Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/27

 In August 1827 the mediation of the Powers was rejected by the Porte but accepted by the Greeks. On 20th October occurred the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Navarino. Early in December the Ambassadors left Constantinople, and on the 20th of that month the Porte issued a defiant manifesto.

At a sitting of 22nd March, 1829, the London Conference sanctioned an arrangement which, though afterwards superseded, marks an important stage in the history of the question. The Ambassadors of the three Powers at Constantinople were directed to open a negotiation with the Porte upon the following bases: Greece to be governed, under the suzerainty of the Porte, by a hereditary Christian prince or chief, not a member of the reigning families of the signatories to the Treaty of 1827, to be chosen by those Powers and the Porte. The new Principality to consist of a specified portion of the mainland and specified islands, and to pay an annual tribute to the Porte of 1,500,000 Turkish piastres. The arrangement to be guaranteed in pursuance of Art. 6 of the Treaty of 1827.

Under the pressure of the war with Russia, the Porte on 15th August, 1829, declared its adherence to the Treaty of London, and conditionally to the Protocol of 22nd March. On 9th September it promised to accept all the conclusions of the Conference of London.

A new departure was taken by the Conference in 1830. On 3rd February of that year it adopted three Protocols. By the first of these it was agreed, in substance : that Greece should be wholly independent of the Porte ; that it should be governed by a prince not to be chosen from the reigning