History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0437/04373.txt

Text File | 1992-10-12 | 34KB | 512 lines

$Unique_ID{how04373}
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$Title{Russo-Turkish War
Part II.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Mueller, Wilhelm}
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$Subject{army
russian
turkish
thousand
russians
pacha
general
turks
corps
plevna}
$Date{}
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Title:       Russo-Turkish War
Author:      Mueller, Wilhelm

Part II.

     After the failure of the conference, direct negotiations were opened with
Servia and Montenegro, and on March 1st a peace was signed with the former
State, by which the status quo ante was restored, with the stipulation that
the Turkish flag should be planted on the citadel of Belgrad along with the
Servian.  With Montenegro matters did not run so smoothly.  Turkey would not
consent to any cession of territory; and finally, on April 13th, negotiations
were broken off, and both sides prepared for a renewal of the war.

     On January 31st Gortschakoff addressed a circular to the great Powers
asking what they intended to do now that their advice had been rejected.
England proposed a year's probation.  Gortschakoff inquired what was to be
done at the close of the year, as "Russia could consent to such a probation
only on condition that the great Powers pledged themselves to joint measures
of coercion" in case Turkey failed to carry out the reforms within that time.
Such a pledge England was unwilling to give, and the plan of the English
Cabinet, so far as it can be said to have had one, appears to have been to
shut its eyes and try to believe the assurances of the Porte.  But Russia
would not so readily abandon the policy of joint action on the part of the
great Powers, and in the beginning of March Ignatieff undertook a mission to
Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and London - professedly on account of his eyes.
Finally, on March 31st, the six Powers signed a protocol calling upon the
Porte to make peace with Montenegro, reduce its army to a peace footing, and
carry out the desired reforms.  The execution of these reforms was to be
watched over by the representatives of the Powers; and, in case they were not
carried out, the latter reserved to themselves the right of indicating the
measures they considered necessary to the welfare of the Christian populations
in the dominions of the Sultan.

     The London protocol was presented to Savfet Pacha on April 3d, and the
Porte refused to accept it.  The Turkish answer was received in St. Petersburg
on April 12th, and on the 13th orders were issued to mobilize the whole
Russian army.  On the 24th of the same month the Emperor issued a manifesto
ordering his troops to cross the Turkish frontiers; and on the same day a
circular-note was sent to the Powers informing them of the fact.  In his
answer to this circular Lord Derby expressed his regret at Russia's action,
which he regarded as a violation of the Treaty of Paris of 1856; at the same
time, however, he announced the intention of the English Government to observe
a strict neutrality in case British interests were not interfered with;
constantinople must remain in the hands of its present possessors, and the
existing regulations with regard to the Dardanelles and Bosporus must be
maintained.

     The position of Roumania between the two belligerents rendered its
alliance a matter of importance to both sides.  On April 16th a convention was
concluded with Russia by which free passage through the principality was
conceded to the Russian army, together with the use of the railroads, post,
and telegraph; and it was also provided that the Roumanian Commander-in-Chief
should establish magazines at all important points, excepting Bukharest, in
the rear of the Russian army of operation.  As this convention was a virtual
declaration of war with Turkey, orders were issued on the 18th to concentrate
ten thousand men at Bukharest, and two days later the mobilization of the
whole army was commanded.  Prince Charles assumed the chief command in person.

     The Russian army entered Roumania on April 24th, but its progress toward
the Danube was very slow.  There was but one railroad leading from Bessarabia
to the Turkish frontiers, and this had been rendered useless at places by the
heavy rains, while from the same cause the roads were almost impassable.
Skobeleff's cavalry brigade, pushing forward with all speed, accomplished the
distance from the Russian frontier to Barboshi in one day.  Infantry and
artillery followed.  Galatz and Braila were strongly garrisoned, and the
possession of the bridge secured.  The Turks had expected great things from
their Danube flotilla, but their expectations were doomed to disappointment.
Batteries were erected at Braila and other points, and the passage of the
river at Reni and Matshin was obstructed by torpedoes.  On May 11th a Turkish
monitor was blown up by a shell from the Braila batteries, and a few days
later an ironclad turret-ship was disabled.  On the 26th two Russian officers,
Dubasheff and Shestakoff, blew up a Turkish monitor in the Matshin Canal by
means of torpedoes.  The Turkish fleet in the Black Sea, on the other hand,
proved of great value, enabling the Turks to send troops and provisions by
water, while the Russians were confined to land communications.

