Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/216

 174 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1S53 chap, religion, the Sublime Porte had failed in what was • due to an august and ancient ally. The refusal, he said, was a fresh injury. He declared his mission at an end ; and after asserting that the Imperial Court could not, without prejudice to its dignity and without exposing itself to fresh insults, continue to maintain a mission at Con- stantinople, he announced that he should not only quit Constantinople himself, but should take with him the whole Staff of the Imperial Legation, except the Director of the Commercial Depart- ment, The Prince added, that the refusal of a guarantee for the Orthodox Greco-Eussian religion obliged the Imperial Government to seek in its own power that security which the Porte declined to give by way of treaty engagement ; and he added that any infringement of the existing state of the Eastern Church would be regarded as an act of hostility to Paissia * Prince Mentschikoff's departure did not imme- diately follow the despatch of this Note, and on the morning of the 19th Lord Stratford took a step of great moment to the tranquillity of Europe, for it laid the seed of a wholesome policy which, until it was ruined, as will be seen hereafter, by the evil designs of some, and by the weakness of policy in- other men, promised fair to enforce justice and to thisftt'p. maintain truth without bringing upon the world the calamity of a war. Instead of putting him- self in communication with one only of the other great Towers, and so preparing a road to hostili
 * May 18. ' Eastern Tapers,' p. 206.