On this latter affair the Powers finally found it needful to make a joint naval demonstration against the troops of the Albanian League who sought to prevent the handing over of the seaport of Dulcigno to Montenegro, as prescribed by the Treaty of Berlin.  But, as happened during the Concert of the Powers in the spring of 1876, a single discordant note sufficed to impair the effect of the collective voice.  Then it was England which refused to employ any coercive measures; now it was Austria and Germany, and finally (after the resignation of the Waddington Ministry) France.  When the Sultan heard of this discord in the European Concert, his Moslem scruples resumed their wonted sway, and the Albanians persisted in defying Europe.

The warships of the Powers might have continued to threaten the Albanian coast with unshotted cannon to this day, had not the Gladstone Cabinet proposed drastic means for bringing the Sultan to reason.  The plan was that the united fleet should steam straightway to Smyrna and land marines for the sequestration of the customs’ dues of that important trading centre.  Here again the Powers were not of one mind.  The three dissentients again hung back; but they so far concealed their refusal, or reluctance, as to leave on Abdul Hamid’s mind the impression that a united Christendom was about to seize Smyrna[180].  This was enough.  He could now (October 10, 1880) bow his head resignedly before superior force without sinning against the Moslem’s unwritten but inviolable creed of never giving way before Christians save under absolute necessity.  At once he ordered his troops to carry out the behests of the Powers; and after some fighting, Dervish Pasha drove the Albanians out of Dulcigno, and surrendered it to the Montenegrins (Nov.-Dec. 1880).  Such is the official account; but, seeing that the Porte knows how to turn to account the fanaticism and turbulence of the Albanians[181], it may be that their resistance all along was but a device of that resourceful Government to thwart the will of Europe.

[Footnote 180:  Life of Gladstone, by J. Morley, vol. iii. p. 9.]

[Footnote 181:  See Turkey in Europe, by “Odysseus,” p. 434.]

The same threat as to the seizure of the Turkish customs-house at Smyrna sufficed to help on the solution of the Greek Question.  The delays and insults of the Turks had driven the Greeks to desperation, and only the urgent remonstrances of the Powers availed to hold back the Cabinet of Athens from a declaration of war.  This danger by degrees passed away; but, as usually happens where passions are excited on both sides, every compromise pressed on the litigants by the arbiters presented great difficulty.  The Congress of Berlin had recommended the extension of Greek rule over the purely Hellenic districts of Thessaly, assigning as the new boundaries the course of the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas, the latter of which flows into the sea opposite the Island of Corfu.