THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

272 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
blow the entire sea-power of a nation with which she
was then preparing, on her own account, to go to
war.
Eussia, indeed, proposed to the allied Powers that
the work of Navarino should be completed by presenting
to the Porte a joint ultimatum embodying the
terms of the 1
Treaty of London. The English Cabinet,
however, seemed utterly incapable of taking any
vigorous action. There can be no doubt that its true
policy would have been to have accepted the victory
of K'avarmo as a fait accompli, and pushed
it to its
logical conclusion. Had the combined fleets, after destroying
the Ottoman navy, forced the Dardanelles,
and dictated terms in common to the Sultan under
the walls of Constantinople, not only would two
years of bloodshed have been avoided, but England
would have been spared the blow to her prestige in
the East which was dealt by the separate
Eussia.
action of
In spite of the bloody barrier of Navarino, however,
the British Government still affected to believe in
the possibility of maintaining amicable relations with
the Porte.
While France was willing enough to support
Eussia, Lord Dudley, on behalf of England, replied
to the Eussian note, that the Treaty of London
* Despatch of Count Nesselrode. Prokesch, Appendix, ix. 1.