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clared that they would consent to nothing, unless the privileges in question were granted to the Greeks inhabiting ancient Greece, that is, the Morea, Attica, the Isles of the Archipelago; and they announced that they would leave the capital altogether.

Affairs are now in this situation. If now, God preserve us from it, after seeing such conduct, and such condition, it were necessary to beat a retreat, and yield to the demand in question, that is, the independence of the Greeks, the contagion would soon reach the Greeks of Rumelia and Anatolia, without any possibility of stopping the evil; they would all pretend to the same independence, or renounce the duties of Rayas; and in the course of one or two years, triumphing over the generous Moslem nation, they would end one day, by dicta. ting law to us, and (Heaven preserve us from it) the ruin of our religion and empire would be the result. While, thanks to God, the numerous provinces of Europe and Asia are filled with an immense population of Moslems, will the sacred book and law allow us to permit, through fear of war, our religion to be trampled under footto yield ourselves to the infidels, our country, our wives, our chil. dren, our possessions?

Although at first, the whole world were in the power of the in. fidels, yet, at the appearance of the true religion, God assisting the faithful, the Mussulmans our brothers, who have appeared and dis. appeared from the happy times of our great prophet till now, have never, in any war, from their sincere devotion and unshaking courage, considered the number of the infidels; but, united in heart for

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the defence of religion, how many thousands of times have they not sent to the thousands of infidels! How many states and provinces have they not conquered with the sabre in their hands! So often as we unite together like them, and we fight for the glory of God, the Most High will enlighten us with his inspira. tions, and our holy legislator will cover us with his tutelary shield; his absent companions will serve as guides, and no doubt, under their auspices, we shall gain splendid victories.

If the three powers, seeing us, as before, determined to reject their vain demands, admit our an. swers and explanations, and cease to interfere in Greek affairs, good; if, on the contrary, they should persist in wishing to force us to accept their demand, then, even if (according to the tradition that all the infidels are only one nation) they should all league against us, we shouldd recommend ourselves to God; we should place our. selves under the protection of our holy prophet; and, united for the defence of religion and the empire, all the Visirs, Ülemas, Ridjas, perhaps even all the Musselmans, would only form one body.

This war is not like the preceding one-a political war for provinces or frontiers-the object of the infidels being to destroy Islamism, and to trample on the Mohammedan nation. This war ought to be considered as a purely religious and national war. May all the faithful, rich or poor, great or small, know that combat is a duty for us. Let them not then think of any pay; far from that, let us sacrifice our property and our persons; let us fulfil with zeal the duties which the honour of Is.

lamism imposes upon us; let us unite our efforts-let us labour, body and soul, for the maintenance of religion till the day of judgment. The Moslems have no other means of obtaining their salvation in this world or the other.

We hope that the Most High will deign to confound and disperse every where the infidels-the enemies of our religion and our empire and that, at all times, in all places, and on all occasions, he will grant to the faithful both victory and triumph. Our true situation being known to all Mussulmen, can we doubt that, however little faith and piety they may have, they will acknowledge their duty; that they will unite heart and soul for the maintenance of our religion and empire, as well for their salvation in this world as in the other ;-that in time of need they will perform with valour and zeal the duties of war, and fulfil the requisitions of our holy law? Succour is sent from God!

Circular note of Count Nesselrode to the legation, respecting the rela

tions with the Porte.

St. Petersburg, Nov. 12, 1827. At the moment when the decisive battle which the allied squadrons were obliged to fight with the Turkish and Egyptian fleet in the Bay of Navarino excites general attention, I consider it as proper to acquaint you, sir, of the point of view in which the imperial cabinet considers that remarkable event. Undoubtedly, it would have been our first wish to see the treaty of London carrie into effect without bloodshed, and on this account we lament our victory; but, on the other hand, the emperor has imme

diately perceived, that in the alternative of seeing the main object of that convention disappointed, by the annihilation of the Greeks on the continent, and the attack with which Ibrahim Pasha threatened the islands of the Archipelago, after the faithlessness of the latter had been proved by two violations, on the 13th and 21st of September, of the armistice solemnly concluded with him, the Admirals who had entered the Bay of Navarino with the most pacific intentions, but were then attacked, had merely fulfilled the instructions given them in accepting the combat, and that they have successfully served the common cause.

