Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/214

 172 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 CHAP. XL The Great Council de- termine to resist. founded ujxdii a change of Ministry, was a request too fair to be refused with decency; and on the other hand, the violent orders which had just come in from St Petersburg enjoined the Priuce to close the unequal strife with Lord Stratford, and to enforce instant compliance, or at once break off and depart. The Note began by an- nouncing that Reshid Pasha's communication imposed upon the Russian Ambassador the duty of breaking off from the then present time his official relations with the Sublime Porte ; but it added that the Ambassador would suspend the last demand, which was to determine the attitude which Russia would thenceforth assume towards Turkey. The Note further declared that a con- tinuance of hesitation on the part of the Ottoman Government would be regarded as an indication of reserve and distrust offensive to the Russian Government, and that the departure of the Rus- sian Ambassador, and also of the Imperial Le- gation, would be the inevitable and immediate consequence. By the voices of forty-two against three, the Great Council of the Porte determined to adhere to the decision already taken ; and on the 18th, Reshid Pasha called upon Prince Mentschikoff, and orally imparted to him the extreme length to which the Turkish Government was willing to go in the way of concession. The honour of the Porte required, he said, that the exclusively spirit- ual privileges granted under the Sultan's prede- cessors, and confirmed by His Majesty, should