BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 123 time, and with varying success ; for many a Turk- chap. ish ministry owed its frail existence and its un- . L_ timely end to the chances of the combat going on between the Czar and the English Ambassador. The Turks could not help knowing that the coun- sels of the Ambassador were for their own good, and they had reason to surmise that the advice of the Emperor might spring from opposite motives ; but there are times when the smooth speech and the wily promises of a political foe are more wel- come than the painful lectures of an honest friend ; and again, though it was hard to bear up with mere words against the personal ascendant of the Ambassador, the Emperor had the power of throwing the sword into the scale at any moment. The strife, therefore, had not been altogether un- equal ; but, upon the whole, Sir Stratford Canning- had kept the upper hand, and the Czar had been forced to endure the agony of being what his representative called 'secondary,' so long as Sir Stratford Canning was in the palace of the Eng- lish Embassy. For some eight or nine months Sir Stratford Lord Canning had been absent from Constantinople ; instructed but now, at a time when Europe had fastened its constanti- eyes upon the Czar, and was watching to see how the Ambassador of All the Russias would impose his master's will upon Turkey, the Emperor Nicho- las was obliged to hear that his eternal foe, travel- ling by the ominous route of Paris and Vienna, was slowly returning to his Embassy at the Porte.
