ria were playing into her hands. One of the terms of the
treaty was that the Russian frontier should recede from the Danube. That
crafty power had taken advantage of an erroneous French map, introduced
by the French diplomatists at the conference, to deceive the allies
as to the boundary agreed upon. After much negotiation and dispute,
conducted as to England and Turkey on the one side and Russia on the
other with intense acrimony, Russia was obliged to conform to the
demands of the allies. Another stipulation of the treaty was the free
navigation of the Danube. Russia endeavoured to seize upon the Isle of
Serpents, off the Sulina mouth of the delta of that river. The island
was a portion of the dominions of the sultan; an English naval officer
secured the possession of it to the Turkish sovereign. France rendered
little assistance to England in these disputes, and displayed sympathy
with Russia and jealousy of British influence. The neutrality of the
Black Sea, and the destruction of all naval arsenals on its Russian
shores, or rivers communicating with its shores, was also a stipulation
of the treaty which Russia evaded. Here also England by her firm
diplomacy, almost unaided by France, constrained Russia to conform to
the terms of the peace. Another article of the treaty referred to the
emancipation of the sultan's Christian subjects from all disabilities
on account of their religion. This the sultan and the orthodox Turks
evaded, and have continued to evade to the present time, although
ostentatious proclamations in the spirit of the treaty were put forth
by the sultan's government, and engagements the most determinate were
subscribed. The general conduct of the Christians of the empire was
disloyal and dishonest; they sought, like the Russians and Turks,
to obtain all the advantages of the treaty, and fulfil none of its
obligations. The remaining among the articles of the treaty of chief
importance regulated the liberties, and relations to the sultan, of
the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia. Here also difficulties arose,
fomented by the united policy of the French and Russian governments, who
intrigued--with the Wallachs especially--to insist on acting in a manner
hostile to the constitution assigned by the treaty for their government.
These disputes continued for years after the termination of the war.
England resisted the intrigues which France and Russia set on foot
inimical to the interests of the sultan, but