DEMANDS OF THE RUSSIAN AND AUSTRIAN EMPERORS UPON THE SULTAN OF TURKEY.—INTERPOSITION OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.
Varied and important as the changes and conflicts were in Western and Central Europe during this year, none of these events menaced the general peace of Europe so much as a demand made by the czar and the kasir upon the sultan for the extradition of certain Hungarian refugees.
During the general convulsion of Europe, Hungary flew to arms, and the Austrian empire was in danger of dismemberment from the success of the Hungarian revolt. Russia, however, joined her armies to those of the great German power, and the result was the suppression of the Hungarian revolution. The chiefs of that movement took refuge within the Turkish territory. This circumstance led to a demand by the ambassadors of Russia and Austria at the Porte, for the surrender of all Polish and Hungarian refugees into the hands of the governments to which they owed allegiance. The sultan refused, and the ambassadors demanded their passports. The alarmed sultan consulted the learned doctors of the Koran, and received for reply that the abandonment of the refugees would be contrary to the law of Mohammed. The English and French ministers counselled resistance, and the sultan increased his armies, and ordered remnants of troops towards the Austrian frontier. The terms and tone in which the communications of the ministers of the czar and the kasir were made, were insulting to the sultan, and aroused the indignation of the French and British governments, whose interposition was of such a character as to lead Austria and Russia to believe that a war with the western powers would ensue if the haughty requisition was persisted in. The communications between the English ambassador at St. Petersburg and the czar’s minister for foreign affairs, although maintaining the forms of courtesy, were pervaded by an indifferently concealed acrimony, which showed that a bad feeling between the two governments underlayed the ceremonies of diplomatic civility. A special minister from the Porte was sent to St. Petersburg with a conciliatory note from the sultan to the emperor, and this, with the firm tone of the French ambassador, and the energetic exertions of the English minister, caused the emperors to relax their demands, and to insist only upon the removal of certain of the refugees from the territory contiguous to that which had been the theatre of their revolt. The ill feeling which sprung up on this occasion between the governments of Vienna and St. Petersburg, on the one hand, and those of England and France, on the other, continued until events arose still more grave for Turkey, and for all these powers.
Through another year of grave occurrences, and political difficulties and involvements such as Europe had seldom Been, Great Britain pursued the even tenor of her way, by her moral influence everywhere aiding liberty and checking excess, maintaining her own prestige and international rights, yet pursuing a policy of non-interference. Her foreign relations at the close of 1849 were in all respects satisfactory, but it required all the skill and vigilance of the remarkable man then at the head of the foreign office to maintain at once peace and the honour of the country.