Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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A.D.
1829-40]
THE WAB
IN THE CAUCASUS.
393
velops
its wealth.
The
contrary
is the case
in the
Caucasus.
Prom
the fortress
of
Anapa
on the Black
Sea,
all
along
to
the
Caspian,
the northern
slope presents
only
immense
in-
clined
plains,
rising
in terraces
to a
height
of 3000
or 4000
yards
above
the
sea level.
These
plains,
rent
on
all direc-
tions
by
deep
and
narrow
valleys
and
vertical
clefts,
often
form real
steppes,
and
possess
on their
loftiest
heights
rich
pastures,
where the
inhabitants,
secure
from
ail
attack,
find
fresh
grass
for
their
cattle in the
sultriest
days
of
summer.
The
valleys
on the other
hand are
frightful
abysses,
the
steep
sides
of
which
are
clothed
with
brambles,
while
the bottoms
are
filled with
rapid
torrents
foaming
over
beds
of
rocks
and
stones. Such
is the
singular
spectacle
generally
presented
by
the northern
slope
of the
Caucasus.
This
brief
descrip-
tion
may
give
an idea of
the
difficulties
to
be
encountered
by
an
invading army.
Obliged
to
occupy
the
heights,
it
is
incessantly
checked in its march
by
impassable
ravines,
which
do
not allow
of
the
employment
of
cavalry,
and for
the most
part
prevent
the
passage
of
artillery.
The
ordinary
tactics
of
the
mountaineers
is to
fall back before
the
enemy,
until
the
nature
of the
ground
or
the want of
supplies
obliges
the
latter to
begin
a
retrograde
movement.
Then
it is that
they
attack the
invaders,
and,
entrenched
in
their
forests
behind
impregnable
rocks, they
inflict
the most terrible
carnage
on
them
with little
danger
to themselves.
On the
south the
character
of
the
Caucasian
chain
is
different. From
Anapa
to
Gagra,
along
the
shores of
the
Black
Sea,
we observe a
secondary
chain
composed
of schis-
tous
mountains,
seldom
exceeding
1000
yards
in
height.
But
the
nature of their
soil,
and
of
their
rocks,
would
be
enough
to
render
them
almost
impracticable
for
European
armies,
even
were
they
not
covered
with
impenetrable
forests.
The
inhabitants
of
this
region,
who
are called Tcherkesses
or
Circassians
by
the
Russians,
are
entirely
independent,
and
constitute
one of the most
warlike
peoples
of
the
Caucasus.
The
great
chain
begins
in
reality
at
Gagra,
but
the
moun-
tains recede
from
the
shore,
and
nothing
is to
be
seen
along
the
coast as far
as
Mingrelia
but
secondary
hills,
commanded
by
immense
crags,
that
completely
cut off ail
approach
to
the
central
part
of
the Caucasus. This
region,
so
feebly
defended
by
its
topographical
conformation,
is
Abkhasia,
the inha-
394
HISTOET OF
EUSS1A.
[CH.
LXIX.
bitants
of
which
have
been
forced
to
submit
to
Russia. To
the
north
and
on
the northern
slope,
westward
of the
military
road from
Mosdok
to
Tiflis,
dwell a
considerable
number of
tribes,
some
of them
ruled
by
a sort of
feudal
system,
others
constituted
into little
republics.
Those
of
the
west,
depen-
dent on
Circassia
and
Abadza,
are in
continual war with
the
empire,
whilst
the
JSTogais,
who inhabit the
plains
on
the left
bank
of
the
Kuma,
and the
tribes of the Great
Kabarda,
own the
sovereignty
of the czar
;
but their
wavering
and
dubious
submission cannot be relied
on. In the
centre,
at
the
foot of
the
Elbrouz,
dwell
the
Souanethes,
an
unsubdued
people,
and near
them,
occupying
both sides
of
the
pass
of
Dariel,
are
the
Ingouches
and
Ossetans,
exceptional
tribes,
essentially
different from the
aboriginal
peoples.
