ssia consented to abandon. A revolt among the Syrian mountaineers gave
Russia an opportunity of demonstrating her pacific intentions. The
sultan supported the revolt and also sent troops to conquer Urfa which
Ibrahim had neglected to surrender. Russia, however, refused to support
the sultan in an aggressive war, and the powers negotiated a peace. The
Syrian revolt was quelled, and Urfa surrendered to the sultan. In 1835
the Tsar Nicholas and the new Austrian emperor, Ferdinand, met at
Teplitz where they renewed the agreements concluded at Muenchengraetz.
Metternich proposed a conference at Vienna to settle the eastern
question, but the tsar, who really possessed the decisive voice so long
as the question remained open, refused to hear of this. Finally in
September, 1836, the Russian evacuation of Silistria was obtained by a
payment of 30,000,000 piastres, borrowed, for the most part, in England.
The Eastern question now seemed to have entered upon a quieter phase,
and the military reforms which European officers, including Moltke,
afterwards famous in a different region, were carrying out in Turkey,
gave promise that she might be able to hold her own in future against
domestic foes.

FOOTNOTES:

[136] The debt was, according to the French practice, expressed in terms
of the interest payable annually (_rentes_), not in terms of a nominal
principal as in this country.

[137] Finlay, _History of Greece_, vol. vii., chapters ii., iii.

CHAPTER XIX.

BRITISH INDIA.

When Pitt resigned office in 1801, the Marquis Wellesley had already
reached the climax, though by no means the close, of his brilliant
proconsulate. This remarkable man, whose fame has been unduly eclipsed
by that of his younger brother, may justly be considered the second
founder of our Indian Empire. This empire, recognised at last, in the
vote of thanks passed by the house of commons on the fall of
Seringapatam, was soon to be aggrandised by three important accessions
of dominion. The first of these was the annexation of the Karnatik on
the well-founded plea that its nabob was too weak even for the semblance
of independence, that he was incapable of governing tolerably, and that
he had been in correspondence with Tipu. The effect of this and two
minor annexations was to place the entire south-western and
south-eastern coasts of the Indian peninsula under the British rule. The
next step