Sympathy with the revolt in the Balkans was therefore confined to nationalist enthusiasts in the towns of Russia.

Austria was still more anxious to prevent the spread of the Balkan rising to the millions of her own Slavs.

Accordingly, the Austrian Chancellor, Count Andrassy, in concert with Prince Bismarck and the Russian statesman, Prince Gortchakoff, began to prepare a scheme of reforms which was to be pressed on the Sultan as a means of conciliating the insurgents of Herzegovina.

They comprised (1) the improvement of the lot of the peasantry; (2) complete religious liberty; (3) the abolition of the farming of taxes; (4) the application of the local taxation to local needs; (5) the appointment of a Commission, half of Moslems, half of Christians, to supervise the execution of these reforms and of others recently promised by the Porte[92].
[Footnote 92: For the full text, see Hertslet, _The Map of Europe by Treaty_, iv.pp.

2418-2429.] These proposals would probably have been sent to the Porte before the close of 1875 but for the diplomatic intervention of the British Cabinet.