     On June 6th Emperor Alexander, accompanied by his Chancellor, arrived in
Roumania and took up his headquarters at Ployeschi, north of Burkharest, where
the Grand Duke Nicholas had been since May 15th.  The waters of the Danube
were still sixteen feet above the normal level, rendering the passage of the
river for the present impracticable.  The army under the Grand Duke's command
consisted of nine army corps.  How strong the Turkish forces opposed to the
Grand Duke's army were it is scarcely possible to estimate even approximately.
According to the most probable guess there were twenty thousand men in the
Dobrudja, ten thousand in Silistria, thirty thousand in Rustchuk, twenty
thousand in Shumla, and thirty-five thousand in Viddin, making a total of one
hundred fifteen thousand.  In addition to these a reserve army, about thirty
thousand strong, was formed to the south of the Balkans, and soldiers were
brought back from Montenegro.  These were all regulars; the number of the
irregulars it is impossible even to conjecture. These forces were under the
chief command of Abdul-Kerim Pacha, who arrived at Shumla on April 17th, and
distinguished himself, so long as he remained in command, by complete
inaction.

     In the night of June 21st the Russians crossed the Danube in boats at
Galatz, and dislodged the Turks from the heights of Budyak.  On the 23d
Matshin was occupied by the Russians, and by the 28th the Fourteenth Army
Corps, commanded by General Zimmermann, was on the right bank of the river.
The Turks now abandoned the Dobrudja, and fell back on the line of defence
between Czernavoda and Kustendje (Trajan's Wall); but this also was abandoned
after a faint resistance, and occupied by the Russians on July 19th.  The
passage of the main army took place at Simnitza on the night of the 26th.  By
three o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th Sistova was in the hands of the
Russians, and the Turks were in full retreat, some toward Nikopoli, others
toward Tirnova.  On the same day a proclamation was issued to the Bulgarian
people announcing their freedom from Mussulman oppression, and calling upon
them to render the Russian army all the assistance in their power.  On July 2d
a bridge across the Danube was completed, and by the middle of that month four
army corps were on Bulgarian soil, two still remaining on the left bank.

     For the next few weeks the Russians met with no check, and almost with no
resistance.  Biela was taken on July 1st, Tirnova on the 7th, and Drenovo and
Gabrovo on the 10th.  On the 12th the Grand Duke Nicholas, accompanied by
Prince Cherkassky, who was intrusted with the reorganization of the civil
administration of Bulgaria, took up his headquarters in Tirnova.  On the 13th
General Gourko, with the advance-guard of the Eighth Army Corps, began the
passage of the Balkans by the Hankioi Pass to the east of the Shipka.  On the
14th he was in the Tunja Valley, and his Cossacks had destroyed the telegraph
wires at Yeni-Sagra.  On the 17th, in spite of the opposition of Reouf Pacha,
he occupied Kazanlik and Shipka, at the southern extremity of Shipka Pass. On
the 18th his forces entered the pass from the south, cooperating with Prince
Mirski, who had entered it with two regiments from the north, and on the 19th
Shipka and Hankioi passes were in the hands of the Russians.

     The Russian advance had been along the line of the Jantra; in order to
secure that line it was necessary to reduce the fortress of Nikopoli, and
General Krudener, with the greater part of the Ninth Corps, was detailed for
that duty.  On July 16th, after a three-days' siege, the garrison, consisting
of two pachas and six thousand men, surrendered to the Russians.  Selvi and
Lovatz were also occupied by small detachments, so that the greater part of
Central Bulgaria, with the Balkan passes, was in the hands of the invaders.
From those passes Russian cavalry were despatched still farther southward.

