Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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A.D.
1849]
INTERVENTION
IN THE
PRINCIPALITIES. 413
render
!"
The
preliminaries
for
this
act of
infamy
were
con-
cluded
at
Vilagos
on
the
night
of
the
12th of
August
;
and
on
the
following
day
an
unconquered
Hungarian
army,
24,000
strong,
with
144
cannons,
laid
down
their
arms
before
the
Russians.
Five
days
after
this event
the
emperor
Nicholas
published
the
following
manifesto :
"
'
Russia
will fulfil
her
holy
mission.' Such were
the
words
that
we addressed
to
our
well-beloved
subjects
when
we announced
to
them,
according
to
the
desire
of
our
ally
the
emperor
of
Austria,
that we
Lad
commanded
our armie3
to stifle
the
war
in
Hungary,
and
there establish
the
legiti-
mate
authority
of
the
emperor.
Under
the
protection
of
God,
that
object
has been
accomplished.
In less
than
two
months,
our
brave
troops,
after
numerous
and brilliant
victories
in Transylvania
and
under the walls of
Debreczin,
have marched
from
victory
to
victory
—
from
Gallicia to
Pesth,
from Pesth
to
Arad,
from the Bukovina
and Moldavia
to the Banat.
Finally,
the
bands
of
insurgents,
hurled back
in
every
direction
—
from north
to
east
by
ourselves,
from the
west and south
by
the Austrian
army
—
have laid
down their
arms
before
the
Russian
army,
appealing
to our mediation
to
solicit a
magnanimous
pardon
from their
legitimate
sove-
reign.
After
having
holily performed
our
promise,
we have
ordered our victorious
troops
to return within the limits
of
the
empire.
With
a heart
penetrated
with
gratitude
to the
Dispenser
of all
blessings,
we
cry
out,
from
the innermost re-
cesses
of
our
soul,
'
Nobiscum JDeus
!
audite
populi
et
vince-
,,/iiii,
quia
nobiscum
Dens
P
"
Immediately
after
Kossuth,
the
civil
governor
of
Hungary,
resigned
his
power
into
Q-drgei's
hands,
himself
and
several
other
civil and
military
leaders,
with
about
five
thousand
officers
and
soldiers,
escaped
over
the Turkish
frontier, and
took
refuge
in
Widdin.
The
emperors
of
Russia and
Austria
demanded
the
extradition
of the
refugees.
This
was
peremp-
torily
refused
by
the
sultan,
whom
Sir
Stratford
Canning,
the
British
ambassador,
encouraged
by
his
advice to
persist
in
that determination. The
emperor
of
Russia reiterated
the
demand in
menacing
language;
hut
tin-
appearance
of
a Bri-
tish fleet
in the Dardanelles
induced
him to lower
his
tone.
The
two
emperors
now contented
themselves
with
requiring
414
HISTOKY
OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXXI.
that the
exiles should be removed to a more
distant
part
of
the
Turkish
empire.
They
were
transferred
accordingly
to
Kutayah,
where
they
remained
until
the
middle of the
year
1851,
when the
government
of the United
States
sent a man-
of-war,
which,
with
the
sultan's
consent,
conveyed
away
Kos-
suth and his
companions,
except
a certain
number
of
them
who
had made
a
voluntary profession
of
Islamism,
in
hopes
of
having
yet
an
opportunity
of
fighting
as Turkish
subjects
against
Eussia.
CHAPTEE
LXXI.
WAR WITH
TURKEY, TRANCE,
AND ENGLAND :
ITS
ORIGIN.
"Deus
nobiscum
/"
exclaimed the
emperor
Nicholas,
fana-
tically,
assured of his
right
and
might
as
lord-paramount
of
Europe.
"Deus
vobiscam
/"
responded
the
continental sove-
reigns,
eager
to
claim,
as
vassals,
his
protection against
their
own dreaded
subjects.
Now,
he
thought,
was the time to
consummate
that
cardinal
design
of Bussian
policy
—
the
conquest
of
Constantinople
;
for
never could
the
general
state
of
Europe
be
more
favourable
;
and
moreover,
a
special
opportunity
had
been
opened
for him in the action of
Erance.
As he
gradually
advanced towards
the
imperial
power,
Louis
Napoleon
had shown
in
many ways
such a
disposition
to
serve
the Church
of
Eome,
as to
earn
for himself the
especial
appro-
bation
of the
Pope.
