RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 63 



"From the time of the Treaty of Kainardjiof 1774, up to the Treaty 

 of Paris, 1856, Turkey was fettered in her internal govern- 

 ment by her engagements to Russia. By repeated Treaties and 

 Conventions, by armed interference at one time, and specious 

 protection at another, the Christians of the Turkish Empire 

 were made the subjects of the Czar quite as much as of the Otto- 

 man Porte. « * * The siege of Sevastopol, and the 

 provisions of the Treaty of Paris, converted the exclusive pro- 

 tection of Christians by Russia into an engagement, general in 

 its nature, and respectful to the Sultan in its form, by which it 

 was hoped the lives and properties of the Christian subjects of 

 the Porte would be guaranteed, and their condition gradually 

 improved." 

 From the year 1856 to 1875, when the insurrection broke out in 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina, there had long been constant and repeated 

 complaints in regard to the rapacity, injustice, and brutality of the 

 Turkish Government, or its officials. 



Time after time remonstrances had been made by our own, and 

 other Governments, but to no avail. 



In 1867, when the late Lord Derby was Prime Minister, and 

 the present Lord Derby was Foreign Secretary, and Mr. Disraeli one 

 of the ruling spirits of the Cabinet, the Cretans broke out into insur- 

 rection, and they were left to the tender mercies of their oppressors, 

 mainly in consequence of the refusal of the British Government to 

 co-operate with the other European Powers to secure redress. 



In a despatch from the Earl of Clarendon to Lord Stratford de 

 Redcliffe, February 18th, 1856, the British Government declares : — 

 " With reference to the question of religious persecutions in Turkey, 

 I have to state to your Excellency that Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment are of opinion that it might be stroQ||^represented to 

 the Porte that as the Turkish Empire is by tl^y -stipulations 

 to be declared part and parcel of the European sys?em, it iS quite 

 impossible for the Powers of Europe to acquiesce in the 

 continuance in Turkey of a law and a practice which is a standing 

 insult to every other nation in Europe." 

 In a despatch from the Earl of Clarendon to Lord Stratford de 

 Redcliffe, September 23rd, 1856, the British Government again 

 declares : — 



" There can be no doubt that throughout the dominions of the 

 Sultan a feeling of uneasiness prevails among his Christian sub- 

 jects, and a belief that their position and prospects are now 



