For some weeks Austria had busied herself once more with negotiations in the interests of peace. Russia was at last ready to yield; France was weary of a war, glorious indeed, but practically unuseful to herself; England had gained the most by the war, and the English nation would not have consented to any terms but those specially to her advantage. When the congress, which opened at Paris on the 25th of February, adjourned (April 16th), those who in the English Parliament had advocated a prolongation of the war, found themselves reduced to silence. At the opening of the session, Lord Palmerston had expressed the opinion that the future chances of the war were in England's favor. "No doubt," he said, "the resources of the country are unimpaired. No doubt the naval and military preparations which have been making during the past twelve months, which are now going on, and which will be completed in the spring, will place this country in a position, as regards the continuance of hostilities, in which it has not stood since the commencement of the war. We should, therefore, be justified in expecting that another campaign-should another campaign be forced upon us would result in successes which might, perhaps, entitle us to require, — might, perhaps, enable us to obtain even better conditions than those which have been offered to us and have been accepted by us. But if the conditions which we now hope to obtain are such as will properly satisfy the objects for which we have been contending—if they are conditions which we think it is our duty to accept, and with which we believe the country will be satisfied, then, undoubtedly, we should be wanting in our duty, and should not justify the confidence which the country has reposed in us, if we rejected terms of that description, merely for the chance of greater successes in another campaign." Lord Clarendon and Lord Cowley represented the interests of England at the Congress of Paris; in concert with the plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Turkey,

and Piedmont, they decided upon the conditions under which peace should be re-established in Europe.

The exchange of conquered places; a recognition of the dignity and independence of Turkey; the "neutralization" of the Black Sea henceforth to the commerce of all nations, and its interdiction to the ships of war of all with the exception of a few light vessels belonging to the different nations as a kind of maritime police, and the prohibition of any military or maritime arsenal on the shores of that sea; the free navigation of the Danube, and a rectification of the frontier of Bessarabia to the advantage of Moldavia; certain regulations concerning the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus; finally, a guarantee to the Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia, under the suzerainty of the sultan, of the immunities and privileges now enjoyed by them, no separate right of intervention in their affairs being claimed by any one of the contracting Powers: these were the main points of the treaty signed at Paris, March 30th. Meantime (February 21st), a firman had been issued by the sultan, granting, as a free concession, the right to hold and exercise all creeds in the Ottoman States, making all subjects of the Ottoman Empire eligible to public office, and instituting other important reforms. A special tripartite treaty was later agreed to for the protection of the Ottoman Empire. This was signed on the 15th of April, and the last days of the convention were occupied in regulating the right of search, and other rules of maritime war.

Thus ended the Crimean war. It had cost England about twenty-four thousand men, and fifty-three million pounds sterling; the French loss was about eighty thousand men. The Russian loss cannot be estimated with exactness; from three to five hundred thousand men are believed to have perished on the field of battle, in hospitals, and along the roads. Sufferings such as these surely outweigh the advantages definitely attained. The Russian fleet had been destroyed, and the road to the East

At the same time,

made more secure for English commerce. England had prolonged the existence of the Ottoman Empire. "The war may perhaps secure peace in the east of Europe for the next twenty-five years," Lord Aberdeen said. The practical gain from the war belonged, in the end, to England, notwithstanding her disappointments and failures, while the military glory fell to the share of France, intoxicated too often with successes in which are lacking the elements of real and lasting advantage.