vol. ii. p.
231 (Eng. ed.).]

But the passage just cited only proves that Russia might have gone to
war with Austria over the Eastern Question. In point of fact, she went
to war with Turkey, after coming to a friendly arrangement with Austria.
Bismarck therefore acted as "honest-broker" between his two allies; and
it has yet to be proved that Bismarck did not sincerely work with the
two other Empires to make the coercion of Turkey by the civilised Powers
irresistibly strong. In his speech of December 6, 1876, to the
Reichstag, the Chancellor made a plain and straightforward declaration
of his policy, namely, that of neutrality, but inclining towards
friendship with Austria. That, surely, did not drive Russia into war
with Turkey, still less entice her into it. As for the statement that
Austrian intrigues were the sole cause of the Bosnian revolt, it must
appear childish to all who bear in mind the exceptional hardships and
grievances of the peasants of that province. Finally, the assertion of a
newspaper, the _Czas_, that Queen Victoria wrote to Bismarck in April
1877 urging him to protest against an attack by Russia on Turkey, may be
dismissed as an impudent fabrication[122]. It was altogether opposed to
the habits of her late Majesty to write letters of that kind to the
Foreign Ministers of other Powers.

[Footnote 122: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 126.]

Until documents of a contrary tenor come to light, we may say with some
approach to certainty that the responsibility for the war of 1877-78
rests with the Sultan of Turkey and with those who indirectly encouraged
him to set at naught the counsels of the Powers. Lord Derby and Lord
Salisbury had of late plainly warned him of the consequences of his
stubbornness; but the influence of the British embassy at Constantinople
and of the Turkish ambassador in London seems greatly to have weakened
the force of those warnings.

It must always be remembered that the Turk will concede religious
freedom and civic equality to the "Giaours" only under overwhelming
pressure. In such a case he mutters "Kismet" ("It is fate"), and gives
way; but the least sign of weakness or wavering on the part of the
Powers awakens his fanatical scruples. Then his devotion to the Koran
forbids any surrender. History has afforded several proofs of this, from
the time of the Battle of Navarino (1827) to that of the intervention
of the Western Powers on behalf of the slaughtered and harri