ABSTRACT
The Tsar was most interested in action and moved quickly to select his special envoy. His first choice was P. D. Kiselev, the reforming Minister of State Domains, author of the Organic Statutes of Wallachia and Moldavia (1834) and as Russia's proconsul there (1829-34), an experienced negotiator with the Porte. The impatient Tsar then turned to the perennially sarcastic, nationalist-minded, lackadaisical Minister of the Marine since 1830, Prince A. S. Menshikov, a man with questionable diplomatic credentials. La Valette and the local Catholics, much to their chagrin, now had to witness the Ottoman pendulum swing back in favour of the Orthodox and render the latest decision meaningless. Russian policy eventually played right into the hands of the French, who had no intention of invading Turkey. The British rejected both Rose's direct approach of supporting France as the lesser danger to Turkey over Russia, and Cowley's initial suggestion that France and Russia together impose a settlement on Turkey.
