History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0437/04372.txt

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$Title{Russo-Turkish War
Part I.}
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$Author{Mueller, Wilhelm}
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Title:       Russo-Turkish War
Author:      Mueller, Wilhelm

Part I.

1877

     The persistent cruelty and treachery of the Turkish Government were never
shown more completely than in the events that led to the war with Russia in
1877-1878, and in the war itself.  The massacre of Christians in time of
peace, the murder of prisoners on the battlefield, the repetition of insincere
promises of reform - these things have long been characteristic of Turkish
administration, and every renewal of them excites the reader's wonder that the
Great Powers of Europe, all of which are professedly Christian, and all of
which observe the laws of civilized warfare, have not long since taken such
action as would completely eliminate Turkey and Turkish influence from
participation in European affairs.  No doubt they would have done so were it
not for the determination of the Western Powers to thwart Russia in her
approaches to the Mediterranean.  And another thought that may strike the
unprejudiced reader of this and the following article concerns the moral
quality of the action of the Western Powers in the Congress at Berlin.  It
seems that if they were to arrogate to themselves the settlement of the
questions at issue, they were bound to do it at the beginning, and save
bloodshed, instead of leaving Russia to fight the war through, and then
depriving her of a large part of the fruits of her victory.

     In October of 1874 a collision between Montenegrins and Turks, resulting
in a massacre, had taken place in Podgoritza.  For this, in January, 1875,
five Turks were condemned to death and twenty to imprisonment; but the Turkish
Government refused to permit the execution of the sentence unless the
Montenegrins implicated in the disturbance were surrendered, to be tried by
Turkish courts on Turkish soil.  Prince Nikita insisted on the unconditional
punishment of the culprits, and prepared for war; but finally, through the
mediation of the consuls of the three empires, the Porte was induced to recede
from its demands, and orders were issued to the Governor of Scutari, in whose
jurisdiction the Turkish prisoners had been tried, to execute the sentence of
the court.  In the mean time the prisoners had been allowed to escape, which
did not prevent the Turkish Government, however, from reporting the sentence
executed.  The whole affair aroused such indignation in Montenegro that an
informal kind of war might be said to have already begun, and events in Bosnia
and Herzegovina soon fanned this hidden fire into an open conflagration.

     Great distress prevailed in the last-named provinces on account of the
bad harvest of 1874; but the tax-gatherers, instead of taking this into
consideration, carried off everything they could lay their hands on. According
to the Turkish system, a tenth of all produce belonged to the Government, but
this at times was raised to an eighth or a seventh.  As the farmer of the
taxes must also make his percentage, it not unfrequently came about that
one-third of the produce was levied instead of one-tenth.  To this must be
added house, land, cattle, tobacco, and pasturage taxes; while, besides all
these, the Christian population, not admitted to military service, were taxed
for this involuntary dispensation.  All these taxes, rendered doubly
burdensome by the oppressive and unjust mode of their collection, were liable
at any time to arbitrary increase on the part of the Government.  (For
example, the house-tax had been suddenly raised from four dollars and a half
to thirteen dollars and a half).  Some of the peasants, driven to desperation,
offered resistance to the tax-collectors, and were beaten or thrown into
prison; others sent a fruitless deputation to the Governor, Dervis Pacha.
Hundreds of families fled with what they could collect to Croatia, Dalmatia,
Montenegro, and Servia.  In consequence of Prince Nikita's intercession,
amnesty was promised to all those fugitives who would return; but no sooner
did some of them venture back than the promise was broken.

     About this time occurred the Austrian Emperor's trip to Dalmatia, and the
report spread that the object of his visit was the acquisition of Bosnia and
Herzegovina by purchase.  This report, together with the outspoken sympathy of
Servia and Montenegro, increased the excitement, and on July 6, 1875, an
insurrection broke out in Herzegovina.  Orders had been given to collect the
taxes in the village of Drashego, on the plateau of Nevesinye, by force.  The
revenue collectors and a mob of Mussulmans took advantage of the opportunity
to plunder the inhabitants.  The latter flew to arms and shot ten of the
robbers dead.  The news that a number of taxpayers had been shut into a house
and burned alive added fuel to the flame.  The women and children were at once
despatched to Dalmatia, and in a few days those parts of Herzegovina bordering
on that province and on Montenegro were in open rebellion.

