d to win the campaign owing to the inability of their Government to
organise soundly on a great scale, and the intellectual mediocrity of
their commanders in the sphere of strategy. Mr. Layard, who succeeded
Sir Henry Elliot at Constantinople early in 1878, had good reason for
writing, "The utter rottenness of the present system has been fully
revealed by the present war[156]." Whether Suleiman was guilty of
perverse obstinacy, or, as has often been asserted, of taking bribes
from the Russians, cannot be decided. What is certain is that he was
largely responsible for the final _debacle_.

[Footnote 156: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 128.]

But in a wider and deeper sense the Turks owed their misfortunes to
themselves--to their customs and their creed. Success in war depends
ultimately on the brain-power of the chief leaders and organisers; and
that source of strength has long ago been dried up in Turkey by adhesion
to a sterilising creed and cramping traditions. The wars of the latter
half of the nineteenth century are of unique interest, not only because
they have built up the great national fabrics of to-day, but also
because they illustrate the truth of that suggestive remark of the great
Napoleon, "The general who does great things is he who also possesses
qualities adapted for civil life."

CHAPTER IX

THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT

New hopes should animate the world; new light
Should dawn from new revealings to a race
Weighed down so long, forgotten so long.

ROBERT BROWNING, _Paracelsus_.

The collapse of the Turkish defence in Roumelia inaugurated a time of
great strain and stress in Anglo-Russian relations. On December 13,
1877, that is, three days after the fall of Plevna, Lord Derby reminded
the Russian Government of its promise of May 30, 1876, that the
acquisition of Constantinople was excluded from the wishes and
intentions of the Emperor Alexander II., and expressed the earnest hope
that the Turkish capital would not be occupied, even for military
purposes. The reply of the Russian Chancellor (December 16) was
reserved. It claimed that Russia must have full right of action, which
is the right of every belligerent, and closed with a request for a
clearer definition of the British interests which would be endangered by
such a step. In his answer of January 13, 1878, the British Foreign
Minister specified the occupation of the Dardanelles as an event that
would