Finally
we
have,
eastward
of the
great
Tiflis
road,
near the
Terek,
Little
Kabarda,
and the
country
of the
Kumicks,
for
the
present
subjugated
;
and
then those indomitable
tribes,
the
Lesghis
and
Tchetchenzes,
of whom
Shamyl
is the
Abd-el-
Kader,
and
who
extend over the two
slopes
of
the Caucasus
to the
vicinity
of
the
Caspian.
In
reality,
the Kuban and the
Terek,
that rise from
the
central
chain,
and
fall,
the one into
the Black
Sea,
the
other
into the
Caspian,
may
be considered
as the northern
political
limits of
independent
Caucasus.
It
is
along
those
two
rivers that
Russia has
formed her armed
line,
defended
by
Cossacks,
and
datachments from the
regular
army.
The
Russians
have, indeed,
penetrated
those
northern
frontiers at
sundry
points,
and have
planted
some forts within the
country
of
the
Lesghis
and
Tchetchenzes.
But those
lonely
posts,
in
which a few
unhappy
garrisons
are surrounded on
all
sides,
and
generally
without a chance of
escape,
cannot be
regarded
as
a
real
occupation
of
the
soil on which
they
stand.
They
are,
in
fact,
only
so
many
pickets,
whose business
is
only
to
watch
more
closely
the
movements of the mountaineers.
In
the
south,
from
Anapa
to
Gragra,
along
the Black
Sea,
the
imperial
possessions
never
extended
beyond
a few detached
forts,
completely
isolated,
and
deprived
of all
means of com-
munication
by
land. A
rigorous
blockade was established
on
this
coast
;
but the
Circassians,
as
intrepid
in their frail
barks
as
among
their
mountains,
often
passed
by
night
through
the
Russian line of
vessels,
and
reached Trebisond
and Constan-
A.D.
1829-40]
THE WAR
IN THE CAUCASUS.
395
tinople.
Elsewhere,
from
Mingrelia
to
the
Caspian,
the
frontiers
are less
precisely
defined,
and
generally
run
parallel
with the
great
chain
of the
Caucasus.
Thus
limited,
the
Caucasus,
including
the
territory
occu-
pied
by
the
subject
tribes,
presents
a surface
of
scarcely
5000
leagues
;
and it is in
this narrow
region
that
a
virgin
and
chivalric
nation,
amounting
at
most to
2,000,000
of
souls,
proudly upholds
its
independence
against
the
might
of
the
Kiissian
empire,
and
has for
upwards
of
twenty years
sus-
tained
one
of the most obstinate
struggles
known
to modern
history.
The Eussian line
of the
Kuban,
which
is
exactly
similar
to
that of
the
Terek,
is defended
by
the
Cossacks
of the
Black
Sea,
the
poor
remains
of
the famous
Zaporogues,
whom
Catherine
II. subdued
with so much
difficulty,
and
whom
she
colonised
at the foot
of the
Caucasus,
as a
bulwark
against
the
incursions of
the mountaineers.
The
line
consists
of
small
forts and watch
stations
;
the
latter
are
merely
a kind
of
sentry-box
raised on
four
posts,
about
fifty
feet
from the
ground.
Two
Cossacks
keep
watch
in them
day
and
night.
On
the least
movement
of the
enemy
in
the
vast
plain
of
reeds
that
fringes
both banks
of
the
river,
a
beacon
fire is
kindled on the
top
of the
watchbox.
If the
danger
becomes
more
pressing,
an
enormous
torch
of
straw
and
tar
is set
fire
to.
The
signal
is
repeated
from
post
to
post,
the whole
line
springs
to
arms,
and 500 or
600 men
are
instantly
assembled
on
the
point
threatened.
These
posts,
composed
generally
of
a dozen
men,
are
very
close
to each
other,
particularly
in
the
most
dangerous places.
Small
forts
have
been
erected
at
intervals
with
earthworks,
and a
few
pieces
of
cannon
;
they
contain
each
from
150 to
200 men.
