^mr 
 
 : -^if^; 
 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF. CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 DANIEL C. OILMAN 
 
PROGRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 RUSSIA 
 
 WEST, NORTH, AND SOUTH, 
 
 BY OPENING THE SOURCES OF OPINION AND 
 
 APPROPRIATING THE CHANNELS OF 
 
 WEALTH AND POWER. 
 
 DAVID URQUHART. 
 
 " Voire vieille JEurope m^ennuit." — Napoleon. 
 
 FOURTH EDITIOjJf. 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 TRUBNER & CO., 12, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1853. 
 
mi^-- 
 
 /os-ff 
 
 TUCKEE, I'EIXTEE, PEEET'S PLACE, OXTOB-D STREET. 
 
FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 Time destroys Opinion and confirms Judg- 
 ment : the occasion here would seem to suggest 
 that in this matter the two are becoming recon- 
 ciled. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
   
 
 PAGE 
 Preface to the Third Edition . . r . . . iii 
 
 Preface to Second Edition " vii 
 
 The Crossing of the Prtith atid the Passing of the Dardanelles xii 
 Objects of the Work liv 
 
 THE WEST. 
 
 Part I.— SPAIN. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. How circumstanced for the Developnicnt of Opinion r 1 
 
 II. Eeview of past History ...... lii 
 
 III. Formation of Faction. Constitution of 1812 . . 27 
 
 IV. Revolt of the Isld dB Leon 61 
 
 V. Position of France in 1822. — Invasion of Piedmont and 
 
 Naples 37 
 
 ^■VI. Congress of Verona ..,.,.. 40 
 
 VII. Invasion of 1823 53 
 
 VIII. Quadruple Treaty G2 
 
 IX. Future Marriages 72 
 
 Part IT.— HUNGARY. 
 
 I. Political Value of Hungary . . . . . ,75 
 II. Events in Hungary 81 
 
 III. Diplomatic Review ....... 94 
 
 IV. Turkish Neutrality .114 
 
 V. Extradition of Rofttgees .123 
 
 THE NORTH. 
 
 Part I.— SCANDINAVIA. 
 I. Internal Constitution .,..,,, 145 
 II. External Relations • • • o . . ,, 158 
 
ii CONTENTS. 
 
 Part II.— THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 CHAP. 2AQB 
 
 I. TheEupture ........ 182 
 
 II. Interposition of Prussia 203 
 
 III. The War . ' .213 
 
 IV. Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852 232 
 
 V. The Diet of Copenhagen and the Danish Constitution . 268 
 VI. The position of Austria in the North and in the South 
 
 as effected by the Treaty of the 8th of May . . 275 
 
 VII. The Baltic and the Euxine— The Sound Dues c ,- 280 
 
 THE SOUTH. 
 
 Pakt I.— THE DANUBE AND EUXINEt 
 I. The Commerce of Europe and Asia . . , . 291 
 II. Eussian Quarantine on the Danube, and the Coast of 
 
 Circassia . . , . . . . . . 30^ 
 
 III. Treaty with Austria for the Free I^'avigation of the 
 
 Danube . . . » . . . • ■. • 345 
 
 IV. Apology for Eussia 347 
 
 V. Canal of the Danube 350 
 
 VI. The Evacuation of the Principalities in 1851 . . . 353 
 
 Part II.— THE LEVANT AND THE BED SEA. 
 
 I. Commercial Eesources and Legislation of Turkey . . 373 
 II. Negotiations with Turkey . . ... . . 382 
 
 III. Commercial Treaty with Tiu'key of 1848 . . .386 
 
 IV. The Eed Sea— Egypt . . ... . . .411 
 
 V. The Canal of Suez 421 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 i.Z7 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 "Cdf dclire ne pent pas durer.'' * 
 
 Augmt ^Otk. 
 
 I PROFIT by the occasion afforded me by the demand 
 for another edition to bring up the history to the last 
 moment. I have indeed little to say as to events. 
 I, for what I have said, the Emperor Nicholas for 
 what he has done, have both been called madmen. 
 It remains, therefore, for me but to express my 
 acknowledgments to His Imperial Majesty for having 
 redeemed my character for sanity, for I suppose the 
 success of the present work is an evidence that it is 
 redeemed, I take advantage of that expectation to 
 offer some further considerations, suggested by the 
 contemporary discussion of the subject. 
 
 The Turkish Government is the only independent 
 one in Europe. The present negotiations spring 
 solely out of that independence. 
 
 The Turkish Empire is fuU of Military vigour ; the 
 dangers to which it is at present exposed result not 
 from its weakness but from its strength. 
 
 At the period of the last war the Turks were averse 
 to that war, and had to be driven to it by their 
 Government. At the present moment Army and 
 Nation, Mussulmans and Christians, demand the war, 
 and are restrained by their Government. At the first 
 period Russia forced the war, — at present she will 
 prevent it. 
 
 * Unpublished Eussian Despatch, 
 
iv PKEFAOE TO THE 
 
 Her advance to the Danube now sanctioned hj the 
 Powers of Europe endangers Austria more than 
 Turkey ; it has compromised the one into cooperation 
 while it has only alarmed the other for its indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 The Turks as a nation refused to fight for the 
 Principalities twenty-five years ago : five years ago 
 they were indifferent to their occupation ; four years 
 ago, a Treaty was signed without comment for their 
 occupation by Russia up to the year 1856. 
 
 The Christian populations of Turkey have hitherto 
 accepted with joy the proffered protection of Russia. 
 
 The people of Europe have hitherto viewed with 
 indifference the occupation of the Provinces : they 
 have never blamed theil' governments for co-operating 
 with that of Russia, but on the contrary on all such 
 occasions believed that they were opposing them. 
 
 The Govermnents of Europe obtained support at 
 home from their co-operation with Russia, and suffered 
 no inconvenience from pursuing that course. 
 
 The Crowns of Europe were unconscious of any 
 degradation in consequence of the policy of their 
 Governments, and their position of dependence was 
 veiled or disguised as partial and temporary. 
 
 The old Ivor Id was alone concerned, and Russia had 
 to consider only the Porte, the Turks, the Christians 
 of Turkey, the people, the Cabinets and the Crowns 
 of Europe. Now to the altered position of the Old 
 World, has to be added the interposition of the New. 
 
 Here is the only new event, and the consequences 
 of it are incalculable : the United States cannot now 
 remain neuter, there is no alternative between their 
 being enveloped by Russia in the diplomatic measures 
 of the Old World, and their breaking through the 
 vicious circle in which we are bound. 
 
 The United States stand free from all diplomatic 
 entanglements ; they have neither bound themselves 
 not to send their men-of-war into the Euxine or to 
 nay toll for their merchantmen passing the Sound; 
 
THIRD EDITION". v 
 
 they have not come under the Turkish Treaty of 
 commerce : though they actually do pay, at the 
 rate of other nations in Turkey, and at the Sound 
 there is no reason that they should do so, and it is 
 not to be supposed that the citizens of America, if 
 their attention be once directed to the subject will 
 suffer their Government to endure an imposition in 
 the one case no less than piracy, and in the other 
 than an extortion. Resistance to the Sound Dues 
 is comparatively an unimportant matter except in its 
 moral effects, but resistance to the prohibitory duties 
 on Turkish exports reopens the whole of that im- 
 mense question upon which hinges the future fate of 
 Europe, and indeed of America itself. 
 
 The rapid increase of population in Europe, and the 
 growing demand for grain places her in dependence 
 upon Russia, Turkey, and the United States for sup- 
 plies. The Russian exports were disappearing before 
 the competition of two Turkish provinces, where 
 Austria had prevented the imposition of the English 
 Treaty of Commerce; in consequence of the enor- 
 mous wealth pouring into them the Porte was about 
 to emancipate the trade of the remainder of the 
 Empire, — an event which must have closed the 
 chapter of Russian history. Her advance on the 
 Danube has averted the blow, stopped exportation and 
 production there, and equally stopped the proposed 
 abrogation of the export duty throughout the other 
 provinces. The competition is now singly between 
 Russia and the United States, and the mind and 
 resources of Russia will henceforward be applied to 
 the disorganization of the United States. To protect 
 themselves, they must not only guard against the 
 tempter who will seek to use their self-love in putting 
 them forward, but also they must profit by their 
 actual opportunities to take their stand by the side of 
 Europe while it can be supported. 
 
 It is now two years since I m.ade an appeal to the 
 United Stales in this sense in a pamphlet on the 
 
vi PEEFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Danube^"^ and I have the satisfaction of knowing that 
 my words on that occasion have not been without effect 
 on the results up to this hour obtained. It will not be 
 at present presumptuous for me to say that my judg- 
 ments have been confirmed by those of the Russian 
 Cabinet. The Cabinet of Washington must have the 
 means of testing the grounds of this judgment. If 
 no propositions such as these I have indicated have 
 been made it may disregard my past and present 
 warnings: if they have, it must be traitorous not. to 
 act^ and imbecile if it acts imprudently. 
 
 One word as to Denmark. The abdication of the 
 king is preparing ; so also of his uncle. The next 
 prudent step will be the abdication of a few of the 
 Gluksburgs. 
 
 * " From the aberrations of the hour, the appeal lies to posterity, 
 because unaffected by the passions that obscure our sight, and the 
 fallacies that pervert our judgment. Severed by an ocean, you are 
 to us a future age; as such I appeal from my countrymen to you, 
 not for judgment only, but for remedy. We have a common 
 interest, you may retrieve what the infatuation of England has 
 sacrificed ; but to judge, you must know — read, and you will 
 understand." 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 ft^ 
 
 Settlement with Bussia. 
 
 August 9th. 
 
 "An immediate rise of the public securities^' is 
 this morning proclaimed as the result of the welcome 
 announcement of the acceptance by the Emperor of 
 Russia of the proposal of the Powers, terminating a 
 crisis which has so long held in suspense the political 
 relations and commercial interests of the world. The 
 British public and the British government are re- 
 assured and delighted by the union of the great 
 European States. It is no longer England, or England 
 and France, interposing for the protection of Turkey. 
 All principles, all interests, are united, and whatever 
 bears the name of a European, is opposed to the Czar. 
 But in all this there is nothing new — it is an old and 
 sickening story; what it is worth I shall presently 
 show : in the meantime let me direct my reader^s 
 attention to an event both startling and new, which 
 has tliis morning been equally announced to the 
 inhabitants of these Isles. 
 
 Last night, in the House of Lords, it was asked, 
 
Till 
 
 SETTLEMENT WITH RUSSIA. 
 
 "What has the Government of this Country 
 DONE ?'^ This question Was followed by " cheers." 
 Lord Clanricarde further asserted, that all Treaties 
 between Russia and Turkey — why did he not add 
 between Russia and England — were abolished by 
 this act, and he therefore expected to hear that the 
 English Squadron was inside of the Dardanelles. 
 
 There is something even more wonderful still than 
 this. The Minister for Foreign Affairs " agreed in. 
 everything that had fallen from his noble friend," 
 and " considered the entire evacuation of the Princi- 
 palities as a sine qua non of any agreement whatever." 
 
 On the same night Lord John Russell stated, in 
 the Commons, his belief in the favourable acceptance 
 of the proposals of the Powers by Russia. Putting 
 the two propositions together, and dropping the im- 
 material question of a first and a second proposal, we 
 have now the Government nailed to the complete and 
 immediate evacuation of the Principalities, because 
 "any arrangement whatever" must imply instance 
 in point of time. It is to be inferred, from the cheers 
 of the two Assemblies, that England would be con- 
 tent with such a settlement. But what shall happen 
 if Russia does not accede ? Is your Ambassador then 
 to be withdrawn? No. You will either not obtain 
 the evacuation, or you will obtain it on terms, 
 
 "First let us consider the question of occupation, 
 in the war of 1828 three corps d^armees were sent 
 across the Pruth ^ at present four corps d^armees have 
 been sent across the Pruth. In the last war thirty 
 gun-boats were sent into the Danube, at present one 
 
SETTLEMENT WITH EUSSLi. ix 
 
 hundred and fifty gun-boats have been sent into the 
 Danube, ("a few gun-boats/^ Clarendon.) In the 
 last war the pontoons had to be made on the spot 
 and failed ; at present they are all ready. The opera- 
 tions therefore are on a larger scale than in 1828_, 
 without there being an Ismail to take, which delayed 
 a third of the forces during a third of the campaign. 
 
 In 1828 those countries produced only the grain 
 requisite for their own consumption, now 1,500,000 
 quarters are ready for exportation to England. That 
 grain is now available for the troops of Russia, and 
 may be set down in round numbers at ^.2,000,000. 
 You will have to go to Russia for that grain ; it will 
 cost you there a much higher sum, and the Russian 
 treasury will receive from 10 to 15 per cent, in duties 
 before it is exported. Russia therefore by the opera- 
 tion profits from £5,000,000 to £6,000,000. That 
 profit will equally be secured, whether she evacuates 
 or not. The Provinces thus present to her resources 
 for future operations infinitely greater than in 1828. 
 
 In that year she had developed no comprehensive 
 
 scheme ; there was no combination with Europe to 
 
 give to her the succession to the crown of Denmark ; 
 
 she was not pretending to occupy a province south of 
 
 the Caspian in Persia; there was no revolution in 
 
 China ; she had revealed no projects on Little Thibet ; 
 
 and had not announced her intention of establishing 
 
 herself on the Upper Himalaya.* There were then 
 
 no Russian Princesses on a visit to Eng-land, 
 
 * An offer was made to the Emperor of Qiina to support him 
 against tlie insurgents, on condition of liis ceding Little Tliibet, 
 wliich is only twenty days' march froui Calcutta. 
 
X SETTFLEMEN'I^ WiM-MUB^^- 
 
 After tlie declaration of Eord' ' Clarendon and the ^ * 
 mthdrawal of tlie Ehglisli agent- &oni Bucliarest^ bne^ 
 niigiit have belietfed iii^-^tie' WaJciiatM-^ 'cotirge?^ 
 Enssia \fill'Siitoit'to= aifytiiiiig-to w^^ 'the ^English-   
 Minister lias made Tip- liis miyid-^if Eord Clartrndon 
 were a Grand Tizier : -Bnt he is" only a member of a 
 Cabinet^ and in that feabirfiety'alas!- there are Lord^-' 
 Aberdeen,, John Unssell/ ami' Palmer stQn-; the latter 
 is bnsy in- representing 'LotdStfetfordde Redcliffe as 
 acting under the influen^^e of piqne. I do hot there- 
 fore say that there will be no evacuation^ but this 
 I say^ that Russia^ if she evacnateSj Ynil lose nothing 
 by it_, for it will be "with an arrangement to establish 
 a common interference of the Poioers with the subjects 
 of Turkey. 
 
 A lie has been placed on the lips of Europe in the 
 word RussO'Greek Church. The one is a form of 
 Revealed Religion^ the other is the worship of a 
 man. In the official Church of Russia the Czar is 
 '^ vicegerent of God upon earth/^ and as such is the 
 object of *^^ FAITH ^^ and "worship." The disease 
 that preys on the vitals of the Russian Empire is 
 religious dissent originating in this sacrilege. The 
 Nonconformists maintain the original faith^ such as 
 it was when the Russian Church was in communion 
 with that of Constantinople. The only name they 
 give to themselves is that of " Old Believers/^ in 
 Russian Starovirtze ; they are therefore identified 
 with the 12,000,000 or 13,000,000 of Cluristian sub- 
 jects of the Porte in Em'ope ; they are the objects of 
 the most bitter persecutions on the part of the 
 
.SETTLEMENT WITH RUSSIA. xl 
 
 Bussian Government, and the familiar term tliey 
 fipply to the Emperor is *' Antichrist.'' The recent 
 movements towards independence of the Malo- 
 Bussians, amounting to about 10,000,000, is prin- 
 cipally attributable to this schism and persecution. 
 Were there no Mussulmans in Europe, and Russia 
 free to extend her dominion to the Ionian Sea, we 
 should find her, if she attempted it, at once engaged 
 in the most furious of religious wars, with populations, 
 old subjects and new, amounting to 2.0,000,000. 
 
 This change in Russia Proper has required five cen- 
 turies and a quarter, for it began in the year 1330. 
 Eifteen generations of Muscovites have gone to their 
 graves in the course of its completion. They were 
 .induced to submit, in the hope that the concentra- 
 ction of all power in the hands of the Czar would 
 •^facilitate the subjugation of others. The Christian 
 subjects Qf ,Turkey, born and bred under tlie habits 
   of Mussulman toleration, filled with the most extra- 
 . vagaut ambition by Muscovite art, will not resign in 
 a single hour every political right and every con- 
 scientious conviction, and that too in the hour of 
 triumph and for the subjugation of themselves. The 
 Tui'ks, if they had never strayed beyond their pas- 
 turages of Broussa, would, on such a contingency, 
 
 • be called in by the Christians for the protection of 
 their Church and Faith. Such an event no doubt 
 would be surprising, but it would not be new; the 
 ablest polemical writer amongst the Greeks of the 
 present age, has explained, in the very words I have 
 
 • used, the fall of Constantinople in 1453. 
 
xii SETTLEMENT WITH RUSSIA. 
 
 Since the year 1846^ the Sultan has become the 
 immediate protector of the Starovirtze, by having 
 secured for them the Apostolic succession of their 
 priestliood after that priesthood was seized by Eussia, 
 formed into regiments, and sent to die of ague in 
 Lankeran, on the Caspian; he would stand in the 
 same relation of Protector to his actual Greek sub- 
 jects from the moment that he was driven into Asia 
 by Russian arms. Such being the position of Russia 
 with regard to the Christians of Turkey,, her object 
 in a joint intervention of the Powers is evident; she 
 could never have moved them to propose such an 
 intervention, but (as in 1826, when the Greeks 
 declared they would rather perish than allow of her 
 interference) she terrifies the Powers by a threat to 
 act alone, and then they rush forward to yield to 
 her their support, on the pretext of clogging her 
 action ! Then she can use the Sultan to establish 
 her supremacy over the Oriental Church, whilst she 
 uses it to break down the authority of the Sultan, 
 Prom the moment that a common interference is 
 established, any quarrel in the streets can bring 
 down her squadron to Constantinople. The only 
 danger is from Russian interference ; the only course 
 for Europe to take is to prevent it. The course which 
 Europe always does take is to sanction it, by co-operat- 
 ing in it, giving to her their power for effecting it. 
 
 To prepare for her possession, she has to raise 
 a religious persecution between Mussulmans and 
 Christians, bringing in England and France to attack 
 Turkey ; she must engage Austria in a war of exter- 
 
SETTLEMENT WITH EUSSIA. xili 
 
 niination with tlie neighbouring populations; by these 
 means, or a union of the llonian and Russian 
 Churches, she must break the confederacy of Greeks 
 and Latins, which is sure to be formed against her. 
 Besides these local operations, she has to work out 
 a war between England and France, and a European 
 revolution. Such are the preliminary steps to the 
 elevation of the Christian subjects of Turkey to tho 
 rank of serfs, and to the pa3ans of Christendom for 
 the long promised mass in St. Sophia. 
 
 Another illusion is, that the Christians of Turkey 
 are Greeks, and consequently that they are united 
 against the Mussulman rule. They amount to about 
 13,000,000, the Greeks not exceeding 1,000,000, 
 and the half of them not a located population, but 
 stranyei's, dispersed throughout the different cities. 
 Unfortunately the Turks like them, and confide iu 
 them (one of them is actually Ambassador in London), 
 but every other race hates and despises them. The 
 Wallachians and Moldavians amount to 4,500,000 -, 
 the Bulgarians, the descendants of the Tartars of the 
 Volga, to 4,500,000, some of these are Mussulmans ; 
 the Bosnians, including the Serbians and Illyrians 
 to 3,000,000, of these 1,000,000 are Mussulmans, 
 and about 500,000 Roman Catholics ; the Albanians 
 to 1,500,000, half of them Christians of the Eastern 
 Church, half of them Mussulmans. It will thus be 
 seen that the Greeks have no standing at all in 
 European Turkey, save that which they derive from 
 the Turks. One-third of the Mussulmans are allied 
 in blood to the Russians, and three-fourths of the 
 Chi'istians, south of the Danube, to the Turks. All 
 
XIV , SETTLEMENT WITH EUSSTA. 
 
 these populations have accepted the Turks as masters ; 
 not one of them would endure for a moment the 
 supremacy of any of the others. If you had not the 
 Turks^ you would require to invent them^ unless 
 you wish to see European Turkey a chaos of bloodshed, 
 not for the "svretched inhabitants alone, but for Europe, 
 and when so exhausted to be annexed to Russia, 
 transferring to her a position which, in her hands, 
 must command the globe. 
 
 What I have here said regarding the Greek and 
 Russian Churches has been recently to the letter 
 borne out by the statements in the Greek press, 
 which reach us from the Levant. Their Smyrna 
 organ wanas Russia not to "indulge in illusions." 
 The EXrig, the organ of- Hellenism, explains the 
 object of the Czar in extorting the protectorate of 
 the Oriental Church to be to convert it into an " in- 
 strument of his Panslavic schemes," and denies 
 '^that the protection (!) of the Powers afforded to the 
 Sultan is, as the journals of Russia pretend, the pro- 
 tection of Mahometanism against Christianity, but 
 the defence of the political inheritance of the Hellenes 
 (Greeks) against Russian incorporation, in which 
 every Hellenic spirit must wjsh them success." 
 
 The correspondence of the Vienna papers is in the 
 same sense. " There is no nation," says the Oest 
 Deutsch Post, 'Mess inclined to be absorbed by Russia 
 than the Greeks. When struggling for political 
 existence, they looked on her as the victorious power 
 that was to come to their assistance, but they rejected 
 , the proffered hand so soon as they perceived that it 
 'was more inchned to imnose than to remove fetters." 
 
SETTLEiAIENT AVITH KUSSIA.: xv 
 
 I cannot onut. noticing a grouml of confidence 
 which hasarecentiy) for the hundreth' lime,; presented 
 itself as a liovGltf; it is, "The Emperof has no 
 money." The same thing was said in 1847, when 
 he came fdnrard to support the Bank of England, 
 as he had! already supported the Bank, of France, 
 ^6,000,000; wer6 Tested in English and French 
 securities, £32,000,000. of bullion were then held in 
 deposit. She receives nearly £5,000,000, yearly from 
 her mines, and actually her stock is quoted at 16 per 
 cent, above par. She offers to remit a claim of 
 80,000,000 roubles for a province, being between 
 the Caspian and Little Thibet, and to pay the differ- 
 ence ; yet, according to * diplomatic report, " The 
 guards, the crack corps at Zarskoi Zelo, are destitute 
 of clothes and everything." Well then they can be 
 clothed as well as fed in the Principalities — Napoleon 
 believed Europe to be in danger from the poverty of 
 Russia — she preserves the appetites of poverty, while 
 knowing how to employ the seductions of wealth. 
 It is her gold you have to fear, and not her steel. 
 She makes a little go a long way, and she takes it 
 from yourselves. 
 
 ^'The evacuation of the Principalities is," says Lord 
 Clarendon, " a sine qua non preliminary to a settle- 
 ment." But will an evacuation of the Provinces be a 
 settlement? Not xmless it be unconditional, as. far as 
 Russia is concerned,' and provision be made against 
 present injury and future aggression. Fir^st, then, 
 the evacuation must take place without any eisgage- 
 ment entered into by Tm^key. Secondly, an in- 
 demnity to Turkey for pecuniary loss, and to the 
 
xvi SETTLEMENT WITH EUSSIA. 
 
 trade of all nations on account of the accidents at the 
 mouth of the Danube^ resulting from her neglect. 
 Thirdly, the abrogation of all existing Treaties be- 
 tween Russia and Turkey, and consequently of any 
 pretence of interference with the subjects of the latter 
 country. Fourthly, the abrogation of the Treaties of 
 1840 and 1841, equally violated by her act, and the 
 consequent admission of men-of-war of all nations to 
 the Black Sea. Fifthly, the modification of the 
 English Treaty of Commerce of 1838, so as to obtain 
 the free exportation of Turkish grain. Sixthly, the 
 renunciation of all claims upon Persia, whether 
 pecuniary or territorial. Seventhly, the abrogation of 
 the Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852, and the conse- 
 quent restoration of the succession and constitution 
 in Denmark. 
 
 This is the only settlement. This, if you are in 
 egirnest, is what you will obtain ; there is no more 
 difficulty in obtaining all, than in obtaining one. If 
 you do not you are, in the words of Lord Clanricarde, 
 ''^ parties to the present act of piracy, as you are to 
 all the previous steps that led to it," Of the seven 
 points which I have indicated, the essential are the 
 admission of our vessels to the Black Sea, and the 
 exportation of Turkish grain; no one will pretend 
 that there is the slightest difficulty in obtaining 
 either. They have even nothing to do with Russia, 
 but only with Turkey. So long as you auffer a 
 Russian Ambassador to reside in London you will 
 not obtain them, for England is governed ficm 
 Ashbiirnham House. 
 
XYU 
 
 THE CHOSSING OF THE PEUTH, AND THE 
 PASSING OP THE DARDANELLES. 
 
 " Catherine perceived that she could not continue her aggressive 
 system against Turkey without the aid and co-operation of the other 
 Powers." — Wellesley Pole. 
 
 This volume, tliougli not written with a view to the 
 actual crisis, may not on that account be the less ac- 
 ceptable : its interest lies not in the immediate facts, 
 but in the motives and position of the parties to 
 which this volume addresses itself. The actual alarm 
 which affords so favourable a conjuncture for its ap- 
 pearance may be thus of importance for averting 
 future dangers — there are actually none in the sense 
 that the people of this country understand; they 
 may rest perfectly assured that there will not be now, 
 and that there never will be hereafter, collision be- 
 tween England and Russia. Who can set other 
 powers by the ears, need not fight them. As to 
 England, the question is one of balance, the tongue 
 of which vibrates through the Straits which separate 
 Europe and Asia, transferring to the one side or the 
 other absolute supremacy and absolute subjection. 
 
 It was deemed an act of unexpected and almost 
 startling courage when an ex-Chancellor of England — 
 a man pre-eminent for his intellectual powers, and 
 
xviii the:peutii and 
 
 -wliOj had Russia had the good fortune of possessing 
 him_, might have ah'eady reared the banner of the 
 azure cross on the flagstaffs of Calcutta and the Dar- 
 danelles — pronounced the pretensions of the Czar to 
 be " fallacious_, ofFensive^ illogical, and insulting/* 
 The pettiest attache of eveiy Russian Embassy- 
 smiled with a contempt derived from position 
 alike at the capacity and the feeling of that great 
 lawyer. Crude mgenium cannot of itself prevail in 
 human affairs, and toil and labour will ever bear 
 away the palm. The geriiiis of Lord Lyndhurst is 
 practised in detecting fallacy — the genius of Russia 
 in conquering men ; she requires no lessons in logic ; 
 you need some instruction in conduct : if it was 
 worth Lord Lyndhurst's while to think upon a foreign 
 matter, it was surely the acts of the members of the 
 English, not the Russian Cabinet, which deserved his 
 animadversion. 
 
 You have long been in a slumber, and she has 
 profited by your security ; you have long confided in 
 her honour, she has profited by your friendship; your 
 . eyes are at length opened, and your indignation 
 aroused — does she suffer retribution, do you regain 
 character? You discover that she is illogical— in 
 rhetoric which has convulsed an Empire; you de- 
 nounce her to be insane — in marching with your aid 
 on the Bosphorus; you send your men-of-war to the 
 Dardanelles— she seizes the Sound; she grasps the 
 Danube ; you send — no, you do not send, a note — 
 she usurps the vastest plain of Europe, and you do 
 
THE DARDANELLES. xk 
 
 send an apology.* When slie has overrun a province 
 you convoke a conclave ; you prevent war by re- 
 moving landmarks ; and stop a burglar by opening 
 the door. And all this is peace : two campaigns and 
 a. dozen fortresses are offered up for the sake of the 
 tranquillity of Europe ; and two Empires (Turkey and 
 Austria) are stripped of their arms in the interest of 
 their defence. 
 
 There remains, however, another discovery to 
 be made — not that you are cowards, but that you 
 are impostors. Was there ever imposition compared 
 with that of your pretending to cope with Russia ? She 
 can be met only by men with minds equal to herself; 
 equal to her in cunning, or at least superior to her in 
 honesty ; you neither have the last, nor do you form 
 the first. While she perverts truth and justice 
 through love of power, you sacrifice right and power 
 by fatuity. This is your struggle with Eussia, or 
 rather your confederacy. 
 
 The prophetic year 1853, closing the millenium of 
 Kussia^s delay from her first entrance of the Golden 
 Horn, has beheld the purposed excitation of the 
 fanatic frenzy of the Muscovite race, and the direct 
 
 * The Russian note of the 2d July, calling England and France 
 to account for sending the squadrons to the coast of Turkey, was 
 answered by the French Cabmet by one which it published on the 
 15th, and which Lord Clarendon declared to be the counterpart of 
 a note transmitted by England. The French Minister therein, 
 exculpates France from the charge of having interfered with the 
 plans of Eussia ; he says : — " No, sir, I say it with all the power of 
 conviction, the French Government in this grave discussion, has no 
 reproach to make to itself." 
 
XX THE PP.UTH AND 
 
 and simultaneous invasion of the two channels 
 of wealth and power, on the north and the south of 
 Europe. 
 
 Unhappy Denmark ! it was only robbers she fell 
 amongst in 1813; it is Thugs she has chanced upon 
 noY/j the '^rouraaP' which your hands have wove 
 and placed_, is round her neck^ and a quivering of life 
 scarce remains in her limbs ; * a gun brig, with a wiU 
 behind it, might have saved the Baltic; but, alas! 
 your ludicrous ships-of-the-line were demonstrating 
 in the Levant. Then the Emperor was all magna- 
 nimity, then — February, March, April, and May last 
 — ^Europe was so alive to Russia's designs that she 
 never could attempt anything on the Crown of Den- 
 mark, on its Constitution, or its Sound, 
 
 Unhappy Turkey ! in vain have you escaped from 
 anarchy and bloodthirstiness ; in vain have you 
 restored order and inaugurated a rule of mildness and 
 of charity ; vain have been the painful efforts to sub- 
 due and extirpate the malconformities of centuries ; 
 in vain the unparalleled success in reorganising a 
 powerful army, which ensured you from foreign vio- 
 lence and aggression ; you have trusted to England ; 
 
 * On the day that this passage was sent to press — the 19th of 
 July, the doom of Denmark was sealed ; it was formally announced 
 to the Diet that despotic rule was restored, bearing out to the letter 
 the statement in the body of this volume, that the Constitution 
 would not be extinguished because the Diet refused to accept the 
 Treaty, but that the Treaty would be used to extinguish the Diet. 
 However, the event is annoimced to the British public by tlie 
 Russian organ in the following fashion : — " In all this there is 
 nothing of a coup tVetat, but a legitimate and constitutional way of 
 modifying an impossible Constitution." — Times, July 30, Kote to 
 2d Edition. 
 
THE DAKDANELLES. xxi 
 
 you have confided in lier Tvisdom, and, alas ! in her 
 honour. 
 
 Unhappy England! in vain have you expended 
 thousands of millions to be prepared against sudden 
 emergencies ;* in vain have your worthiest sons cogi- 
 tated by night, and laboured by day, to improve the 
 condition of the people in gaining for them cheap 
 food : t in vain have your shipbuilders and mechani- 
 cians laboured to perfect the terrible science of war ; 
 in vain do you possess the alliance of the great mili- 
 tarypower of the West;"j: in vain are you called mistress 
 of the ocean ; alas ! the decree has gone forth to forbid 
 your flag on the waters where is to be decided whether 
 a barbarian man shall be master of Constantinople and 
 protector of Calcutta. 
 
 Here lies the whole matter • let us consider it. I 
 must entreat the reader's patience, the task of con- 
 ciseness is here a difficult one. He has as yet not 
 been troubled upon this point ; it touches taxes and 
 rates as well as honour and independence. 
 
 * The Principalities, from 1806 to 1815, occasioned to England, 
 by the war resumed on account of them, an outlay of 650 millions 
 sterling ; since then vre have expended on armaments 350 millions, 
 
 t " The occupation of tlie Principalities contributes at this moment 
 to raise the price of wheat in Mark Lane, and to check the produc- 
 tive labour of Mancliester and Lyons. For it must be remembered 
 that altliough we live in an age when it is especially inconvenient 
 and disagreeable to run a risk of war for distant political causes, yet 
 those distant political causes are brought nearer than they ever were 
 to our own doors, and affect even the supplies of food and tho 
 demand for labour in the British Isles." — Times, Aug. 2, 1853. 
 
 X The French Government has ordered its flag to be struck in tlie 
 Principalities ; the representative of England is exchanging friendly 
 communications with the Eussian General-in-Cliief regarding tlie 
 navigation of-tlie Danube. 
 
zdi THE PP^UTII AND 
 
 In tlic published note of the Frcncli government, 
 M. Drouyn de Lliuys states, that the united squadron 
 was only sent " to a bay freely open to the navies of 
 all nations, and situated beyond those limits, which 
 Treaties forbid to transgress in time of peace J' This 
 statement is erroneous: he refers to the Treaty of 
 1841, signed between the Great Powers and Turkey, 
 by which they are equally and in all times excluded, 
 and Turkey is deprived of the sovereignty of its own 
 waters. A Treaty holds only so long as there is peace, 
 but if war is requisite to justify the passage, it is war 
 with Turkey, not with Russia ; consequently the 
 English and the French Governments do not under- 
 stand their own engagements. 
 
 Together with the inviolability of the Dardanelles, 
 was established the integrity of the Ottoman Empire ; 
 and in favour of the latter stipulation the former was 
 allowed to pass. Russia had hitherto resisted every 
 compact stipulating for the integrity of Turkey; on 
 one occasion she refused to ratify a Treaty to that 
 effect, which her Minister (Ouvril) had signed. She 
 could safely admit it when the Dardanelles were 
 closed ; from that moment the Western Powers could 
 have nothing further to say respecting the integrity 
 of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 This Treaty was signed at the moment that the 
 Administration of which Lord Palmerston was Foreign 
 Minister was going out of office ; it is dated exactly 
 one week after the expiration of the Treaty of Hun- 
 kiar Skellessi ; it passed at the time without notice 
 or comment, being considered as merely closing the 
 
rupture betweim iEJnglancl and 3^ri,ce re§]l$cti:^g Syria. 
 I at tlie time strove to awtikea attention as to its con- 
 sequences yvitk no more effect than I liad previously 
 -done, to warn, of its approach; in the height of the 
 „ -quarrel with Prance, and when war was considered im- 
 .: I minent^il asserted that '^thei matter would close with 
 •J ran arrangement ihetweeii them Which would incorpo- 
 -rate and extend [avec quelques artiGles de plus — for the 
 letter I refer to was in French) the Treaty of Hunkiar 
 Skellessi against which both had protested." But let 
 . that matter pass ; let us drop the causes^, and ignore 
 - for the moment the motives. You negotiated that 
 Treaty, you negotiated yourselves out of the Black 
 iSea; Turkey was never thought oX^Erance only was 
 ii>€6nsidered.; you proposed it to her; you induced her 
 /^to accept it; she accepted it because it was to ensure 
 the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Wha.t con- 
 nection was there between tile; two. ij^fiints — at least 
 as you have linked them ? 
 
 On that connection the present results are the 
 commentary. Russia passes the -Pruth, — you can- 
 . not enter the Dardanelles. Perhaps you were de- 
 ceived; perhaps you believed that the non-passage by 
 Bussia of the Bosphorus was the equivalent for the 
 non-passage by you of the Daitlanelles ; let us see. 
 
 In 1833, in consequence of the refusal of England 
 to succour Turkey in the quarrel of Mehemet Ali, 
 and by her advice, a Russian squadron with an army 
 of disembarkation reached tlie Bosphorus. Before 
 its departure Turkey was called upon to sign a 
 Treaty, in recompense for this succour, \yhich was 
 
xxi7 THE PEUTH AND 
 
 no other than a defensive alliance : the Powers beinjr 
 severally bound to furnish succour in case the other 
 was 'attacked: but a secret article was appended, by 
 which the succours on the part of Turkey were trans- 
 muted into a simple closing of the Dardanelles against 
 any power with whom Russia might be at war. It 
 was some months before Western Diplomacy made 
 this great discovery, by perusing the document in 
 the columns of the Morning Herald, but in fact it 
 was modest, and knew the matter from the beginning. 
 Lord Ponsonby had written from luxurious Naples, 
 where he was aw^aiting the termination of the inci- 
 dent before proceeding to his post, to announce that 
 the Russian Squadron would not leave the Bosphorus 
 until such a Treaty had been extorted. The Turkish 
 Government had transmitted to the English Embassy 
 the draught of the Treaty so soon as it was presented 
 to them. The English Government, however, laid 
 up the grievance, in its heaving breast, until a drago* 
 man communicated the Secret Ai'ticle to the corre- 
 spondent of the Morning Herald; then indignation 
 arose, and energy was manifested in Downing Street. 
 The English Embassy called the Porte to account, 
 with exemplary vehemence, for its baseness and 
 treachery, proving that the Secret Article constituted 
 the Treaty '^ an offensive one against England ; ^* 
 the sentiments of the English Government were com- 
 municated to and re-echoed by that of France, and 
 consequently the two squadrons proceeded on their 
 way to the Dardanelles, to support the notes against 
 Turkey, and to make a demonstratiou against Rvssin. 
 
THE DARDANELLES. xxt 
 
 They declared that they "would act as if the Secret 
 Article had never been signed/' which the vulgar 
 interpreted that they would pass the Dardanelles. 
 Russia replied that she would act " as if that Protest 
 had never been made/-' Turkey, ground between the 
 two millstones, was now constrained to sign the Con- 
 vention of St. Petersburg, regulating the internal 
 government of the Principalities so that henceforward 
 "the relation of those Empires in respect to these 
 Provinces became a domestic concern which no longer 
 regarded foreign states.^' Such was the result of that 
 Demonstration by the two first maritime powers of 
 the World. 
 
 The Treaty of Hunkiar Skellessi had, however, 
 one redeeming point, — it was but temporary ; it wa« 
 but to last for eight years, consequently the freedom 
 of the Dardanelles would be restored on the 8th of 
 July, 1841 : but, in the course of the previous autumn, 
 another na,val Demonstration had taken place, but 
 this time it was in concert with Russia and against 
 France. However, the two countries were soon re- 
 conciled, and that reconciliation was sealed as above 
 seen by the Treaty of the 13tli of July, 1841, by whicK 
 England and France bound themselves not to enter, 
 not for a period of years but for ever ; not now in case 
 of one or both being at war with Russia, but in peace 
 as well as in war. 
 
 There was therefore no delusion in respect to the 
 nature of the Secret Article; the difference be- 
 tween it and the Treaty of 1841, was merely the 
 increase of its "offensive character/' Now if that 
 
sxvi J, THE f 3PinPEH.MA.NI>- 
 
 article was of'^cBsivc wliilc it :;.. cod as ti com- 
 
 pact ' Huo;ia a]idvTiu'Jie7,.ja9^ je^TQ?i.:o2Lciafl^ 
 
 known xo i;ie. other Powei's, until ;-Engiand rendered 
 to Uussia tiio • ser\4ce of publishing, • it^ what did it 
 become when signed by England itself ? Could .the 
 secret article of the Treaty of 1833 have been pleaded 
 to-day against the entrance of our squadron? Com- 
 ment is superfluous. 
 
 England had prepared for the Treaty of Hunkiar 
 Skellessi by her attempt to bomljard Constantinople 
 in 1806j when she was at peace with Turkey. About 
 ' that time she did bombard Copenhagen : there is a 
 mesmeric attraction between the two Straits. The 
 object of this felonious attempt was to force Turkey 
 to surrender the Princijjalities to Russia^ with whom 
 Turkey was also at peace ; the parallel attempt on 
 Copenhagen was with an opposite pretext; the result 
 in both cases, was the sajne^ except that at Constan- 
 tinople you fortunately had neither a Lord Stratford 
 de K-edcliffe as Ambassador nor a Sir William Parker 
 as Admiral ; qualms of conscience did prevail over 
 instructions^ and a chance was left to the Northerly 
 ' wind ; your demonstration consequently sailed away 
 with its shot and sliells on boards and Wallachia and 
 Moldavia stilly to the exceeding annoyance of the 
 English Government_, belong to the Porte. Thus the 
 two Treaties for th« Dardanelles are the children of 
 naval demonstrations_, with which at least the school- 
 boys of Europe w^ould be acquainted had they occurred 
 in the 105th a.nd 111th 01ympiads_, instead of the year 
 of our Lord 1806 and 1833. Then they would 
 have been historical not diplomatic qucitions^ as 
 
THE DAEDANELLSS. xxvii 
 
 mvolving tlie fate not of Europe but , of the Pelo- 
 ponnesus. '(! 
 
 We must not however forget another demonstra*!; 
 tion — that of 1849, when we sent a squadron not 
 merely to a Bay freely open ^*^to the Navy of all 
 nations,,^' but to the inside of those famous Straits, : 
 violating "those limits which Treaties forbid to 
 transgress in. times of peace/^ The curious reader 
 will learn the consequences of this ^agorous act in a 
 subsequent part of this volume. 
 
 I have now empliatically to state that the Turks 
 are not adverse to our passing the Dardanelles ; they 
 were so doubtless in 1809, for the best of reasons^ for 
 we had attacked them; but now regarding you as their 
 protectors, their whole desire and hope consists in 
 seeing, your force' uppn the only field where it can 
 be available for them; they camiot conceive how are to 
 be reconciled' your friendship, of which unfortunately 
 they have no doubt, and your avoidance of- the only 
 measure wliich caix render it: effectual. It must be 
 evident to the commonest apprehension, that an 
 English frigate in the Black Sea alters the balance 
 of power between Russia aiid Turkey. Lord Palmer- 
 ston has explained the sacrifice of Cracow, by the 
 fact that line-of-battle ships could not reach that, 
 town ; he has more recently ascribed the failure of   
 protection of English navigation in the Danube to 
 the " want of water in that river,^^ and in both state- 
 ments he has fah'ly represented the feelings of the 
 whole of the Populations of the East. As no one 
 there ascribes the absence of your vessels to objec- 
 
xxviii THE PRUTH AND 
 
 tions on the part of Turkey^ so every one explains it 
 by objections on the part of Russia. So long as they 
 are not there_, England counts for nothing, and Russia 
 is accounted everything. 
 
 I have had to struggle with incredulity whenever 
 I have asserted that the Porte desired the passage 
 of an English squadron ; but unquestionable confir- 
 mation is afforded by the Correspondent of the Times, 
 who announces that the inhabitants of Constantinople 
 '^were so confident that the English and French flags 
 would float side by side in front of Stamboul, that 
 the quays were crowded with spectators on the watch, 
 and ready to hail with shouts of welcome the first 
 appearance of the Allies in Turkish waters.^' Pre- 
 cisely the same thing occurred in 1834, when the 
 news arrived of the speech of M, Bignon in the 
 French Chamber. 
 
 The Turks have not confined themselves to mere 
 aspirations ; they took steps, though with a caution 
 which surprised me at the time. The first time that 
 Redschid Pasha visited these shores (he was then 
 ambassador in Paris), it was to propose the entrance 
 of the British squadron, but not till he had received 
 the assurance that the request should not be refused. 
 That assurance could not be obtained. Standing 
 orders at Constantinople render the contingency im- 
 possible.* 
 
 * When I was Secretary of Embassy at Constantinople, I was not 
 allowed to see the archives. One of the persons long employed in 
 the embassy observed ; " There is a document there whicli they 
 would never have allowed you to see, and which no English Minister 
 dares to withdraw : it is to prevent the passage of the squadron." 
 
THE DAEDANELLES. xxix 
 
 In 1830^ an English frigate, the Blonde, com^- 
 mancled by Sir Edmond Lyons, at present repre- 
 sentative of Great Britain at Stockholm, following the 
 track of the Argo, passed the " blue Symplegades,'^ 
 and performed the " Periplus '* of the Euxine. The 
 Russians retorted by sending two line-of-battle ships 
 into the Bosphorus, on which the Austrian Inter- 
 nuncio observed, '^'^the Blonde has been brought to 
 bed of twins, larger than herself/^ The Russian re- 
 presentative remonstrated in London; a reprimand 
 was sent to the venturesome captain, and the above 
 referred to measure taken to prevent the recurrence 
 of a similar offence. Lord Durham having chosen, 
 on his way to St. Petersburg, the route of the Black 
 Sea, to indicate that England apprehended the vul- 
 nerable point of Russia — the guns of the man-of-war 
 which carried him to Odessa, were lowered into the 
 hold ! 
 
 As it will have been observed that this exclusion 
 has been maintained under no less than six foreign 
 ministers, any one of whom by a couple of lines could 
 have caused it to cease, and must have caused it to 
 cease unless he had taken the other course, there wdll 
 be nothing invidious in detailing the reasons wdiich 
 one of them has himself assigned. The first con- 
 versation I ever held with Lord Palmerston bore upon 
 this point ; he entered into the discussion not idly, 
 but after the late King had come into the same views 
 and required him to discuss the matter with me. 
 His objection was, that "any question pending be- 
 tween Russia and England must be decided by the 
 
XXX THE PEUTH AND   
 
 relative aggregate power of tlie 'two governmentsy'and 
 as ours was the greatest we must control her action 
 in all cases^ without reference to any local distribution 
 of forces.-" It is long since I listened to these words_, 
 but they are too deeply engraven in my memory for 
 the possibility of the slightest mistake : they were 
 uttered at the Bedford Hotel, Brighton, in 1831. No 
 further direct and verbal communication took place 
 between us; but some three years afterwards, on press- 
 ing it again, I was given to imderstand that the Foreign 
 Secretary had objected, that the Turks would never 
 suffer it. I offered to bring from the Porte itself the 
 contradiction in the form of a request, and this it was 
 which led to the communications of Redschid Pasha, 
 a letter of censure was addressed to myself, although 
 I then held no office under the British Government. 
 On a subsequent occasion, my endeavours were in the 
 same indirect manner met by this argument, that "the 
 passage of a squadron would be a blow struck at the 
 independence of Tm-key, and that he could be no 
 friend of the Turks who urged it.^-* Yet at the same 
 time I was publishing, with the sanction of the Go- 
 vernment, these words, — " While the Dardanelles are 
 open, there is no decision of England to which Russia 
 must not submit ; when they are closed there is no 
 act of Russia which England will not have to endure.^^ 
 These two propositions, I conceive, I have now 
 established : 1st, that Turkey desired the presence of 
 an English squadron in the Black Sea; the 2d, that 
 the English minister has thwarted that desire ; no one 
 but he has prevented its entrance. 
 
^n^ DABD1^I:I.EES.   xxxi 
 
 If the Treaty of 1^41 did really present an obstacle^ 
 ■w^s ever so glorious an opportunity as the present?^ 
 what would it bav^ C0st?'iM^liat>did it' require? no- 
 thing but the will. But Jlussia knew Well that that 
 was wanting, and the end will be that you will con- 
 firm Jfor the last tiuae your exclusion; already has 
 Turkey under the fatal influence of her Ally abso- 
 lutely taken her stand in her manifesto upon the 
 Treaty of 1811! 
 
 Again, why' did you not hire the frigates of Sar- 
 dinia or of the two Sicilies, of Denmark, or of Spain? 
 They have not negotiated; they have not excluded 
 
 * Some very remarkable papers have appeared in the Morning 
 Advertiser. The -writer has seen the whole case at a glance, although 
 totally ignorant of the antecedents. On the point referred to in the 
 text, he says : — " When the armies of the Czar collected on the 
 Pruth, the united fleets of England and France should have anchored 
 in Besika Bay. When Prince Menschikoff 's ultimatum was delivered, 
 a corresponding ultimatum from England and from Ei-ance should 
 have been despatched to St. Petersburg. The passage of the Pruth 
 should have been declared the signal for the Porte to summon, if it 
 chose, those fleets to Constantinople. When the Z?ruth was passed, 
 if the Prutli was passed, tliose fleets should have been there. That 
 was the spot from which to ' negotiate,' with spirit, honour, and 
 effect. But that ultimatum would probably have prevented both 
 the passage of the Pruth and the * negotiations.' The Czar would 
 have looked twice before he provoked resolute counsels and a con- 
 tiguous foe. He has played out his game as he pleased. He has 
 staked craft against imbecihty, perfidy against creduhty, audacity 
 agaiust cowardice, promptness against procrastination, common 
 sense against 'statesmanship,' and himself against the Cabinet of All 
 the Talents and the Empire, whether of ' peace' or * glory.' He has 
 got every honour, and won every trick, and left the poor dupes of 
 Erance and England witliout cards, coin, credit, or counters." 
 
 In another article he says : — " These line-of-battle ships, these 
 glorious ' screws,' tliese huge ' auxiliary propellers,' though flanked 
 by France and joined to Turkey, dare not face the Eussians. Our 
 miserable ministers tremble at the .prospect of their entering the 
 channel of Constantinople." 
 
xxxii THE PRUTH AND 
 
 tliemselves_, tlieir vessels miglit have been got clieap 
 and no one could have quarreled with their entrance, 
 certainly at least not Turkey. If the condescension 
 was too great, there is a frigate or two of the United 
 States in the INIediterranean. That Government has 
 signed no Treaty for the integrity of the Ottoman 
 Empire, as it has signed no Treaty for the pay- 
 ment of the Sound Dues. "Why not apply to it for 
 a little spirited practice? You have exhausted tlie 
 disgust and indignation of the Old World, be brave 
 against the ridicule of the New.* 
 
 Such were the advantages which Russia reckoned 
 upon securing by the Treaty of 1811, but of course 
 upon the grounds that it should be executcxl in so 
 far only as it served her. Treaties are to her the 
 scaffolds by which she builds; as she ascends, she 
 knocks them down. That of Vienna in 1815 gave 
 her Poland, but did not prevent her, in 1846, from 
 disposing of Cracow. That of Adrianople in 1829 
 gave her the mouths of the Danube on conditions, 
 bat does not prevent her, in 1853, from blocking up 
 the entrance in violation of these conditions. That 
 of Balta Liman, in 1849, gave her a conjoint occupa- 
 tion, for seven years, of the Principalities, but docs 
 not prevent her^ in 1853, from assuming and prac- 
 tising a separate and exclusive occupation. So too that 
 of London in 1841, gave her the exclusion of foreign 
 
 * It would appear that this has actually taken place. 
 
 " We are further informed that three American frigates are in the 
 Bosphorus, the Commodore having asserted that the Treaty of 1841 
 did not concern him." — Times, 4th of August. 
 
THE DARDANELLES. xxxiii 
 
 vessels of war from the Euxine on the condition of 
 respecting the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, 
 and so also it does not prevent her, in 1853, from 
 violating that integrity. 
 
 Let us suppose for a moment a Parliament and 
 Government in England worthy of the name, and 
 consider how, in the present emergency, the first 
 would have dealt with the Treaty, and the second 
 acted under it. 
 
 In February, 1848, the whole of the foreign policy 
 of Lord Palmerston was brought before Parliament 
 under the form of a demand for papers on which 
 were to be founded articles of impeachment. One of 
 the chief, indeed I may say the principal, ground of 
 charge was the series of transactions closing with the 
 Treaty of 1811, "excluding from the Dardanelles 
 the Allies of the Sultan." The closing passage was 
 as follows : — 
 
 " It (the Treaty of 1841) was designed to para- 
 lyse the Porte; it was framed for the purpose of 
 making it indispensable for the Sultan to accept 
 whatever policy the Russian Czar might choose to 
 impose upon him. Russia alone is here planning 
 and executing her anterior combinations, or guiding 
 herself by no suggestions but her own, whether she 
 shall take possession of Constantinople now, or defer 
 the consummation yet a little longer. Sir, there is 
 but one way by which this great calamity can be 
 averted. It is by repudiating the act of the noble 
 Lord. But those who repudiate must punish. That, 
 sir, is why, moved by their own criminal weakness. 
 
xxxiv THE PEUTII AND 
 
 the Cabinet whicli succeeded that of which the 
 noble Lord was a member,^ neglected to disown the 
 treasonable] policy of the noble Lord_, and- to set 
 aside the Treaties which are its monuments — the 
 Treaty of Adrianople., which he adopted— the Treaty 
 of liiinkiar Skeliessi^ to which he adhered — and 
 more shameful stilly the Treaties of 18iO and 1841, 
 which he made."^ 
 
 At that time the House of Commons had its at- 
 tention called to the subject by no event_, and it 
 might judge the allegations if true, to be practically 
 unimportant_, as curbing the ambition of a state 
 then quiescent, or for protecting the indepen- 
 dence of an Empire then unassailed. In fact they 
 knew nothing on the subject and cared as little; 
 being spoken to about the Dardanelles, they only 
 opened their eyes in stupid wonder or closed them in 
 contemptuous pity. Lord Palmerston^s reply, how- 
 ever, constitutes a most important docunaent; now 
 it will be understood ; the heads are : — 
 
 That the Treaty was an act of reconciliation be- 
 tween France and the other Powers ,• that the main 
 consideration was, that no foreign ships of war should 
 pass either Straits without the consent of the Turkish 
 Government, that consequently, it ^' merely repeated 
 the Treaty in 1809,'' and "the only thing it did was 
 to record the same arrangement on the part of 
 Austria, France, and Prussia;" that it ''^was a virtual 
 abnegation of the Treaty of Hunkiar Skellessi," and 
 "superseded that Treaty, and placed Turkey as it 
 * Speech of Mr. Aiistey, Feb. 28, 1848. 
 
.THE DAllDANELLES. sxxv 
 
 were under tlie care of all the five Powers." To 
 these specific points was added a general declaration 
 of the absence of all purpose of ^' exclusive ascendency 
 over Turkey" on the part of Eussia. The results are 
 described as having been most beneficial, that 
 whereas, previous to its signature, the condition of 
 the East ' had constantly been one of agitation or 
 convulsion, all insecurity had since tlien disappeared : 
 it had restored Turkey and put an end to all alarms 
 on the score of Russia. . 
 
 It has been said by an old EngUsh Statesman, 
 '^ there is a time when evil measures escape detection, 
 but there comes a time also when they are brought 
 to light." For this measure, that time has now 
 come, and for Parliament that for dealing with it. 
 
 The violation of the territory of Turkey has taken 
 place, not in consequence of a war of which the 
 merits are uncertain, and in which the aggression 
 might have been on the side of Turkey, but withoxit 
 any war at all. The case is therefore in an incon- 
 ceivable manner relieved from all embarrassment. 
 It is the pure act to meet which the Treaty was pro- 
 fessedly negotiated and signed. The English Govern- 
 ment had but one course open, no option was left to 
 it and no alternative as to the means to be employed. 
 The act was one of aggression against Prussia, 
 . Austria, and France, as well as against England and 
 Turkey, being a violation of the Treaty with the four 
 first powers as of the territoiy of the last. 
 
