war, the sultan made a formal demand
for the allied fleets to enter the Dardanelles. The demand was complied
with, and the ministers of the Western powers presented the admirals
with great "pomp and circumstance" to the sultan. The further request
of the sultan that the fleets or a portion of them should pass also the
straits of the Bosphorus was refused by the ambassadors, on the ground
that the Western powers were not at war with Russia. In vain the foreign
minister of the sultan urged the danger to which his ships and coasts
were exposed in the Black Sea. The answer was, that Prince Gortschakoff
had promised to make the war on the part of Russia strictly defensive;
and that Count Nesselrode, in his circular despatch (above referred to),
had repeated that promise. There was, in the opinion of the ambassadors,
no reason for doubting the good faith of the Russian government; and
they would not, by a demonstration so hostile as that of sending the
fleets into the Enxine, provoke Russia to change the character of the
war, and make it one of offensive operation. The reply of the Turkish
minister was, that Russia could not make the war offensive upon the
shores of the Black Sea if the fleets were to cruise there and that the
only chance of her being able to convert the war upon the Danube into
one of active offensive operations, was her having command of the Black
Sea for the easy transport of stores of all kinds to the vicinity of the
armies. This reasoning, irrefutable although it obviously was, and most
important as it soon and fatally proved itself to be, was met by the
reply that the ambassadors had no instructions for any demonstration
more active than the assemblage of the fleets for the protection of
Stamboul. Again the Turkish minister pressed upon the ambassadors and
admirals the exposed situation of the coast of the Black Sea and the
Turkish squadron within its waters; and showed that, for the present,
there was no necessity for the allied fleets in the Sea of Marmora; that
the sultan, in calling them through the Dardanelles, contemplated their
further progress through the other straits; that the Russians could not
endanger the capital until they had forced the Danube, captured Shumla
and Sophia, forced the passes of the Balkan, and were victors at
Adrianople; or, from the eastern frontier, had pushed a victorious
campaign from the Caucasus, through Asia Minor. It was, however, in vain
that the enlightened men the