ABSTRACT
[The origins of the Crimean War really go back to Russia’s signing the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi with Turkey in 1833. This was abrogated and the Straits’ Convention was substituted in 1841 as a European, rather than a Russian, protection of Turkey, but the integrity and independence of Turkey were not, in fact, guaranteed by the Powers. The most immediate result of the Straits’ Convention was that Tsar Nicholas, delighted at the separation of England from France over Egypt, tried to make that separation lasting. In effect, he asked England to enter with him into a secret alliance against France in the winter of 1840. Palmerston refused and in his reply of 1841 laid down the whole doctrine of obligations by which a British Cabinet and Parliament can be bound. This is a doctrine of fundamental importance to the understanding of British diplomacy. It would have been well if Nicholas had appreciated and acted on his advice. Had he done so—he would not have endeavoured by his conversations with Aberdeen in 1844, and with Seymour in 1853, * to obtain results which only decisions of the Cabinet or of Parliament could give. Had he marked Palmerston’s warning the Crimean War might have been avoided. The Tsar’s conversations with Aberdeen, 1844, and with Seymour in 1853, discussed in more detail the partition of the Turkish Empire and in 1853 specific proposals were made. These were as follows, and may be compared with proposals on the same subject outlined by the Tsar in a memorandum to Field-Marshal Paskiević. In the following table the former are designated as (S) and the latter as (P). †
