12 of the Treaty of Paris:-- "Free from any impediment, the commerce in the ports and waters of the Black Sea shall be subject only to regulations of health, Customs, and police, framed in a spirit favourable to the development of commercial transactions." And by Art.

3 of the Treaty of London:-- "The Black Sea remains open, as heretofore, to the mercantile marine of all nations." It is submitted that these provisions relate solely to commerce carried on by vessels already within the Black Sea, and contain no covenant for an unrestricted right of access to that sea.
As between Russia and Turkey individually, Treaties which are still in force purport, no doubt, to give to the former a stronger claim to free passage through the Straits for her mercantile marine than that which can be supposed to be enjoyed by other Powers.

By Art.

7, for instance, of the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829, the Porte recognises and declares the passage of the "Canal de Constantinople," and of the Strait of the Dardanelles, to be entirely free and open to Russian merchant vessels; and goes on to extend the same privilege to the merchant vessels of all Powers at peace with Turkey.Art.24 of the Treaty of San Stefano is still more explicit, providing that "the Bosporus and Dardanelles shall remain open in time of war as in time of peace to the merchant vessels of neutral States arriving from or bound to Russian ports." The rest of the article contains a promise by the Porte never henceforth to establish a "fictitious blockade, at variance with the spirit of the Declaration of Paris"; meaning thereby such a blockade of ports on the Black Sea as had been enforced by Turkish ships of war stationed at the entrance to the Bosporus.
It may well be doubted whether these articles, containing concessions extorted from Turkey at the end of wars in which she had been defeated, ought not, like so many other provisions of the Treaty of San Stefano, to have been abrogated by the Treaty of Berlin.

They are of such a character that, in the struggle for existence, Turkey can hardly be blamed for disregarding them.