Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi--Its substance--Third article--Remaining
patent articles--Audiences of the Sultan--Count Orloff--Secret
article--Its effect--Law of the Dardanelles--Outrage on international
law--Treaty of Petersburg--Boundaries--The provinces--Firman--Russian
ascendancy.
Left to struggle single-handed against an enemy for whom every fresh
battle became a triumph, the Sultan was reduced to the necessity of
applying to Russia for that succour which was denied him elsewhere. If
ever the secret history of Ibrahim’s expedition be revealed, it will
probably exhibit the extent to which Russian agency was concerned in
that enterprize. Its coincidences with the entanglements of France and
England, both foreign and domestic, if not designed, were curiously
fortunate for the views of Russia upon Turkey. No sooner was the
request made than a Russian fleet of ten ships of the line and several
frigates was dispatched to the Bosphorus, and a Russian army of fifty
thousand men shortly after occupied the heights of Unkiar Skelessi, or
“Giant’s Mountain,” on the Asiatic side of that canal--the same heights
which were once covered by the tents of the Crusaders who had assembled
under the command of Godfrey of Boulogne.
♦ TREATY OF UNKIAR SKELESSI ♦
The real objects of the generous and disinterested friend of the Porte
in this business, became obvious in the course of a little time;
before his fleet or his troops departed on their return home, a treaty
was concluded between the two powers, which has since given rise to
discussions of a grave character, inasmuch as they are as yet by no
means terminated, nor modified in the aspect which they assumed from
the commencement--an aspect portentous of a general war in Europe.
I found it extremely difficult to obtain an authentic copy of that
treaty. Being a contract between the two powers, consisting of six
patent articles and a separate article intended to be kept secret,
the treaty was not officially communicated to other governments, and
never has been officially published. The fact is, that the Turkish
original in their own language is construed by the Divan, on some
points, in a way not strictly reconcilable with the Russian original
in French, and therefore doubts may be contended for on both sides as
to the acceptation in which the whole treaty should be received. I
have however succeeded in procuring a copy of that document, which may
be relied upon as containing no material error.[1] It will be found
in French and English in the Appendix: I shall here briefly state its
substance.
[1] Appendix A. vol. i.
♦ SUBSTANCE OF THE TREATY ♦
It is entitled a “Treaty of _Defensive_ Alliance” between Russia and
Turkey, entered into by the parties with a view to give effect to the
sincere desire by which they were animated to maintain the system of
peace and good harmony happily established between the two empires,
and to extend and to strengthen the perfect friendship and confidence
which reigned between them. It was therefore mutually agreed that
there should be for ever peace, friendship, and alliance between the
two sovereigns, their empires and subjects, by land and sea: that the
_only_ object of that alliance should be the common defence of their
states against every kind of attack (_i. e._ by a foreign enemy, or
domestic insurgents), their majesties pledging themselves “to enter
into an unreserved understanding with each other with reference to all
objects that concern their tranquillity and security respectively, and
to lend for that purpose mutually _matériel_ succours, and the most
effective assistance.” The second article confirms the treaties and
conventions previously concluded between the two powers.
♦ THE THIRD ARTICLE ♦
The third article runs thus:--In consequence of the principle of
conservation and mutual defence which serves as the basis of the
present treaty of alliance, and in pursuance of the most sincere desire
of assuring the duration, the maintenance, and entire independence of
the Sublime Porte, the emperor, in case circumstances which might again
induce the Porte to claim naval and military assistance from Russia
should occur, although the case were not to be foreseen, promises,
if it should please God, to furnish by land and sea such number of
troops and forces as the two contracting parties shall judge necessary.
Accordingly, it is agreed that in this case, the forces by land and sea
which the Porte shall require, shall be held at its disposal.
♦ REMAINING ARTICLES ♦
The fourth article stipulates, that in case one of the powers should
require assistance, as before specified, from the other, those expenses
only which may be incurred for provisioning the forces by land and
sea, shall be defrayed by the party demanding the succours. The fifth
article limits the period during which this treaty is to be in force
to _eight_ years from the date of the exchange of ratifications. The
parties, indeed, assure each other that they desire to maintain its
engagements to the latest moment of time; but leave themselves at
liberty hereafter to modify its provisions, and extend its duration,
as circumstances may suggest. The sixth and concluding patent article
regulates the period (two months) for the exchange of ratifications,
and terminates with the usual form for authenticating the instrument,
without making any allusion whatever to the “separate article.”
