RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 59 



with Greece, the anarchy and discontent in her provinces, the 

 destruction of her fleet at Navarino, the blockade of the Dardanelles, 

 the fall of her chief fortresses, both in Europe and Asia, the defeat of 

 her armies everywhere, all had produced a state of hopeless weakness 

 and absolute prostration. 



The Russian armies were flushed with victory, they had command 

 of the Black Sea, and the passes of the Balkans, Varna and Adrianople 

 were in their hands, and Constantinople was seriously threatened by 

 them; and her success in this campaign of 1829, the forcing of the 

 line of the Balkan, and the capture of Adrianople, naturally excited 

 alarm in the minds of the people of England, but it did not alarm 

 the Opposition, nor softened their hatred of Turkey. 



At this crisis, 1828, on the death of Canning, the Duke of Welling- 

 ton, whose influence on the Foreign Policy of England was very 

 great, became First Lord of the Treasury, and the Earl of Aberdeen, 

 for the first time, became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and 

 on the meeting of Parliament, Lord Holland attacked the Foreign 

 Minister, Lord Aberdeen, for endeavouring to save the Ottoman 

 Empire, and for opposing the Czar from taking Constantinople, but 

 the Duke of Wellington's Government, who were strongly in favour of 

 maintaining the integrity of the Turkish Empire, seriously contem- 

 plated hostilities against Russia in the event of the capture and 

 occupation of Constantinople, and having secured the alliance of 

 Austria, the British Admiral was ordered under certain eventualities, 

 to seize the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean, and this bold atti- 

 tude, and strong alliance to resist by force any further advance of 

 Russia towards Constantinople, compelled her to halt, and Turkey 

 was not slow in taking advantage of the hesitation of her relentless 

 foe, by proposing negotiations for peace, which being accepted, a 

 Conference of the plenipotentiaries assembled at Adrianople. 



This Conference led to the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) eminently 

 favourable to Russia, for not only did she acquire considerable 

 acquisitions of territory in Asia, as well as the Delta of the Danube, 

 but she secured the right of interference in the affairs of Turkey, 

 granted her by the Treaty of Kainardji, concessions that were due to 

 the influence of France and Prussia, and which were looked upon as 

 a serious blow to the independence of the Ottoman Empire. 



The third intervention of Russia in. Eastern Affairs was in 1834 

 and arose in this instance, it should in justice be stated, not to the 

 initiative of the Government of St. Petersburg, but in response to an 

 earnest appeal from the Sultan and the Porte, to safeguard the 