 There might be negotiations between the Powers, 
 . but there could have been no negotiation with Russia; 
 
xxxvi THE PIIUTH AND 
 
 a summons to retire,, and a demand of indemnity, 
 and the instant withdrawal of the representatives of 
 ':he Allies, in case of refusal, together with the en- 
 trance of their vessels, to see, in the one case, the 
 retreat effected, and to prevent in the other the fur- 
 ther passage, at least over the Euxine, of vessels or 
 troops, — these were the negotiations to have opened 
 with Russia. If the other Powers did not concur in 
 these steps, that was their affair^ the obligations of 
 England concern herself alone, and her power in this 
 case rendered their decision a matter of the most 
 utter insignificance. That France should have 
 allowed to England the sole honour of such an 
 achievement, could hardly be hoped for : she would 
 have insisted on bearing a part. The only risk that 
 could have .possibly attended the operation, was that 
 of France being prepared to join Russia, and her 
 having at the Dardanelles a superior force before the 
 arrival of the British squadron — after the thing was 
 done, all the power of France could not have undone 
 it: the peculiar configuration of the Euxine must 
 •render whoever enters first j omnipotent, not only 
 there but throughout the globe. 
 
 Such I say must have been the course of the Goverh- 
 ment which I have supposed. Either the Parliament 
 liad to abrogate the Treaty of 1841 on the grounds of its 
 own guilty motives and injurious effects, or the Govern- 
 ment had to execute the engagements of that Treaty 
 — if they did not, it was for the Parliament to call 
 them to account for its violation. No declaration 
 of war was required : you declare no war against 
 
THE DAPtDAxVELLES, xxxvii 
 
 pirates — you require no riot act to resist liouse- 
 brealvers; your vessels were wanted in the Black Sea 
 to stop Russians operations; a cutter would have 
 stopped them. It would be worth to the Emperor 
 his Crown — to Russia, perhaps, at this moment, her 
 existence — to fire on an English man-of-war's punt 
 if floating in the Euxine. 
 
 But the Minister who made the Treaty of 1841 
 is actually a member of the Cabinet. He is in 
 possession of all the facts : he is acquainted with the 
 motives for which it was signed — those motives which 
 he has stated in Parliament. He has now discovered 
 the deception of which he has been the victim : he 
 has now learnt the value of those declarations of 
 Baron Brunow to which he listened in 1840, and 
 which he detailed to the House in 1848; and has 
 seen that the practical results of the Treaty of 1841 
 are anything but the security of the East. Must he 
 not have remonstrated with his colleagues, deplored 
 his former error, besought them now to atone for it^ 
 and infused into their minds some of that daring 
 energy which he has revealed in so many lands ? 
 
 We must therefore assume, that, in violating its 
 engagements, and in counselling Turkey to submit to 
 the invasion of its territory, the Cabinet has acted in 
 defiance of the member whose opinion, if he was ad- 
 mitted as a colleague, niust have been held to be all 
 authoritati-ve on this matter. 
 
 The Treaty of 1841, adopting as a principle thsit 
 which when formerly put forward by Russia as a preten- 
 sion, excited the indignation of Europe and provoked 
 
xxxviii . THE PEUTH AND 
 
 the protests of England and France^ amounts in fact to 
 a revolution of all ideas on what has been termed the 
 ''Eastern question/^ Any one starting from that 
 point is utterly at sea, as the governments of Turkey 
 and England have been. - The case of that country is 
 as completely falsified by it as is that of Denmark by 
 the Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852. When you 
 adopt false ma^xims in contracts, and calling those 
 contracts Treaties, institute these maxims as public 
 law, of course there remains neither right upon which 
 to take a stand, nor common sense by which to be 
 guided. 
 
 It has not failed to strike the discriminating 
 British public that Russians conduct is strange and 
 unaccountable ; but they content themselves inth 
 referring it to the distracted mind of the Emperor. 
 His "pridCj, vexation, and resentment,^^ have com- 
 promised, say they, the position of Russia ; in other 
 words, Nicholas is mad. He is so, just as Philip was 
 mad to the Athenians ; insanity is not on that side : 
 Nicholas is not mad, but Russia is in danger. 
 
 The West is to her as a preserve, where she goes 
 forth to hunt when in want of yenison, or sport ; she 
 consults her pleasure only, and can subsist without 
 its spoil. In the East it is her necessities that she 
 Las to consult ; there she cannot slumber for an hour, 
 or rest for a single day ; there it is ditches she has to 
 dig, and ramparts to throw up ; it is war, not sport ; 
 the contest is for very life. 
 
 The same paper that announced the formation of a 
 
lilB ' DAEDA-NEliiife. xxxix- 
 
 Ttfrkish camp oii 'tliei3orclers'''of 'Afia Minor for thei 
 purpose of joining tlie Circassians in case of war-,'1 
 annouiiced also the regebti^ hj P^Klia'6f' pJ-oposals ^ 
 for tHe cession of Astrabad, a^d the approaching^^ 
 departure of the fleet ofi B^yprfc" for the. BosphoriiSi''' 
 A universal ' repulsion of the ' East ' is now made- ' 
 matitfcst: The dd^'^lopmeht of a^ great inilitaijf^"* 
 pbv/er in Turkey^ the loss of the lever of religion^j-'"^ 
 the animosity' of the populations westward of tHfe-- 
 Blade Sea^ including Hungary, the continued siie?--^' 
 cesses of the Circassians,,'!* and the rise and growth 
 of a spirit of disaffection in her own soutliem Pro- 
 vinces, are facts which no longer require proof or 
 illustration. Unless she succeeds in altering the cir- 
 cumstances, Russia will sOon find herself no longer 
 menacing, but menaced^ 
 
 There are other matters remaining behind still 
 veiled from observation. Turkey has been engaged 
 in recasting her Financial system; she has last 
 year effected a change in respect to the chief in- 
 ternal tax, which, by displacing the. farmers of re-, 
 venue, has been no less a relief to the People than a 
 profit to the TreasurJ^ The next step in contem- 
 plation was one which would have burst the 
 fetters in which its agricultural resources are at., 
 
 * The Aacliener Zeitung^ of the 21th June, gives as news from 
 Trebizond, "that Sbanayl has beaten a Eussian ai'iny, and taken 
 twenty-three pieces of cannon, and an enormous amount of muni- 
 tions of war. Five battalions of Poles and irregular troops went 
 over to the Circassians, and Shamyl has issued a proclamation, 
 offering protection to all deserters." 
 
xl THE PRUTH AND 
 
 present bound. This Russia at every hazard had to 
 prevent.* 
 
 It will thus be seen that however injurious it may 
 be to allow Europe to learn that Turkey is possessed 
 of military power^ or to provoke and excite the 
 national spirit of the Ottomans, still it was a higher 
 object to divert their minds from peaceful internal 
 ameliorations, and by expenditure on armaments to 
 deprive the Treasury of the means of making those 
 sacrifices, whether in fact, or in supposition, which 
 necessarily attend every financial alteration. 
 
 The Turkish military organisation is entirely local, 
 and in that consists not only its excellence, but its 
 economy. The Rediff follow their ordinary occupa- 
 tions and assemble for exercise only during one 
 month in the year. By forcing Turkey to arm, and 
 to assemble her troops on the frontiers, besides the 
 -sacrifice in money, there will be also the exhaustion 
 •of spirit and goodwill. The army, especially the 
 EedifF, however ardent at present, will be disgusted 
 by being uselessly drawn from their native provinces, 
 and the indignation of the Mussulmans will tui'n 
 from Russia on their own Government.f 
 
 * The Times correspondent from Berlin, under date of June 
 29tb, indicate3 for tlie first time an indistinct perception of this 
 object. 
 
 " The war which threatens now to break out may be also repre- 
 sented as a struggle between restriction and freedom in commerce. 
 The commercial resources of Turkey and the Danubian PrincipaUties 
 are the prize which Kussia longs to carry off." 
 
 t This admission was recently made by the Times : — " In fact, tlie 
 indefinite prolongation of the present state of suspense may prove 
 more injurious to the Porte than war itself. These preparations have 
 
THE DARDANELLES. xl 
 
 It is the exportation of the Provinces of the Danube 
 Tvhicli principally competes with those of Russia in 
 the markets of Enghind-i^ and Europe, for tliey are sub- 
 ject neither to the fiscal system of Russia, nor to 
 the prohibitory duties established throughout Turkey 
 by the English Treaty of Commerce. Her army -will 
 therefore be fed by provisions that otherwise would 
 have reached the Thames, to the exclusion there of 
 grain from St. Petersbui'g and Odessa. The very 
 connection which has sprung up between England and 
 the Danubian Provinces will assist her in suppressing 
 them. Her movement taking place at the shipping 
 season, the City will be thrown into alarms respecting 
 supplies, which a war with Russia would endanger ; 
 and so the English Government, if ever called to ac- 
 count for its present acts, will be able triumphantly 
 to refer to the necessities of England as limiting their 
 power of action. 
 
 The occupation of the Principalities is a matter 
 
 given a shock to the Ottoman Empire which it will long feel, if, in- 
 deed, it ever recovers from the effects of them. While our attention 
 is directed to the negotiations of the day, it must not be forgotten 
 that there is at the bottom of these discussions the gi'eatcst question 
 which the statesmen of this age have yet to solve." — June 27. 
 
 • " Since we have opened our ports for the free importation of 
 foreign grain, our trade with E,ussia has gradually dechned, but from 
 the same period that of Turkey has gradually increased j and while 
 the former has diminished nearly fifty per cent., the latter has risen 
 to the same extent since 18i5. In 1850 the exports of Indian com 
 from the port of Galatz, amounted to upwards of 1,100,000 quarters. 
 Our exports of merchandize to G-alatz, in 1850, amounted to about 
 £435,000, and to Ibrail to about £103,000. A third of our import- 
 ations of foreign grain (value £12,000,000), is in the hands of the 
 Greek merchants of the Mediterranean." — Bankers' Circular^ July 
 2nd, 1853. c 
 
xlii ^ THE PEUTH AND 
 
 wholly distinct from the original quarrel with Turkey, 
 but it Avas required as a preliminary. Russia has 
 already twice entered the Principalities in time of 
 peace, but in both cases there was a pretext ; in the 
 first, the war raged in Europe, and the ambition of 
 Napoleon sufficed ; in the second, there was a revo- 
 lution. I have for the last two autumns been look- 
 ing hourly for the news of a revolution in Yassy or 
 at Bucharest ; however, had she obtained such an 
 occasion, it would have been necessary to have re- 
 commenced, on the conditions settled by the Treaty 
 of Balta Liman. 
 
 If the Russians had pushed the matter in reference 
 to the Holy Sepulchre to a rupture, then the crossing 
 of the Pruth would have been, considered by the 
 Turks as an act of hostility, and dealt with as such. 
 This then was never contemplated. If the occupation 
 of the Principalities had been arranged between the 
 ivio Courts as the consequence of an insurrection, 
 then a Turkish force would have entered together 
 with the Russian, and her object would have been 
 frustrated. The fire having been drawn upon Beth- 
 lehem, she quietly marches into Bucharest, and tells 
 off the garrisons for the fortresses of the left bank of 
 the Danube. 
 
 One course only was open to the Porte, and it was 
 to send forward her troops into the Provinces so soon 
 as the Russians crossed the Pruth. If Russians step 
 was not war, so, then this was not war ; and, if war, it 
 was at a distance from Turkey, on a field where 
 Russia could not make it. By this every point would 
 
THE DARDANELLES. ^^iii 
 
 have been covered ; there was no difficulty in its exe- 
 cution ; the troops were there, • and under the very- 
 same general who had taken the same step in 1848, 
 and had then been received' as a deliverer by the 
 Wallaohians. With astonishment and indignation 
 it has to be asked, ^' Vf hat meanness, what treacheiy, 
 has been at work at Constantinople?'^ There has 
 been, indeed, neither meanness nor treachery; the 
 security of the East and the peace of Europe have 
 been compromised only by generous confidence on 
 the one hand and friendly caution on the other. 
 
 General Vaientini describes the last war as a com- 
 bat between a blind man and a seeing one ; and that 
 war occurred when Turkey was in a state of total 
 political and militai*y disorganisation. Pozzo di Borgo 
 has assigned as the» ground of that war the necessity 
 of breaking the new military organisation . of the 
 Turks, vvhich prepared for Russia in his opinion dan- 
 (jers for the future. These dangers are now realised, 
 and still the game is between a blind man and a 
 seeing one. Russia, by her present move, has incurred 
 hazard that is terrible to contemplate. Never could 
 she have risked it without a man of whom she was 
 certain as representative of England at Constanti- 
 nople.'^' It has been avowed in Parliament that there 
 were no instructions sent out, that everything was 
 remitted to the judgment, knowledge, and prudence 
 of the Ambassador : and there could be no doubt that 
 
 * At the beginning of the year, when there was some doubt as to 
 Lord Strafford de Redcliffe being sent back againj the Russian 
 representative took care to allow his satisfaction to be detected. 
 
xUv THE PPtUTH AND 
 
 on the critical point for wliich all the rest was pre- 
 paratary, and upon which everything was to hinge. 
 Lord de Eedcliffe would suggest, and having suggested, 
 imperiously require — caution;'^ there is scarcely 
 less doubt that Colonel Rose, if left in charge of the 
 Mission, would (being uninstructedj have said, " Of 
 course, you must send your troops from the Danube 
 if they send theirs from the Pruth." In fact, England 
 having tremendous power and no policy, the gravest 
 events must hinge upon the temperaments of the in- 
 dividuals cast by accidents into determinating posts ; 
 it is upon these accidents that Russia makes her 
 game. In this case the individual diplomatist to 
 whom I refer stands pre-eminent in our service, and 
 his zeal and interest in favour of Turkey are as un- 
 questionable as has been his courageous assertion in 
 Parliament of British rights against Russian en- 
 croachments. The matter is not therefore to be 
 narrovred to the limits of individual merit or demerit. 
 But the return of Lord Stratford de RedclifFe to 
 his post was not the only measure required to make 
 the game a safe one : it was equally requisite to pre- 
 vent M. Von Prokesch from being there as repre- 
 sentative of Austria, to which post he had actually 
 been designated when Russia interposed, and in so 
 open a manner that her interference w^as of public 
 notoriety at Berlin and Vienna. Again, it was re- 
 quisite to keep Riza Pasha out of office, and here she 
 was served both by accident and by England ; she 
 
 * The advice of Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe, in case of a war, to 
 withdraw behind the Danube, has reached even the papers. 
 
THE DARDANELLES. 
 
 xlv 
 
 was equally fortunate in London, wlicre slic had now 
 Lord Palmerston and Lord Aberdeen in the same 
 cabinet, and neither of them ostensibly Foreign 
 Minister. Thus were the cards shuffled and packed 
 for 1853, and nothing left to the chapter of acci- 
 dents. 
 
 Let it now be remembered that it is but two years 
 since she evacuated these very provinces. Within 
 this short space of time have circumstances altered, 
 or is her mind changed ? Not in the least : but she 
 found that they were of no use to her while there 
 was a joint occupation of a Turkish force. True 
 there were but 10,000 Turks to 50,000 Russians, yet 
 that force sufficed to paralyse her occupation and to 
 prevent her from converting them into a basis of 
 operations. There was also another slight inconve- 
 nience, the contact with the Turkish troops suggested 
 — DESERTION. The Muscovitcs are not apt scholars 
 in Liberalism, and do not comprehend Revolution, but 
 they are not insensible to the difference of food, pay, 
 and treatment, which they then for the first time 
 witnessed in an army composed of populations, many 
 of whom spoke the same language as themselves : 
 they revolved in their stupid minds whether it might 
 not be more desirable to serve the Sultan than the 
 Czar. The regiments so debauched when withdrawn 
 across tlie Pruth were judiciously placed out of harm^s 
 way. For these and other reasons it was judged 
 advisable to put an end to the conjoint occupation, 
 in order that a Russian force might return alone. I 
 refer the reader to the Chapter in this volume on the 
 
xlvl ' , THE PBUTH AND 
 
 Evacuation of tlie Provinces^ printed before the Prutli 
 was crossed. 
 
 It may now strike with astonishment,, that in 1851 
 there should have been a Turkish force in occupation. 
 " What/^ I may be asked, ^^ becomes of your theory ? 
 Either your assumption of English influence was 
 groundless, or that influence was not exercised in the 
 manner you describe/'' That matter is easily ex- 
 plained. When Omer Pasha crossed the Danube 
 in 1848, the English Ambassador loas not consulted , 
 for the best of all reasons, that the Porte was not 
 aware of the fact until it had occurred ; and it was 
 kept in ignorance by its own functionaries for fear it 
 should consult the English Ambassador. 
 
 1 now assert in the most emphatic manner, that 
 by deficiency of military power Russia cannot attack 
 Turkey. I assert, that as compared with the cir- 
 cumstances of the late war, the forcQ of Turkey has 
 multiplied many fold, and that that of Eussia has 
 absolutely diminished. I do not refer to any ex- 
 traneous support given to Turkey; I speak of an 
 even-handed contest, of which the Principalities are 
 to be, and must be, the theatre. If you commence 
 by surrendering them, Turkey is, of course, placed in 
 the same condition that India would be, by allowing 
 Hussia to occupy the Punjab. 
 
 In 1828 Turkey made no defence of the Princi- 
 palities ; being a champaign country, a regular army 
 would have been required for that purpose, and 
 Turkey had none; yet Prussia, in the course of that 
 campaign was beaten back. She had 200,000 men ; 
 
THE DAEDANELLES. xlvii 
 
 in fact, her whole resources were called up after two 
 years of preparation. In 1810, with half that force, 
 she captured all the fortresses on the right bank of 
 the Danube. Turkey has an atmy now to defend the 
 Pruth, and, in the words of General Bern, better 
 soldiers than Russia, and more of them, I insert 
 textually a letter of his : — 
 
 " To Mehemet All Pasha, Minister of War, 
 
 "MoNSEiGNEUR — Not seeing the order arrive to com- 
 mand my presence at Constantinople, 1 conceive it to be my 
 duty to address to your Highness some considerations which 
 appear to me to be urgent. 
 
 •' I commence by declaring that the Turkish troops which 
 I have seen — cavalry, infimtry, and field artillery — are ex- 
 cellent. 
 
 " In bearing, instruction, and military spirit, there cannot 
 be better. The horses surpass those of any European cavalry. 
 That which is inappreciable i^ the desire felt by all the 
 officers and all the soldiers to fight against Russia. 
 
 " With such troops I would wiUingly engage to attack a 
 Hussian force double their number, and I should certainly 
 be victorious. 
 
 "And as the Ottoman Empire can march against the 
 Ptussians more troops than that power can oppose to them, 
 it is evident that the Sultan may have the satisfaction to 
 see restored to his sceptre all the provinces treacherously 
 withdrawn from his ancestors by the Czars of Moscow. 
 ** I have the honour to remain, &c. 
 
 ^MURAD." 
 
 This opinion may be considered tinctured by the 
 feelings of the man, but the fact is unquestionable 
 
xlviii THE PEUTH AND 
 
 that Turkey can now muster on the theatre of war 
 twice the number that Russia can bring against her; 
 and if these are not all regulars^ they are the same 
 irregulars who, in 1828, at Kurtepe, under every dis- 
 advantage of position, beat twice their number of 
 Eussian regulars. As to their quality, the opinion of 
 General Aupick, expressed to the Sultan, in 1849, 
 tallies with that of General Bern, '' Your majesty's 
 troops,'^ he said^ ^^ are able to give a good account of 
 any enemies that Avill be opposed to them." 
 
 Even supposing that this army were forced to 
 retreat, it would devastate the Provinces before it, 
 and in its retreat entrench itself on the Danube. To 
 place herself in a similar position to that at which 
 she commenced the campaign of 1828, Eussia would 
 require at least 400,000 men ; this force could not bo 
 supported, and besides she has not got it. 
 
 If the war be m^ade from the Danube, the idea is 
 involved of the downfall of Turkey ; all enthusiasm 
 is destroyed. Further is involved that of the co- 
 operation, or consent of England and France, with 
 the consequent depression upon the minds of the 
 populations which extend from the Baltic all round to 
 the Steppes of the Kirghis. If the war be made from 
 the Pruth and a powerful Turkish army brought 
 within hail, so to say of the Cossack country, the 
 Tartars of the Crimea, the Poles and the Hungarians, 
 it then is a (question of the fall of Eussian not Turkish 
 power. Then most assuredly would be seen 100,000 
 Circassians on the Eastern plains of Eussia, and every 
 population would strike for independence. The Sultan 
 
THE DAEDANELLES. iilix 
 
 is now the protector of tlie old ^luscovite Cliurcli; 
 their bishops and priests now repair to Constantinople 
 for consecration ; he is the religious head of the Mus- 
 sulman subjects of Russia, and the recent excitation of 
 fanaticism will be a new spur to Catholic Poland and to 
 the Starovirtze, who have already projected flight 
 into Turkey. If then Russia were so insane as to 
 make a war which had to commence when she 
 invaded her neighbour's territory, she must leave in 
 observation a body no less powerful than that which 
 she would employ in the war. ' 
 
 There remains the not immaterial question of sup- 
 plies and transport. The Principalities being the 
 theatre of war would be used for the support of the 
 Turkish and not the Russian army ; the latter would 
 advance only where the country was exhausted aud 
 from whence the population had retired. The Turks 
 in retreating would fall back on their resources ; the 
 Russians in advancing would be removed from theirs; 
 as they advanced they would not secure the country 
 behind them, as their whole line would be exposed to 
 incursions from the Dobroja (the slip of land inclosed 
 between the Danube and Black Sea) ; they would have 
 to bring everything, even forage and fuel by means of 
 oxen waggons, across the Steppes of the Ukraine,* 
 
 * "If Austria remained strictly neutral, and refused to supply 
 proyisioQS by means of Transylvania, the Russian troops would be 
 literally starved, and it would be pliysically impossible to convey 
 the requisite suppKes for an army of 200,000 men by land through 
 Bessarabia, for a smaller army woidd be useless to attempt any 
 thing against Constantinople." — Military opinion quoted by Yienua 
 Correspondent of the Times, Aug. 1. 
 
1 THE PEUTH AND 
 
 where there are no roads_, scarcely any inhabitants, no 
 trees, no water, save along the rivers, and which with 
 a short interval of spring passes from a Siberian 
 winter to the summer of an African desert. Across 
 the same country her reinforcements would have to 
 pass, and the sacrifice of life on these occasions has 
 always exceeded the loss of men in a campaign. 
 
 On the other hand, the Turks would be close to 
 their supplies ; steam has opened up for them a new 
 resource : a water communication bisects the Empire ; 
 from their capital they could receive supplies in the 
 same number of hours that the Russians could from 
 theirs in weeks, and that without loss or expenditure. 
 The levies from the furthest maritime province might 
 be brought up in a week, or at furthest a fortnight. 
 
 Without go'ing further into the matter, I think 
 that what I have said will remove every possible 
 doubt that on the occupation of the Principalities 
 without contest, depends v/hether or not Russia 
 will make v/ar, that is to say, that if not so allowed 
 to occupy them, she could not invade them, and that 
 being so allowed, she then can and will invade Turkey. 
 I do not intend to say that by giving her all this, 
 you ensure her triumph, but I do say that her case 
 is desperate, and that she is jforced to play a desperate 
 game. A timely revolution at Constantinople, a 
 momentary indignation of the Queen of England, or 
 of the Emperor of the French, may plunge he!*, even 
 before she enters on the further contest, into the 
 most frightful perils, but once established on the 
 Danube she can wait her time : thence she menaces 
 
THE DAEDAN-ELLES. li 
 
 Austria just as mucli as Turkey. She lias tliere- 
 fore other gieces on the board besides those we 
 have seen moved. An attempt on Constantinople 
 is not to be hazarded until England and France are 
 "engaged in a hot war," or till Europe is engaged 
 with a Uevolution. Beware then of the spring of 1854 ! 
 
 I have now to point out the most alarming sign i 
 and symptom of our degradation. It is not long 
 since the allegation that a minister or a journal was 
 under the influence of Eussia was received with in- 
 dignation if not with contempt ; now that charge is 
 in every one's mouth; we have avowedly a Russian 
 faction- in England, — not indeed a faction, but a 
 management, management of tlie Cabinet, manage- 
 ment of the Press. We learn the fact from denun- 
 ciations : it is considered monstrous, but the de- 
 nouncers represent no party; no one will say that • 
 there is an Anti-Ptussian faction. This especially 
 is remarkable, that papers supposed to be severally 
 under the influence of tlije two statesmen, now col- 
 leagues in the same Cabinet, wlio have been in turn 
 Foreign Secretaiy for more than a quarter of a 
 century, are those which most vehemently de- 
 nounce each other as "Russian;" I point out the 
 fact, not for the benefit of Englishmen, they un- 
 fortunately know it too well, but as a warning to 
 the Turkish Government against that danger of 
 English counsel which brings in its suite every other 
 danger — Russian violence, Mussulman insurrection, 
 and Christian revolt ; I therefore explicitly state that 
 in the best informed circles, the Times is supposed 
 
lii THE PRUTH AND 
 
 to represent the views of Lord Aberdeen^ and tlie 
 Morning Post tliose of Lord Palmers^on : the Times 
 is already well enough known at Constantinople ; the 
 Morning Post has long been known here as the reputed 
 organ of Eussia; the latter speaking of the former^ 
 says : " A contemporary of ours — the tool of Russia — 
 has plucked up courage enough to advise his country- 
 men to be cowards. Such audacious baseness is as 
 curious as his complicated errors and his perplexed 
 understanding/^ * 
 
 One result of the passage of the Pruth^ largely com- 
 mented on in the public press,, is the dangerous position 
 in which the Turkish Government is placed in reference 
 to its own subjects. Is this effect confined to Con- 
 stantinople ? Will it not react on the Governments 
 of the Continent ? Must it not affect the position of 
 Louis Napoleon ? The Queen of England, as a sove- 
 reign, may not suffer ; but will any one say that the 
 character of public men in England has not been 
 degraded? I do not speak of the Members of the 
 present Government alone : where is the Oppo- 
 sition ? Is it safe in a Constitutional State that the 
 word ^^ Russian " should be bandied about and stick 
 wherever it strikes — that there should be no name in 
 public life not stamped with incapacity or tainted 
 
 * The Morning Herald writes : " It is merely as the head of the 
 house, in which the present Premier occupies a subordinate position, 
 of ' Times, Nicholas, Aberdeen, and Co.,' that we ever refer to what 
 it puts forward." 
 
 The Fress, the organ of a powerful party, charges Lord Clarendon 
 -yith connivance with M. Brunow. 
 
 The philosophical Spectator expresses similar opinions. 
 
 The Morninrj Advertiser^ having the next largest cu'ctdation to 
 the Times, repeats the same charges. 
 
THE DAllDANELLES. Uii 
 
 with suspicion ?* It is only as yet tlie seed that is put 
 in the ground; wait for the germination under the 
 Russian dews of events and the March showers of 
 invasion and revolution. The seed that is sown 
 is the knowledge that the Government has co- 
 operated in preventing Turkey from resisting an 
 invasion : the harvest which English Statesmen will 
 have to reap will be certainly contempt — probably 
 exasperation — possibly impeachment. Yes, States- 
 men of England, you are proceeding to reverse the 
 comfortable maxim upon which you have slum- 
 bered so tranquilly and so long; and England will 
 have to thank you at last for recalling to her 
 awakened memory that "the days of impeachment 
 have not gone by/' for the remedial process of 
 the law returns from the instant that she remem- 
 bers it. In the meantime let the Cabinet filch mea- 
 sures, and the Press masticate news,t for we must 
 be worse before we can be better. Since reason has 
 not availed to save us, we must look to vengeance. 
 
 * An unusual number of Eussians have been allowed this year to 
 travel, and they are also unusvially communicative ; amongst other 
 things they say, " there -will never be any serious hostility against 
 Eussia, for Russian gold makes its way into ParHaments and into 
 Cabinets, and smooths matters down to the state the Emperor woaM 
 have them," — Paris Correspondent of the Times. 
 
 t The Times, of the 8th of July, inserts two leaders, the one prepar- 
 ing the nation to support an energetic decision on the part of the 
 Government, the other exposing the absurdity of taking any decision 
 at all. The process of contradiction is carried still further. One oi 
 these articles in the same paragi-aph ridicules " England and Franco 
 putting themselves into a hostile attitude by the side of the hapless 
 and helpless IMussulman," and asserts that " Eussia would consult 
 her interests as little as her honour by forcing onwards in the face 
 of a people as mihtary and as fanatic as herself," and against wliom 
 kihe "can do but little, except in cooperation" with her allies. 
 
liv THE PEUTH AND 
 
 Cliatliain in one breath threatened the vengeance of 
 the iaw^ and the fury of the rabble,,* and that was 
 only for an nnjust war which England herself had 
 made : here^ for no passion, for no private end, with 
 nothing to mislead the judgment, or disguise the facts, 
 the fabric of the world is to be shaken because an 
 English Minister does not dare to face a Kussian 
 Ambassador. 
 
 I will not conclude without a practical suggestion : 
 In home matters the rule is — Measures, not Men ; 
 in foreign matters it is men, not measures. Here 
 you deal not with ideas, but with antagonists : you 
 have to measure yourself, not against abstract ideas, 
 but against talents : you have to cope, not with in- 
 herent difficulties of matter, but with the purposes 
 of men : it is a champion you require, not a propo- 
 sition; skill of fence, not volubility of tongue : your 
 champion must be at least equal to his adversary in 
 the use of his weapons, in the knowledge of his 
 manoeuvres, and must master him by the eye before 
 he can touch him with the point. Such fencers 
 cannot be fabricated by a sign manual ; and England 
 has taken no heed to form such. Nor would the 
 matter be worth referring to, had it not so happened 
 that England by accident does possess such a man. 
 She has but to take him, and commission him to pre- 
 serve the commonwealth from detriment, Every 
 difficulty would then disappear in five minutes. The 
 person I refer to is in repute, in honour, and in 
 office, but his office is that of Poo7^ Law Commissioner, 
 
 * "If you are successful in this war, impeachment hangs oyer 
 you ; if misuccessful, you will he torn to pieces in the streets." 
 
THE DAllDANELLES. • Iv 
 
 He lias been in tlie diplomatic service, forcing his ^''^ 
 way to the highest grades from the humble station of 
 assistant-surgeon. He then chose to renounce that 
 career when presenting to him every worldly at- 
 traction ; not that 'he sought repose, or was unfit 
 for toil. 
 
 But this you will not do. It was once said by 
 Colletti, — "It would be economical for England to 
 expend three millions in forming a man to under- 
 stand Russia ; but if she had such a man, she would 
 only expend money to destroy him.^' And the reason 
 is, that your public men know, or they do not know, 
 that they are unfit to deal with her. This is the 
 spell under which you are bound ; its existence is no 
 reason why I should not seek to expose it. But I 
 have another proposal to make, somewhat less un- 
 endurable than the former — send aioay the Russian 
 Ambassador, That would be worth more, ev,en, than 
 a squadron in the Black Sea. Russia as yet, and 
 especially at present, cannot dispense for an hour 
 with your support. 
 
Ivu 
 
 OBJECTS OF THE WORK. 
 
 This volume was in the press in May, but was 
 delayed by a visit to Denmark. I liad undertaken, 
 it in anticipation of a crisis in Turkey, — by an oc- 
 cupation of the Principalities in the autumn. By 
 this delay the event has occurred before thepublication. 
 I had conceived that by bringing together the pro- 
 ceedings of Russia on various fields, and connecting 
 them in point of time, a chance was afforded for 
 dissipating the illusions by which, on each field and 
 at each moment, she is enabled to carry her point. 
 !May my fellow-countrymen perceive that in all she 
 is undertaking against others, she is only preparing 
 the means which will be employed against them. I 
 now subjoin the Preface as originally written. 
 
 When the ' Progress of Russia in the East,^ by Sir 
 J. McNeill, was planned, I undertook to prepare an 
 account of her progess in the North and A\'cst, 
 These materials were, however, used in fragments for 
 immediate publication ; I now complete the task, and 
 chiefly out of events which have occurred since that 
 time. Our object in 1836 was to prevent her future 
 
Iviii OBJECTS OF THE WOEK. 
 
 progress by exhibiting the past; in 1853^ I have to 
 
 sum up the march of acquisitions then undreamt of. 
 
 The danger, which in 1836 we had to warn against, 
 was the fall of Turkey : the resuscitation of the 
 energies and power of that Empir,e have, so to say, 
 caused, on that field, history to pause. The danger 
 now is, war in Europe — a danger arising, not from 
 the dispositions of France, but from the talents of 
 Russia,* and into which we shall be plunged, not by 
 any direct aggressions, not by any reciprocal violations 
 of rights, for, fortunately, in both countries such 
 questions must be submitted to legal adjudication, 
 but by becoming mutually involved in false courses 
 in third countries. 
 
 In this review, I have, however,, excluded all direct 
 mention of France, because its internal state results 
 from the reaction of diplomatic proceedings in Spain, 
 Turkey, Denmark, Hungary, &c. I have devoted to 
 Spain considerable space, as there was elaborated the 
 revolutionary ferment. The invasion of Spain, in 
 1823, brought the curtailment of the Electoral Fran- 
 chise and of the duration of Parliaments in France, 
 and provoked those endless agitations, ultimately 
 resulting in the events of 1848. 
 
 The Revolutions of that year, with the wars of 
 
 * A great desideratum is a work on the Diplomacy of England, 
 since 1792, showing how Russia has made for us our wars with 
 France. The materials and the proof are to be found in the IMemoirs 
 of Lord Malmesbury. Pretended histoiies .of England, France, &c., 
 are mere perversions : for the last century, the only history is that 
 of Eussia. 
 
OBJECTS OF THE WOllK. Jix 
 
 that whichi succeeded it_, are neither isolated inci- 
 dents, nor have they sprung from local and dis- 
 tinct causes. At Copenhagen, Presburg, Paris, 
 Vienna, Berlin, Bucharest, and Palermo, the germs 
 had been severally cultured, the instruments pre- 
 pared, and the parts distributed. The warlike 
 operations that ensued were equally directed by the 
 same hand. One ®f the victims has said, " the 
 events of 1848-9 show, that in every Cabinet Russia 
 has had a spy, and it is not too much to infer — an 
 agent;''* she had no less in every conspiracy. If 
 by conspiracies she upset Governments, so by 
 Governments did she prostrate conspiracies.f The 
 result is, that at this moment every Government 
 looks up to her as its protector, and every conspi- 
 rator as his patron. 
 
 England was meanwhile engaged in managing 
 mankind : her objects were the Constitution of Sicily, 
 the improvement of the condition of central Italy, 
 the independence of Lombardy, and the settle- 
 ment of Hungary. All were in her hands; but 
 somehow everything has slipped through her fingers, 
 and in a word, the word of the Times, " The conti- 
 nent of Europe is governed to-day by Colonels in 
 Russian uniforms/' 
 
 The entrance into Hungary of a Russian army was 
 the great event of that period. A conquest was there 
 
 * Kossuth. 
 
 t Seven miliious of adult Frenchmen rushed, in terror, to the 
 polling booths to vote against the Red Kepublic. 
 
Ix OBJECTS OF THE WORK. 
 
 effected of Austria by the aid of her own troops, and 
 the subjugation of the most warlike kingdom of 
 Europe^ obtained by the loss in battle of less than a 
 thousand Russians. The occasion was prepared by 
 England, who revolutionised Italy, drawing the 
 resources of Austria to the South ; who then com- 
 promised the neutrality of Turkey, without which 
 the war could not have been brought to a successful 
 issue. I have, therefore, selected this field (Hun- 
 gary) as illustration of the catastrophe of 18i^8, 
 adding to it a sketch of the military and diplomatic 
 events, and an exposure of the unparalleled trickery 
 practised in reference to the extradition of the 
 Refugees, and the falsehoods put forth in regard to 
 the pretended support then given to Turkey. 
 
 A separate chapter has been opened in the North, 
 by the London Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852, bring- 
 ing in the Emperor as Inheritor of Denmark. That 
 matter being still in suspense, this statement may 
 yet have a political application. At this moment 
 the event hinges upon the belief of certain individuals 
 that in spite of what they have done by that Treaty, 
 the House of Romanoff will not succeed to the 
 Danish Crown. The chief object of this publication 
 is to dispel that illusion. 
 
 These subjects I have subdivided into the West 
 and the North. To the South of Russia lie the 
 Ottoman Empire, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the 
 Caucasus : I have here confined myself to the Com- 
 mercial branch, exhibiting the steps which she has sue- 
 
OBJECTS OF THE WORK. hi 
 
 cessively made to stop up the water- ways and suppress 
 the production of the adjoining countries. 
 
 After all, the facts are of importance, only as en- 
 abling us to form a judgment of ourselves ; and herein 
 lie the difficulty and the necessity of the task. " To 
 praise tlie Athenians to the Athenians^' is easy, but 
 superfluous. I avow that my attempt is no less than 
 to dispraise Englishmen to Englishmen. If argument 
 could have availed, the work to which I am desirous 
 of making the present one an humble and unequal 
 appendage, England's dependency must long ago have 
 been broken, and the course of recent unhappy history 
 arrested. But clearly knowledge avails nothing, 
 and nothing can be done save when foUacy is at- 
 tacked. Russia was the subject of the work of Sir 
 J. M'Neill ; the Character of the Age is that of the 
 present. I ha^'e endeavoured to trace home to the 
 thoughts of each of us the causes of Russia's success. 
 I can scarcely believe that any man of ordinary 
 capacity will lay down this volume without asking 
 himself the use of Constitutional Checks, Parlia- 
 mentary Inquiries, and a Free Press, and exclaiming 
 with Descartes, when he contrasted the power and . 
 pomp of the French Monarchy with the misery of 
 its People, — " La Methode doit etre mauvaise/' 
 
 My acquaintance with the countries and men here 
 treated of, has not been derived from books. All of 
 the first I have visited ; with most of the second I 
 have had intercourse, and with reference to the 
 subjects. As to the events, I have watched them from 
 
Ixi; .OBJECTS OF THE WORK. 
 
 near ; in respect to some of tliem, from, myself has 
 originated the plan, or the opposition. With such 
 transactions in the ordinary course of life, men exer- 
 cising representative or ministerial functions can alone 
 become acquainted; I have had the opportunity of 
 taking part in them, on no other ground, whatever, 
 save objections to measures or opinions. The key 
 that has opened to me the door, has been a phrase, 
 which almost invariably closes it — '^ You are wrong V' 
 
 Whoever has worked out for himself his ov/n results 
 upon any field, must be engaged in a war with pre- 
 judice, and even if he is dealing only with a maxim 
 of finance, or a combination of chemistry, must seek 
 to show that truth is on his side. The field I 
 have selected is the plateau that links the highest 
 summits — the practical connexion of the welfare of 
 kingdoms and empires with the observance of the 
 moral law. This alone is permanent, fluctuating 
 with no passion, touched by no majorities. Men 
 may change and circumstances revolve, but the 
 position of a nation with reference to other nations is 
 irrevocably fixed by its acts, which • again return 
 upon itself^ determining its own character. What 
 motives have I not, then, for offering proof that I am 
 right ? The evidence is that my anticipations have* 
 been justified by results, and that even opinion itself 
 has come round on many points on which it was most 
 opposed to my conclusions*. 
 
 I have to deal with history — not history that has 
 died, but history in action. In so presenting it, I 
 
OBJECTS OF THE WOEK. hiii 
 
 fcel as the Chorus of the Greek stage, annoancin^ 
 the actors and foretelling the event; like it, too, 
 lamenting in vain. The audience 1 may assemble, 
 resembles also those who witnessed the performance 
 of the "Seven Chiefs'' or the " (Edipus Tyi'annrs :'' 
 for they come not to arrest a crime, but to witness 
 a catastrophe ; not to act the part of citizens, but 
 of spectators. The mimes and gladiators of old 
 are replaced by 'Archons and Consuls; the nations 
 themselves take the place of Antigone or Iphigenia, 
 and are at once enchanted with the spectacle and 
 victims of the plot. He who is not under the illusion, 
 is as one who in a dream beholds a murder but cannot 
 find breath to utter a cry ; for what does a cry avail 
 when there remains no indignation for wrong ? The 
 great realities of a people's life have become illusion, 
 the drama is admired for its march, and pleases how- 
 ever it may end. 
 
 Where there is mismanagement it is not Institu- 
 tions that are at fault, but Institutions that are falsi- 
 fied. The organisation of a People is in its mind ; 
 and errors are always retrievable where the root is not 
 in misjudgment. That' ignorance of passing events 
 for which an excuse is sought in the secrecy in which 
 they are involved, or in. the form of Government, is 
 but the result of the loss of the sense of right 
 and wrong ; when that is possessed by a nation, its 
 Government is under the necessity of giving a reason 
 for whatever it does. 
 
 The knowledge which is requisite for managing 
 
Ixiv OBJECTS OF THE WOEK. 
 
 our business, is so also for protecting our cha- 
 racter; spendtlirifts are more generally ruined by 
 tlie dread of looking into neglected accounts than 
 by tlie temptations wbicb lead them into excess. 
 England within the last generation — that is to say, 
 since the Treaty of July 6, 1827, for the pacification 
 of the East, has become involved in a multitude of 
 affairs for which her own history, and indeed the 
 history of no country and of no age, furnishes no 
 parallel. In consequence of the influence of her name, 
 every matter she has touched has become, so to say, 
 a capital, or revenue, liable to dissipation ; she has 
 gone on recklessly squandering, and dreading to ex- 
 amine the accounts. Whenbrought up by a humiliation 
 she is ready to exclaim, " Oh, we must have no war \'^ 
 Such a frame of mind is not one to overcome diffi- 
 culties. Even this state might have its countervail- 
 ing advantages did it proceed from mere cowardice, 
 for then it would be accompanied with care and 
 cunning ; but if reason" is prostrated, passion is not 
 so ; we are as ready to buckle on om^ armour on the 
 slightest difference with a State really powerful, as 
 we are to quail before a riddle propounded to us by 
 one physically weak. 
 
 One preservative effect supposed to be realised 
 by our popular Constitution, is the presence of pre- 
 eminent men in pre-eminent stations. Such men 
 are not only held to be capable of fathoming a trans- 
 action, however complicated, and grasping the leading 
 features of a case, however foreign in its nature or 
 
OBJECTS OF THE WOEK. 1x7 
 
 remote in its field, but also of rising above the 
 errors of their times — a condition requisite even for 
 permanent fame in the management of Domestic con- 
 cerns. The results, however, do not bear out tlie in- 
 ference. Since the death of one vi^hose name rises 
 familiar to the mind and lip when it is a question of 
 England's power and fame, we have seen no pre- 
 eminent man, in the station of Foreign Minister. 
 Such men have filled the posts of Premier and of 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. The character of our 
 government is departmental ; the other ministers pe- 
 riodicajly sit in council upon foreign matters, but in 
 reality exercise no independent judgment, far less con- 
 trol the mode of execution. The hours of office are 
 laden with too many cares to permit of laborious in- 
 vestigations in matters not affecting majorities, and 
 the character of mind superinduced by free Insti- 
 tutions, disqualifies politicians for seeing a world 
 beyond the sphere of a debate, or the bourne of a 
 division. Thus the only portion of England's affairs, 
 with the exception of the Colonies, which is not so 
 strictly limited by Act of Parliament that a clerk might 
 perform the requisite duties, has been surrendered by 
 common consent into the hands of mediocrity.* 
 
 While by such hands is wielded in secret the power 
 of this Empire, our Antagonist scrutinizes the earth 
 for talents, and having found them, disciplines them 
 
 * An exception may suggest itself to the reader ; but in that case 
 the powers of the minister were revealed in his office, not displayed 
 as the means of reaching it. 
 
Ixvi OBJECTS OF llIE WOEK. 
 
 to an order wliich never has been matclied, and in- 
 spires them with the prospect of a triumph never yet 
 attained. There are united superiority of mind^ unity 
 of system^, permanency of purpose^ the coercion of an 
 iron rule, the inspiration of a golden harvest^ 'and the 
 doubly fortifying sense of confidence in themselves, 
 and contempt for the rest of mankind. 
 
 Dr. Hamel^ in tlie St. Petersburgh Journal^ calls 
 the attention of the Russian public to the fact that 
 ^^ the current year couapletes three centuries of nearly 
 uninterrupted amicable relations between Russia and 
 England. ^^ The fact is also well worthy of the atten- 
 tion of the British public ; there never har been col- 
 lision between England and Russitt. Other States are 
 our friends^ or our foes^ according to the various acci- 
 dents 'of the times, Russia alone has undeviatingly and 
 on system been our enemy, — against her alone of all 
 the States of the world, have we never drawn the sword. 
 In all times, under all administrations, England has 
 been her private property. Flusters of opposition perio- 
 dically flare out, but they are- commissioned, and inva- 
 riably end vvdth " entire satisfaction '' on the sacrifice 
 of the State, or interest, which had given rise to the 
 discharge of notes, or the parade of ships of the line;* 
 
 * In 1801, Denmark J in 1807, Denmark ; in 1823, Spain; in 1827, 
 Persia ; in 1829, Turkey ; in 1831, Poland ; in 1833, the Dardanelles ; 
 in 1836, the quarantine on the Danube ; in 1837, the Vixen and Cir- 
 cassia ; in 1838, Persia ; in 1846, Cracow ; in 1849, Hungary and its 
 exiles ; in 1850, Grreece ; in 1853, Wallachia and Moldavia — event 
 not doubtful. 
 
 On May 21, 1853, the representation of the Powers at Constanti- 
 nople answered the appeal of the Turkish Government, by stating 
 
OBJECTS d"F THE WOEK. Ixvii 
 
 a farce^ harmless indeed in itself, but of deadly effect 
 on the States immediately endangered, who are 
 thereby led to confide in us; the system marches 
 with the regularity of machinery, the method of a 
 drama/ and the facility of a dream. 
 
 At no former period has the Commonalty occupied 
 itself with the respective merits of implements of 
 war; and that not with a view of achieving con- 
 quests, but of resisting, purely ideal for the time, 
 projects of Invasion. While needle guns and long 
 range are evoked whenever we speak of France, 
 is it not worth while to consider what the influence 
 may be of the discoveries in chemistry, mechanics, 
 and engineering, effected during this peace, on the 
 designs of Kussia ? The vast extent of her own ter- 
 ritory ; the distance which is placed between her and 
 the vulnerable points of Europe and Alia, together 
 with the obstacles presented to the movement of 
 troops by her own deficiencies and mal-administration 
 have hitherto paralysed the operations of her army. 
 A new era opens for her with railways. With 
 those already commenced in Poland, linked to Ger- 
 many ; with that projected from Moscow reaching to 
 Odessa, and established as she will soon be on the 
 Isthmus of the Baltic, and the mouths of tlie Elbe 
 and the Weser, she will be ready to smite Europe 
 
 that they "are of opinion that in a question which touches so nearly 
 the hberty of action and sovereignty of His Majesty the Sultan, liis 
 Excellency Kedchid Pasha is the best judge of the course to be 
 adopted, and they do not consider themselves authorised in the 
 present circumstances to give any advice on tlie subject." 
 
kviii OBJECTS OF THE WORK. 
 
 at any point : she will come too as a protector. 
 Thus have those Arts and Sciences which are the 
 boast of Civilisation passed into the service of the 
 Barbarian. 
 
 This revolution in the art of war, coinciding with 
 Eussia^s expansion to the North and South, renders 
 the contest infinitely more deadly, or would do so if 
 there were a contest. Nature seems capriciously to 
 have formed Europe to illustrate these new inventions. 
 It consists of a peninsula, stretching to the south-west, 
 from a basis which is Russian territory; at each 
 angle there is a vast space of sea, enclosed, and having 
 a narrow entrance, or outlet. By means of galvanic 
 batteries and submerged floating mines connected 
 with them, these narrows may be rendered impassable. 
 Neither is at present in her possession ; they may be 
 sealed againSt her. In her possession, they will be 
 sealed against Europe. Then will she command the 
 materials requisite for war, and hold in her hands 
 the food of nations. 
 
 It has long been the habit to dispose of all warn- 
 ings by the trite phrase " Russia is a poor country^ 
 she cannot get money, and without money war can- 
 not be made.^^ All these acquisitions have been 
 effected in peace. Poor as she is, she has sa 
 husbanded her means, and you have so mismanaged 
 your wealth, that she has been able to come forward 
 to support the tottering credit of the Banks of London 
 and of Paris. The house of Rothschild may hold 
 down the head of the Emperor on the grinding stone 
 
OBJECTS OF THE WORK. l^ix 
 
 of an artful contract, but Russia commands tlie mo- 
 netary operations of the two first capitals of the 
 world, and controls their policy by the Stock Ex- 
 change. 
 
 To the nations of Europe the Currency is a wholly 
 distinct matter from Metaphysics ; so are both from 
 Military affairs ; all three are so again from Com- 
 merce ; Politics is another walk, and another again 
 is Diplomacy ; Religion is not only distinct, but has 
 nothing to do with any one of them : the men engaged 
 in each know nothing of the other. For those who 
 manage the affairs of Russia every branch of science, 
 every field of knowledge, and every motive of the 
 human mind is equally possessed and mastered, and 
 the combination of the whole is — Diplomacy. 
 
 Knowledge is not Power, but he who is cunning is 
 powerful. Did we bestow upon the great interests of 
 the State the care which is given to the construction 
 of a railway of ten miles, Europe would be at peace 
 and at rest. Indeed the end might be secured at 
 less cost; it suffices to withdraw your Embassies. 
 How can an age, which derives its instruction for 
 practical life from the history of Greece and Rome, 
 be afflicted with the illusion that a Foreign Depart- 
 ment is a necessary portion of a State? That 
 system cannot work which involves two opposite and 
 hostile maxims; it is self-condemned either way. 
 To be rational, not to say prosperous, you must 
 institute secrecy in your domestic concerns, or submit 
 your external ones to control. If you will maintaiii 
 
Ixx OBJECTS OF THE WOEK. 
 
 your Embassies, then sink your Navy.* Disposing 
 of tlie " moral " means of tlie Admiralty and Horse 
 Guards, the Foreign Office wiU put down this Empire, 
 unless it be itself put down. 
 
 * A sailor on board Admiral Duckworth's squadron, being asked 
 what sort of vessels the Russians had, answered, " Russia wants no 
 'iiavt/ 
 
 shs has ambassadors !^' 
 
 N. B. I would direct attention to the Chapter on 
 the "Evacuation of the Principalities,^^ p. 363, where 
 the present circumstances are not only foreshadowed, 
 but expressly stated. That Chapter is the resume of 
 a Memoir drawn up at the end of 1850, showing 
 that, Y/ith a concurrent Turkish force occupying the 
 Principalities, Russia could make no impression on 
 Turkey. 
 
THE WEST. 
 
 Part I.— SPAIN. 
 Pakt II.— HUNGARY. 
 
 ** No man is by nature either an aristocrat or a democrat : 
 their disputes relate not, then, to system of government, hut to 
 their own advantage." — Lycukgus. 
 
These pages were written in Spain in 1846, and were to 
 have been published under the title of " Account of Spain 
 with Europe, in Invasions, Interventions, Mediations, 
 and Mahriages/' as a warning- against the danger of two 
 nubile Princesses. The manuscript somehow disappeared 
 on its way to Madrid. A copy, however, having been taken 
 by the precaution of a friend, and recently discovered, I 
 have thought it might be of use for the "Europeans" 
 themselves. 
 
PAUT I. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Hoio circumstanced for the Developnent 
 of Ojmiion. 
 
 This age is distinguished by extent of knowledge and 
 contrariety of judgments, — a misfortune no less tlian a con- 
 tradiction, and which arises out of the habit of attacliing 
 importance to News. Things which, if announced before- 
 hand, would be held too improper to be possible, are, when 
 done, taken as the data on which maxims are to be formed 
 for our future guidance. Our morals as nations are what 
 the morals of individuals would be who took for their 
 standard facts, that is, the cases brought for trial before 
 the courts of law. Thus it is that knowledge is divorced 
 from -wisdom, and that we have much speech and little 
 profit. 
 
 Unless a man knows what, in a given case, ought to be 
 done, he can never know what has been done ; information 
 can be of service only to them wdio can class it, be it science, 
 be it conduct. In the latter case, the difficulty of classing 
 docs not arise from ignorance. The task is here to unlearn ; 
 
 tlie life of the spirit is on the lip ; whoever chooses may 
 stop on it the garrulity of his fellows, and this is all that is 
 required to recover from the decrepitude of his times. 
 
 1 
 
S SPAIN. 
 
 The order of societies does not depend upon the equality 
 of size and strength of its members, but on the submission 
 of their difFerenees to that process of investigation which 
 distinguishes men from animals. The rights of states are 
 equally independent of numbers and dimensions, and consist 
 in the human character of reason belonging to all the indi- 
 viduals composing them. That differences be brought to 
 adjudicatioi;, not only by the authorities of the nation, but 
 by each separate man, is the purpose of international law. In 
 this consists the equality of states, in this the freedom and 
 virtue of each member of a community, and indeed his 
 quality as a reasoning being. 
 
 Individuals may, and generally do, profit by the wrong 
 they do; not so eommuiiities, and therefore is a public 
 crime by nature wholly different from a petty one. It thus 
 interests no less the powerful than the weak to guard that 
 public rule of right on which depends alike internal freedom 
 and general peace. And in truth this is the excellent, the 
 abiding part of all governments and of all systems : it is the 
 health common to all, without the variety of the infirmities 
 of each; it is the "law of nations," because respected 
 equally by all. It emanates from no human authority, be- 
 cause it is the source of all laws, and is enforced in every 
 judgment rendered, for a village or for an empire. Iso 
 compact violating it can bind ; against it no prescription 
 hold. It requires no interpreter; it brings its own penal- 
 ties when infringed, and its recompenses when obeyed; 
 it lias not to be taught — it is already known ; it may for 
 ii season be obscured, but each man can himself* find it 
 again. 
 
 Tins rule is no less simple than authoritative, and consists 
 in these two commandments: " Tiiou siialt not steal,'* 
 
 " Thou shalt do no muudek." There is no possible 
 injury that a state can inflict, or suffer, not provided for by 
 these two laws. 
 
 It is not less in the conscience of all beliefs, than in the 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 3 
 
 theory of all legislations, and stands alike by Divine com- 
 mand and human ordonance. The petty malefactor sins 
 only, the malefactor community is degraded and enslaved. 
 It has denied faith when it has broken law — lost conscience 
 when abjuring freedom, and becomes an infidel at the same 
 time as a robber. 
 
 It will not fail to strike, that it is no hypothetical case 
 which I am here putting. Every reader will understand 
 that it is the actual condition of the states of Europe that 
 I intend to describe, and there is no Spaniard who will ques- 
 tion the accuracy of that description. But, as the individuals 
 who compose tliose states are singly neither lovers of blood 
 Jior seekers of prey, it must be by some great and general 
 mental perversion that they have sunk as nations, to a con- 
 dition abhorrent to themselves as men. This perversion is 
 to be found in the representative form of government. Each 
 man holds himself to be free from guilt, by tliat very absence 
 of knowledge, which converts it into judicial lUndness. 
 