     The Russian advance had been so rapid and unchecked that the Turkish
authorities, filled with consternation, regarded Adrianople as lost, and
fearfully expected to see the victorious enemy before the gates of the capital
itself.  Savfet Pacha, Redif Pacha, Minister of War, and Chairulla Effendi,
the Sheik-ul-Islam, were removed from their posts.  Mustapha Pacha was made
Minister of War, and the fanatical Kara Chalil Effendi Sheik-ul-Islam; while
Mehemet Ali Pacha, a descendant of the Huguenots, Detroit by name, from
Magdeburg, in Prussia, was appointed commander of the Army of the Danube.
Aarifi Pacha, formerly Turkish ambassador in Vienna, was intrusted with the
conduct of foreign affairs.  He at once issued a circular-note announcing to
the Powers that, owing to the barbarities perpetrated by the Russians and
Bulgarians, the Porte could not engage to prevent the Mussulman population
from resorting to reprisals, and massacring all the Christians whom they could
find.

     The Russian victories had caused scarcely less consternation in London
than in Constantinople.  On the news of the passage of the Danube, Admiral
Hornby, with thirteen ironclads, was at once despatched to Besika Bay.  The
crossing of the Balkans induced the English Cabinet to send three thousand men
to Malta.

     The four Russian army corps in Central Bulgaria were so disposed as to
form three separate armies.  Two corps, under the command of the Czarevitch,
operated toward the east, against the Turkish positions at Rustchuk, Rasgrad,
and Shumla; a third, toward the south, occupied a position extending from
Tirnova to the southern extremity of the Shipka Pass; while General Krudener,
with the Ninth Army Corps, faced toward the Osma and the Vid.  On July 17th
the last-named commander received word that hostile troops had appeared in the
neighborhood of Plevna.  Three regiments sent to dislodge them were defeated,
on the 20th, with a loss of sixty-six officers and two thousand seven hundred
seventy-one men.  About the middle of July Osman Pacha received permission to
occupy Nikopoli, but before he could reach it that fortress capitulated.
Osman turned southward, and, selecting the unfortified village of Plevna as
the most favorable for his purpose, improvised there, in a few days, a
fortification of the first rank.  After the defeat of the Russians, on the
20th, a Turkish column was despatched against Lovatz; and with Plevna and
Lovatz in their hands, Osman's thirty thousand men were in a position to
checkmate the Russian plans.

     The Russian generals had been taken unawares; it was to them as if a
hostile army had fallen from the skies.  The advance in the Tunja and Maritza
valleys was stopped, the Czarevitch's army was condemned to inaction, and all
available troops were sent in hot haste to the support of General Krudener.
Handing over Nikopoli to the Roumanians, the latter officer, with thirty-eight
thousand men, advanced against Osman's position at Plevna; but in the mean
time the strength of the Turkish army had been raised to fifty thousand.

     The Second Battle of Plevna was fought on July 30th; and although the
Russian troops conducted themselves with the greatest valor, they were
repulsed with a loss of eight thousand men.

     Osman failed to follow up his success, and contented himself with
strengthening his position and bringing up reenforcements.  The Grand Duke
Nicholas at once transferred his headquarters from Tirnova to Biela.  The two
army corps which had been left behind as a coast-guard were ordered to the
front; the guard corps, the grenadier corps, and other regular troops were
mobilized; one hundred eighty-five thousand four hundred sixty-seven reserve
and landwehr troops were called out, and an additional levy of two hundred six
thousand men commanded.

     But the regular troops could not reach the seat of war before September,
and the others were not ready for action in time to take any direct part in
the campaign.  A new alliance of offence and defence between Russia and
Roumania called forth no protest.  Two divisions of the Roumanian army crossed
the Danube at Korabia on September 2d, a third was in possession of Nikopoli,
and the fourth remained at Kalafat.  The command of the army of investment
before Plevna was conferred on Prince Charles, and the Russian general Zatoff
was made his chief of staff.

     On August 30th Osman awakened from his lethargy sufficiently to attack
the Russian positions at Pelifat and Selvi, but both attacks were
unsuccessful.  On September 3d the Russians again assumed the offensive.
General Imeritinski, with twenty thousand men, carried Lovatz by storm, and
joined the Russian army of investment before Plevna.  With this addition, that
army consisted of nine infantry and four cavalry divisions, with four hundred
guns; and on the 11th a general attack on the Turkish positions was ordered.
The Roumanians on the north succeeded in taking the Grivitza redoubt, but the
Russian centre was repulsed, while an intrenchment which had been captured by
Skobeleff on the south was recaptured by the Turks on the following day.