But
notwithstanding
all
the
vigilance
of the
Cossacks,
often
aided
by
the
troops
of the
line,
the
mountaineers
not
unfrequently
cross
the frontier
and
carry
their
incursions,
which
are
always
marked
with massacre
and
pillage,
the
adjacent
provinces.
These arc
bloody
but
justifiahle
re-
prisals.
In
L835
a
body
of
fifty
horsemen
entered
the
country
of
the
Cossaeks,
and
proceeded
to
a
distance
of
120
leagues,
to
plunder
the
German
colony
of
Madjar
and
the
important
village
of
Vladimiroi'ka,
on the
Kuina,
and
what is
most
remarkable,
they got
back
to
their
mountains
without
396
HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXIX.
being interrupted.
The same
year
Kisliar,
on the
Caspian,
was
sacked
by
the
Lesghis.
These
daring expeditions prove
of
themselves how
insufficient is the armed
line of the
Caucasus,
and
to what
dangers
that
part
of southern
Russia is
exposed.
The line
of
forts
until
lately existing along
the Black
Sea
was
quite
as
weak,
and the Circassians there
were
quite
as
daring.
They
used
to
carry
off
the Russian soldiers
from
be-
neath
the
fire
of
their
redoubts,
and
come
up
to
the
very
foot
of their
walls to
insult the
garrison.
Hommaire de
Hell
relates
that,
at the time
he was
exploring
the
mouths of the
Kuban,
a
hostile chief had the
audacity
to
appear
one
day
before
the
gates
of
Anapa.
He did all
he could
to
irritate
the
Russians,
and
abusing
them
as
cowards
and woman-
hearted,
he
defied
them
to
single
combat.
Exasperated
by
his
invectives,
the
commandant "ordered
that he
should
be
fired
on
with
grape.
The horse of the
mountaineer
reared
and
threw off
his
rider,
who,
withont
letting
go
the
bridle,
instantly
mounted
again,
and,
advancing
still nearer
to
the
walls,
discharged
his
pistol
almost
at
point-blank
distance
at
the
soldiers,
and
galloped
off
to
the
mountains.
As
for
the blockade
by
sea,
the
imperial
squadron
has
not
been
expert
enough
to
render
it
really
effectual.
It
was
only
a few
armed
boats,
manned
by
Cossacks,
that
gave
the Circas-
sians
any
serious uneasiness. These
Cossacks,
like those of
the
Black
Sea,
are
descended from
the
Zaporogues.
Pre-
viously
to
the last
war
with
Turkey
they
were settled on the
right
bank of the
Danube,
where their aucestors
had taken
refuge
after the destruction of their
Setcha.
During
the
campaigns
of
1828-29,
pains
were taken to revive
their na-
tional
feelings, they
were
brought again
by
fair means or
by
force
under the
imperial
sway,
and
were
then settled in the
forts
along
the
Caucasian
shore,
the
keeping
of which was
committed
to their
charge. Courageous, enterprising,
and
worthy
rivals of
their
foes,
they
waged
a most
active war
against
the
skiffs
of
the mountaineers in their
boats,
which
carry
foews of
fifty
or
sixty
men.
The
treaty
of
Adrianople
was in a manner
the
opening
of
a new
era
in
the
relations of Russia with
the
mountaineers
;
for
it
was
by
virtue
of
that
treaty
that the
czar,
already
master of
Anapa
and
Sudjuk
Kaleh,
pretended
to the sove-
reignty
of Circassia
and of the
whole
seaboard
of the Black
A.D.
1829-40]
THE WAR,
IN
THE
CAUCASUS. 397
Sea.
True
to
the
invariable
principles
of
its
foreign policy,
the
government
at first
employed
means of
corruption,
and
strove
to
seduce
the various chiefs
of
the
country
by
pensions,
decorations,
and
military appointments.
