Lord Russia Heir to the Byzantine Empire. a day. He declared he could not longer bear in silence his share of responsibility for the Crimean War. There was not, he said, a criminal in a European jail, or a cannibal in the South Sea Islands, whose indignation would not rise at the sight of what had been done by the one great anti-human specimen of humanity. He demanded the entire withdrawal of the administrative rule of the Turks from these provinces. The words which follow have become famous: "As an old servant of the Crown and State, I entreat my countrymen, upon whom, perhaps, far more than upon any other people in Europe it depends, to require and insist that our Government, which has been working in one direction, shall work in another, and shall employ all its vigour to concur with the other States of Europe in obtaining the extinction of the Turkish executive power in Bulgaria. Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the only possible manner-namely, by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and their Yuzbashis, their Kaimakams and their Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned." On September 18th, when the excitement of this pamphlet was at its height, the appearance of Mr. Walter Baring's report on the massacres added fuel to the flames. He put the number of Bulgarians massacred at 12,000. The case of Batak was even worse than the report. The inhabitants had been summoned to give up their arms, and were assured that if they did so their lives would be spared. They obeyed and were all murdered; 1,200 were burned alive in a church. Lord Derby, who felt the shame and infamy more keenly than other members of the Cabinet, ordered Sir Henry Elliot, the British Ambassador at the Porte, to inform the Turkish Government that their atrocious crimes had roused the anger of the British people, and that the Powers could not be indifferent to such abominations. He was instructed to ask for a personal interview with the Sultan, and demand the punishment of the murderers, especially Achmet Aga, to which request, it is needless to say, the Turks paid no heed. Unhappily, this honourable expression of opinion about the conduct of Turkey was checked by the stupid jealousy which had been the curse of British policy in the East. It was thought part of Great Britain's duty to defend Constantinople against capture by Russia, whereas a saner policy teaches that Russia is the natural heir to the Byzantine Empire, and that, if she had become mistress of Constantinople a hundred years before it would have THE CONSTANTINOPLE CONFERENCE been better for Great Britain and better for the world. It was idle for statesmen to attempt to pervert what all the forces of Nature were clamouring to have done. The Tsar, however, gave the British Ambassador his word of honour that he had no designs on Constantinople, nor any intention of annexing Bulgaria. field's The Emperor Alexander now determined on more energetic Beaconsmeasures. He could not see with indifference Servia destroyed, Warning to Bosnia and Herzegovina wasted, the Bulgarian Christians mur- Russia. dered. The result of conferences at Livadia was that on October 31st, 1876, he gave Turkey the alternative of war with Russia or a cessation of hostilities within two months. The latter, after some delay, was agreed to by Midhat. But this policy met with strong opposition from Great Britain. At the Guildhall Banquet on November 9th Lord Beaconsfield delivered a speech of a threatening description. He said that there was no country so well prepared for war as England, because there was no country whose resources were so great, and he added that in a righteous cause England would begin a fight which would not end until right had been done. Naturally the Tsar was very angry at this. "Why," he asked, "should there be war with England, and what was the righteous cause?” He had assented to a congress proposed by England, of which the object was peace. Lord Salisbury, who had been deputed to attend the conference, left England on December 5th, and the conference opened on December 12th. Anti-War Meeting. In London a memorable meeting was held in St. James's Hall, Great on December 8th, to protest against war with Russia. Among the conveners were men of letters who did not as a rule take any part in politics, such as William Morris and Robert Browning, John Ruskin and Edward Burne-Jones. Carlyle wrote advising that the unspeakable Turk should immediately be struck out of the question and the country left to honest European guidance, delaying which could be profitable and agreeable only to gamblers on the Stock Exchange, but distressing and unprofitable to all other men. The Duke of Westminster, who presided at the morning meeting, advised that the fleets and armies of Great Britain should be sent to Constantinople, not in opposition to Russia, but for the coercion of the Turks. The conference sat in Constantinople from December 12th to The Conthe 20th. It consisted of representatives of the great European stantinople Powers without any member from Turkey. It decided that Conference. reforms should be introduced into the Turkish administration of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Bulgaria, and that a force of 6,000 Europeans should see that they were carried out. If it rejected Russia War. this proposal, the Ottoman Empire should be at an end. Unfortunately, the Powers were not agreed on the policy they should pursue, and Lord Salisbury was instructed to oppose occupation. The manner in which the Porte met the proposals was characteristic. The day before the conference met Midhat was appointed Grand Vizir, and Safvet Pasha announced the establishment of a Parliamentary Government. By this instrument all provinces of the Turkish Empire were to enjoy equal rights; therefore it would be impossible to accept the proposals of the conference, by which certain provinces were to be treated in an exceptional manner. The advent of this precious document was announced to expectant Europe by a salvo of artillery; but its only result was, on December 28th, to prolong the armistice and postpone