     The war was prosecuted with the greatest cruelty on both sides.  The
Turkish forces were small and poorly equipped.  The mountainous character of
the country afforded great advantages for the prosecution of an irregular
warfare, and Dalmatia and Montenegro assisted the insurgents with men and
arms, so that at the outset the balance of success was in favor of the latter.
This induced Dervis Pacha to accept the proffered mediation of the Roman
Catholic Bishop of Mostar and open negotiations.  The demands put forward by
the rebels as the condition of laying down their arms were: a thorough reform
of the system of taxation, the substitution of native for Turkish officials,
and the establishment of a native militia for the maintenance of public order
in the province; and these demands the Porte was certain not to grant, except,
perhaps, on paper.

     According to the census of 1868 the Greek Catholics in Bosnia, including
Herzegovina, numbered four hundred thirty-one thousand two hundred, the Roman
Catholics one hundred seventy-one thousand seven hundred sixty-four, and the
Mahometans four hundred eighteen thousand three hundred fifteen.  A large part
of the Mahometan population consisted of the territorial nobility (the oldest
in Europe), who, although of Slavic origin, were yet fanatical adherents of
Islam, having found it to their interest to change their religion after the
conquest of the country by the Turks.  These took no part in the rebellion,
and even the Christian population did not rise in a body. The success of the
insurrection seemed to depend upon the attitude of Servia and Montenegro, and
at the outset those two countries were induced by the consuls of the three
empires to profess a strict neutrality.  Nevertheless, the Herzegovinians did
not lose heart, and by the beginning of August they had put into the field
against the Turks twelve to fourteen thousand men. The latter made great
exertions to suppress the rebellion before it should give rise to serious
diplomatic intervention, or involve the Porte in a war with the
principalities.  Dervis Pacha was succeeded by Reouf Pacha, and thirty
thousand or forty thousand soldiers were gradually collected in Herzegovina.
Against such a force the insurgents could not hope to maintain the field; but
by means of a guerilla warfare they harassed the Turks at every point, and,
when winter brought about a cessation of hostilities, the latter had made no
real advance toward the suppression of the revolt.

     In the mean time the three empires, fearing that the insurrection, if not
speedily suppressed, might result in an oriental war, had been making efforts
to bring about an understanding between the Porte and its revolted subjects.
Of the three, Germany was a comparatively disinterested observer; but, while
Russia found the insurrection to her advantage, Austria was seriously
embarrassed by a disturbance threatening to shake the status quo; and indeed,
in order to understand Austria's attitude through this whole period, it must
be borne in mind that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not one firmly
consolidated State, but merely a sort of agreement on the part of a parcel of
States and provinces of differing nationalities and conflicting interests to
maintain the status quo.  August 18th the ambassadors of these three Powers
tendered their good offices for the pacification of the revolt, and after
considerable hesitation the Sultan accepted the offer.  Server Pacha was sent
as a commissioner to examine into the grievances of the insurgents, while the
consuls of the six great Powers undertook to induce the rebels to lay down
their arms and present their complaints before the commissioner.  Server Pacha
went to Mostar and made promises; the consuls travelled through the
disaffected districts - Germany, Austria, and Italy, along the Austrian
border; England, Russia, and France, through the interior. By their interviews
with the leaders of the insurrection the consuls ascertained that the latter
would not lay down their arms unless guarantees of the most tangible
description were given for the execution of the desired reforms.

     On October 2d the Sultan issued an irade full of promises, and on
December 12th a firman of similar character appeared.  Members of the courts
and of administrative councils were to be chosen by the people, without
distinction of religious belief; suits between Mussulmans and Giaours were to
be decided by the civil tribunals; arbitrary imprisonment was forbidden;
tax-gatherers were made elective; the rights of property were secured; socage
was abolished; the free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to the
patriarchs and all other spiritual superiors; the right of holding public
office and acquiring land was bestowed upon non-Mahometans.

     These reforms were not worth the paper on which they were written unless
their execution was guaranteed and supervised by the great Powers, a
responsibility which the latter were unwilling to assume.  With great
difficulty they were able to unite in a joint note.  This was drawn up in
behalf of the three empires by Andrassy, and, after receiving the approval of
the three remaining great Powers, was presented to the Porte in an apologetic
and inoffensive manner on January 31, 1876.  Five points were insisted on as
essential to the pacification of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Unlimited religious
freedom; abolition of the system of farming the taxes; application of the
direct revenue of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the benefit of those provinces;
establishment of a special commission, consisting, in equal parts, of Moslems
and Christians, to watch over the execution of the reforms; and improvement of
the industrial condition of the country population.  Mahmoud Pacha and his
master went through the solemn farce of laying the propositions of the Powers
before a ministerial council, after which they were accepted, with some
modifications of the third proposition and published in an imperial irade of
February 13th.  A second irade on the 23d of the same month offered full
amnesty to the rebels, safe return to the fugitives, protection against all
oppression, a free gift of the necessary materials for rebuilding their
houses, and corn for sowing their fields, together with remission of the tenth
for one year, and of all other taxes for two years.