But
the
mountaineers,
who had the
example
of the Persian
provinces
before their
eyes, sternly
rejected
all
the overtures
of
Russia,
and
repudiated
the clauses of the convention
of
Adrianople
;
the
political
and
commercial
independence
of their
country
became
their
rallying
cry,
and
they
would
not treat
on
any
other
condition. All such
ideas were
totally
at variance
with
Nicholas's schemes of
absolute
dominion
;
therefore
he
had
recourse to
arms to obtain
by
force
what he had
been
unable to
accomplish
by
other
means.
Abkhasia,
situated on the eastern
coast
of
the
Black
Sea,
and
easily
accessible,
was the first
invaded.
A Russian force
occupied
the
country
in
1839,
under the
ordinary
pretence
of
supporting
one
of
its
princes,
and
putting
an end to
anarchy.
In
the
same
year
general
Paskievitch,
then
go-
vernor-general
of the
Caucasus,
for the
first time
made an
armed
exploration
of
the
country
of the Tcherkesses
beyond
the Kuban
;
but
he effected
absolutely
nothing,
and his
expedition
only
resulted
in
a
great
loss
of
men
and stores.
In the
following
year
war
broke
out in
Daghestan
with the
Lesghis
and
the
Tchetchenzes.
The
celebrated
Kadi
Mulah,
giving
himself
out for a
prophet,
gathered together
a
con-
siderable
number
of
partisans
;
but
unfortunately
for
him
there
was
no
unanimity
among
the
tribes,
aud
the
princes
were
continually
counteracting
each
other.
Kadi
Mulah
never
was able
to
bring
more than
3000
or
4000
men
toge-
ther;
nevertheless,
he
maintained
the
struggle
with a cou-
rage
worthy
of a
better
fate,
and
Russia
knows
what
it
cost
her to
put
down the revolt of
Daghestan.
As
for
any
real
progress
in
that
part
of the
Caucasus,
the
Russians
made
none
;
they
did no
more than
replace
things
on the old
footing.
Dairlieslan
soon became
again
more hostile
than
ever,
and
the
Tchetchenzes
and
Lesghis
continued
in
separate
detachments
to
plunder
and
ravage
the
adjacent
provinces
up
to
tin
1
time
when
the
ascendancy
of
the
celebrated
Shamyl,
the
worthy
successor of
Kadi
Mulah,
gave
a fresh
impulse
to
the
warlike
tribes of
the
mountain,
and
rendered
them
mpre
formidable
than
ever.
398 HISTORY OF
BUSSIA.
[CH.
LXII.
After
taking
possession
of
Anapa
and
Sudjuk
Kaleh,
tlie
Russians
thought
of
seizing
the whole
seaboard
of
Circassia,
and
especially
the
various
points
suitable for the establish-
ment of
military posts. They
made themselves masters of
Guelendchik
and the
important
position
of
G-agra,
which
commands the
pass
between Circassia
and Abkhasia. The
Tcherkesses
heroically
defended
their
territory
;
but
how
could
they
have withstood the
guns
of
the
ships
of war that
mowed them
down
whilst
the
soldiers were
landing
and con-
structing
their redoubts
?
The blockade
of the
coasts
was
declared in
1838,
and all
foreign
communication
with the
Caucasus
ostensibly intercepted.
During
the four
following
years
Russia suffered
heavy
losses
;
and all her successes
were
limited to the
establishment
of
some small
isolated
forts on
the
sea-coast.
She
then
increased
her
army,
laid
down the
military
road from
the Kuban
to
Guelendchik,
across
the
last
western
offshoot of the
Caucasus,
set
on
foot an ex-
ploration
of the
enemy's
whole
coast,
and
prepared
to
push
the
war with renewed
vigour.
In
1837 the
emperor
Nicholas
visited
the Caucasus. He
would see for himself
the theatre of a
war so diastrous
for
his
arms,
and
try
what
impression
his
imperial
presence
could
make
on the
mountaineers.
The chiefs
of the
country
were
invited
to various
conferences,
to which
they
boldly
repaired
on the faith of the Russian
parole
;
but instead of con-
ciliating
them
by
words of
peace
and
moderation,
the
emperor
only exasperated
them
by
his
threatening
and
haughty
lan-
guage.
