Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/239

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OPERATIVE PARTS OF THE TREATIES.
223

relate to the admission of the Porte to the European concert (Art. 7), to a resort to mediation before a war between the Porte and any one or more of the other signatories of the Treaty (8), and to the navigation of the Straits (10), of the Black Sea (12), and of the Danube (15-19). Even if the article as to treaties of commerce is still to some extent operative, only ten of the thirty-four articles of the Treaty are now even partially in force[1].

The Treaty of London. Of the nine articles of the Treaty of London of 1871, those practically operative relate to—the navigation of the Straits (Art. 2), of the Black Sea (3), and of the Danube (4-7).

The Treaty of Berlin. It will be observed that the surviving portions of these older Treaties relate, almost exclusively, to subsidiary questions of commerce and navigation. The greater questions—of the rise of new nationalities, the redistribution of territory, and the narrowing of the Ottoman jurisdiction, have been newly, and in most cases for the first time, provided for by the Treaty of Berlin.

Temporary provisions. Certain of the provisions of this Treaty are, on the face of them, of a merely temporary character. Such are the articles relating to ratification (64), to the evacuation of certain portions of European Turkey (11, 22, 32), to the interim administration of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia (6, 7).

Permanent provisions. The articles of the Treaty which, as contrasted with those just mentioned, may be called 'permanent,' although many even of these are provisional, in the sense of relating to successive stages in very complicated changes[2], have reference to—the recognition as independent, with accessions of territory, of the three principalities over which the Porte had hitherto claimed suzerainty, and the subtraction of new inchoate states from the direct government of the Porte (Arts. 1-5, 8-21, 26-31, 33-40, 42-44, 46-51); the administration by Austria of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Art. 25); the advance of the Russian

  1. Art. 33, with reference to the Aland islands, is in force, but has of course no reference to the Eastern question.
  2. Leaving also out of account Art. 63, as being only a confirmation of the treaties of 1856 and 1871.