Amongst
other
things,
both as
president
and
emperor,
he did
much
to
push
the claims of the
Latin
clergy
in the
East,
and
particularly
in the
Holy
Land
;
and
by
fresh
stipulations
with
the
Porte
he
succeeded
at
last
in
equalising
the
position
of
the Latin
clergy
in
several
places
in
Syria,
where
they
preserve professed
relics of
Christianity,
with
that
of
the Greek
clergy,
who
regard
themselves as
being
under
the
immediate
protection
more
especially
of
the em-
peror
of Eussia.
In the
early part
of
1850,
the
wrangling
of
the
Greeks to retain
their
precedency,
and of
the
Latins to
acquire
equality,
attracted the
attention of the
British
repre-
sentative
at
Constantinople,
Lord
Stratford de
Eedcliffe,
who
was
assured
by
general
Aupick
that
the matter
in
dispute
A.D.
1850]
OEIGIN OF THE PRESENT WAE.
415
was a
mere
question
of
property
and
of
expressed
treaty
stipulation.
At this time Lord John
Russell
instructed
the
British
ambassador
at Paris
that her
majesty's government
would
strictly
abstain
from
entering
into
the
merits
of
the
dispute,
but
they
should
disapprove
of
every
threat,
and
still
more of the actual
employment
of force.
It
is
needless
to
trace the course
of
this
dispute
between
Russia
and
Trance,
although
it
is desirable
to
understand the
fact
that,
in
the
first
instance,
the
question
between Russia
and
Turkey
was
raised
by
the endeavour of the French
government
to
obtain
a
better
position
and a more distinct
recognition
for
the
Latin
clergy.
In the first
instance,
the
emperor
of
Russia
appears
to
have
been
actuated
only by
a
desire to
uphold
for
his
pro-
teges,
the Greek
clergy,
their
monopoly
and their
precedency
in
Syria
:
and
it was
not until
the
French
ambassador
at
Constantinople,
M.
Lavalette,
began
to
talk of
sustaining
the
French
pretensions
by
the
aid of
troops,
that
the
czar
on
his
side
began
to
talk of
coercion.
In a
conversation re-
prated
to
Sir
Hamilton
Seymour,
he
remarked
that
"the
Russian
flag
had
been
insulted;"
a remark
which
will,
per-
haps,
remain
among
the
puzzles
of
history,
since
there
does
not
appear
to
have been
any
act
whatever
that
could
have
been
construed
into
an insult to the
Russian
flag.
From
this
point
the
emperor
Nicholas took a more
active
course.
The
first
outward
act
was the arrival of
Prince
Mentchikof
in
Constantinople,
with
some remarkable
peculiarities
in
the
distribution of his
honorary
visits. On the 2nd
of
March
he
paid
a
ceremonial visit
to the
grand
vizier
and to the
patriarch,
but none
to Fuad
Effendi,
the
foreign
minister;
and
when
Lard Stratford de Redcliffe
returned to his
post
in
April,
he
found the
Porte embroiled with its
troublesome
visitor.
\1 this
time Lord
Stratford
de Redclill'e
was
endeavouring
to
arge upon
the Porte
those councils of
moderation
which
he never
pretermitted,
and
to
which,
upon
the
whole,
the
Turkish
government
conformed
with
much
sagacity
and
per-
severance.
He
succeeded
so
well,
that
on the
22nd
of
April
he
reported
the
dispute
respecting
the
Holy
Places
in
t
East as
being "virtually
adjusted,"
and
Count
Nesselrode
acknowledged
as
much in
the
conversation with
the
British
ambassador at St.
Petersburg
: the
question,
he
said,
was
closed.
416
HISTORY OE
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXXI.
It
was
not, however,
until the
publication
of
certain
papers*
in
1854,
that
the real
course of Russian
policy
was
clearly
un-
derstood.
Prince Mentchikof
appeared
in
Constantinople
to
urge
the enforcement
of certain
stipulations,
principally
the
right
to
the
custody
of certain
holy places
in
the
East,
the
repair
of a Christian
church
in
Constantinople,
and
the
right
of
the Greek Christians to have their
grievances
represented
by
the
Russian minister.
Prince Mentchikof
continued
to
urge
these demands in various forms
with
great
variation
of
man-
ner,
at
one time
being
haughty
and
threatening,
at
another
mild and
conciliatory
;
at one
time
urging
the more
limited
form of his
demands,
at
another
claiming
not
only
that the
Russian
ambassador should
"represent"
the
grievances
of
the
Christians,
but that
he should
decide
upon
them.