 The law of nations is careful to arrest the beginnings of 
 evil b/ keeping distinct the concents of indej)endent states. 
 Any interference, however slight or disguised, is as grave 
 a crime as slaughter or invasion. One state cannot even 
 hold intercourse legally witli another, except in the same 
 manner asi practised by private individuals when they go to 
 law, and place their concerns in the hands of a lawyer. The 
 sword of justice is placed in the hands of a king only'for 
 self-defence. Communications not called forth by such 
 necessity, coalitions founded thereon, destroy equality be- 
 tween states, subvert international law, and extinguish the 
 sense of right amongst mankind. This is what we call 
 diplornncD* 
 
 In the origin of every community, intercourse with foreign 
 powers has been entirely prohibited, except as the result of 
 
 * Tliere may bo treaties to interfere in the affairs of others, but 
 these arc violations of the laws of nations, and such a treaty adds 
 merely the guilt of conspiracy to that of violence. 
 
4 SPAIN. 
 
 a special and judicial decision. The kings and princes of 
 our Gotliic races miglit decide upon internal affairs ; inter- 
 national ones were only treated of in the common council. 
 The senate and the councils of Ptome dispatched domestic 
 business ; international affairs were decided and even ma- 
 naged by a legal and religious body. Spain's last effort 
 for her liberty, three hundred years ago, was directed against 
 the assumption of her kings to make peace and war, and to 
 conclude treaties without the assent of the Cortes,* In 
 England, no minister of state can lawfully to this day hold 
 so much as intercourse upon public matters with the minister 
 of a foreign power, unless specially commissioned by the 
 competent authority. Por every such transaction, a com- 
 mission must issue under the great seal, and on the respon- 
 sibility of the Chancellor of England himself; for this he 
 requires a warrant of the privy seal, which can be appended 
 only after a decision of the privy council, signed by the 
 counsellors who advised the measure. f Such was the 
 
 * " "No king shall make war with another king or queen — peace or 
 truce, or any important act, without having taken council with 
 twelve ricohombres and twelve elders of the country." — Fuero de 
 INavarra, b. i, tit. 1. 
 
 "Whenever the king shall have occasion to make war, he must 
 assemble the procuradors or Cortes, to explain its causes, that they 
 may say if the war is just or unjust ; so that, in the first case, the 
 people, recognising it to be useful, shall furnish the necessary aids, 
 and that, in the second, that no war may be declared or made." — 
 Cortes of ValladoUd, 1520, readdressed by sixty-nine members of 
 the Cortes to the King on the ]4th of April, 1814. 
 
 No wonder that, "up to the commencement of the sixteenth 
 century, the Cortes were always regarded by the Spaniards as their 
 most precious institution, and as their port of safety iia unhappy 
 times." — Ifirqflores, vol. i, p. 59. 
 
 No wonder that the modern Cortes and constitution should be the 
 source of the evils for which it was the remedy, and of the disease of 
 Spain for which it was the cure. 
 
 t This statute has been repealed. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 5 
 
 elaborate care taken by our forefathers to preserve them- 
 selves from foreign crimes. Theirs was the wisdom which 
 exhibits itself in knowing how to keep things in order. 
 There were few facts in those days because there was judg- 
 ment, and there being judgment there were no opinions. 
 
 "When tlie return to this rule is urged, the answer is, " This 
 process is incompatible with our present multiplied relations ; 
 no legal officer could take upon himself the responsibility 
 of the things daily done by the governments of Europe." The 
 object of restoring the ancient law is to put an end to the 
 present practice, which consists in exercising a power in 
 foreign countries which no minister possesses at home.* 
 Such acts alone constitute our multiplicity of relations and 
 their guilty character. This is what goes under the name 
 of polky. 
 
 Eut we have gone a step further. Parliaments and Cortes, 
 instituted to control the officers of state, have usurped tlieir 
 functions, and appoint them: thus have been revolutionised 
 our Gothic kingdoms, and the liberties of their separate com- 
 munities extinguished by their representatives. The same 
 change extends itself to nr.tions : kingdoms are now extin- 
 guished, as formerly boroughs were, by the representatives 
 they appoint. Hence have ensued those varieties of conditions 
 between communities which had hitherto been presented only 
 between their members. Their equality before the law being 
 lost, their relative position depends upon their respective 
 strength and weakness. This has introduced the disthiction. 
 
 of "FIRST AND SECOND RATE POW'ERS." 
 
 Conferences of the first of these take upon themselves to 
 decide upon what the second shall do, or be made to do, of 
 their own free will,f by fear of consequences or dread of 
 
 * For instance, levying a private war on tlie allies of the Queen of 
 England, as a minister of England did in respect to Spain — con- 
 spii'acies to bring about revolt, &c., as done again in Spain — changing 
 the laws, customs, taxes of a province, as was done in Syria, &c. 
 
 t " The principle that every nation has a right to manage its owa 
 internal affairs, so long as it injures not its neighboiu*. To this 
 
6 SPAIX. 
 
 censure,* and this process is denominated moral ivfl-uence. 
 To obtain this " infl-aenee" is the duty of the powerful ; to 
 endure it, a nccessitj^ of the weak.f 
 
 Tills amalg-amation does not require concurrence, or entail 
 concert : alliances spring up, the counterpart of the factious in 
 the separate states, such as the " Holy," the " Constitutional,'* 
 the " Continental," " European," "Western," "Northern/* 
 "Transatlantic." No single nation can make out what part 
 it has been made to play, or what share it has had inthe ag- 
 gregate efforts of " iniluence"on themselves, or on others : losing 
 power over their acts they mistake their interests, and out of 
 the chaos a false order has arisen; again relative strength 
 and weakness lose their places, and the case is resolved 
 into relative cunning. Law had been displaced in favour of 
 force, force now yields to sechecy. Events appear the 
 result of chance, and the hand that wins is that which is 
 unseen. Every new event is a new perversion. Facts are 
 as false as maxims, fallacious, and the sources of history are 
 poisoned for future generations. The sum of these misjudg- 
 
 priiiciple I most cordially assent. It i3 sound — it ought to bo sacred, 
 and I trust that England will never be found to set the example of 
 its violation." — Lord Palmerston's SpeecTi^ of 1st June, 1829. The 
 cheers of both sides followed this declaration : the speech in which 
 it was uttered, and of which it is in doctrine the leading feature, 
 raised to the management of the foreign affairs of England the 
 minister who has made Europe what she is to-day! 
 
 * Sir E. Peel declared, in reference to Don Carlos, that so much as 
 a recommendation was unj'astifiable from a stronger to a weaker 
 state, because it would be the overthrow of the independence of the 
 weaker one. 
 
 f '* "VNHien protection was most needed by the Christian popu- 
 lation of Syria, France Jiad tvttkdraton herself from interference 
 altogetlier : since she has arjain taken her i^roper place in the con- 
 ferences of the great powers on JEastern affairs, she evjoys her full 
 share of influence, but no more. It must unquestionably fall to the 
 lot of each power to obtain redress for injuries done to its own sub- 
 jects — yet the general policy to be pursued in the province (of Turliey) 
 must be regulated by general considerations" of the great pov/ers.— - 
 GidzoU 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 7 
 
 ments resulting from the irresponsibility of ministers at liome, 
 and secrecy in their acts abroad, is called Public Opinion. 
 
 " He," said Mr. Canning, " will form but a poor estimate 
 of the value of constitutional freedom who does not take into 
 account the power of the press." Let us consider, also, the 
 value of this mechanical contrivance for midtiplying ideas : 
 we are certainly not destitute of materials. 
 
 Between 1832 and 1846, Spain had been the subject of 
 above 5,000,000,000 of printed columns, written, published, 
 and read throughout Europe. Has Spain been benefitted, or 
 has Europe been enlightened ? A province of Africa having 
 been misgoverned by a civilised nation * for twenty-two 
 years, the ^' Press" has been engaged thereon with equal 
 intentness, with the effect of rendering it half waste, and 
 France wholly savage. Need I proceed to other fields to con- 
 vince at least the Spaniard that jNIr. Canning was a dreamer, 
 or that he inflicted a sarcasm on fools, who hailed it as an 
 oracle ? 
 
 The association of Spain with the doctrines of Europe is 
 accidental ; her adoption of its terms imitative only. The 
 malady thus exhibits features more hideous than elsewhere, 
 and a salutary effort is stiU within human reach; already 
 has an authoritative voice been raised in w^irning, — "the 
 opinions of Europe," said Savaadra, "are a worm eating 
 into the bowels of our state." Unless Spain will so give 
 peace to herself, she must remain degraded unto the field of 
 Europe's bickerings, and be the source to her of endless 
 suftering. 
 
 Rome and Carthage maintained between themselves respect- 
 ful and courteous relations for several centuries. In both, 
 the law of nations was an object of special instruction, and 
 enforced by an authority distinct from the executive. 
 Carthage being older and more corrupt, first turned longing 
 
 * " This great movement of emigration (5,000 cavalry, 30,000 foot, 
 and more than 20,000 tents) changes the character of the struggle — 
 Abd-el-Kader carries off the population that we have been able 
 neither to or(/anise, adtninister, or govern.'''' — Algerie, 
 
« SPAIN. 
 
 eyes upon Sicily. Eome became jealous, and the first Punic 
 war ensued. Carthage next endeavoured to regain in Spain 
 the ground she had lost in Sicily. Home sought to counteract 
 lier in Spain by opposing to her there an " influence," instead 
 of calling her directly to account. Thus on the soil of Spain 
 commenced the struggle which ended in the extinction of the 
 one and the decline and fall of the other. 
 
 England and Prance remained from the Heptarchy down 
 to the accession of William of Orange without cause of quar- 
 rel, except such as arose out of conflicting claims of feudal 
 seniorage. A new one then came, whence have sprung the 
 great wars of a century and a half, and caused ten times the 
 blood to flow t'hat had been spilled in war in ten times the 
 previous number of years. This new cause was precisely the 
 same as that which produced the wars between Home and 
 Carthage and on the same field. 
 
 Spain cannot be properly called neither a first-rate or a 
 second-rate power. Unlike the first, she is engaged in no 
 designs dangerous to the independence of her neighbours; 
 and, unlike the second, she is not liable to be coerced. She 
 is free from the immorality of the one, and above the neces- 
 sities of the other. Yet has she neither the strength that 
 springs from the absence of unjust purposes, nor the repose 
 that results from an unassailable position. It is that her 
 uprightness is not of the heart nor her strength of the spirit. 
 Unassailable by arms, she is subdued by words. Guiltless 
 of designs upon others, she is guilty of their designs upon 
 herself. She who was recently the bulwark of the liberties of 
 Christendom, presents a picture of degradation, such as was 
 never seen even in the darkest age or amongst the corruptest 
 people — Ministers alternately raised to power by the ma- 
 chinations of rival foreign governments ; the road to office 
 being treason and conspiracy. The like was not in Poland, 
 even when occupied by foreign troops. Her factions spring 
 neither from the power of a despot, nor the turbulence of a 
 mob, nor the strength of an oligarchy, nor the privileges of 
 an aristocracy, nor the power of a church, nor the reckless 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 9 
 
 misery of a nation ; but solely and simply from the assault 
 made on the ancient rights, usages, and immemorial customs 
 of a people, by the desire of some to be like strangers, and 
 by the profit a few others make of the confasion so intro- 
 duced. Spain's sole evil lies in a mistake. 
 
 As contract is the basis of civil law, so much the more 
 must it be so of international relations. Spain's dealings with 
 foreign powers may, therefore, be considered as a succession 
 of bargains, and yet she has nothing to seek or to gain from 
 them, and the only pretext for bargaining between her and 
 them must be Aer interest; as she cannot be coerced by them, 
 it is only practicable by her will. Nevertheless, all such 
 bargains are one-sided ; one paiiy only is taken into account, 
 and that one is never Spain. In every matter discussed be- 
 tween her and a foreign power, it is not the interest even of 
 that power that is considered, but the purposes of its minis- 
 ter, and that with reference only to the purpose of some other 
 minister. Her sufferings are as indifferent to them as her 
 lights. Anger and contempt, nay violence, ensue if she is 
 not submissive, and she who has provoked no resentment by 
 her conduct, discovers that she ecpially provokes it by pre- 
 suming to have a will of her own. 
 
 For any equality to exist, she should be seeking influence 
 in England and France, supporting a M. Guizot or a Sir 
 E. Peel, a M. Thiers or a Lord J. Eussell. She, proud, 
 strong, tolerates a French or an English ministiy, and vir- 
 tuous France and England Impose what they would not 
 endure. But this interference may be a beneficial superin- 
 tendence : tmly her foreign friends must be profoundly wise, 
 if not singularly wicked. Every Spaniard is either ungrateful 
 to a watchful providence or friendly to an evil genius, and 
 while he remains in doubt, he combines the shame of guilt 
 and the penalty of error. 
 
 If it be said that he is no dupe of their benevolent 
 pretexts, I ask, who but Spaniards render the foreigner 
 preponderating? As well might an army in the field of 
 battle expect to beat their enemy's left wing, by joining the 
 
 1 § 
 
10 SPAIN. 
 
 right, as they to subdue French influence by leaguing with 
 England, or English influence by joining with France. 
 
 If France and England differ in purpose, they are one in 
 charr.cter. Their object is not conquest of her, but compe- 
 tition between themselves. In their diverging views appear 
 their coinciding immorality. She would be safe even if 
 unendowed with sense, were she destitute of sensibility. 
 There is a common expression in Spain, " Fo?c did it for your 
 oicn cmds.'' This is a graceless recognition of benefit received. 
 The foreign governments, on the other hand, have ever on 
 their lips " The good of Spain^'' Let us test by recent facts 
 the value of the admission and the assertion. 
 
 When the French invaded Spain in 1823, it was professed 
 that the sacrifice was made on account of Spain, to restore 
 order. Some years after the minister revealed the true cause, 
 French interest. And what was this "French" interest ? The 
 restoring of vigour and spirit to the French armies, and the 
 consolidating of the monarchy by the restriction of the 
 electoral franchise and the prolongation of the term of 
 parliament ! Purposes which, if revealed at the time to 
 France, would have been held more hostile to France than to 
 Spain. So soon as the foreigner had gained his end, er 
 fancied he had done so, he retired, after having taken the 
 poignard out of one desperate hand and placed it in another 
 more savage still. 
 
 England vehemently denounced this attack on the "in- 
 terests" of England, but did nothing more. Had she then 
 adopted the pretended doctrines, or associated herself with 
 the secret purposes of the French minister? No. Her 
 minister had concluded that the French would leave their 
 bones in the Peninsula, and on the entrance of the French 
 troops exulted in France's miscalcidation ! His reasoning on 
 Spain, like that of the French minister, had nothing to do 
 with Spain, but with France. " Eights of nations," " Eng- 
 lisli inlluence," were all as nothing compared with the master 
 question of triumph for England at the expense of France. 
 
 Twenty years later there was a regency in Spain during 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 11 
 
 the minority of the Queen, nominally English. The French 
 agents judged the opportunity come for labouring at the 
 great work. They set themselves about upsetting the Pte- 
 gency, and, like a Bedemar or a Boutenieff, by conspiiacy 
 and bribes. So hurried were they, that it was against an. 
 order of things which had only a year to live, that 
 this assault was planned. The administration wliich they 
 assailed was, however, the most hostile that Spain ever had 
 to the material interests of England. It had refused that 
 so much agitated treaty of commerce ; it had shut out the 
 Basque provinces from English trade ; and had actually cut 
 off Gibraltar from the coast navigation. It had also adopted 
 the system of French centralisation, opening new projects of 
 ambition, by violating the Fueros of the Basques ; and of all 
 these acts it was on England herself that fell the odium and 
 obloquy. Why does France break down this minister 
 (Espartero) so invaluable to her in Spain? — to secure in 
 Paris a triumph over England to the ministry of peace every- 
 vvhcre and always. 
 
 But it was not France, but Spaniards, who effected these 
 things. The thought of attempting them sprung only out 
 of Spanish resignation, and then the act is quoted as evidence 
 of Spanish independence. She has blended the name of her 
 factions with that of her neighbours. It is not Whig or 
 Tory. It is not Liberal or Legitimist. It is French or 
 English — the old story of the hats and bonnets of Stockholm. 
 
 With this new maxim of intervention must have arisen 
 new methods of management. If one of the business men 
 of the great European governments were inclined to be con- 
 fidential, he would tell you that foreign transactions have to 
 be considered under three points of view : — 
 
 First — As affecting the chambers. 
 
 Secondly — As adecting the other powers. 
 
 Thirdly — The case itself. 
 
 Supposing a lawyer into whose hands a case is put, wcra 
 to reason in this fashion, his language would be plainly this*. 
 " Before I look int^ its merits, I must consider if some one 
 
13 SPAIX. 
 
 will make it worth my while to abandon it." Such is the 
 rule of the great nations in the most solemn matters, and of 
 persons selected as preeminent for all the qnalities that can 
 adorn a man. or preserve a state, and into whose hands is 
 remitted the fullest power for the execution of the most 
 sacred functions according- to the highest justice ! 
 
 Abd-el-Kader makes from Morocco an irruption into the 
 Algiers territory. The French people are all excited. The 
 government has to act. Morocco had done nothing. It was 
 Morocco and not France, that was endangered by Abd-el- 
 Kader. It was the African army that preserved Abd-el- 
 Kader as the means of carrying on war. The French 
 government were no sharers in this wish, and had no more 
 (ksigns against Morocco than Morocco upon them. But 
 they have to consider the case with reference to the opening 
 of the cJtamhers. They must prepare a paragraph for the 
 king's speech, and want a victory or a surrender. An ulti- 
 matum is sent, and thus may a vrar of extermination be 
 opened or rendered subsequently inevitable, merely to justify 
 a paragraph in the speech, which half an hour after it is 
 delivered, is worthless and forgotton. 
 
 The next point which they would have to consider is Eng- 
 land, whether or not she would take offence, and, if so, how 
 it would affect their conjoint negotiations at Buenos Ayres, 
 or the Lebanon, or Queen Pomare. In fact, as in dealing 
 with Spain, in sending the ultimatum, Morocco would be the 
 last thing thought of. 
 
 But more insignificant considerations even than these 
 determine the greatest events. Some years ago, France 
 made war upon the Spaniards of Mexico, because they 
 resisted a demand which the French government knew to be 
 fraudulent, and had a year before as such refused to entertain. 
 But the editor of the * Journal de Paris,' Mons. Fonfrede, 
 had been at Bordeaux, and there became the guest and ad- 
 vocate of the claimant. At this time, a division had arisen 
 between the chief members of the cabinet, M. Guizot and 
 J>Iolc, and the latter desirous of securing the ' Journal de 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 13 
 
 Paris' against the former (that paper having been established 
 by the king), came into the terms of M. Eonfrede, which were 
 war with Mexico. No sooner was the money extorted, than 
 proceedings were taken at Bordeaux against the claimant by 
 Ids French creditors ; and it was proved that the entire value 
 of the cargo, for a portion of which the Mexican government 
 had had to pay £60,000, was under £6000 ! The legal 
 disproof before the French courts of the claim France had 
 enforced by war so shocked the press, that no journal would 
 give publicity to the fact except — for a consideration : the 
 * Memorial Bordelais ' got 3,000 francs (£120) from the 
 Mexican Consul for the insertion of the report ; an extract 
 in the 'National' cost 10,000 francs (£100). M. Mole 
 lives — his days neither conscience nor the law will shorten. 
 The poor editor alone suffered, for his end was hastened by 
 tlie discovery of the fraud in which he had been made an 
 unconscious instrument. 
 
 England sanctioned this outrage on Mexico, understanding 
 its nature just as well as M. Mole, and tamely suffered the 
 injury inflictecl upon her own trade. Indeed, it was she who 
 gave effect to the French blockade by acknowledging it, 
 when the French courts of law refused to admit it. Such are 
 the villanies that pass under the name of policy among 
 nations who call themselves free, Chiistian, and civilized. 
 
 The first step Spain has to take is to draw a line between 
 Europe and herself. Her force consists only in the detestation 
 •with which she utters the word "stranger;" without this 
 «he can have neither virtue nor peace. She suffers at 
 once from Europe's character, tliougJits, and acts, — how deep 
 ought that abhorrence to be ! Besides the Spaniard, Europe 
 presents four primitive races not infected with the vulgarisms 
 of London and Paris — the Jews, the Turks, the Gipsies, and 
 the Russians. They make no distinction of English or 
 French, German or Italian. They know them, or hate 
 and despise them as one. To the Jew, they are tlie *' heathen'' 
 will ; to the gipsey, " Buseo : ' by this distinction, these 
 
14 SPAIN. 
 
 wanderers and outcasts contrive to live. Let us glance at 
 their mighty compeers. 
 
 Who, deserving the title of philosopher, has not been 
 astounded at the permanency of an empire sustained in Europe 
 by. not more than a million and a half of Tartar sheplierds, 
 and its resistance to the assaults of two redoubtable neigh- 
 bours, backed by the hatreds, the opinions, and the arms of 
 all Europe ? This is the secret, the Europeans to them are 
 " dogs." They despise not the Christians, their own sub- 
 jects ; they opened a refuge to the persecuted Christians of 
 Europe, and the Jews expelled from Spain. This contempt 
 of the Turks for Europe has been Europe's safeguard, 
 for it has sustained their empire. In that contempt all 
 good things are included — respect for law which Europe has 
 forgotten — freedom from faction, which is Europe's pride. 
 
 Who has not gazed with amazement, if not with fear, on 
 the expansion of the Colossus of the North ? Ignorant and 
 savage, divided and debased, that power threw off simul- 
 taneously with Spain the yoke of the Mussulman ; where 
 is Spain to-day — where Eussia ? The Eussian knows well 
 the map of Europe and the^ names of its people, yet they 
 are to him all as one, they are the sclmab the " dumb.'* 
 Alas, that they are not so ! 
 
 Deem not that the progress of Eussia is attributable ta 
 characters belonging to the Sclavonic race. The Pole is of 
 the same race ; his state was great and glorious when Eussia 
 was as wc?ak as now she is ambitious. The Pole, like the 
 Spaniard, imitated Europe, and in his factions allied himself 
 with this and that neighbour till he had prepared them and 
 Poland for a partition. The weeds of Paris became the 
 flowers of Warsaw, as now they are of Madrid. May the 
 fate that has overtaken the one, serve to avert it from the 
 other. 
 
 In England, great and small, wise and. simple, con- 
 sider FOKEiGN AFFAIRS uot as the affairs of England, 
 but as the affairs of other people. To tell them that 
 
DEVEL0P]\1ENT OF OPINION. 15 
 
 England is intriguing in Spain, conveys no more sense 
 than if they were told that she was intriguing in the moon. 
 Thus is a free seope left to all intrigue, and we have nothing 
 to depend upon save the practical obstacles that rise in our 
 path. 
 
 If the Spanish people have these causes of grievances 
 against the people of England or of Erance, what are the 
 grievances thiit these have against the Spanish people ? ]May 
 not the Ereiich say with justice to the Spanish, we do not 
 Icnow what our government does, diplomacy is a mystery 
 impenetrable to us but not so to you, upon you is the 
 edge, upon us only the after recoil? You feel the blow, and 
 you tell us not — nay, you invite it. Had you not, as for 
 instance in 1834, accepted, nay, clamoured for, intervention, 
 there would have been no diplomatic pottering, no fortifica- 
 tions of Paris, and England and Erance would have reposed 
 in the security of their united strength. 
 
 AYhat a position is not open to the minister in Spain who 
 shovdd take his stand against all interference ? He would 
 expose himself to no danger, because a foreign power worlcs 
 only on the dissatisfaction of the people, and dissatisfac- 
 tion spring from this very cause. Spain has no invasion 
 to dread. Such a minister would command the services, 
 wherever useful, of both the foreign governments. What induce- 
 ments are there not in the ministerial declarations of London 
 and Paris — " I will not interfere unless Erance does." " I 
 will not interfere unless England does." One condition 
 is however requisite, that of popularity. Party sustains the 
 minister in the Cortes, but neither party nor Cortes will 
 sustain him in Spain. No minister can be popular except 
 one who knows how to govern Spain : and for this he must 
 be a Spaniard. It is not from that class that her ministers 
 and her members of Cortes are chosen. These, like her 
 Hybrids of old, are begotten only upon Spanish mothers, and 
 like them speak a foreign tongue — these Political Economy, 
 those Latin. Try Spaniards in tongue, and dress, and heart, and 
 then you would see how easy what I have spoken would be 
 
16 SPAIN. 
 
 to do. Then you would see Spain no longer the dependant 
 of foreign councils, the discussed of their parliaments, or 
 the pitied of their market-places — no longer the victims of 
 stockjobbers, scribblers, milliners ; but in her traditions, her 
 manners, her dignity, her equal distribution of wealth, reading 
 a lesson to distracted Europe. 
 
 devolution here comes never from the people, but from the 
 government. Disorders do not spring from the soil, but from 
 the Cortes. Any government would be strong that contented 
 itself with governing, and abstained from legislating. 
 
 A Spanisli lady, who had been present at a conversation 
 with some Spanish " politicians," remarked after they were 
 gone — " I don't see why we should do for a nation wliat it 
 would be absurd to do in a family — for nations are only many 
 families. If things went wrong in this house, I should have 
 to put them in order — not to copy what next door had been 
 done for some other purpose. What is good, is good for 
 itself, and I am a fool if I have to borrow it." 
 
 It has been said by one of the strangers to whom they 
 applied to construct for them -a constitution, that of all 
 species of literary labour, the easiest is legislation. They 
 have gone a step farther, and dispensing with the trouble 
 of compiling, have been content to translate : they have not 
 thought worth while to execute what they translated, and 
 for thirty years have been fighting for a constitution which 
 they have never read. 
 
 The constitution of every country is tliat which is un- 
 written ; for the first enacted laws only mark the incipient 
 aberrations. When these accumulate, come reforms having- 
 reference to special wrongs. It is impossible to transfer from 
 one country to another the rectification of an abuse, for the 
 subject matter does not exist, and the primeval unwritten 
 thought cannot be transferred. But it is not to be supposed 
 that the reform had been in its own land applicable, for the 
 people who have endured a wrong must be incapable of recti- 
 fying it, A naked man you may clothe, but to introduce a con- 
 stitution is introducing a costume — you must strip him naked 
 
DEVELOPMENT OE OPINION. 17 
 
 first, and if he is unwilling you will have tlie old set of clothes 
 rent and the new trampled under foot. Constitutions cannot be 
 propagated like trees by slips, nor like lettuces by seed. You 
 make drawings of a machine and construct another like 
 
 may 
 
 it, but you cannot so fashion men. You may run metal into 
 a mould, but you cannot cast a nation. It would be more 
 wise or less foolish to use the English or the Erench tongue 
 as a means of rectifying the provincial accent of Catalonia or 
 the Asturias than the laws of either countiy to improve their 
 condition; it would be as judicious to substitute the 
 language of either country for that of Castile, and as practicable 
 too, as to replace the customs of the one by the constitution 
 of the other. To take our laws, that is, our modern ones, 
 which are the remedies of our evils, and to impose them upon 
 Spain, is the same thing as to take the medicines from the bed- 
 side of one patient and pour them down the throat of another, m- 
 the infected bandages of a man diseased to strap down a man 
 in health. 
 
 Tlie good that is in England and Erance is in the people, 
 — their knowledge, activity, and enterprise. The government 
 is the source of all our social ills : these w^e bear up against 
 by our individual qualities, and Spain would copy our go- 
 vernment as a means of making up for the want of our 
 industry ! 
 
 Plow is it that the rulers have not perceived a truth so 
 evident ? Because they are hybrids, foreign bastards — neither 
 Spaniards nor Eomans — European Creoles, whom their fathers- 
 despise and their mothers cast off. They are changed not 
 at l)irth indeed, but at nurse. Spain will have foreign nurses, 
 and they bring her home gipsies. 
 
 This spell can only be broken when some one man, how- 
 ever humble in station, shall arise, capable of grappling with 
 the intellectifal fallacies of Europe. Until then — vast, yet 
 compact, with a people of provinces but of one name and race, 
 liable to invasion with difficulty, open everywhere to receive 
 support, and standing between the two great rival powers of 
 Em-ope, each of which are alert and ready as one man to fly 
 
18 SPAIN. 
 
 to her succour if assailed bodily by the other — she will remain 
 the sport of minions and the plaything of intrigue. 
 
 During the last century, while as yet no Spaniard was 
 known by any other designation, than that of his country and 
 his province, the Peninsula was the chief cause of the great 
 European wars. It was then only the ambition of disposing 
 of her crown, or the desire of acquiring her possessions . There 
 was in each of her two neighbours a guilty purpose, but 
 there was as yet no conspiracy to undermine her independence 
 by working upon her broils. Circumstances then altered ; 
 the violence of popular commotion having ceased in the one 
 country, and rude trials having matured wisdom in the other, a 
 new system commenced — schemes of conquest were denounced, 
 justice was the policy adopted, freedom the treasure in which 
 they gloried : but, not indifferent in their happiness, they 
 sought to extend to all around the benefits they enjoyed. 
 What is the accomplishment ? Who shall know the begin- 
 ning and believe the end, or seeing the end recollect the 
 beginning ? 
 
 Then was faction born in Spain : it reached maturity at 
 its birth. They caUed on either side to their aid, the parental 
 sympathies of the neighbouring states, but Constitutionalist and 
 Absolutist soon became English and French. Thus has opened 
 for Spain the old prospect under new names : thus again re- 
 appears for Europe the old dangers. England and Prance 
 now join to do for their common gain, that which eacli 
 would have then regarded as a national loss. Eor her 
 thrice in three generations has Christendom been wasted with 
 war. On the next signal blast she will no longer be the 
 guiltless victim, but the guilty cause. Her hands will have 
 taken down the buckler from the wall and pulled the spear 
 from the earth. Her hands will have saddled in their stalls 
 the "pale horse of death and the red of destrutetion," to ride 
 up to the bridle in Spain's best blood. To Kome she gave a 
 sword — for Europe she prepares a torch. 
 
19 
 
 CIIAPTEPt II. 
 Review of past History, 
 
 The structure of Spain, not a peculiarity of race, has giTen 
 to events at the remotest periods a consanguineous character. 
 It is an island with the dimensions of a continent — fortresses 
 with pasturage grounds — deliles and rocks and mountains, 
 with arable land for tens of millions of men. As there is 
 nothing like it in the composition of any other portion of the 
 earth, so is it unlike it in its fate and histoiy to the remainder 
 of the human race. Circassia is an inaccessible range, and it 
 may be a barrier of heroic defence ; Switzerland, a fortress 
 of rocks, without the substance of a nation, leaving no room 
 for a throne — a centre of contending interests, sustained by 
 the jealousy of neighbours more than by the heights of tlia 
 Alps. 
 
 Spain, suri'ounded on three sides by the ocean as a ditch, 
 on the fourth by the Pyrenees as a rampart, and not exposed 
 to immediate and constant danger, is armed neither in mind 
 nor in body against invasion \ defence by the distribution of 
 the mountains, and the hardiliood and local attachment of the 
 inhabitants, commences only after she has apparently been 
 prostrated. She has thus exhibited an unvarying paradox to 
 the eyes of successive generations, being the easiest of nations 
 to be overrun, and the last to be subdued. 
 
 Here, then, it is not Iberian, Goth, Saracen, or Spaniard, 
 whose character we have to examine, but it is the influence on 
 man of a certain configuration of country, where mountain 
 and plain are mixed together in sufficient dimensions and 
 extent to present a large mass of human beings, forming a 
 cliampaign and sea-board kingdom, with the attachments of 
 mountaineers and their defences. 
 
 The attachment to their community and their customs 
 stiffened them against the centralisation of power, and made* 
 them hold, in an equal degree their enemy, the government 
 
20 SPAIN. 
 
 that invaded tlieir franchises, or the foreigner that occupied 
 their soil. They did not however divide apart into clans and 
 cantons : and constituting a general government, there was 
 the form of monarchy and the practice of republicanism. 
 
 The strangers thoughtthat influence over the governmentwas 
 influence over Spain, but when they pressed upon its weakness, 
 they only strengthened the unknown Spanish people; therefore 
 have results belied in every case judgment, and triumph over 
 her has been a prelude to defeat. In this anti-national con- 
 dition of their government, the Spaniards have been deprived 
 in every crisis of the advantage of concerted action, but have 
 regained that of local and individual resolution. 
 
 If an enemy presented itself on the shore of Kent, all 
 England would rush thither as to the point of defence : broken 
 there, she would bow the neck. Austria could be subdued at 
 an Austerlitz, and Paris even taken at a Waterloo. Not so 
 in Spain: the enemy is at Pampelona; the Biscayan says 
 " bueno. I shall be ready at Bilboa ;" and so on, district 
 after district, mountain after mountain. ' The Spaniard 
 waited at home, as he did in the days of the Scipios, to defend 
 liis house and his fueros, and does not hold them lost by what 
 happens elsewhere, whether the victory of an army or the vote 
 of a Cortes. 
 
 This similarity of character, and events at the most remote 
 periods, is rendered so striking by present circumstances, that 
 I may be permitted to revert to Carthage and Eome. 
 
 To both Republics Spain then stood as she ^vould now to 
 England and Prance, were she at the time the peninsula of 
 Ilindostan. 
 
 It is to be observed, that that war was not an invasion 
 of Spain, but a contest in Spain. We derive our impressions 
 of the event from Eoman writers. Had we the annals of 
 •Cartilage open to us, we should And that alarms for the 
 encroachujents of Rome had invested the Carthaginians with 
 the character of jprotectors. This is proved in the very event 
 ihat completed the subjection of Spain to Carthi>ge, and that 
 •occasioned the war between Carthau'e and Rome. 
 
RETROSPECT. 21 
 
 Spain then furnislied to Hannibal means for the invasion of 
 Italy, alike by the occupation of the Roman armies far from 
 home, and by the auxiliaries who aided him at Trebia and 
 Thrasymene ; but these would not have availed unless Spain 
 had furnished other and indispensable resources. 
 
 We have standing armies defrayed out of the ordinary 
 expenditure of the state ; but in ancient times there w-as 
 iKiither standing expenditure nor the resource of temporary 
 loans. The nations feebly organised for assault were power- 
 fully organised for defence; disciplined invasion required 
 gold in hand. This gold was furnished to Hannibal by the 
 mines of Spain. 
 
 The whole military history of the ancient world is one of 
 metal. It was the treasure of Susa and Ecbatania that 
 rendered illustrious the field of Marathon and the narrows of 
 Thermopylae. It was the mines of Philippi that brought the 
 subjugation of Greece, and reared the empire of Alexander. 
 It Avas the treasures of Toulouse that, changing masters, 
 effected the conquest of Gaul ; so was it the mines of Bar- 
 celona that brought first the passage of the Alps, and then 
 the disaster of Cannce. 
 
 No sooner was Italy, by means of Spain, ovcrnin, than 
 Spain rose against Caiihage. In about the same time that 
 it had taken the three chiefs of the house of Hanno to subject 
 her to the Carthaginians, the three Scipios transferred her 
 to Rome. Scarcely had the conquest of Carthage been 
 effected, than the Spaniards, abandoned and betrayed by the 
 only power that could have defended them, rose again to 
 assert her liberty as well as their own, and replied to the 
 Roman pro-consul that their fathers had left them steel 
 to defend, not gold to redeem, their inheritance : Rome, 
 <Ieparting from her wont, found gold jnore useful than steel ; 
 and Spain could alone say of Rome, that she dreaded less 
 her arms than her arts. The war commenced with Saguntum, 
 imd concluded with Numantia, — one population devoting 
 itself for Rome, the other for Carthage. 
 
 On the fall of Carthage, Rome became the world; the 
 
23 SPAIN. 
 
 contentions between her factions presented, like the rivaliy 
 between independent nations, occasions for the assertion of 
 the liberty of the smaller states. Spain alone judged of 
 these occasions, and acted in these events. Thus in the 
 contest of Marius and Sylla, she reappeared on the field, 
 and during ten years defeated the finest armies and baffled 
 the ablest generals of the republic. She was indeed under a 
 Roman leader, but he, a fugitive, whom she invited and in- 
 vested with command : her triumph was again the shame of 
 Eome, and Sartorius fell, as Viriathus before him, by the hand 
 of an assassin. 
 
 Next came Coesar and Pompey ; again she was in arms 
 on the side of the vanquished, offering asylum in her fast- 
 nesses and defenders in her sons, to the beaten faction. After 
 the cause was desperate, and Rome and the East in the hand 
 of • the victor, and the corpse of Pompey on the sands of 
 Canusium, she arose to restore the contest for Roman 
 liberty, and Caesar had to win the world a second time on 
 the plains of Munda, where he avowed he had to fight for 
 life — not victoiy. 
 
 Actium did not close the temple of Janus ; in the midst of 
 a prostrate world, an army had to be led into Catalonia 
 and the Asturias ; the benign and benevolent Augustus,, 
 surpassing the ferocity of his predecessors, suffocated whole 
 populations in those caverns whence was to issue in a future 
 generation the avenging genius of a Pelagius. Agrippa, too, 
 closed his career of victory by that one most dearly pur- 
 chased, most hardly won, and most mercilessly used, on 
 Celtiberian soil. 
 
 What a contrast with Gaul and 13ritain. The progress 
 of the Roman arms against these nations was gradual and 
 sj'-.stematic. The fiercer spirits driven backwards held their 
 ground ; and into the extremer regions, for centuries, Rome 
 did not penetrate : they took no share in the play of Roman 
 faction; when subject, they followed the fortunes of their leaders, 
 when independent, they equally resisted whatever bore the name 
 of Roman. Spain, in contradistinction to all the races sub- 
 
EETPtOSPECT. 23 
 
 jugated by Kome, with the exception of Greece, thus exlii- 
 bited a pliability of genius such as might have been expected 
 in an old and polished state: much as to day, while reputed 
 a stranger to Eui'ope, she has excelled us in branches where 
 least we would have expected to find competitors beyond the 
 circle of our ideas and instniction. She entered with facility 
 the intellectual existence of her victor, rivalled him in all the 
 fields of literary and philosophic excellence, and contributed 
 to the common glory, gi'eatness and refinement, more than 
 her share of poets, rhetoricians, historians, philosophers and 
 princes.^ The first stranger admitted to the honours of 
 Eome was a Spaniard ; and it is in his family mansion pre- 
 served by the ashes of Vesuvius, that the opportunity has 
 been best aftbrded to us, of estimating the dignity of a Eoman 
 patrician. 
 
 The periods of the Visigoths and of the Moors, although 
 those which confer upon Spain its historic value and ro- 
 mantic character, do not in respect to our subject afford such 
 salient features as the earlier and more recent periods, save 
 indeed that both found the conquest easy, and the retention 
 difficult ; nowhere else Were the barbarian occupiers of the 
 Roman provinces expelled — nowhere else have the Saracens 
 been driven back. Under these catastrophes, Spain as usual 
 seemed to recover force and life from those very changes tliat 
 in ordinary cases cause the fall of empires, and in the midst 
 of those external circumstances which denote the decline of a 
 people. 
 
 No sooner had the crowns of the kingdoms of the Peninsula 
 been united and the Moors expelled, than Spain was, as it 
 were, ravished from herself by the union of her crown witli 
 the imperial diadem. Prom that time '* this noble coinitry 
 has been the appanage of some foreign family without having 
 been conquered by one of them." This is the period in her 
 
 * Quinctilian, Columella, Pomponius Mela, Florus, Luciau, 
 Seneca, Hadrian, Trajan Theodosius the Great &c. 
 
U SPAIN. 
 
 history which represents the centralized power gathered in 
 from the plains, as opposed to the decentralizing and retentive 
 faculties of her mountains. 
 
 Neither under the Austrians nor under their Bourbon suC' 
 cessors, did the encroachments of the central government 
 reach to that point that the villager got sight of his enemy ; 
 therefore Europe mistook the power of Spain to do injuiy 
 to others, and her might to defend herself. The indifference 
 of the people was construed " power of the crown." When 
 the most ambitious of mortals — the most daring and cunning 
 , of his age. King of Spain and Eoman Emperor, held as hope- 
 less captive, the King of France — well might Europe trem- 
 ble for her liberties, and apprehend that the dream of univer- 
 sal empire was about to become a reality. It was dispelled 
 by no diplomatic combinations or warlike efforts. For its 
 accomplishment it wanted only in the breasts of Spaniards 
 the lusts or tlie slaveiy that constitute the character of a con- 
 quering people or form the implements of an ambitious king. 
 The victorious armies of Charles were defeated by the Cortes, 
 which refused supplies for a war which it judged neither 
 necessary nor just. 
 
 The successor of Charles, however, found resources in- 
 dependent of the Cortes : though no longer master of 
 Austria, Portugal was added to the Spanish crown with all her 
 commerce : in the religious strifes in which he engaged, 
 he had the faculty of arousing the bigotry of his people. 
 Here, however, the internal rights and local independence of 
 another portion of his dominions were the safeguard of neigh- 
 bouring states, and the treasure of American, as the blood of 
 European Spain were engulphed in the Netherlands. Soon 
 afterwards Catalonia's resistance enabled Portugal to eman- 
 cipate herself. Nor was it possible even here, in reference to 
 so near a neighbour, to arouse the evil passions of the Spanish 
 people. 
 
 And with all these events before us, the present generation 
 neither knows that Spain has rights, or that it has internal 
 
BETROSPECT. 25 
 
 freedom : neither do they know that it is these, and not the 
 fictitious adjustment of the dimensions of states, that are the 
 curb upon ambition, and the foundation of peace. 
 
 From groundless fears regarding the ambition of Spain 
 under the first two raonarchs of the Austrian line, Europe 
 passed into an equally erring judgment of her decline of 
 the fifth and last. Tliey treated her at the close of the seven- 
 teenth centuiy as in the present day they treat Turkey ; they 
 called her a corpse, and they coalesced to ensure the demise 
 by a division of the carcase. England, France, and Austria 
 signed, in anticipation of the death of Charles II ' in whose 
 person they seemed to consider Spain to exist, the infamous 
 act called the Partition Treaty, and the commencement of 
 such crimes in Europe. 
 
 The folly of the design was soon shown to be equal to its 
 iniquity. Spain, thus menaced, accepted a French prince. 
 The treasures of England were squandered, — in vain she 
 poured forth her blood and that of Germany, and the war 
 ended by a Treaty to sanction the settlement which they had 
 taken up arras to prevent. Spain, too, whose maritime power 
 Iiad previously been extinguished, regained strength in her 
 struggle with the mistress of the seas, the benefit whereof was 
 transfeiTcd to England's rival — France, and cooperated in 
 Avresting from England her North American possessions : 
 it was again placed at the disposal of France during the 
 first short war at the beginning of the French Eevolution. 
 The naval power of both was indeed broken by England, and 
 that of Spain utterly extinguished at the battle of Trafalgar. 
 It was for France that this sacrifice was made ; it was on 
 Spain that fell the penalty, and England rejoiced in the injury 
 that she had done her, as being the most effective means of 
 weakening France. 
 
 Now again was the judgment of Europe to be exercised ; 
 Spain was again but a corpse : such was the judgment of 
 England on the one side, and of Napoleon on the other. It 
 was a country which he could outrage at his pleasure, whose 
 fortresses he could occupy Avithout a struggle, whose princes 
 
 2 
 
2G SPADT. 
 
 lie could kidnap like the negroes of Guinea, on whose throne 
 he could place, as on those of the Eiu'opeans, a puppet \nth 
 a crown. The result was that Napoleon went to Elba. 
 
 Between 1690 and 1807 no change had taken place, there- 
 fore, in the material condition of Spain, and no improvement 
 ill the perceptive faculties of Europe, 
 
27 
 
 CIIAFIEIl III; 
 Formation of. Faction, Constitution o/" 1 8 1 2. 
 
 Up to the close of the great continental war there had been a 
 total absence of political difTerences ; the opposition to Govern- 
 ment had been by province, and then of a practical kind only ; 
 there had never been a Revolution. The people had met by a 
 stubborn though isolated resistance every encroachment of the 
 Crown, and had fortunately never been exposed to usurpations 
 by a Parliament. Thus had been preserved less o'oliterated 
 than elsewhere the footsteps of early freedom. The people 
 were, indeed, indolent and ignorant, but tliere was amongst 
 them contentment and equality, a fair distribution of the goods 
 that they possessed, no depreciation of one class by misery, or 
 elevation of another by pride of station or wealth ; sedulous 
 politeness linked together the classes of society, and kept open 
 running the fountain of charity with its twofold blessings. 
 
 Madrid was not properly a metropolis. To the foreign 
 families who had slipped into the occupation of the tlu'one 
 this city was as a permanent camp, to which they retired 
 from Spain, and whence they commanded but did not 
 govern it. A vast mass of functionaries were employed in 
 the central government and inhabited Madrid, but Madrid 
 contained no manufactory of laws, and the agents of the 
 Government never took out of the hands of the locally elected 
 magistrates the administration either of province, city, dis- 
 trict, or village. Thus did the Government remain distinct 
 from the people, and the people, being admitted to no share 
 in it, preserved at least their character ; they remained men of 
 Valencia, Estremadura, of Seville or Saragosa. 
 
 This original framework was preserved by a variety of cir- 
 cumstances, — the mighty chains of mountains to which I have 
 referred, the absence of roads and the difficulty of communica- 
 
28 SPAIN. 
 
 tion, differences of dialect and of costume, and corresponding 
 animosities ; in fact, the administrative physiognomy was of a 
 remarkably oriental character. While the internal dissensions 
 of the other countries of Europe invited the progress of the 
 French revolutionary arms, or paralysed the resistance to her cf 
 the great military Governments, no more effect was produced 
 by the new and exciting doctrines on the Spanish than on the 
 Turkish people. Yet after these Governments had been seve- 
 rally discomfited and collectively reduced, Spain, which was 
 deemed sunk in the darkest night of ignorance and superstition, 
 rose single-handed, and astounded, without enlightening, the 
 Europe she saved. When Spain commenced this enterprise 
 she was without a king, an army, or a navy ; her entire central 
 administration was in the hands of the Erench, together witli 
 her capital, the head of her church, and the chiefs of her 
 nobles : she was deprived of all that visibly constitutes 
 power, and this precisely was her strength. Then reappeared 
 the Spain of Saguntum and Numantia, and, nearer to our 
 times, of Barcelona and Saragosa, — names which will yet be 
 fresh when European Civilisation will have departed to the 
 same place as the Koman sword and the J\Ioorish scimitar. 
 
 Between the commencement and the close of the struggle, 
 that is to sa}^ from 1808 to 1815, the country was occupied 
 with very different matters than politics, and under any cir- 
 cumstances the time was too short to allow of any marked 
 change in doctrine or opinions, which are necessarily of slow 
 growth ; and yet shortly afterwards the Peninsula is so trans- 
 formed that we find it engaged in a devolution. It is essential 
 to note, since we transfer to this country the notions which we 
 entertainof others, that there never had here been a Eevolution, 
 and that it was here the people, and not the Government, who 
 rose to resist the Erench. We have, therefore, a phenome^jon 
 to account for, one wholly unparalleled; it is rendered 
 the more inexplicable by the fact, that in the short interval 
 between the period when theoretical principles were wholly 
 unkrown and that at Avhich a I^evolution was accomplished 
 and a Constitution introduced, the people having been engaged 
 
CONSTITUTION OF lSi3. 29 
 
 in a desperate war against an enemy who was the patron of 
 so-called liberty, in their minds must have been associated 
 constitution with invasion, despotism with independence : 
 but, in fact, the infection that was repelled by the braced 
 arm and the rigid muscle in 'the front of the battle, penetrated 
 from behind by the flaccid and ignoble parts. 
 
 While the Spanish people were on their rugged sierras, 
 their smiling vegas shrivelled by the breath, and their fair 
 cities levelled by the tread of war, a few black-coatecl me^ 
 had assembled in a church, travestied into a theatre, in an 
 alley of a remote city, guarded by the fleets of an Ally. This 
 assemblage, aloof from danger and undistracted by care, was 
 not engaged in procuring supplies, or in furnishing to their 
 struggling countrymen clothing or ammunition, — they were 
 framing a Constitution ; in other words, they were passing- 
 a decree of annihilation upon the rights, the customs, and 
 corporations of the Peninsula, for its separate kingdoms had 
 their Constitutions and their several Cortes. The crime of 
 the Burgundian and Bourbon despots had amounted to no 
 more than this, that they did not convoke them ; the self- 
 appointed Conclave of Cadiz undertook to destroy them. 
 
 When the Parliament of London absorbed into itself that 
 of Edinburgh and that of Dublin, not only were separate acts- 
 required from the body incorporating and the bodies in- 
 corporated, but Treaties also were entered into, and conditions 
 established : the measures propped up by these forms were 
 enacted in the eye of the nations themselves, but they were 
 still held to be invalid by the lawyers of. the greatest wciglit 
 of their respective times, and denounced as suicidal by the 
 patriots of highest name. What woidd have been said had 
 some Chartist Convocation decreed of their own authority a new 
 law for the three kingdoms, which was to supersede all their 
 laws and to extinguish their three Parliaments by the erection 
 of a new and distinct body ? Such was the Constitution of 
 Cadiz, and so absurd was it felt to be, that it fell stillborn. 
 
 If this new Constitution had been the wisest ever conceived 
 and the justest ever possessed, no less would this character of 
 
30 SPxVIN. 
 
 violence attacli to it ; but it was at once the most foolisli and 
 the most violent of legislative measures ; it was a mere tran- 
 script of the dreams of the previous century, which had placed 
 the enemy against whom they were struggling in the hands 
 of a despot, who had practised against Spain the basest of 
 felonies, and had found in the French nation the docile 
 instruments of his malignant will. 
 
 In fact, the self-appointed gentlemen who assembled in the 
 church of San Telipe Neri, were doing nothing more or less 
 than preparing to impose on Spain after she should have 
 triumphed the yoke of the enemy she had vanquished, — and 
 worse than the yoke of that enemy, for the rrencli would 
 have respected, even as victors, those local privileges and 
 general rights which the old despotic monarchs of Spain had 
 been unable to subdue. 
 
 The king returned and swept away the idle fiction ; but as the 
 Constitution had sprung from one of the European factions, so 
 did he call in the doctrines of the other to counterbalance it. 
 Now no longer content with that despotic authority which had 
 hitherto prevailed, he embodied therewith centralisation and 
 uniformity. The failings in the character of the monarch found 
 neither guidance nor restraint in those who surroimded him, anrl 
 whose habits had ceased to be Spanish ; and the ]3eople who, 
 unlike those of Germany, had neither made conditions in su]>- 
 porting their monarch, nor expected advantages as a conse- 
 quence of their triumph, were taught to believe that there 
 must be some virtue in the Constitution when they discovered 
 so much vice in those who hated it. Thus in four years was 
 Spain, always indiflerent to what passed at Madrid or wliicli 
 had reference to its central Government, thoroughly disgusted 
 at the existing state of things, and prepared to accept with 
 favour any change. 
 
 So far, the direct agency of no foreign Government appears, 
 but now the necessary elements for foreign intrigue had been 
 created in the engenderment by imitation of the contrarieties, 
 which in the other countries of Europe have sprung from real 
 causes, and required centuries for their development. 
 
81 
 
 CHAPTEH lY. 
 Bevolf of the Ma de Leon, 
 
 In the coarse of the year 1819, troops had been collectecl 
 in the arsenal of Cadiz, called Isla de Leon, destined for the 
 re-conquest of the American colonies : they were neither 
 recruits nor regiments, but composed of soldiers di-afted from 
 the whole army, with the view of purifying it of restless 
 spirits engendered by the war of Independence and of dan- 
 gerous opinions evolved by contact with the French. The 
 expedition had been planned no less for the safety of old 
 Spain than for the recovery of the new. But instead of 
 instantly despatching this menacing corps, it was retained in 
 a confined and inattractive cantonment, and lay for many 
 months in an inaction that must have disorganized the best 
 disposed and best officered troops. The principle that had 
 dictated the drafting of the men had also been followed in 
 tlie selection of the officers. What then was to be expected ? 
 In fact, it was of public notoriety that a revolt was preparing, 
 and the views of the government w^ere held to be a mystciy 
 solvible only by the supposition that these projects had high 
 support. The General went to Madrid to represent the 
 danger — he was displaced. Two captains of me4i-of-war 
 reported their vessels which were to transport the troops to 
 America to be unseaworthy — they w^re deprived of their 
 command. The Government then adopted a measure, the 
 effect of which was too clear not to have been foreseen, that 
 of gi-anting one step in rank to each officer ; every incentive 
 to undergo the dangers and the sufferings of a transatlantic 
 campaign in crazy vessels was thus removed. In a word, 
 nothing was left undone to foment discontent and to en- 
 courage insurrection ; the Conspiracy was perfectly public. 
 
 But who withm the Government could be suspected? This 
 
32 SPAIK 
 
 matter was under the clirect control of tlie king, and none of 
 his immediate counsellors either belonged to the opposite 
 party or were suspected of treachery. There was, indeed, a 
 ■second party within the royal one, that of Don Carlos, but still 
 less to it than to that of Ferdinand could such designs be at- 
 tributed. So far the public facts — indubitable and systematic 
 support given by the Government to the Conspiracy, almost, 
 indeed, its Organisation — no clue w^hatever to the motives or 
 "the persons who wielded this sinister influence. 
 
 A quarter of a century has effaced the interest connected 
 ^'ith this event, but the period is not so extensive as to have 
 cngulphed all contemporary evidence. In the hope of finding 
 some clue I repaired to the spot : the first person whom I 
 met was the astronomer of San Fernando, wdio from his 
 observatory, twenty-five years before, had watched the motions 
 of that tumultuous Camp. To my question respecting the 
 source, his answer w^as " Eussia." I inquired whether he 
 expressed an opinion prevalent at the time : he answered, 
 ■*' Everybody knew that it was her doing ; she had great in- 
 fluence at the Coui't of Ferdinand VII ; she openly patronised 
 "the Conspiracy ; she had here a most intelligent agent, a Pole, 
 and M. Tatetschef himself came down." 
 
 It w^as in the silent streets of San Fernando that these 
 "U'ords w^ere uttered : they proceeded from a man grave by 
 his character, distinguished for his acquirements, and who 
 was utterly unconscious of their bearing and their value. 
 Here Wtfs no theory that twisted cases ; no foresight warning 
 of future peril : it was merely a fact which he recorded, the 
 knowledge of which had led to no conclusions, and which 
 w\as about to die away in the narrow circle of the village 
 where it had occurred. 
 
 It was impossible here to resist the temptation of experi- 
 menting upon the cataract on Europe's eye; I therefore 
 objected to Signor Cercera, that Eussia w^as an iibsolute 
 power and very far away ; that she could have nothing to 
 do with Spain, or, having so, could have no hand in Con- 
 spiracies, His answer was to the following effect : — 
 
BEYOLT OF THE ISLA DE LEON. 33 
 
 " "What you say is no doubt true, but I have only repeated 
 the general belief at the time ; if, however, I were to express 
 an opinion of my own, I woidd say, that although she may 
 be in principle absolutist, she had a hand in the revolt, because 
 she had an interest in the success, — an interest of a pecuniaiy 
 nature. The vessels in Avhich the expedition was to be 
 •embarked consisted of nine sail of the line, belonging to 
 Eussia, which had been detained during the war, and on the 
 peace, not being in a state to reach the harbours of the Bailie, 
 ^he had sold them to the Spanish Government for a good 
 price. If they were not deemed able to reach the Baltic in 
 1814, there was little chance of their reaching America in 
 1819, so that if the expedition had sailed, it woidd certainly 
 have gone to the bottom, and she wotdd have been called on 
 to refund the price of the ships. At all events, this was the 
 way in Avhich at the time we explained her patronage of the 
 revolt." 
 
