324 THE MAIN QUESTION AT ISSUE. chap. ■ Moldavia and Wallachia shall cease, and the XII.
- ' privileges conferred by the Sultans on these
1 Principalities, as well as on Servia, shall hence- ' forward be placed under the collective guarantee ' of the Contracting Powers. '2. The freedom of the navigation of the ' Danube shall be completely secured by effect- ' ual means, and under the control of a per- ' manent syndical authority. '3. The Treaty of July 13, 1841, shall be re- ' vised, with the double object of connecting more ' completely the existence of the Ottoman Empire ' with the European equilibrium, and of putting ' an end to the preponderance of Russia in the ' Black Sea. '4. Russia abandons the principle of covering ' with an official Protectorate the Christian sub- ' jccts of the Sultan of the Oriental ritual; but ' the Christian Powers will lend each other their ' mutual assistance, in order to obtain from the ' initiative of the Ottoman Government the con- ' Urination and the observance of the religious ' rights of the Christian communities subject to ' the Porte, without distinction of ritual. ' The development of these principles will form ' the object of our negotiations.' * After a labour of several day., means of giving effect to both the First and the Second Conditions were agreed to by all the plenipotentiaries, and
- Eastern Papers, No. xiii. I have preferred Count Buol's
concise statement of the Four Points to the more wordy exposi- tion furnished by the Memorandum of the 28th of December.