"
Do
you
know,"
said he to
them,
"
that I
have
powder
enough
to blow
up
all
your
mountains ?"*
During
the three
following
years
there was
an
incessant
succession of
expeditions.
Golovin,
on the frontiers of
Georgia,
Grabe on
the
north,
and
Racifsky
on
the
Circassian
seaboard,
left
nothing
untried
to
accomplish
their
master's
orders.
The sacrifices
incurred
by
Russia were
enormous
;
the
greater
part
of
her fleet
was
destroyed by
a
storm,
but
all
efforts
failed
against
the
intrepidity
and tactics
of
the
moun-
taineers.
Some new forts
erected under
cover
of the
ships
*
In
the
same boastful
spirit
general
Veliaminof told the
Circassians
that
"
if the
sky
were to
fall,
the
soldiers of Russia were
numerous
enough
to
prop
it
up
on their
bayonets."
A.D.
1829-40]
THE WAR IN
.THE
CAUCASUS. 399
were
all that resulted from these
disastrous
campaigns.
<c
I
was
in the Caucasus in
1839,"
says
Hommaire de
Hell,
"
when
G-rabe
returned from his famous
expedition
against Shamyl.
When the
army
marched
it
had numbered
6000
men,
1000
of
whom,
and 120
officers,
were
cut
off in
three
months.
But
as
the
general
had advanced further into the
country
than
any
of
his
predecessors,
Russia
sang
paeans,
and Grabe became
the
hero of the
day,
although
the
imperial troops
had been
forced
to retreat and
entirely
evacuate the
country they
had invaded.
All
the other
expeditions
were similar to this
one,
and
achieved
in
reality nothing
but the
burning
and destruction
of a few
villages.
It
is true the mountaineers are
far from
being
victorious
in all
their encounters with the
Russians,
whose
artillery they
cannot
easily
withstand
;
but if
they
are
obliged
to
give
way
to
numbers,
or to
engineering,
neverthe-
less
they
remain in
the end
masters of
the
ground,
and annul
all
the
momentary
advantages
gained by
their enemies."
The
year
1840 was
still more
fatal
to the
arms of
Nicholas.
Almost all
the new
forts on
the seaboard were
taken
by
the
Circassians,
who
bravely
attacked and earned
the
best
forti-
fied
posts
without
artillery.
The
military
road
from
the
Kuban
to
Guelendchik
was
intercepted,
Port
St.
Nicholas,
which
commanded
it,
was
stormed and the
garrison
massacred.
Never
yet
had
Russia
endured such
heavy
blows.
The
dis-
asters were such that the official
journals
themselves,
after
many
months'
silence,
were at last
obliged
to
speak
of
them,
and to
try
to
gloss
them over
by publishing turgid
eulogiums
on the
heroism of the unfortunate
Black Sea
garrisons
;
but
the
most serious
losses,
the destruction of
the new
road from
the
Cuban,
the
taking
of Fort
St.
Nicholas,
and that of
several
other
forts,
were
entirely
forgotten
in
the
official
statement,
and
no facts mentioned but
those which
might
be
interpreted
in favour
of Russia's
military
glory.
On the
eastern side of
the mountain the war was
fully
as
disastrous
for
t
he invaders. The
imperial
army
lost four hun-
dred
petty
officers and
soldiers,
and
twenty-nine
officers
in
the battle
of Valrik
against
the
Tchetchenzes. The
military
colonies
of the Terek
were
attacked and
plundered,
and
when
general
Golovin
retired to his
winter
quarters
at
the
end
of
the
campaign,
he
had lost
more
than three-fourths
of his
men.
400
HISTORY
OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXIX.
The
Great Kabarda did not remain an indifferent
spec-
tator
of the
offensive
league
formed
by
the
tribes
of
the
Caucasus
;
and when
Russia,
suspecting
with reasou
the un-
friendly
disposition
of
some
tribes,
made
an
armed
explora-
tion
on the banks of the
Laba
in order
to
construct
redoubts,
and
thus cut off
the
subjugated
tribes from the
others,
the
general
found
the
country,
wherever
he
advanced,
but
a
desert. All the
inhabitants had
already
retired to
the
other
side of
the
Laba to
join
their warlike
neighbours.
