Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/454

 412 APPENDIX. ' resummon Prince Gortschakoff by letter to evacuate the ' Priticipalities within fifteen days from the receipt of his ' letter ; that the Prince's refusal will be considered as tan- tamount to a declaration of war on the part of Russia ; 1 that hostilities will be declared thereupon by the Porte ; ' that all persons now here in the employment of Russia ' will then be requested to withdraw ; and, finally, that all ' merchant vessels under Russian colours will also be re- ' quired to leave the port of Constantinople.' — ('Eastern ' Papers,' part ii. p. 151.) After the 4th of October, and at a time when the state of war was erroneously supposed to have begun, the Turkish Government was sending to Prince Gortschakoff the summons devised by Lord Stratford — a summons which the Sublime Porte described as ' the last 1 expressio)i of its pacific sentiments' — (Ibid. p. 154.) The mistake was sustained by a notion that the postponement of hostdities applied only to 'hostilities on the Danube;' but Lord Stratford's despatch of the 21st of October shows that — not only on the Danube, but — on the Asiatic frontiers the attack Avas to be 'immediately after the expiration of ' the fifteen days.' — (Ibid. p. 198.) At one time, the Turk- ish Ministers set up a theory that, as Prince Gortschakofl's answer (dated the 10th of October) was virtually a refusal, the term offered by the summons was brought to a close on that day— the 10th (ibid. p. 198); but the very fact that they were discussing with Lord Stratford this question about the state of war beginning on the 10th, shows con- clusively that neither they nor Lord Stratford had any notion of its having begun on the 4th of October.