♦ AUDIENCES OF THE SULTAN ♦
Lord Ponsonby landed at Therapia on the 4th of May (1833) from the
_Actæon_, in which he had sailed from Naples, a few days before Count
Orloff reached the Bosphorus in a Russian _steam-boat_ from Odessa. His
lordship had his first audience of the Sultan at the splendid new kiosk
or palace of Dalma Batché, on the European bank of the Bosphorus; he
remained an hour. The Count Orloff immediately followed, and remained
two hours. On leaving the Sultan, the Count told every body that he was
like a person who came to a banquet when all was over. He had nothing
to do! The fleet was already ordered home! The encampment was about to
be broken up! He was an idle man, and his only business was to amuse
himself as well as he could for a few days!
The gentlemen of the _Actæon_ were requested to consider themselves
quite at home in the Russian camp; they played at cricket in the
Sultan’s valley! The commander-in-chief actually went on-board himself
to invite the captain to visit him at his mansion; he went in full
uniform, landing from his boat where his pennant was displayed, sent
in his name, was detained in the hall amongst orderlies and common
soldiers nearly half an hour, and came away in disgust! An explanation
arrived the day after, to say that it was all a mistake--that the
servants were ignorant of the rank of the English visitor!
♦ COUNT ORLOFF ♦
On the 24th of May, the Sultan was to go to the mosque; it was noticed
that he delayed considerably beyond the usual time; and it afterwards
transpired that he had been engaged in a most violent discussion with
the Count Orloff; many angry speeches having passed on the occasion
between the diplomatist and the sovereign. When his highness mounted
his horse, decorated though he was with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies,
he looked the personification of ill-humour.
A few days after this scene, a ship arrived in the Bosphorus from
Malta, with intelligence that a formidable combined British and French
fleet had sailed for the Dardanelles. This was not exactly the fact;
for their object was to prohibit the advance, beyond the Taurus, of
the troops under the command of Ibrahim; and as the mandate was at
once obeyed, and there was no longer any pretence for the stay of
the Russian fleet in the Bosphorus, preparations were made (most
reluctantly) for its departure. Nevertheless, under one pretext or
another, the troops were detained, week after week, at Unkiar Skelessi,
amid a series of balls, reviews, fire-works, and amusements of every
description, under cover of which the negotiations for the above treaty
were most adroitly conducted. It was signed on the 26th of June (8th of
July, N.S.), and the “separate secret article” was executed on the same
day.
♦ SECRET ARTICLE ♦
That article is as follows:--“By virtue of the first article of the
_patent_ treaty of defensive alliance concluded between the Sublime
Porte and the Imperial Court of Russia, the two high contracting
parties have engaged to afford to each other mutually _matériel_
succours, and the most effective assistance for the security of their
respective states. Nevertheless, as his Majesty the Emperor of all
the Russias, wishing to spare the Sublime Porte the charges and the
embarrassments which would result on its part from the grant of such
_matériel_ succours, will not demand such succours if circumstances
should place the Sublime Porte under the necessity of furnishing
them, the Sublime Ottoman Porte, in lieu of such succours which it is
bound to afford, if necessary, in conformity with the principle of
reciprocity of the patent treaty, _ought_ to limit its action in favour
of the Imperial _Court of Russia to the closing of the strait of the
Dardanelles_, that is to say, _not to permit any foreign ship of war to
enter it under any pretext whatever_. The present separate and secret
article shall have the same force and validity as if it were inserted,
word for word, in the treaty of defensive alliance of this day.”
♦ EFFECT OF THE SECRET ARTICLES ♦
The whole object of the patent treaty is therefore to create a
plausible pretext for the secret article. One party agrees at first,
and in open market, to lend the other a pound of powder; but for the
pound of powder both parties subsequently agree in secret to substitute
the _key_ of the Dardanelles! The change which such an agreement
operates in the relations previously existing between the two powers
is manifest. The object attained by the private contract bears no
proportion whatever to the part of the public transaction for which
that object is extorted as an equivalent. Russia really wanted no
“_matériel_ succours” from Turkey; but she pretends to require them
on the principle of reciprocity, and founds upon that principle the
establishment of the great object of her ambition, the control of the
Dardanelles! Thus the parties who act before the world as equals, on
retiring behind the scenes, are suddenly transformed into two very
different characters--the master and the slave.
