France at once perceived that the Czar’s visit to England was connected with some secret arrangement to the prejudice of French interests, and felt highly indignant.
France did not lose any time, and commenced plans to overturn Russian influence in the Holy Land. Russia resented this, thinking that France would be her only enemy. The Holy Land dispute soon became general.
The Turkish compromise did not please Russia and France. “Suddenly, the French ambassador at Constantinople, M. de Lavalette, was instructed to demand that the grants[[59]] to the Latin Church should be strictly executed in the Holy Land.”[[60]]
In 1852 Lord Aberdeen was made the British Prime Minister, and “the Emperor Nicholas heard the tidings of Lord Aberdeen’s elevation to a premiership with a delight he did not suppress.”[[61]]
Nicholas thought that now an alliance between England and France was impossible,[[62]] and at the same time, seeing that Prussia and Austria were neutral, determined to obtain “the key of the Black Sea.”[[63]]
However, he wanted to ascertain whether England would keep her secret engagement to come to a separate understanding with him. He again proposed a partition of Turkey, on January 28, 1853, at the same time making use of the curious expression to Sir Hamilton Seymour that “a sick man is dying,” and that his (the sick man’s) property should be divided according to agreement between England and Russia. Nicholas’ idea was (a) that Servia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and the other principalities of the Danube, should become independent states under Russian protection, and (b) that he would “have no objection to offer,” to the occupation of Egypt and Candia by England “in the event of a distribution of the Ottoman Succession upon the fall of the Empire,” (c) that Constantinople should never be held by the English or French, or any other great nation, and Greece should not strengthen herself “so as to become a powerful state,” and (e) that Russia should occupy Constantinople provisionally, not “as a proprietor, of course, but as a trustee.”
“In answer to these overtures,” Kinglake says, “the Government of the Queen disclaimed all notion of aiming at the possession of either Constantinople or any other of the Sultan’s possessions, and accepted the assurances to the like effect which were given by the Czar. It combated the opinion that the extinction of the Ottoman Empire was near at hand, and deprecated the discussions based on that supposition as tending directly to produce the very result against which they were meant to provide.”[[64]]
Then the Czar sent Prince Menschikoff to Constantinople, and entrusted to him the two following missions: viz., (a) to set forth a Russian claim on the Holy Places, and (b) that all orthodox Christians, who were subjects of Turkey, should be placed under the immediate protectorate of Russia.
The above second mission was planned by Russia owing to her deep sympathy with the Sclavonic races, who had adhered to the same religion although they were still under Turkish rule. But this bond was rapidly getting weaker, and the Christian inhabitants were determined to throw off, if possible, the Mahomedan yoke.
But the second demand of Russia, to my mind, was an unjust claim, because it would have considerably affected the independence or dignity of the Sultan.[[65]]