the almost complete independence of Moldavia and Wallachia.  These Danubian Principalities owned the suzerainty of the Sultan and paid him a yearly tribute, but in other respects were practically free from his control, while the Czar gained for the time the right of protecting the Christians of the Eastern, or Greek, Church in the Ottoman Empire.  The Sultan also recognised the independence of Greece.  Further troubles ensued which laid Turkey for a time at the feet of Russia.  England and France, however, intervened to raise her up; and they also thwarted the efforts of Mehemet Ali, the rebellious Pacha of Egypt, to seize Syria from his nominal lord, the Sultan.

Even this bare summary will serve to illustrate three important facts:  first, that Turkey never consolidated her triumph over the neighbouring Christians, simply because she could not assimilate them, alien as they were, in race, and in the enjoyment of a higher creed and civilisation; second, that the Christians gained more and more support from kindred peoples (especially the Russians) as these last developed their energies; third, that the liberating process was generally (though not in 1827) delayed by the action of the Western Powers (England and France), which, on grounds of policy, sought to stop the aggrandisement of Austria, or Russia, by supporting the Sultan’s authority.

The policy of supporting the Sultan against the aggression of Russia reached its climax in the Crimean War (1854-55), which was due mainly to the efforts of the Czar Nicholas to extend his protection over the Greek Christians in Turkey.  France, England, and later on the Kingdom of Sardinia made war on Russia—­France, chiefly because her new ruler, Napoleon III., wished to play a great part in the world, and avenge the disasters of the Moscow campaign of 1812; England, because her Government and people resented the encroachments of Russia in the East, and sincerely believed that Turkey was about to become a civilised State; and Sardinia, because her statesman Cavour saw in this action a means of securing the alliance of the two western States in his projected campaign against Austria.  The war closed with the Treaty of Paris, of 1856, whereby the signatory Powers formally admitted Turkey “to participate in the advantages of the public law and system of Europe.”

This, however, merely signified that the signatory Powers would resist encroachments on the territorial integrity of Turkey.  It did not limit the rights of the Powers, as specified in various “Capitulations,” to safeguard their own subjects residing in Turkey against Turkish misrule.  The Sultan raised great hopes by issuing a firman granting religious liberty to his Christian subjects; this was inserted in the Treaty of Paris, and thereby became part of the public law of Europe.  The Powers also became collectively the guarantors of the local privileges of the Danubian Principalities.  Another article of the Treaty provided for the exclusion of war-ships from the Black Sea.  This of course applied specially to Russia and Turkey[88].