Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/201

 BETWEEN" THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 159 cause, nay even a specious grievance, would have chap. helped Prince Mentschikoff better than the ad- ' vance of the 4th and 5th corps, or the patrolling of Dannenberg's cavalry. In truth, what now befell the Russian Ambas- Mentaohi- sador was this : — He found himself placed under cuity the compulsion of violent instructions at a time when all ground for just resentment was wanting. He could obey his orders, and force on a rupture ; but he could no longer do this upon grounds which Europe would regard as having a semblance of fairness. When he had despatched his Note of the 19th of April, the question of the Holy Places was still unsettled, and he was then able to blend that grievance with other matters, and make it serve as a basis for his ulterior demands ; but now that that question was disposed of, his stand- ing-ground failed him, for he alleged against the Sultan no infraction of a treaty, and the only grievance of which he had had to complain had been redressed on the 22d of April ; and yet, passing straight from this smooth condition of things, he had to call upon the Sultan to sign a treaty which he disapproved, and to make his re- fusal to do so a ground for the immediate rupture of diplomatic relations. The natural hope of a diplomatist placed in a ne is baffled stress of this sort would have lain in the chance stmtfora. that the Government upon which he was pressing might be guilty of some imprudence, and it may be inferred that the Note of the 19th had been framed with a view of provoking the Turkish