While
these
transactions were
going
on in
Constantinople,
those
who watched them with
some
anxiety
from
a
distance
were
not a little
perplexed by
the
constant variation in
the
out-
ward
demeanour of the
Russian
representative.
It
was evi-
dent that
he had
in view some
object beyond
that
which had
been
avowed
;
and now that
we
have
this
object
distinctly
revealed,
we can
perceive
the
unity
of the
spirit
which ac-
tuated
Prince Mentchikof
through
all
the
diversities
of
his
manner. It
was on the 9th
of
May
that he
sent in his
offi-
cial
note
demanding
for
the
members of the orthodox
Eastern
religion
the
privileges
and
immunities
assigned
to
them db
antiquo,
with
participation
in
all the
advantages
accorded
to
other
Christian sects in
Turkish
dominions,
and a
formal
treaty
to
re-establish the relations of Russia and
the
Porte.
We need not now dwell
upon
this
note to show
how,
pre-
tending
to
rely
upon
the
treaty
of
Kainardji,
the
Russian
minister
demanded
stipulations
which had been
expressly
excluded
from
that
treaty
—
amongst
others,
the
right
of
the
Russian minister
to
adjudicate
upon
the
claims
of
Christians
;
but
it
may
be
observed that
the Mentchikof
note
was
so
worded,
that under
its
cover
every
immunity
which
might
be
granted,
separately,
to
any
Christian
sect within
the
Turkish
dominions,
under
whatsoever
peculiar
and local
circumstances,
would have been
accumulated
in
favour
of the
orthodox
*
Namely,
the
"
Secret and
Confidential Communications
respecting
Turkey
made
to
her
Majesty's
Government
by
the
Emperor
of
Russia,
with
the
Answers returned
to
them,
from
January
to
April,
1853."
A.D.
1850-4]
ORIGIN
OF
THE
PRESENT WAR.
417
Greek
Christians
;
that
the
right
of
adjudication
would
have
constituted
the
emperor
virtual
sovereign
over the
Greek
Christians
;
and that
all these
powers
were to he obtained
in
favour of
that sect
of
Christians
called
"
orthodox,"
which
has
distinguished
itself
by
cruel
persecutions
of
other
Chris-
tian sects.
The Porte
refused
compliance
with
the
note,
on
the score
that
it
would
invade
the
independence
of the
Otto-
man
empire,
and
that
it demanded
guarantees
far
beyond
anything
in the
existing
treaties
with Russia.
The
govern-
ments of Prussia
and
Austria
expressed
to
the British
repre-
sentatives at
Berlin
and
Vienna,
at the end
of
May,
the
opinion
that
the
objections
taken
by
the Ottoman
ministers
were
valid
;
and
the same
opinions
were
expressed
by
the
representatives
of the
four
powers
at
Constantinople.
The
representatives
of
the
four
powers
at
Yienna,
acting
under instructions
from
their
governments,
formed
them-
selves into
a
conference,
and
composed
that
first
Vienna
note
which was
simidtaneously
submitted
to
the
acceptance
of
Russia and of
the Porte.
There
is
but
very
little doubt that
the
object
in the
composition
of
this note
was to reconcile
the
independence
of
Turkey
with
the
self-love
of
Russia,
in the
form
of a
concession,
recognising
the
czar as
the Christian
patron
of
Russians,
but
limiting
the
obligations
of
Turkey
to the
stipulations
of
the
existing
treaties
of
Kainardji
and
Balta Liman.
The
Turkish
government,
how
ever,
found that
the note
would
practically
furnish a text under
which
Russia
might
make
good
some of
the encroachments
that she
had
already
shown
so
strong
a
disposition
to
enforce
;
the
Porte,
therefore,
suggested
modifications
in
the note
to
prevent
that
danger;
and
the
conference
of Vienna
so
thoroughly ap-
proved
of
those
modifications
as to
accept
them,
and to em-
body
them
in a new note.
The
ulterior
objects
which
the
emperor
Nicholas had
already
permitted
to
appear
in his
private
conversations
with Sir
Hamilton
Seymour,
are
enough
to
explain
why
he
instantly
accepted
the
first form of the*
Vienna
note,
and
as
peremptorily
rejected
the second
form.
But there
were
other motives
besides his desire not
to
give up
the
ulterior
objects.
Throughout
all these
negotiations,
nothing
was
more
apparent
than
a
personal
pride
in
the
emperor
Nicholas,
lie was
extremely
indignant
that
Turkey
should
be
permitted
VOL. II.