Since
that time fresh
defeats
have been
made known
through
the
press,
and
in
spite
of
all
the
mystery
in which
the
war of the Caucasus
is
sought
to be
wrapt,
the truth
has,
nevertheless,
transpired.
The
last
military
operations
of
Russia,
previous
to the
conflict
with
Turkey
and
the Western
Powers in
which
she
is
now
engaged,
were as
unproductive
as
those that
preceded
them,
and
proved
that no
change
had
taken
place
in the
belligerents
respectively.
Thus
we see
that,
in
despite
of
the resources
of the
empire
and of the
indomitable
obstinacy
of
the
emperor,
the
position
of Russia
in the
Caucasus
has been
quite stationary
for
sixty
years.
Before
we close this
chapter,
we
must
notice an
incident
in
the
war
of
the Caucasus which
set
the whole
English
press
in
a blaze in
1837
—
namely,
the confiscation
of
the
merchant vessel
Vixen,
which
was
captured
by
a Russian
cruiser on the
Circassian coast
on
the
25th of
November,
1836. The
owner,
Mr.
Bell,
a
British
merchant,
appealed
for indemnification to his
own
government,
but
his claim
was disallowed. In
the
reply
to
his
application,
it was
stated that "his
majesty's
government,
considering,
in
the
first
place,
that
Sudjuk
Kaleh,
which
was
acknowledged
by
Russia
in the
treaty
of 1783
(1784)
as a
Turkish
possession,
now
belongs
to
Russia,
as stated
by
count
Nesselrode,
by
virtue of
the
treaty
of
Adrianople, they
see
no
sufficient
reason
to
question
the
right
of Russia to
seize
and
confiscate
the
Vixen.'"
Now
this
part
of the
answer was
unfortunate,
'for
it
attributed
proprietary
rights
to
Russia
by
virtue of a
previous
title
in
Turkey,
of
which there
was
no
other
evidence
than that of
Russia
herself.
It is
fully
demonstrated
that
Turkey
never
possessed
any
such
right
over
Circassia
;
she
had
merely
erected on
the
seaboard,
with
the
consent
of
the
inhabitants,
the two
fortresses
of
Anapa
and
Sudjuk
Kaleh
A.D.
1833]
TREATY
OF
UNKIAR
SKELESSI.
401
for
the
protection
of the
trade
between
the two
countries.
Eussia
herself,
in
the
beginning,
acknowledged
this
state
of
things
;
and
the evidence
of
her
having
done so
is to
be
found
in
the
general
depot
of
the
map
of
the
empire.
"
Chance,"
says
Hommaire
de
Hell,
"
threw into
my
hands
a
map
of
the
Caucasus,
made
by
the
Eussian
engineers
long prior
to
the
treaty
of
Adrianople.
The
Turkish
possessions
are
distinctly
marked on
it,
and
defined
by
a red
boundary
line
;
they
con-
sist
solely
of
the two
fortresses
on the
coast.
This
map,
the
existence
of
which
one
day sorely
surprised
Count
Vorontzof,
governor-general
of
New
Eussia,
was
sent
to
England,
and
deposited
in
the
Foreign
Office
during
Lord
Palmerston's
administration."
It
is
evident, then,
that
Eussia
could
not
derive
from
Turkey
a
right
over the Circassian
coast,
which
the
inhabitants
of
the
mountain
have never
ceased
to claim
as
their own
;
therefore,
the
plea
founded on
that
pretended
right
was
altogether
fallacious.
But it
was
a
sufficient
answer to
Mr.
Bell to
say
that
he
had
wilfully
broken
the
blockade
established
by
Eussia
along
the
Circassian
coast.
The
czar's
government
being
at
war with
the
mountaineers,
might
at
its
pleasure
intercept
foreign
trade
with
the
enemy's
country.