     The Andrassy note had become waste-paper, and the utterances of the
Russian press showed that Russia appreciated the necessity of armed
interference, and chafed at the restraint put upon her by the other Powers.
The Powers which especially exercised this restraint were England and
Austro-Hungary.  Both Germans and Hungarians were opposed to annexation, as
that would increase the strength of the Slavic element, which both of them
already found too strong.  The increase of Servia or the erection of a new
Slavic state would make Russian influence in the Balkan Peninsula too
powerful.  Furthermore, the Magyars (numbering five million five hundred
thousand, ruling over two million five hundred thousand Roumanians, one
million five hundred thousand Germans, and five million Slavs), in their
hatred of the Slavs in general and the Russians in particular, actually
sympathized with the Turks.  Consequently, Austria could not venture to
advance her own frontier, except under pressure of actual necessity, neither
could she allow the erection of any new Slavonic States or the increase of
those already existing.  But England adopted a simple policy of obstruction,
encouraging the Porte in its opposition to all reform, rejecting the plans
proposed by other Powers, and refusing to present any of her own; recognizing
the principle of European concert, but doing all in her power to prevent the
fact.  At the outset she urged the Turk to put down the Herzegovinian
insurrection with all speed, and used her whole power to bring about that
result.

     In accordance with England's advice to suppress the revolt as soon as
possible, and thus avoid all foreign interference, the Sultan raised Achmed
Mukhtar Pacha to the chief command, and despatched him to the seat of the
disturbance, with fresh forces, toward the close of December, 1875.  But the
Andrassy note (not yet formally presented) led to a change of policy, in so
far that on January 24th Ali Pacha, formerly ambassador at Paris, appeared in
Mostar as Governor-General of Herzegovina, commissioned by the Porte to
appease the insurgents with promises.  In addition to this, two special
commissioners arrived, supplied with a small sum of money - enough to make a
pretence, but nothing more - for the assistance of returning fugitives.  At
the same time a cessation of hostilities was proclaimed from March 29th to
April 10th.

     While England and (following her lead) Austria were throwing all their
influence into the scale against the insurgents, Russia stood forth as in a
sense the champion of their just claims.  On April 5th Vesselitzky, a private
agent of Prince Gortschakoff, arrived in the Suttorina, and entered into
negotiations with the insurgents.  They demanded, as before, some guarantee
for the execution of the promised reforms.  Vesselitzky constituted himself
their plenipotentiary, and set out for Berlin to present in person the address
of the insurgents at the conference about to be held there.

     Before the close of the armistice in the south an insurrection broke out
in the northwest, in Turkish Croatia, the centre of the movement being the
little garrison town of Bisca.  This new revolt was liberally supplied with
men and arms from Servia, and a force of ten thousand rebels, some of them
Mahometans, was soon brought together.  Ibrahim Pacha, the Governor-General of
Bosnia, found the force of fifteen thousand men at his disposal inadequate for
the suppression of the revolt.  On April 1st and 6th, and Palanka and
Yagrenitza, his troops were defeated by the insurgents, the latter fighting
under the battle-cry "Long live the Emperor of Austria!"

     In the south, on the close of the armistice, Mukhtar Pacha set out from
Gacko, through the Duga Pass, to provision the hard-pressed fortress of
Niksic, but was defeated and driven back with great loss.  Mukhtar represented
to his Government that seven thousand Montenegrins took part in this battle,
and orders were thereupon issued to establish a camp at Scutari, with a view
to an invasion of Montenegro.  Russia, whose protege Prince Nikita was, called
upon the other great Powers to assist her in averting war, and General
Ignatieff and Count Zichy, the Russian and Austrian ambassadors at
Constantinople, denied absolutely the credibility of Mukhtar's report. The
Sultan finally yielded to their representations and professedly countermanded
his orders.  The same pressure was not brought to bear in behalf of Servia,
and before the close of April forty thousand men were assembled in the Turkish
camp at Nish, on the southern border of that principality.