2
E
418
HISTOET
OF
RUSSIA.
[CJff.
LXXI.
to
make
modifications
in
a
document which he
happened
to
have
accepted.
As
it
was
not
easy
to
understand the
precise
nature
of
this
repugnance,
it was at first
impossible
to
sup-
pose
that in
great
affairs
of
state
the
emperor
should
be ac-
tuated
by
exactly
the
same
vulgar
pride
which
would
make
a
purse-proud
individual
in
ordinary
society indignant
at
being
treated
on
a
level
with a
person
poorer,
or
"
inferior" in
rank.
More
than once
afterwards,
Nicholas
made the
gravest
com-
plaints
at
the
proposal
that a Russian minister should meet
a Turkish
minister,
as
if the two
states were on an
equality.
That
he should be
invited to treat with
Turkey,
he
regarded
as
personal
insult
;
an
outrage
the
more
galling,
since
it
was
proposed
by
England
and France.
In the conversation with
Sir Hamilton
Seymour,
on
the
24th
of
December,
Count
JNesselrode
said,
"
the conduct
pursued
towards the Russian
cabinet
was
unheard of
—
the
sultan
was consulted
as to the
conditions
upon
which he was
disposed
to
make
peace
!"
"
Then,
again,
the idea
of
asking
Russia to
send a
plenipo-
tentiary
to meet a Turkish
plenipotentiary
under
the
auspices
of the
allied ministers was
perfectly
novel
—
was
an
indignity
which
would be offered
only
to
one of the
smallest
of the
European
states
—
was
a
course
which
during
the last
hundred
years
Russia
had
never submitted
to in her
intercourse with
Turkey,
and
to
which she
could not now
be
expected
to lend
herself"
His idea
was
that
a Turkish
minister should
go
to
St.
Petersburg
to submit his
proposals
and learn
the
pleasure
of
the czar.
The same
spirit
comes out
more
distinctly,
it
will be
seen,
in the
secret
correspondence,
where he calls the
sultan
"
ce monsieur
;"
a
phrase
which
has a
slang
acceptation
of
familiarity
approaching
to
contempt,
as
if
he had called
his brother
sovereign
"
that Mr.
Sultan."
Painfully
solicitous
to
avoid the dreaded
contingency
of
an
European
war,
the Vienna
conference
laboured for weeks
upon
the
reconsideration
and
reconstruction
of
its
proposals,
in
order
to coax the
text
into such
a
form as
would
gratify
the self-love
of
the
emperor-,
without
sacrificing
the
practical
independence
of the
Porte. While the conference
was thus
striving
to
accomplish
an unattainable
result,
the Porte
firmly
adhered
to its
determination of
sustaining
its
own
independence,
—
a
determination in which
it had
the
approval
of the
four
powers;
and it
also
persevered
in
using
the
A.D.
1850-4]
OEIGIN
OF THE
PRESENT WAE.
419
most
moderate
language
and the most
respectful
deference
for
the
advice of its
allies.
Russia
in the mean
while also
proceeded
with her
prede-
termined course.
Prince
Mentchikof left
Constantinople
for
Bessarabia,
and
strong
forces were
advanced into the
principalities
of Moldavia and
Vallachia,
not
to make
war,
it
was
said,
but
to hold these
provinces
of
Turkey
as a
"
mate-
rial
guarantee"
until the
czar
should obtain
satisfaction for
his
moral
requirements
and his
spiritual
anxieties
on
behalf
of Greek
orthodoxy.
The
people
of
England
were
unable to
understand
this subtle
distinction,
but not
so
their
govern-
ment,
which
manifested its
casuistic acumen and
its
con-
fidence in the
tractability
of
Russia,
by ordering
the British
fleet
to remain inactive
in the Turkish
waters,
until the
placid
dream
was
dispelled by
news of the total destruction
of
the
sultan's fleet at
Sinope
under
circumstances
of
great
atrocity.
The
tiger-like
cruelty
which
characterised
this
exploit
of the
Russians
roused
a
very
strong feeling
in the
British
people
;
and the
government professed
fully
to
share
that
feeling.
Our ministers had
been
accused
of
backwardness in
affording
substantial aid
to
Turkey.
The advance of the
joint
French
and
English
fleet,
first to Besika
Bay,
and
then,
on the
occu-
pation
of the
principalities,
to the
Dardanelles,
was
popu-
larly
regarded
as a
compliance
Avith
duty
in form rather than
in fact
;
and the Turks
themselves could not have enter-
tained
more
serious
doubts of the
sincerity
of our ministers
than
did multitudes in this
country.
