to the commencement of hostilities. To this letter Prince Gortschakoff replied as follows:

"My master is not at war with Turkey; but I have orders not to leave the Principalities until the Porte shall have given to the emperor the moral satisfaction he demands. When this point is obtained I will evacuate the Principalities immediately, whatever the time or season. If I am attacked by the Turkish army I shall confine myself to the defensive."

On the eleventh of November the Czar published a formal declaration of war against Turkey, in which he speaks, with well-affected severity, of the blind obstinacy of the Ottoman government, and magnifies his own legitimate solicitude for the defence of the orthodox faith in the East, as well as his spirit of long-suffering under manifold provocations. This proclamation was followed by active hostilities between the belligerents, and by the arrival of the allied fleets in the Black Sea; but before any important operations had taken place, the allied powers made one more vain effort to avert the war by submitting the terms of the Porte as an ultimatum to Russia.

It is foreign from our purpose to describe particularly the events of the campaign on the Danube; it is sufficient to say that it was conducted with skill on the part of the Turks, and that it terminated to their advantage. Under the command of the experienced Omar Pasha the Ottoman army finally drove the Russian forces beyond the Pruth. The Turkish squadron also took the initiative in the Black Sea, and commenced offensive operations by attacking Fort St. Nicholas, between Batoun and Poti, which they captured after a vigorous defence. At Sinope the Turks were less successful, suffering a disastrous defeat, with the loss of several vessels and many lives, in an attempt to defend the harbour and town against a Russian squadron of greatly superior force.

Up to this period the Allies had taken no active part in the war.

The object with which the combined fleets were sent to Constantinople was not to attack Russia, but to defend Turkey; and the English and French ambassadors were informed that the fleets were not to assume an aggressive position, but that they were to protect the Turkish territory from attack. And in order to prevent the recurrence of such disasters as that at Sinope, the fleets were ordered to enter the Black Sea, and require, and if necessary compel, Russian ships of war to return to Sevastopol or the nearest port. The Ottoman Porte seemed inclined, even after the affair at Sinope, to renew negotiations through the allied powers, and the latter still continued indefatigable in their efforts for the restoration of peace.

For this end the representatives of the four powers signed a convention, in which they recorded their own complete union of purpose in maintaining the territorial limits of the Ottoman Empire and the sovereignty of the Porte. A "note," framed in accordance with these views, was accepted by the Porte, but rejected by the Czar, who declared that he would allow of no mediation between himself and Turkey: that Turkey, if she wished to treat, might send an ambassador to St. Petersburgh. He now insisted upon conditions which amounted to a considerable increase on those demanded by Prince Menschikoff at Constantinople.

During the protracted but abortive attempts at negotiation, the conduct of Austria was sufficiently equivocal. At one time the Austrian minister did not hesitate to declare that the protocols which had been drawn up by England and France, at Count Buol's request, were the true basis of the conditions which they would accept, and that his master, the emperor, would adhere to those conditions even at the hazard of war. Yet when Count Orloff left Vienna on the fourth of February, he carried with him the assurance that in the coming struggle the neutrality of both Austria and Prussia might be relied upon. Austria subsequently inquired of the Russian cabinet whether they would object to a European protectorate over the Christians in Turkey. The reply, couched in the most positive terms, was that "Russia would permit no other power to meddle in the affairs of the Greek Church. Russia had treaties with the Porte, and would settle the question with her alone." From the tone and terms of the reply it was inferred that the Czar would consent to no treaty which did not secure to him everything, and more than everything, which had been demanded by Prince Menschikoff at Constantinople. The next step in the negotiations was the presentation of a "Turkish note" of settlement to the "Vienna Conference" on the thirteenth of January. This note

was, after a brief deliberation, approved of, and forwarded at once to St. Petersburgh; but it does not appear that the Czar deigned to honour it with a reply. A few days afterward the emperor of France sent an autograph letter to the Czar, to which the Czar replied in substance that the conditions made known at the conference of Vienna were the sole basis on which he would consent to treat. Four days after this reply was received (on the twentyeighth of February) the governments of France and England resolved to address a formal summons to the Czar, calling upon him to give, in six days, a solemn promise that he would cause his troops to evacuate the Principalities of the Danube on or before the thirtieth of April.

This decisive step was, perhaps, hastened by the dismissal of the English and French ambassadors from the Court of Russia, the former of whom left St. Petersburgh on the eighteenth, and the latter on the twenty-first of February. The St. Petersburgh Journal, noticing the departure of the two ambassadors, remarks: "The emperor, having declared the line pursued by the two western powers to be a severe blow aimed at the rights of the Czar in his character as a belligerent sovereign, has thought it right to protest against their acts of aggression, and to suspend diplomatic relations with England and France."

On the eleventh of March the Baltic fleet sailed from Spithead, under the command of Admiral Sir Charles Napier; and on the next day a treaty was concluded between England, France, and the Porte, containing the following stipulations, viz. :

"1. France and England engage to support Turkey by force of arms until the conclusion of a peace which shall secure the integrity and independence of the Sultan's rights and dominions;

2. The Porte engages not to conclude peace without the consent of her allies;

"3. The allied powers promise to evacuate, after the termination of the war and at the request of the Porte, all those parts of the empire which they may find it necessary to occupy during the continuance of hostilities; and,

"4. All the subjects of the Porte, without distinction of creed, are secured complete equality before the law."