     On May 10th Gortschakoff had a meeting with Bismarck and Andrassy in
Berlin, and laid before them a memorandum based upon the Andrassy note.  A
truce of two months was to be proclaimed in order to settle the points in
dispute with the insurgents; the execution of the promised reforms was to be
supervised by the consuls of the great Powers; and an international fleet was
to be despatched to the support of the consuls.  "More effectual" measures
were held in view, in case nothing had been accomplished before the expiration
of the two months.  This memorandum was adopted by the three emperors and
communicated to the other three great Powers.  France and Italy accepted it
without reserve, but England refused her assent on the ground that the Porte
had not yet had sufficient time in which to carry out the reforms, and that
the suggestion of "more effectual" measures would lead the rebels to persist
in their rebellion, while the supervision by foreign consuls was an
inadmissible interference with the sovereign rights of the Sultan.  The
English Cabinet even went so far as to communicate the contents of the
memorandum to the Porte, and in effect advised resistance to the will of
Europe by means of a dilatory policy - adding, however, that Turkey could rely
on nothing more than moral support from England.  The memorandum itself was
never presented to the Turkish Government, the course of events rendering it
superfluous.

     In the mean time an event had occurred at Saloniki which involved the
Porte in threatening complications with two of the neutral or disinterested
great Powers.  A mob of Turkish fanatics murdered the German and French
consuls, on May 6th, by the command or at the instigation of the chief of
police, the disturbance which led to their interference having originated in
an attempt on his part to carry off a Bulgarian maiden for his harem. Germany
and France at once demanded satisfaction, and French, German, Italian,
Russian, Austrian, and Greek ships-of-war appeared in the harbor of Saloniki
to protect the foreign residents; whereupon England despatched twelve
ironclads to Besika Bay to guard the mouth of the Dardanelles.  The peremptory
attitude of the injured Powers compelled the Porte, after some shambling and
delay, to punish, not merely, according to its usual custom, ignorant tools
and inoffensive lookers-on, but even pachas and a chief of police.

     Of a sudden great excitement displayed itself among the softas (or
students), of whom there were about ten thousand at mosques in Constantinople.
Providing themselves with arms, they marched in crowds through the city, and
drew up a programme, in which they demanded, among other things, an assembly
of notables, and the recall of Ignatieff by the Russian Government.  They
likewise clamored for the annihilation of the revolt in Herzegovina, and for
war with Montenegro.  On May 11th they presented themselves before the palace
with arms in their hands, and demanded the removal of Mahmoud Pacha and the
Sheik-ul-Islam.  Their demands were granted; but, instead of Midhat Pacha, the
man of their choice, Mehemed Rushdi Pacha was made grand vizier.  This was
counterbalanced, however, by the appointment of Hussein Avni Pacha, the soul
of the movement, as Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the army.  This
was only a beginning. Abdul-Aziz was not the man for the energetic policy
required by his new counsellors.  His greed, his extravagance, his leanings
toward Russia, had long since deprived him of all respect.  On May 29th the
grand vizier, the Sheik-ul-Islam, Midhat Pacha, and the Minister of War
resolved to dethrone this worthless and dissipated Sultan, and place the
legitimate heir, Amurath, eldest son of the deceased Sultan, Abdul-Medjid, on
the throne in his stead. Their plan was carried out, and the deposed monarch
was forthwith removed to the kiosk Top-Capu, thence to the Palace of
Therragan, where he appears to have committed suicide a few days later.

     But before Abdul-Aziz ceased to reign, one of the cruellest tragedies
that modern history records had been enacted in Bulgaria.  Ever since the
Crimean War it had been the policy of the Turkish Government to eradicate the
Bulgarians, and settle Tartars and Circassians in the provinces south of the
Danube, in order to form a strong bulwark against Slavic aggression from the
north.  The Tartars remained almost exclusively in the Dobrudja; the
Circassians spread through the mountainous regions of Bulgaria.  Bravely
though the latter had fought against the Russians in their native mountains,
in Bulgaria they proved nothing more than lazy robbers.  Work they would not;
they lived by plundering the unfortunate natives.

     At length, inspired by the example of Herzegovina and Bosnia, and incited
in all probability by Russian and Servian agents, after vain complaints and
petitions, on May 1, 1876, some young men raised the standard of revolt
against such shameless oppression at Drenovo, near Tirnova.  Almost at the
same time an insurrection broke out in the region between Philippopolis and
Sofia, and soon the insurgents numbered about ten thousand men.  Abdul-Kerim,
commander of the army in Roumelia and Bulgaria, could not muster more than
fifteen thousand regular troops, and so recourse was had to the expedient of
commissioning Bashi-Bazouks - volunteers without uniform - or, in other words,
arming the Mahometan population to suppress the revolt.  Even the prisons were
emptied, and murderers were enrolled to put down the rebellion.  Such a course
could not fail to result in massacres of the most atrocious description.  The
insurrection was soon suppressed, but the massacres continued.  It appears to
have been the intention of the Turkish Government to break the spirit of the
Bulgarian people finally and completely, and thus render any future revolt an
impossibility.  The number of the luckless victims of this barbarous policy
has been variously estimated at three thousand to one hundred thousand.

