the Colonies to boot.

In Paris his conversations with the Emperor confirmed his previous opinion
that the best hope of peace lay in winning Austria over to the policy of
the Allies.

Lady John joined him at Vienna early in March. In order to understand the
following extracts it is necessary to recall the history of the whole
negotiation.

Lord John had been dispatched with vague general instructions, and it must
not be forgotten that Palmerston was privately much more in favour of
continuing the war than Lord John appears to have understood at the time.
Palmerston, like Napoleon III, wished to take Sevastopol before making
peace; Lord John did not therefore receive during his negotiations the
backing he ought to have had from the Government at home. A hitch occurred
at the outset of the negotiations owing to the delay of instructions from
the Sultan. This delay was engineered by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who
was determined that Russia should be still further humiliated, and felt
sure of Palmerston's sympathy in doing everything that tended to prolong
the war. Lord John might complain justly that he was being hindered; but
the English Ambassador at Constantinople, who knew Palmerston's mind, felt
safe in ignoring Lord John's remonstrances. The first two Articles which
formed the subject of discussion dealt with the abolition of the Russian
Protectorate over Servia and the Principalities, and with the question of
the free navigation of the Danube. These Articles were accepted by Russia.
On the third Article, which concerned the Russian power in the Black Sea,
the representatives of the Western Powers could not agree. Gortschakoff,
the Russian emissary, admitted that the Treaty of 1841 would have to be
altered in such a way as would prevent the preponderance of the Russian
power off the coast of Turkey. This could have been secured in two ways:

1. By excluding Russian vessels from the Black Sea altogether;
2. By limiting the number of warships Russia might be permitted to keep
there;

but to neither of these methods would Russia at first agree.

Two other alternative proposals were then made by the Austrian Minister,
Count Buol. The first was based on the principle of counterpoise, which
would give the Allies the right to keep as many ships as Russia in the
Black Sea. The second was a stipulation that Russia should not increase her
fleet there beyond the strength at which it then stood.

The represent