♦ LAW OF THE DARDANELLES ♦
It cannot be doubted, I apprehend, that the British Government has good
right to complain of this transaction. I admit, of course, that two
independent powers possess authority to make such stipulations with
each other as they may think conducive to their mutual benefit. Even
then, however, if we see an unfair advantage taken of an enfeebled
state in the hour of distress by a more energetic and ambitious
neighbour, other nations, though not immediately affected by the
consequences of the act, are not justly liable to animadversion if
they contemplate such a proceeding with extreme jealousy. But the case
becomes much stronger as a groundwork for jealousy, if not for measures
of a defined and active character, when we examine its bearings upon
the interests of Europe in general.
The law of the Dardanelles, so to speak, stood, before the 8th of July
1833, as follows. The Porte had for centuries exercised the right
of excluding, in time of peace, from that strait and the Bosphorus,
the ships of war of all foreign nations, without exception. England,
France, and the other powers of the continent, acquiesced in that law,
and even may be considered as parties consenting to it. If the Porte
proposed to modify that law, her intentions ought, according to the
courtesy of nations at peace with each other, to have been communicated
to the other governments before being carried into execution. The
ministers of the Porte and Russia, however, meet in a secret chamber
at Constantinople, and enact of their own authority a most important
alteration in a law which, by the general consent given to it, had
long ceased to be a mere municipal law of Turkey, and had become
interwoven with the general law of nations. I contend, therefore, that
this proceeding, besides being clandestine, is the usurpation of an
authority which one of these states, but not both combined possessed.
The Porte owned both sides of the two straits, and might close or open
them lawfully. But the two powers had no joint delegation to legislate
for Europe.
♦ OUTRAGE ON INTERNATIONAL LAW ♦
What is the effect of the alteration? Before the treaty, all foreign
ships of war were excluded, in time of peace, from the Dardanelles and
the Bosphorus. The secret article decrees an exception in favour of
Russia. Under the patent treaty, the emperor, if he deem it necessary
to the safety of his states, may call upon his defensive ally to assist
him with _matériel_ succours. Under the secret article he says, “I do
not want your powder; but in lieu of it you must shut the Dardanelles
against my enemies.” This proceeding, if carried into effect, would,
in case of a war, for instance, between England and Russia, give to
the latter an advantage to which, under the law of nations as it stood
before, she would not be entitled. Her ships of war would not in that
case be “foreign” within the meaning of the treaty: they would not be
the ships of a “stranger,” _étranger_, but of an ally--a _defensive_
ally--and therefore they would have a right to egress and ingress
through the two straits at a time when they would be shut against the
flag of England.
Another striking consequence of the whole transaction is this: that
whenever the emperor chooses to go to war, he may, if he wish it, call
upon his _defensive_ ally to become a belligerent also, whether it be
for the interest of the Porte or not. The treaty is indeed limited
in its duration to eight years (again that mystic period!). But it
is “renewable for ever.” Every hour it exists inflicts, in my humble
judgment, an outrage on the law, and what is higher than the law, the
honour of all other nations.
It is a peculiarly offensive, though a necessary ingredient in this
transaction, that although the two powers have affected to legislate
for Europe, they have never yet officially promulgated the terms of
the ordinance by which they have decided that we shall in future be
governed. This is usurpation in its most tyrannical form. “You shall
obey my law,” says the autocrat, “but you shall not know it.” Thus,
to an unjustifiable claim to paramount authority over all Europe, the
Moscovite has sought to add the dark and undefined and lawless empire
of the Inquisition.