This
is an
incontestable
right
recognised by
all
nations,
and
therefore
the
affair of
the
Vixen
was
not
worth
the noise
made about
it.
CHAPTEE
LXX.
TREATY
OF
UNKIAR
SKELESSI
—
EXPEDITION
TO
KIIIVA
—
M
i:\liiltANDUiI OF
1844
ON
THE
EASTERN
QUESTION
—
l.XTINCTION
OF
THE
REPUBLIC
OF
CRACOW
—
SECRET
SOCIETIES
—
INTERVENTION
IN
THE PRINCIPALITIES
AND
IN
HUNGARY.
Encouraged
by
the
crippled
state of
the
Turkish
empire,
its
most
powerful
vassal,
Mohammed
Ali,
pasha
of
Egypt,
revolted
against
his
sovereign;
his
son,
Ibrahim
Pasha,
wrested
Syria
from
the
Porte,
overran
Asia
Minor,
and
closed a
series
of
victories
over the sultan's
troops
by
that
of
Koniah,
which
laid
open
to
him
the
road
to
Constanti-
VOL.
II.
2
D
402
HISTOET
OF
EUSSIA.
[CH.
LXX.
nople,
then
left
defenceless,
for
the
Turkish
fleet
had
mean-
while
been
treacherously
surrendered to
the
pasha
of
Egypt.
The same
causes
which
had
withheld
England
and
France
from
preventing
the
disastrous
treaty
of
Adrianople
still
kept
them inactive
spectators
of its
natural
consequences,
and
sultan Mahmoud
was
compelled
reluctantly
to
accept
the aid
of
Eussia,
his inveterate
foe,
to
save his
empire
from
imminent destruction.
Willing
as
the czar
was to
see
Turkey
dismembered,
he could not suffer its
capital,
which
he looked
on as
his
own
destined
prey,
to fall
into
hands
from
which
it
might
not
easily
be wrested.
Eussia
then,
acting
as the
ally
of
the
Porte,
sent
her fleet
into the
Bosphorus,
and
compelled
Ibrahim
Pasha to
suspend
his
victorious
march,
under a threat
of
hostilities if he
continued to
advance. In
return for this aid
the czar extorted from the Porte the
treaty
of Unkiar
Skelessi,
which
was
signed
on the 8th of
July,
1833.
It
purported
to
be
a
treaty
of defensive alliance
between the
two
contracting
powers,
but its
real
import
was
expressed
in a secret
article,
whereby
it was
provided
that as
the
emperor
of Eussia was
willing
to
spare
his
ally
the
expense
and
embarrassment
of
affording
him
military
succour,
"
the
Sublime
Porte,
instead of
the
aid it is
bound
to furnish
in
case
of
need,
according
to
the
reciprocity
of the
treaty,
will
limit its
action
in favour of
the
imperial
court of
Eussia
to
closing
the straits
of
the
Dardanelles
;
that
is to
say,
by
not
permitting
any
foreign
vessel of
war,
under
any
pretext
what-
ever,
to enter
those
straits."
This was a
subtle
stroke,
for in
effect
it
was no less
than
to
put
the Porte
under
the
exclu-
sive
protection
of
Eussia,
enable her
to
force
it
into
collision
with
all her enemies
and
its own
friends,
place
all its
re-
sources
at her
disposal,
and
render
all
interposition
of
other
powers impossible.
But
subsequent
events
deprived
Eussia
of
these
surreptitious
privileges.
The
menaces of
the
czar had
only
suspended
the
aggres-
sions
of
the
pasha
of
Egypt,
leaving
him in full
possession
of
his
conquests.
He renewed his hostilities
with such
effect,
that
at
last
England
and France
thought
it
necessary
to
in-
terpose,
and
a
note
was
signed
on the
27th
of
July,
1839,
by
virtue
of
which,
instead
of the exclusive
protectorate
of
Eussia,
the
Ottoman
empire
was
placed
under
the
common
safeguard
of
the
five
great
powers.