This treaty, signed by England, France, and Turkey, remained open for the acceptance of the other great powers.

An Anglo-French ultimatum was now forwarded to St. Petersburgh, in reply to which the Czar is reported to have said that the terms proposed did not require five minutes' consideration, and that, rather than submit to such conditions, he would sacrifice his last soldier and spend his last rouble. The reply of Count Nesselrode, however, was that "no answer would be given by the imperial court."

The messenger bearing this answer reached London on the twentyfifth of March, and on the twenty-eighth of that month war was declared against Russia by England and France simultaneously. Russia responded by a counter declaration of war against England and France three days afterward.

Immediately upon the declaration of war by the Allies they both embarked large bodies of troops for the East, and early in the month of April ten thousand British troops were cantoned near Scutari, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, while twenty thousand French soldiers took up their quarters on the opposite side. The principal encampment of the Allies was subsequently established at Varna, where not less than forty-thousand men were kept inactive, decimated by cholera and other diseases, while Omar Pasha, within a few days' easy march, was gallantly driving the Russian forces out of the Principalities.

On the eighteenth of April a new convention was formed between the governments of England and France, in which the object of the two courts is stated to be "the reëstablishment of peace between the Czar and the Sultan on a firm basis, and the preservation of Europe from the dangers which have disturbed the general peace." "The Allies distinctly disclaim all exclusive advantages to themselves from the events which may arise, and they invite the rest of Europe to cooperate with them in an alliance dictated only by a regard for the interests of all."

Justice requires us to say that Russia was equally disinterested in her professions. In the declaration of war by Russia the following language is employed:

"The desire of possessing Constantinople, if that empire should fall, and the intention of forming a permanent establishment there have been too publicly, too solemnly disowned for any doubts to be entertained on that subject, which do not originate in a distrust that nothing can cure.

"It is to defend the influence not less necessary to the Russian nation than it is essential to the order and security of other states, it is to sustain the dignity and territorial independence, which are the basis of it, that the emperor, obliged in spite of himself to embark in this contest, is about to employ all the means of resistance that are furnished by the devotion and patriotism of his people."-St. Petersburgh Journal, March 30, 1854.

In the latter part of June a large force, consisting of ten thousand French troops, under the command of General Baraguay d'Hilliers, sailed in British vessels from the northern ports of France to cooperate with Sir Charles Napier in the Baltic. The allied squadron blockaded the Russian ports and captured Bomarsund, on the island of Aland; but, upon the whole, failed to verify the expectations of the people of England and France. Meanwhile the war

was vigorously pursued against the Russians in Asia Minor by the indefatigable chief Schamyl, who had gathered under his banner eighty thousand warriors.

The period had now arrived when the inactivity of the Allies was to give place to a decisive aggressive movement; and in a council of war, held at Varna by the English and French general officers on the 26th of August, the expedition to the Crimea was decided upon. Previous to the eastern war but little accurate knowledge was possessed by the inhabitants of modern Europe with respect to the Crimea or its resources. This peninsula was, however, well known to the ancients. During the most prosperous days of Greece it was the storehouse of Athens, whither it exported large quantities of grain.* At that period it was under the government of a line of princes known as the Kings of the Bosphorus, and for ages afterward its inhabitants were distinguished for their intelligence and refinement, and for their progress in the arts. The museums of Caffa, Nikolaieff, and Odessa, contain numerous remains of antiquity, illustrative of the advanced condition of its ancient inhabitants. At Inkermann, Balaklava, and other places, evidences exist to show that the Genoese, during their commercial supremacy, explored the Euxine, and planted colonies in the Crimea. Theodosia, or Caffa, was at that time a great entrepot for the commerce with interior Asia. The route to China was from Azof to Astrakan, and thence through various places not found in modern maps to "Cambalu," which is thought to be the modern Pekin.† The Venetians had also a settlement in the Crimea, and appear, by a passage in Petrarch's Letters, to have possessed some of the trade through Tartary. Under the Tartar government, this peninsula was at one time covered with many flourishing cities. In 1740 the Russians first entered the Crimea. In that year the lines of Perekop were forced by Count de Munich, and the country was wasted by fire and sword; but upon the termination of the war it was restored to the Turks. In 1772 Perekop was again taken by Russia, and, by the treaty of Kiarnardji, the Crimea was finally severed from the Turkish Empire. This country has always been highly prized by the Russian government, being considered by her rulers and statesmen as the gateway through which Constantinople was finally to be approached. The famous inscription at Kherson, "This way leads to Byzantium," which so much delighted the Czarina Catharine II. upon her visit. to that part of her dominions, was understood to indicate the route by Perekop and Sevastopol as the most ready avenue of approach to the long desired goal. The preeminent importance attached to † Hallam.

* Strabo.