lapse of nearly four centuries, at the Congress of Vienna, 1815, the Ottoman Empire was not represented, nor was it included in the provisions of positive public law contained in the Treaty which was the result of the Congress. Nevertheless, the International intercourse between the Sultan and other Powers was then, and had been for a long time, upon a much stricter footing of legality, than had subsisted between those powers and the African or Barbary States.

Long before the Treaty of Vienna (1815) the crescent had ceased to be an object of terror to Christendom; and a principle of International Policy with respect to the Ottoman Power, *directly the reverse [*83] of that which had formerly prevailed, had taken root in Europe -namely, the principle that the preservation and independence of the Ottoman Power was necessary for the safety of European Communities.(a)

LXVIII. The Treaties affecting the relations of Russia with the Porte are the following:

LXIX. But the general Treaties between the Ottoman Porte and the European States appear to be best arranged as follows:

1. From the conquest of Constantinople to the Treaty of Carlowitz, 1699. 2. From the Treaty of Carlowitz, 1699, to the Treaty of Belgrade, 1739. 3. From the Treaty of Belgrade, 1739, to the Treaty of Bucharest, 1812.

(a) The question of the Religious Protectorate claimed by Christian Powers with respect to the Christian subjects of the Sultan, both in Europe and Asia, will be discussed hereafter.

4. From the Treaty of Bucharest, 1812, to the Treaty of the Dardanelles in 1841.

5. From the Treaty of the Dardanelles, 1841, to the present time. *LXX. By the Treaty of Vienna in 1731, Great Britain [ *84] made common cause with Austria against every enemy but the Turk.(b)

The Peace of Szistowe, (1791,) between Austria and the Porte, and the Peace of Jassy, (1792,) between Russia and the Porte, were concluded under the mediation of the triple alliance of Great Britain, Prussia, and Holland.

In 1798, when Napoleon invaded Egypt, Russia and the Porte concluded an alliance confirming the Treaty of Jassy, and mutually guaranteeing the integrity of their dominions. To this Treaty Great Britain acceded in 1799: it expired in 1806, and was renewed in 1809 by the Treaty of Constantinople, by the eleventh article of which Great Britain acknowledged that the strait of the Dardanelles was mare clausum under the dominion of the Porte.

The Treaty of Bucharest, in 1812, put an end to the hostilities which had raged between Russia and the Porte since 1809. This Treaty greatly advanced the boundary of Russia. It contained stipulations confirming those of former Treaties in favour of the national privileges of Moldavia and Wallachia, and it contained some conditions in favour of the Christian Servians, which, in 1813, were violated with circumstances of great barbarity; but the Servians applied in vain to the Congress of Vienna for mediation or succour.

In 1819 the Porte recognized the Protectorate of Great Britain over the Ionian Islands.(c)

(b) Mably, Droit Public de l'Europe, ii. 226.

(c) Marten's Nouv. Rec. de Traités, xiii. (5 Supp.) 386. The Treaty containing this recognition sets forth the titles of the Sultan, and the style of the Porte's negotiations with Christian States: "Nous, par la grace du Souverain maître des empires et du fondateur immuable de l'edifice solide du califat, par l'influence merveilleuse dulmodèle des saints, du soleil des duex mondes, notre grande prophète Mahomet Mustapha, ainsi que par a coopération de ses disciples et successeurs, et de toute la suite des saints, sultan, fils de sultan, empereur, fils d'empereur, MahmoudHan, vainquer, fils d'Ahmed-Han, vainquer, dont les nobles diplômes sont décorés du titre souverain de sultan des deux hémisphères; dont les ordonnances portent le nom éclatant d'émpereur des duex mers, et dont les devoirs attachés à notre dignité impériale consistant dans l'administration de la justice, les soins d'un bon gouvernement, et l'assurance de la tranquillité de nos peuples; seigneur et gardien des plus nobles villes du monde, vers lesquelles se dirigent les vœux de tous les peuples, des duex saintes villes de la Mecque et de Médine, du sanctuaire intérieur du pays saint; calife suprème des contrées et provinces situées dans l'Anatolie et la Romélie, sur la mer Noire et sur la mer Blanche, dans l'Arabie et la Chaldée; enfin, glorieux souverain de nombreuses forteresses, châteaux, places et villes, nous declarons:

"Que, vu la parfaite union et l'éternelle amitié qui règnent entre notre Sublime Porte, d'éternelle durée, et le plus glorieux de tous les grands princes qui croient en Jésus Christ, le modèle de tous les personnages d'un rang élevé de la nation de Messie, le médiateur des intérêts politiques des peuples, revêtu des ornemens de la majesté et de la glorie, et couvert des marques de la grandeur et de la célébrité, Sa Majesté, notre très-estimable, ancien, intimé, sincère, et constant ami, le roi (padischah) des royaumes unis d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, et d'Irlande, et d'une grande partie des pays qui en dépendent, George III. (dont la fin puisse ètre heureuse!)

*In 1828 the Great Powers interfered with the Porte on behalf

[*85] of the Greeks, whose independence they established after the

battle of Navarino.

In 1829 the Treaty of Adrianople was concluded between Russia and the Porte, by which the power of the latter was much increased, especially with regard to the mouths of the Danube, in a manner scarcely consistent with the Public Law of Europe.(d) In 1833, the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi was concluded between Russia and the Porte, the avowed object of which was to protect the Porte against the rebellion of the Pasha of Egypt. The casus fœderis contemplated by this Treaty having arisen, the other European Powers interposed, on the double ground of protecting the Porte against Egypt, and of preventing the protectorate of the Porte from being exclusively vested in and exercised by Russia. A convention between all the European Powers, except France, took place in London, July 15, 1840, for the pacification of the East, [ *86] to which the Porte also was a party. *The maintenance of the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire as a security for the Peace of Europe was the avowed principle of this convention. The language of the preamble of the Treaty is as follows: "In the name of the most merciful God."

"His highness the Sultan having addressed himself to their majesties the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of all the Russias, to ask their support and assistance in the difficulties in which he finds himself placed by reason of the hostile proceedings of Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt;-difficulties which threaten with danger the integrity of the Ottoman empire, and the independence of the Sultan's throne; their said majesties, moved by the sincere friendship which subsists between them and the Sultan; animated. by the desire of maintaining the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire as a security for the peace of Europe; faithful to the engagement which they contracted by the collective note presented to the Porte by their representatives at Constantinople, on the 27th of July, 1839; and desirous, moreover, to prevent the effusion of blood, which. would be occasioned by a continuance of the hostilities which have recently broken out in Syria between the authorities of the Pacha of Egypt and the subjects of the Sultan; their said majesties and his highness the Sultan have resolved, for the aforesaid purposes, to conclude together a Convention." (e)

By the Treaty of the Dardanelles (July 10th, 1841) the five great European Powers admitted the exclusive authority of the Porte over these straits, and incorporated this principle of Law into the written Law (jus pacticium) of Europe.(ƒ)

Some of these Treaties, and the events which led to them, will be

"L'une et l'auter cour ont le désir et l'intention la plus sincère d'affermir les bases de leur amitié, et de resserrer de plus en plus les liens de la bonne intelligence et de l'intimité qui les unit."

&

(e) Hertslet's Treatise, v. p. 544.

d) Vide post.
Wheaton's Hist. 289, 556-585.

[*87]

noticed more at length hereafter. But it is clear, *even from this slight and cursory notice, that the Porte must now be considered as subject, with only such exceptions as the reason of the thing may dictate, not only to the principles of general International Law, but to the particular provisions of the European Code.(g)

*CHAPTER II.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF STATES.

[*88]

LXXI. HAVING considered the general attributes and characteristics required by International Law for the constitution of a State, it becomes necessary to apply these tests to the different forms of States which are found to exist, in order to fix the position of each in the Commonwealth of Nations. This part of the subject appears to admit of the following principal division:

First. One or more States under One Sovereign.

Secondly. Several States under a Federal Union.

