n the oppressed Greeks
and Armenians. Had they been well supported from London, they might have
wrought a permanent change. Such, at least, is the belief of Professor
Ramsay after several years' experience in Asia Minor.

Unfortunately, the Gladstone Government, which came into power in the
spring of 1880, desired to limit its responsibilities on all sides,
especially in the Levant. The British Consuls ceased to be supported,
and after the arrival of Mr. (now Lord) Goschen at Constantinople in May
1880, as Ambassador Extraordinary, British influence began to suffer a
decline everywhere through Turkey, partly owing to the events soon to be
described. The outbreak of war in Egypt in 1882 was made a pretext by
the British Government for the transference of the Consuls to Egypt; and
thereafter matters in Asia Minor slid back into the old ruts. The
progress of the Greeks and Armenians, the traders of that land, suffered
a check; and the remarkable Moslem revival which the Sultan inaugurated
in that year (the year 1300 of the Mohammedan calendar) gradually led up
to the troubles and massacres which culminated in the years 1896 and
1897. We may finally note that when the Gladstone Ministry left the
field open in Asia Minor, the German Government promptly took
possession; and since 1883 the influence of Berlin has more and more
penetrated into the Sultan's lands in Europe and Asia[179].

[Footnote 179: See _Impressions of Turkey_, by Professor W.M. Ramsay
(1897), chap. vi.]

The collapse of British influence at Constantinople was hastened on by
the efforts made by the Cabinet of London, after Mr. Gladstone's
accession to office, on behalf of Greece. It soon appeared that Abdul
Hamid and his Ministers would pay no heed to the recommendations of the
Great Powers on this head, for on July 20, 1878, they informed Sir Henry
Layard of their "final" decision that no Thessalian districts would be
given up to Greece. Owing to pressure exerted by the Dufaure-Waddington
Ministry in France, the Powers decided that a European Commission should
be appointed to consider the whole question. To this the Beaconsfield
Government gave a not very willing assent.

The Porte bettered the example. It took care to name as the first place
of meeting of the Commissioners a village to the north of the Gulf of
Arta which was not discoverable on any map. When at last this mistake
was rectified, and the Greek envoys on two occasions sought to steam
into