at his army would succumb under the frontal attacks of
Turks and British, and the onset of the Austrians on their rear.

Therefore when, on Feb. 4, the Hapsburg State proposed to refer the
terms of peace to a Conference of the Powers at Vienna, the consent of
Russia was almost certain, provided that the prestige of the Czar
remained unimpaired. Three days later the place of meeting was changed
to Berlin, the Conference also becoming a Congress, that is, a meeting
where the chief Ministers of the Powers, not merely their Ambassadors,
would take part. The United Kingdom, France, and Italy at once signified
their assent to this proposal. As for Bismarck, he promised in a speech
to the Reichstag (Feb. 19) that he would act as an "honest broker"
between the parties most nearly concerned. There is little doubt that
Russia took this in a sense favourable to her claims, and she, too,
consented.

Nevertheless, she sought to tie the hands of the Congress by binding
Turkey to a preliminary treaty signed on March 3 at San Stefano, a
village near to Constantinople. The terms comprised those stated above
(p. 225), but they also stipulated the cession of frontier districts to
Servia and Montenegro, while Russia was to acquire the Roumanian
districts east of the River Pruth, Roumania receiving the Dobrudscha as
an equivalent. Most serious of all was the erection of Bulgaria into an
almost independent Principality, extending nearly as far south as Midia
(on the Black Sea), Adrianople, Salonica, and beyond Ochrida in Albania.
As will be seen by reference to the map (p. 239), this Principality
would then have comprised more than half of the Balkan Peninsula,
besides including districts on the AEgean Sea and around the town of
Monastir, for which the Greeks have never ceased to cherish hopes. A
Russian Commissioner was to supervise the formation of the government
for two years; all the fortresses on the Danube were to be razed, and
none others constructed; Turkish forces were required entirely to
evacuate the Principality, which was to be occupied by Russian troops
for a space of time not exceeding two years.

On her side, Turkey undertook to grant reforms to the Armenians, and
protect them from Kurds and Circassians, Russia further claimed
1,410,000,000 roubles as war indemnity, but consented to take the
Dobrudscha district (offered to Roumania, as stated above), and in Asia
the territories of Batoum, Kars, Ardahan, and Bayazid, in lieu