ABSTRACT
IN February 1825 the terrible Ibrahim landed in the Morea, and made war in a fashion that was new. Probably he was no more cruel than other Turkish gener:tls; it was his efficiency, not his ruthlessness, which increased the danger from Russia. For Alexander was now in wrathful mood. He had clearly summoned his congress to authorise him to use force against the Turks, as Laibach had authorised Metternich to use it against Naples, and as Verona had encouraged France to use it against Spain. Canning, for that very reason, declined to enter it. Russia, in great wrath, broke off all relations with England on the Eastern question. So the conferences began at St Petersburg, with representatives only from France and the Neo-Holy Alliance. Their meetings were not harmonious. In order to avoid sanctioning the use of force, Metternich started off by the bold proposal to recognise the independence of Greece. l He thought that Alexander would have to choose between the absolute sub· mission or absolute independence of the Greeks and that he would refuse to accept either. Metternich was right in thinking this, for Alexander declined the idea of independence,
339 and thereupon France and Austria opposed any kind of forcible intervention. What Metternich had not foreseen, when he impaled Alexander on the' independence horn' of the dilemma, was that he would thus awaken Alexander's furious resentment. By March it was clear the conference could not agree; by May it was suspended altogether. Nesselrode, normally a mild and cautious man, expressed himself with extraordinary bitterness against Austria. Metternich added to his offences by a visit to Paris (March-April), where he boasted inordinately of his ascendancy over Alexander. It only needed that news to come to the Czar's ears (which it very soon did) to make the wound too deep to be healed. In June and July the split in the Neo-Holy Alliance could not be concealed. Nesselrode told Lebzeltern he could not trust himself to speak to him about the congress. On the 18th August Alexander addressed a circular to his diplomats to the effect that he would no longer work with Metternich. His Allies had not supported him over the Greek question and, in other matters as well, there was not "that reciprocity of services which he had a right to expect." 1 So the rifts in the Neo-Holy Alliance yawned wide, while the ruthless Ibrahim advanced to the conquest of Greece.