 Again I ventured to object that the mystery was not 
 solved ; that the influence at the Court of Eerdinand, which 
 had enabled her to make that government foment a Con- 
 spiracy, must have sufficed a hundredfold to cause the ex- 
 pedition itself to be abandoned. Again my inibrmant was 
 ready with an answer : — 
 
 " A few years after the revolt, in reading the message of 
 the American president, after the death of the Emperor 
 Alexander, I discovered that she had another motive ; for in 
 that document it is said that Eussia had given to the Go- 
 vernment of Washington the assurance that she would prevent 
 the sailing of the Spanish expedition, and had given her 
 .guarantee that it should never quit the port of Cadiz .'^ 
 
 On further objecting, that this furnished no key to the 
 transaction, as this end could equally have been obtained 
 without the Conspiracy, it came to my turn lo be questioned ; 
 and when I pointed out the chain and sequence of events, 
 wliich all hung upon d'lsla de Leon, viz. the Constitution 
 of Spain, the spreading the flame of political discord 
 
34 SPAIN. 
 
 so the infiammable materials prepared in other parts of 
 Europe, whence the convulsions of Italy ; the imposition by 
 the Northern powers of an armed Intervention by France^ 
 the reaction in Spain, the monarchical reaction in France, 
 leading to a democratic one ; and these being steps only in a 
 progress of exhaustless patience and matchless enterprise 
 towards the dominion of a desolated world ; when, I say, I 
 offered this as the explanation, there was nothing therein 
 either visionary or startling to a man who knew of his own 
 knowledge that the Proclamation in Isla de Leon of the 
 Cadiz Constitution of 1813 had been the work of that Go- 
 vernment which had instituted the " Holy Alliance." 
 
 It was by a word dropped on the subject of this Eevolt at 
 the opposite extremity of Europe thr^ I was fu'st attracted 
 towards those subjects, and, indeed, I may say at once 
 initiated into their mysteries. I had arrived from Greece, at 
 Constantinople, just in time to be present at a fete given to 
 commemorate the Peace of Adrianople. I was much sur- 
 prised to find myself the object of the sedulous attention of a 
 Eussian diplomatist who had recently been on a mission to 
 Greece. He took the trouble to indoctrinate me : the Greeks, 
 he informed me, had from a horde of pirates been humanised by 
 the magic genius of a single man who was now the idol of 
 their aifections, at once their Lycurgus and their Mahomet.* 
 Astonishment deprived me of speech, and I sat listening in 
 amazement. I had seen so far already as to know that the 
 conduct of England and France in Greece had been atrocious 
 and perfidious, and I looked to Eussia as the only hope for 
 that country, as she might be inclined towards them on the 
 score of religion, and her agents could not be so stupid as those 
 of her allies. When the Eussian had done with me, in my 
 perplexity I asked one of the Prussian secretaries of Legation 
 the meaning of the words I had heard, and inquired if Eussia 
 
 * This was in reference to Capo d'Istrias, — a man universally 
 abhorred and ultimately assassinated, and whom England had forced 
 upon the Grreelcs. 
 
KEVOLT or THE ISLA DE LEON. 35 
 
 could really liave some object in injuring Greece. He smiled, 
 and said, " Did you ever hear of Isla de Leon ?" I an- 
 swered, " No." " You know, at least," he replied, " that 
 Spain is always in trouble. Her trouble con^menced with 
 that Eevolt. That was Russia's tcork, and such is her work 
 everywhere." 
 
 Distance is nothing to systems that work by the spirit, 
 and Eussia's victories have been gained more by wheels than 
 gunpowder, by courtiers than armies, — the deep no less 
 than the land furnishes her a path. The viewless messages 
 which thus reach Europe's bounds span the Atlantic ; and the 
 Colonies lost to Spain, and which she was bargaining with 
 the United States that Spain should not retake, were on the 
 very point, had it not been for the resistance of Canning, to 
 render her the centre of a European Combination for their 
 recon,quest, and of an American Confederacy for their defence. 
 The barbarians who have heretofore subdued Europe pre- 
 sented a physical object; also they had virtues and introduced 
 laws. This Invasion is one which the eye cannot see, nor the 
 hand resist ; it is not the march of armies, but the spread of 
 infection. The Vandals, to kill the living by the dead, 
 slaughtered their prisoners around the cities they besieged ; 
 so Eussia has found the secret of infecting Europe with its 
 own corruption. Preserving intact the spirit of barbarism, 
 she culls from Europe its sciences of philosophy and destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 Gibbon concludes his observations on the fall of the Eoman 
 empire of the West with these memorable words of unparalleled 
 infatuation : — 
 
 "Cannon and fortification now form an impregnable barrier, 
 and Europe is secure from any future eruption of barbarians, 
 since before they can conquer they must cease to be barbarous. 
 Then gradual advancement in the science of war would always 
 be accompanied, as we may learn from the example of Eussia, 
 with a proportion of improvement in the aj'ts of peace and, 
 civil 'policy ! they themselves must deserve a name amongst 
 
36 SPAIN. 
 
 the polished nations they subdue. We may therefore acquiesce 
 in the pleasant conclusion, that every age of the world has 
 increased and still increases the real worth, the happiness, 
 and the knowledge of 'the human race." 
 
 Four short years had thus sufficed to plant in Spain the 
 fulcrum of Paction, hitherto unknown ; the levers were to be 
 worked from afar, by what process it will be now our task ta 
 trace, — with what effect, future generations alone can tell. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Position of France in 1822. — Invasion of 
 Piedmont and Najjles. 
 
 To speak in 1823 of a Spanish war was to recall the 
 previous one, in which above half a million of Frenchmen had 
 perished. The object proposed in so perilous an enterprise 
 was not a disputed succession : it v/as to obtain redress for 
 no injuries, there was no Frencli interest involved; it was 
 to change institutions, in an inverse sense to those of France. 
 It presented, then, insuperable difficulties, and involved the 
 reappearance of the armies of England in the Peninsula. 
 Wellington survived. Napoleon was gone, and but seven 
 years had elapsed since the Allies had, for the second time, 
 entered Paris, having the first time marched thither from the 
 Pyrenees. No enterprise could present itself under features 
 more forbidding to the Prencli nation. 
 
 The king was not in favour of the plan ; the President of 
 the Council was most adverse to it; the royalist minority deemed 
 it insane; the Constitutionalist majority held it an attack 
 I'pon themselves. No men of genius supported, by their private 
 judgment or senatorial eloquence, the unpopular measure. 
 At this horn*, when all secrets have been laid bare, we can 
 scarcely discover a known name not hostile, save those of 
 JVI.de Montmorency and i\I.de Chateaubriand: of these the first 
 was the minister of foreign affairs, the latter the ambassador 
 in London. M. de Montmorency fell a sacrifice to his ardour 
 in this cause, even before the CyngTess of Verona had termi- 
 nated its sittings, and jM. de Chateaubriand had been backed 
 by England, as the opponent of " extreme measures." 
 
 Astounding as such a statement may be, the proofs of its 
 accuracy lie within the reach of any diligent man. There are 
 the columns of the ' Moniteur,' the official documents, and 
 the published exculpation of M. de Chateaubriand. 
 
SPAIN. 
 
 Tlie event iias proved that these apprehensions of Spanish 
 resistance were unfounded ; may not, therefore, the pro- 
 moters of the war have calculated with greater accuracy the 
 chances than the public ? We have their most secret com- 
 munications before us : from these I extract the leading 
 points, as given by the author of the Invasion. 
 
 He considered the people of Spain intractible, not attached 
 to "legitimate principles more than to constitutional ;" he held 
 the whole case "to reside in the character of the king;" he 
 was the political disease of Spain; he was "false, iml)ecile, 
 and treacherous;" the people of Spain were vindictive, 
 and the restoration of the absolute king would be the 
 signal of every excess to which " they were entitled by 
 their traditional habits of arrogance." He held the In- 
 vasion to be most dangerous, and to place the French armies 
 entirely at the mercy of England : he looked on failure as 
 " the fall of the Eourbons in Trance," and the beginning of 
 a convulsion "more dangerous than that of 1793." Had he 
 looked to prompt and easy success, had he come with a 
 scheme of government to introduce, he might have been 
 set down as fit for a place in St. Luke's ; but he had no such 
 hope or plan. How shall we describe him if not in his own 
 words, " It is not he that is fabulous, but the age ?" Let us 
 now consider the dispositions of foreign Powers. 
 
 Prance was then humbled. She was admitted to no Con- 
 claves : she had just escaped from a project of further partition 
 projected by England : she was hated by the despotic Powers 
 for her supposed liberalism, and by the Constitutionalists 
 for her entrance into the " Holy Alliance." She was then 
 linked by no entente cordiale with England, but looked upon 
 her neighbour as engaged ^n a national policy to humble 
 and weaken her. The Spanish Constitution was considered 
 England's work : an eventual occupation of Spain was 
 therefore, justly to be considered " a possible war vath 
 England." Canning was minister. 
 
 As to the Continental Powers, and especially the Holy 
 Alliance, it may be supposed that they were not only favour- 
 
POSITION OF FRANCE IN 182%, 39 
 
 able but so ardent in the matter, as to make common cause 
 with her when repeating across the Pyrenees the recent 
 expeditions of Austria across the Alps. The cases, however, 
 were widely different. 
 
 In these Interventions, Austria acted in the pursuit of a 
 definite policy on a field abandoned to her at the Congress of 
 Vienna ; there was no danger of a war thence arising between 
 her and England. Prussia did not apprehend that she would 
 extend her power, or change in a dangerous manner her own 
 character, but knew full well that she would be only weakened. 
 France alone coidd hav£ taken umbrage at Austrian Inter- 
 vention in Italy ; it was against her that the blow was aimed, 
 and she was prostrate. The Holy Alliance had, moreover, 
 defioimced these Eevolutions from the beginning. No danger 
 for the person of the king could arise from the hostile 
 operation. 
 
 The Invasion of Spain by France presents the counterpart 
 in aU respects of this picture ; there the Eevolution had been 
 recognised, the powers had their ambassadors at IVIadiid — the 
 Eussian ambassador, who was also a Spanish general (Pozzo 
 di Porgo), had taken part in the appointment of the ministry. 
 The Invasion was considered not an easy suppression of 
 doctrines, but as a great war with incalculable consequences. 
 Austria and Eussia reduced the question to this dilemma, 
 " either France will be victorious, or she will be beaten :'* in 
 the first case she will regain her preponderance — in the second 
 Eevolution its strength. 
 
 Where then was the support of the promoters of the project 
 against their King, their Colleagues, the Chamber, the Charter, 
 the Parties, in a word — France ? Let us open the " Congress 
 of Verona" — I mean the volume. 
 
40 
 
 CHAPTEE YJ. 
 Congress of Verona. 
 
 TiiE Conference at Verona was attended, not like that of 
 Laybach, by the members of the Holy Alliance only, but also 
 by the Representatives of other States and of England, wlio 
 had protested against such meetings, declaring that she 
 " never contemplated that the alliance of the great Powers 
 was to be converted into a conclave for the government 
 of independent states." The Conference ended without any 
 decision : no joint declaration of principles was published, and 
 no concerted action of any description resolved on. 
 
 There were five major points discussed, which I place 
 according to their order of discussion and supposed im- 
 portance : 
 
 1st. The Slave Trade. 
 
 2d, Suppression of piracy in America and the Spanish 
 Colonies. 
 
 3d. The differences between Bussia and the Porte. 
 
 4th. The affairs of Italy. 
 
 5th. The Revolution in Spain. 
 
 These subjects were treated severally by the Powers di- 
 rectly interested. The smaller States were excluded from the 
 discussion on the affairs of the Porte, and Prance, though 
 not excluded, was allowed no consultative voice ; from those 
 of Italy, she was etitirely excluded. Those on which she was 
 called to treat were the Slave Trade, the Spanish Colonies, and 
 Spain. The first two were introduced by the English Govern- 
 ment ; the role of Prance was limited to declining to 
 accede to the English proposals. Prance herself intro- 
 duced Spain in the form of a question as to how far tbe 
 Powers would lend to her their sanction or co-operation in 
 eventual circumstances, such as, for instance, a declaration 
 of war by Spain. 
 
CONGEESS OP VERONA. 
 
 The French Commissioners had however been enjoined l>y 
 their instructions 'Ho avoid presenting themselves to the Congress 
 as reporting on Spanish affairs,"" because, says the President of 
 the Council, " should Spain declare war against ris, we do not 
 require succours, and avc could not even admit of them, if the 
 result were to be the passage of foreign troops across our 
 territory." He proceeds to show the impossibility of con- 
 quering Spain, or of maintaining there an army of occupation. 
 
 Tliese instructions were framed to meet and counteract 
 supposed warlike dispositions on the part of the Congress, 
 which might place France in the alternative of defending the 
 Spanish devolution against Europe, or of attacking it on 
 behalf of Europe. 
 
 The French Plenipotentiary, in the teeth of these specific 
 orders, did, . as we have seen, make himself the reporter on 
 Spanish affairs, and, in so doing, applied the words of 
 M. Yillele, in reference to a defensive war against Spain to 
 an Intervention in Spain, and so identified the proposed 
 measure with those operations against Piedmont and Naples, 
 which the President of the Council had energetically repudiated. 
 In his communication to the Congress of the 20th October, 
 he says : — 
 
 " Besides, the Spanisli Government may suddenly determine 
 npon a formal aggTession. France must therefore foresee as 
 possible, and perhaps even as probable, a war with Spain. 
 15y the nature of things, and in the sentiments of moderation 
 by which she seeks to regidate her conduct, she must consider 
 this war as strictly defensive. Full of confidence in the 
 justice of the cause she will have to defend, and honouring 
 herself with \i^\'m^ to pi-eserve Europe from the revolutionary 
 scourge, &c." He then proceeds to indicate a middle course 
 as possible between war and peace, — that of breaking off 
 diplomatic intercourse ; and his proposal is, that the other 
 Courts shall also withdraw their Representatives. This step, 
 not in his instructions, was that best calculated to exasperate 
 Spain, and to identify France with the Holy Alliance. H« 
 himself contemplates' this result. "This measure, which 
 
43 SPAIN. 
 
 would have so much the more effect as it would be consum- 
 mated by a perfect concord between the high powers, might 
 bring grave consequences. It would probably exasperate 
 tlie men who at present govern Spain, but they alone would 
 have to incur the responsibility." He then proceeds to put 
 three questions : 
 
 1st. If the Allies will break diplomatically with Spain 
 wlien Trance does ? 
 
 2d. In case of war, what moral support could be lent to 
 Prance ? 
 
 3d. What material succours could be afforded in case she 
 demanded it V^ 
 
 Thus introduced, the Conference examined the cases of 
 war, as follows : 
 
 1st. That of an attack on the French territory. 
 
 3d. The dethronement of the king, or legal proceedings 
 against his person or his family. 
 
 3d. A formal act of the Spanish Government to change 
 the legitimate succession. 
 
 Here were added two new cases not contemplated in the 
 French instructions, and upon the whole collectively the 
 French Plenipotentiary demanded a decision. Prussia and 
 Austria answered, " that if the conduct (the subsequent con- 
 duct) of the Spanish Government in respect to France or her 
 ambassador at Madrid was such as Xo, force the latter to break 
 off diplomatic connection," they would then do the same. 
 *'That if, in despite of tJie care the French Government takes 
 to prevent a war with Spain, that war came to break out" 
 (by Spain's act), they would yield to her their moral support. 
 '^That if the events or the consecpiences of a war made 
 France feel the necessity for more active succour, they 
 ■would consent to that kind of succour in so far as the neces- 
 sities of their position might leave them the faculty of so 
 doing." 
 
 England protested against the whole proceeding, and 
 declared that the interference of foreig-n Pofvers was in 
 every case calculated to exasperate and not to allay faction ; 
 
CONGRESS OF VERONA. 43 
 
 that this sentiment was stronger in Spain than in any other 
 country, and that the very existence of such communications 
 tended to put in danger those august pei-sons for whose 
 security they were undertaken. 
 
 "Russia alone," says M. de Chateaubriand, "answered 
 energetically, yes, to all the proposals of France. She is 
 ready to withdraw her ambassador — she is ready to give to 
 Prance, in every case, every moral and material support with- 
 out restriction and without condition." 
 
 Proposals of France ! They were at the time iiTiknov^n to 
 the French Cabinet. The proposals assented to by Russia 
 were her own. But let us hear her view of the case : — 
 
 " Anarchy reduced to principle, and power become the price 
 of insolence to the throne and to religion — disorder delivering 
 up to a destructive scourge entire populations — the almost 
 consummated loss of the rich possessions in the new world — 
 the public fortune dissipated — the most subversive doctrines 
 openly preached : some faithful subjects array themselves for 
 the defence of their Sovereign, and this Sovereign forced to 
 proscribe them. Abroad, the sad spectacle which is presented 
 in the countries which the artizans of the trouhUs of Europe 
 had destined to be the prey of Revolution. Last year, the 
 two Sicilies ou fire, and the Allied Powers constrained to 
 place there legitimate power under the edges of their arms. 
 Piedmont convulsed, and endeavouring to propagate revolt 
 in the north of Italy, and provoking the same Intervention 
 and the same assistance. Assuredly it is impossible that 
 such a state of things should not excite the regrets and the 
 inquiries of aZ^ the Europecm powers." 
 
 "This frank note," says the French Plenipotentiary, the 
 historian of the Congress, "dissipated all fears relative to 
 the war with Spain." The fears of the French Government 
 were lest the war should be rendered inevitable — those of 
 the French Plenipotentiary lest it should not be made. 
 
 The next step was to propose the withdrawal from Madrid 
 of the Representatives of the other powers hefore that of France. 
 This was to be a concerted meamrey taken by the Allies 
 
SPAIN. 
 
 who liad promised only to support and follow France when, 
 attacked. This carried, it is n-ext proposed to send seporaie 
 Notes justifying the rupture. As Trance was not yet to come 
 to her rupture, the composition of these Notes was for Austria 
 and Prussia a rather difficult enterprise : the first harps on 
 Piedmont, the second is full of apprehension for war.* Eussia, 
 however, hits the blot, and buries the wT.apon to the hilt. 
 
 " Prance has seen herself compelled to confide to an army 
 the care of her frontier, and perhaps she will have equally to 
 confide to it the care of causing provocations to cease of wliich 
 she is the object." 
 
 Those whose judgments await results may conceive that 
 the cautious and guarded terms of the early communications 
 of Austria and Prussia were a disguise, and that their real 
 dispositions were revealed in their subsequent acts. How, 
 indeed, could it be possible that in the course of a few days 
 they should be changed, on the most important affair of 
 Europe, from one settled course to another exactly the 
 reverse ? But what portion of this statement is not liable to 
 the same objection ? What, for instance, more incompre- 
 nensible than that the French Minister should have been 
 opposed to the war, and have forbidden his agents to make any 
 report on the affairs of Spain? Those who allege such impro- 
 prieties, knownot the magic of the human mind, nor the sorcery 
 of the powerful spirit over the weak. Eussia had at Verona the 
 kings and statesmen of Europe brought within her reach, and 
 placed in the very palm of her hand. The balls being together 
 on the table, she could make the points off them, and wdn the 
 game without dropping the cue. 
 
 She proposed from France to the Conference what the French 
 
 * "C'est elle qui, par la contagion de ses pi'incipes et de ses 
 exemples, et par les intrigues de ses principaux artisans, a crec les 
 revolutions de Naples et du Piemont." — Austrian note. 
 
 "L'efl'et inevitable de tant de desordres se fait surtout sentir dans 
 I'alteration des rapports entre I'Espagne et la France. L'irritation 
 qui en resuite est xle nature ^ donner les plus fortes alarines pour la 
 j;)aix autre les deux royaumes." — Frussian note. 
 
CONGRESS OF YEJftONA. 45 
 
 Government never projected ; slie induced tlie Conference to 
 reply to the proposal so as to bring consequences wliich they 
 never anticipated. Associating herself to their action, she in- 
 terpreted their act in words which, not daring to repudiate 
 them, they had to accept as their own. She misled Austria 
 and Prussia as to the disposition of the Trench Ministry 
 through the treachery of its agent, and represented to the 
 French Ministry their extorted consent as a coercion \ 
 
 The tardy protestation of England, which at the commence- 
 ment would have nipped the system in its bud, came then but 
 to vex and exasperate M. de Villele, and to furnish Eussia 
 with the occasion of launching at England an insolent defiance 
 in the name of the " Continental Alliance." 
 
 All this may be gathered from the published documents 
 but beyond these, we are in possession of still more surprising 
 materials. 
 
 To what a pass has diplomatic secrecy reduced the human 
 race and understanding, when the phrases of an intriguer 
 couched on a sheet of paper can inflict on the world tortures 
 and desolation, such as in former times would have required 
 the iiTuption of savage hordes, or the rare and terrible phe- 
 nomenon of a conquering genius. The following passage bears 
 its own comment : — 
 
 " In order to render intelligible the difl'crent parts of the 
 Congress of Verona, it is now necessary that I should give an 
 account of my private coiTcspondence with M. Villele. It will 
 be seen that the Verona correspondent (himself), by a natural 
 connivance with his own desires, exaggerates the desire of the 
 sovereigns for the war, with the exception, as we have already 
 said, of the Emperor of Eussia. I* sought to fix the deter- 
 mination of the President of the Council, for his ideas were 
 less fixed than mine, upon an enterprise with which I asso- 
 •ciated the safety and honour of France. I was not Minister or 
 Foreign Affairs, and there was not the least appearance that 
 J should soon be called to exercise the functions so worthily 
 
 * M. de Chateaubriand always uses the word we. 
 
> SPAIN. 
 
 filled by the Duke de Montmorency. But I fluttered 
 myself that if I could get my plan adopted by M. Villele, 
 that, on my return to London, 1 should be able to contribute 
 to render the execution of it more easy, by standing so well 
 •with George IV and with Mr. Canning." 
 
 The reader may be curious to see some fragments of this 
 correspondence. 
 
 "Verona, 31st Oct. — The despatch of M. de Montmorency 
 wqll carry you to-day nearly the conclusion of the Spanish 
 affairs in tlie sense of your instructions. To-night we have a 
 Conference to consider the means of making known to Europe 
 the dispositions of the alliance. Kussia is well disposed to- 
 wards us {La Riissie est aimahle pour nous). Austria serves 
 Vis in this question, although she be for the rest all English. 
 Prussia follows Austria. The desires of the Poivers are strongly 
 in favour of a loar with Spain. It is for you, my dear friend^ 
 to see if you ought not to seize this occasion, perhaps unique, 
 of replacing France in the rank of military powers — of re- 
 accrediting the white cockade in a short war, almost without 
 danger, and towards which the opinion of the royalists and the 
 army strongly pushes you. All Continental Europe will be 
 for you, and England, if she take oifence, will not even have 
 time to lay hold of a colony. As to the chambers — success 
 covers everything. To destroy a focus of Jacobinism, to 
 establish a Bourbon upon the throne, by the hands of a 
 Bourbon, are results to overbalance all secondary considera- 
 tions J and, after all, how are we to get out of our* present 
 position ? Are we eternally to keep an army of observation at 
 the foot of the Pyrenees ? Can we, without exposing our- 
 selves to the hisses and contempt of all parties, send back our 
 soldiers some moraing to their garrisons." 
 
 " 30th November. — ^Do not believe, my dear friend, that in 
 speaking of the ' advantages of this war,' I do not feel the 
 serious consequences it might bring. England softens her- 
 self, and appears at this moment less opposed to the interests 
 of Continental Europe, but if our fleets were long in activity, 
 and if Russian soldiers icere put in motion, the double jealousy 
 
CONGriESS OF VERONA. 47 
 
 of our insular neighbours might be re-awakened. You are 
 therefore quite right not to precipitate yourself blindfold 
 into hostilities of which it is necessary to calculate all the 
 chances, &c. 
 
 " I must tell you, my dear friend, a thing which, however, 
 will not pain you. You are accused here to the man who 
 dees all (or rather the man to whom evei7thing that is done 
 is attributed) of extreme moderation. I have been enveloped 
 as your friend in tliis charge, I have been therefore treated 
 coldly, because I was suspected of wishing to look twice 
 before precipitating my counti-y into the chances of a war 
 that might become European; and then it happens .that I 
 alone have remained Constitutional, when no one will hear of 
 Constitution. What is to be done ? Take all this in pa- 
 tience ^nd in pity; however, after the departure of M. de 
 Montmorency, I will play a nobler part. 
 
 " I perceive already the symptoms of favour to come ; 
 above all, will I succeed if you write to me, and if it is known 
 that I am your man, for whilst finding some fault with your 
 prudence there is the highest idea of your capacity, ^w 
 reste, I must tell you in this long letter, that I write with a 
 flowing pen, that Austria and Prussia are by no means ardent 
 for the w^ar, and if you should be so disposed, it would he very 
 easy to came obstacles to he started on the part of the Cabi- 
 nets of Vienna and Berlin. 
 
 " Postscript. — Whatever he the resolution of the Cotmcil 
 of tJie Tuileries, the other Cabinets seem determined to send 
 their Notes and withdraw their Agents from Sjpain.^' 
 
 " Verona, 28th November. — We are, it appears to me, in 
 a most difficult position ; whatever we do here is pleasing 
 to no one. France acts by constraint (a la main forcee) ; 
 Russia is dissatisiied because ^ve do not go far enough; 
 Austria has moved only that she might not come to a rupture 
 with Russia ; Prussia trembles at the least disturbance ; and 
 England opposes everything. Whilst we fancied we had 
 succeeded in doing something at Verona, the real business 
 w^as managed elsewhere. We see now the cause of the 
 
48 SPAIN. 
 
 violent notes of the Duke of* Wellington. « * * It is tliere- 
 fore not a simple war with Spain, but a possible one with 
 England." 
 
 Now let us turn to M. Villele: on the same day, but in 
 answer to the p-evious postscript he writes : — 
 
 " 28tli November. — I see that it is upon us that will roU 
 the whole weight of the detennination with respect to Spain. 
 I have no objection if they give us both the balls; but if it 
 is only one we are to have, I am not to be seduced by the 
 appearance of so much honour. The whole matter rests on 
 the Notes of Russia, Frussia, 'and Austria. If their cqntents 
 are o£ a nature to Iririg a rupture, it is clear that we shall be 
 immediately in war, or in a state so like it as not in reality 
 to have any choice to make. 
 
 "At the end of the year I shall have twenty-five millions 
 in hand, all expenses paid — Why should these unhappy 
 external affairs come to trouble such prosperity ?" 
 
 The measures of England having iraitated M. Villele^ he 
 writes, on the 5 th of December, a most important letter, ia 
 which he expatiates on the needlessness of the course in 
 which they were engaged, gives expression to his suspicion 
 that they were played upon, and of his fears of the ulti^ 
 mate triumph of the extreme party in Spain, in Erance, and 
 throughout Europe. He recoils, however, from any measur.'? 
 which would wear the appearance of concurrence with England, 
 but is terrified at the idea of separating from the Allies.* He 
 therefore implores the Erench Plenipotentiaries to obtain from 
 the Allies that their Ambassadors should not be withdrawn 
 from Madrid, and that the ultimate decision should be 
 remitted to a Conference at Paris. He concludes his earnest 
 and supplicatory letter in these terms : — 
 
 "May it please God, for my country's sake and for 
 Europe's, to cause them to desist from a resolution which, 
 
 * On the one side, it would be friglitfid {affreux) for us, and we 
 could not resolve upon such a step, to separate ourselves from tho 
 Emperor of Russia, — to imitate whom ? the only power whom vi& 
 have reason to mistrust, — England. 
 
CONGEESS OF VEllONA. 49 
 
 witli profound conviction, I announce beforehand as about to 
 compromise the safety of France herself." 
 
 To the opinion of this statesman I must add a passage 
 concurrently written by Mr. Canning : — 
 
 " Leave the Spanish Revolution to burn itself out within its 
 own crater. You have nothing to apprehend from the erup- 
 tion if you do not open a channel for the lava through the 
 Pyrenees." 
 
 M. de Chateaubriand answers from Verona on the night 
 of the 20th December : — 
 
 "As soon as I received your letter of the 5th, I had with 
 Prince ^letternich this morning a conversation of the last im- 
 portance. The Emperor of Prussia has also granted me an 
 audience, and this generous Prince spoke to me for more than 
 an hour with an interest for the King and for France truly 
 admirable. In two words, the three Pov/ers will not withdraw 
 their notes and will despatch them to Madrid, granting us, 
 however, a few days to act with them if we be so disposed." 
 
 Here ends the Congress of Verona. 
 
 "It results from this correspondence," says M. dc Chateau-. 
 briand, " that M. Villele and I had each of us a fixed idea : 
 I wanted the war, he wanted peace ; and I attributed to all 
 the Allies the sentiments of Alexander, and told the President 
 of the Council that the strongly pronounced wish of all was 
 for the war. M. de Montmorency was also for the war, but he 
 had altogether another object, and his opinions were openly 
 expres*sed. I clothed my determination under doubts, and 
 feared that in revealing too much, I should spoil all." 
 
 It is here necessary to remark that M. de Chateaubriand 
 did not share in the more enlightened opinion of the present 
 day in respect to Russia, and held her to be neither stupid 
 nor weak. In a work in which he avows his entire devotion 
 to her chief, he admits her to be most subtle, powerful, and 
 ambitious ; he speaks of the Emperor as *' the Potentate to 
 whom Napoleon had bequeathed Europe. ^^ His avowed puifjose 
 is to restore the military power of France, to make her " » 
 
 3 
 
50 SPAIN. 
 
 useful ally to Russia' in the accomplishment of that prophecy. 
 He and his colleague received each, as compensation for the 
 ingratitude of their country, a pension from the Emperor of 
 25,000 francs. But M. de Chateaubriand was a religious 
 man, and had published on " The Genius of Christianity." 
 
 I cannot resist the temptation of inserting a letter of 
 Mr. Canning to M. de Chateaubriand, written after the 
 matter was decided, and to the last person in the world on 
 whom it was worth while to expend paper and ink. It is 
 curious to observe how completely the man of genius, desti- 
 tute of the sense of action, and conversant only with ideas . 
 and words, is at the mercy of the intriguer. 
 
 *' London, January 2l5^, 1823. 
 
 " I think these changes unfortunate, but still I do not 
 despair if you cont'miie to he for peace, and if your just estimate 
 of the dangers of war to France does not yield to your belief 
 of its facilities, and your anticipation of its glories ; but I 
 own some of your topics alarm me more than your reasonings 
 tranquillise me upon that point. 
 
 " When I speak of the dangers of war to France, do not 
 suppose that I undervalue her resources or power. She is as 
 brave and as strong as ever she was before. She is now the 
 richest, the most abounding in disposable means, of all the 
 states of Europe. Here are all the sinews of war, if there 
 be the disposition to employ them. You have a million of 
 soldiers, you say, at your caU. I doubt it not ; and it is 
 double the number, or thereabout, that Napoleon buried in 
 Spain. You consider a "premier succcs au moins" as 
 certain. I dispute it not. I grant you a Erench army at 
 Madrid. But I venture to ask, what then ? If the King of 
 Spain and the Cortes are by that time where they infallibly 
 
CONGRESS OF VERONA. 51 
 
 will be, in the * Isla do Leon,' I see plenty of war if you 
 onc<3 get into it, but I do not see a legitimate beginning to 
 it, nor an intelligible object. You would disclaim to get into 
 such a war by the side-door of an incidental military incur- 
 sion; you would enter in front with the cause of war 
 blazoned on your banner. And what is that cause ? Is it to 
 be learned from the notes and despatches of four Continental 
 Powers? or from M. de Villele's only? Is it vengeance 
 for the past, or security for the future ? You disclaim the 
 former, no doubt, but how is the latter to be obtained by 
 war ? I understand a war of conquest ; I understand a war 
 of succession, — a war for the change (on the one hand), or 
 the conservation (on the other) of a peculiar dynasty. But 
 a war for the modification of a political Constitution, a war 
 for the two Chambers, and for the extension of the regal pre- 
 rogative — a war for such objects as these I really do not 
 understand, nor do I conceive how the operations of it are 
 to be directed to sucli an end. You would not propagate 
 La Charte as Mahomed did the Alkoran, or as in the earliest 
 part of your Revolution Erance did the Rights of ]\Ian. Con- 
 sider, is there not some forbearance on the part of Spain in 
 not throwing these things in your teeth? Might she not, 
 when informed that her change of Constitution had not been 
 bloodless, desire that it should be compared with 1789 and 
 1792-3 ? Might she not, when accused by Russia of a 
 forcible change of government, remind the Emperor Alexander 
 of the events which preceded his own accession, and the 
 treaty of Tilsit which made over Spain to Buonaparte? 
 Might she not speak to Prussia of promises of free Insti- 
 tutions made by a King, and violated ? Might she not accept 
 Prince Metteniich's appeal to the former union of Spain and 
 Austria, and turning to us (if we took part in the lecture) 
 say that she was ready, like England in 1683, to preserve 
 her laws and liberties by a small change in the reigning 
 dynasty, and to place an Austrian Prince with enlarged 
 powers upon her throne ? Surely the discussions with which 
 
52 SPAIIT. 
 
 tiie war lias been prsfciced are as liazardous as the war itself. 
 Consider before what an audience you plead. How many of 
 their passions are against you ! — how few of their sympathies 
 are with you ! * * * And do you make war to free such a 
 monarch from all restraint ? And do you hope to have man- 
 kind with you?'* 
 
53 
 
 CITAPTEK Yir. 
 Invasion of 1823. 
 
 On entering the Spanish territory, the Due D'AngouIeme 
 issued a . proelamation (2d April), which opens in these 
 words : — 
 
 " The King of France, in withdrawing his Ambassador from 
 Madrid, hoped that the warning would have recalled the 
 Spanish Government to more moderate sentiments. Two 
 months and a half have passed, and His Majesty has awaited 
 in vain to see an order of things established in Spain com- ' 
 patible with the security of its neighbours." 
 
 The Note of the French Government which had preceded 
 the recall of the Ambassador contained the following passage ; 
 
 *' The Government of His Majesty will not hesitate to seek 
 guarantees in more efficacious dispositions for the protection 
 of the material interests of France, should they continue to be 
 compromised, and should she lose the hopes of an ameliora- 
 tion, which, with pleasure, she awaits from the sentiments 
 which have so long united the Spaniards to the French in a 
 sage liberty." 
 
 Such were the hopes in which she awaited the two months 
 and a half spent in active preparation for Invasion, in con- 
 sequence of a provocation which she had tranquilly endured 
 for two years, and which Invasion her King from the throne 
 had the year before declared that " malevolence alone" could 
 suspect. 
 
 The Due D'AngouIeme having with laconic vagueness 
 explained the grounds of the Invasion, thus exposes the con- 
 duct he is about to pursue : — 
 
 " Spaniards — everything will be done for you and icitJi you. 
 — ^The French are, and only will be your auxiliaries j — your 
 
64 SPAIN. 
 
 own flag will alone Vv'ave over your cities; — the provinces 
 that my soldiers shall traverse, will be administered in the 
 name of Ferdinand, by Spanish authorities : — we do not 
 pretend to impose upon you laws, we only desire to restore 
 to you order." 
 
 Three days before the date of the Duke's Proclamation, 
 another had appeared, also issuing from the French territory; 
 it contained these words : — 
 
 " Spaniards, to you belongs the glory of exterminating 
 the Revolutionary Hydra. 
 
 *'The Provisional Junta of Government declares that 
 sovereignty resides entirely in the King, and emanates from 
 him. 
 
 "Spaniards, your Government declares that it does not 
 recognise, and holds as null, all the public and administrative 
 acts, as well as the measures of a Government established by 
 [Rebellion, and that consequently it temporarily re-establishes 
 things in the state in which they were previous to the 7th 
 March, 1820.'* 
 
 The place from which it was dated, and the concurrent 
 transmission of the two Proclamations, prove the connivance. 
 At a subsequent period the French Government attempted 
 to exculpate itself by its inability to restrain the Party it had 
 placed in power, without exposing its troops to the fury of 
 a reaction. But of what further violence could it be guilty ? 
 The proclamation of the Dake was not his voluntary act, nor 
 one to which he had assented, — it was sent to him only at 
 the moment that it was to be published, and with pressing 
 orders that the publication should not be delayed an hour.* 
 * " The Due d'Angouleme found at Toulouse the members of the 
 ex -regency of Urgel. He received them very coldly, and only as 
 private persons. He showed attention only to the Baron d'Eroles, 
 but whether it was that his opinions had undergone a change, or 
 that he had been overreached by some intrigue, it is certain that, 
 in direct contradiction witli liis moderate ideas, a provisional junta 
 made its appearance on the 6th of April at Bayonne, composed of 
 Eguia, Erol, and Gromez Calderon, and which, without waiting to 
 know whence its power came to it, or who it represented, com- 
 
INVASION OP 1823. 55 
 
 The only course was the appointment of the Due 
 D'Angouleme as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, until 
 the close of the expedition. The political circumstances of 
 the country rendered this imperative, and it presented no 
 administrative difficulty even of detail, the municipal bodies 
 having there the entire management, and standing distinct 
 from the Cortes and their system. Whilst the issue remained 
 uncertain, there was absolutely nothing for a general govern- 
 ment legitimately to do. 
 
 Two savage factions stood in face of each other: liow 
 could France restore order if not by standing as a moderator 
 between them ? To announce that her annies sliall advance 
 as stalking horses, for the vengeance of a proscribed minority, 
 was a device to accumulate obstacles in their van, to surround 
 the march with dangers, and to mark their track with the 
 desolation of a civil Avar. To tell the one party that the 
 door of vengeance was open, was to shut against the other 
 the hope of reconciliation, and to bring upon the army a fate 
 similar to that with which it threatened Spain. Had the 
 design been executed in the spirit in which it was planned, 
 100,000 Frenchmen would have marched to their graves ; 
 Spain would have been a chaos of convulsion, of which the 
 counterpart would soon have appeared in Prance herself; and 
 the Russian troops, which, as we leani from M. de Chateau- 
 briand, were to be put in motion, would have found their 
 concerted destination. 
 
 However, the Spaniards are not a reading people, and 
 they had made up their minds upon the matter in a manner 
 which Shakspeare has anticipated in the words, " A plague on 
 both your houses." The Due d'Augouleme was hailed as a 
 liberator ; the Prench troops were everywhere received v^^ith 
 
 menced from that day by declaring null every act since the 7th of 
 March, 1820 ; and that dcelai-ation, although calculated seriously to 
 injiu-e the cause of restoration, and to produce the worst effects in 
 France, was not the less sanctioned by the proclamation of the 
 Prince- Generalissimo at Oyarzun on the 9th of April." — Mar, de 
 Mirajlores. 
 
5G SPAIN. 
 
 open arms ; tlie Cortes fled without striking a blow ; everv- 
 thing was remitted into the hands of Erance ; every thing- 
 expected from her neutrality, moderation, generosity, and 
 wisdom. The accomplishment of those ardent desires for 
 the well-being of Spain, of which France was the agent, but 
 all Europe the source, was now at hand, and the Spanish 
 people, while disarming by its bearing the suspicions of the 
 Northern Powers, had given to itself irrefragible titles to the 
 sympathies of the Prench people, and to the gratitude of the 
 French Government, by the touching confidence with which 
 they had remitted their destinies into her hands. At this 
 moment, the field was bare ; no cloud had come over the 
 mind of the nation ; the rapidity of events had carried atten- 
 tion away from the Junta, and shortness of time had noi; 
 recalled it to their acts. But on the day before entering 
 Madrid was issued the Proclamation of xilcovendas, con- 
 verting the Junta, wdth the addition of two imbecile and 
 obnoxious names, into a regency. 
 
 It is difficult for us to admit into our minds the value of 
 this term. The character of inviolability belongs to a 
 Sovereign precisely because of the higher sphere in which he 
 moves, whence, himself uninfluenced by zeal of theory or 
 lust of profit, he moderates and restrains these passions, 
 disturbers of communities. What is it to invest with such a 
 quality persons taken from the midst, and in this case already 
 rejected from the mass, by failure of their faculties, or ab- 
 horrence of their character ? To these men are then given 
 Ministers to countersign their acts, French armies to execute 
 their decrees or guard their persons, and the heir of the 
 French Crown to insult, as evidence of their dig-nity. A 
 million of French bayonets are in the rear ready at their 
 call, and the moral influence and physical arms of another 
 million of Ptussians, if requisite, " to muzzle the Monster of 
 Eevolution, and to establish the Empire of the La.ws and 
 Order." Such a measure v/as never planned at^Madrid — such 
 a scheme never invented at Paris : its ])arentag;c belongs to 
 a latitude more fertile in vigorous conceptions. 
 
INVASION OP 1823. 57 
 
 It was, of course, requisite, not only that the scheme 
 !:honld not come from Paris, but also that it should be beheld 
 issuing from Spanish soil. Tiiis was still found to be im- 
 practicable. Some Institutions did survive the Constitution 
 of 1812, and were extant even at Madrid itself: these were 
 the two Councils of Castile and of the Indies, which had 
 not taken to flight with the Cortes. On them was to be 
 imposed by Instructions from Paris (how was Paris so well 
 informed?) *the duty of engendering the Eegency. They 
 positively had the hardihood to declare " that they could 
 find no precedent to authorise such a step, either in the laws 
 or usages of the Spanish monarchy, or in the histories of the 
 Eegencies that had been established during minorities or 
 interregnums." They do not, however, object to their 
 Presidents being members of it when it is established. Upon 
 this the French are obliged themselves to father the act, 
 and a Decree issues, which, after naming the persons, declares 
 the Eegency consiiituted — 
 
 " In the name of His Majesty the King of Prtance, 
 :iY Sovereign and Uncle." 
 
 It is signed Louis Antoine, and countersigned De 
 ^Maktignac, the Ambassador of France. 
 
 The Eegency speedily makes a declaration of principles, and 
 announces (Proclamation of the 4th June) that it Avill not 
 listen to the voice of passion, and " that it well knows how to 
 use the power confided to it to prevent persecution and excess.'* 
 But events soon gave the interpretation of these words, and 
 as their motives afi^orded nothing abstnise to public curiosity, 
 that curiosity transferred itself to Paris, where the contradic- 
 tion between Avords and deeds was at once interesting and 
 enigmatic. The coincidence with the Court of Ferdinand YII, 
 during the Conspiracy of the Isla de Leon, was not indeed 
 recalled, however deserving of recollection ; but as then, at 
 Madrid, everything was refeiTcd to a " secret influence," so 
 was now everything attributed to an " occtdt (jovernmenV^ at 
 Paris. In both cases the public instinct had been true, but 
 in neither was the public reason exerted. 
 
 3f 
 
58 SPAIN. 
 
 As to the dispositions of tlie Due d'Angoulerae there Qould 
 he no doubt, and he commanded the army — by that army 
 alone could the Kegency exist for an hour : the provinces of 
 the East, West, and South, were still nominally under the 
 rule of the Cortes. If the Regency played false to its Com- 
 mander, it must have done so at its own peril — a peril too 
 grave to be incurred, — or by intelligence with Paris. In that 
 {;ase tlie agents of the secret Government would be acting in 
 opposition to the responsible Ministry in Prance and the 
 Commander of her armies in Spain. Let us look at their 
 acts : a couple will suffice. 
 
 Within a week of the Proclamation, a Decree issued for 
 arming the ultra faction, under the title of " corps of voluntary 
 royalists," a body that soon rivalled the Strelitz of Ivan the 
 Terrible. 
 
 On the 27th June a Decree appeared without a parallel, 
 even in revolutionary Prance, entitled "■For the xmrijication of 
 civil servatits,"" by which every person employed for the pre- 
 vious three years (it was soon afterwards extended to the 
 military also) was subjected to an examination, by a secret 
 tribunal, as to whether or not he had done or said anything 
 '* by which the servants of the King and the good cause may 
 have suffered." There was no method of procedure laid 
 down ; every method was good ; all information was available, 
 and all proceedings secret. The body thus affected is 
 numerous beyond the limits of English conception, and even 
 of Prench calculation : the multitude of clerks is, in fact, the 
 master grievance of Spain : there was not one of this body 
 not affected to one or other faction, because, in fact, they 
 constituted the factious class. But this decree struck not 
 alone antagonists ; every one of them from that hour was an 
 accused person, without knowledge of the accusation, without 
 opportunity of defence. Servility became the bread of the 
 public servant, the fear of delation his companion. The vices 
 of men, or even their weakness, the jealousies of vicinage, the 
 competitions of self-love, were worked into the tissue of civil 
 power, transmitted into patriotism, and gratified under the 
 
INVASION OF 1S23. 59 
 
 form of public zeal. You will find the description of such 
 things in the psiges of Tacitus, but it was a native Despot who 
 enforced them on Home. Here ten times ten thousand 
 prizes were held out to invention, and who shall count the 
 solaces for pique ? But iu the novelty of circumstances, the 
 advantage was not possessed of professional informers, and 
 in town and city, in village and hamlet, they were separated 
 from the neighbour, the relative, the dependant, and the friend, 
 by an uncertain and meandering line. 
 
 But the Due d'Angouleme could not suppress his indigna- 
 tion, and he issued a Proclamation, in which he declared him- 
 self tlie arbiter of contending parties, and resolved not to 
 allow the triumph of France to become the triumph of faction. 
 The French Minister is furious ; he instantly writes to the 
 Ambassador, whom he had ordered to be " King of Spain," 
 to nulbfy by every means the Proclamation of tlie Prince : 
 Lis words are — amortir le coup. The Prince had to submit 
 to the humiliation of an explanation, which was, in fact, a 
 retractation. 
 
 Did the French Minister really believe that a republican 
 reaction and the destmction of the French would have been 
 the consequence of this step ? By no means. In his private 
 communications now published he describes it as having 
 produced the "best effects, even amongst the corps of 
 royalists, who complain that by punishing the constitutional 
 troops who had laid down their arms, new enemies are con- 
 stantly raised to them." This is no after-thought ; it is 
 written nine days after the Decree, namely, on the 17 th of 
 August. Again, ten days later he writes to the Ambassador 
 at INIadrid, who had been sending him all the absurd gossip 
 of the Puerta del Sole, as follows : — 
 
 "You have been listening to the cries of the Spanish 
 royalists and to the complaints of diplomatic agents, enemies 
 of France. You have not seen, as I have here, the answers 
 of the Commandants of the Fortresses, who all declare that 
 they are desirous of suiTendering themselves, but are pre- 
 vented, because in laying down theii* arms they would be 
 
60 SPAIN. 
 
 imprisoned and massacred hy the orders of ine Tiegency. You. 
 have not seen tlie reports of the cruelties of Merino and the 
 other royalist chiefs, and, consequent!}'-, you have not been in 
 a state to judge of the effect." 
 
 Can it be believed that the sentence immediately following 
 is this : "line seule ordonance a tout gate? " 
 
 The only act of the Prince was that Proclamation : it 
 was directed against the only danger that Prance had to .fear — 
 the only husmess in which the Eegency was engaged. 
 
 I subjoin a Spanish statement of the case, from the intro- 
 duction to the Marquis of Miraflore's valuable collection of 
 State Papers : — 
 
 "In six short weeks this change has been effected, so 
 powerfid were the means and so instant the agents, the Due 
 d'Angouleme having, in the mean time, remained a passive 
 spectator, restrained by that same occult influence which 
 had already not only coerced his judgment, but compromised 
 him in its own measures. His patience was at last exhausted, 
 and he fulminated against the regency, on the 8th August, 
 the Decree of Andujar. On this a howl arose from the clubs 
 and journalists of Madrid, and, far more important, a whisper 
 came to him from Paris. He had dared to take at lengih 
 a step, according to his pledge, to arrest excesses and 
 vengeances. He had dared to take measures for the safety of 
 Ills army, thereby compromised. He had dared to endeavour 
 to keep faith v/ith those who had laid down their arms by 
 Compact with Prance, and on the condition of an Amnesty, 
 and he was consequently bearded to the face by the regency 
 and its minions, threatened with the resistance of the armies 
 of Spain, in case he attempted to withdraw from their lusts 
 the victims of their vengeance. He was told by the rabble of 
 the streets of Madrid that he had attacked Spanish indepen- 
 dence, and it was notified to him from Paris that ' vengeance 
 was a customary liahit of the Spanish nation;^ that he had 
 exceeded the powers with which he was invested, mistaking 
 the views of the King's government ; that his act would 
 seriously compromise it in face of the Northern Powers.'* 
 
INVASION OF .1823. 61 
 
 The easy inarch of the French, so contraiy to all expect a- 
 tion, brought to the clearest demonstration two truths. 
 The first, that the party of the Cortes had no root : the 
 second, that the Eoyalist party had, if possible, still less, for 
 it had been expelled by that very Government which vanished 
 before the French. The Spaniards are the proudest of people, 
 and the - ablest to resist a foe ; but France was their 
 friend, or they expected her to be so. They looked to being 
 rescued by her out of the hands of 200,000 brawling 
 Philistines, who had got hold of them as a Dragoman does 
 of a traveller, or an Ambassador. 
 
 The grave and important part of the matter is, however, 
 the insight it affords into the causes of the present condition 
 of Europe, and into the working of its governing system. 
 The Minister of one power here appears acting for another, 
 who is kept out of view. To serve this foreign master, 
 he had accepted every consequence, and employed every 
 means, even to the last. What the urgency was that impelled 
 Mm, may be estimated from the obstacles against which, 
 apparently unaided, he had to contend — thei aversion of 
 his colleagues, the exasperation of England, the opposition 
 and disgust of the agent whom he employed, — no less a person 
 than the heir to the French Crown, in face of the anticipated 
 contingency of a general triumph of Kevolution, and a Musco- 
 vite occupation of France. The path was too intricate to 
 liave been hit by chance, — the difficulties too great to have 
 been conquered by accident, — the consequences too appalling 
 not to have been avoided, — the results too evident not to have 
 been foreseen. 
 
 That Minister was no longer M. de Yillele, but M. de 
 Chateaubriand, suddenly transferred to the Foreign Office at 
 Paris, and dismissed so soon as the Spanish operation was 
 completed. 
 
63 
 
 CHAPTEIl VIII, 
 Quadruple Treaty, 
 
 The Decade does not elapse witliout a new convulsion ; 
 Prencli troops are again crossing the Bidassoa, not as foes 
 but friends, and this time, according to the original scheme 
 of Chateaubriand, wearing the Spanish cockade. But in the 
 meantime the colours had changed. It is no longer in- 
 violable right to succession that had to be maintained, — it is 
 no longer to support a King against a Constitution, but to 
 maintain a Queen set up by one. Strange reflections might 
 be suggested by such events to the inhabitants of the other 
 planets, but in this earth they are not extraordinary. England, 
 who was so decidedly convinced in 1823 of the guilt and 
 foUy of interference in the affairs of neighbours, is now en- 
 gaged with Erance in this same scheme, and, indeed, has 
 seduced her into it. This is a matter which admits of no 
 discussion ; if not seen at a glance it cannot be seen at all. 
 
 Now what had we to expect ? Time had passed his baud 
 over the wounds of former strife, and covered even the cica- 
 trices : mutual jealousies had ceased between England and 
 Erance ; they admitted community of political interests, and 
 a new bond had arisen between them, — that of similarity of 
 opinions in regard to government, and of Institutions. Y\'as 
 it possible then to conceive that both should concur, or 
 that even one should undertake, any foreign operation not 
 unmistakeably just, profitable and necessary ; or that the 
 freedom of the people should suffer any measure to be under- 
 taken, except after the fullest exposition and the freest 
 consent ? 
 
 This union of the nations was not merely one of sympathy, 
 it also involved the profoundest political objects ; it Avas 
 at once an enjoyment and a security. It must have b(!en 
 their first care to preserve these bles.«ings, and therefore to 
 
QUADRUPLE TREATY. 63 
 
 avoid the rock on which their amity had been formerly ship- 
 wrecked. That rock was Interference. Nothing could occur 
 directly between them to impair their good-will, and of all 
 foreign waters of which they had to steer clear, the chief 
 were those of Spain. In the East the positive encroachments 
 of a third Power might excuse in this respect rnisjudg- 
 ments, and even rectify the effects of errors; but in the 
 Peninsula there was no safety-valve, there was no liglitning 
 conductor ; and so sure as cither moved, and so doubly sure 
 when both combined, was the great alliance of the West 
 ruptured. 
 
 I speak not here of the general sense of a nation unapplied 
 to a particular case; I speak not of an abstract sense of 
 right, unadopted as a specific conclusion, by influential states- 
 men. Intervention as a Principle had been judged — Spain 
 as a field had been excluded. Not to multiply quotations, 
 I will refer for England to the declaration of the then 
 Minister for Foreign Afl:airs, that the "Principle of Non- 
 intervention was sound, and ought to be held sacred ;" and 
 for France to that of the Duke de Broglie, that " the Govern- 
 ment when sought to pursue a policy of influence (he referred 
 to Spain) played the part of a dupe, and prepared for itself a 
 harvest of difficulties.** Both declarations were received in 
 the respective Senates without a dissentient Avhisper, aud 
 with every sign that men can give of satisfaction. 
 
 My first knowledge of this transaction, although a year 
 subsequent to the signature of the Treaty, was derived from 
 the King of England himself.* AVhen pointing out the 
 absence of aU action on our part in face of Russia's activity 
 
 * I have no hesitation in mentioning the circumstajice, as it was 
 settled with his best friend, Sir Herbert Taylor, that the whole of 
 the transactions in which the King had taken part, in reference to the 
 East, should be made pubhc ; and shortly before liis death tliere was 
 transmitted to me a mass of letters for • that pm-pose, completing the 
 series with those already in my possession. The execution of tliis 
 plan has been delayed, partly in dehcacy to certain individuals still 
 alive, partly from the indifference prevailing in regard to sucli 
 matters. 
 
64 SPAIN. 
 
 everywhere, his Majesty replied, " There is something now 
 preparing which will be a heavy blow to her." I remained 
 silent and stupified, apprehending some new Treaty like that 
 of the 6th of July. After a pause, he went on to say, " We 
 are going to hit her in Spain." " Into what hole have you 
 fallen!" The exclamation escaped me. Out of this con- 
 versation arose an article, afterwards published in the first 
 number of the 'British and Foreign Eeview,' pointing out 
 the necessary consequence of this Intervention, to be that 
 rupture of the alliance between England and France which it 
 afterwards produced, and further indicating Kussia as the 
 only possible soiu'ce whence the idea could have come. 
 