the danger of immediate war. The demands of the Powers instantly took the form of an International Commission nominated by them, and the submission of the appointment of Governors-General to their approval. On January 20th, 1877, these points were finally rejected by Safvet Pasha, and Lord Salisbury declared the conference to be at an end. Shortly after this, on March 1st, Midhat, the reputed leader of the reform party, was banished, and Edhem Pasha took his place. Although the conference had failed, owing to the disagreeDeclares ment of the Powers, the Emperor of Russia determined to proceed with the beneficent work of protecting the Christian subjects of the Porte from intolerable oppression. He sent Shuvalov and Ignatiev to London, with the result that a protocol was signed at the British Foreign Office on the last day of March. It declared that if the reforms promised by the Turkish Government were not effectively carried out the situation would become intolerable. On April 10th the Porte repudiated the protocol as inconsistent with the Treaty of Paris, and after a short delay Russia declared war. Alexander avowed that he was acting as the representative of Europe, but Great Britain declined to endorse this view. CHAPTER III THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR AFTER the Emperor Alexander had decided upon war, he left The Tsar's St. Petersburg, and on April 23rd arrived at Kishinev, the head- Manifesto. quarters of his army. On the following day he issued a manifesto announcing to the world that he undertook the war in order to obtain for his fellow Christians living in Turkish territory the securities which were absolutely necessary for their future welfare. On the night of April 23rd he crossed the Pruth and entered Roumania, with whose Government he had made a convention which enabled him to march upon the Danube. The Emperor accompanied the army, not with the idea of taking the command, which he left in the hands of Duke Nicholas, but to stimulate the courage of the soldiers, and he remained in Ploesti, where his headquarters were stationed. Azakov wrote in a Moscow newspaper, "The Russian banners are moving on the other side of the Danube, for the purpose of restoring freedom and the rights of humanity to the Christian races of the Balkan Peninsula, hitherto enslaved and persecuted, despised by the Powers of Europe, who are so proud of their civilisation. The slumbering Orient is awake; not only the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula, but the whole Slavic world awaits its regeneration. This is the dawn of a new, an entirely new, epoch-a dawn which announces the coming of a new day for the Slavic race." It is desirable to give some account of the organisation of the The Russian Slavic armies. The Russian army was organised in army corps. Army. It was recruited by a system of compulsory military service which had been introduced in 1874, in consequence of the lessons of the war of 1870, but had not been completely developed when the present war broke out. In each army corps there were two infantry divisions, each composed of two brigades. Each brigade contained two regiments, each regiment three battalions, each battalion five companies. An army corps also had a division of cavalry, composed of two brigades, each containing two regiments; one brigade had a regiment of dragoons and a regiment of lancers, the other a regiment of hussars and a regiment of Cossacks. The cavalry division, besides, had two horse artillery The Turkish The Russian batteries, each consisting of six four-pounder guns. The army corps had, further, two brigades of artillery, one containing three nine-pounder batteries, the other three four-pounder batteries, so that an army corps at full strength held 25,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 108 guns; but in actual service the corps were seldom, if ever, complete. The Cossacks were a peculiar part of the Russian army. They had an organisation of their owna compromise between the national customs and the arrangements of a modern army. They were, as Maurice says, a semi-regular force of national horsemen, provided their own horses and equipment, and rendered military service in lieu of taxes, the Government supplying them with arms and ammunition. They were intelligent, accustomed to rely on their own resources, and made good scouts, when placed under suitable officers, but were deficient in discipline. They were organised in squadrons 100 strong, called sotnias. The Turkish army was composed entirely of Mohammedans, Christians not being permitted to serve, but paying a poll-tax instead. The army consisted of four classes of soldiers, each with a different obligation. A Mussulman had first to serve in the nizam, or active army, in which the infantry served for four years and the cavalry and artillery for five; he then passed into the ithick for two more years' service; from this he went into the redif for eight years, and then into the mustaphiz for six years. The army was divided into seven army corps, formed on a territorial basis: two of these were in Europe and five in Asia. The whole organisation of the Turkish army was very loose, but it was now in a better condition than usual, having been employed in 1875 and 1876 against Herzegovina and Montenegro. The soldiers were excellent, but their commanders were corrupt. They looked upon their commands merely as sources of income, and were given to peculation. They depended for their advancement, and even for the maintenance of their position, on Court intrigue; but, at the same time, the pashas were aware that if they did not do their duty they would inevitably lose their heads. The Russian army contained fourteen army corps, to which Commander. must be added a special corps of Bulgarian refugees, under Russian officers, so that the total force available at the beginning of the operations was about 200,000. It was commanded by the Grand Duke Nicholas, the brother of the Tsar, a man to whom the reorganisation of the army was principally due. His Chief of Staff was Nepokortshitzki, who was sometimes called "the Russian |