LXXII. I.—As to one or more States under one Sovereign. It is proposed to consider this first branch of the principal division under the following heads:

1. Single States, under one Sovereign.

2. Several States perpetually united (reali unione) under one Sovereign.

3. The peculiar case of Poland.

4. Several States temporarily united under one Sovereign (personali unione).

5. Á State under the Protectorate of another, or of others, but retaining its International personality.

6. A State under such Protectorate so as to have forfeited its International personality-The Ionian Islands.

7. The European Free Towns or Republics.

8. The peculiar case of Belgium.

9. The peculiar case of Greece.

10. States paying tribute, as standing in a Feudal relation to other States-The Turkish Provinces.

11. The peculiar case of Egypt.

LXXIII. First.—With respect to a Single State, under one Sovereign, like Spain or Portugal as at present constituted, *no doubt can be raised as to such a State being the proper subject of International Law.

[ *89]

LXXIV. Secondly.-Where several States, perpetually under one (g) Speech of the Earl of Clarendon (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,) in the House of Lords, April, 1853, on the interference of the Continental powers in the relations subsisting between the Porte and Montenegro. See also the Debates in both Houses of Parliament upon the subject of Russian intervention in Turkey on the ground of an alleged religious Protectorate of the Greek Church.-Hansard's Parl. Deb. 1853; Koch. iv. 349. Vide post, chapter on Vide post, chapter on "Intervention."

Sovereign (reali unione), have retained certain(a) rights and privileges as far as their International Relations are concerned, but have lost all separate and distinct existence as far as their External Relations are concerned, they are not, properly and strictly speaking, subjects of International Law-at least, they can only be so mediately and indirectly, and not directly and immediately. For instance, a State which entered into any negotiations with Hungary, Sicily, or Ireland as independent States (even while they possessed a separate legislature) would be guilty of a gross violation of International Law towards Austria, Naples, or Great Britain.

LXXV. Thirdly.—The particular State of Poland requires a distinct and separate consideration. The various partitions of that unhappy country are not now under discussion; it is with the condition of Poland under the treaty of Vienna, and the Russian manifesto of 1832, that we are at present concerned. The union established between Russia and Poland by the Congress of Vienna was of an wholly anomalous kind. By the first act of that Congress the Duchy of Warsaw, with the exception of certain districts, was united to the Russian Empire, and was irrevocably bound by its constitution to belong to the Emperor of Russia, and his heirs in all perpetuity. The emperor undertook to confer on this State, which was to be under a separate and distinct government, such powers of internal administration as he might think fit. *The [ *90] Emperor was to take the title of King of Poland. The Poles, whether subjects of Austria, Prussia, or Russia, were to obtain representative institutions, regulated according to the manner which might seem expedient to the respective governments. In conformity with these stipulations, the Emperor Alexander granted a constitutional charter to the Kingdom of Poland, November 15 (27), 1815. This charter declared that The Kingdom of Poland was united to Russia by its constitutionthat the sovereign authority in Poland was to be exercised in conformity therewith—that the coronation of the King of Poland was to take place in the Polish capital, where he was bound to take an oath to observe the charter. Poland was to have a perpetual representation, composed of the king and the two chambers forming the diet, in which body the power of legislation and taxation was to be vested. be vested. A distinct Polish army, coinage, military orders, were to be preserved in the kingdom. But in 1832, the Emperor Nicholas established what was called an organic statute for Poland, the principal features of which were, that the Kingdom of Poland was henceforth to be perpetually united to, and form an integral part of, the Russian Empire; the Polish diet was to be abolished; the Polish army absorbed into the Russian; the administration of Poland

(a) Grotius, De J. B. et P. lib. i. c. iii. s. 21; lib. ii. c. ix. s. 9: "Quod si quando uniantur duo populi non amittentur jura sed communicabuntur. . . . Idemque censendum est de regnis quæ non fœdere, aut eo duntaxat quod regem communem habeant sed verà unitate junguntur."

Vattel, I. liv. i. c. i.

Oppenheim, System des Völkerrechts, Zweiter, Theil, kap. vi. s. 4.
Wheaton, Eléments du Droit International, p. 20.

Klüber, Europäisches Völkerrecht (ed. 1851), Erster Thiel, kap. i. s. 27.
Heffter Europ. Völker, s. 20.