     South of the Balkans, also, the Turks had developed more activity since
the change of ministers and commanders.  Suleiman Pacha embarked on Turkish
transports at Antivari on July 16th, landed at Dedeagh, advanced by rail to
Hermanly, and thence directed his march toward the Shipka Pass.  On July 30th
and 31st Reouf Pacha, without awaiting his arrival, attacked General Gourko in
a fortified position at Eski-Sagra, and was repulsed.  On the night of the
31st Suleiman arrived.  Forming a junction with the remnant of Reouf's
defeated forces, he surprised the Russians in their intrenchments, and routed
them utterly early on the morning of August 1st.  Some of them fled toward the
Shipka, others toward the Hankioi Pass.  Suleiman followed, burning and
massacring as he went, and with about forty battalions took up a position
directly in front of the Shipka.  Instead of sending a detachment to attack
the Russian garrison, which numbered about four thousand men, in the rear,
while the main army assailed them in front, Suleiman hurled his whole force
against the southern entrance of the pass, and for four weeks wasted his men
in useless attacks.

     On August 23d the Turks had almost succeeded in forcing a passage, when
General Radetzki arrived on the scene with reenforcements.  Before daybreak on
September 17th three thousand five hundred Turkish volunteers, advancing in
three columns, surprised the Russians on Mount St. Nicholas, the highest point
in the pass, and drove them out of their intrenchments.  Suleiman at once
telegraphed to Constantinople: "The Shipka is ours!" But the news was
premature.  By noon of the same day the Russians were again in possession of
the heights, no reenforcements having arrived for the support of the Turkish
storming columns.

     The army of the Danube, to take command of which Mehemet Ali Pacha had
been recalled from Montenegro, consisted of two army corps and an unknown
number of irregular troops.  To these were opposed, on the Russian side, two
army corps, commanded by the Czarevitch.  The Turkish forces were stationed
behind the Black Lom.  The Russians crossed that stream toward the close of
August, but were defeated in several engagements and driven back toward Biela.
All available positions between the Lom and the Jantra were fortified, and
every effort was made to defend the line of the latter stream against the
Turks.  Mehemet Ali, on his part, received orders from Constantinople to carry
the line of the Jantra at any cost; but after a defeat at Cherkovna, on
September 21st, he fell back again to his original positions.  This led to his
removal, and on October 4th Suleiman Pacha arrived in Rasgrad to succeed him.

     Instead of making at once a vigorous attempt to carry the line of the
Jantra, as was expected of him, Suleiman spent more than a month in
strengthening the Turkish positions at Rustchuk and Rasgrad and gathering
Breenforcements, and it was not until the middle of November that he assumed
the offensive.  Several attacks were made on the Russian left wing between the
18th and 26th of that month, but these were merely intended to serve as a
cover for the main assault directed against the enemy's right.  On December
4th Fuad Pacha, with twenty thousand men, defeated the enemy's advance-guard
and pursued them as far as Yakovitza, near Tirnova; but instead of following
up his success he waited until the 6th.  By that time reenforcements had
arrived, and the attack of the Turks was repulsed.  Suleiman then made a
serious attempt to break through the Russian left wing.  Unsuccessful there
also, he fell back across the Lom.

     The unsuccessful attack of Semptember 11th had shown that Plevna was not
to be carried by storm.  A pause of about a month ensued while the Russians
were waiting for reenforcements.  Toward the end of September Todleben, the
hero of Sebastopol, arrived to direct the engineering operations necessary to
a regular siege.  It was resolved to surround Osman's position, and leave him
no other choice than to capitulate from lack of provisions or make an attempt
to break out.  The arrival of the Guard and Grenadier corps in October enabled
the Russians to complete the investment toward the west and close the road to
Sofia.  In Orkanye, between Plevna and Sofia, a second Turkish army, under
Chefket Pacha, had been formed, by means of which Osman was furnished with
reenforcements and supplies, and on October 11th, in order to secure the
communications between the two armies, twelve thousand men had been placed in
strongly fortified positions at Gornyi-Dubnik and Telish.  On the arrival of
the Guard corps a Russian army of the west was formed, and General Gourko was
intrusted with the task of capturing the Turkish positions to the west of
Plevna.  Passing to the south of that place he crossed the Vid, and attacked
Gornyi-Dubnik on October 24th.  At the same time a bombardment was opened
along the whole line, as if in preparation for an assault.  The manoeuvre was
successful; Gornyi-Dubnik was taken by storm, and four days later Telish
capitulated.  Gourko's army at once spread itself out to the north and south.
On November 25th Etropol was taken, and on the 21st the Roumanians occupied
Rahova.  The whole country from the Balkans to the Danube was in the hands of
the Russians, and Plevna was completely isolated.  The operations of Gourko's
army compelled Mehemet Ali Pacha, who had succeeded Chefket, to abandon
Orkanye and retreat to Sofia, leaving a garrison in the Etropol Pass.

