Count Guilleminot has received instructions (see annexe F.) which authorise him to combine with the representatives of Russia and England for the pacification of Greece. Consequently, you can extract from your ostensible instructions the passage regarding that negotiation, and allow him to read it, in order that he may not fall into a mistake as to the line of conduct you are commanded to adopt.

He is aware also of the proposition of the Court of the Tuileries, to change into a treaty the Protocol of the 23rd of March (4th of April), and probably of the opinions put forth by the Austrian Cabinet.

It is therefore necessary not to leave him in ignorance of those of the Emperor.

In order to make him appreciate them, your Excellency will communicate to him our despatch to M. de Tatistcheff. Your relations will be friendly with all the other ministers of the European States, with the internuncio of Austria, and the minister of Prussia, although the latter unfortunately can inspire no personal esteem. They will mark the ties which bind us to these two Courts. That of Vienna has transmitted to us the instruction she addresses to M. d'Ottenfels. You will

find it subjoined. (Letter G.) It will authorise you to make the same communications to the Internuncio as to the Ambassador of France, and you will neglect no means of profiting by his cooperation, and of giving to it the character most fit to ensure its efficacy.

Of all the capitals, Constantinople is perhaps the only one where the ancient policy still keeps up its traditions, and all its power. Numerous intrigues are carrying on there, secret agents are constantly employed there, mysterious insinuations are daily made there to the Porte, and we know that Russia is in general the object of them. But our intentions towards the Turkish Government are so pure, our rights so clearly defined by the treaty of Akermann, our position so evident in the Greek affairs, that obscure manœuvres can neither change the results of our recent conventions, nor long hinder our obtaining those which we have still need of obtaining.

A stranger to this movement, your Excellency will therefore content yourself with being an attentive spectator of it. Information will not fail you, but whatever may be its nature, it ought to have no influence upon your official relations with your

colleagues, but truth is always useful, and

take care to make us acquainted with it.

you will

The means which your situation affords you of often ascertaining the real policy of other Cabinets towards us, heightens the importance of your functions, and of your despatches.

Another field presents itself for your observations. You will arrive at Constantinople at moment when the Sovereign is bringing about reforms there, which attack at the same time all the institutions of his states, the customs of his people, and the individual interests of many millions of his subjects. They cost his predecessor his throne

and his life.

The present Sultan pursues them with more force, and his means are terror or death. But if a re-action ever takes place it will bear the same character. It will involve the extermination of the reigning dynasty, it will produce a frightful anarchy; and when one considers that the reforms have been commenced with the finances in a state of embarrassment, amidst symptoms of progressive decay, and that the Grand Seignior smothers in oceans of blood the projects of revolt, which nevertheless seem daily to revive,-it is difficult to

believe that his reign and his government will be

of long duration.

Russia can on no hypothesis regard so vast an undertaking with indifference, and one of your chief duties will be to watch the different effects of it with the greatest attention. If the Sultan succeeds, this success may for a time retemper, so to speak, the Turkish Government, and give it a confidence in its strength which Russia would immediately feel the effects of.

This is an additional reason for accustoming the Turks from henceforth to show us a proper respect, to ensure for ourselves, by a scrupulous execution of our treaties, the consideration which ought always to be our appanage at Constantinople, and to hasten the pacification of Greece,

If this same undertaking fails, it may bring about the fall of the Ottoman Empire. We should then see the accomplishment of one of the greatest events of history, an event involving for us the gravest interests.

It is absolutely necessary that such a revolution should not take us by surprise, and your Excellency will have deserved well of your Sovereign, and of your country, if you inform us of the precur

144 SECRET DESPATCH FROM COUNT NESSELRODE.

sive signs of this catastrophe sufficiently in time to enable the Emperor to prepare his measures, and to exercise an influence proportionate to the dignity, and to the wants of Russia, on the political combinations which might replace the empire of the Crescent. We shall take care to send your Excellency further instructions, as soon as we learn the results of our explanations with the Cabinet of London.

(Signed)

NESSELRODE.