Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/418

 37G ORIGIN OF THE WAli OF 1853 CHAP. XVII. The Turkish Government determines to reject it unless al- tered. was that, without any signs of painful doubt, the Turkish Government determined to stand firm. They quietly introduced into the draft the modi- fications which they deemed to be necessary for extracting its dangerous quality, and resolved that, unless these changes were admitted, they would altogether reject the Note. They were supported by the unanimous decision of the Great Council. It might seem that, with Lord Stratford and the Turkish Government on one side, and all the rest of Europe, including England herself, on the other, the preponderance would be soon deter- mined ; and Lord Clarendon remonstrated against the obstinacy of the Turks in terms which ap- proached to a disapproval of all that had lately been done at Constantinople ;* but Europe was in the wrong, and Lord Stratford and the Turks were in the right ; and happily for the world, a strong man and a good cause make a formidable con- junction. Lord Stratford did not fail to show his Government that the objections of the Turks to the proposed Note were well founded ; and Europe was compelled to remember that the Russian de- mand still had in it the original vice of wrongfully seeking to extort a treaty in time of peace. On the 19th of August the Porte declined to accept the Vienna Note, without introducing into it the required alterations. *f* These alterations + Ibid. p. 80. A copy of the ' Vienna Note,' and of the al- terations insisted upon by the Turks, is given in the Appendix, in order to show the exact difference of words which brought about the final rupture between Russia and the Porte.
 * 'Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 91.