On the fortune of war still inclining against the Slavonic cause, the Russian people became intensely excited; and it was clear that they would speedily join in the war unless the Turks moderated their claims.  There is reason to believe that the Czar Alexander II. dreaded the outbreak of hostilities with Turkey in which he might become embroiled with Great Britain.  The Panslavonic party in Russia was then permeated by revolutionary elements that might threaten the stability of the dynasty at the end of a long and exhausting struggle.  But, feeling himself in honour bound to rescue Servia and Montenegro from the results of their ill-judged enterprise, he assembled large forces in South Russia and sent General Ignatieff to Constantinople with the demand, urged in the most imperious manner (Oct. 30), that the Porte should immediately grant an armistice to those States.  At once Abdul Hamid gave way.

Even so, Alexander II. showed every desire of averting the horrors of war.  Speaking to the British ambassador at St. Petersburg on November 2, he said that the present state of affairs in Turkey “was intolerable, and unless Europe was prepared to act with firmness and energy, he should be obliged to act alone.”  But he pledged his word that he desired no aggrandisement, and that “he had not the smallest wish or intention to be possessed of Constantinople[107].”  At this time proposals for a Conference of the Powers at Constantinople were being mooted:  they had been put forth by the British Government on October 5.  There seemed, therefore, to be some hope of a compromise if the Powers reunited so as to bring pressure to bear on Turkey; for, a week later, the Sultan announced his intention of granting a constitution, with an elected Assembly to supervise the administration.  But hopes of peace as well as of effective reform in Turkey were damped by the warlike speech of Lord Beaconsfield at the Lord Mayor’s banquet on November 9.  He then used these words.  If Britain draws the sword “in a righteous cause; if the contest is one which concerns her liberty, her independence, or her Empire, her resources, I feel, are inexhaustible.  She is not a country that, when she enters into a campaign, has to ask herself whether she can support a second or a third campaign.”  On the next day the Czar replied in a speech at Moscow to the effect that if the forthcoming Conference at Constantinople did not lead to practical results, Russia would be forced to take up arms; and he counted on the support of his people.  A week later 160,000 Russian troops were mobilised.

[Footnote 107:  Hertslet, iv. p. 2508.]