     Each week the iron ring around Plevna grew smaller as one position after
another fell into the hands of the Russians.  On November 12th the Grand Duke
Nicholas called upon the Turkish commander to avoid useless loss of life by
surrender; but the latter refused, announcing his determination to fight "to
the last drop of our blood for the honor of our country." At length provisions
failed, and a desperate attempt to break through the Russian lines was
resolved upon.  On the evening of December 9th, leaving the sick and wounded
behind in Plevna, the Turkish army concentrated on the Vid.  At daybreak of
the 10th they began their advance toward Viddin in two columns. But the enemy
was fully informed of their plans.  As soon as the fortifications were
abandoned by the Turks they were occupied by the Russians.  The Roumanians and
the Grenadier corps received the attack of the Turkish troops, and hurled them
back on the intrenchments, now occupied by Russian soldiers.  The Turks fought
with desperation.  Osman himself was wounded in the leg.  Finally, at 12:30
p.m., the while flag was raised and the Turkish army surrendered at
discretion.  Ten pachas, two thousand officers of the line, one hundred
twenty-eight staff officers, and thirty-six thousand men, besides the sick and
wounded, fell into the hands of the enemy. The fact that no Russian or
Roumanian prisoners were found in Plevna is one more proof of Turkish
barbarity.  In answer to a reminder from the German Government that the
Turkish soldiers were guilty of constant violations of the Geneva Convention
of 1865, to which the Porte was a party, subjecting the Russian wounded and
prisoners to barbarous abuse, the Turkish Government naively replied that the
provisions of that convention were not yet known to the soldiers, but that it
would cause them to be translated into Turkish and communicate them to the
troops.

     The capture of Plevna enabled the Russians to resume an energetic
offensive at all points.  The Roumanian army at once began the siege of
Viddin.  General Zimmermann's army in the Dobrudja was strengthened, and that
of the Czarevitch was raised to seventy-five thousand men.  A reserve of three
infantry divisions was stationed at Tirnova.  The Shipka army, under General
Radetzki, was increased to sixty thousand men, and that of General Gourko to
seventy-five thousand.  These two latter, operating in concert, were to
advance on Adrianople, the former crossing the Balkans by the Shipka, and the
latter by the Etropol Pass, while, as a connecting link between the two,
General Kartzoff, with a smaller army, was to force the passage of the Trajan
Pass.  On Christmas morning, leaving a detachment on the north side of the
Baba-kenak Pass, to conceal his movements and keep the Turkish garrison
employed, with the main part of his army Gourko began the passage of the
mountains by a circuitous route, in order to attack the enemy in the rear. The
cold was intense; the mule-tracks, which formed the only roads, were covered
with ice and snow; and at places the ascent could be accomplished only by
means of steps cut in the ice, up which the cannon were pushed with infinite
trouble.  The descent was still more difficult, and it proved a wellnigh
impossible task to bring down the cannon and horses in safety; but by the
evening of the 30th all difficulties had been overcome, and two days later the
Turkish positions were in the hands of the Russians.  This necessitated the
evacuation of Sofia; and on January 4th, for the first time since 1434, a
Christian army was in possession of the old Bulgarian capital.