     Batak was the place that suffered most severely, as it is also the name
best known in connection with the massacres.  All the Bulgarian villages in
the neighborhood had been destroyed before the Bashi-Bazouks appeared at
Batak, on May 12th.  Hitherto the villagers of Batak had enjoyed immunity, and
as they were under the special protection of Achmed Aga, the leader of the
Bashi-Bazouks, they were in hopes that the storm might leave them untouched.
Achmed Aga, as chief of police of the district, called upon the inhabitants to
surrender their arms.  His demand was at once complied with. One of the men
that brought the weapons was shot dead, and the rest were sent back with
orders to bring all the gold and jewellery in the place.  But, without
awaiting their return, the Bashi-Bazouks fell upon the hapless village,
proclaiming themselves commissioned by the Sultan to rob and murder all the
inhabitants.  The headman of the village was impaled upon a spit and roasted
alive.  Of the women, some were stripped naked, robbed of their jewellery,
outraged, and then murdered - others were carried off to grace the harems of
neighboring Turkish magnates.  A correspondent describing the appearance of
the village a few weeks later said: "The path was strewn with bones and
children's skulls; on the hill lay one hundred fifty whitened skeletons, still
half covered with clothes.  When the sack of the village was completed the
girls and women were brought to this spot, where, after the most terrible
abuse, they were slaughtered like cattle.  Before the church a hideous odor
greeted us.  The churchyard is surrounded by a wall six feet high.  The space
between this wall and the church was filled in three feet deep with corpses,
which were covered with nothing but stone slabs.  The church itself was full
of mouldering pieces of flesh, half-burnt bones, and bloody garments.
Opposite the church stood the schoolhouse, where three hundred women and
children sought refuge and were burned alive by the Bashi-Bazouks.  At the
lowest estimate four thousand corpses were lying unburied in the village.
Before the massacre Batak numbered thirteen thousand inhabitants: it now
numbers one thousand two hundred.  If we estimate the missing at one thousand,
there still remains a difference of more than eleven thousand to be ascribed
to the account of the Turks."

     A correspondent writing from Bulgaria on August 15th said: "The actual
participants in the May insurrection were long ago sent to their last account;
since then the authorities have been casting into prison chiefly innocent men,
who never thought of rising against the Government.  Of one thousand
twenty-eight Bulgarians who were imprisoned at Tirnova, only four had been
guilty of any acts of insubordination; the rest were merchants, clergymen,
teachers, and peasants.  About eight hundred unoffending clergymen and
teachers have been put to death.  The rich merchants in Grabrovo, Tirnova,
Lovatz, and other places were seized in their shops and killed almost without
exception; their property fell to the treasury, or rather to the officials,
who shared it among themselves.  The poorer prisoners were for the most part
allowed to live.  So far five thousand six hundred twenty-eight persons have
been released from prison."

     All doubt as to the complicity of the Government is dispelled when it is
remembered that the worst offenders were rewarded - the commander of
Pestuvizza with a silver medal, Tussoum Bey of Klissura with the Medjidi
order, and Achmed Aga of Batak with promotion to the Yuzbashi.

     The Bulgarian massacre could not fail to excite the greatest indignation
in all Europe, but more especially in Servia and Montenegro.  Servia had long
hesitated between peace and war.  She had to fear, not alone the superior
strength of the Turks, but also the jealousy of Austria, or rather Hungary,
which had no desire to encourage the dream of a great Servia.  In February of
1876 the war party at length gained the upper hand, and made such open
preparations for a campaign against Turkey that Austria and Russia united in a
joint note urging the Servian Government to refrain from hostilities.  In
Belgrad Austria was looked upon as the only obstacle; and popular indignation
ran so high that on April 9th, the national festival, stones were thrown at
the Austrian consulate.  Austrian influence did not prove strong enough to
hold the Servians back.  On May 5th an unmistakable war ministry was formed,
with Ristic as Minister for Foreign Affairs; and on the 22d a national loan of
twelve million francs was decreed.  Prince Nikita at once placed himself at
the head of the Herzegovinian movement, and issued orders to the insurgents.
On June 26th the latter proclaimed him as their prince, and two days later the
Bosnian insurgents, imitating their example, proclaimed Prince Milan Prince of
Bosnia.  The Servian army had been for some time assembled on the border,
while the Turks had also collected a considerable force on their side of the
line.

