162 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 chap. Stratford for counsel. He advised the Turkish ' Government to be still deferential, still courteous, still willing to go to the very edge of what might be safely conceded, but to stand firm. His com- At this time Lord Stratford received a visit munications P -p, . , r „> with Prince irom Prince Mentscliikoff. and ascertained from Mentschi- , koff. him that he did not mean to recede from his demands. The Prince declared that he had run out the whole line of his moderation, and could go no further, and that his Government would no longer submit to the state of inferiority in which he said Russia was held with reference to the co- religionists of the Emperor Nicholas. A few days later Lord Stratford addressed a letter to Prince Mentscliikoff, in which, with all the diplomatic courtesy of which he was master, he strove to convey to the Prince some idea of the way in which he was derogating from that justice and moderation towards foreign sovereigns which had hitherto marked the reign of the Emperor Nicholas. The answer of Prince Ments- chikoff announced that it was impossible for him to agree in the views pressed upon him by Lord Stratford, and (after a little more of the wasteful verbiage in which Russia used to assert that her exaction was good and wholesome for Turkey) the Prince claimed a right to freedom of action. He said that he was not conscious of having failed in the loyal assurances given by his Government to the Cabinet of the Queen, declared that he had been perfectly sincere in his communications with Lord Stratford, and owned that he had expected a
