In Paris his conversations with the Emperor confirmed his previous opinion that the best hope of peace lay in winning Austria over to the policy of the Allies.

Lady John joined him at Vienna early in March.  In order to understand the following extracts it is necessary to recall the history of the whole negotiation.

Lord John had been dispatched with vague general instructions, and it must not be forgotten that Palmerston was privately much more in favour of continuing the war than Lord John appears to have understood at the time.  Palmerston, like Napoleon III, wished to take Sevastopol before making peace; Lord John did not therefore receive during his negotiations the backing he ought to have had from the Government at home.  A hitch occurred at the outset of the negotiations owing to the delay of instructions from the Sultan.  This delay was engineered by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who was determined that Russia should be still further humiliated, and felt sure of Palmerston’s sympathy in doing everything that tended to prolong the war.  Lord John might complain justly that he was being hindered; but the English Ambassador at Constantinople, who knew Palmerston’s mind, felt safe in ignoring Lord John’s remonstrances.  The first two Articles which formed the subject of discussion dealt with the abolition of the Russian Protectorate over Servia and the Principalities, and with the question of the free navigation of the Danube.  These Articles were accepted by Russia.  On the third Article, which concerned the Russian power in the Black Sea, the representatives of the Western Powers could not agree.  Gortschakoff, the Russian emissary, admitted that the Treaty of 1841 would have to be altered in such a way as would prevent the preponderance of the Russian power off the coast of Turkey.  This could have been secured in two ways: 

  1.  By excluding Russian vessels from the Black Sea altogether;
  2.  By limiting the number of warships Russia might be permitted to keep
     there;

but to neither of these methods would Russia at first agree.

Two other alternative proposals were then made by the Austrian Minister, Count Buol.  The first was based on the principle of counterpoise, which would give the Allies the right to keep as many ships as Russia in the Black Sea.  The second was a stipulation that Russia should not increase her fleet there beyond the strength at which it then stood.

The representatives of the Allies were instructed from home not to accept the proposal of counterpoise.  So the second alternative of the Austrian Chancellor was the last remaining chance of Austria and the Allies agreeing upon the terms to be offered to Russia.  Lord John wrote to the Government urging them to accept this compromise; for in his opinion the only chance of peace lay in the Allies acting in concert with Austria.  At this juncture he received a telegram from home saying that the Government were in favour of a proposal, which had reached them from Paris, for neutralizing the Black Sea.