 It may appear at first sight unwarrantable to place on the 
 same line the diplomatic parclmient of 1834, and the warlike 
 sword of 1823. But in tmth the pen was the weightier 
 instrument of the two ; the object and effect were in both, 
 eases the same. The restoring of an expelled Faction, and the 
 re-invigorating of a struggle on the point of cessation, equally 
 prolonged confusion. Though an Army v/as employed in the 
 one case, and a Treaty in the other, that Treaty was an alliance 
 and an engagement ; it involved the employment of the re- 
 sources of the Allies. By it England and France concuiTed 
 to eff'ect wdiat, in 1823, France undertook to do alone, in 
 spite of England. If corresponding results did not follow, 
 it was not that powder was wanting. Mercenaries and 
 auxiliaries, supplies and arms,* w^ere indeed furnished, but 
 they w^ere administered with care and in moderate doses. 
 
 The Invasion had been prompted by no French interest, 
 and had originated in no decision of the French Government : 
 yet for the transaction there v/aS an explanation, and it 
 was accepted at the time. Whatever use a Cabinet placed 
 beyond the circle of Europe's habits and principles might 
 make of Eevolution, or of the fear of it, still it was not 
 the less true that such fears did exist, and that they 
 were very real and pressing. It having been stated (and 
 
 * A quarter of a million stand were sent, and scattered so as to 
 arm both parties. 
 
QUADEUPLE TREATY. 65 
 
 believed) by M. Villele, that France had sent an army 
 to the Tagus to avoid having to send one to the Khine, 
 the value of the reason remained indeed open to dis- 
 cussion, but the fact was unquestionable. For the Treaty 
 of 1834, no such pretext as this is to be found. The Go- 
 vernment of Madrid was endeavouring to put down an 
 insurrection of a fortieth part of the population, inhabiting 
 provinces not integral parts of the kingdom, but an annexed 
 domain. They had taken up arras, as they possessed by Treaty 
 the right of doing, in consequence of the infringement of their 
 laws. There was here nothing to alarm any foreign Govern- 
 ment or faction ; there was indeed no association possible 
 between the parties in Spain and the opinions of Europe, 
 unless by changing the parts. Nothing could be more 
 republican than the followers of Don Carlos, nothing more 
 tyrannical than the Constitutionalists of Madrid. 
 
 Supposing that any neighbouring and benevolent Govern- 
 ment had desired to put an end to these troubles, nothing 
 was easier. The Madrid exchequer was empty, save of de- 
 bentures ; the arsenal was exhausted, except of the swords 
 of Eoland and the Cid, not available on the occasion ; their 
 armies were destitute when not defeated; there was no heart to 
 their cause ; the insurgents paraded the Peninsula, and once 
 might have entered Madrid. A friendly adviser would have 
 had every weapon on his side ; indeed, they could not get oi^ 
 without aid, and the question was opened by their requesting 
 it. Tliey obtained it. Those who enabled them to go on 
 could not have wished them to desist, and, it is to be inferred, 
 had prompted them to begin. This is just what had 
 happened before: the only difference is, that the "occult 
 Government" is now in London. 
 
 The only way to deal with the case is to consider what in 
 a hmm fide transaction must have been the reply of the 
 British Cabinet to this demand for aid from that of Madrid. 
 
 " The embarrassments experienced, and the dangers appre- 
 hended by the Cabinet of Madrid," it must have said, " are the 
 
66 SPAIN. 
 
 consequences of its own acts in violating tlie riglits of domains 
 of tiie Crown secured by Treaty. No just Government, and 
 no enlightened people, can look with favour upon such pro- 
 ceedings, and least of all the people and the Government of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 " The Government of Great Britain cannot accept, as 
 relevant to the matter, the arguments into which that of 
 Madrid has been pleased to enter. That Government may 
 be perfectly in the right respecting the value of a representa- 
 tive form of Government, and the inhabitants of Biscay may 
 be wholly in the wrong in rejecting the share in the general 
 representation that is offered them ; it may equally be true 
 that the usages and privileges of these provinces are not 
 in accordance with the spirit of this age, but neither were 
 they in accordance with that of Charles V, Philip II, or 
 Philip V, as estimated at Madrid. 
 
 " This appeal to the Government of His Majesty is more- 
 over singularly timed. The present Administration accepted 
 office for the purpose, amongst others of a similar nature, of 
 carrying into effect the maxims of free trade, long professed 
 by the liberal party. This Administration is actually engaged. 
 in restoring municipal freedom to the boroughs of England. 
 Both principles appear to be expressed and contained in the 
 form of rights in the ancient Spanish word ' Fuero,' which 
 the Biscayans are actually in arms to defend, and the troops 
 of Her Catholic Majesty engaged in putting down. The aid 
 of the English Government is thus sought for the purpose of 
 extinguishing in Biscay the very system which, by seeking 
 to establish at home, it evinces its desire to see extended to 
 the rest of Spain. 
 
 " England is a commercial nation,^ her chief external object 
 is to lireak down the baniers that oppose the free circulation 
 of trade. The grounds of' her recent differences wdth Spain 
 have been the system of commercial restriction which the 
 influence of England has been exerted to remove, as an 
 injury to her own trade, and as also a drawback to the pros- 
 perity of Spain ; and you expect England's aid in extending 
 
QUADEUPLE TREATY. 67 
 
 Custom House lines to provinces free hitherto by immemorial 
 usage and by solemn Treaty ! These liberties of the subjects 
 of Her Catliolic Majesty become thus rights of His Majesty's 
 subjects, and England can no more suffer them to be invaded 
 by the Crown of Spain than it could by the Crown of France. 
 
 " If the objects sought by the Spanish Government were as 
 legitimate as they are illegitimate ; if they were as conducive 
 to its repose as they are the reverse ; if they were as con- 
 genial as they are repugnant to the sympathies of thp British 
 nation and its present Government ; if they were beneficial as 
 they are injurious to British interests and rights — slill would 
 it be impossible for the British Government to take any 
 part in differences between the Crown of Spain and its suljjects. 
 England has no ground of war with the Basque Provinces if 
 their belligerent rights be recognised ; and if not, what the 
 Spanish Government requires would be legal only after a 
 Declaration of war against the Crown of Spain itself. 
 
 " But that Intervention which, in every case, would be a 
 crime, would further, in that of Spain, be a folly, and nothing 
 would more prejudice the parties in whose favour Interventicmi 
 was exercised, than that Intervention itself." 
 
 These latter sentences are not hypothetical, they are the 
 words of the Duke of Wellington addressed to the Allied 
 Sovereigns at Verona. 
 
 The first question is : why did the English Government not 
 adopt this, the natural course? We are left without any 
 answer. The second is : why did it select that whicli it 
 followed ? It gained nothing by the course it did adopt, and 
 it coidd gain nothing ; it lost much, and that loss could not 
 but have been anticipated: it sacrificed lives and money; 
 but it acquired no influence in Spain : it failed to obtain a 
 commercial Treaty, and the Colony of Gibraltar, up to this 
 period admitted to the coasting trade of the Peninsula, wag 
 excluded. But the signal loss incurred was that of the good- 
 will of France : dragged by England into mediation, and then 
 
68 SPAm. 
 
 alarmed at tlie tmscrupulous measures proposed, tliougli not 
 consigned in the Treaty, Louis Philippe turned for support to 
 the Northern Alliance, called into existence by the " Constitu- 
 tional League of the West." 
 
 Where then are we to look for the origin of the Quadruple 
 Treaty, save in that Cabinet which alone has profited by it ? 
 the same which concerted the Conspiracy of the Isla de Leon, 
 and managed the Conference of Yerona. 
 
 The reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find no mention 
 of Don Carlos. The reason is, that he had nothing to do with 
 the transaction. The Insurrection was not raised by him ; it 
 merely availed itself of him. In any other portion of the 
 Peninsula, the title of the Prince might be a good ground 
 for Insurrection, only it was not used as such : in the Basque 
 Provinces it could be none. The " Lord of Biscay" is the 
 de facto king of Spain, fulfilling, of course, the conditions 
 attached to the lordship. There alone the question of 
 kingly title could not be entertained, and there only could 
 be entertained that of provincial right. The question of 
 succession, as regards the remaining provinces, was wholly 
 distinct from that of form of Government, The Constitution 
 had been established under Ferdinand. However, consti- 
 tution and succession, fueros and legitimacy were so mixed 
 together, that the whole field was covered with a mist, 
 which changed to a mirage, and presented to the eyes of 
 Europe the reflection of its Q\n\ lanes and alleys ;* but the 
 illusion was for the vulgar only. Those who directed affairs 
 knew in 1834, as well as in 1833, that "neither party had 
 any roots." The attempted subversion of the Basque Pro- 
 
 * I had at Bayonne a discussion with the chiefs of the Insurrec- 
 tion, in presence of some of theu' supporters. The chiefs had assumed 
 the false ground of hereditary right, not only in consequence of the 
 contaminating contact with Europeans, but also in the hope of 
 ribbons and decorations. On coming away, one of the members 
 of the municipality of Bilboa, who before had his mind closed to all 
 argument by respect for his chiefs, said to me, " I now see that we 
 have been rattled like dice, and sheared like sheep !'* 
 
QUADRUPLE TREATY. 69 
 
 viiiccs was the sole cause of the disturbance, as afterwards 
 sliown when they sent off Don Carlos, nor would lay down 
 their arms till the Convention of Bergara recognised the fueros. 
 
 The complicity of M. de Chateaubriand with the Russian 
 Cabinet is established by direct evidence, furnished by him- 
 self : he was but a short time in office. He had the manage- 
 ment of no other important matter, and but for the documents, 
 which he has himself made public, it would have been difhcult 
 to prove the source of the expedition, and impossible to 
 establish his guilt. 
 
 The Quadruple Treaty was the work of a man of another 
 mould, capable of no inadvertence, who never speaks save 
 on compulsion, and then only in reference to the occasion 
 and the prejudices of his hearers. All that it was ever requisite 
 for him to say in Parliament, limited itself to " Don Carlos,'* 
 and " Constitution :" for the time he rendered himself 
 perfectly secure by the affectation of a savage hatred against 
 the one,* and of a sentimental affection for the other ; but the 
 organs of the Government could not be so reserved, and by 
 them, especially the Morning Chronicle, the Treaty was attri- 
 buted to Talleyrand. f In the shifting grounds assumed at 
 various times, this credit was, when the Treaty had become 
 popular, withdrawn, and it was then revealed to the nation 
 that England had the merit of having produced the statesman 
 who had engendered this vast and "truly British plan.'* 
 When at another time it fell into disrepute as having 
 estranged Prance, then it was boldly charged by the organ of 
 the Poreign Office on M. Thiers. It is perfectly true that 
 M. Thiers exerted himself to extort the consent of Louis 
 Philippe to the measures proposed by the English minister, 
 and for my part I was led into the belief, not of Thiers's 
 
 * In the rapidity of incidents, the reader may hare forgotten tho 
 order sent out to Spain, to refuse access to Don Carlos on board of 
 any English vessel, even if flying for his life. 
 
 t Talleyrand's assent waa convoyed in a note in these terms, and 
 these alone : 
 
 " Puisque vous le vouhx, soitj* 
 
70 SPAIN. 
 
 suggestion of the measurCj but of his zealous concurrence in 
 it ; however, during that Minister's recent visit to Spain, 
 I had the opportunity of ascertaining the truth. When 
 charged with his concurrence on this occasion, as having 
 produced all the subsequent dangers of Europe, he answered, 
 " Good God ! I had no love of the Treaty, but I yielded to it 
 as a choice of evils ; the English alliance was everything to 
 me, and it was to be had 07ily on this condition. I did not 
 know why Lord Palmerston was so bitter about it, but this 
 I did know, that he was the inevitable man." 
 
 Finally, the Morning Chronicle treats us with a cabinet 
 picture of the transaction, in which with the laborious 
 accuracy of a Teniers, the various groups are exhibited, some 
 in the market-place, some looking out at the window, some 
 entering at the door. It is varnished and framed to hang 
 up as a pendant to that other picture by the pencil of 
 Canning of the expedition to Portugal, dear to aU lovers of 
 art. 
 
 "On Eriday the news was received; on Saturday the 
 Cabinet was called together, &c." 
 
 " On Thursday, the application from the Spanish Minister 
 "vvas received ; on Eriday the Council sat ; on Saturday, the 
 adliesion of the Minister of Portugal was obtained; on 
 Sunday the Erench Ambassador was applied to, &c." 
 
 But if the Minister could thus shuflie oif the Parliament 
 and the public, by what means could he circumvent his 
 colleagues ? If I had merely the testimony of William IV, 
 now dead, it might be a very dangerous assertion to make 
 that he had brought a body of English gentlemen to concui 
 with him in this measure, — those gentlemen comprising 
 the most distinguished members of the party who had sent 
 Mr. Adair to St. Petersburgh, and the chief of them being 
 Lord Grey himself, compromised in that very act, — on the 
 grounds of its being a blow against Kussia. But in an 
 inadvertent moment he has himself revealed the fact in 
 an article in the Morning Chronicle^ which, of all his contri- 
 butions to the press, is the only one which has been brought 
 
QUADRUPLE TEEATY. 71 
 
 home to him, and that not by me, but by another journalist, 
 and on grounds wholly irrespective of the cause of my present 
 reference. Meeting a charge which at the time had produced 
 some sensation, he writes in the Morning Chronicle of the 
 ICthof January, 1844. 
 
 " TJie originator and signer of the Qiiadrtiple Treaty which 
 withdrew Spain from Russian influence ; the statesman who 
 embarked with such frankness and boldness in the Consti* 
 tutional League of the West j and icho^ on the Indies and the 
 Danube y the Persiati Gulf and the BardanelleSy made the 
 boldest stand of any European politician against the 
 encroachments of Ptussia in Eui'ope and in Asia — he, * * * 
 Eussian in Soul !" 
 
 I might here ask, what had he to do with overthrowing 
 Eussia, who, in regard to the East, had declared himself 
 * satisfied with her declarations and conduct ;" who, in regard 
 to Poland, had declared the rights of the Emperor to be 
 *' undeniable ;" who, in regard to France, had broken the 
 English Alliance? But we are past inferential conclu- 
 sions ; here is a fact which is dii'ect and incontrovertible ; if 
 the object in Spain was to oppose Eussia, why was it kept 
 secret? If opposition to Eussia was intended, why was 
 Spain selected as the field ? What are the results ? 
 
 W' hen tracing the plot of the Congress of Verona, that 
 which I had to state every Englishman could take in at a 
 glance, but no Frenchman admit, or conceive. AVhat I have 
 said of the Quadi-uple Treaty will be equally plain to the 
 Frenchman and obscure to the Englishman. The Spaniard 
 will have no difficulty in apprehending the one transaction 
 and the other. 
 
'<2 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Future Marriages. 
 
 As some slight compensation and atonement for the evils 
 inflicted on Spain by my country, the limits of which diplo- 
 matically include Europe, and Muscovy to its furthest Calrauck 
 bounds ; and at the same time as a warning against the evils 
 which she is again about to inflict, Thave presented to Spaniards 
 this picture of the genius of Western systems, and of the 
 men of modern genius. From k they may collect that the 
 highest intelligence on earth has deeply pondered the means 
 of decomposing their country ; that by its " occult" command 
 over the Western Pentecraty, glittering with the tinsel of a 
 Yillele and a Canning, a Wellington and a Metternich, and 
 alas, too, of a Talleyrand^ — it has converted Spain into a 
 Pandora's box for Europe. 
 
 Can any reasonable Spaniard now doubt that a maep.iage 
 car. serve Eussia as well as a Constitution, or a Succession ? 
 Let your proverbial gallantry, if not your political foresiglit, 
 at kjast forbid, that ladies and their affections shall be, because 
 seated on or near your Throne, converted into cards and dice 
 in a game of perfidy and fraud. To prevent this is the 
 easiest of things; settle the matter at home; allow no 
 diplomatist to put his hand in ; Fortune offers a solution 
 without doing violence to Nature. You have two marriage- 
 able pinces. 
 
73 
 
 POSTSCBIPT. 
 
 Ilmj, 1853. 
 
 The appreliensions which induced me to draw up the fore- 
 going paper have been verified to the extent of nearly 
 producing a war between England and France. Out of the 
 "Spanish Marriages" came the confiscation of Cracow, and, 
 within a short time, the fall of Louis Philippe and the revo- 
 lution of 1848, on which the Cossacks entered Hungaiy. 
 To that field I now pass on. 
 
 It is a fact here deserving of record, that the mutual 
 exasperation of the two countries, in reference to the Spanish 
 marriages, bore upon the Treaty of Utrecht, which the English 
 Minister asserted had been violated by the»nnion of a son of 
 Louis Philippe and a Spanish princess. This Treaty, as that 
 Minister had himself, on a previous occasion, stated in Parlia- 
 ment, had ceased to exist, having lapsed by war, and not 
 having been restored at a subsequent peace. Had the author 
 of the 'History of Civilisation' been a little earlier* ac- 
 quainted with this fact, there could have been no quarrel in 
 1847, and no revolutions in 1848. 
 
 • A note was sent to the French Embassy in London, inquiring 
 in what article in the Treaties of Luneville, Amiens, or Vienna, the 
 Treaty of Utrecht had been restored. It arrived two hom-s after 
 the note of M. Guizot, taking ground upon the Treaty, had beea 
 transmitted. 
 
PART ri. 
 
 HUNGARY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Political Value of Hungary, 
 
 Canning electrified the year 1826 by a quotation from the 
 iEneid, "Celsa sedet ^olus aree," &c. It was not that it was 
 charmed by a "calida juuctura" in ^olus and England, but in 
 Opinion and wind. For war, Ambition, it was perceived, was 
 no longer required ; it could be engendered by thoughts alone ; 
 hurricanes to overwhelm Empires, and tempests to subvert 
 Thrones, could now be evolved from tropes and metaphors. 
 
 It took, however, two and twenty years for the poetic pro- 
 position to become historical, which it did in 1848, when 
 the Continental Governments were blown up, with the single 
 exception of the country (Spain) whence had been derived the 
 explosive matter. The man, in the Eastern tale, who let the 
 genius out of the bottle was only alarmed at his own work ; 
 but the nations of Europe, when they had ruptured their 
 bags, were confounded at themselves : after a wild dance over 
 hill and dale, they hurried back again to slmt themselves in, 
 and to sew themselves up. It was not, however, Canning's 
 iEolus, who, reversing his trident, had let forth Em'us and 
 Nothus', England did not ride the whirlwind, and had not 
 been the Merlin of the storm. It is not, indeed, to be expected 
 in the country of the winds, that operations should be veiy 
 distinct, or the figure of the genius very discernible ; and thus 
 
76 HUNGAEY. 
 
 when thimderbolts do fall, the startled nations may attribute 
 them to a wrong Jove. 
 
 The astute, but earnest Emperor, Leopold the Second, had 
 elaborated in the alchemy of his German brain two antagonistic 
 Trhiciple-i, which threatened to devastate Germany in the 
 accident of their corporeal collision, — as he imagined them to 
 be embodied severally in the neighbours of Germany on the 
 North and on the West. That Emperor consequently adjusted 
 his policy to meet this contingency, and thence that tempo- 
 rising scheme for Hungary, which has not been without its 
 influence on recent events. 
 
 Napoleon too had his notions ; thjey agreed with those of 
 Leopold in respect to number, but differed in character. The 
 German's principles were Despotism and Anarchy; the 
 Corsican's, He volution and Ambition. In the first case, 
 Germany was only to be victimised ; in the second, Europe 
 herself Avas to be the prize. So he too was swept from the 
 scene, and passed away as a myth, only that he left behind 
 him a wreck, and a paradox. He bequeathed Europe to 
 Ambition (Alexander), as Leopold had prepared Austria for 
 Despotism (Paskie witch). As for his prophecy of our be- 
 coming " Eepublican or Cossack," what child does not now 
 see that these are but two stations on the same road, — all 
 the roads lead one way : "Empire" brought the Calmucks to 
 Paris ; " Constitution" tlie Baskirs to Pesth. Thus, whilst 
 the winds of '48 were blowing, and mankind was engaged in 
 ascertaining their direction and estimating their effects, 
 ^Russia leisurely laid one mailed hand on the heart of Austria, 
 and stretched with the other arm, an encircling embrace around 
 the Danish Belt. Here, for a time, pauses the epic, which 
 opened at Isla de Leon, and we proceed to the incidents of 
 the Hungarian canto. 
 
 We have heard enough that the inhabitants of Hungary 
 are Magyars, but what it was important to know, and what 
 for the best of reasons no one comprehends, is, that the 
 Magyars are not Europeans : this trutli the legislation of a 
 hundred Diets and the rhetoric of a thousand Kossuths caiinot 
 
POLITICAL VALUE. 77 
 
 peiTert ; it is a fact which the Camarilla of Vienna, the Foreiga 
 Office of London, and Field Marshal Prince Paskiewitch him- 
 self cannot alter. The upper basin of the Danube is not in- 
 cluded in the region of the winds, and owes as yet no fealty to 
 the sceptre of ^Eolus. Had it been so, the chaos of the conti- 
 nent would ere this have been reduced to the order that reigns 
 at Warsaw ; the Hungarians, like the Spaniards, are an un- 
 reasoning mass : slow in Progress, backwards in Civilization. 
 
 Wars in the West lead to great eflfusion of blood, but to 
 little alteration of frontiers ; those in the East alone deter- 
 mine great results. In the one case, contest is a mere shock of 
 equally powerful arms, or equally futile doctrines; in the other, 
 it is a tide sweeping on to dominion for a thousand years. 
 On the descendants of Attila and his Seven Hordes hangs 
 at this hour the future fate of European society ; for Poland, 
 and especially Hungary, though subjugated, stand even as 
 the wreck of a battered wall in the victor's way. 
 
 Identity of race is no motive for political union ; but when 
 two people have the same interests and the same enemies, 
 and happen to be of the same race, their enemy being of a 
 different one, then indeed does that relationship become 
 profitable and noble. The Turks are slow to move, and not 
 likely, under any considerations of advantage, to unite them- 
 selves with a Christian people. But their ancient associations 
 with the Hungarians, acting like gravitation on inanimate 
 bodies, steadying for a time at least the Eastern bulwarks of 
 the fabric of general power, afford to Europe a reprieve and 
 a security not the less real because she is unconscious of its 
 existence. 
 
 It is doubtless true that the fiercest wars have been carried 
 on between the two people : so long as Hungary stood by 
 herself, so long as the ancient line of monarchs, or the elected 
 sovereigns, possessed the supreme sway, she dreaded the 
 Turkish power ; the very ties which united the people 
 rendered that hostility all the more intense. When a member 
 of the House of Hapsburg was elected to the throne, the 
 position was reversed. Then Austria, the Empire, Germany, 
 
IIUNGAP.Y. 
 
 and the West, became for Hungary the sources of dread and 
 the causes of suffering, and she turned towards the Sultans 
 as to Protectors. This change occurred in the sixteenth 
 century, when Turkey had ceased to he dangerous, but was 
 still powerful. It was, in fact, at the instigation of the 
 defeated competitor of Ferdinand (brother of Charles Y) that 
 the Turks invaded Austria and besieged Vienna. If Hungary 
 did, under the most trying circumstances, preserve her ancient 
 Institutions down to these evil days, it is to be attributed to 
 that confidence, no less than to that Constitution's inherent 
 worth. 
 
 So long as this latent alliance with Turkey imposed on 
 Austria respect for the Constitution of Hungary, that country 
 was the main strength of the Emperor at Vienna : its support 
 was yielded to him' on every contingency, not by a blind 
 and slavish submission, but by a free loyalty of the people, 
 exercisedthrough theorgan of their legitimate Eepresentatives, 
 Maria Theresa was enabled to maintain the seven years' war 
 against Prussia, only after carrying her infant son to the Diet 
 at Presburg, and entrusting him and herself to its chival- 
 rous guardianship. Again, against Napoleon was Francis- 
 enabled to make head in consequence of the enthusiastic 
 declaration of the Diet of Presburg and its steady refusal to 
 accede to the overtures of Prance. But the circumstance 
 peculiarly bearing upon present events, was the war of the 
 Spanish succession. The Austrian encroachments had at that 
 time driven Hungary into rebellion. Louis XIV did not 
 neglect the occasion thus offered to him, not only of paralys- 
 ing Austria, and depriving the Allies (England and Holland) 
 of her support, but of subduing the Empire itself while 
 securing the inheritance of Spain. There were, hov/ever, then 
 in England, not Diplomatists but Statesmen : Bolisigbroke 
 was still writing despatches, and had not taken to essays. 
 The Cabinet of St. James perceived that Austria could be 
 no Ally if Hungary was her foe, and that Hungary could be 
 her friend only on one condition, — the preservation of her 
 rights ; tiierefore, on being applied to by the Huiigcirians, 
 
POLITICAL VxVLUE. 79 
 
 it hastened to offer its good offices, which were successful in 
 a settlement of differences between the two nations, Hung:ary 
 and Austria, and the two Sovereigns, though one person, 
 the Kinrf and the Ihnperor. This Treaty, concluded under 
 the mediation of England, was signed at Szathmar, in 1711. 
 
 In treating of Spain in 1834, we could find no reason for 
 England's intei-fcrencc ; in Hungary, in 1848, we are equally 
 destitute of a reason for her non-interference ; and if we 
 accept the only reason suggested in the one case, — that of 
 opposition to Russia where no Eussia appeared, we can only 
 be the more perplexed in accounting for the other. 
 
 Let us consider in what position Hungary will now stand 
 $0 Austria in any future war. Let us take the cases of a 
 rupture with Turkey, with Erance, and with Russia. 
 
 1. The sympathies between the Turks and the Hungarians , 
 were, after all, one-sided. The recollections enduring in the 
 hearts of the former, had in the latter been in recent times 
 overlaid by their connection with Europe; thus Austria, 
 in her last three wars with Turkey, found no difficulty in 
 obtaining from the Diet its contingent in troops and its con- 
 tribution in money. Were a war now to break out, she 
 would be under no necessity indeed to apply to Presburg 
 for a contingent, and the Hungarians would without opposi- 
 tion be enrolled, and sent forward to the frontier. Need I 
 ask what effects would follow the first hostile shot ? — even 
 if the troops did not pass over to the Sultan, Hungary would 
 rise as one* man, to shake off the now^ detested yoke of 
 Austria. 
 
 S. The Diet of Presburg, which declared against Louis XIV 
 and Napoleon, no longer existing, the first symptom of a 
 difference with Erance would force Austria to send all her 
 disposable force away from the Rhine, and to concentrate it 
 •on the Danube. In such a war Hungary would no longer 
 be the right hand of Austria, but the principal Ally of her 
 enemy. She would be to Austria what Poland is to Russia, 
 multiplied sevenfold. 
 
 3. Of a war with Russia I need not speak. If Russia's 
 
80 HUNGARY. 
 
 whole disposable force was r'squired to bring Hungary, even 
 after an exhausting struggle, into submission to Vienna, how 
 can Austria presume to stand a moment before that Ally, 
 now backed by the Dependency which her own arms had 
 before reduced. 
 
 Had England known that it was her own hand which had 
 stifled Poland, Hungary might have been spared. If she 
 could nowunderstand that itwas again her hand that had stifled 
 Hungary, Austria and Turkey may hereafter be spared. I 
 shall make the endeavour to put her in possession of this 
 truth, from the Blue Books. We must first, however, glance 
 at the petty treacheries within, by which armies were led 
 to slaushter. 
 
81 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 Events in Hungary, 
 
 At the very moment of the dispersion of its Government 
 Hungary was achieving at Pakozd its first victory. The 
 vaunting Jellachich was absohitely beaten by a handful of 
 men ; he signed a suspension of arms, and decamped in the 
 night, leaving ten thousand of his rearguard prisoners. 
 
 The Austrian Government, infuriated at the murder of Count 
 Lamberg and the defeat of Pakozd, declared Jellachich, who 
 had been so easily defeated, and so ignominiously driven out, 
 Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and reinforced his army 
 with the garrison of the capital. A sanguinary Insurrection 
 at Vienna itself was the result. 
 
 The Hungarian army had pursued Jellachich to the 
 frontier; there it halted, waiting legal authority to cross. 
 The Diet at Vienna gave an evasive answer, and enabled 
 Windischgratz to assemble and dispose his forces for the bom- 
 bardment of the city. The Hungarian army arrived too late, 
 and was placed by treachery in the power of the Austrians ; 
 its general, Moga, said before the court martial, by which, 
 he was afterwards tried, that the Austrian generals did 
 not hiou) how to take complete advantage of the opportunity 
 he had given them. 
 
 Kossuth, on the field of battle (Schwechat), displaced 
 Moga, and made over the command to Gorgey : from that 
 hour the Russian Intervention became inevitable. It has 
 been supposed that the treason of Gorgey was an after- 
 thought : I have it from Hungarian officers that, at that very- 
 moment, he spoke undisguisedly of the futility of the struggle i* 
 
 • He had personal ties with the establishment of the Archduke 
 Michael. Strange expressions are attributed to liim, wliich -vver© 
 interpreted aa marks of genius, as those of Szechenyi were of madness. 
 
82 HUNGAliY. 
 
 yet it was the oifer to lead the troops to "Vienna that induced 
 Kossuth to give him the command. 
 
 Gorgey retreated across the frontier, followed bv Win- 
 dischgriitz ; both armies then remained in inaction for weeks ! 
 In consequence of Gorgey's representations of the necessity 
 of concentration, the troops were collected from all parts, 
 and phiced under his command. Windischgratz at last 
 advanced. Gorgey had drawn out his forces on an extended 
 line — they were driven in upon every point, save one (Wiesel- 
 burg) ; he announced to the Government this action as a 
 victory, and retreated. Pirst, he neglected to take up a 
 position on the Lake Neusiedler, from which he could not 
 have been dislodged ; next, he passed through Eaab, neg- 
 lecting equally the intrenchments, which had, at great 
 expense, been thrown up ; then avoiding the impregnable 
 position of Comom, he made a straight course to Budp.. as 
 if, like the flying Scythian, to draw the Austrians on. Pertzel 
 advancing with about 13,000 men, reached Moor, when 
 Gorgey was distant about fifteen miles, and making sure of 
 support, engaged the advanced guard of Windischgratz — 
 he was left to be beaten. Himself neglecting the Capital, 
 its defences, its defenders, and the Danube, passed by Buda 
 in hurried flight, evacuated the town, and abandoned the 
 defence of the river and of the castle. Had he made a stand 
 anywhere, he would have been joined by Pertzel's, and other 
 small coi-ps then on their march; new le\4e3 were hastily 
 being raised, and the army of 20,000 men in the south was 
 marching to join him ; even while his army was at the lowest 
 number it could not have been left in the rear ; had he stood 
 still anywhere Windischgratz could not have penetrated into 
 Hungary. 
 
 Gorgey had, during his retreat, TVTitten to the Committee 
 of Defence to say that he could not insure the safety of the 
 capital twenty -four hours : the Diet, in consequence, retired 
 to Debretzin. He now issued a Proclamation, in which he 
 charged the Diet with abandoning the army, and declared 
 
EVENTS. 85 
 
 that tlie army thenceforward would act for itself. This appeal 
 was not responded to by the soldiers. 
 
 Then, leaving the plain at the mercy of the enemy, he carried 
 his army northward among the mountains. He divided 
 it into two corps, — one of 10,000 men, commanded by 
 Guyon, the other of 15,000, which he headed in person. 
 These advanced or retreated, for it is difficult to define his 
 operations, on parallel lines. He suffered the corps of Generals 
 Simonich, Goetz, and Jablanowzski, to enter unopposed by dif- 
 ferent passes, and was pursued by them. On the riftht flank he 
 was cut off from the plain country by the main army of 
 Windischgriitz advancing from the Danube to the Theiss: 
 in front, his passage was barred by Scblick, who, entering 
 from the north, had taken up his position along the line of the 
 great Gallician road, with 25,000 men, and occupied passes 
 which it was supposed 100,000 men could not force. Gorgey 
 had always kept suspiciously close to the Gallician frontier ; 
 he had been deaf to every appeal from Guyon for cooperation : 
 now no escape was left him, save by entering Gallicia and 
 capitulating. Then it was that Guyon, at the battle of the 
 Braniszko pass, unexpectedly opened a passage to both corps ; 
 Gorgey allowed Schlick to carry off the remnants of his army 
 "when they were in his hands.* 
 
 Obliged through Guyon' s inconvenient victoiy to effect his 
 junction with the main army under Dembinski, he w;as present 
 at the battle of Kapolna, where the Hungarians were deci- 
 sively engaged with the main army of Windischgratz ; he 
 abandoned his post : he then called his officers together, and 
 deposed the Commander-in-Chief. Next day the action was 
 renewed without results ; both parties retreated. After the 
 first day at Kapolna, Windischgriitz had written to announce 
 too hastily the utter discomfiture of the Hungarians, and 
 thereupon was issued the rroclamation abolishing Hungary 
 
 • This action, scarcely paralleled for its fortunate audacity and its 
 important consequences, was the theme of coarse jokes in Gorgey's 
 teut and at liis table. 
 
84 HUNGAEY. 
 
 as an independent State. Up to tliis hour the Hungarians 
 were acting by virtue of the royal authority. 
 
 Kossuth now decided that a bold push should be made on 
 Vienna with the main force under the command of Gorgey, 
 strengthened by the garrison of Comorn, leaving 10,000 
 men to invest Buda. Gorgey sent against Vienna 10,000, 
 and 37,000 to Buda, of which 7,000 were cavaby. After 
 storming several times, he wrote to say he could not take it. 
 Kossuth replied, " Since you have sacrificed Vienna to Buda, 
 at least take Buda." Gorgey afterwards accounted for the loss 
 of the occasion, time, and men, by Kossuth's intermeddling. 
 He then managed to consume week after week in inaction, 
 till the Eussians were in the centre of Hungary. This was 
 the denouement of the Drama, and its action thereafter has 
 little interest. 
 
 Narrated of some former time, would not the tale discredit 
 history ? Might not the existence of Kossuth and Gorgey 
 be denied, with more show of reason than that of Python 
 and Chimaira ? Their motives defy, their achievements sur- 
 pass, scrutiny and possibility. 
 
 An adventurer is taken out of the lower grades, to be 
 made General of an army by a country lawyer, who has 
 become head of a nation ; this army is the sole defence of 
 the insargent nation ; it is before the Capital of an Empire, 
 where its presence alone had created a E^evolution. The 
 adventurer carries this army in flight through a difiicult and 
 narrow border district, where in all times this kingdom had 
 made good its stand, or at least, attempted it : as he retreats 
 reinforcements pour in; by merely standing still he can 
 resume the offensive, still on he goes, leaving here to the 
 right, a position which could not be turned; there to the 
 left, a fortress that could not be taken. He passes by the 
 Capital with all its resources, bisected by a mighty river ; 
 he terrifies and disperses the Government by false reports, 
 and then denounces them as cowards; having led the 
 enemy into the centre of the country, he carries his army to 
 the mountains, through the passes of which other bodies are 
 
EVENTS. 85 
 
 a'bout to penetrate ; he stops no gnp, but presents himself 
 to be chased by eaeli of them, as they successively enter; 
 finally, he places himself in a trap betv/een the corps which 
 have so penetrated, and those which had followed him into 
 the plain. A native army caught by foreigners in its owii 
 gorges ! He is extricated by a disorderly miracle. INIean- 
 while he leaves the Government to shift for itself, in ignorance 
 of his intentions, prospects, condition, movements, and for 
 six weeks of his, or his army's, existence. "Forced by the 
 victoiy of his subordinate to join the new army, under a new 
 Commander-in-chief, he wrenches from it by disobedience a 
 decisive vietoiy, and deposes his Chief! The authority of 
 this adventurer depended all this while on the breath of the 
 countiy lawyer. If such had been related of the war of 
 Troy, who would not have set down the story as a fcible, and 
 who would have heard of Homer as a poet ? 
 
 But this is nothing. The Hungarians, martial and civilian, 
 hold this adventurer to be their first soldier, and in all these 
 achievements a true patriot!* This too after his treachery 
 has been accomplished and immasked. I had not read one 
 contemporary line respecting these events ; and it was only 
 at Kutayah, in the midst of the chief actors, that I com- 
 menced to inquire respecting them. From the origin Gorgcy's 
 treason appeared : it was the- very first fact that presented 
 itself: the plain narrative of the retreat from Vienna Avas 
 not evidence, but demonstration. "When I stated this it was 
 met with incredulity — no, with anger. They could not 
 brook the thought of having been led like dumb animals to 
 slaughter.! 
 
 * I liave one exception to make in favour of General Guyon, who 
 not only suspected him, but denounced liim as a traitor to Kossuth. 
 
 t Count Szechenyi knew all from the beginning. His brother, 
 chamberlain to the Archduchess Sophia, came to Pesth to detach 
 him from the Insurrection when the Hungarians knew not that they 
 were to be insurged. He was doubtless initiated under a bond 
 of secrecy, but had resolved to abide the consequences. In the 
 Cabinet, as in private conversation, he often broke out in a wild 
 
86 IIUNGAUY. 
 
 The successes of the Hungarians after all their defences 
 had been broken in, and Austria's forces assembled in the 
 champaign centre of their country, does appear incompre- 
 hensible : but Eussia had'not made the Eevolution for Austria: 
 her agency was at work as well in the Austrian Camp as in 
 the Vienna Cabinet : Hungary might be filled with bravery, 
 endowed with patriotism, adorned with genius ; she might 
 bring forth armies by hundreds of thousands, and create tens 
 of millions of resources, yet what did these avail? the 
 humblest Eussian attache knew from the beginnino; what was 
 to be done with her. After the event, a British Statesman 
 did indeed connect the fall of Hungary with the mission of 
 Lord Minto : had Sir James Graham only anticipated (time 
 is everything in Diplomacy) he could have prevented the 
 Catastrophe. 
 
 Strangely has been overlooked the fact, that the Russian 
 troops reached the centre of Ilungarij without firing a shot. 
 Their entrance had, however, long been of public notoriety ; 
 the Poles in the Hungarian service earnestly pressed the 
 subject on the attention of all the Members of the Govern- 
 ment ; Dembinski who commanded the northern army, had 
 proposed to anticipate the danger by entering Gallicia : the 
 Government sent to him positive instructions not to move 
 northwards, and orders to the army to disobey him, if he did. 
 To prevent the possibility of any obstacle being placed, by 
 accident or insubordination, to the Eussian advance, the 
 Hungarian army was recalled, and marched to the south- 
 ward. 
 
 No great importance will, at present, be attached to the 
 
 strain, which was taken to be indications of that madness which 
 afterwards seized hira. He would laugh when they spoke of success, 
 sneer at their plans, speak of scaffolds as the issue, of barbarian, 
 hordes awaiting but the signal, and yet he continued to share 
 the danger, Tv/ice he attempted suicide. An eminent person, 
 whom I will not name, went mad on discovering the treachery of 
 Jellachich, as did the Austrian Minister, Count Stadion, on being 
 made acquainted witli the purpose of inviting the Russians. 
 
EVENTS. 87 
 
 fact, because there is no one who has not decided that the 
 struggle was desperate, and that a victory, more or less, won 
 by the Hungarians, and a check or defeat, incurred by the 
 Hussians, could noways alter the issue, and only swell the 
 list of casualties ; but the fates were then balanced. Had the 
 Russians been once beaten, the warwould have revived — Eussia 
 taking the place of Austria, retired £i*om the ring. Whatever 
 the chances in military operations, there was another in this 
 duel in favour of tlie Hungarians. In various quarters, 
 statements have appeared of the disposition of the Russian 
 troops to desert. These coidd not be inventions, because such 
 a notion has no existence amongst us. I believe them to 
 have been founded, because perfectly analogous to other cir- 
 cumstances within my knowledge. In contact with Europeans 
 the armies of Eussia are intractable and unimpressionable as 
 lumps of iron, or masses of clay ; but many ties unite the 
 populations of the East of Europe ; the men composing them 
 belong to different races, very variously affected to the 
 Hussian Empire and to its neighbours. The fact is notorious, 
 that the Eussian army of occupation in the Danubian Pro- 
 vinces had rendered itself so much an object of suspicion to the 
 Government, that when it was withdrawn, the regiments were 
 broken up, and dispersed to remote parts of the Empire. 
 This was in consequence of its contact with the Turkish 
 troops, against whom its animosities may be supposed to 
 have been most vehemently excited. Under these circum- 
 stances, it was not improbable that a check, or a defeat 
 suffered by the Eussians might have been followed by the 
 desertions even of entire corj)s, and it has been stated,, that 
 overtures to that effect had been positively made as an 
 encouragement to the Hungarians to offer practical resistance.* 
 At all events the withdrawal from the passes, of the Hungarian 
 force, was a fact, which at the time, excited considerable 
 
 * " During the Russian intervention, Russian officers of high 
 rank promised both to Kossuth and to Dembinski to pass over with 
 the forces they commanded in the event of a pitched battle being 
 won." — Letter ly the Author of^^ The Revelations of Russia." 
 
88 HUNGARY. 
 
 attention, and was explained as being a plan to entrap tlio 
 Enssian army. This was the view of the case presented at 
 St. Petersburg to the representative of England, who com- 
 municated it to his court.* At a Council held to decide 
 upon the Intervention, it has been reported, that Paskiewitch 
 and a majority of the members was opposed to the measure 
 on the grounds of danger to the Empire, in the event of a 
 reverse. 
 
 Are we then to infer that the reasons for deciding on the 
 Intervention, which, as has been stated, "the Emperor 
 Nicholas did not think fit to communicate to the Council'* 
 referred to Kossuth, no less than to Gorgey ? The facts I 
 have mentioned, I first learned from Dembinski at Kutayah : 
 he gave to them this colour, and, indeed, did not hesitate to- 
 charge Kossuth with treason. On this I applied to Kossuth 
 himself, laid the statement before him, and asked for an 
 explanation. He, to my amazement, admitted the general 
 accuracy of the facts, and, in respect to them, offered the 
 following explanation, which not having been taken down at 
 the time, I cannot pretend to give precisely in his words, 
 though I believe, that the words I am about to quote were 
 the very ones that he used : 
 
 " When I applied to the English Government for its good 
 offices in settling our differences with Austria, the answer 
 I received was, that it could not interfere in a * domestic 
 concern.' I was astonished at this answer, but at least»I 
 took it as assured that England would sutler no other 
 ])ower to intrude itself on those * domestic concerns.' As 
 soon should T have doubted of my existence, as of England's 
 determination never to allow Russia to enter Hungary. I 
 
 * He writes on the 7th of August, 1849 :— " It is difficult to 
 reconcile the energy and courage which have been shown by the 
 principal Hungarian chiefs and the troops under their immediate 
 orders, with the statements which form the introduction to this 
 despatch, withoiit considering ^ixo, unresisted march of the Eussianar 
 on Debretzin to be part of a preconceived plan." 
 
EVENTS, 89 
 
 therefore treated all warnings as the visions of idle brains. 
 I did not wish, however, to furnish Russia with any pretext, 
 and I thought also the moment fjivourable to bring our whole 
 strength against Austria, while she was deceived into the 
 expectation of Russian succour. I suspected nothing but 
 the Austrian Camarilla, I now sec that there was nothing 
 but treachery within and without." 
 
 This confidence in England had, however, a still more 
 fatal effect than that of leaving unguarded the passes of the 
 Carpathians : it carried their attention away from the only 
 point to which they had to look — from the only Power that 
 could have befriended them ; and where, as proved on so 
 many memorable occasions, tlicre was a field for the action of 
 their own intelligence. Their very first business was to send 
 to Constantinople ; the first care of any official, deserving 
 the name of a man, was to select for that great, but arduous 
 duty, the first capacity that Hungary possessed. It was 
 not the people* of Hungary that were blind — it was the 
 Kossuths and the Bathyanyis. No doubt, as we shall pre- 
 sently see, the Turkish Government had been placed in diificult 
 and embaiTassing position by the ^rior occupation of its 
 northern provinces : but the game was difficult on both 
 sides. Without that prior occupation there would have been 
 no Revolutions in 1848 ; the pivot of the whole diplomatic 
 action, was the Russian force at Bucharest. Whatwas required 
 at Constantinople was an agent able to show to the Turkish 
 Government the collusion of the Western Powers, Avith Russia. 
 This is the truth, and unless known, nothing can anywhere 
 be done. But the Government of Hungary had not mastered 
 the diplomatic position of Europe, and conceived the matter to 
 be a militaiy one, and the parties to be itself and Austria. 
 After all great science was not required. Excited as was the 
 Turkish nation — alarmed as were its leading statesmen, in- 
 
 * In travelling through Hungary I haye had the money for post 
 horses returned to me, because I was known to be a friend of the 
 Tui-ks. 
 
90 HUNGAKY. 
 
 dignani and confident as was its armj% little urgency was 
 required to bring it to a decision to declare war, that is to say- 
 to effect a pacification. But the only Hungarian with capacity 
 for action, had been sent to England, where he was engaged 
 in an attempt, by the offer of a Commercial Treaty, to purchase 
 England's support. They sent to Constantinople a foreigner 
 and Englishman, Avho had given himself out as a secret agent 
 of the Eoreign Office, and was in fact a near relative of the 
 second officer of that department. To the incidents of this 
 mission I will subsequently refer. 
 
 When the Russians had thus been let in, the Governm^ent 
 with Kossuth, who had now discovered his mistake, retired 
 to Segedin, where he made a remarkable speech, his recollec- 
 tions of which, at my request, he has thus set down : — 
 
 " Now, by the Eussian invasion, our glorious struggle is 
 raised to a higher pitch. In our battles henceforth will be 
 fought the battle of the freedom of the world. To be the 
 liberators or the martyrs of the world, that is our destiny. 
 The people of Europe know it to be so. They know our 
 cause to be their cause ; and they would help us — help them- 
 selves in helping us, but they cannot do it, because their 
 Governments have enchained their will, and many of them 
 have betrayed their people to foreign domination. Do not 
 be angry fo-r it at the nations of the world — pity them rather. 
 It is their misfortune, not their fault. We stand alone, alone 
 with the Almighty God, and our arms : but though by mis- 
 chief shaken,, still we stand. I don't know if we shall come 
 forth as victors out of the gigantic struggle, because I don't 
 know if my people will stand at my side, like a single man, 
 as it has stood till now. Could I but know this, I could 
 prophecy you victory ; I would tell you, that we will shake 
 the infernal giant, who presumes to impose his laws upon 
 the world — we will shake him to his very foundation in his 
 own home. But, however this may be, this one thing I 
 know, if we be victors we shall have rescued the world — if 
 we fall we shall have fallen martyrs to tlic world. Will you 
 
EVENTS. 91 
 
 accept ttis saint mission from God — will you fight? WiJl you 
 vanquish if you can — die if you must — for the freedom of the 
 world?" 
 
 It being important to know that Kossuth, whatever may 
 "be the opinions entertained of him, had formed his judgment 
 on the causes of his country's subjugation at the time, and 
 on his own grounds ; I insert a report of the speech from 
 the journal of IVIr. Longworth, with which he has kindly 
 furnished me : that journal was on the point of publication, 
 when he received a Consular appointment, and it was con- 
 sequently suppressed. 
 
 " As far as the Austrians were concerned, and for anything 
 they could do, the war had been terminated ; the God of 
 battles had unequivocally declared himself for Hungary ; but 
 against that decree they had appealed to the Russian Czar — 
 they had invoked the aid of, the eternal enemies of human 
 rights and human liberties. That appeal had been responded 
 to, and the Muscovite masses and wild Cossack hordes were 
 already there to promote peace and order, and to settle a 
 question of constitutional right with their lances and bayo- 
 nets ; while Hungar)% deserted by all the world, was left to 
 fight single-handed and alone, not her own battle only, but 
 — shame to England ! and double shame to France ! — the 
 battles of freedom, justice, and humanity. If such be the 
 will of Providence, be it so — let God's will be done, and as 
 from Debretzin we went forth to reconquer the liberties of 
 Hungary, we will march from Szegcdin to restore freedom to 
 the world." 
 
 Tliere is a wild fanaticism in the manner of this self- 
 sacrifice, which scarcely finds a parallel, it recalls the fas- 
 cination of the devotees of Alamout, and the frenzy of the 
 defenders of the temple of Salem. It scarcely seems to be a 
 historical fact, at least of our times. But the effort, gigantic 
 as it was, was all in vain, and craft prevailed. 
 
92 IIUNGABY. 
 
 As on former occasions, the overpowered Hungarians seek 
 refuge in Turkey. It had never before entered into the thouglits 
 of Austria to demand their Extradition, and no alteration 
 had taken pkice in the Treaties between the two Empires. 
 Eussia was only Austria's friend ; no refugees had passed 
 out of lier territory, but out of that of Austria. Never-' 
 theless, the two Governments demand thcii* surrender, and 
 on its refusal threaten war. 
 
 The Treaties referred to freebooters and malefactors, and 
 contained different stipulations : the Austrian Surrender 
 or Internment, the Eussian Surrender, or Expulsion. The 
 English Government promised to Turkey support on the 
 condition of her complying wdth its advice, which was 
 Uxjmlsion. In terms it denied the right claimed by Eussia ; iji 
 fact it admitted it, and it applied the alternative of the 
 Eussian Treaties to the Austrian case. The entrance of the 
 squadron into the Dardanelles occurred after Eussia had 
 yielded, but had it happened at an earlier period, it could 
 not have altered the despatches. 
 
 England exercised no influence for the liberation of the 
 refugees until the middle of April, 1851. 
 
 That is to say, not until Kossuth had entered into com- 
 munications with Mazzini, whose agent (Mr. Lemmi) was his 
 private secretary when he left Kutayah. Liberated at the 
 close of 1850, he would have proclaimed to Europe, "That 
 Eussia had in every Cabinet a spy, if not an agent:'' 
 liberated in June, 1851, he was fit to write the Marseilles 
 Letter, and unconsciously to play his part in the co?ip 
 (Tttat of the 2d of December. At the first period his 
 *' war " would have been a real one, against the real foe, one 
 of words, levelled at St. Petersburgh, not of rockets at 
 Yienna. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this extraordinary man, in whom alone 
 have been evolved the convulsions of Hungary, without 
 acknowledging the service that he has rendered in one respect, 
 and which to render required no small amount of fidelity and 
 courage : he uttered in the ears of the people of England the 
 
EVENTS. 93 
 
 words, "Secret Diplomacy :" the last sounds upon his lips, 
 as his political existence passed into Buddhistic Nirvana, 
 and as the green glades of the New Forest were fading on 
 his view, were : — 
 
 *' Gentlemen, read tlie Blue Bools.'^ 
 
 I adopt the instruction, I open these Blue Books, to the 
 contents and peiwersions of which my attention was first 
 called by a letter of his from Kutayah : from them I give the 
 *' diplomatic," that is to say, the real history of the transaction, 
 a Comedy in incident — a Tragedy in result ; uniting to the 
 action of an epic, the extravagance of a romance. 
 
u 
 
 CIIAPTEE in. 
 Diplomatic Review. 
 
 The internal changes wliicli occurred in Hungaiy in the 
 early part of 1848 must not be classed with the Revolutions 
 of that year throughout the rest of Europe. That country 
 was, indeed, vehemently agitated at the time by discussions, 
 originating in an attempt of the Austrian Government to 
 change the provincial administration and to prevent the Diet 
 from taking measures for the emancipation of the serfs. The 
 events of Paris had the effect of enabling them to carry in- 
 stantaneously in the Diet these long matured purposes, which 
 were wholly of a constitutional kind. It is true that, in the 
 excitement of the moment, other speculative propositions 
 were introduced, which, had they come into operation, would 
 no doubt have in time changed the character of Hungaiy, 
 and destroyed that resistance to the encroachments of the 
 Government of Vienna which it had so long presented : but 
 like the Constitution of Spain in 1812, these remained a dead 
 letter, and were, in fact, ignored on both sides. There was, 
 therefore, no Eevolution in Hungary. 
 
 But this was not all. The Hungaiians have no sympathy 
 with the Germans in general, far less with those of Vienna. 
 Neither had they any sympathies with the revolutionary move- 
 ments of the West. The liberal Constitution which the 
 Viennese Insurrection produced, was to them an object of not 
 less distaste or aversion, than the avowed despotism or the 
 masked intrigues of that Cabinet. This disposition was evinced 
 in their refusal to take any part therein ; and, in fact, it was to 
 Kossuth at the critical moment that the Emperor owed the 
 preservation of his crown, and perhaps of his life. So far 
 from the existence of any real animosity towards the legi- 
 timate authority of the Empire, the Hungarian Government 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 95 
 
 recognised the importance of sustaining its military povvcr, 
 and even in tlie dubious exercise of that power in Lombardy, 
 the Diet did not refuse its contingent of men, although it 
 appended conditions which rendered it unavailable, but con- 
 ditions which its honour and security required. 
 
 In fact, all alarms regarding Hungary had subsequently to 
 the month of April ceased in Europe, and the collision with 
 the Austj-ians arose out of no internal measures whatever 
 It was simply an international transaction, originating in an 
 attack on a body of Hungarians by a force under the com- 
 mand of a chief at that very moment publicly proclaimed as 
 a rebel by the Emperor, although immediately afterward 
 appointed his Eepresentative. I subjoin in a note some 
 extracts from the Blue Books,* which will show that in 
 what I have said of the relations between Austria and 
 Hungary, I but re-echo the opinion of the English Am- 
 
 * " The Hungarian revolution is now complete." — Mr. BlacJcwell 
 ' 18th March, 1848. 
 
 " Count Louis Batthyanyi has been here during some days, and 
 the Ministry formed by him seems to give satisfaction in Hungary, 
 and will be agreed to by this Government. It appears to me that 
 there are reasons which might influence the patriots who take tho 
 lead in the Hungarian Diet, to content themselves with what tliey 
 have obtained." — Lord Fomonhy, March 18th. 
 
 "The great object of di'cad to the Huugarians is the Kussian 
 Power ; and it may perhaps appear that the measm-es pursued by 
 the Hungarians, tending as they do to a breach with the Austrians, 
 will prove to be primary means for bringing that Power into Hungary 
 which is the most di-eaded by the Hungarian leaders." — Lord 
 IPonsonhify 3d May. 
 
 " I had the opportunity tliis evening of ascertaining from Prince 
 Paul Esterhazy and from Count Batthyanyi, and the Cliief Minister 
 of Hungary, that the Hungarian G-overnment had not made any such 
 demand, but, on the contrary, the Hungarian Ministry were ready 
 to furnish the Emperor with 100,000 men, if needed ; that they had 
 said to his Imperial Majesty, they only W9.nted to keep in their 
 coimtry some 15,000 to 20,000 men, to maintain order amongst a 
 population amounting to 14,000,000 or 15,000,000. It is impossible 
 4o doubt the word of the above-mentioned personages, and giving 
 credit to them, it follows that verj much, aiid indeed most of what 
 
96 HUNGAEY. 
 
 bassador at Vienna, and, as may therefore be inferred, of the 
 British Government. That opinion was that the " Eevolu- 
 tion " had not disturbed the connection of Austria and 
 Hungary, and that any danger arising from it was connected 
 with Ptussia. 
 
