Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/413

 BETWEEN THE CZAlt AND THE SULTAN. 371 conferring at Vienna. It was a draft of a Note chap. understood to be brought forward by Austria '_ in her mediating capacity, and proposed to be ^fJiefc^,. addressed by the Porte to the Russian Govern- Fowers > aud ment. The parties to the Conference believed that the engagements purporting to be made by the Note on the part of the Sultan might satisfy the Czar without endangering the true interests of Turkey. Indeed, the Austrian Government, somewhat forgetting its duty as a faithful medi- ator, had used means of ascertaining that the Note would be acceptable to Kussia,* but with- out taking a like step in favour of the other disputant. Copies of the Note thus framed were acuepte.i sent for approval to St Petersburg and to Con- 3 stantinople, and the acceptance of the arrange- ment was pressed upon the Governments of the two disputing States with all the moral weight which the four great Powers could give to their unanimous award. And here it ought to be marked that at this The French ■, -r-. i t> t i n • i Emperor moment the French Emperor did nothing to docs nothing .. __ to thwart thwart the restoration of tranquillitv. He per- the success • • of the Note. haps believed that if a .Note which had origi- nated in Paris were to become the basis of a settlement, he might found on this circumstance a claim to the glory of having pacified Europe, and in that wholesome way might achieve the sort of conspicuousness which he loved and needed. Perhaps he was only obeying that doubleness of mind which made him always
 * ' Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 27.