     By order of the Turkish Minister of War, Suleiman Pacha, leaving
garrisons in the fortresses of Eastern Bulgaria, had crossed the Balkans to
oppose the Russian advance and protect Roumelia, while Fuad Pacha had been
appointed commander of the army originally commanded by Chefket.  Pushing that
army before him, Gourko entered Ichtiman on January 11th, Tatar-Bazardjik on
the 13th, and Philippopolis on the 16th, after defeating Fuad Pacha at
Kadikioi on the preceding day.  At Philippopolis he formed a junction with a
part of the forces of Kartzoff and Radetzki.  The former of these had effected
the passage of the Trajan on January 3d; with the thermometer at 17 degrees
below zero, Fahrenheit, driving the small Turkish garrison before him.  On the
5th the left wing of Radetzki's army, under General Mirski, and the right
wing, under General Skobeleff, began the passage of the mountains east and
west of Shipka Pass.  On the 8th Skobeleff was at Senovo and Mirski at Yanina,
and on the 9th, after a nine-hours' battle, Vessel Pacha, Reouf's successor,
finding himself surrounded, surrendered to the Russians with thirty-two
thousand men and sixty-six guns. This victory opened to Radetzki's troops the
road to Adrianople, and seriously threatened the rear of Suleiman's army.

     On the 16th Fuad was again defeated at Bestalitza, and forced to take
refuge in the Rhodope Mountains.  Suleiman himself was driven back toward
Adrianople; but Russian troops intercepted his march, and on the 19th,
abandoning the road to Adrianople, he turned southward, with the intention of
reaching the coast and taking the remnant of his army by water to
Constantinople.

     On April 24, 1877, four Russian columns crossed the Turkish frontiers. At
Sevin they were defeated by Feisy Pacha and compelled to recross the
mountains, abandon the siege of Kars, and return to Alexandropol.  The fourth
column, under General Tergukassoff, took the fortress of Bayazid on April
30th, and advanced as far as Delibaba, with the intention of forming a
junction with the third column; but the retreat of the latter forced
Tergukassoff to retreat, followed by Ismail Pacha, to the Russian town Igdir,
destroying Bayazid on the way.

     By the middle of July the Russian armies held the same position they had
held before the declaration of war, excepting only that Ardahan was still in
their possession.  Reenforcements arrived in September, and on October 2d an
unsuccessful attack was made on Mukhtar Pacha's strong position at Aladja. The
attack was renewed on the 15th with complete success; the Turkish right wing,
consisting of twenty-two battalions, was forced to surrender, while the left
took refuge in Kars.  General Melikoff at once besieged that place, which was
finally taken by assault on the night of November 17th, while General Heimann,
with the remainder of the third column, formed a junction with Tergukassoff
and followed Mukhtar Pacha toward Erzerum.  On December 4th their united
forces attacked Mukhtar and Ismail on the heights of Deve-Boyun, near Erzerum,
and obliged them to retreat behind the walls of Erzerum itself. That city was
finally evacuated by the Turks on February 21, 1878, after the conclusion of a
truce.

     Russian victory was now secure.  The Turkish Empire seemed tottering to
its fall, and the neighboring and subject States each prepared to appropriate
the largest possible share of the booty.  The recall of Suleiman Pacha and
Mehemet Ali, with all available Turkish troops, had enabled the Montenegrins
to reduce Niksic, Antivari, and Dulcigno; and on January 29, 1878, Prince
Nikita led his army across the Boyana with the intention of investing Scutari
in Northern Albania.  The Servians, also, after the fall of Plevna had
rendered Russian victory inevitable, bravely took up arms, and reduced Nish,
as well as a few less important places.  The insurrection in Bosnia and
Herzegovina still continued.  Crete was in rebellion - the insurgents demanded
union with Greece - only the fortresses remaining in the hands of the Turks.
Thessaly and Epirus were also in open revolt; and on February 12, 1878, twelve
thousand Greek soldiers appeared to support the rebels and take possession of
Thessaly, Macedonia, and Epirus in behalf of the Government at Athens.

     But the quarrels of the doctors, which had so long preserved the "sick
man" from dissolution, intervened once more to save him.  Austria still
preserved her attitude of neutrality.  The Poles and Hungarians urged active
interference in behalf of the Turks; the Bohemians and South Slavs were
equally loud in their demands for cooperation with Russia.  Pest was the
headquarters of the Turcophiles, and greeted with illuminations all tidings of
Mahometan victories; while Agram, the capital of the South Slavs, welcomed
with rejoicings the news of Russian success.  But Andrassy's Government,
supported by the German element, steered skilfully between Scylla and
Charybdis of Turcophiles and Russophiles, maintaining the strictest
neutrality.