 In a former chapter I have stated that the existing relations 
 betv/een Austria and Hungary had been, for the last time, 
 settled by a Treaty concluded under the mediation of England 
 in 1711. The two nations were at war. Hungary applied 
 to England for her good offices ; these she readily yielded, on 
 the ground of the necessity of supporting Austria, then her 
 Ally against France. Much stronger grounds than those upon 
 which England based her interference in Sicily were here 
 presented, and much graver circumstances than those which 
 had induced her interference in 1711 : equally greater were the 
 facilities whicli she possessed. Then she had to seek Austria's 
 aid ; now Austria feared her : at the former period her in- 
 ducement was the curbing of the Octogenarian ambition of, 
 Louis XIV : now it was the closing of the centre of Europe 
 against Eussia. She had the absolute command of the whole 
 question, of Austria by her power, of Hungaiy by her 
 influence; the unexpected and truly wonderful efforts made by 
 Hungary, and the hopelessness of its subjugation by all the 
 power of Austria, combined to furnish everj'- inducement to 
 the British Cabinet to act with vigour, which it is possible 
 for necessity to impose, or advantages to invite. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that at the close of 1848, 
 an agent of the Hungarian Government arrived in London, 
 and addressed to the Foreign Office a request to be allowed to 
 communicate with it on the then state of affairs. Before 
 quoting the reply which he received, I must mention that that 
 Office had shown no hesitation to enter into communication 
 
 had appeared alarming in the situation of Hungary has disappeared.'* 
 — Lord Ponsonb?/, 3d May. 
 
 " The Count (Batthyanyi) appeared to think it very necessary to 
 keep up the mihtary power of the Austrian Empire." — Lord 
 Fonsonb^/f 5th of May. 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 97 
 
 with the insurgents of any country ; that it had furnished 
 arms to the Sicilitlns ; that it had saluted there the Re- 
 volutionary flag ; and tliat the foreign Minister himself had 
 requested letters of introduction from IMazzini to the diflerent 
 clubs of Italy for the son of Lord Eddisbury, the Under 
 Secretary of State. I have also to remark that the Hungarians 
 were at the period in question, whatever their former relations 
 with the Court of Vienna, now in possession on unquestionable 
 grounds of belligerent rights. The reply was the following : — 
 
 *' Lord Eddisbury to * "-^ * 
 
 ''lore'ujn Office, Lecemher 12, 1848. 
 
 "Sir, — In reply to yoiu* letter of the 15th instant, I am 
 directed by Viscount Pabnerston to say that Her Majesty's 
 Government can take no cognizance of those internal guestions 
 between Hungary and the Austrian dominions to which your 
 letters refer ; but that the British Government has no diplo- 
 matic relations with Hungary except as a component part of 
 the Austrian Empire, and can receive communications respect- 
 ing Hungary o^ily throiigli the diplomatic organ of the Emperor 
 of Austria at this Court, 
 
 " I am, &c., 
 
 " Eduisbl'hy." 
 
 It had already been suggested by the Ambassador at 
 Vienna, and was of public notoriety, that Austria unable 
 herself to reduce the Hungarians, would call in the armies of 
 Eussia, already advanced to the frontier, and stationed in the 
 neighbouring Turkish provinces. This reply must therefore 
 be considered as written with that result in view — a result 
 which the interposition of England could have alone averted. 
 Its effect on the Hungarians must be self-evident, but it 
 is used equally for the Austrians. It is sent to Vienna 
 enclosed in the follov/ing despatch : — 
 
 4 
 
9S HUNGAEY. 
 
 ''Foreirjii Office, December 20, 1848. 
 
 " My Lord, — I liercwitli transmit to your Excellency, for 
 your information, a copy of a letter which I have caused 
 to be addressed to a person representing himself as charged 
 with communications from Hungary. 
 
 " T am, &c., 
 
 " Palmerston." 
 
 This is the only ostentible communication* made to 
 Vienna during the whole course of these pi'oceedings, that 
 is to say, from February, 1848, down to August, 1849; 
 when therefore the Intervention takes place, the formal com- 
 munication of \A4iich reaches London on May 11th, 1849,f 
 we are quite prepared* to find that the British Minister has 
 nothing to say, though perhaps not so for his announcing 
 directly to the Government of St. Petersburgh that fact. He 
 writes as follows on the 17th of May. 
 
 ''Foreign Office, May 17, 1849. 
 
 " Much as Her Majesty's Government regret this Inter- 
 ference of llussia, the causes which have led to it, and the 
 effects which it may produce, they nevertheless have not con- 
 sidered the occasion to be one which at present calls for any 
 formal expression of the opinions of Great Britain on the 
 
 matter." 
 
 \ 
 
 * There is another about the Diet which has no diplomatic bearing. 
 
 f It is announced the same day to Parliament in the following 
 terms : — " Her Majesty's Grovernment had this day received infor- 
 mation from the Chargee d' Affau-es at Tienna, that an apphcation for 
 military assistance in a war between Atistria and Hungary, was sent 
 by Austria to tlie Russian Grovernment, and the application had 
 been attended, to, and was going to be complied with ; and, although 
 no Russian troops had as yet entered, a Russian force was expected. 
 Her Majesty's Government had taken no steps to offer their media- 
 tion between Austria and Hungary, and the Austrian Grovernment 
 liad no desire for such mediation." — Lord Falrnerston, May 11th, 1849. 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION, 
 
 The Bussian Intervention so prepared for, and so accepted, 
 by the English Minister, appears, however, to have been 
 treated by him in his communications with certain of the 
 Hepresentatives abroad as by no means likely, and as indeed 
 impossible^ in consequence of the communications he had 
 received from the Kussian Ambassador. In the Despatches 
 to and from St. Petersburgh there is not a line upon this 
 matter ; in those from Vienna, it is repeatedly mentioned. 
 Lord Ponsonby more than once announcing his conviction, 
 but not a word is addressed to him by the Foreign 
 Minister. With Constantinople it is different : in the cor- 
 i^spondence as published there is indeed nothing ; but an 
 incidental reference in the Despatches of Lord Ponsonby 
 makes us aware of the fact. He quotes (Nov. 7, 1848) a 
 passage' from a suppressed Despatch of Lord Palmerston to 
 Sir Stratford Canniii», on which he proceeds to make com- 
 Fients, showing that he considered it levelled against him 
 jno less than against Sir Stratford Canning. The passage 
 5s as follows : — 
 
 '^ Tliej'e are some who imagine that the aav'.'^'"^^^ ^^ 
 that force in those'' (the Danubian) "provinces is not wlioui/ 
 nnconneded with the events which have been passitig 
 in Hungary ; and that the Emiperor has contemplated the pos- 
 sibilHy of his being asked by the Austrian Government to 
 .assist m restoring order in Pesth." 
 
 We are left in the dark as to the remarkable passage which 
 must have followed this quotation, but it does not require a 
 very active imagination to fill up the void. Sir S. Canning 
 has to be reconciled to the Occupation of Wallachia, and to 
 be relieved from apprehensions as to the Invasion of Hungary. 
 I therefore supply the omission with as much confidence as 
 if I had before me the archives of the Foreign Oflice. I 
 have more tlftm once set down beforehand wl)at that minister 
 would say : I may venture after tlic event on wliat be has 
 said ; — 
 
100 HUNGAEY. 
 
 "Your Excellency is, however, far too judicious not to have 
 observed that these troops, having entered without orders 
 from the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, the operation can scarcely 
 have been combined with any ulterior views ; that as the 
 corps is not large, its entrance has been sanctioned (as stated 
 in a communication I have received from Count Nesselrode), 
 by the Porte ; that having for its object the maintenance or 
 re-estabKshment of order, and being limited to the perform- 
 ance of that service, Her Majesty's Government do not feel 
 themselves called upon to make any representation on the 
 subject. Russia, moreover, has certain relations witli those 
 Principalities as a protecting Power, by virtue of Treaties, 
 and therefore it is not entirely a case of the entrance of the 
 troops of one Government into the territory of another." 
 
 Every word here is Lord Palmerston's own.* This i& 
 the only possible explanation of his conduct. Vvhy, then, 
 is it suppressed ? Explanation ! Who inquires into any- 
 thing ? The British nation does not ; the world does 
 not. All the Minister has to care for is an intemperate 
 Despatch of one Ambassador (Sir Stratford Canning), and a 
 captious question of one member of the House of Commons 
 (Lord Dudley Stuart). When by a phrase he has secured 
 the reluctant services of the one and the agitated friendship 
 of the other, his difficulties are overcome. The Tyrian. 
 Hercules was represented with a closed fist and an open 
 palm : this was the impersonation of art, a type reproduced 
 wherever the science has prevailed ; above all, in the Blue 
 Books of the Foreign Office. 
 
 The reader may be curious to know why Lord Ponsonby 
 made the quotation, and what he said thereupon. He said 
 this : — "/ have little doubt that the Emperor of Eussia 
 
 * Questioned on the 2d March, 1849, in tlu House, respecting 
 the entrance of the Russians into Transylvania, he s\js, they went 
 for the protection of the " frontier towns," " but they did not, I 
 think, take any other part in the hostilities going on." 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 101 
 
 would give the most efficient aid to the Emperor of Austria 
 in Hungary." But he says something more, and hesitates 
 not to tell his chief that, in case of need, the same aid will 
 be aftbrded for Italy ! 
 
 To judge by the Blue Books, the .English Government 
 must have treated the Hungarian war as a matter altogether 
 subordinate and insignificant ; not only as of no importance, 
 but as a thing that positively had no existence ; for how 
 otherwise explain the total inaction, and next to total 
 silence, of a Government not remarkable for its indifference, 
 and of a Miidster not characterised by either imbecility or 
 diffidence, and who at the very time was exerting himself 
 with ceaseless, unscrupulous, and inexplicable activity on 
 every other field, to raise embarrassments to Austria and to 
 furnish facilities to Eussia ? Now listen to Lord Palnierston 
 in the House of Commons, on the 21st of July : — 
 
 " I firmly believe that in this war hehceen Austria and 
 Hungary there is enlisted on the side of Hungary tlie hearts 
 and souls of the whole people of that country. I believe 
 that the other races distinct from the Magyars have forgotten 
 the former feuds that existed between them and the Magyar 
 population, and that the greater portion of the people have 
 engaged in what they consider a great national contest. 
 
 " I take the question that is now to he fought for on the 
 plains of Hungaiy to be this , whether Hungaiy shall con- 
 tinue to maintain its separate Nationality as a distinct Jcingdom, 
 and with a Constitution of its own, or whether it is to be 
 incorporated more or less in the aggregate Constitution that 
 is to be given to the Austrian Empire. It is a most painful 
 sight to see such forces as are now arrayed against Hungary, 
 proceeding to a war fraught with such tremendous conse- 
 quences on a question that it might have been hoped would 
 haze been settled peacefully. It is of the utmost importance 
 to Europe 'that Austria should remain gi'cat and powerful ; 
 but it is impossible to disguise from ourselves that if the war 
 is to be fought out, Austria must, &c 
 
102 HUNGAEY. 
 
 " If, on tlie other hand, the war beinj^ fought out to the 
 uttermost, Hungary should by superior forces" (what forces ?) 
 *' be entirely crushed, Austria in that battle will have crushed 
 her own right arm. Every field that is laid waste is an 
 Austrian resource destroyed ; every man that perishes upon 
 the field among the Himgarian ranks is an Austrian soldier 
 deducted from the defensive forces of the Empire. 
 
 " It is, I say, devoutly to he wisJied that this great contest 
 may be brought to a termination by some amicable arrange- 
 ment between the contending parties which shall on the one 
 .hand satisfy the national feelings of the Hungarians, and on 
 the other hand not leave to Austria another and a larger 
 Poland within her Empire.'* 
 
 Why was not this written in a Despatch in the previous 
 December, when the communications of Hungary were re- 
 jected with scorn, and transmitted to Vienna ? Why not in 
 November when Lord Ponsouby had exposed the absurdity 
 of Lord Palmerston's assumption that the Eussians would 
 not interfere ? Why not in the previous month or months — 
 why not at the origin of the difference ? Why then was it 
 said in Parliament in July — after, too, Eussia had been told 
 in May that the English Minister had nothing to say. 
 
 This speech, delivered amidst peals of applause by the sup- 
 poirters of the Government, filled with admiration their 
 opponents. The unwonted earnestness of its tone, the deep 
 bearing of its judgments, and the balanced arrangement 
 and order of its exposition, made them see in the Minister 
 by whom it was delivered a Statesman of v/hom England 
 " was proud." Who now on reading it could believe that 
 when it was uttered, the Eussian armies were in the centre 
 of Hungary, and that the cheering audience knew the fact ! 
 It concludes in these terms : — 
 
 " In i\\Q p7'esent state oi the matter. Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment have not thought that any opportunity has as yet 
 presented itself .that could enable them, with any prospect of 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 1 
 
 advantage, to make any official communication of those 
 opinions which they entertain on this subject." 
 
 In the present state of the matter ! Could it become better ? 
 Not a word tiU Eussia has interfered: he waits to speak 
 until he has an audience cowed. The Russia that never 
 rises to his lips, is all that is in their thoughts, and their 
 honour and courage are redeemed by the considerate ** as 
 
 TCET." 
 
 Supposing the Government up to the 21st of July had 
 perceived nothing, and that only on the 31st of July, it had 
 been startled at the awful consequences, — what was there to 
 prevent its interposing then? " Oh," says Lord Palmerston, 
 "Austria is indisposed to admit our Mediation." Were 
 Austria's feelings consulted when the Italian Despatch ot 
 the 11th of September, 1847, was written, or her indigna- 
 tion regarded when it w^is published, without the reply? 
 The question was now with Russia, not Austria: then it 
 was a " domestic aifair" — a Foreign Power interposes, and 
 then the Austrian question is discussed ! Of course, Austria 
 is indisposed to an English Mediation ; she has not forgotten 
 Switzerland, Lombardy and Sicily; but that indisposition 
 springing from fear, afforded the assurance of success. But 
 having been informed that in tins case England will not 
 meddle, she of course presses on, and in all haste. 
 
 The checking of a commercial account is an easy matter ; 
 not so diplomatic entries, even if given complete, and in 
 extenso ; how much more so when the real business is done 
 by   ' private communications," and even the ostensible docu- 
 ments are only inserted in extract ? StiU we must endeavour 
 to make out the balance sheet. 
 
 By the Hungarian war, by the condition of Italy and 
 Germany, by the fears entertained on the side of Poland, 
 and by the excitement prevailing throughout the Ottoman 
 Empire, Russia and Austria were both neutralised. England's 
 control over both was entiic; without drawing a weapon 
 
104 IIUNGAEY. 
 
 she could have broken them to pieces. Independently of 
 these adventitious circumstances, the Foreign Minister was 
 a man equal to carry into effect against the opposition of 
 Hussia, any legitimate object of British policy, and that 
 minister had declared that the driving matters to extremity 
 in Hungary, even as between it and Austria, was a matter 
 the most alarming to British interests, and to those of all 
 Europe. These points understood, the value of the " as yet" 
 will be seen: the "as yet" was for Eussia and not for 
 England. This is not the first time that such an entry was 
 made. When Austria and France applied to the same 
 Minister for his co-operation in preventing the fall of 
 Poland, his answer was " not yet."* The " yet" came with 
 order restored at Warsaw. Now it comes with order at FestJi, 
 On the 1st of August England proposed to mediate. Had 
 Austria's indisposition been removed ? Was it the triumph 
 of the Hungarians, or of the Russians, that had brought the 
 change. The Despatch opens historically : — 
 
 * The Despatch in question was published by M. Louis Blanc, in 
 his Histoire de Dix Ans. It has been several times read in the 
 House of Commons, without its autlienticity being questioned by 
 Lord Palmerston. Tlie following is an extract : — " That the amica- 
 ble and satisfactory relations between the Cabinet of St. James's, 
 and the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, would not allow his Britannic 
 Majesty to undertake such an interference. The time was not^ yet 
 oome to undertake such a plan with success against the wiU of a 
 sovereign whose rights were indisjputahle.^^ 
 
 M. Louis Blanc thus mentions the transaction: 
 
 " M. Walewski was despatched to sound the disposition of the 
 Cabinet of the Tuileries and that of St. James's : the Palais Royal 
 did not reject the overtures of Austria, but simply declared that it 
 was ready to join England, if England would consent to the project. 
 M. Walewski then proceeded to London ; but the answer of the 
 British Cabinet was ' widely different from that of the French.' 
 Lord Palmerston avowed * without reserve' that France and ' oio 
 other Toiver^ was the ohject of the ^distrust ami fear of England.^ ^^ 
 
 This passage I have also read in the House of Commona without 
 ft negation. 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 105 
 
 ** This war, which in its outset seemed to be a conflict 
 between a discontented portion of the population of Hungary, 
 and the Executive Government of Fie?ina, has gradually 
 assumed the character and proportions of an important 
 European iramaction.'* After enumerating the forces on. 
 both sides, Russia is slipped in in the following fashion : — 
 "And in aid of this Austrian force, the whole disposable 
 force of the Russian Empire has been hrougUt up to take part 
 in the war." 
 
 What can mean writing as follows from London to Vienna P 
 
 "To such an extent indeed has the Russian army been 
 employed in this transaction, that it has been found necessary 
 that between 20,000 and 30,000 of the Russian guards, who 
 form the usual garrison of St. Petersburgh, should be 
 marched to the south, to take up positions evacuated by 
 other divisions which have been sent to take the field in 
 Hungary; and the combined Austrian and Russian forces 
 operating in Hungaiy are said to amount to 300,000 men." 
 
 If Russia makes this effort, analogous ends are in view ; 
 but this the reader must not suspect, so he is' immediately 
 informed that Russia is " operating for interests icJiich cart 
 only be indirectly and constructively its own." The sub- 
 jugation of Hungary, he says, involves two questions : " Eirst, 
 How far the triumph will turn to the real and permanent 
 advantage of Austria." He touchingly replies to himself, 
 " The discontent of the heart will not be extinguished 
 because tlie hand has been disarmed," and assures the 
 Austrian Cabinet that Hungary will become " a political can- 
 cer, corroding the vital elements of the Empire's existence." 
 The second question is, " What will be the compensation to 
 be made for the gigantic exertions by which she will have 
 been enabled to achieve that triumph?" He is here not 
 quite so explicit, and reverts to a ftuniliar formula : " That 
 
lOQ HUNGAUT. 
 
 the English Government is eniltled to inquire^ whether any 
 arrangements are in contemplation at variance with the let- 
 ter, or the spirit, of the Treaty of Vienna." What ! when the 
 interests of Russia have only just been stated as "indirect 
 and constructive." As there was no one who did not see 
 that the Emperor of Eussia now commanded at Vienna, so 
 was there no one who had imagined, that a new delimitation 
 of frontiers was required. The Despatch was written not to 
 save the people of Hungary, but to satisfy those of England ; 
 not to influence the Cabinet of Vienna, but to stultify that of 
 St. James's; not to put in the hands of Prince Schwartzenberg, 
 but in those of the printer of the House of Commons. It 
 continues : 
 
 " Her Majesty's Government would most Jieartily rejoice^ if 
 they could entertain a hope, that this conflict between an 
 entire nation," (discontented portion ?) " and the armies of 
 two great Mnpires might be brought to an early termination 
 by an arrangement," 
 
 7/' they could entertain ! They do entertain. 
 
 " It appears to her Majesty's Government, that matters 
 have NOT yet gone so far as to render such an arrangement 
 impossible." 
 
 " Not yet" again — with the Russians in the centre of the 
 country — after the abolition of Hungary as an independent 
 State — after their dethronement of the King ! You have no 
 remonstrance, or protest, to show at Vienna, you answer 
 the Hungarians, that you know Hungary only through 
 Baron KoUer, you send that answer to Vienna, — consequently 
 the wonderful hope is soon turned to joy by the " happy and 
 early return to good order and peace." 
 
 * See Despatch, callmg Eussia to accoiiiit for her proceedings in 
 Central Asia, October 26th, 1838. 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 107 
 
 Tins Despatch pretends to no other character than that of 
 " reflections" on " One of the most important events that 
 Europe has of late years experienced. '* It surely does not 
 require to be a j\Iinister of State to make reflections on im- 
 portant events: if nothing but reflections arc to be expected 
 from 'Ministers of State, the expense is very superfluous, and 
 the secresy very absurd. These reflections might just as well 
 appear in a leader, when they might be read by the Govern- 
 ment to which they are addressed, and if without profit, at 
 least without off'ence. Then follows the specification of '' the 
 best means of carrying into eflect i\\Q purposes of her Majesty's 
 Government," which is by "reading this Despatch to Prince 
 Schwartzenberg, and giving him a copy of it." 
 
 A second Despatch, of the same date, directs the Ambas- 
 sador to state, that he will feel great pleasure in attending, 
 without the least delay, to any intimation which he may 
 receive of the wishes of the Austrian Government to enter • 
 into negotiation with the Hungarians. Good God ! Tvhere is 
 Baron KoUer? 
 
 It is just, however, possible, that when the proposal of 
 Mediation was sent, the Minister might not have been certain 
 that the case was desperate. Let us see. 
 
 On the 3d of July, a long Despatch was Avritten at the 
 English Embassy, at Vienna, of which the following is the 
 first paragraph : — 
 
 " The operations of the Austrian and Russian armies in 
 Hungary are pushed on with vigour, and have been attended 
 with such success, since I last had the honour to address 
 your lordship on this subject, that a not distant end of the 
 civil war may he confidently looked to.''* 
 
 This was received seven days before the Speech in the 
 House, and eighteen days before the Off^er of Mediation. 
 
 On the 14th of July, a mass of intelligence is again 
 despatched, the first paragi-aph of which announces the occupa- 
 tion without resistance of the Capital of Hungaiy. This was 
 
108 HUNGAPtY. 
 
 received on the day the Speech in tlie House of Commons 
 was delivered, and eleven days before the Offer of Mediation. 
 
 On the 17 th of July it is announced that Marshal Pas- 
 kiewitch is advancing on the left bank of the Danube, towards 
 Comorn, to cut off the retreat of the Hungarians — that 
 General Grabbe has passed the mountains from the nai-th — 
 that the Eussian corps in Transylvania have repulsed General 
 Bern, and taken twelve pieces of cannon, and that there are 
 "no accounts of any large Hungarian forces in the field 
 except the two mentioned." This is received seven days 
 before the Offer of J\Iediation. 
 
 On the 21st of July, Lord Ponsonby writes, " the Hunga- 
 rian army from Comorn is under the command of Gorgey, and 
 is said to be about 50,000 strong, with 120 pieces of cannon. 
 Being foiled in their attempt to pass by Waitzen, and from 
 thence by Pesth to Czegled they retreated under cover of the 
 night towards the north, and the third corps of the Eussian 
 army under General Elidiger is now in pursuit of them," and 
 further reports, " that the capital of Transylvania had been 
 occupied by the Pvussian corpse of General Liiders." 
 
 This arrives tbree days before the Offer of Mediation. 
 
 On the 22d of July, Lord Ponsonby writes, " the Hun- 
 garian army under Gorgey was by the last accounts retreating 
 along the road which leads from Waitzen to Balassa-Gyarmath 
 and Losoncz, at which latter place it was supposed they would 
 arrive on the 19th instant. They are closely pursued and 
 continually harassed by the Eussian corps of General Eiidiger, 
 and.the official reports state that the men were deserting ' in 
 thousands.' 
 
 " The second edition of the Gazette of this morning says 
 that the Hungarians imder Bem in Transylvania had met with 
 another defeat from the corps of General Liiders ; and that 
 the Austrian corps of Count Clam-Gallas was marching upon 
 Cronstadt to occupy the district which had been reduced." 
 
 Now, not a moment is to be lost, and in two days after the 
 receipt of this communication, an elaborate despatch is on its 
 way to Vienna with the Offer of Mediation. 
 
ENGLISH MEDIATION. 109 
 
 It is curious that the day before a messenger should arrive 
 from St. Peiersburg:h without, at so critical a moment, 
 bringing a single line worthy of insertion in the Blue 
 Book. 
 
 However, by whoever devised, the plan was inimitable. 
 Under such circumstances a Mediation was a bold and even 
 original conception, but the result entirely depended on 
 the apropos; the moment was to be hit between the im- 
 possibility of its having effect, and the possibility of pro- 
 posing it. That moment was calculated with an astronomical 
 precision that would have done honour to aHalleyor allerschel: 
 a day before, it might have been attended to ; a day after it 
 could not have been sent. Nor is this all ; it is so managed 
 that it is sent and never arrives ; and is published in London, 
 without having been received at Vienna ! 
 
 It so happened, that exactly the day before it reached 
 Yienna, Prince Schwartzenberg had started for Warsaw. Of 
 course it coidd not be communicated to any other member 
 of the Austrian Government ; Lord Ponsonby has, therefore, 
 to express in reply his regrets that he has had no oppor- 
 tunity " of canying out your Lordship's instnictions :" 
 however, " his Highness will probably not return before the 
 end of the week." Before that week ended, Hungary was 
 finally blown up, and, of course, there was no further any 
 need to carry out his Lordship's instructions : the Mediation 
 born in a " Not yet," expired in a " No longer." On the 
 23d day of the self-same month that had witnessed the Rise 
 and Occultation of this Lunar phenomenon from the Bedford 
 Hotel at Brighton, — 
 
 "Baron Bmnow presents his compliments to Viscount 
 Palmcrston, and has the honour to communicate, &c., in the 
 persuasion that he will learn with satisfaction an event whicli 
 puts an end to the shedding of human blood, S:c." 
 
 What had Baron Brunow to do with communicating on a 
 subject on which his Government had been three months 
 before informed that England had nothing to say : how 
 
110 HUiN-GAEY. 
 
 should he usurp the post of Baron KoUer, from whom alone 
 communieationb could be received respecting the *' component 
 parts" of the "Austrian dominions," or assume that his 
 information at Brighton was so far in advance of that of the 
 British Minister in Downing-street ? But mark how accident 
 helps Eussia, — the foreign Minister positively was without 
 intelligence : — 
 
 " Lord Palmerston presents his compliments to Baron 
 Brunow, and must rejoice in Ua^ming, &c." 
 
 The same enthusiastic and hopeful temperament induces 
 Lord Palmerston to congratulate on the same Event the 
 Austrian Government which had not condesciendcd to an- 
 nounce it. Psychologically, the incident is curious, and the 
 Despatch deserves the honour of insertion in extenso. 
 
 " Viscount FalmeYstGn to Viscount Fonsonby. 
 
 ''Foreign Office, August 28, 1849. 
 
 " My Lord, — I have to instruct your Excellency to express 
 to the Austrian Government the satisfaction which Her 
 Majesty's Government haVe felt at hearing that the calamitous 
 •war which for the last two months has desolated Hungary, 
 has been brought to a close hy a pacification which Her 
 Majesty's Government hope will prove in its results beneficial 
 to all parties concerned. The eyes of all Europe will of 
 course now be directed to the proceedings of the Austrian 
 Government in a matter which has excited so deep and 
 general an interest ; and Her Majesty's Government would 
 fail in the performance of their duty, if they were not to 
 instruct you to express the anxious hope which they feel in 
 common with the people of this country, that the Austrian 
 Government will make a generous use of the successes which 
 it has obtained, and that in the arrangements which may be 
 made between the Emperor of Austria and the Hungarian 
 nation, due regard will be had to the ancient Constitutional 
 rights of Hungary. A settlement founded on such a basis. 
 
ENGUSII MEDIATIOIS^ 111 
 
 with such improvements as the altered circumstances of the 
 present times may require, will be the best security, not only 
 for the welfare and contentment of Hungary, but for the 
 future strength and prosperity of the Austrian Empire. Your 
 Excellency will read this Despatch to Prince -Schwartzenberg, 
 and will give him a copy of it. 
 
 " I am, &c. 
 
 " (Signed) Palmesston.'* 
 
 Her Majesty's Government's hopes, endeavours, and advice, 
 are, however, always exposed to misadventure ; Prince 
 Schwartzenberg makes the most unbecoming return, and sends 
 a ferocious reply, which concludes in these terms : — 
 
 "The world is agitated by a spirit of general subversion. 
 England herself is not exempt from the influence of this 
 spirit ; witness Canada, the Island of Cefalonia, and finally, 
 unhappy Ireland. But wherever revolt breaks out within the 
 vast limits of the British Empire, the English Government 
 always knows how to maintain the authority of the law, were 
 it even at the price of ton-ents of blood. 
 
 " It is not for us to blame her. Whatever may, moreover, 
 be the opinion which we fonii as to the causes of these insur- 
 rectionary movements, as well as of the measures of repression 
 employed by the British Government in order to stifle them, 
 we consider it our duty to abstain from expressing that 
 opinion, persuaded as we are that persons are apt to fall into 
 gross errors, in making themselves judges of the often so 
 complicated position of foreign countries. 
 
 " By this conduct we consider we have acquired the right 
 to expect that Lord Palmerston will practise with respect to 
 us a perfect reciprocity, 
 
 " You will read this Despatch to his Lordship, and you will 
 give him a copy of the same." 
 
 Such are the contents of the first Blue Book. I have, 
 however, oftiitted two important particulars : first, that the 
 addresses from the.cities of England in favour of Hungary arc 
 
112 HUNGAHY. 
 
 communicated regularly to Vienna, Constantinople, and St. 
 Petersburg}! ; second, that the Kussian Government has been 
 informed that it is the opinion of Lord Palmerston, that " it 
 is highly desirable that the troops of each country should be 
 kept within their own frontiers." 
 
 Although, as proof, nothing more is required or need be 
 added, I cannot conclude this part of the subject without 
 recurring to some of the points where prevailing misjudgments 
 facilitated deception. 
 
 If we turn to the negotiations of 1793, which preceded the 
 Coalition against Prance, it will be seen that England attached 
 peculiar importance to the signature of the Emperor of Austria 
 being appended as " King of -Hungary;" — England was then 
 under a Tory administration, — not Tory only in the English 
 sense, but Anti-Eevolutionaiy in the European one. It is, 
 therefore, neither in the archives of the Poreign Office, nor 
 in the practice of English Diplomacy, that it was found that 
 Plungary was a "component part" of the "Austrian do- 
 minions," — as the already cited transactions of 1711 show 
 that it was neither unseemly nor impossible to hold commu- 
 nication with a Nation in arras against its Sovereign. In 
 1711, we wished to strengthen Austria as an Ally ; in 1848, 
 we apprehend (as it is professed) the subversion of her inde- 
 pendence, and we adopt the opposite course. We reject the 
 application of the one, and adopt as the rule of our conduci 
 the unwillingness of the other. Avowed desires remain barren, 
 important interests are superseded, acknowledged dangers 
 incurred, through ceremonious reserve. A reserve, however, 
 unknown in the meridians of Italy and Denmark, where the 
 forms of office and the courtesies of life are forgotten. "Was 
 it that subversive doctrines had not as yet taken root in 
 Hungary? Was it that Italy was to be convulsed that 
 Hungary might be put down ? 
 
 This scrupulousness might still be intelligible, if the Hun- 
 garian agent had been commissioned by persons merely 
 disaffected, or engaged simply in plots, but Hungary enjoyed 
 
ENGLISH. MEDIATION. 113 
 
 a de facto existence, her flag had been inaugurated by vic- 
 tories ; that flag was neither "fanciful" nor " piratical," like 
 that of the German Empire on the coast of Denmark ; she 
 possessed belligerent Rights and was at war, and is told that 
 she can be communicated with only through the Hepresenta- 
 tive of the Power with whom that war is being carried on ! 
 
 If this reply was intended to repress inordinate hopes on 
 the part of the Hungarians, the matter of it might be under- 
 stood, however reprehensible the manner, but then it would 
 have been carefully concealed from Austria, that her preten- 
 sions might not be inflamed. Yet a communication so 
 evidently designed to prevent a settlement passes with suc- 
 cess as proof that the opposite result had been desired and 
 sought. 
 
 The salient features are: vehemence in the House of 
 Commons, silence at St. Petersburgh ; contradiction between 
 Minister and Ambassador ; the adoption of opposite sides m 
 reference to a war by the British embassies, that of Vienna 
 rejoicing in every deieat of the one party, that of Constanti- 
 nople exulting in every check of the other, and all combining, 
 in one result : whoever recoils from the admission of system, 
 must fall back on incoherence \ but in such a case, to what 
 must incoherence lead ? 
 
 The residt, however, of the war wholly hinged upon a 
 point excluded from view, or fallaciously disguised under 
 the terms "Turkish Neutrality." He, whoever he was, 
 who reduced the Ottoman Empire to that predicament, and 
 not Prince Paskie witch, placed Plungaiy at the " feet of the 
 Czar," 
 
lU 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Tur/dsk Neutrality. 
 
 Foe all military purposes Turkey was a party in the war ; 
 she did not send forward Armies, but she lent her territoiy 
 for the Eussian operations, along a frontier of several hundred 
 miles ; opening passages through the mountains of the North 
 and East into Transylvania, which otherwise would have been 
 inaccessible, and giving entrance from the South through the 
 gorge of the Danube into the plains of Lower Hungary. The 
 resources of these Provinces — money, provisions, and means 
 of transport, were also usurped by Eussia, and rendered sub- 
 servient to the war. The Austrians when beaten found refuge 
 there, and supplies, and thence they again issue to attack 
 Hungary. The Eussian armies did not indeed enter Serbia, 
 but there also were organised bodies of Invasion, not perhaps 
 dangerous in the field, but calculated to excite intestine feuds 
 by their relationship to the populations of the Banat. The 
 enlistment took place under the auspices of the Eussian 
 Consul, and the money was paid at " the Consulate." These 
 effects were not limited to the period when Eussia became a 
 party in the war, but were in operation from its very com- 
 mencement, and the Eussian troops themselves had been 
 engaged in Transylvania three months before the avowed 
 Intervention took place. Had Turkey remained neutral, the 
 Hungarians would have been secure on the whole of their 
 Southern and Eastern frontiers, and could have brought up 
 their entire disposable force to the North ; so that the results 
 in a military point of view, may be said to have been deter- 
 mined by the participation of Turkey in the war. 
 
 This participation was, however, not voluntary. Her 
 readiness, after the fall of Hungary, to meet the combined 
 
TURKISH NEUTEALITY. 115 
 
 forces of Russia and Austria to save a few of the exiles from 
 an ignominious fate, dispenses me from the necessity of 
 proving that the Turkish nation was ready to incur the risks, 
 and undergo the sacrifices of a war to save Hungary, and the 
 desistance of those two Empires from pressing their demand 
 after, as I shall presently show, they had received the con- 
 curi'ence of England and France, equally relieves me from the 
 necessity of proving, that its military resources were equal 
 to such an enterprise. Turkey had at the time 212,000 
 disciplined men, and could have raised, without difficulty, 
 100,000 iiTCgidair horse, the whole of which she could have 
 sent forward without any inconvenience or risk. She could 
 have supplied the Hungarians with arms, of which they were 
 principally in need, and the presence of a single Turkish regi- 
 ment woidd have changed the whole face of the contest in 
 Hungary. 
 
 If then the participation of Turkey in the war on the side 
 of Russia influenced the result, the assurance of her non- 
 participation on the side of Hungary was requisite for its 
 inception. It was a wonderful plan to combine, and it was 
 settled in anticipation. It entirely depended upon the 
 introduction of a Russian force into the Turkish Provinces of 
 the Danube, which was executed when the Hungarian war 
 was as yet undreamt of, save by visionaries, and when no 
 difference existed between Russia and the Porte. It was, 
 therefore, a direct attack upon the Integrity of the Ottoman 
 Empire, and a violation of the Treaty of 1840, to which 
 England, but not Ei-ance, was a party. It could only, there- 
 fore, be carried by the concurrence of England ; the evidence 
 of that concurrence is to be found, not only in the absence of 
 all opposition but in the effectual support given at Con- 
 stantinople, and the declarations mad^ in the House of Com- 
 mons, where the English Minister stated falsely, that it was a 
 measure undertaken with the consent and concurrence of the 
 Turkish Government.* This Occupation was then sanctioned 
 
 -•■ See Speeches, 1st Sept. 184S ; 2d March, 181.9 ; 22d March, 1849 
 
116 HUNGARY. 
 
 by a Treaty, against which tlie Turkish Government, in vain, 
 sought the support of the English Ambassador, and by that 
 Treaty it was to continue to the year 1856. Henceforward 
 the *' Neutrality" of Turkey was practicable only by the 
 cessation of the Occupation by Eussia, against which such 
 precautions had been taken. That " Neutrality" could be 
 observed only by saying to Eussia, " you shall not entet; " 
 it could not be maintained by saying, *' you shall not go out." 
 Had the Eussian troops been on the Pruth, the Turkish troops 
 would have been at Pesth ; but the Eussian troops, being on 
 the Danube, it was the Cossacks who arrived at Pesth. And 
 it is England who has compromised the Porte into this false 
 position, who urges upon it the maintenance of its "Neutrality." 
 
 Eeduced to this dilemma, the " Neutrality" of Turkey had 
 merely reference to the departure of the Eussian troops from 
 Wallachia, where alone their presence had been endured on 
 the score of their being required to maintain internal tran- 
 quillity ; at least, it was not by urging at Constantinople the 
 maintenance of Turkish " Neutrality" no more than by writing 
 to St. Petersburgh, that it had nothing to say respecting the 
 " neut?rdUy" of Russia, that is, the Invasion of Hungary, that 
 any results could be obtained in the sense of the principles 
 expounded to Parliament on the 21st July, 1849. 
 
 The entrance, in June, 1848, of the Eussian troops into 
 the Provinces had indeed been, according to the British 
 Minister, "without orders from St. Petersburgh." On the 
 1st of Eebruary, 1849, these insubordinate and erratic forces, 
 equally "without orders," enter Transylvania ! Immediately, 
 Sir Stratford Canning says to the Porte : — 
 
 " I do not doubt that my Government will consider the 
 said Intervention as prejudicing the rights of the Porte, and 
 as calculated to make a most painful impression on the Porte, 
 owing to the serious consequences which may follow." He 
 writes home (4th Eebruary) that the Erench Ambassador 
 had read to him a Despatch, "Which expressed goodwill 
 towards the Porte, and a just sense of all that was objection- 
 
TURKISH NEUTEALITY. 117 
 
 able in the late proceedings of Russia. We separated with 
 an understanding that our respective interpreters should wait 
 on Aali Pasha this morning with instructions calculated to 
 encourage the Forte in maintaining subdantially the view taken 
 by its Commissioner at Bucharest of the Military Intervention 
 in Transylvania authorised by the Russian Government"* 
 
 Lord Palmerston answers, February 28th — 
 " I have to observe to your Excellency on this matter, that 
 undoubtedly the passage of Russian troops through Turkish 
 territory for the .purjiose of interfering in the civil war in 
 the Austrijin dominions, was an infraction of the neutrality 
 which the Forte had determined to adopt in regard to that 
 dvil war, and was a Jit subject of remonstrance on the part of 
 the Porter 
 
 As if he were speaking of a theme for a sonnet, or a 
 subject for an essay. Sir Stratford Canning writes again 
 on the 5 th April — 
 
 *' The Porte has not materially relaxed its preparations for 
 an untoward contingency. Besides the circumstances which 
 I have mentioned elsewhere, fresh orders have been sent to 
 repair the defences of Yarna and Silistria ; the Militia is col- 
 lecting in the adjacent Province of Broussa, and the Pasha of 
 
 * The Consul at Bucharest thus details the views of the Turkish 
 Commissioner, Fuad Effendi, 22d February, 1847 : — "His Excellency 
 begged General Duhamel to consider the effect of such a departure 
 from all tlie principles of non-intervention which European Cabinets 
 had laid down, that such a measure might lead to the adoption of a 
 line of conduct on the part of France towards Austria on the ItaHan 
 question, which France herself would regret to be forced to adopt ; 
 that any measure of this nature was an infraction of the law of 
 nations, and of the treaty of 1841, to which Eussia herself was a 
 party ; and that, in the name of the Sultan, as his Representative, 
 he declared himself opposed to the movement. 
 
 "I must do Fuad" (Effendi?) "the justice to say I found him firm 
 and consistent, and resolved to continue so ; but very anxious for 
 instructions from Constantinople. 
 
 " Tliese are critical and difficult times, and I hope your Excellency 
 will continue to favour me with your kind advice and instructions.'* 
 
118 HUNGAEY. 
 
 Bosnia is ordered to have in readiness the whole disposable 
 force of his neighbourhood." 
 
 Noio Lord Palmerston with despatch and explicitness 
 replies, 24th April — 
 
 " I have to acquaint you that Baron Brunow has stated 
 to me that it is not the intention of the Emperor of Eussia, 
 in consequence of the retreat of the Eussian detachment from 
 Hermanstadt, to order his troops to advance into Transyl- 
 vania, or to take any part in the civil war now raging in 
 that province or in Hungary ; but that His Imperial Majesty 
 will content himself with bestowing on the commander^ and 
 officers, and men of that detachment, his approbation of tlie 
 manner in which they made their retreat, after having held in 
 check for many hours a very superior force .'' Q) 
 
 I have' underlined the last sentence, to call attention to 
 the value of a disjunctive particl^, in reducing to the soberest 
 dimensions the Intervention of a foreign Power in a " civil 
 war," and in persuading another foreign Power, thereby 
 vitally endangered, to take the matter coolly. 
 
 .On the same day that this Despatch was written in Down- 
 ing Street, Mr. Magennis was writing from Vienna : 
 
 " The reports from the Danubian Provinces mention the 
 concentration of large bodies of Russian troops along the 
 Transylvanian frontier. I can hardly doubt that the double 
 motive of combating Polish anarchy and of overthrowing 
 revolutionary principles in Hungary would insure the com- 
 pliance of the Eussian Government with any application 
 from hence for aid." 
 
 But Sir Stratford Canning, by the same messenger which 
 brought from Lord Palmerston information of the Emperor 
 of Eussia's intention to take no farther part in the war, 
 received the official announcement of the Intervention ! 
 What must have been the reflections of that Ambassador ? 
 Can this incident have any connexion with the sudden burst 
 of indignation, which startled a Christmas . dinner party of 
 
TURKISH NEUTRALITY. 119 
 
 the British merchants, when striking; the table with his 
 clenched fist, he exclaimed, "And I serve such vmi /" 
 
 The " official" intelligence which reached Yienna on the 
 3d of May must have thence arrived in London in a week. 
 Is Baron Brunow called to account for his imposition, or 
 Russia for her act ? No ! The ^Minister, as we have seen, 
 hastens to announce to Russia that he lias " nothing to say T* 
 
 Sir Stratford Canning nevertheless goes on writing : — 
 
 " The signal continued successes obtained by the Hun- 
 garians in Transylvania and the Banat are attended with 
 consequences which threaten to comp'omise the Porte's neu- 
 trality, and to expose its adjacent provinces to the calamities 
 of war. In addition to the number of private refugees who 
 have poured into Serbia and Wallachia, it is known that 
 General Puchner's array, to the amount of 12,.000 men, has 
 again sought refuge in the latter Principality. 
 
 " This near approach, or rather actual presence, of a danger 
 long foreseen ami pointed out, has afforded me an opportunity ^ 
 which I have not neglected^ of again urging the Porte to 
 maintain its neutrality in a more steady and efficient manner. 
 My repeated communications upon the subject with Aali 
 Pasha have not been wholly fruitless." 
 
 Lord Palmerston replies on the 2d of July : — 
 
 " Her Majesty's Government entirely approve the language 
 which you describe yourself in it to have held to the Porte, 
 with tJie view of inducing it to maintain a strict neutrality in 
 regard to the contest now going on in Hungary. The Porte 
 ought for its own sake to maintain and assert the neutrality 
 of the Turkish territory, as far as it is able to do so, icithout 
 coming into hostile collision with its stronger neighbours'' 
 
 Sir S, Canning had fancied that he was able to force his 
 Government by committing it. He is now told to take 
 care how he compromises Turkey. 
 
120 HUNGAKT. 
 
 Stronger neighbours ! Austria defeated and requiring 
 Eussia's aid — Eussia forced to bring up her last resources ;* 
 the Ilungaricin armies still unsurrendered : — a single move- 
 ment of the Turks in advance taking the Russians in the 
 rear calling the Cossacks and the Poles to independence, — 
 this is the stoiy of Poland over again. 
 
 When charged in the House of Commons with having 
 stopped the preparations of Sweden, Turkey, and Persia, to 
 support Poland, and with having rejected the proposals of 
 Austria and Prance to the same effect, he answered (1 st of 
 March, 1848), " I saved them from a useless and a fatal step, 
 for Eussia was stronger than Sweden, stronger than Turkey, 
 stronger than Persia, as she was stronger than Poland." 
 Of course, it was to be inferred, though it was not stated, that 
 she was also stronger than Austria, and stronger than Prance : 
 she was so, but it was by his means. The argument, how- 
 ever, was An aggregate of strength is an accumulation of 
 weakness : by this argument fell, first Poland, and then 
 Hungary, — the fall of the one prepared the way for the 
 fall of the other : they have been laid prostrate not only 
 by the same logic, but by the same logician. 
 
 I have already mentioned the mission of a Hungarian 
 agent to Constantinople : — the circumstances, as they were 
 related to me, respecting it are too remarkable to omit : — ^if 
 true, they require to be known and if false, contradicted. 
 
 His arrival, I have been informed, was hailed with delight 
 by the party in the Divan for war, who, though not strong 
 enough to carry such a decision, were able to obtain not only 
 that communication should be opened with him, but also 
 that practical aid should be aflbrded to the Hungarians by a 
 supply of arms, and by suggesting to them the occupation 
 of the fortress of Orshova, which, standing on an island 
 of the Danube where it breaks through the chain of the 
 
 * A month later he himself writes : " The whole disposablb 
 POECE OP THE Russian Empire has been beougut up to take 
 
 PAEr IN THIS WAR." 
 
TUKKISH NEUTRALITY. 121 
 
 Cai-pathians, is the Padlock of Hungaiy on the side of Walla- 
 chia, and which, if held by the Hungarians, would have pre- 
 vented the entrance of the Russian troops, and so far preserved 
 Turkey's honour and "Neutrality." A person of character 
 and distinction was therefore selected to communicst.e Avith 
 the agent,- who, without circumlocution, informed him that 
 200,000 stands of arras would be landed on the left bank 
 of the Danube, which the Hungarians would pay for in raw 
 produce ; and further, that the fortress of Orshova was at 
 that moment occupied by only a few troops. The Envoy 
 rushed to communicate this unexpected success to the British 
 Ambassador, who, in his well-known zeal for Hungary, dis- 
 dained to be outstripped, offered to place England in the 
 position which Turkey \vas about to occupy, and named an 
 English house at Constantinople (Messrs. Hanson) for the 
 management of the speculation. The agent rushed back 
 again to inform his Turkish friends of his "golden achieve- 
 ment" {J'ai fait une affaire d'or), and to his astonishment 
 perceived that his joy was not shared ; the Turkish Govern- 
 ment instantly withdrew its proposals, within three days it 
 was called to account by the Russian and Austrian Embassies, 
 and of course no muskets were shipped from the Thames. 
 
 These facts I give as I have received them ; I have them 
 under no pledge of secrecy. Certain it is that at this period 
 rumours were generally spread of arms to be furnished by 
 Turkey to the Hungarians, and of her being on the point of 
 declaring in their favour. The name of the agent is Mr. 
 Browne, cousin of Lord Stanley of Alderley. 
 
 When the affair is quite over, a day after the demand of 
 Extradition has been despatched from Warsaw, Lord Palmerston 
 indulges in a safe epigram on Turkish Neutrality, which he 
 transmits to the agitated consul at Bucharest : — 
 
 "I have to observe to you that the laics of neutrality 
 require that equal vieastcres should be meted out to both of 
 the contending parties ; and that eit/ier both or neither should 
 be allowed to enter and to make use of the Turkish territory'* 
 
123 HUNGAEY. 
 
 This is the "neutrality " of the Dardanelles— aU nations 
 are ecimlly excluded, but the Kussians are inside. 
 
 There now remained only to exchange the congratulatory 
 notes between Downing Street and the Bedford Hotel on 
 the restoration of " order and peace ;'' and so closes one 
 chapter of the "union of England and Kussia to maintain 
 the peace of the world."* 
 
 *J)ecJar^tion of Lord Durham. 
 
123 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 Extradition of Befugees, 
 
 Twenty days after the offer of Mediation has reached 
 Vienna, Sir Stratford Canning writes (38th August). 
 
 " To-day, the Austrian Minister has presented a strong 
 official note demanding the extradition of all refugees, without 
 entering into any distinction of offences. 
 
 ** In point of fact the Porte's neutrality has been sacrificed 
 in a far greater degree to the military operations of Russia 
 and the unfortunate necessities of Austria than to any 
 partiality for a people having many traditional claims to 
 their sympathy and goodwill, &c. Under these circum- 
 stances / only anticipate your lordsJiip^a opiniofi, when I 
 submit that the Ottoman ministers are fairly entitled to sup- 
 port in continuing to carry out * a principle' [what principle, 
 — neutrality, or its sacrifice?] which it has been my duty, and 
 to all appearance that of General Aupick also, to inculcate." 
 
 Any negotiations with respect to this matter had to be 
 carried on in London with the Eepresentative of Austria, or 
 at all events at Vienna ; and if anything was to be done not 
 a moment had to be lost. The Despatch reached London on 
 the 9th of September. The matter was one which presented 
 not the slightest difficulty of judgment. I have already 
 stated the case ; not only were the Treaties clear, but there 
 were precedents in point. The intelligence had reached 
 London long before this communication of Sir Stratford 
 Canning; the foimer demand had been expedited from 
 Warsaw on the 14th of August, as from Vienna news could 
 reach London in half the time that it took to travel to 
 Constantinople, the demand must have been known to Lord 
 Palmerston before it could be so to Sir Stratford Canning. 
 
124 HUNGARY. 
 
 If not, ot what earthly use can Ambassadors ha ? Still even 
 Sir Stratibrd Canning's communication is left unanswered 
 for tUlrteerv days, and then not a single line is addressed to 
 Yienna, — the reply reaches Constantinople after the matter 
 has been settled at St. Petersburgh. 
 
 This single statement disposes of the whole case. The 
 *' bottleholding" is simply reduced to being out of the way. 
 It was not for nothing that Kossuth said and repeated ^;o 
 often, "Eead the Blue Books !" But the difficulty was to 
 find readers. Of what avail w'ould be tlie publication of 
 logarithms for a Nation that did not understand arithmetic ? 
 No one in England studies Diplomacy, or knows anything of 
 diplomatic action, and then they are knocked down with 
 "Blue Books." The contents are nothing, the volume and 
 cover everything. It suffices then to say, " Take my word, 
 or — read that." No one knows better than the EngliiOi 
 Minister that the printing of ostensible Despatches is not 
 the way to enlighten a Parliament or instruct a Nation, aiid 
 that for that purpose explanation and exposition are re- 
 quired, and not precisely of that nature with which a 
 Pinsbury deputation is content. Here are the words he 
 once used when in opposition : — 
 
 " We should know what have been the principles upon 
 wdiicli our Government has acted, — what has been the spirit 
 in which the influence of England has been exerted, — what 
 objects have been aimed at, and by what means we have 
 sought to attain them." 
 
 These w^ords were uttered in leading an opposition against 
 the Govennnent of wdiich Lord Aberdeen was Eoreign 
 Secretary, because it was not sufficiently Uussian ! A man 
 must know what is right, in order systematically to prac- 
 tise wdiat is Avrong. 
 
 I arrived in Turkey, a few days after the demand of 
 Extradition w^as made. 1 w^as confidentially, informed of it 
 by one of the local governors intimately connected with hiiib 
 Personages, who all considered war imminent, and urged iir 
 
EXTRADITION OE EEEUGEES. 125 
 
 to proceed without delay to Constantinople. My answer 
 was — * There is not the slightest chance of war. The demand 
 is a feint. The real point is elsewhere.* 
 
 I returaed in five or six weeks to the same place, and 
 the same Functionary was again the first to announce to me 
 an a2)proaching settlement ; and I then explained as follows,. 
 the reasons for my opinion which I refused to give on th& 
 former occasion, which was that the Sultan could not surren- 
 der the Refugees, and Austria and Russia were destitute 
 of power to force him to do so. I had brought a Paris 
 Caricature, representing the President as a Bear's Cub, and 
 placed if before him. * You mean,' said he, *that a quan*el 
 is got up to throw dust in the eyes of the Parisians.* 
 
 This Functionary had no difficulty in comprehending and 
 admitting the necessity in which Russia stood of disguising 
 from the people of Europe, the collusion with herself of their 
 Governments ; but it was with difficulty that he admitted, 
 and never woidd have done so, unless in consequence of the 
 result, her powerlessness, even when backed by Austria, to 
 attack the Ottoman territoiy. It is most strange how nations 
 not diplomatic, will mistake their strength and weakness. Here 
 Turkey after the Herculean effort of creating an army of 
 300,000 men, and filled from frontier to frontier with indig- 
 nation in which there was no distinction between Mussulman 
 and Christian, believes that it owes its protection from a 
 danger which never existed, not to this real strength of 
 mhid and body, but to a Foreign protection which never was 
 given ; whilst Europe, being unconscious of the existence of 
 this army and this feeling, attributes the same result to an 
 exercise of its own power, with the **Blue Books" in its hand 
 which prove that no such power was ever exercised. Suffice 
 it to say, that if Russia invaded the Tartarian wilds included 
 in the Chinese Empire, she would only sacrifice an Army, and 
 she has never committed such a folly ; but had she in the 
 month of September, 1849, sent an army across the Danube, 
 it is her Existence that she would have sacrificed. These are the 
 
12G HUNGAEY. 
 
 grounds upon wliich I treated witli calculated scorn, justified 
 by the result, the pretended alarming complication in re* 
 ference to the Refugees ; and whether I am right or wrong in 
 assuming that the object of it was to enable Louis Napoleon 
 to wind his horn and blow a blast of simulated defiance, at 
 all events I must be right in the assertion, that the object 
 which the Eussian Cabinet had in view, was some other than 
 that which was professed. 
 
 The pretence of having given support to Turkey is based 
 not upon the act or declaration of the British Government, 
 which it was impossible that it should be, since none existed, 
 but upon opinions and words of Sir Stratford Canning; 
 who was not kept at Constantinople without an object, that 
 of effectually disguising by his opinions the purposes of his 
 chief, of affording a cloak of his known integrity, while 
 at the same time removing from Parliament an inconvenient 
 Critic, 
 
 On the 3d of September, he writes as follows : — 
 
 " On grounds of humanity not unmixed with considerations 
 affecting the Porte's character and future policy, I have not 
 hesitated to advise a decided resistance to the demand of 
 Extradition. I have further endeavoured to dissuade the 
 Turkish Ministers from pledging themselves to any measure 
 of restraint, not clearly prescribed by the terms of Treaties, 
 and from contracting any engagement not leaving a certain 
 latitude of action for the future." 
 