The battle of Navarino places, in a clear light, the alliance, and the policy of the powers who signed the treaty of London; it gives reason to hope that the Porte, being at length made sensible of its error, will hasten to accept the terms, which certainly call for some sacrifices; but, at the same time, secure to it valuable compensation. The resolutions of the sultan must now decide those which our august mo. narch will take. At all events, whether the Porte may determine upon a conduct conformable to our wishes, or whether it may add to the disadvantages of its situation by hostile measures, his majesty the emperor is firmly resolved, in concert with England and France, to proceed in the execution of the treaty of the 6th of July; to effect with them the beneficent stipulations of that treaty; and, in every state of affairs, to observe the generous principle which forbids the contracting powers to form any views of an aggrandizement by conquest, or of any exclusive advantage.

(Signed) NESSELRODE,

Manifesto of Russia, against the Porte.

By the grace of God, we, Nicholas I. emperor and autocrat of all the Russias, &c. &c. The treaty of Bucharest, concluded in the year 1812 with the Ottoman Porte, after having been for sixteen years the subject of reiterated disputes, now no longer subsists, in spite of all of our exertions to maintain it, and to preserve it from all attacks. The Porte, not satisfied with having destroyed the basis of that treaty, now defies Russia, and prepares to wage against it a bellum ad internacionem; it sum. mons its people in a mass to armsaccuses Russia of being its irre. concilable enemy, and tramples under foot the convention of Akerman, and with it that of all preceding treaties.

Lastly, the Porte does not hesitate to declare that it accepted the conditions of this peace only as a mask to conceal its intentions and its preparations for a new war. Scarcely is this remarkable con. fession made, when the rights of the Russian flag are violated-the vessels which it covers detainedand the cargoes made the prey of a rapacious and arbitrary government. Our subjects found themselves compelled to break their oath, or to leave without delay a hostile country. The Bosphorus is closed-our trade annihilated-our southern provinces, deprived of the only channel for the exportation of their produce, are threatened with incalculable injury. Nay more :At the moment when the negotiations between Russia and Persia are nearly concluded, a sudden change on the part of the Persian government checks the course of them. It soon appears that the Ottoman Porte exerts itself to make

Persia waver, by promising powerful aid; arming in haste the troops in the adjoining provinces, and preparing to support, by a threatening attack, this treacherous hostile language. This is the series of injuries of which Turkey has been guilty, from the conclusion of the treaty of Akerman up to this day, and this is unhappily the fruit of the sacrifices and the generous exertions by which Russia has incessantly endeavoured to maintain peace with a neighbouring nation.

But all patience has its limit. The honour of the Russian name— the dignity of the empire-the inviolability of its rights, and that of our national glory, have prescribed to us the bounds of it.

It is not till after having weighed in their fullest extent the duties imposed on us by imperative necessity, and inspired with the greatest confidence in the justice of our cause, that we have ordered our army to advance, under the divine protection, against an enemy who violates the most sacred obligations of the law of nations.

We are convinced that our faithful subjects will join with our pray. ers, the most ardent wishes for the success of our enterprise, and that they will implore the Almighty to lend his support to our brave sol. diers, and to shed his divine blessing on our arms, which are des. tined to defend our liberty, religion, and our beloved country.

Given at St. Petersburg, the 14th (26th) April, in the year of our Lord, 1828, and the third of our reign.

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Declaration.

All the wishes of Russia to remain at peace with a neighbouring nation have proved vain, notwithstanding its great patience and the most costly sacrifices: she has been obliged to confide to arms the defence of her rights in the Levant, and energetically to impress on the Ottoman Porte respect for existing treaties. It will, however, develope the imperative and just motives which impose on it the melancholy necessity of such a resolution. Sixteen years have passed since the peace of Bucharest, and for the same period we have seen the Porte act contrary to the stipulations of the treaty,-evade its promises, or indefinitely delay the fulfilment of them. But too many proofs which the imperial cabinet will adduce, irrefragably prove this infatuated hostile tendency of the policy of the divan. On more than one occasion, particularly in 1821, the Porte assumed with respect to Russia a character of defiance and open hostility. For these three months past it has again assumed this character, by formal acts and measures which are known to all Europe.

