Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/33

 IN TIIK WAR AGALWST KUSSIA. likely that they were skilfully making the most chap. of these occunences, with a view to embroil their ' maritime allies in the approaching war, and that ^i^^g^^f ■when they asked the Ambassadors to take part in y,','rk^Ji/'" measures for the maintenance of public tranquil- ^'""s^eis. lity, their real desire was to see the fleets of France and England come up into the Bosphorus. They well knew that if this naval movement could be brought to pass before the day of the final rupture between Ivussia and the Porte, it would be regarded by the Czar as a flagrant violation of treaty. A curious indication of the sagacity with which the Turkish Ministers were acting is to be found in the difference between their language to the English Ambassador and their language to M. do la Cour. In speaking to Lord Stratford they shadowed out dangers impending over the Eastern world, the upheaving of Islam, the overthrow of the Sultan's authority. Then they went straight to iSI. de la Cour and drew a small vivid picture of massacred Frenchmen. They did not, said M. de la Cour, conceal from him ' that the persons ' and the interests of his countrymen would be ex- ' posed to grave dangers, which they were sensible ' they were incapable of preventing, by reason of ' the want of union in the Ministry and the threats ' directed against themselves.' * This skilful dis- crimination on the part of the Turkish jNIinisters seems to show that they had not at all lost their composure. • ' Eiisteni Papers,' part ii. p. 115.