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

78 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
risen as one man to revenge the death of the Orthodox
Patriarch.
Had Alexander I. been guided by the sentiment
of his subjects, had he even been in Russia at
the time, war could hardly have been delayed. As it
was, he was too deeply committed to the policy of Metternich;
and, after wavering awhile, he contented
himself with ordering his ambassador, Stroganoff, to
present a vigorous protest to the Sultan, and withdraw
from Constantinople. To Metternich a massacre more
or less
beyond
matter of little
the eastern borders of Austria was a
moment compared with the peace of
Europe and the policy of reaction of which he was the
director. To Castlereagh, too, a period of repose
seemed absolutely essential to Europe, after the exhaustion
of the Napoleonic wars; and a proposal for a
joint demonstration of the Powers at Constantinople,
for the protection of the Christians, failed owing to
the strenuous opposition of Lord Strangford, the British
ambassador. For the time Turkey was freed from
all fear of European intervention between her and her
rebellious vassal.
Meanwhile the course of the struggle itself
was
once more demonstrating the wisdom of the Machiavellian
maxim, ' No half measures.' Outside Greece
proper and the Archipelago, the ruthless severity of
the Sultan had produced its effect, and, by the begin-