re that the Servians
rejected them.

On the fortune of war still inclining against the Slavonic cause, the
Russian people became intensely excited; and it was clear that they
would speedily join in the war unless the Turks moderated their claims.
There is reason to believe that the Czar Alexander II. dreaded the
outbreak of hostilities with Turkey in which he might become embroiled
with Great Britain. The Panslavonic party in Russia was then permeated
by revolutionary elements that might threaten the stability of the
dynasty at the end of a long and exhausting struggle. But, feeling
himself in honour bound to rescue Servia and Montenegro from the results
of their ill-judged enterprise, he assembled large forces in South
Russia and sent General Ignatieff to Constantinople with the demand,
urged in the most imperious manner (Oct. 30), that the Porte should
immediately grant an armistice to those States. At once Abdul Hamid
gave way.

Even so, Alexander II. showed every desire of averting the horrors of
war. Speaking to the British ambassador at St. Petersburg on November
2, he said that the present state of affairs in Turkey "was intolerable,
and unless Europe was prepared to act with firmness and energy, he
should be obliged to act alone." But he pledged his word that he desired
no aggrandisement, and that "he had not the smallest wish or intention
to be possessed of Constantinople[107]." At this time proposals for a
Conference of the Powers at Constantinople were being mooted: they had
been put forth by the British Government on October 5. There seemed,
therefore, to be some hope of a compromise if the Powers reunited so as
to bring pressure to bear on Turkey; for, a week later, the Sultan
announced his intention of granting a constitution, with an elected
Assembly to supervise the administration. But hopes of peace as well as
of effective reform in Turkey were damped by the warlike speech of Lord
Beaconsfield at the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 9. He then used
these words. If Britain draws the sword "in a righteous cause; if the
contest is one which concerns her liberty, her independence, or her
Empire, her resources, I feel, are inexhaustible. She is not a country
that, when she enters into a campaign, has to ask herself whether she
can support a second or a third campaign." On the next day the Czar
replied in a speech at Moscow to the effect that if the forthcoming
Conference at Constantinople did not lead to p