 Next day. Prince Eadzevil arrives with the autograph letter 
 of the Emperor, not given in the "Blue Books." It is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " The leading principles of the Alliance between the two 
 Empires, and which have been signalised so strikingly by 
 the Ottoman authorities on the Danube in their steps against 
 the gangs of Magyars which threw themselves on the Ottoman 
 territory, give me the most intimate conviction that Y. M. 
 will recommend a question which I have much at heart to the 
 most serious attention of your Ministry. Such is the object 
 
EXTEADIIION OF BEFUGEES. 127 
 
 • 
 of tlie representations with which I have entrusted my 
 Eepresentative at Constantinople, relative to some Polish 
 Kefugees who, having been guilty of high treason against my 
 Government, have lately taken so criminal a part in the 
 events wliich have ravaged Hungaiy. 
 
 " With the sincere desire that no cloud may rise between the 
 two Empires, I attach a peculiar value to the solution of 
 this affair, fully confident that the representations of M.Titoff 
 will find a favourable reception with your Majesty. I request 
 you to accept the assurance of the feelings of high considera^ 
 tion and inviolable attachment, with which I am 
 
 " Your Majesty's good Brother, 
 
 "Nicolas/* ' 
 
 The French Ambassador sends in haste to inform Sir &. 
 Canning of the menacing nature of these communications, 
 and Sir Stratford, in his Despatch of the 5th of September, 
 mentions that the Internuncio was to have the next morning 
 an audience of the Sultan to obtain an assurance that the 
 Eefugees should be " intertie" and " surveiUe." Observe that 
 this is on the f flit of September. He goes onto state, " there 
 is no indication of a change in the intentions of the Porte :" 
 that " the impression of every one is, that the Porte is placed 
 
 in a most painful and dangerous dilemma t/ie result of 
 
 its present isolation. . . . The ultimate issue will depend 
 upon the prospect of support from England and France."* , 
 
 * The complete sentence is as follows : — " In the meantime there is 
 no indication of a change in the intentions of the Porte, though the 
 serious, not to say alarming, nature of the position is deeply felt* 
 The Sultan's firmness will, however, be put to a severe trial, and so 
 ■will that of his enlightened Minister ; nor can I pretend to say what 
 counsels will ultimately prevail. The first impression of e^ery one 
 is, that the Porte is placed in a most painful and dangerous dilemma^ 
 between the conflicting sentiments of honour and humanity on the 
 one side, and of apprehensions, the natural result of its present 
 isolation, on the other. The resource of an appeal to Europe may 
 sustain it for the present : but the ultimate issue will naturaHv 
 clepend upon the prospect of support from England and France* 
 
128 HUNGARY. 
 
 • 
 
 Between the 5tli and the 6th of September, when Prince 
 Eadzevil took his departure, discussions which took place, 
 were regularly communicated to Sir S. Canning, and by him 
 transmitted home. 
 
 Now before the documents were published, and when the 
 English Government was taking credit for having supported 
 Turkey, a credit irreconcileable with the concession of internal 
 surveillance which the Porte had made, it boldly ext;;icated 
 itself by a falsehood and a charge — it charged the Turkish 
 Government with concealing from it these communications. 
 
 Prince Eadzevil came to demand a "Yes," or a "No," in 
 eight and forty hours : he adopted towards the Sultan forms 
 the most offensive, language the most haughty. The Porte 
 extricated itself from the dilemma with that dexterity which 
 it always evinces when forced into action : it told the Envoy 
 that the answer would be given at St. Petersburgh, to which 
 place an Ambassador of the Sultan was already on his way. An 
 afutograph letter from the Sultan to the Emperor was presented 
 to him, which he declined to take charge of. 
 
 The Porte had now definitively taken its stand in its 
 *' isolation," " without the support of England and Prance," 
 and consequently, whether that support did, or did not arrive, 
 it equally had to bear the consequences. It hastily called 
 up its reserves, and an army of 65,000 men was assembled 
 at the capital. Throughout the country, as I can testify, 
 (travelling as I was through it at the time), far from the 
 doubts or apprehensions which appear to have prevailed in 
 higher quarters and to have divided the Ministry, there was 
 but one feeling of indignation and confidence : "every male, 
 from sixteen to sixty ;" such was the reply received in a 
 village w^hen I asked them how many men they would send 
 to the Danube. Nor was the Sovereign behind his People : 
 when it was told the Sultan that this demand was about to 
 be made, he started up and exclaimed : " Shall I, who am 
 Master of the Empire, be denied the right of refuge, which 
 I cannot refuse to the meanest of my subjects, in the 
 
EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 129 
 
 case even of a culprit? Sooner let the Empire itself 
 perish !" 
 
 The die was now cast; the honour or disgrace of the 
 course rested alone with the Porte : no despatch had arrived 
 from England.* Here is the view of the case as stated by 
 Sii- Stratford Canning on the 17th of December : — 
 
 "Allow me to add, my lord, that in proportion as I admire 
 the courageous firmness with which the Sultan and his 
 Government have determined to make this stand in the 
 cause of humanity and of the fair rights of honour and 
 dignity, against a demand alike objectionable in substance 
 and in form, I feel a deepening anxiety for the result of their 
 resistance, and for the degree of support which Her Majesty's 
 Government and that of France may find themselves at liberty 
 to afford, not only in the first instance, but in still graver 
 circumstances, should the present partial rupture unfortu- 
 nately assume a more serious and menacing character." 
 
 Under this alarm for Turkey and doubts of England, Sir 
 S. Canning- writes to Admiral Parker, to know whether any 
 portion of Her Majesty's squadron was " available for any 
 purposes of demonstration;'' and wliether he was " at liberty, 
 without bringing attention on the real ohject, to place it 
 
 * " It ouglit never to be forgotten that the peremptory refusal of 
 the Sultan to deliver up tluse gallant defenders of a righteous causa 
 to the base and merciless vengeance of Austria and Russia, was given 
 before he knew whether he should be supported in that refusal by 
 the Western Powers of Europe or not. It must be also remembered, 
 that the conduct of those Western Powers had not always been such 
 as to lead him to the conclusion that they would be sure to assist 
 him. Yet he waited not for the arrival of a British fleet in the 
 waters of Turkey, nor for any intimation of its approach, but at 
 «ncc, without lies-itation, decided that the brave sons of liberty who 
 craved the protection of Turkish hospitality, should receive it at 
 «rhatever cost. But for this noble act, so worthy of a great Sovereign, 
 and of that character wliich the Turks have always maintained, 
 Kossuth would, beyond all doubt, have been consigned to the same 
 iguorrdnious death as his fellow-patriot, Louis Batthyanyi." — Letter 
 of Lord Dudley Stuart, 
 
 5 
 
ISO IIUNGAEY. 
 
 at once in somewhat nearer communicaiion witli Her Majesty's 
 Embassy ?" but on this communication the impulsive admiral 
 did not think fit to move. 
 
 Fuad Effendi arrived at St. Petersburgh, with the autograph 
 letter from the Sultan, and had his audience on the 16th of 
 October. The glacial bearing assumed at Constantinople has 
 thawed in the more genial climate of the North, and as anti- 
 cipated by Lord Ponsonby,'* the adjustment of the matter 
 experiences no difficulty. 
 
 On the 1 6th October, the British Minister at St. Petersburgh, 
 however, was loithout instructions ; things are so close run that 
 on that day he has to announce to Count Nesselrode, that he 
 has none, — the orders had been sent to Admiral Parker to sail 
 to the Dardanelles ten days before. Now observe the dates : 
 the Russian demand of Extradition was dated Warsaw, 14th 
 of August : the Austrian, was made at Constantinople, on the 
 25th of August ; the Despatch announcing it arrived in Lon- 
 don on the 9th of September : the whole case was detailed 
 in Sir Stratford Canning's Despatch of the 3d September, 
 and its enclosures : the final proceedings, including the 
 application of the Turkish Government, both through its own 
 Ambassador, and through Sir Stratford Canning, together 
 with the rupture of diplomatic relations with Austria and 
 Russia, reached London on the 1st of October; on the 3d, Lord 
 Palmerston was in possession of the departure of Fuad 
 Effendi for St. Petersburgh. If time and distance interfered 
 to prevent his action at Constantinople, nothing prevented the 
 transmission of his decision to St. Petersburgh. He now 
 further delays for six days. A thunderingDespatch is then writ- 
 ten so as to arrive the day after the settlement, and, of course, 
 never to be presented. These are his explicit words in the 
 ]Iouse — " It is due, however, to the Eussian Government to 
 say, that the day before our friendly representation reached 
 St. Petersburg^, the Eussian Government had stated, that it 
 
 * " I can assure you that there wUl be nothing worse than dis- 
 satisiaction on the part of Austria. !No strong measure will be 
 taken."— ',&orcZ Tonsonhy, 2d October. 
 
EXTEADTTION OF REFUGEES. 131 
 
 no longer insisted on the demand for SuiTender, but consented 
 to the alternative of Expulsion."* 
 
 Now clearly the matter was ended. Why then despatch 
 tbe squadron ? If not settled with Fuad EfFendi, theii the 
 question lay between England and Russia, and a deckratioh 
 of war must have followed ; and the squadron would have 
 to be recalled home for the Baltic.f The fact, however, 
 of the sailing of the squadron was not communicated, 
 ostensibly, to St. Petersburgh on the 6th of October. 
 
 Now supposing any mischance had occurred, and the 
 arrival of the Despatch on the 6th of October had been 
 hastened a few hours, or the aiTangement of Fuad Effendi 
 retarded ; and the parties had thus been brought up with 
 doubled fists, a show of something more than "bottle- 
 holding" would have been required. How convenient to have 
 the squadron got out of the way ! This would not have been 
 the first time when the sacrifice of professed purposes and 
 important interests has been excused on the pretext of the 
 employment elsewhere of the disposable British naval force. 
 
 This naval demonstration enabled Russia to regain her 
 haughty position, compromised by her apparent surrender, 
 and Count Nesselrode overwhelmed the trembling English 
 
 • 7th Februai-y, 1850. 
 
 f Viscount Palmerston to Viscouni Po^isonby, 
 
 " Foreign Office, November 2, 1849. 
 
 *• Mt Lord, — With reference to your Excellency's Despatch of the 
 21st ultimo, reporting the feelings entertained by the Austrian Minis- 
 ters with respect to what they term the menace made by England and 
 France, I have to point out to your Excellency that a movement of 
 Her Majesty's squadron to the upper end of the Mediterranean 
 cannot be considered as a tlireat against Austria. If the squadron 
 had moved up the Adriatic and had taken post opposite to Tenice 
 or Trieste, the case might have been different. 
 
 I am, &c. PaIiMEBSTON,** 
 
 The Despatch to which this is a reply is not given. 
 
132 HUNGARY. 
 
 Eepresentative at St. Petersburgh with words of contumely 
 and scorn, restraining his laughter, he said : — 
 
 ** I am an old man. I hope to end my days in peace : I 
 have laboured to preserve it for Europe ; never did I expect 
 that it would be the Government of England, which by an in- 
 solent violation of solemn compact, should again cast upon 
 the world the Torch of Discord. But Russia is prepared ; 
 strong in her position and rights, strong in her power and 
 in her conscience, she accepts a defiance, and lays upon 
 your head the responsibility and the consequences." 
 
 It was this demonstration that paralysed the willing efforts 
 of General Lamoriciere, and forced Euad Effendi to sur- 
 render the advantages of the growing indignation throughout 
 Europe ag£iinst Russia, and admiration for Turkey. 
 
 Sir Stratford Canning, who under different circumstances 
 had suggested that the squadron should have been brought 
 to the neighbourhood of the Embassy, no sooner learns that 
 Admiral Parker has violated the atrocious Treaty of July 13, 
 1841, by entering the Dardanelles, than he implores him to 
 depart. He addresses him in the strain of a Guebre, depre- 
 ciating Ahriman : — 
 
 " With the deference which is due to your superior judg- 
 ment, I would 'centure to suggest as the more advisable 
 course, that you should leave your present anchorage, unless 
 requested by the Pofte to stay, and transfer the squadron to 
 some neighbouring station, whence it 7nay return, should its 
 valuable services be wanted again, without any inconvenient 
 delay.** 
 
 This is on the 4th of November, but is not given in the 
 "Blue Book" at that date. Before it is introduced his 
 Despatch of the 5th, mentioning simply the removal of the 
 squadron from the exposed situation of Bisika Bay to a 
 preferable anchorage. Next comes one to Lord Blomfield 
 rather more explicit, mentioning that the Russian Minister 
 
EXTRADITION OF EEFUGEES. 133 
 
 has intimated to him the embarrassment thence accniing, as 
 now concessions were rendered impossible. Next follow a 
 variety of Despatches, ^/?re of which are from Lord Palmerston : 
 one of the 24^/i of November announced the termination of 
 the question, and expresses the regret of her Majesty's Go- 
 vernment that Sir W. Parker should have talcen this step. It 
 is after all this preparatory matter that Sir Stratford Canning's 
 Despatch is inserted. In its proper order it would have been 
 at p. 66; it is removed to p. 71.* 
 
 On the retreat of the squadron, a concentric fire assails 
 the Foreign Office. These Notes and Despatches occupy 
 nearly one half of the printed correspondence, and cast the 
 reader adrift on currents and counter-currents, leaving him 
 stranded on the grave responsibility assumed by the English 
 Government of risking war with Russia, and then floating 
 him off on its dexterity in having without that conti^igency 
 rescued Turkey ! 
 
 " Now in the political world gi-ave questions are weighed 
 in the balance of common sense, which between Cabinets 
 sincerely lovers of peace is nothing else than that of good 
 
 faitnr 
 
 This from the con-espondent of the Bedford Hotel. 
 
 I have purposely left unnoticed Lord Palmerston's two 
 first Despatches, because like the offer of Mediation at Vienna, 
 and the friendly remonstrance to St. Petersburgh, they were 
 never used. 
 
 That of the 24th of September, placed in front of the 
 Correspondence, justified in all respects Sir S. Canning's 
 opinions, and incloses an extract (as if it were not to be had 
 at Constantinople), from the Treaty of Belgrade. But 
 then comes this sentence. " The utmost that could he 
 demanded would be that they should not be allowed to 
 reside pei-manently in the Turkish empire." This is the 
 rider to a proposition that no demand can be made, 
 and is that with which Russia herself closes : — tliis 
 
 * This is no novel manoeuvre ; I have had already to point out 
 its employment in reference to the " Maine Boundary," and the 
 " Con-espondence with Persia." 
 
134 HUNGARY. 
 
 communication ought to have been made at Vienna : it is 
 never communicated even to the Austrian Internuncio, at 
 Constantinople, and there is not a word to Lord Ponsonby, 
 notwithstanding his reiterated assurance that Austria was 
 not in earnest.* 
 
 We now come to the last stage — the bevy of Despatches, 
 which, on the 6th of October were discharged towards the 
 four winds of heaven. 
 
 The Treaties between Eussia and Turkey stipulate for 
 refugees, the alternatives of Expulsion or Surrender. The 
 Austrian Treaties, those of SuiTeuder or " Internment." 
 
 To Vienna, the English Minister says : — 
 
 " The Sultan is not bound to comply with the application 
 made by the Austrian Minister." 
 
 Nevertheless, he has duties of " good neighbourhood to 
 fulfil!"! 
 
 To St. Petersburgh he says : — 
 
 " Now her Majesty's Government readily admit that the 
 stipulations of that article entitle the Ptussian Government 
 to make the application wJiich tliey ham made; but her 
 Majesty's Government would beg to submit, for the friendly 
 
 * " It is to be observed, however, that the demand of the Austrian 
 Gr-oremment was made before the surrender of Q-orgey to the Eussian 
 General-m- Chief was known at Vienna, and the demand seettis to 
 have referred principally to the Hungainan detachment, which was 
 driven into Wallachia from Orshova, on the l7th of August ; and it 
 is to be expected that no v.' that the war is over, a demand of this 
 kind will no longer be pressed, but if it is pressed, it ought certainly 
 not to be complied with." 
 
 t " But the Sultan has duties of good neiglibourhood to fulfil totvards 
 Austria; and those duties require that he should not permit his 
 territory to be made use of as a place of shelter, from which com- 
 munications should be carried on for the purpose of distm'bing the 
 tranquillity of any of the States which compose the Austrian Empire. 
 
 " The Sultan is therefore bound to prevent these Polish refugees 
 from hovering upon the frontiers of Hungary or Transylvania ; and 
 he ought to require them either to leave tlie Turlcish territory, or to 
 take up their residence in some part of the interior of his dominions, 
 where they may have no means of communicating with the dis- 
 contented in the Austrian States." 
 
EXTEADITION OF BEFUGEES. 135 
 
 consideration of the Government of Eussia, that this same 
 article distinctly gives to the Sultan an alternative wJdcJi lie 
 is eqiially entitled to choose ; for by the stipulations of that 
 articte each of the contracting parties is at liberty either to 
 sui'render refugees, being subjects of the other party, or to 
 expel them from its own territory. It is clear, therefore, 
 that the Sultan is not hound hj treaty to comply with the 
 application made to him by the Russian Minister at Con- 
 stantinople for the surrender of the Polish refugees ; and 
 that he would fulfil to the very letter the obligations of the 
 Treaty, by requiring those Polish refugees to depart from 
 his dominions." 
 
 To explore these mysteries would require a Torch, and to 
 expose them a Volume. 
 
 In the Despatch to Turkey, there is a general preface, in 
 which, on the one hand, the obligation of Turkey to comply 
 with the demands appear 'ta be denied ; and, on the other, 
 the separate conditions of the Austrian and Russian 
 Treaties are mingled together ; so that the stipulation of the 
 Russian Treaty, namely. Expulsion, is made to apply to the 
 Hungarians. The Despatch to Austria is a direct contra- 
 diction of the Despatch to Russia ; the Despatch to Russia a 
 mdlification of that to Austria. By the first, the Sultan is 
 " not bound by Treaty ;" by the second he is " bound by 
 Treaty," as he must be if only " entitled to choose" between 
 two alternatives. Both of those views are opposed as pole to 
 pole to the Despatch of the 24th September, in which it is 
 stated that the article of the Ti'eaty of Belgrade (to which the 
 others are analogous), " obviously relates to cases of a very 
 different kind^rom that of the war just ended," . . . and that 
 " such officers and soldiers cannot be deemed to be the persons 
 intended to be described by these expressions, or ' cette sorte 
 de gens,' or to be classed with ' voleurs et brigands.' " 
 
 Here are then a series of distinct propositions, by means 
 of which the position which the English Ambassador had 
 taken up at Constantinople is totally reversed, being first 
 adopted and re-echoed by the Minister in London ; then by a 
 
136 HUNGAEY. 
 
 series of appcEcled conditions, transpositions, injunctions, 
 modifications, and inferences, the Sultan is declared bound 
 by the very compacts which Sir S. Canning and the French 
 Ambassador, in reply to a formal demand, had declared he 
 was not bound. 
 
 This Despatch, timed so as not to arrive at St. Peters- 
 burgh, till one day, as Lord Palmerston states — till two days, 
 as appears by the Blue Book — after the settlement with Fuad 
 EfFendi, is also timed to arrive at Constantinople two days 
 before the arrival of the news from St. Petersburgh. Sir 
 S. Canning and the Turkish Government are consequently 
 in ecstacy, and believe with the public of Europe, that it 
 is the backing of England that saved Kossuth from being 
 hung, and the Sultan from being deposed. 
 
 To this English friendly remonstrance. Count Nesselrode 
 replies by declaring that he could never admit " the prin- 
 ciple of foreign interference in the relations of Russia and 
 Turkey." This is the result of your brave demonstration at 
 the Dardanelles ! 
 
 It will have been seen that the Hungarians were exposed 
 to the alternative of " Internment," the Poles of " Expulsion." 
 The Hungarians are shut up at Kutayah. But what 
 happens to the Poles ? Russia's demands could only extend 
 to the Polish refugees from Poland, who had already dwelt 
 twenty years in Tiu'key with 'French passports. 
 
 It was not then from Turkey that they were to be de- 
 manded, but from Erance ; and France, who is with England 
 resisting the demands upon Turkey, surrenders them ! 
 
 No secret was made of a private letter from General 
 Lahitte, then French Minister for Foreign Afifeirs, to Count 
 Nesselrode, in which he entreats that minister to accept the 
 concession which France had made as sufficient proof of the 
 absence of all sympathy with Turkey, and thus spare the 
 French Government the humiliation of their immediate Ex- 
 pulsion. He only asks for delay until " the affair has 
 blown over."* 
 
 * I recollect this jDlirase in the lottcr " 81 la Tnrc[nie ne s' execute 
 pa.?:' 
 
EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 137 
 
 As to steps taken by England for the liberation of the 
 refugees, there were absolutely none during eighteen months; 
 that is to say, till April, 1851. Why she acted then I have 
 already explained. Kossuth had fallen into the fangs of 
 Mazzini. 
 
 Had the English Government been with Turkey, the 
 detention of the exiles could not have endured one hour; 
 if their subsequent liberation was by its influence, it would 
 have been effected eighteen months before. A communication 
 was at an earlier period made to the Porte by the British 
 Ambassador, and believed by the Hungarians and their 
 friends to have been to urge their liberation. But it turned 
 out afterwards to be for their transfer from Kutayah to some 
 other place. 
 
 It was at the time a common remark at Constantinople, 
 that Austria received no backing in her endeavours to 
 retain them from her Ally. In fact, the interests of Russia 
 and Austria were now opposed : Austria dreaded — Russia 
 desired — revolution. 
 
 If it stood alone, this general belief in Europe, after the 
 publication of the ' Blue Books,' would be utterly incon- 
 ceivable. To its infatuation there is no bounds : they are 
 equally incapable of disbelieving a falsehood, and of believing 
 a fact. This reflection is forced unon me by a debate which 
 occurs as these pages are passing tlirough the press, in which 
 Lord Dudley Stuart (5th May, 1853) speaks of the " glorious 
 course taken by the Noble Lord for procuring their release," 
 and this was a speech in which he charges that Noble Lord 
 with having pursued with respect to them in England, a 
 course the very reverse, and again, as usual, ends witli the 
 *' expression of his satisfaction at hearing the statement of 
 the Noble Lord." A statement in the House of Commons ! 
 
 I have already quoted Kossuth's judgment of the con- 
 nection of the Diplomacy of Great Britain with the fall of 
 Hungary I must now give the first impressions made upon 
 him by the perusal of the ** Blue Book" in reference to the 
 case of the refugees. The letter indeed presents in small 
 
138 HUNGAEY. 
 
 compass the whole matter, and it was the perusal of it which 
 first induced me to look into the documents. 
 
 " As another gift to the fatal anniversary, I got this veiy 
 day a letter giving me charming notices out of your Par- 
 liament's "BlueVBooks" — very charming indeed. There I 
 have the pleasm'e to read the Despatch to Lord Pousonby 
 (<3th October, 1849), where my Lord the Secretary of the 
 State for the Foreign Affairs of Her Majesty is the first who 
 professes the Sultan to have duties of good neighbourhood 
 to fulfil towards the States wJiicJi compose the Austrian empire // 
 I wonder how his Lordship is at home with history, and 
 chiefly its diplomatic parts, — how he has to give the sanction 
 of England to the incorporation of Plungary, whose inde- 
 pendence was in the 18th century guaranteed by England 
 it«elf^ — to give the sanction of England to the incoiporation 
 of Hungary by Eussian arms, — but no ! not arms, — by 
 Eussian diplomacy. To be sure, his Lordship must have 
 given like warm recommendations to Austria and Eussia, en- 
 gaging them to fulfil the duties of good neighbourhood towards 
 the Sultan — proof of the incessant revolts stirred up in 
 Bosnia and Bulgaria by Austrian agents and Prussian gold 
 — proof of it, Milosh, who is pretty near to upset poor 
 Karageorgievich — in Servia. A pretext is wanted for the 
 non-evacuation of Moldo-Wallachia, and for the occupation 
 of Servia. You will have the pretext, be sure of it. 
 
 *'I read with equal pleasure in the same Despatch, that the 
 Sultan is bound to give us our residence in some part of the 
 Interior where we may have no means of communicating 
 with the discontented in the Austrian States. A fine cir- 
 cumscription of our Kutayah Casarna, is it not ? 
 
 " There is still more to be found. The instructions to be 
 given to Sir Parker by the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty, whence we learn that the gallant admiral was not 
 directed to support the Sultan in his generous opposition to 
 the insolent pretensions of Eussia and Austria ; but that he 
 was directed to take us on board if, and onlv if, he should 
 
EXTKADITION OF KEFUGEES. 139 
 
 be invited by the Sultan, through Sir S. Canning to take up 
 his squadron to Constantinople to the very purpose of giving 
 us a fine beefsteak on board an English man-of-war in the 
 Bosphorus ; a thing rather a little difficult, as we happened 
 at the very time to be somewhat closely guarded at Widdin, 
 on the northern verge of Bulgaria. Of course, Sir S. 
 Canning did not invite us, and so the formidable squadron 
 had nothing better to do than to hoist sails for Malta. 
 
 " Well, after all, the ' Blue Book' taught me nothing new. 
 I have known this by heart long ago. The only thing I 
 would be anxious to know is, how Faraday or Licbig would 
 find out the chemical affinity between these Despatches and 
 the Declaration of his Lordship in the House of Commons, 
 that he was ve'iy much dissatisfied with the issue of the 
 refugee question, but that he could not help, as the Sultan 
 made the ofi:'er to give us a residence in the interior without 
 any previous knowledge, not to say, approbation of the 
 British Ministry. As also the chemical affinity between Sir 
 W. Parker's instructions and the compliments on the energy 
 of his Lordship having sent the gallant Admiral to support 
 the Sultan in our behalf (see Mr. Roebuck's Vote of Con- 
 fidence Motion), and the toast of Admiral Napier at the 
 diplomatic dinner, after compliments which his Lordship 
 acknowledged with pride. 
 
 *' But enough ; it is with a bitter smile that I write these 
 lines — you will excuse me, I am a poor exile, Sir, and 
 there are mighty men who are able to do me more wrong in 
 a day than I can digest in a year. For myself I would not 
 care, but for my poor coimtry, which I might yet help to 
 become once more, if not great and glorious— greatness is 
 relative, and glory is vain — but free." 
 
 That the whole was a concerted game may be inferred from 
 this alone, that France and England were acting in concert. 
 What I have above stated in reference to the Poli&h 
 EefugeeSj can leave no shadow of doubt' as to the collusion of 
 
140 HUNGAET. 
 
 Louis Napoleon and the Cabinet of Russia ; but that fact 
 does not stand alone ; what influence, what coin placed him 
 in the Presidential chair ? By whom was concerted the coup 
 d'etat of the 2d of December ? It was recently mentioned 
 by the Twies Correspondent from Paris, that he had avowed 
 his connection with Eussia to a Eep -iblican Deputation, which 
 came to him from the Continent. It is impossible to conceive 
 a country in more absolute dependence than Prance. Eussia 
 can knock down the Puppet she has set up. In 1848, M. 
 Tocqueville, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, met arguments 
 urged by a Deputation of the Opposition with these words : — • 
 " Gentlemen, remember there are the Cossacks ! " The French 
 Ambassador at Constantinople has not hesitated to speak of 
 the Eussian Army as the Ally of his Government against the 
 "Eed Eepublic." The French Consul, at Belgrade, when 
 applied to for support against his Eussian colleague, said, "You 
 seem not to be aware that my President has no other support 
 than the Emperor of Eussia." At the period in question, 
 when he was expelling the Poles from Paris and sacrificing 
 them at Constantinople, and at the same time inculcating 
 " Turkish Neutrality and urging resistance to the demanded 
 Extradition," Louis Napoleon had to dread the Eevolutionists 
 on the one side, and on the other a formidable Pretender in 
 the Comte de Chambord. Eussia had both in her hands, and 
 was parading her support of the latter. He was held not 
 only by his fears, but by his hopes ; — she could make him 
 Emperor, or cast him into the mire; we have, therefore, 
 general grounds and special acts, which prove the collusion of 
 France, and render anything else impossible. All this is 
 known to the English Minister. What then is his position 
 between France as his confidante and Eussia as his antagonist ? 
 If it be a Comedy played by France, is it very monstrous to 
 suppose that it is also a Comedy played by England ? 
 
 In fact if France had been really acting against Eussia, 
 would England have been acting with her ? We have seen 
 what happened in 1806: what again happened in 1831: 
 
EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 141 
 
 and what again in 1839, when Marshal Soult really 
 did resolve to send a squadron through the Dardanelles. 
 M. Odillon Barrot once used these words, " The events of 
 half a f^entury prove that, whenever France has decided on 
 taking a course contrary to Russia, she is certain to find 
 England against her." 
 
 So soon as by Russian aid Hungary was pacified, Hun- 
 garian regiments were sent to the Baltic (where Russia could 
 not as yet show herself) in furtherance of the design upon the 
 Crown of Denmark. We are thus conducted by the chain of 
 events, no less thaji by the limits of geography, from the West 
 to tk-e North. 
 
143 
 
 THEN RT H. 
 
 Paet I.— SCANDINAVIA. 
 Pakt II.— the DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 " It was quite enough in delivering Finland to the Bussians to 
 have afforded them the means of a step in advance toioards the 
 Sound, as a point from which they will not he less menacing 
 at a future day, when, the Russian Colossus with one foot on 
 the Dardanelles and another on the Sound, will make the whole 
 world his slave, and liberty will have fled to America. How' 
 ever chimerical all this may seem now to narrow minds, it toill 
 one day be a cruel reality : for Europe, umoisely divided like 
 the towns of Greece in presence of the Kings of Macedonia, 
 will have probably tJie same lot.''' — Tiiicua. 
 
144 
 
 These Chapters were vvritten and partly appeared in 1843 
 and 1844. I preserve their original form because of the 
 anticipation which they contain of events which have sub- 
 sequently come to light, — the best proof of the accuracy of 
 the Fiews put forward, and the best disproof of the events 
 wliing the result of mere chance. 
 
PART I. 
 
 SCANDINAVIAN KINGDOMS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 hiternal Constitution. 
 
 While the attention of Europe has been fixed on the Pro- 
 gress of Eussia in the East, it has overlooked regions within 
 her own bounds. This Empire, and its more colossal Am- 
 bition threaten, however, the fishermen of the icy North 
 as well as the shepherds of the Torrid zone. Within a few 
 hours' sail of our coasts lies a richer and an easier prey 
 than the plains of Zungaria and the valleys of the Oxus. 
 Three kingdoms still intervene between her frontiers and 
 the ocean, and inclose between the arras of two promon- 
 tories the Euxine of the North. Their shores are washed 
 with the very waters which guard our island ; they are in- 
 habited by the races from whom we have drawn our origin 
 — who speak almost a common language with ourselves — 
 with whom we are most nearly connected by the ties of faith, 
 in addition to those same political interests which have asso- 
 ciated us with the people and kingdoms of the East. 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 It was the original Constitution of this Government which 
 was transplanted to England ; its laws have descended from 
 a monarch who was also king of England. This of all the 
 Teutonic kingdoms is the one in which the power of the 
 
 7 
 
146 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Aristocracy raised itself highest, and spread its roots deepest, 
 extinguishing- the authority of the Crown, and repressing 
 the energy of the People. It had, however, undergone a 
 change, which brought it into close affinity with the Aris- 
 tocracies of the Sclavonic nations. Nobility, unrestricted to the 
 tenure of land, was perpetuated by descent. To it indeed was 
 exclusively reserved power, and the faculty of possessing real 
 properly, but in its excessive expansion it had commingled 
 with the nations, and like the Slilachsitz of Poland, was to be 
 found in every profession, and in the humblest grades. 
 
 The geographical position, however, of Denmark, its 
 unrivalled facilities, amounting almost to a command of the 
 trade of the North, raised from parallel causes, though with 
 varying effect, a powerful Burgher class, on the same basis 
 on which had arisen the Sea Kings of earlier times. The 
 descendants of these were now doomed to be displaced by +heir 
 more vigorous though more modest successors. An unfor- 
 tunate and unprovoked war with Sweden, in 165 7, brought the 
 matter to issue; the inability of the nobles to defend the 
 state over which they domineered was exhibited in the loss 
 -of nearly a half of the kingdom, the strength of which was 
 thus proved to consist in the capital alone. The burghers 
 thus established their right to rule the country they had 
 saved ; and consequently at the close of 1660 that remarkable 
 revulsion which it has taken three centuries in Europe to 
 accomplish, was effected in almost a single day ; the Aris- 
 tocracy was put down by the middle classes, and instantly 
 that class put itself down before the Crown. Thus was brought 
 into existence the celebrated Lex Regia of Denmark, wherein 
 the king, Frederick the Third, acting by the authority of the 
 nation, declared himself and his successors, each for himself, 
 possessed of full, absolute, and despotic power, with legis- 
 lative facidties affecting church and state, taxes and troops, 
 and constituted responsible under no circumstances to any 
 human tribunal, but "to his conscience and to God alone."* 
 
 * The majority of the kijig was reduced from twenty-eight to 
 fonrteeyi. 
 
INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 147 
 
 But by the very care with which Despotism was rendered 
 complete, a counterpoise was provided. 
 
 The monarch could dispense with haws no less than enact 
 them ; every successive kin<^ so found himself unshackled by 
 the past, and thus the power was constituted personal and 
 not leo;islative, being limited by the condition of self- 
 transmission. This Constitution has proved one of the best, 
 if not tlie best, in Europe, for in fact it may be said to be no 
 Constitution at all. Administration, which is so weighty a task 
 to modern politicians, is only difficult in consequence of the 
 Concentration in the capital of impossible functions. Denmark 
 having its ancient local bodies, had only to apprehend new 
 laws, and, above all, the existence of a body arrogating to 
 itself the right of making them. 
 
 As regards the Central Government, arbitrariness is no 
 doubt an evil, but there may be still worse evils, and the worst 
 are those that are systematic. Naked absolutism may coerce 
 the will, but it does not pervert the judgment of nations, and 
 even if it degrades their character, it does not destroy their 
 common sense. Under such a system there might be a few 
 servile dependents, but there was no multitude of brawling 
 patriots. It did not engender the class oi politicians, nor 
 with them habits of pretence and facilities of imposition. 
 There was no fictitious responsibility to destroy the fear of 
 consequences, no majorities to cloak schemes of a Cabal — no 
 cunning or overbearing associations could instal themselves 
 as Ministries — no wavering hallucinations transform them- 
 selves into public zeal : there was no permanent lie respecting 
 "servants of the crown;" for all that was done, and in the 
 eyes of all, the king was responsible, and being so, the public 
 functionaries were in truth his servants. 
 
 It was not, therefore, for special reasons, but on general 
 grounds, that with a Constitution the most abominable which 
 theoretically could be conceived, Denmark enjoyed contentment 
 and weU-being, and acquired riches, and, having a national 
 character, possessed freedom.* Therefore, could the Danish 
 * " From this allusion to the chief articles of the new Constitution, 
 
148 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Monarch truly declare that "Denmark had no interest in the 
 war against France, as tlie Danisli crown had nothing to fear 
 from the dissatisfaction of its people." 
 
 The people are, nevertheless, not of one race, nor are they 
 under the same laws or governing systems, nor have they 
 been united from time out of mind. This harmony is, 
 therefore, simply the result of the absence of legislation. 
 Each section limited its activity to the bounds of its own 
 existence, respected the habits, customs, and laws of its 
 neighbours, or, what was better still, never thought upon the 
 subject, and when there were troubles it was because of 
 passions, not propositions. Denmark Proper constitutes no 
 more than three-fifths of the whole monarchy, the remaining 
 two-fifths being Holstein, which is German, and Schleswig, 
 which is in part German and in part Danish. These Duchies 
 possess distinct laws and rights, with their peculiar " Laud" 
 and " Stadt" Administration : these privileges have been 
 maintained during four centuries, no less by their own strength 
 than by the interest of the reigning dynasty, the roots of 
 which were in the Duchies. Their importance is not only great 
 in themselves, but also as linking Denmark to the Continent, 
 and superadding so to say, a territorial and military, to its 
 own maritime existence. 
 
 When at the close of the fourteenth century the Crowns of 
 
 it will be seen that, Frederick arrogated to himself a power which no 
 other monarch on earth ever claimed — not even the Czar of Eussia. 
 Here was boundless, irresponsible, tmmitigated despotism, without 
 a single provision in favom- of the life, the substance, or the liberty 
 of any subject, high or low. In China the Emperor is restrained by 
 the laws, which he can neither violate, nor change. So it is in 
 Thibet ; so in all Mahommedan countries, where the Koran is the 
 unchanged and unchangeable law, alike for rulers and people. So 
 it was in ancient Persia, in Egypt, in Assyria, in Greece, in Eome. 
 So it has been in the great middle age Empires — in Tartary, Mexico, 
 Peru. It was reserved for the most limited, and the most insigni- 
 ficant (so far as territory and revenues are concerned) king in Em-ope, 
 to establish a despotism such as the world had never seen." — 
 Dunham's Denmark^ Siveden, and Norway, v. iii, p. 180-1. 
 
INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 149 
 
 Sweden and of Norway were united with that of Denmark, 
 under terms which required that they should be always 
 placed upon the same head, Schleswig and Holstein were not 
 so united. When under Frederick III the tenure of the 
 crown was altsred to one of hereditary succession, with the 
 admission of females, it was not attempted to introduce the 
 same law in the Duchies, where the feudal right of male suc- 
 cession was established. 
 
 The separation apprehended on the failure of the present 
 direct line arises solely from the supercession of the Salic 
 law in Denmark. But, by his amplitude of despotic power, 
 the King of Denmark may annul that provision. However, 
 in an age when the gravest concerns are transacted in secret, 
 and the concealed hand is the one that wins, this is not to 
 be expected, as a neighbouring power covets the Sound with 
 her whole heart. 
 
 Constitutions had been promised to the nations who had 
 enabled their sovereigns lo overthrow Napoleon — a promise 
 which was forgotten for fifteen years, until the people took 
 for a time the matter into their own hands. The people of 
 Denmark had had no share in this service, had made no such 
 demand, and received no such promise. The despotism of 
 the other kings of the Continent was by usurpation — the 
 despotism of the kings of Denmark was   by law ; yet 
 Frederick VI determined to concede to his German feof of 
 Holstein a Constitution ; but not to make any invidious dis- 
 tinction, he conceded the same to the remainder of his States. 
 It was carried into effect in 1835. 
 
 We have seen an overbearing Aristocracy tranquilly set 
 aside; we have seen a powerless king transmuted into an 
 absolute one : now we see a Constitution freely conceded tc 
 the peo])le by that Crown to which its people had before freely 
 conceded arbitrary power. 
 
 The authority allowed to the Representative Body was, 
 however, no more than Consultative, which, in the circum- 
 stances of the country, was a more valuable security than 
 that nominally absolute control over the Finances which we 
 
150 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 have seen so unprofitably exercised in the great Constitutional 
 Governments. But the value of this Constitution resided in 
 there being no general representation, but Provincial Diets — 
 — two for the Duchies, and two for the remainder of the 
 Monarchy. 
 
 This distinction is of the highest importance in a diplo- 
 matic point of view, and it is one regarding which the study 
 of former ages (from which alone our mental habits are 
 derived, and with the events of which our memories are 
 stored) affords us neither maxims nor facts. The great 
 change and experiment now in progress, and the conse- 
 quences of which can only be evolved in future times, is the 
 assimilation of people to people by the process of thought. 
 I enter not into its causes, its general character, or abstract 
 effects : I point to the facility v/hich it affords for action, 
 greater than in other ages could have been acquired by 
 armies ; for it is more important in a view to ultimate incor- 
 poration, to disorganize a people by its own laws, than to 
 prostrate it by external blows, however heavy. If then you 
 have at once a spirit of imitation, whetlier of modes of dress 
 or forms of Government, and a vicious maxim afloat, it 
 becomes as easy to ruin an empire as to set a fashion. 
 
 Notwithstanding the variety of disorders to which the po- 
 litical body is exposed within, and of accidents from without, 
 scarcely since the invention of " Constitution," has a grave 
 misfortune befallen any people which has not been infected 
 with it. The convulsions of Europe, for the last thirty 
 years, have sprung out of the agitations of Spain, and those 
 agitations were created solely by a surreptitious Constitution : 
 Europe might now be tranquil and at rest, if the Spanish 
 Constitution had resembled that of Denmark, for then it would 
 have restored, instead of destroying, the Cortes of the king- 
 doms of the Peninsula. 
 
 It is then to be inferred that Eussia was able to exercise 
 in Spain an influence in 3 812, which she was not pos- 
 sessed of in Denmark till 1835 ; after that country had 
 existed for nearly two centuries under a despotism which 
 
INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 151 
 
 has been designated the "disgrace of the human race. ' 
 It has already been remarked by a king of Sweden — 
 Gnstavus III, that "opposition rises constantly upon the 
 steps of Russia, in the hatred engendered in the new subjects 
 she acquires, and the new neighbours she presses upon ; but 
 this re8is,tance is always conquered by the influence she 
 manages to obtain over Cabinets at a distance." This is 
 true of Nations no less than Cabinets. 
 
 These Provincial Diets were composed of the Representa- 
 tives of three classes — the large landed proprietors, the small 
 landed proprietors, and the burghers — following in this 
 respect pretty nearly the ancient Constitution of England. 
 The members are elected for six years, and they sit only 
 once in two years. 
 
 Up to the present time they have justified the confidence 
 reposed in them. They commenced mth the disordered 
 finances, and indeed may be said to have confined themselves 
 to that branch. They have obtained the yearly publication 
 of a detailed Budget, and within six years the change effected 
 by their supervision has been so considerable, that in 1842 
 there was a large surplus in the Treasury, which, in 1836, 
 had before it the prospect of Bankraptcy. Out of a revenue 
 of a million and a half, they have contrived to squeeze a 
 Sinking Fund for the extinction of the permanent monstrous 
 debt of £12,000,000 sterling. 
 
 The press is entirely free in respect to the discussion of 
 home afi'airs, but under strict surveillance in respect to 
 foreign politics : by the most sensible of all evidence, Denmark 
 might have known that these are the first of domestic con- 
 cerns : she has seen by their means her maritime power 
 annihilated, her territory reduced by dismemberment to half 
 its size; she is now divided between German and Danish 
 parties, trifling as yet, but incipient; whilst the precariousness 
 of the Royal Line opening eventual claims, which bring 
 Serfdom as their consequences, casts a gloom over the future 
 which reflects itself by anticipation on the heart of every 
 
152 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Dane.* By the deficiency of this one element of public cha- 
 racter and Administration, Denmark is exposed not merely to 
 lose the fruits of its internal prosperity, but its very existence 
 as an independent Crown and a free People. The favourable 
 picture of the present thus encourages no satisfactory prospect 
 for the future. There is no country so destitute of precedent 
 and sequence of Law and Institution in any sense ; and if she 
 were cast into new convulsions, there is absolutely for her no 
 shelter, and no holding ground. Despotic power has lost 
 its traditions ; Constitutional Government lives only day by 
 day on the breath of Despotism. The Lex Regia is not abro- 
 gated; there has only been introduced a contradictory system, 
 indeed the two are woven together, and this state of things can- 
 not long last without impairing the common sense, and de- 
 stroying the judgment of the nation. When we have arrived 
 at this point, we have arrived at the end of a subject, — when 
 that point is turned the affairs of a nation become only news, 
 and can further interest only journalists, diplomatists, and 
 cynics. 
 
 NOEWAY. 
 
 Norway and Denmark were united in 1380, by the here- 
 ditary succession in the former kingdom of Olaf the Second, 
 who had been elected forDenmark. This connection is generally 
 referred to the- great Union of Calmar, when, under Margaret, 
 the daughter of Waldemar IV, and mother and successor of 
 Olaf, the three Scandinavian Crowns were declared to be for 
 ever conjoined. The link was of short duration as regards 
 Sweden, and productive only of present suffering and per- 
 manent ill-will ; the separation is attributed to the oppressions 
 of the Danish kings, for the common kings residing at Copen- 
 hagen were regarded as Danish. Eut if no such effects 
 
 "O" 
 
 * See * Morning Herald,' 12ih September, 1842. 
 
INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 153 
 
 followed in Norway, and if that Union by absence of inter- 
 ference * and disloyalty has subsisted down to our times only 
 then to be broken by foreign violence, the cause of the 
 difference must be looked for not in the dispositions of the 
 kings of Copenhagen, but in the character of the Norwegians 
 and Swedes. Faction will invite Despotism: without it 
 Despotism may remain an abstract virtue, but never become 
 a fountain of events for history. The Swedes were factious, 
 the Norwegians were not. 
 
 The Norwegians are a people to whom the word pnmitive 
 may in its most emphatic and valuable sense be applied — 
 simple and upright ; at a distance from the wars of the great 
 European States, witliout losing their bravery or their spirit ; 
   — at a distance from the contaminating commotions of in- 
 ternal discord, without losing public zeal and patriotic 
 aOfections ; strong in their mountains, and rich in their 
 splendid harbours, they pursued their various mountaineer 
 and maritime enterprises with industiy, patience, and fru- 
 gality ; visiting the remotest regions of the earth, they 
 returned home, bringing with them the profits only-of their 
 intercourse with the world — innocent gold, not corrupting 
 thoughts. 
 
 It was a union thus consecrated by time, by benefits, by 
 affections, that the Cabinets of Europe undertook to dissolve, 
 in a Conference undertaken to restore the nations to their 
 rights : it was an allegiance so rooted in time, a loyalty so 
 approved by affection, that the kings of Europe resolved to 
 shatter ; commencing with the fiction of a usurpation, they 
 said, " We shall do this with Norway, our possession : we 
 shall take her from one king, and we shall give her to 
 another :" and they did so ; and they told their own people 
 that the one king had offended them, and that the other had 
 pleased them, and the people were content ! But indeed, in 
 this case, the Congress of Vienna was only required to ratify 
 
 * A civil code had been compiled under Christian IT, but it was 
 from the local usages and ordinances of former kings. In eccle- 
 siastical matters there was a Canon copied from that of Denmark. 
 
 u 
 
154 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 a measure in the previous year enacted and accon;iplislied. 
 England alone undertook to perform this service, which she 
 accomplished at Kiel on the 14th January, 1814, and to 
 which, as the prototype of the Treaty of May, I shall have to 
 treat of particularly when I come to the external relations of 
 the Scandinavian kingdoms. 
 
 The people of Norway were not, however, like the people of 
 Europe, — they would not be disposed of like animals. They 
 armed to resist. The Crown Prince of Denmark, then their 
 viceroy, put himself at their head, and, reverting to their 
 ancient rights, they elected him their king. The odds, how- 
 ever, against them were terrific ; in fact, they were a pro- 
 tocolised people, — one which wakes some morning and finds 
 all the world its foes, and not a friend on earth. They, 
 therefore, provided against the possible execution of the 
 Ukase of Kiel, by establishing a general order for the 
 government of the kingdom, which 1 am reduced to designate 
 by a hateful word. But this Constitution did not subvert the 
 internal liberties of the people ; and so good a countenance 
 did they show, that the prudent King of Sweden thought it 
 best to accept it together with them : not having been copied 
 from the democrats of Paris, nor guaranteed by the Con- 
 gress of Vienna, it exists to this day ; in fact, it was a wise, 
 and not a foolish one. 
 
 The Storting of Norway was a body resembling what the 
 Parliaments anciently were in England, that is to say, of 
 the Peers and a delegation of the Communes, to whom every 
 matter was referred. There was now but a sole chambeij. 
 with the controlling veto of the king ; this power was re- 
 duced in practice to a nullity, as it could be exercised in 
 respect to any measure but twice. The Storting thus pos- 
 sessed whatever 'legislative power was to be exerted in the 
 country, and held also the administrative functions : the army, 
 navy, and exchequer, were under its control. After the 
 Union with Sweden was settled, a modification took place 
 "by the introduction of a Stadtholder, or Viceroy, who might 
 be a Swede. Having been before rided by the Lex Regia of 
 
INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 155 
 
 Denmark, Nonvfiy thus suddenly passed from the purest 
 Absohitisrfl to the purest Democracy. In this soil both 
 teees have bonie fruit equally good. 
 
 On these conditions, Norway was no great boon : the 
 apparent sacrifice of their independence as a nation had only 
 the effect of engenderiug the sense of independence as a 
 people. They were armed too to maintain it. The Swedish 
 map, indeed, exhibits a large accession of territory : statistical 
 returns a large increase of maritime and military force; 
 the budget an augmentation of resources, but of this increment 
 the Swedish king could not dispose. In attempting to form a 
 party in Nonvay, and to open it to regal and ministerial 
 corruption, results have followed the very reverse of the 
 experience of all other modem countries, and the Norwegian, 
 ruot the Swedish, element has prevailed. The common flag 
 has undergone a change expressive of the increased considera- 
 tion of the former ; the Swedish kings have relinquished in 
 practice their faculty of appointing to the Stadtholdership one 
 of their Swedish subjects ; and nobility as an order 
 of the state, and as a class, has been abrogated, notwith- 
 standing the exercise of the veto of the King in two successive 
 Stortings. The Bill was first passed in 1817, again in 1821 : 
 the Storting by a wise provision is only assembled every third 
 year; in 1824 it became law by the course of the Constitu- 
 tion. Bemadotte, when he accepted the Convention of Moss, 
 had complacently remarked, Nous changerons tout cela ! 
 
 By the transfer Denmark lost strength, but Sweden 
 acquired none : the power which in the former case was 
 positive, becomes negative in the latter. But Norway was 
 given to Sweden as a compensation ; thus at the same time 
 strength was withdrawn, and weakness conferred. Denmark 
 and Sweden can now no longer cooperate for their defence ; 
 and Norway, instead of rallying in the common cause, will 
 rejoice in the peril of the Crown, by which it has been 
 betrayed, and of that by which it has been annexed. Let 
 it, however, be remembered that this has been effected by a 
 stipulation of that Treaty considered the public law of 
 
156 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Europe, violated indeed with impunity, wherever further 
 "Progress" is practicable in the wolfish ways of our times, 
 but firm and binding in so far as it crushes worth and per^- 
 petuates disorder. 
 
 SWEDEN. 
 
 The Diet is composed of four estates, sitting each by 
 itself, — the Nobility, the Clergy, the Burghers, and the Pea- 
 santry, each being represented by individuals belonging to 
 itself. The head of every noble family has the faculty of 
 admission to the Assembly of nobles : here, as formerly in 
 Denmark, nobility descends to all the issue. 
 
 In the early Gothic States whilst the primitive order still 
 remained unbroken, no inconvenience arose from multiplicity 
 of Councils whether general or local, but with administrative 
 concentration and indirect taxes, the case is widely different, 
 and instead of opposing obstacles to bad measures, encum- 
 bers the march of necessary business, interposes delays, 
 afl'ords endless occasions to successful intrigue and disap- 
 pointed ambitions and maintains a permanent struggle of 
 organised and co-ordinate interests. Political life in Sweden 
 was a school of corruption, and the soil was adapted for 
 the growth of that rankest of intellectual weeds — the idea of 
 change, although by law capital punishment was the penalty 
 of innovation : thus since the accession of the line of Olden- 
 burg, Sweden has presented a scene of continual struggles, 
 in which the king looked abroad for support against domestic 
 faction, and which opened to foreign influence the mass of 
 politicians. Stockholm was divided between the Hats and 
 the £o?inets : the first representing the Aristocracy, the second 
 the Democracy ; but which have acquired historic importance 
 from the connection of the one with France, and of the other 
 with Eussia. 
 
 Sweden, like Norway and Denmark, has had its Eevolution ; 
 but, unlike these, it had reference solely to foreign matters. 
 Gustavus III, on his succession, having beforehand planned 
 
INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 157 
 
 tlie emancipation of his country, avoided taking the ordinaiy 
 oath to observe the existing laws and tlieir interpretation by 
 the Senate, and managed to effect a Eevolution, at the time 
 considered the annihilation of Faction, and which both of these, 
 sick of themselves, combined to celebrate. It amounted, 
 however, to no more than vesting in the hands of the king* 
 the prerogative of peace and war. The result, however, was 
 not fortunate, the Eussian Cabinet (which had bound itself 
 by the Treaty of Neustadt to take no concern touching the 
 form of the Sw^edish Government) found means to upset an 
 order of things, which the endeavours of Prussia and Austria 
 were exerted to support, and which, if maintained, would 
 have prevented the partition of Poland. * 
 
 * "His (Gustavus III) new Constitution, in fifty-seven articles, 
 was received as the perfection of Legislation. They confen*ed con- 
 siderable power on the Sovereign ; enabled him to make peace, or 
 declare war, without the consent of the Diet ; but he could make 
 no new law, or alter any already made, without its concui'rence ; 
 and he was bound to ask, though not always to follow, the advice of 
 his Senate, in matters of graver import. The form of the Constitu- 
 tion was not much altered ; and the four orders of deputies still 
 remained. On the whole it was a hberal Constitution. If this 
 Kevolution was agreeable to the Swedes themselves, it was odious 
 to Catherine II, who saw Russian influence annihilated by it, and who 
 expressed her resolution to restore the system of Government which 
 it had subverted : but the representations of Prussia and Austria 
 induced her to rest satisfied with a barren menace." — Dunham^s 
 JListory of Sweden^ JDenmarIc, a}id Isorvoay^ iii, p. 2U3. 
 
158 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Ewternal Helations. 
 
 The internal and external condition of the Scandinavian 
 kingdoms are so closely interwoven, that it is difficult— -indeed 
 impossible, to separate them. All which in this rapid sketch 
 I have attempted to do is to separate Diplomacy as acting 
 on Institutions and as acting on Dismemberment, and the 
 play of anterior Alliances leading to it. To the latter point 
 I shaU now more particularly address myself. 
 
 Whatever pain the decay of the two other Scandinavian 
 kingdoms may occasion, still more lamentable is the sight 
 of the degradation of that people who has placed in the 
 highest historic rank the name of Scandinavia, and which 
 is distinguished above all other European nations as the 
 chivalrous foe of the enemy of Europe. A line of heroic 
 princes has made the name of Sweden familiar even to our 
 schoolboy recollections ; tlie genius of her monarchs and the 
 valour of her soldiers have largely influenced the destiny of 
 Europe; and to Sweden is Protestantism indebted for its 
 triumph at the Treaty of Westphalia. But if the name of 
 Sweden is illustrated by great and chivalrous acts, by trophies 
 of just arms and sacrifices to honour, her name is also rescued 
 from oblivion by others of a different character — she has 
 marked her career in Europe by ambitious projects. Here, 
 as everywhere, injustice abroad has borne its fruits at home 
 — if unsuccessful, ruin ; if successful, fetters. 
 
 That point in Swedish history which chiefly bears on the 
 present subject is that of Charles XII. Py an instinct 
 common to Erederick II and Napoleon, he felt that in the 
 Eastern world lay the strength that could be evoked against 
 Eussia. It was this thought that carried a Swedish army 
 to the Ukraine, and which left Scandinavian bones at Pultava. 
 
EXTERNAL KELATIONS. 159 
 
 This apparently insane march spread through the East the 
 fame and the name of Sweden ; thus magnified, it was re- 
 flected on Europe with enduring splendour. It was this 
 struggle which developed Russia's military power; Charles 
 rendered to iier the same service which the Lacedaemonians 
 did to the Thcbans, and further, by his failui'c first spread 
 the delusion of her inaccessibility. 
 