     On January 19th Server and Namyk Pachas appeared in the Russian
headquarters at Kazanlik, as Turkish plenipotentiaries, to negotiate a peace.
But the negotiations progressed slowly; for the Turks were full of hopes in
Lord Beaconsfield and the action of the English Parliament, while the Russians
awaited fresh victories.  The Queen's speech at the opening of Parliament
contained an announcement that, in case the hostilities between Russia and
Turkey were unfortunately prolonged, "some unexpected occurrence may render it
incumbent on me to adopt measures of precaution." At the same time the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Northcote, announced that he would
ask for a supplementary estimate of six million pounds for naval and military
purposes.  This looked ominous, and Russia found it to her interest to hasten
the negotiations.  On January 31st preliminaries of peace and a cessation of
hostilities were signed by both sides.  In accordance with the terms of this
armistice, the Turks evacuated and surrendered to the Russians all fortresses
still in their possession north of a line from Derkos, on the Black Sea, to
San Stefano, on the Sea of Marmora.  The English Government, fearful for
British interests, now began to act in earnest.  It was announced in
Parliament that England, supported by Austria, would not recognize any private
treaty between Russia and Turkey, but would insist that the terms of peace be
submitted to a congress of the great Powers.  On January 31st, in the face of
a protest from the Porte, the English fleet received orders to repair to
Constantinople "for the protection of the life and property of English
subjects." Gortschakoff at once announced to the great Powers that in that
event Russia would find it necessary to march her troops into Constantinople
for the protection of the Christian subjects of the Porte.  A compromise was
finally effected; and on February 13th Admiral Hornby, with six ships, passed
through the Dardanelles.

     Every effort was now made on the part of the Russians to accelerate the
conclusion of a definite peace, and on March 3d, 1878, the Treaty of San
Stefano was signed by Russia and Turkey.  By this treaty Montenegro, in
addition to its independence, received Niksic and Gacko, with the adjoining
territory in the north, while its boundaries were extended to the Sea of
Scutari and the Boyana River on the south.  Servia also became independent,
and received a considerable increase of territory to the south and west - the
most important acquisition being the town and fortress of Nish.  Roumania,
whose independence was recognized, received the lower Dobrudja from Turkey, in
return for the cession of Bessarabia to Russia.  Bulgaria, with the Black
Drina for its western boundary, and extending southward to the Aegean Sea at
the mouth of the River Karasu, was to be a self-governing, tributary
principality, with a prince chosen by the people and confirmed by the Porte,
with the consent of the great Powers.  By way of preparation for
self-government the new principality was to be administered for two years by a
Russian commissioner, and be occupied at its own cost by fifty thousand
Russian soldiers.  The reforms indicated by the Constantinople conference were
to be carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Crete was to receive the
organization promised in 1868; and a similar form of administration was to be
introduced in the remaining Christian provinces.  The war indemnity to be paid
to Russia was fixed at one billion four hundred ten million rubles: nine
hundred million for the expenses of the war; four hundred million for the
injuries inflicted on Russian commercial interests; one hundred million for
the insurrection in the Caucasus excited by Turkish agents and supported by
Turkish troops; and ten million as compensation for the losses inflicted on
Russian subjects within the borders of the Ottoman Empire.  In view of the
condition of Turkish finances, Ardahan, Kars, Batum, Bayazid, and the
territory between the Russian frontier and the Soghanly Mountains were to be
accepted by Russia in lieu of one billion one hundred million rubles, thus
reducing the actual amount of the money indemnity to three hundred ten million
(about $248,000,000).  It was also provided that the Bosporus and the
Dardanelles should remain open for the merchantmen of all neutral powers
during peace and war alike.

     England and Austria at once declared this treaty unacceptable and
demanded a European congress.  Russia consented, but would only agree to
submit the Treaty of San Stefano to the perusal of that body, reserving to
herself the right of accepting or rejecting the recommendations of the
congress at her pleasure, and argued that the questions concerning Turkey and
herself were for Turkey and herself to settle between them.  England, on the
other hand, demanded that the Treaty of Paris of 1856 should form the basis of
negotiation, and that all the paragraphs of the Treaty of San Stefano should
be submitted to the congress.