_I2g	ENGLISHSAGA
not exist. He was accustomed to dealing only with despots like
himself. In pursuit of his imperial interests he had for some
time been proposing to British statesmen and diplomats that as
the Turkish Empire was obviously dissolving through its own
inertia and corruption, Russia and Britain should forestall
competitors by anticipating the demise and dividing the carcase
between them. Russia should have its long-sought outlet to the
Mediterranean, and Britain should have Egypt and Candia.
In two momentous conversations in 1853 with the British
Ambassador at St. Petersburg this impertinent tyrant outlined
his plans for partitioning the possessions of "the sick man" of
the Porte. Had he known anything of the mind and conscience
of England, he would never have suggested making her a partner
in anything so outrageous. Had he been able to foretell the
future he would have known, too, that in another half-century
Britain would be honourably installed in Egypt, while the land-
bound Muscovite would still be as far as ever from his Mediter-
ranean goal and his hope of exercising suzerainty over his fellow
Christians of the Balkans. The British government returned
no answer but-made it dear that it was without territorial
ambitions of any kind.
The Czar of all the Russias was not to be turned from his
purpose by the nicety of British scruples. If Britain would not
join in his designs, he would execute them by himself. Mean-
while he had become involved in a dispute with Louis Napoleon,
whom he persisted in treating as a low upstart, over the pro-
tection of the Christian shrines in the Turkish dominions. Con-
sequently when in pursuance of his great design he moved his
troops into the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia—now
Romania—he was confronted with the opposition not only of
Britain but of France.
The British government—a talented but uneasy coalition of
Pedites, Whigs and Radicals bound together by no other principle
but dislike of the Protectionists—was in a difficulty. It had no
wish to involve the nation in a war over the ownership of remote
Syrian shrines and Balkan villages. On the other hand, a principle
of British diplomatic policy was at stake and a foreign despot
was openly flouting her Majesty's government. A compromise
was therefore sought which recognised both the independence
of the Ottoman Porte and the Czar's right to protect the
Orthodox Christians in Turkey.