inisters with the wildest schemes of aggression. They actually
proposed to Russia that the northern part of the Balkan peninsula should
be divided between Austria and Russia while the whole peninsula south of
the Balkans, with Bulgaria to the north, was to be formed into a new
state under the sovereignty of the King of the Netherlands, whose
hereditary dominions were in their turn to be divided between France,
Great Britain, and Prussia.

Such chimerical projects were based on the assumption that
Constantinople lay at the mercy of the army of Diebitsch; and this was
believed to be the case not only by the court of Paris, but by that of
London, and even by that of Constantinople. But no one knew better than
Diebitsch how precarious his situation was, and, if Russia wished to
obtain advantageous terms, it was necessary for her to make the most of
the illusion while it lasted. On September 14 the peace of Adrianople
was signed, which established the virtual independence of the
principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and secured for all powers at
peace with Turkey a free passage for merchant ships through the
Bosphorus and Dardanelles; Russia received a small addition to her
Asiatic territories, and Turkey accepted both the treaty of London of
July 6, 1827, and the protocol of London of March 22, 1829. The
difficulties raised by Turkey's opposition to the full terms of the
protocol were thus swept aside, and it was now clear that, if that
protocol was to be further modified, it would be modified out of regard
for the interests of Europe not by way of concession to Turkey. France
and Great Britain were naturally averse from a settlement of the
question by Russia alone, even when that settlement was on lines to
which they had given their consent, and they might have been expected to
propose some alteration in the scheme. But the conciliatory action of
Russia rendered such proposals needless. On September 29, only fifteen
days after the treaty, Aberdeen received a formal proposal from Russia
that Turkey should be offered a restriction of the Greek boundary in
return for a recognition of the total independence of Greece.[99] This
proposal removed Wellington's fear that the new principality might be
used as a basis for an attack on the Ionian Islands; while the
maintenance of Turkish suzerainty seemed less important after the
apparent prostration of Turkish military power in the recent war.

It now remained for the allied powe