The
outrage
at
Sinope
was
the
finishing
stroke to the
excessive
forbearance which
the
Western
Powers
had
shown to
Russia;
Lord
Clarendon
not
only
addressed
a
very
spirited
despatch
to Sir
Hamilton
Seymour,
but orders were
sent to the
joint
ileet
to
take
complete
military possession
of the Black
Sea,
and
to
drive
into
port
any
Russian
war-ship
that
might
show
itself.
Indignant
at
this
infraction of his
"
rights
as a
belligerent,"
the
emperor
Nicholas
ordered
his ambassadors in Paris
and
London
to
ask of
the
French
and British
governments
whether
the
blockade
was not to
be
equal
—
whether
Turkish
as
well
as
Russian
ships
were
not
to
be
prevented
from
conveying
stores
and re in for
cements
?
"Turkey,'.'
replied
Lord
Clarendon,
£;
would not be
sanctioned
in active
hostilities
2e2
420
HISTOBY
01? RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXXI.
by
sea
;
but neither
would
Turkish
ships
be
prevented
from
conveying
stores and reinforcements
;
for
the
cases
were not
equal,
Russia
being
the
assailant,
and
Turkey
the weaker
state."
There
is no
doubt
that
a
similar answer
was
returned
by
the
French
government
;
the two
governments
of
France
and
England
having,
throughout
the
affair,
acted
with the
most
complete
accord.
From this time the
Russian
govern-
ment assumed a much more
positively
hostile
action
:
the
ambassadors of that
power
were
ordered
to
leave Paris
and
London;
a series
of
angry papers appeared
in
the
official
newspaper
of
the
czar,
the
Journal
of
St.
Petersburg
;
and
finally,
on
the 2nd of
March,
appeared
that
recapitulation
of
the
Russian case
which,
to
prove
that France
and
England
had from the first
been informed
of the
czar's
intentions,
distinctly
announced
the
existence of the secret
communica-
tions,
including
a
complete
statement
of the
emperor's
intentions. The
existence
of
this
correspondence
was not
unknown in
London
;
the fact that
the
emperor
had
given
most unusual
explanations,
and had claimed to be
believed
"as a
gentleman,"
was not
unfrequently
alluded to
by
those
who were
acquainted
with
the
circumstances
;
but
ministers
believed
themselves
to be
under
an
obligation
to
reserve
communications
which had
passed confidentially.
The
chal-
lenge
in
the
St.
Petersburg
Gazette
absolved them from
that
responsibility
;
the secret
papers
were laid before
Parlia-
ment,
the
public
learned at
once
the
full extent of
Russian
treachery,
the whole
enormity
of
the frauds
practised
by
a
great
potentate
on
contemporary
monarchs,
and the
straight-
forward
independence
which our ministers had
shown.
Nay,
it
was not until after the
publication
of
these
reserved
papers
that
ministers
themselves
understood the
full
nature of the delusion. The
study
of the
papers
is one
of
the
most instructive
which
can
engage
the student
of
history
or
politics. By
the
memorandum which the
emperor
Nicholas
left
with our
government
on
his visit
in
1844,
it
might
be
considered
that he
stood
morally
pledged
to
uphold
the
Turkish
empire
as
long
as
possible
;
but
it will
be
observed,
from a
comparative
survey
of
his
deliberately-
prepared professions
and
of
his
actions,
that those declara-
tions which others
regarded
as moral
pledges,
he
used
as
blinds. In the conversations
which he
had with
Sir
Ha-
A.D.
1S50-4]
ORIGIN OF
THE PRESENT
WAR.
421
milton
Seymour,
he
began by
insinuating
a
participation
of
England
and
Russia
in the
most nefarious breach
of bis own
memorandum
of 1844
;
and
failing
to obtain the
complicity
of
England,
he left her
with
the
impression,
created
by
assurances
sometimes
conveyed
in
the
more solemn
form
of
warnings,
that
he
should
not do the
very
things
he was
already
at work
upon.
His whole
course of behaviour
to
Sir
Hamilton
Seymour exactly
resembles
that of a
practised
hand in lawless
acts,
breaking
the ice with one whom
he
wants
to make
an
accomplice.