     After some diplomatic correspondence the Servian Government despatched an
ultimatum on June 27th demanding the "removal from the Servian frontier of the
Turkish army, together with the wild hordes of Bashi-Bazouks, Circassians,
Arnauts [Albanians], and Kurds," the appointment of Prince Milan as viceroy of
Bosnia, and the occupation of the disturbed provinces by the Servian army.
The union of Bosnia with Servia, and Herzegovina with Montenegro, seemed to
the Porte too high a price for the maintenance of peace; accordingly on July
2d the Servian army crossed the Turkish border, and at the same time Prince
Nikita, who had already called into the field the whole able-bodied population
between the ages of seventeen and sixty, announced to the Porte that he
preferred open war to the state of virtual siege in which his principality was
kept by the Turkish forces on the border.

     The Servian field army numbered about eighty thousand men; but of these
only three thousand were regular troops, while there was no reserve from which
to supply the losses of battle.

     Russia manifested the liveliest sympathy for the Servians.  Of the six to
eight thousand foreign volunteers in the Servian army fully three thousand
were Russians, and many of the officers were of the same nationality.  Money
and hospital stores were freely supplied from the Northern Empire; the Empress
put herself at the head of the benevolent societies organized for the benefit
of the Servians and Montenegrins; collections were taken up from house to
house; and numerous ladies and physicians hastened to offer their services at
the seat of war.  The Emperor maintained an attitude of reserve, but the whole
nation saluted the Servians and Montenegrins as brothers fighting in the
common quarrel of the Slavonic race.  The Montenegrin army, consisting almost
exclusively of militia, numbered fifteen thousand men, divided into two parts,
in order to make head at the same time toward the north and south.  The
insurgents in Herzegovina were under the command of the Prince of Montenegro,
while those in Bosnia fought independently.  The Turkish army at the outset of
the campaign numbered one hundred fifty thousand men, under the command of
Abdul-Kerim; and this force was constantly increased by fresh troops from Asia
and Africa, who were paid by means of Abdul-Aziz's confiscated treasures.  The
Turks were seriously impeded, however, in their prosecution of the war by the
fact that they were compelled to recognize the neutrality of the Danube; in
addition to which the harbor of Klek, where reenforcements were to have been
debarked for Mukhtar Pacha, was closed by the Austrians.

     On July 2d Chernayeff crossed the Turkish frontier, and severed the
communications between Abdul-Kerim at Nish and Osman Pacha at Viddin.  But he
was unable to maintain his position, and on the 14th Abdul-Kerim became in his
turn the invader.  On August 4th and 5th the Servians were defeated at
Knyazebac; but Abdul-Kerim did not know how to improve his victory, and
Chernayeff was allowed to fortify himself at Bania and Alexinatz.  This
position was attacked by the Turks on August 19th, but after six days'
fighting they were repulsed.  The attack was renewed on the 28th, but with the
same result.  An attack on September 1st was more successful, and after eleven
hours' fighting the Turks carried the Servian position before Alexinatz; but
again they failed to improve their victory, and Chernayeff was allowed to
intrench himself between Alexinatz and Deligrad.  On the 11th and 16th the
Servians assumed the offensive, but were repulsed.

     The campaign had lasted ten weeks, and had resulted slightly to the
disadvantage of the Servians; their main army, together with the army of the
Timok, had been worsted, and the smaller forces operating in the northwest and
southwest had proved too weak to accomplish anything.  For the rest, although
the Montenegrins has been victorious in both the north and the south, all the
other allies on whom Servia had counted had failed her utterly.  Neither
Roumania nor Greece had moved; Bulgaria was crushed, and the Bosnians were
held in check by the Turks.