♦ TREATY OF PETERSBURG ♦
The treaty of Unkiar Skelessi was not long afterwards followed by
another, which was signed by the plenipotentiaries of the two powers at
St. Petersburgh on the 29th of January[2] (10th February) 1834--that
is to say, by Ahmed Pacha on the one part, and the Counts Nesselrode
and Orloff on the other. This is a very remarkable treaty. The first
article relates to the “line of demarcation,” which was in future to
separate the two empires in the east, with a view to prevent every
species of dispute and discussion, as well as the depredations of
those tribes whose acts had more than once compromised the relations
of neighbourhood and friendship between the two empires! Not a word is
said here of those compensations _en nature_, which were to form part
of the indemnity to be paid by the Porte; and yet if the reader will
look at the map of Asia while he reads the first article carefully,
he will perceive that, without mentioning them by name, the article
transfers to Russia a considerable portion of the eastern coast of
the Black Sea, including the richest, the most populous, and the most
fertile territories of Turkey in that direction. The line departs
from port St. Nicolo on the coast of the Euxine, follows the actual
frontiers of the province of Guriel, ascends the confines of Juira, and
thence traverses the province of Akhiskha, until it strikes the point
where the provinces of Akhiskha and of Cars are re-united with the
province of Georgia.
[2] Appendix B. vol. i.
♦ BOUNDARIES ♦
An engagement is then entered into on the part of the Emperor, that as
soon as the boundary lines shall have been marked by commissioners to
be appointed for that purpose, the Russian troops shall evacuate the
territories beyond the line; and it is agreed that the Mussulmen who
were living within the “inconsiderable territory,” which is comprised
within the line that passes by the Sandjack of Ghroubhan and the
borders of the Sandjacks of Ponskron and of Djildir, if they wish to
reside under the dominion of the Porte, may take eighteen months “to
finish the affairs which attach them to the country, and transfer
themselves to the Turkish states, without molestation!”
♦ WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA ♦
The subject of the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia is next finally
disposed of. By the convention of Ackermann it had been stipulated
between the two powers that the Hospodars should be appointed by the
Porte, and that they should hold office for seven years, when the
Sultan might re-appoint them, or substitute other persons for them,
during similar periods. By the separate Act (1), attached to the Treaty
of Adrianople, the government of the provinces is placed upon a footing
which is almost equivalent to a state of independence, so far as the
Porte is concerned; and the second article of the treaty of Petersburg,
now under consideration, affects simply to confirm that arrangement,
whereas it really surrenders the substantial sovereignty of the
provinces to Russia.
“By the instrument,” says the article, “executed separately at
Adrianople relative to the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia,
the Sublime Porte has engaged to recognise formally the regulations
made, while the Russian troops occupied those provinces, by the
principal inhabitants with reference to the internal administration of
the country; the sublime Porte finding nothing in the articles of that
_constitution_, which can affect its rights of Suzeraineté, consents
henceforth formally to recognize the said constitution. It undertakes
to publish in this respect a firman, accompanied by a hatti sheriff,
within two months after the exchange of ratifications, and to give a
copy of the same to the Russian mission at Constantinople.”
♦ FIRMAN ♦
Hence it appears that although the principalities were then in
a condition _apparently_ to treat for themselves--although they
possessed a constitution framed according to the wishes of the “notable
inhabitants” of those districts, and although that constitution was now
solemnly recognised, no authority could be admitted emanating directly
from the principalities to be a contracting party to this treaty.
The reader will have further observed, that no provision is made for
communicating a copy of the firman and the hatti sheriff specially to
the authorities of the principalities themselves. Both instruments are
to be published to all the world--but the official copy of them is
stipulated to be given only to the _Russian_ mission at Constantinople!
Therefore the emperor is the real sovereign of the principalities, and
the hospodars are his puppets.
♦ RUSSIAN ASCENDANCY ♦
The third article of this treaty relates to the indemnity, and proposes
to _facilitate_ its payment. It had been stipulated by a former treaty
that the Porte should pay annually, during the term of eight years, one
million of Dutch ducats: that sum is now reduced to half a million,
but the annual payments are still to extend over the period of eight
years. Two millions of the original ten would still remain, however, to
be paid. The emperor gives them up, in consideration of the Sultan’s
poverty! An arrangement is then made whereby the whole of the four
millions of ducats which thus constitute the amount of the indemnity,
shall be paid in annual instalments, during eight years: and the first
year is to be from May 1834 to May 1835, the second from May 1835 to
May 1836, and so on, by which it may be seen that the possession of
Silistria, which the emperor holds until the indemnity shall be fully
liquidated, has been extended from the year 1838, the original period,
to the year of our Lord 1842. The registration among its archives of
the firman and hatti sheriff, relating to the principalities, is not
a more valid token of Russian ascendancy in these provinces, than
Silistria is of her paramount authority throughout Turkey.