He
begins
metaphorically,
by
talking
of
Turkey
as
"
a sick
man,"
a
man so
sick
that he
is
"about to
die." This device
is
very
ancient
: the Vene-
tian
government
gave
out
that
their inconvenient
prisoner,
Carrara,
had
a severe catarrh
;
Prince
Arthur
of
England
was described
by
John
as
sick
;
and in more
modern
times
vulgarer
culprits
have
reported
the sickness
of
children,
for
example,
doomed to benefit
their
parents
by
the
medium of
the
burial club. The
wily
Nicholas
said
that
he had no
desire
to hasten the
death of the
sick man
—
Heaven fore-
feud
!
these
people
never have
such
desires
;
but
seeing
the
probability
of
the
event,
he
wished
to
prevent
confusion
by
preparing
for
it. Anxious
to
prevent
the
indecency
of
quarrelling
at
the funeral
about the
will,
he
proposes
that
England
and he
should
make
Turkey's
will for
her. He
is
desirous
of
nothing
for
himself,
only
he
has no
objection
that
England
should
take
Egypt
and
Candia. And
all
this,
he
repeats,
when
English
ministers revolt from
the
poisonous
suggestion,
is
not to hasten the
death
of
the
sick man
—
not
to
get
anything
for
himself,
but
only
to
prevent
scandal
at
the
funeral,
and to
have
England
will)
him.
That is all he is
anxious about
—
he
protests
it
is.
For Austria is
"
identical"
in interest with Eussia
;
as to
Prussia,
he
does not
think it
worth
while
to
speak;
and
as to the
emperor Napoleon,
"
this
No.
III.,"
he does not care
at
all
—
he is
ready
to
defend
Turkey
against
Erance. So
he
says
to
England.
England
still
repels
him,
and
ho
half
unsays
his
hints,
averring
1I1.1I lie
only
desires
to
protract
the evil
day
of
Turkey's
dissolution,
and
agreeing
with
our
ministers
that
in
order
to do
so,
peremptory
demands must
not
be
pressed
upon Turkey.
While
he
is
thus
talking,
he is
actually preparing
the
422 HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXXI,
peremptory
demands which Prince Mentchikof
urged
in
Constantinople,
and
the armies which
were to
seize the
material
guarantee.
And after he
had
used this
language
to
England,
secretly,
hut
without
success,
he
goes
to France
with similar
proposals
;
only
in
this
instance,
it
is
helieved,
offering,
besides a
partition
of
Turkey,
the Rhine
provinces,
which
France has so
long regarded
as
her
right.
Thus
he
bends
to
ask the
complicity
of the
despised
emperor
of the
French,
whom he had not
deigned
to call
"
sir,
my
brother,"
but
to whom
he
now
offers,
as
the
price
of
co-operation,
those
provinces
which
belong
to his own
ally
and
dear
brother-in-law the
king
of
Prussia.
And
oh,
depth
of humi-
liation
! the
great
emperor
of all
the
Russias,
who
regards
the
Euxine as a Russian
lake,
and sets his foot
upon
Sweden
to
seize the
reversion
of Denmark
—
who treats Austria as
his
dependent,
and Prussia as his
vassal,
—
who is
indignant
at
being
asked
to treat with
"
ce
monsieur'''
the
sultan,
and
cares
nothing
for
France
if
England
will
but
join
him,
—
ds
exposed
in his
vain
attempts
to
purchase
the
complicity
of
our island
government,
and is
repulsed
in his
overtures
to
"
Number
III."
We have
already
given
the
substance
of
the
famous
note
of
1844,
and
here we
subjoin
an abstract of
the
"
Secret
Cor-
respondence."
SIR
Q. H.
SEYMOUR TO
LORD
JOHN
RUSSELL.
"
St.
Petersburg,
Jan.
11,
1853.
"
My
Lord,
—
On the
evening
of
the
9th
instant,
I
had the
honour
of
seeing
the
emperor
at the
palace
of
the
grand-
duchess
Helen, who,
it
appeared,
had
kindly
requested
per-
mission
to
invite
lady
Seymour
and
myself
to meet the im-
perial
family.
"
The
emperor
came
up
to
me
in
the most
gracious
man-
ner,
to
say
that he had
heard with
great pleasure
of
her
majesty's
government
having
been
definitely
formed
;
adding,
that
he
trusted
the
ministry
would
be of
long
duration.
His
imperial majesty
desired
me
particularly
to
convey
this
assu-
rance to the
earl of
Aberdeen,
with
whom,
he
said,
he
had
been
acquainted
for
nearly
forty
years,
and
for
whom he