     It was no wonder, therefore, that the demand for peace should make itself
heard in Belgrad, and on September 16th a ten-days' armistice was concluded.
This armistice was the direct work of the great Powers.  The Gortschakoff
memorandum never had been presented to the Porte, on account of the revolution
of May 30th.  The leaders of that revolution, Hasan Avni Pacha and Midhat
Pacha, while agreed in their hostility to Russia, differed radically in regard
to internal policy.  The former belonged to the old Turks, and clung to
ancient forms and customs; the latter believed in pretending to rule according
to European methods.  On June 15th Hasan Avni Pacha and Rashid Pacha were
murdered.  Their places in the Cabinet were supplied by Abdul-Kerim and Savfet
Pacha, the former Minister of Justice.  On June 9th, in the House of Commons,
Disraeli expressed himself full of hope and confidence in reference to the new
Turkish era thus inaugurated.  Perhaps it was unwillingness to hamper the new
Government in its work of reform which led the English ambassador at
Constantinople, or the English Government, or both, to suppress the
information in their hands regarding the atrocities in Bulgaria.  The London
Times also suppressed the communications of its correspondent regarding the
massacres, so that the first information which reached the English people came
through the columns of the Daily News, on June 26th.  The Ministry, when
questioned in Parliament, denied all knowledge of such events.  Ultimately,
however, they were forced to send a commissioner to investigate the alleged
outrages.  As fuller news arrived a revulsion in public opinion set in, and
the Government finally found itself obliged to instruct the English ambassador
in Constantinople (September 5th) that so much public indignation had been
aroused by the late events in Bulgaria that, even in the extreme case of a war
with Russia, England would not be able to interfere for the protection of the
Ottoman Empire.

     England's pro-Turkish attitude naturally excited the greatest indignation
in Russia, where all classes of the population were clamorous for war with
Turkey.  On July 8th a meeting took place at Reichstadt between Alexander and
Francis Joseph, attended by their chancellors, at which it appears to have
been decided that no armed intervention should be attempted for the present,
and that neither State should in any case act independently of the other.
Germany naturally assented to this arrangement.  General Klapka, one of the
heroes of 1848, arrived in Constantinople on July 21st, and put himself at the
disposal of the Turkish Government, his intention being to raise a Hungarian
legion to fight under the crescent against the Christian Slavs.  This project
met with the hearty approval of the Hungarian press.  On October 23d the
students of Pest expressed to Minister-President Tisza wish to hold a
torchlight procession in honor of the Turkish consul, and on January 13, 1877,
a deputation of Hungarian students presented Abdul-Kerim, the conqueror of the
Servians, with a sabre as "a pledge of the intimate friendship between the two
countries." The Magyars were also influenced by interest as well as sentiment,
for they perceived that a strong Slavonic State to the south must result in
giving the five million Slavs in Hungary a share in its government.

     In addition to England and the Magyars, one other friend of Turkish rule
should be mentioned, namely, the Pope.  The ground of this friendship was
indicated in an article in the Voce della Verita, a Vatican sheet, to the
effect that the rule of the Turkish crescent was preferable to that of the
Greek Catholic cross.  This alliance, which restrained from revolt the Roman
Catholic population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was very welcome to the Porte,
and the latter showed its gratitude by settling certain difficulties that had
arisen regarding the Armenian Church, and promising to bestow special
privileges on its Roman Catholic subjects.

     The Sultan with whom Servia must negotiate a peace was no longer Amurath
V.  The "reformer of the Turkish Empire," after a reign of three months, fell
a victim to an incurable brain trouble, and on August 31st his brother,
Abdul-Hamid II, was declared Sultan in his stead.  The great Powers, which had
been negotiating in Constantinople and Belgrad with a view to peace, left it
to the Porte to propose the terms, and on September 14th the latter laid
before their representatives the plan of a treaty; but it was not acceptable.
England, which had heretofore refused to act in harmony with the other Powers,
was allowed to propose terms of peace.  On September 25th Sir Henry Elliot
submitted to the Porte the following propositions: Restoration of the status
quo ante in Servia and Montenegro, the establishment of administrative
autonomy in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, and the execution of the
reforms indicated in the Andrassy note.  The official answer, communicated on
October 2d, while accepting the first two conditions, refused autonomy to the
three provinces on the ground that a constitution, including a central
parliament, was about to be granted to the whole empire, and all branches of
the administration thoroughly reformed.

     But before matters had reached this point hostilities had been again
resumed.  On September 28th Chernayeff, who had taken advantage of the truce
to proclaim Prince Milan King of Servia, and cause the army to take the oath
of allegiance to him, resumed the offensive, destroyed the two bridges which
Abdul-Kerim had thrown across the Morava, and attacked the Turks.  When
victory seemed within his grasp, Hafiz Pacha arrived on the scene with
thirty-three thousand fresh troops, and the Servians were repulsed.  After a
long pause, on October 19th the Turks attacked the Servian positions, and by
the 31st of that month Alexinatz had been taken and destroyed and the way
opened into the interior.