On the same day that the ambassadors of the three powers, who by a convention free from all self interestedness, are united in a cause which is no other than that of religion and of suffering humanity, expressed at their departure from Constantinople an ardent wish that peace might be preserved; on the same day when they pointed out the easy means of attaining that object, and when the Porte in the same manner, most positively expressed its pacific disposition, on that same day it summoned all nations professing the Mahometan

faith to arms against Russia, de. nouncing it as the implacable enemy of Islamism, accusing it of a design to overthrow the Ottoman empire, and while it announces its resolution to negotiate, for the sole purpose of gaining time for arming, but never intending to fulfil the essential articles of the treaty of Akerman, it declares at the same time, that it concluded that treaty with no other design than that of breaking it; the Porte knew well that in this manner it also broke all preceding treaties, the renewal of which was expressly stipulated by that of Akerman; but it had al. ready taken its resolutions beforehand, and regulated all its steps ac. cordingly.

Scarcely had the sultan spoken with the vassals of his crown, when the privileges of the Russian flag were already violated, the ships covered by it detained, their cargoes sequestrated, the command. ers of the ships obliged to dispose of them at prices arbitrarily fixed, the amount of an incomplete and tardy payment reduced to one half, and the subjects of his majesty the emperor, compelled either to descend into the class of cayas, or to leave in a body the dominions of the Ottoman government. Mean. time the trade of the Bosphorus is closed, the trade of the Black Sea hindered, the Russian towns, whose existence depend upon it, see destruction before their eyes, and the southern provinces of his majesty the emperor, lose the only channel for the exportation of their produce, and the only maritime connexion which can promote the exchange of their commodities, render their industry productive, and favour their manufactures and prosperity. Even the boundaries of Turkey did

not limit the expression of these hostile sentiments. At the same time that they were expressed at Constantinople, General Pascovich, after the conclusion of a glorious campaign, was negotiating a treaty of peace with Persia, the conditions of which were already accepted by the court of Teheran. On a sudden, lukewarmness succeded to the eagerness which had hitherto been shown for the conclusion of a convention which was already approved by both par. ties in all its particulars. These delays were followed by difficul. ties, and then by an evidently hos. tile tendency; and while on the one hand the conduct of the neigh. bouring pachas, who hastily armed, manifested this tendency, on the other hand authentic information, and positive confessions, revealed the secret of the promise of a di. version which was to oblige us to make new efforts.

Thus the Turkish government, in its proclamations, announced its intention of breaking its treaties with Russia, while it annihilated them by its actions; thus it an. nounced war for a remote future time; when it had already begun it in fact against the subjects and the commerce of Russia. Where war was just extinguished, it tried to rekindle it. Russia will no longer dwell on the motives which entitle it not to bear such evidently hostile actions. If a state could renounce its dearest interests, sacrifice its honour, and give up the transactions which are the monuments of its glory and the pledges of its prosperity, it would be a trai tor to itself, and by disregarding its rights become guilty of disregard. ing its duties.

Such rights and such duties ap

pear in a stronger light where they follow the most evident moderation, and the most irrefragible proofs of pacific intentions. The sacrifices which Russia, ever since the memorable epoch which overthrew at the same time military despotism, and the spirit of revolution, has imposed on itself, with a view to secure to the world a durable peace; these sacrifices, equally voluntary and numerous, inspired by the most liberal policy, are known to the world; the history of late years testifies them; and even Turkey, though little disposed duly to appreciate them, and in nowise entitled to pretend to them, has felt their favourable effects; yet it has not ceased to overlook the advantages of its stipulations with the cabinet of St. Petersburg, of the fundamental treaties of Kainurdjee, Jassy, and Bucharest, which, while they place the existence of the Porte and the integrity of its frontiers, under the protection of the law of nations, must naturally have an influence on the duration of the empire.

Scarcely was the peace of 1812 signed, when it was thought that the difficult, but eventful, circumstances in which Russia then was, might be said with impunity to redouble the violations of its engage. ments. An amnesty was promised to the Servians; instead of that an invasion took place and a dreadful massacre. The privileges of Mol. davia and Wallachia were guaran. tied; but a system of plunder completed the ruin of those unhappy provinces. Theincursions of the tribes which inhabit the left bank of the Kuban were to be prevented by the care of the Porte; but Turkey, not contented with raising pretensions to several fortresses, ab

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