The Treaty of Paris
course. They pointed out that the Sultan's edict was little different to those pronounced at intervals across the previous century which had been widely ignored. It was equally unenforceable, given the widespread and diverse nature of his Empire. But equally, the British pointed out, the Congress could hardly dictate policy on Turkish internal matters. If they did, any such policy would be deeply resented and would risk producing an anti-Christian backlash. Orlov had no answer to the cold logic.
It was the last major confrontation and the Treaty of Paris was finally signed on 30th March 1856 - a Sunday, which gave the British one last chance to display the bad grace which had characterised their delegation's attitude throughout the proceedings.
Details for handing back territory and troop withdrawals etc still had to be hammered out - normally one would have expected these more mundane matters would have been handed over to the rank and file, but the big names stayed on. Probably they were enjoying the social lfe too much. Perhaps because it was looking for a better excuse to stay on, the Congress rather incongruously took it upon itself to thrash out a declaration on the application of Maritime Law in wartime. This kept things going until the 16th April, when the following agreement was announced:
1. Privateering is, and remains, abolished.
2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of war.
3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy's flag.
4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy.
Although the declaration urged other nations to subscribe to these terms, it was of course only binding to its signatories and, since these notably did not include the USA, the international application of its articles would become a major issue during the American Civil War which began five years later.
Although most signatories of the Treaty of Paris were satisfied with the outcome of the Congress, there were no clear cut winners or losers. The British were on the whole happy - the safeguards provided by the neutralisation of the Black Sea and the ban on Russian warships achieved their major war aim of nullifying Russian influence in the Near East and expansion into the Mediterranean. The French had maintained their new position at
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