     On October 30th Ignatieff, in an interview with Savfet Pacha, informed
the latter, in the name of the Russian Emperor, that; unless within
twenty-four hours the Porte signified its willingness to conclude an armistice
with Servia of six weeks or two months, Russia would break off her political
relations with the Sultan.  What Turkey might venture to refuse to the united
demands of the disunited great Powers she did not dare to refuse to Russia
alone, and on October 31st a two-months' truce with Servia was signed.
England at once proposed a conference of the Powers on the basis of the
integrity of the Ottoman Empire, with a view to establishing administrative
autonomy in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria; and after some objections from
the Porte, all the Powers sent delegates to the Conference at Constantinople.

     On November 2d the Czar, in a conversation with Lord Loftus, the English
ambassador at St. Petersburg, pledged his word that he did not aim at the
acquisition of constantinople, and that in case it became necessary to occupy
Bulgaria the occupation should be merely temporary.  But it soon appeared that
the English Government was not satisfied.  On November 9th, at the Lord
Mayor's banquet, Lord Beaconsfield, after glorifying the strength and
resources of Great Britain, said: "In a righteous cause England is not the
country that will have to inquire whether she can enter upon a second or third
campaign.  In a righteous cause England will commence a fight that will not
end till right is done." The allusion was manifest, and the Emperor
Alexander's speech to the nobles at Moscow on the following day was an evident
answer to the challenge contained in the English Premier's words.  If he could
not succeed in obtaining, with the concert of Europe, he said, such guarantees
as he thought it necessary to exact, he was firmly determined to act
independently, and was convinced that all Russia would respond to his summons.

     On the 13th the Czar ordered the formation of six army corps out of the
divisions stationed in the military districts of Odessa, Charkoff, and Kiev,
and appointed the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievitch their commander.  A Crimean
army was also to be formed under the command of General Semyeka, and large
reenforcements were ordered for Loris Melikoff in the Caucasus.  In an
explanatory circular Gortschakoff informed the great Powers that Russia was
determined not to rest until justice had been done to the Christian subjects
of the Porte.  On November 18th a loan of one hundred million rubles was
ordered, which was taken up in the Russian Empire within eight days.  Orders
were also issued placing the railroads at the disposal of the military
authorities, the export of grain and horses was forbidden, torpedoes were laid
at the entrances of the most important Black Sea harbors, and other necessary
preparations made for war.  These measures called forth, not alone diplomatic
protests and inquiries from the English Cabinet, but also
counter-preparations, and on November 18th it was announced that, in case
Bulgaria were occupied by Russian troops, England would occupy Gallipoli and
Constantinople in order to secure the Bosporus and the Dardanelles against the
Russian fleet.

     Turkey was not idle.  Military preparations were pushed forward, and at
the same time a constitution intended to checkmate the approaching conference
was under preparation.  On November 21st this instrument was completed and
laid before the Sultan for his signature.  As it conferred upon the Christians
political equality with the Mahometans, Mehemet Rushdi Pacha, a fanatical Old
Turk, opposed it; but on December 19th his resignation was tendered, on
account of "ill-health," and Midhat Pacha became grand vizier in his stead.
On the 23d the new constitution was published in the presence of the
dignitaries of the realm, while cannon thundered forth their welcome to the
newborn sham.  It is needless to mention all the beneficial provisions of this
document, for they never were executed, and it was not intended that they
should be.  The constitution was to serve as an excuse for paying no attention
to the advice of Europe.  The conference proper was opened on the 23d, Savfet
Pacha presiding.  Count Chaudordy had hardly presented the proposition of the
great Powers when the sound of cannon was heard, and Savfet Pacha announced
that a constitution had been granted and a new era had begun.  This did not
have the desired effect, however, and on January 1st the Porte found itself
obliged to lay before the conference a counter-proposition.  On January 15th
the Powers as an ultimatum presented their demands in a somewhat modified
form, omitting among other things the condition with reference to the
employment of foreign troops, but giving their representatives a voice in the
selection of governors, and providing two commissions appointed by the great
Powers for the general supervision of the reforms.

     The position of the Porte was difficult in the extreme; for if these two
conditions were accepted, the independence of the Turkish Government was lost;
while, if they were rejected, war was inevitable.  On January 18th a meeting
of the Extraordinary Grand Council was called, at which two hundred fifteen
persons were present, including the Grecian Patriarch and delegates from the
Armenian Patriarch, the Bulgarian Exarch, and the Grand Rabbi.  The council
advised resistance, and on the 20th the Porte communicated to the conference
its rejection of the two obnoxious conditions.  In their stead the Porte
offered no guarantee but promises, and so the conference came to a close.