 Gustavus the Third seized the occasion of the war of 
 Catherine with the Turks to retake the provinces wrested from 
 Sweden, and to check the power of the Czarina. The windows 
 of her palace were shaken by his cannon, and a large proportion 
 of the Russian navy sunk ; but she knew how to raise up 
 enemies to him at home in Faction and at sea in Denmark, and 
 it was this enterprising Monarch who put his hand with her 
 to a Treaty to ^'mahUain tlie Principle of the Baltic as a 
 CLOSE SEA, lOith the guarantee of its coast against all acts of 
 hostility, violence, or aggression luJiatever, and further to employ 
 for that purpose aU the means in tlve power of the respective 
 contracting parties.''^ 
 
 It thus fell to the lot of Gustavus the Third to establish the 
 maritime, as of Charles the Twelfth, the military power of 
 Russia. G ustavus now having learnt that Ink was worth more 
 than Gunpowder, threw the idle Sword away and took to the 
 Printing Press. 
 
 In one of the most remarkable works of recent times, — 
 " The Danger of Europe," he exposed the worthlessness of 
 canial weapons against a Cabinet, versed in every evil art, 
 which knew how to contaminate and circumvent. It appro- 
 priately replied by the Assassin's Bullet. 
 
 The fleets to be excluded by the compact with Gustavus III. 
 from the Baltic were those of England. It was Sweden who 
 had implored, and implored in vain, their presence. The 
 power of Sweden and of Denmark was now given to her as 
 protection, — when at length Retaliation came, it fell, not on 
 Cronstadt, but on Copenhagen ! Who will not mentally revert 
 to more recent events in the Black Sea and at Constantinople ? 
 The fates and events of these kingdoms are so closely inter- 
 
160 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 woven that tlie catastrophe of Copenhagen affected Sweden as 
 much as if it had occurred at Stockholm. 
 
 Copenhagen had been bombarded, not merely as a remote 
 effect of the Armed Neutrality of Catharine, but as an im- 
 mediate one of that of Paul. Whatever the cause, by the fact, 
 England was momentarily rendered supreme in the Baltic; 
 but a letter from Alexander, who had just succeeded to the pos- 
 session of the crown, to Nelson, who had just succeeded to the 
 command of the fleet, sufficed to turn the bows of the English 
 vessels westward, and to leave again Kussia dominant over 
 that now prostrate Sea. She then concluded a peace with 
 England of which Denmark was the sole sacrifice.* 
 
 Denmark, not having a chivalrous monarch nor a factious 
 people, saw in the French war no field of enterprise and no 
 necessity of exertion ; she therefore remained at peace, profit- 
 ing by the convulsions around her, increasing her trade and 
 restoring her marine. It was necessary to smite -her with 
 a second blow ; the ready hand of England was again 
 available. But Eussia herself was at war with France and 
 the Ally of England : how was this to be effected ? Shortly 
 before the second Bombardment of Copenhagen, Napoleon 
 desired to make peace, and after the Battle of Austerlitz all 
 Europe desired peace, Eussia excepted. Negotiations be- 
 tween England and France had been opened and carried to 
 a successful conclusion, even at Paris itself, and every matter 
 pending between the two Powers had been adjusted. But 
 England and Eussia at the beginning of the war had 
 agreed not to make a separate peace, and England, faithful 
 to her engagements — she always is faithful to Eussia — broke 
 
 * " The Expedition" {against CopenJiagen) "was imposed upon 
 England by the frantic and deceitfiil conduct of Paul." — BelVs 
 Russia^ vol. iii, p. 260. 
 
 " Denmark alone had any just reason to be dissatisfied with these 
 arrangements : she was compelled to submit to the abandonment of 
 those principles for the maintenance of which she had expended so 
 much blood and treasure, and saw herself forsaken by the very power 
 who forced her into that confederation which plunged her into tlie 
 war with England."— Jizf?,, p. 261-5. 
 
EXTEPtXAL TvELATIONS. 161 
 
 off tlie neg^otiation, because Eiissia wanted and Napoleon 
 would not let her have, Moldavia and Wallachia. The French 
 armies consequently march to the North and extinguish 
 Prussia. The reasons now redoubled on the part of France 
 for desiring peace, but Russia encouraged Napoleon to go 
 on by sacrificing to him 60,000 Russians in the short cam- 
 paign of Dantzig and tlie battle of Friedland ; and then, 
 liaving just before frustrated liis peaceful overtures, she made 
 this the pretext for partitioning Prussia, whom she had 
 forced to continue the war, and betraying England, whom 
 she had pushed into it. A faitliless ambassador of her own 
 then betrayed to England the secret article of the Treaty of 
 Tilsit.* The English Cabinet, thus enlightened, bombarded 
 Copenhagen the second time. Prussia now declared against 
 England, engaging Denmark in a reciprocal guarantee /or ^/^ 
 tranquillity of the Baltic^ which, as she asserted, had been 
 established with the privity of the Cabinet of St. James' s.f 
 
 • The secret ai-ticle referred to Denmark ouly generally, in common 
 ■with Sweden, Portugal, and Ansti'ia herself; it applied in like'man- 
 ner to Turkey, whose Capital England was also induced to attempt 
 to bombard, and with the same efl'ect as in Denmark. 
 
 t " Wounded in his dignity, in the interests of his people, in his 
 engagements with the Courts of the North, by this act of violence 
 committed in the Balticy which is an inclosed sea, tvliose tranquillify 
 had been for a long period, and ivith tlie privity of the Cabinet of 
 St. Jameses, the subject of reciprocal yuarantee, did not dissemble 
 his resentment against England, and annomiced to her, &c."- — 
 Manifesto of the 20th October, 1807. 
 
 The same document contains this passage : " Then it was tliat 
 England suddenly quitted that apparent lethargy to which she liad 
 abandoned lierself : but it was to cast upon the North of Europe 
 new firebrands, which were to enkindle and nourish the flames of 
 war, which she did not wish to see extinyuished. Her fleets and her 
 troops appeared upon the coasts of Denmark, to execute there an 
 act of violence, of which history, so fertile in examples, does not 
 furnish a single parallel. A tranquil and moderate Power, which 
 by long and unchanging wisdom had obtained in the circle of 
 Monarchies a moral dignity, sees itself assaulted and treated as if it 
 had been forging plots, and meditating the ruin of England ; and all 
 to justify its prompt and total spoliation." 6 
 
162 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Sweden, however, remained true to England, and this 
 found herself at war with Russia, who offered to her peace, 
 "on the condition that the King of Sweden will without 
 delay join Russia and Denmark in shutting the Baltic against 
 England."* The offer was however rejected, and England 
 proffered, for the second time, the transfer to her of Noncay. 
 Sweden's participation in the war only enabled Russia to 
 occupy one half of her territory, Finland. 
 
 We now come to the great Event of the North, in which the 
 Tribunal of Vienna exercised the high and double functions 
 of grace and justice — where, passing from the meaner occu- 
 pation of restoring rights, it proceeded to the higher duties 
 of awarding punishment and conferring recompense ; taking 
 a kingdom in its hand, it abstracted it from the delinquent 
 and conferred it on the meritorious, — Denmark being 
 punished for being on the unfortunate side, Sweden being 
 recompensed for being on the other. But strange to say, the 
 punished Government had been by the judges themselves forced 
 in its option, and had voluntarily abandoned its party, and 
 the recompensed Government was itself simultaneously dis- 
 membered ! 
 
 This transaction, unparalleled in the atrocity of its avowed 
 purpose, but almost incredible in the perfidy of the agency 
 employed, has been brought to light in all its details in works 
 of unquestionable authority; " the facts," says the continuator 
 of Bignon, "have been irrevocably acquired for history:'* 
 recent events show that they have not been acquired for 
 : instruction. Since the above quoted words were written 
 loi'ther light has been thrown on the matter by a Swedish 
 publication, which has, indeed, attracted no notice beyond 
 the limits of Scandinavia. I content myself, however, with 
 the exposition as it is given by the historian of Erench Diplo- 
 macy. 
 
 When Alexander met Bernadotte at Abo, in 1813, it was 
 secretly arranged between them that Sweden at the general 
 
 * Manifesto, 10th February, 1808. 
 
EXTEHNAL RELATIONS. 163 
 
 pacification sliould not reclaim Finland, and that Russia 
 should obtain for her Noi-way, as an equivalent. Into this 
 arrangement England entered, and engaged, if necessary, to 
 assist in an active manner with her fleet, to cany it into 
 effect: Norway being soon after afflicted with famine, an 
 opportunity was afforded which the British Government did 
 not neglect. 
 
 The reasons put forward for the transfer breathed, however, 
 nothing but goodwill, and an anxious regard for the well- 
 being of the countries concerned. The British Government 
 •had only in view the advantages that were to be secured by 
 *'the reunion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the re- 
 establishment of the natural limits between the two states." 
 The Danish Cabinet replied that " it considered as efficiently 
 natural the limits which, for two centuries, had separated its 
 Btates from those of Sweden. No power had made greater 
 efforts than Denmark to assure its independence, and the 
 King w^as resolved to resist every new design against the 
 secui-ity of his subjects. He could not adopt the principle 
 that they were susceptible of being bartered against strangers, 
 ^s furniture or flocks might be trucked against others — a 
 doctrine destructive of the independence and happiness of 
 'iiations, the avowed object of the Coalition." 
 
 To these arguments the English Minister replied by the 
 appearance of an English fleet before Copenhagen. One of 
 the vessels anchored at the entrance of the port, and the 
 British agent, Mr. Thornton, landed from it. He gave the 
 Danish Government forty-eight hours before commencing 
 hostilities, to sign a Treaty of which the principal conditions 
 were the concession of Norway, the instant surrender of the 
 province of Drontheim, and a contingent of 25,000 men to 
 conquer the indeinnities, which might afterwards accrue to 
 Denmark. 
 
 Denmark this time was not prepared to succumb, and 
 England thought it more prudent to desist. Denmark's 
 alliance with France had neither been the result of sympathy, 
 nor of conquest ; but solely, as appeal's on the face of tlie 
 
164 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 negotiations, becraise of tlie " resentment wliicli she nourislied 
 against Great Britain," because of her previous conduct. 
 Novr the only obstacle to her joining the Coalition was her 
 dread of the dismemberment of Norway. She even dis- 
 patched Envoys to London and to St. Petersburgh ; but in 
 the meantime a Eussian Envoy was sent to Copenhagen. 
 Count Bernsdorfs mission to London was not less to pre- 
 vent Norway from being starved, than to negociate for its 
 preservation. The English Cabinet interposed calculated 
 delays, apparently with the object of insuring success to the 
 mission of Prince Dolgorouki, — a mission which was one o-f 
 the most unworthy diplomatic rascalities (indigne rouerie 
 diplomatique) of which history has to preserve the accusing 
 memory; by it the Cabinet of Copenhagen, lulled into a 
 fatal security, suffered itself to be compromised against 
 France :"* then the mask was dropped. Count Bernsdorf was 
 frankly informed that England considered Norway only in 
 the light of a Swedish province, and summarily dismissed 
 without being suifered even to transmit to the Prince Eegent, 
 a letter entrusted to him by his master. Count Moltke fared 
 no better at St. Petersburgh : on his first audience, the 
 Emperor Alexander told him that Prince Dolgorouki, if he 
 had guaranteed to Denmark the possession of Norway, had 
 'exceeded his powers, and that " the engagements contracted 
 in that respect with Sweden, and in concert with England 
 were for ever inviolable." 
 
 The Treaty was signed in the beginning of 1814, as a 
 contract between Siceden and Denmark alone. On the same 
 day, however, England figures as signing at the same place 
 a Treaty of Peace with Denmark. By the 13th Article, the 
 
 * To Denmark, the Hanseatic Towns were offered as a compensation 
 if she would join the Allies. She refused the bribe, but joined the 
 aUiance, and a collision actually took place between the Danish and 
 the French troops ; after recording the fact, M. Bignon proceeds, 
 ** The Danish Grovei'nment by an odious machination, thus found 
 itself at once at war with the Coahtion, and with Napoleon who had 
 just triumphed at Lutzen." — EUt. de France^ t. xii, p. 81. 
 
EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 165 
 
 King of Sweden engages to exercise his authority with the 
 allies, to obtain at the general pacification that indemnity for 
 Denmark, which he has evinced his disposition to afford by 
 the cession of Pomeiania and the Isle of llugen.* 
 
 England revives the former Treaties of Peace and Com- 
 merce, but not of Guarantee : Denmark, independently of the 
 former Guarantees, now naturally demanded one for the pos- 
 sessions that had been left to her ; the omission was therefore 
 not one of inadvertence ; indeed England took to herself 
 Heligoland, a portion of the Gottorp territory, the possession 
 of which she had guaranteed in 1721. Russia signs no 
 Treaty at Kiel. 
 
 It now remained to settle matters with Norway. Here 
 there was no capital that could be threatened with Bom- 
 bardment; but a dispensation of Providence, which might 
 have softened the heart of an enemy or a tyrant, was taken 
 advantage of by these diplomatic spoilers, and as already 
 said English cruisers intercepted the grain destined for 
 Norway, while the King of. Denmark prohibited its exporta- 
 tion under penalty of death. That people could not be 
 brought to believe that England was acting by a settled 
 pui-pose, and despatched envoys to London to implore justice 
 and mercy. They contrived to smuggle themselves into 
 England, but the Government, dreading still the Public or 
 the Parliament, had them seized and sent home. 
 , The Swedish jand Danish Commissioners were empowered 
 to use the following language (7 July, 1814) to the elected 
 King of NorAvay. 
 
 " The cession of Norway has been guaranteed by the great 
 
 * Art xiii. S. M. le Roi de Sakle desirant contribuer, autant 
 qu'il sera possible et qu'il dependra d'elle, t\ ce que S. M. le Roi do 
 Danemarc obtienne quelque dedominagement pour la cession du 
 royaiirae de Norvege, ce dont S. M. donne une preuve manifesto par 
 la cession de la Pomeranie Suedoises et derilcdeEugen,elle cmployera 
 toute son autorite aupres des hautes puissances alliees pour obtenir 
 independamment de cela, lors d'une paix generale, un dedoinmagement 
 proportionne pour la cession de la liorvego. 
 
16G SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 powers,* the Allies of Russia. This decision is iiTevocable. 
 The High Powers consider this reunion'* (?) " as one of the 
 \ases of the new system of political equilibrium, and in case of 
 ;i"efusal the Russian General Benningsen (the same who had 
 betrayed to destruction the Eussian army in the campaign of 
 Dantzig) who occupies Holstein with 50,000 men is authorised 
 to invade Schleswig and the Prussian troops will march to 
 the succour of the Swedes. The undersigned find themselves 
 therefore in the position of having to announce that they are 
 not mediators between Sweden and Norway but rather 
 HERALDS OF ARMS, whose dutj it is to insist on the execution 
 of the Treaty of Kiel." 
 
 This array of power and resolution, of cruelty and astuteness 
 had, however, one salutary effect in breaking that bond of 
 servility and dependence by which the smaller states arc 
 cursed and the greater tempted. The fortunate conditions 
 which Norway obtained depended, however, not alone upon 
 her own dispositions, but also on the repugnance felt in 
 Sweden itself to the annexation. The patriotic portion of 
 that people held the acquisition to be both dangerous and 
 unjust, and w^ere shrewd enough to suspect even the purpose 
 for which it was forced upon them, namely, the dismember- 
 ment, at the general pacification of a province far otherwise 
 important — Finland. The party entertaining these views was 
 powerful, and numbered even members of the Administration. 
 The annexation was carried so to say by a Eussian faction as^ 
 it was forced on Norway ultimately by a threat of Eussian 
 intervention ; yet Eussia is innocent of the whole transaction. 
 Eussia, be it remembered, was the patron of Denmark, and 
 it was because of the alliance of Denmark with her that 
 England had first devised the dismemberment. 
 
 At the first treaty of Vienna the powers therefore found 
 Norway transferred to Sweden, Swedish Pomerania, as an 
 instalment of compensation, transferred to Denmark; and 
 
 * In Bignon, vol. xiv, p. 184, the word is Quatre Puissances^ but 
 on reference to the Swedish documents it appears to be a mieg^uota- 
 tiozu 
 
EXTERNAL 11ELA.TI0NS. 167 
 
 Russia in possession of the Swedish province of Finland. 
 This was not the state of things before the war ; they do 
 not restore Finland to Sweden, or Norway to Denmark ; or 
 even aftbrd to the latter the promised compensation. How- 
 ever, Sweden has yet energy enough to become a party to 
 the secret Quadruple Alliance with England, Austria, an<i 
 France, against the further encroachments of Russia. On 
 this Napoleon is brought back from Elba.* After the Battle 
 of Waterloo Russia has everything her own way : Sweden 
 no longer joins in Secret Treaties on that side ; the principal 
 part of the pecuniary indemnity stipulated at Kiel is sur- 
 rendered to Sweden for the expenses of the Norwegian expedi- 
 tion : Prussia takes possession of Swedish Pomerania and 
 the Isle of Rugen equally guaranteed by that Treaty to 
 Denmark, who has to content herself with a portion of the 
 Duchy of Lauenburg. 
 
 This is the simple state of the case. The dismemberment 
 was settled privately with England ; but as such a proposition 
 could not be ventured at the final pacification, and as, 
 during the war, it was impracticable while Denmark and 
 France were united, Denmark had to be entrapped into 
 breaking with France. A private transaction between Sweden 
 and Denmark remains, therefore, at the General Settlement 
 the basis of a transfer, which is accepted on the plea of 
 Denmark's alliance with France. It may be well now to 
 contrast the view of her own conduct, which England receives 
 from her public Instructors : — 
 
 " Although history cannot contemplate without regret the 
 violent transference of a brave and ancient people, from the 
 Government of their father's to a stranger rule ; yet the 
 mownful impression is much alleviated by the reflection that 
 Denmark obtained, to a certain extent at least, an equivalent, 
 adjacent to its own territories, that the Scandinavian 
 
 * Some of the evidence upon which this statement rests, wiU 
 shortly appear in a work on the Diplomacy of England since 1792, 
 by a German writer of high authority. Some of the facts will be 
 found in a letter published in the   Morning Post/ in February, 1847. 
 
168 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Peninsula was tlms for the first time united under one 
 dominion, and a power all but insular* established in the 
 Baltic, which, with the support of the British navy, may 
 possibly be able to maintain its independence in future 
 times, even beside the colossal power which overshadows the 
 North of Europe." f 
 
 The participation of Bemadotte in this spoliation is the 
 great blot upon his name ; but even his panegyrist can be 
 very differently candid from the historian of liussian ambition 
 and the apologist of British subserviency. After justifying 
 the robbery from Denmark by the robbery of Russia, and 
 balancing the blow of the compensation against the shock of 
 the dismemberment, he proceeds in these terms. 
 
 " If regard be had only to the geographical position of 
 Sweden and Norway, can it be denied that nature designed 
 the Scandinavian peninsula to be united under the same 
 government ? In this, however, as in many other instances, 
 proximity of situation appears to have produced anything but 
 goodwill. The Norwegians have never loved the Swedes, 
 and they regret, to this hour, their forcible separation from 
 their ancient protectors, the Danish Kings, whose truly pater- 
 nal sway had ever been gratefuUy acknowledged by them. 
 To dissever a connection which had subsisted for so many ages^ 
 and been consecrated by the dearest recollections of history, icas 
 equally arbitrary and cruel; time will prove whether it teas less 
 impolitic.''^ 
 
 The object of Eussia in the Scandinavian kingdoms was to 
 
 * Strange qualification ! the ice in winter allows Copenhagen to 
 be attacked by a land force, as in the memorable Siege, whilst the 
 Danish sliips are blocked up : in summer the Belts place Zealand at 
 the mercy of a superior naval force. In the secret project of Coalition 
 between Sweden and Kussia, in 1718, the sixth article is as follows : 
 *' The two fleets shall endeavour to stop the passage of tlie Belts, 
 that the Danish trbops in Holstein and Jutland may not return into 
 Zealand ; and do all that is possible to keep the Danish fleet shut 
 out, and to cut off all communication of Denmark witli abroad." 
 
 t Alison's Hist, of Europe. 
 
EXTEBNAL EELATIONS. 169 
 
 disaiTange (hovf it mattered little) tlieir political structure, 
 and to weaken them in such a manner as to keep alive or to 
 awaken jealousy and animosity, and, by estranging them from 
 each other, to raise up that bitterness which is strong in pro- 
 portion as associations are near and ties consangiiineous : 
 and all this has been done for her. The settlement of Europe 
 leaves Sweden, the chivalrous ally of the Coalition, and whose 
 Prince was first designated to command its armies, whom 
 the Povrers had undertaken to recompense by the dismember- 
 ment of one neighbour, and to strengthen for protection 
 against another, with its Capital menaced by a Fortress, 
 reared upon soil recently its own — seeing the powerful 
 Capital of its enemy established where it had ruled — depiived 
 of half its territory — oppressed by a hollow compensation 
 — prostrated by internal faction — exhausted by military pre- 
 parations, digging ditches and building walls only to reveal its 
 fears and hopelessness. 
 
 Now let us turn back to a former century, and contrast the 
 conduct and anticipations of England and Kussia. The fol- 
 lowing is the separate article of a Treaty signed between 
 England and Sweden, 1st Febmary, 1720 : — 
 
 " As it is important for the Protestant Peligion and the 
 commerce of Sweden and Great Pritain, and of all Cln-isten- 
 dom, that the Tzar should not dominate over the Baltic Sea, 
 the King of Great Britain will not only give the succours 
 promised in this Treaty, but will induce also his iVllies to 
 succour Sweden against the Tzar, if the latter will not 
 restore to Sweden t/tat icldcU is indisjmisahle for her se- 
 cmiff/, and for guaranteeing the liberty of com^merce with the 
 Baltic." 
 
 On that occasion the mischief which this useless Treaty 
 was directed to cure had been done by England herself, who, 
 five years before, had assisted Kussia to the possession of 
 'those very provinces, in consequence of the desire of George I 
 to add Bremen and Yerden to Hanover. But these scheni«3 
 not being gi'ateful to the English nation, Kussia turned to 
 
170 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Prance, and the following remarkable propositions were made, 
 and judgments expressed by tlie Czar Peter : — 
 
 " The system of Europe is changed ; the basis of all the 
 Treaties of France is that of Westphalia. Why has Trance 
 united herself to Sweden ? It is that it had possessions in 
 Germany, and thus her Alliance balanced the power of the 
 Emperor. Eut to-day Sweden is almost extinguished, and 
 can be of no further service to France. The Czar therefore 
 offers himself to France, to take for her the place of Sweden, 
 and to aflbrd her not only his alliance, but his power, and 
 at the same time that of Prussia, without which she cannot 
 act."* 
 
 Thus had Kussia equaDy used war and peace ; prompted the 
 rage, directed the arms, and triumphed in the victories of all 
 the nations in whose affairs she mingled, being secure of ad- 
 vantage whereve? there was strife, and certain of reaping the 
 victory wherever blood was drawn. 
 
 The difference in the fate of Bernadotte, and that of the 
 upstart monarchs imposed on Naples, Spain, Holland, &c., 
 justifies, no doubt, his election by the Swedes, but it is not 
 the less true that that event shakes the future securities of 
 the kingdom. Of all questions which can endanger a country 
 without, and distract it within, that of succession is the 
 first, and that insecurity is greatest in cases where there is 
 allowed to subsist a conflict between succession and election. 
 There remains a Pretender on the ground of hereditary right, 
 but what is more ominous, there is in same form a Russian 
 Guarantee for the present elected Dynasty. On the demise 
 of Bernadotte the fact was revealed by the then organ of the 
 British Government, and the consequences thence to be 
 drawn were thus stated in March, 1844 : — 
 
 " Russia is understood to guarantee the succession in 
 Bemadotte's family, in return, no doubt, for Sweden's adhesion 
 to the system of Russia's predominance in the Baltic. When, 
 
 • Frassan, Hist, de la Diplom. Fxan^aise, v. iv, p. 448. 
 
EXTEBNAL RELATIONg. 171 
 
 in addition to this, we learn that a marriage has taken place 
 between the heir to the throne of Denmark and a Russian 
 Princess, we cannot but feel that the Sound is equally menaced 
 with-the Bosphonis, and that the Baltic may become, like the 
 Black Sea, a Russian lake." 
 
 Formerly the parties of the "Bonnets'* and the "Hats" 
 at Stockholm, were the Antitypes of the present foreign 
 factions of Athens. This suffices to show that France 
 in the course of the last century maintained a permanent 
 competition with Russia, and exerted herself to prevent tier 
 ascendancy on the Baltic and in the North. The fact Is not 
 less singular because imnoticed, that no French party mow 
 exists at Stockholm. Under the Administrations which 
 intervened between Louis XIV and the Revolution, no in- 
 fluence could be exerted by France in any foreign counkiy. 
 By the Revolution her party was finally extinguished in 
 Sweden, and that countiy became one of the most active 
 of those engaged in the war against her. At the peace it 
 might have been restored, because, on the one hand, France 
 under any intelligible system must have been the basis of 
 resistance to the encroachments of Russia, and on the other, 
 Sweden had for king chosen a Frenchman, distinguished 
 alike in the council and in the field, and who had in the time 
 of France's grandeur separated himself from her policy as 
 prejudicial to the interest of the countiy whose Crown hf 
 wore ; but Russia ruled at Paris. She had removed the only 
 man in France, who could have given a rational direction to 
 its policy (Talleyrand), and filled his place by a seiTant of her 
 own (the Due de RicheKeu). Again, it M'as not in France that 
 she obtained this victory, but at London and Vienna, 
 the Cabinets of which she induced to relinquish four millions 
 sterling of the indemnity money, on the condition of removing 
 from the French Foreign Office the obnoxious individual, who, 
 at the first Congress of Vienna, had prompted the defensive 
 Treaty between England, France, Austria, and Sweden. 
 
 From the peace of 1S15 till 1830, no event occurred cal- 
 culated to influence opinion or acts in Sweden ; but on the 
 
172 6CANDIXAVIA. 
 
 breaking out of that Revolution the old spirit revived, and 
 Sweden prepared itself to take its share in securing Poland. 
 It made overtures to England, which were treated in the 
 same style as those of Turkey, and its generous impulses 
 curbed in the same manner as was arrested the Persian army 
 already on its march to the Russian frontier. Bernadotte in- 
 dignant turned round to the very Power that he had attempted 
 to resist, and a secret Convention was settled between him and 
 Russia, w^hich, however, was not executed until the close of 
 June, 1834. This prostration of Sweden concurred in date 
 with the submission of England and France to the Treaty of 
 Hunkiar Skelessi, agahist which they had paraded their fleets. 
 In 1836, again were hopes awakened in Sweden by the fal- 
 lacious appearance then assumed by England. Sweden made 
 overtures at Vienna, in Paris, and in London ; but in Vienna 
 and in Paris, they watched but the conduct of England, and 
 were guided by her decisions. What these w^ere may be 
 inferred from the manner in wdiich she received an overture 
 then made by Turkey in reference to the entrance of an 
 English fleet into the Black Sea. The British Jlinister who 
 treated this proposition as an act of hostility "to the Inde- 
 pendence of Turkey," could not fail to regard any support of 
 England given to Sweden as a blow to the " Independence 
 of the Baltic,'* which as the Russian ^Manifesto against 
 England had declared, had for a long time been established 
 "with i\\t privity of the Cabinet of St. James." This w^as 
 Sweden's last attempt to escape from the gripe of the Bear. 
 • In the small states there is generally little faction ; against 
 them must be used the factions of the great states, through 
 their Diplomacy ; but independently of events Diplomacy 
 exercises a silent and permanent influence on ideas. The 
 Scandinavian kingdoms having no business to transact at 
 any of the European Courts nevertheless have their accredited 
 agents. The expense is considerable, and their revenue 
 small ; they must And something to do ; and the work they 
 invent is the making of abstracts of speeches in Parliament, 
 and of leaders in the Journals, w^iich are transmitted home 
 
EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 17S 
 
 OS oracles of wisdom and lessons of statesmanship. The 
 sphere of this Correspondence is indeed limited, but it is 
 influential, and the emasculation of a few leading men suffices 
 to cany the prostration of a whole people. The position 
 of Russia is such, that in the words of Cardinal Gonsalvi, 
 *• her watchfulness cannot slumber a single day." Her com- 
 mand of the Diplom.acy of the great states can only be of 
 service in so far as the dissension in the smaller ones suffer 
 its application; to this end in each the appropriate seeds 
 must be sown. What, as regards Persia, would have served 
 her influence in London, without a dispute respecting the 
 Succession of the Crown ? what in Turkey, without a dispute 
 •between a Pasha and the Sultan ? what on the other hand 
 would have profited her, the one or the other, unless she had 
 iilready nded in Downing Street ? Who before the event 
 could have deemed it possible that England should have set 
 up in Persia the Russian candidate ; or that a dispute re- 
 specting the frontiers of a Turkish Pashalic should have 
 ruptured the alliance of England and France ? AVith this 
 experience before us we must anticipate that in the Scandi- 
 navian kingdoms she will prosecute the task which she has 
 so far eflectually accomplished, that day by day the Shuttle 
 of Dissimulation will weave backwards and forwards the 
 Web of Deceit, exhibiting figures adapted to the fancy of 
 each, and local colours pleasing to their eye. Can it be 
 doubted that on these she will bring to bear the foolish 
 interference, or the insaner rivalries, of England, France, and 
 Germany ; and that some morning we shall find Sweden in 
 Revolution, and Denmark Protocolised ? Let us then en- 
 deavour to anticipate the peculiar facilities which she possesses 
 in each.* 
 
 Amongst the Scandinavians, no political capital coidd be 
 worked out of "Legitimacy," or "Liberalism," "Papacy,** 
 
 * A new complication has arisen, which may be woven into the 
 Web of future Discord. It is proposed that Denmark should be 
 •unitcil to the Gennan Union, and tliat her Navy shall be restored in 
 order to place a maritime force at the disposal of the Union. 
 
174 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 or " Protestantism," " Protection," or " Free Trade." The 
 political, religious, and commercial " isms'* and " it es" here 
 slumbered in happy forgetfulness. Those of Nationality alone 
 could be quickened; and the monster " Scandinavianism," 
 appeared on the stage. Simultaneously " Panslavism'* was 
 infecting the middle and Eastern portions of Europe: its 
 purpose was to incorporate with Eussia the surrounding 
 States — " Scandinavianism" was to scare Eussia away ! The 
 transfer of Norway had prepared the ground by awakening 
 fears and exciting expectations. On this came to act the 
 general dread of Incorporation by Eussia, and the students 
 and journalists exclaimed, "Let us have a Scandinavian 
 Union to protect ourselves." Alas ! not understanding the 
 value of the human mind, they looked to size and number, 
 knowing not that it is sense, not territory, that makes nations 
 strong ; justice, not adjustment, that is the bulwark of states. 
 Thus were exchanged fraternising visits and addresses of 
 infatuated men, glorying in the not unfounded anticipation 
 of a " future common fate." Then was asked the question, 
 *^wMc7i nation is to ride the otlierV then arose the maxim, 
 ** the mtered of the king must not stand in the %cay of the well'- 
 leing of the peo^pleJ^* 
 
 The effect on the Governments was just the same as of 
 Revolutionary Conspiracies,* but by this common danger the 
 
 * A leading Statesman of Denmark writes thus, March, 1843: "You 
 liare heard, I presume, about the ' Scandinavian Union.' I hav.e to 
 remark with regard to this, that the Grovemment was mistaken iiL 
 supposing that there were any secret or avowed poHtical objects con- 
 nected with it, at least in the minds of the greater number of t]ie mem- 
 bers, though I confess that the few individuals who did make poHtical 
 speeches and allusions, have done much harm. The suppression of 
 the Society is a material injustice, added to that wliich there is in 
 taking such a step, without any appeal to existing laws, without 
 any observation of the usual forms, thus throwing everytliing into- 
 uncertainty. I am persuaded that tliis deviation from the usually 
 observed forms — a deviation which is so Hkely to be attributed to 
 Poreign influence — will do much more harm than the * Scandinavian 
 Union' ever could have done, had it even been a poHtical Society.'* 
 
EXTEKNAL RELATIONS. 175 
 
 two Courts were not united ; for to the question of Bevolu- 
 tion was superadded that of Confiscation. They had to 
 hurry to St. Petersburgh to deprecate extinction and to bid 
 for accession. The naiTOw affections of race and locality, 
 were thus changed to plots and intrigues, the vague pretexts 
 of patriotism and independence made to colour treason and 
 conspiracy, and every scheme and eveiy expectant servilely, 
 waited upon that foreign ambition resistance to which had 
 brought this agitation into existence.* 
 
 The favourite theme of the Apostles of the new Creed was 
 the Union of Calmar. Now if any event could have taught 
 the futility of fictitious means of creating that strength which, 
 a sense of right can only- confer, it was precisely this fact. 
 The Danes and the Swedes had been rival tribes from the 
 earliest times, but these hostile dispositions, the result of 
 
 • I subjoin an extract from a letter from a Danish lady to a 
 Bwede : "When you spoke to me of the Union of the Scandinavian 
 •ountries under one Crown as liighly desirable, and indeed as regarded 
 ipesistance to Russia absolutely necessary, I listened without con- 
 curring, but also without opposing, because I felt that I was unable 
 to judge. It is now otherwise. I see in that idea the greatest 
 danger that threatens Scandinavia, and m you who promulgate this 
 doctrine the tool of the Power whom you think to resist. * Scandinavian 
 Union' is to produce for her in the N'orth tlie same results as Slavonic 
 nationahty is intended to bring about in the East ; the same 'results 
 fts union under Prussia is to produce in Germany, as separation 
 in the case of the Ottoman Empire, as the hope held out by her to 
 tlie Princes of Moldavia and Wallacliia, that each shall unite under 
 liis sway the Dominion of the other : these results are discontent 
 with the existing state of things, vague agitations for the midefined 
 object, distrust between sovereign and subjects, ill-wOl between man 
 and man, and aU those innumerable means of corruption which she 
 knows so well how to profit by. 
 
 " Men who know their own rights, and respect those of others, 
 and stand forward in defence of them, have nothing to fear fi'om 
 Bussia. But does this strength dwell in the hearts of Swedes, who : 
 are seeking to incorporate with their own comitry the possessions of 
 another sovereign ? How different would it be were you longing 
 for a right, and not for a proposition." 
 
176 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 conflicting predatory enterprise, had faded away, and been 
 replaced by sentiments of goodwill, and a consciousness of 
 community of interests founded on their common competition 
 with the Hanseatic towns in trade, and the necessity of resist- 
 ing the pretensions of the Germans and the Emperors in the 
 North. But this union reopened the Fountain of Animosity 
 which had been closed, and became the 'source to Bussia of 
 her actual preponderance : she first appears upon the scene, 
 invited by Christian I of Denmark, to attach Swedish Finland ; 
 she is then invited by Sv/eden to attach Norwegian Lapland : 
 and thus like a vessel working against an adverse wind, has 
 she made her way board and board through the Baltic, by 
 knowing how to use the tiller. 
 
 In April 1837, an important step was taken in this direc- 
 tion. I refer to a despatch, written by Count Witterstedt, 
 Foreign Minister of Sweden, and a Russian Partisan ; he had 
 signed the Treaty of Kiel. It was addressed to the Govei-n- 
 ments of Denmark and Norway and gave the utmost possible 
 importance to the Scandinavian agitation by announcing it 
 as a matter capable of embroiling the various Governments, 
 and as leading to the " overthrow of the existing order of 
 tilings in the three kingdoms of the North." 
 
 The source of this Despatch shows that Sweden, humbled 
 and dismembered, and to whose Crown the family of Wasa fui'- 
 nisheVl a slumbeiing Pretender, that was the kingdom selected 
 as the instrument, and that the Mistress of the Sound was the 
 one marked for attack and threatened with extinction. It 
 was Denmark that had already been dismembered : it 
 was its rival Sweden, on whose behalf the dismemberment 
 had been effected : beyond this there were approaching 
 diiTerences as to the succession, in wliich Bussia herself had 
 claims. That this is no visionary fear, may be gathered from 
 an insertion in the * Court Almanac of St. Petersburgh' 
 (1844), w^here the Czar is styled " Beigning Duke of 
 Ilolstein and Schleswig," and the King of Denmark is entered 
 simply as '■' Duke of Holstein and Schlesv.'ig." 
 
 On the extinction of the male line of Frederick III, 
 
EXTEllXAL RELATIONS. 177 
 
 Denmark, according to the Lex Regia, is assumed to go to 
 Prince Frederick of Hesse, and Sclileswig-Holstein to the 
 Duke of Augustenburg. By the marriage of a daughter of 
 the Czar to Prince Erederick, the whole may be secured to 
 Russia, on the pretext of preventing a partition.* 
 
 The prospects for the future are thiis exposed by the organ 
 of the Foreign Oliice (the ' Morning Chronicle '), its words 
 are prophetic, and a warning to Denmark of the — hopelessness 
 of resistance. 
 
 *' Prince Frederick William is married to a daughter of 
 the Emperor Nicholas, who has already shown his zeal for 
 the interests of his son-in-law by negociating for him the 
 succession of the Duchies of llolstein, which, in the ordinary 
 course of events, would fall to the ducal family of Ilolsteid- 
 Auf/iistenhiirrj, and not to the Prince of Hesse. Holstein is 
 not properly a part of the Danish dominions, but belongs to 
 Germany, and it is as Duke of Holstein that the King of 
 Denmark is a member of the Germanic Confederation. Tlie 
 law of succession for Holstein is different from that for 
 Denmark ; and Germany would, we believe, witness their 
 separation with no small satisfaction — the more so, as it 
 would probably secure the accession of Holstein to the 
 
 * The following letter is at once explanatory and aiithoritative: — 
 ** I only heard of the marriage between the Prince of Hesse and 
 the Grand Duchess of Russia being finally arranged after I had sent 
 off my letter to you, but you may be assured that ray feelings on 
 the occasion were similar to yours, and the more so as our country- 
 man who communicated the news to me regarded it as a most 
 fortunate event, and a great achievement. ' It will keep Denmark 
 together,' said he, * and is the best way of disappointing those 
 Scandinavian fools.' This proves that the project, with its real or 
 presumed conditions, has been extolled by him in his usual exag- 
 gerated way ; and the joyful acclamations with which he now hails 
 its rcahsation wUl, of course, by the high personages with whose 
 yiews he coincides, be received as new proofs of his ability, \m 
 devotion, and his patriotism. One of his expressions was, ' We have 
 thug secured tlie guarantee and friendship of Russia, that of England 
 I think we already have, and may hope to preserve. Russia will 
 follow, and we shall he safe against all partitions.'' " 
 
178 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Zollverein. But Russia is believed to have precluded tJiii 
 result, by having induced the Dule of Holdein-Augustenburg 
 and his family to cede their rights of succession, in consider a-^ 
 Hon of a large pecuniary indemnity. Thus Denmark and 
 Holstein are to be preserved as an entire inheritance for Prince 
 Frederick William and his heirs, bj^ means of Russian gold ; 
 and family ties will give Eussia a natural and preponderating 
 influence in that monarchy, which holds the keys of the Baltic^ 
 the Sound, and the Belt. The arrangement we refer to is, 
 no doubt, a matter with which England has at present no 
 just pretension to interfere ; but we know too much of the 
 far-seeing policy of Russia to regard with indifference" [!] "the 
 progress of events which tend to the future establishment of 
 a Russian Protectorate — or something more — over the Danish 
 territory." 
 
 The intellectual audacity of this Invasion of the Earth is 
 from no other point of view so striking. It is now a thousand 
 years and more, since the Russians sent an embassy beyond 
 the sea to the Varangians to address them in these terms : 
 *' Our country is wide and fertile, but we are the prey of 
 anarchy — come and rale over us." The Scandinavian Rurick 
 and his brothers obeyed the summons, and proceeded to con- 
 stitute the Russian State. Their dominion was soon spread 
 *o the South, — discriminating in the village of Kief the 
 appropriate seat of a new Empire, they redeemed it from the 
 Khozars, and thus did the metropolis of the future Russia 
 pass from Cossacks to Danes. Between that powerful and 
 energetic race of Northmen possessing all the Coasts, Har- 
 botirs, Promontories, and Islands of the North, together with 
 the power at sea, and that other race which reckoned the land 
 their own, — the Cossack and Tartar horsemen sweeping the 
 plains of the South and East, — has the Colossus sprung up 
 crashing and appropriating the strength of the one and of 
 the other ; she then interposed her immensity with its bar- 
 rier of ignorance to that conce;rt between her antagonists by 
 which alone the ambition of states as of indi\dduals can be 
 
EXTEE^AL EELATIONS. 179 
 
 thwarted. To that pitch has now reached the "morselling of 
 the i^ind, that if to a Scandinavian it were told that his sole 
 allies and only hope are to be found on the Euxine and the 
 Bosphorus, he would open eyes of stupid wonder or incredu- 
 lous contempt. 
 
 The imagination of the nations is dazzled and bewildered 
 by the seizui'e of Constantinople, which they admit to be 
 within her grasp — by the prospects of an Indian campaign, 
 by her appearance on the heights, of the Himalaya, or her 
 establisliment along the Persian gulf; but what are such 
 prospective achievements compared with the fracturing and 
 crushing already accomplished in Scandinavia — what danger 
 is to be contemplated in her occupation of Constantinople by 
 nations who have no terror for her settlement on the Sound ? 
 
 POSTSCRIPT, 
 
 July, 1853. 
 
 Whence, I may now ask, did the Foreign Office derive its 
 foreknowledge in March, 1844, of an event (the renun- 
 ciation of the Duke of Augustenbiu'g) accomplished only on 
 the 30th of December, 1852 ? Why did it deprecate it at 
 the orfe date and effect it at the other ? Europe is in the 
 habit of learning some dozen years afterwards secret ar- 
 rangements such as this — is it then the astuteness of English 
 Diplomacy that is alarming ? 
 
 The Archduchess, however, dies; Prince Frederick of Hesse 
 is then cast aside. The new scheme devised is no other than 
 a war. The Memoir which follows was drawn up during its 
 course, and circulated in manuscript as a warning against the 
 Treaty with which it would conclude, and which was in fact 
 signed on the 8th of May, 1852. 
 
]80 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Tlie statements in anticipation are, however, nearly what 
 they would be as narrative, except, indeed, that I could not 
 have anticipated such an abjectness in the statesmen of 
 Europe that, in a Treaty given to them to sign, the establishing 
 of a MALE SUCCESSION is assigned as the reason for intro- 
 ducing one through a Female. 
 
 As this sheet is passing through the press I received a 
 letter from Stockholm, of which I subjoin an extract, which 
 shows that the Swedes have not yet forgotten Finland. To 
 the commercial value of that countiy for Pi,ussia I had not 
 referred, it is here indicated : — 
 
 *' Yesterday we had a visit from a young Swede, who surprised me 
 by deeply regretting the loss of Finland. I said, *but surely, beau- 
 tiful Norway is more than 'an equivalent for Finland.' He replied, 
 'that they would gladly give up Norway for the sake of again 
 possessing Finland ; that a great part of the revenues of Sweden were 
 derived from Finland ; that it is a more fertile country than Norway; 
 that it was theu* market for procuring the produce of Russia — tailow, 
 hemp, flax, &c., which they can now only get at a much higher price.' 
 He said that the Finlanders and the Swedes were much attached to 
 ■each other, and tliat even now Sweden sends, am'ongst other things, 
 quantities of buttons to Finland, as the inhabitants of that countiy 
 will only wear on their coats the buttons that are made in Sweden. 
 So it seems that Denmark suffers from the loss of Norway^ The 
 Norwegians hate the Swedes ; Sweden suffers from the loss of Finland, 
 and Bussia, as usual, gains." 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 TliQ Rupture, 
 
 The Duchies were heard of for the first time in 1848 ; but 
 the Schism preceded the great events of Europe, and has 
 extended beyond their term. Elsewhere a few months of agonj^ 
 or at best an Army of Invasion, and all was over ; but this 
 pitiable Denmark, andthcse miserableDuchies return again and 
 again upon the surface like the bubbling of a quagmire. A 
 matter which might have been settled in five minutes, and States 
 which could have been devastated from end to end in a week, 
 have kept Europe in suspense for three years, during which 
 it might have been supposed that frightful catastrophes had 
 exhausted the susceptibility of men. 
 
 A member of the old Dynasty of Oldenburgh sits on the 
 Throne of Russia, and she of all the Powers of Europe alone 
 holds back ! It is the Government which has pursued 
 a course of the most undisguised violence in the remotest 
 regions of the East, that is careless of its political and dynastic 
 interests in a European kingdom of such close neighbourhood 
 and such vast importance ! But has she not renounced her 
 Rights, and having given this proof of disinterestedness, is 
 not her abstinence a delicacy which deserves respect ? Let 
 us see. 
 
 Charles Frederick, Representative of the Junior or Gottorp 
 
182 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 line, having, during the Swedish war, lost Schleswig, and 
 >-etaining only a portion of Holstein, but being according to 
 the peculiar and anomalous practice of these Duchies co- 
 regent with the king, sought in 1720 the support of Peter I 
 of Kussia. 
 
 That monarch hastened to profit by an opportunity so 
 favourable for obtaining at once the control over both the 
 Scandinavian Kingdoms, for the Duke of Holstein had claims, 
 or rather pretensions, on the Crown of Sweden which were 
 not unfavourably regarded by a powerful party in that country. 
 By espousing his cause Peter hoped to advance the two great 
 objects he had then at heart — objects intimately connected, 
 ihough apparently most incongruous — the acknowledgment 
 of the assumed title of Emperor, and the emancipation of 
 Hussian vessels from the Sound dues. Prussia had at once 
 acknowledged the title, and appears to have done so under 
 the belief that it was to confer some supremacy in the North 
 in regard to communications by water, such as belonged to the 
 old Emperors of Germany in regard to those by land ; and that 
 consequently the navigation of the Baltic would be opened. 
 Under similar impressions Denmark had refused to concede 
 the title. The two demands had been simultaneously pressed 
 at Copenhagen and equally resisted by the Danes ; matters 
 being in this position, Peter required the reinstatement of the 
 Duke of Holstein — and by threatening a descent expected to 
 exhaust Denmark by preparatives, or to threaten her into 
 jfukKUSsion. 
 
 ** His Majesty," says an old writer, " had seen himself the 
 Court of Denmark, and was acquainted with her genius and 
 ministry, which made him seem resolved to pursue the matter 
 he had in dispute with her. He had two pretensions on that 
 Crown : one was the restitution of the dominions taken from 
 the Duke of Holstein ; the other the freedom of his ships in 
 the Sound. The Bnssian Emperor imagined that he now saw 
 a favourable opportunity to strike this double blow ; for if 
 he beat the Danish Squadron built by his example, or by 
 way of precaution, nothing could hinder his making a descent 
 
THE EUPTUBE. 183 
 
 in Jutland and Holstein; but be this as it may, by this 
 management he obliged Denmark to run into such expenses 
 every year as very much di-ained tbeir coffers."* 
 
 Peter, however, saw that something more might be made 
 out of the case than a mere temporary embarrassment to 
 Denmark; and that by connecting the claims of the Duke 
 with the Imperial House, he might extend the bounds of the 
 inheritance of ambition which he left to his successors ; he 
 therefore confei-red upon the Duke the hand of his daughter, 
 and the solemnization of this marriage was the last act of 
 his reign and life. This was the first alliance of the Czars 
 with a Princely House, and even if the event proved not as 
 brilliant as might be anticipated, the concession was small of 
 a daughter doubly illegitimate, f 
 
 Catherine, his widow and successor, was well disposed 
 to carry out his views in this respect, when she too was re- 
 moved from the troubles of this earth. The dissensions of 
 the House of Eussia entirely altered the dispositions of her 
 successors, and the Gottorp claims found no longer support in 
 the policy of that Government. 
 
 The King of Denmark now negotiated with the Emperor 
 as head of the German Empire, of which Holstein is a fief; 
 and a Treaty was signed between them, by which the claims 
 of the Duke of Holstein on the Duchies were set aside, and 
 a compensation of 1,000,000 crowns allowed (if claimed 
 within a certain time). To this Treaty X the Empress Anne 
 of Eussia acceded. Nevertheless, the Duke rejected with 
 scorn the indemnity, and indignantly protested against this 
 attempted interference with his Eights. His son, afterwards 
 raised to the Imperial Throne on renouncing Protestantism, 
 
 * Motley's Life of Peter I, v. iii, p. 338. 
 
 t The husband of Catherine and the wife of Peter, Eadoda 
 Lapoukin, were both alive when she was bom ; and therefore she and 
 her son and her sister Ehzabetk were not so much as mentioned on 
 the succession of Anne. 
 
 X The prototype and antitype of the Treaty of the 8th Maj, 
 1852. 
 
1 84 THE DANISH SU CCESSION". 
 
 under the name of Peter III, in like manner rejected the 
 oflered compensation, and refused to admit the validity of 
 the Treaty. So soon as this unhappy Prince obtained pos- 
 session of the sceptre, he prepared to recover his paternal 
 inheritance. His suspected Lutheranism, his paraded " Ger- 
 manism," had rendered him obnoxious ; however, he had 
 recovered by the first acts of his government the heart of 
 the Eussians, when these measures against Denmark* afforded 
 to his wife (afterwards Catherine II) the m'eans of casting 
 him from a Throne to a Dungeon and a Tomb. 
 
 That Revolution which changed the face of Europe was thus 
 connected with the Duchies. The Danish minister and party 
 (for Denmark then had a party at Sf. Petersburgh) lent, in 
 common with those of Vienna and Versailles, their aid to 
 Catherine, and were initiated into the Conspiracy; on the 
 moment of its triumph she conveyed to the Danish minister 
 the assurance that he need be under no apprehension 
 as to the Duchies ; but she carefully avoided concluding any- 
 thing, and sent her husband's uncle. Prince George of Holstein, 
 as Governor to Kiel. " Though she employed neither fleets 
 nor armies, she kept that Court floating between hope and 
 fear," f and so domineered no less imperiously at Copen- 
 hagen than at Warsaw : it was enough to whisper the word 
 " liolstein," to solve every difficulty, and to cause every 
 obstacle to bend to her will. 
 
 This course had, nevertheless, its inconveniences and 
 limits ; the other powers were seriously indisposed, and at 
 times resentful. The Incorporation of either Duchy was 
 
 * In a despatch (not published) from IMr. Keith to Lord 
 Crranville, July 12, 17G2, giving an account of the detln^onement of 
 Peter III, it is stated that "the discontent among the guards was 
 heightened by the resolution his Imperial Majesty had taken of 
 carrying a great part of that corps into Germany, in his expedition 
 against Denmark, which was a measure dii^agreeable to the whole 
 nation, who stomached greatly their being drawn into new expenses 
 and new dangers for recovering the Duchy of Sleswick, which they 
 considered as a trifling object, and entirely indifferent to Russia." 
 
 t Cast^ra, vol. ii, p. 239. 
 
THE PtUPTLTtE. 185 
 
 impracticable without war, and more might be gained by 
 cession than by possession. So in 1707 Catherine bargained 
 for a conditional suiTcnder of her son's rights, which was 
 ratified by her son, afterwards the Emperor Paul, in 1773, — 
 eleven years after her accession and pledge. Great were the 
 rejoicings at Copenhagen : the event was celebrated by fes- 
 tivities, and commemorated by a medal ; the victory was 
 attributed to the talents of Bernsdorf, but the honour was 
 shared with the gold he had lavished at St. Petersbiirgh. 
 It soon, however, appeared that a price had been paid in 
 another coin, that of a Secret Alliance ; in consequence of 
 which Denmark soon found herself constrained to join Russia 
 against Sweden, and henceforward bound in subserviency 
 never afterwards to be broken. 
 
 The " renunciation " amounted therefore to a bargain, and 
 that of a flagitious nature. In reviewing the transaction, the 
 disgusted reader will conclude by exclaiming, " so then this 
 matter is settled ;" it is but the commencement, and the 
 discussions which are to ensue take their departure fi-om the 
 now admitted point of Denmark's obligations and Russia's 
 magnanimity. 
 
 Thfe claim of Russia was twofold : it affected a portion of 
 Schleswig, iind a portion of Holstein ; the first was dropped 
 entirely and unconditionally. The father of Peter had been 
 even constrained to drop the title of Schleswig. England 
 and France had bound themselves in a treaty of guarantee* 
 to defend the King of Denmark in the possession of Denmark 
 against " any foreign Power whatever who should come and 
 attack it^." Prussia, Austria, and even Russia herself had 
 acceded to this arrangement ; therefore no pretensions in 
 1773 could be set up upon Schleswig, and yet it is her 
 acknowledgment of the state of things that has been inter- 
 preted a renunciation. 
 
 • See Treaty with Sweden, lith July, 1720; British Guarantee, 
 16th July, 1720 ; of France, IStli August, 1720, severally renewed 
 and confirmed, IGth April, 1727, and 15th Marcli, 3742. 
 
186 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 As to Holstein, the claim itself bore but on a little more 
 than a quarter of the Duchy, and was by no means a clear 
 case. Its admission involved a division of the fief, the In- 
 divisibility of which was a fundamental part of the Law by 
 which Holstein could alone be inherited. Denmark had, 
 therefore, open to her one of two courses, — that of resisting 
 the claim, or of negociating for its abandonment. She took 
 neither ; she admitted the claim, and submitted to its super- 
 cession, — " hoc fons malorum." 
 
 The claim was to slumber so long as the male line of 
 Erederick III survived; then would arise the question 
 of Agnatic and Cognatic succession between the Duchies 
 and the Kingdom, — here Kussia waited for Denmark: that 
 question could not fail to arise as she had an interest in 
 raising it. The claim which she could not have enforced at 
 the time, she gets acknowledged by postponing, and thus 
 reserves to herself all the chances of a future disputed suc- 
 cession for the Kingdom itself. 
 
 It is not, however, the Secret Treaty which alone she 
 obtained as immediate compensation; she received another 
 infinitely greater than the matter in dispute, giving her 
 territory further to the west, lying between Germany and 
 the sea, namely, the counties of Delmenhorst and Oldenburg. 
 She did not alarm Europe by annexing them to her own 
 dominions, but caused them, indeed, to be forgotten as 
 Eussian territory, by another act of generosity : she erected 
 them into the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and placed them 
 under the apparently independent sway of the Junior Branch 
 of the House of Gottoi-p. 
 
 It so happens, however, that these counties were not 
 absolute Dependencies of the crown of Denmark, which could 
 cede in them no more than the rights which itself possessed. 
 That Tenure was limited to the male line of Frederick HI, 
 and so in likcmanner was Eussia's Eenunciation ; the bargain 
 was therefore temporary on both sides. These countries had 
 been transferred to Denmark in 1667 in consequence of an 
 arrangement with the Duke of Ploen, the next heir to Gunther, 
 
THE EUPTURE. 187 
 
 llie last Count, who died in that year, and on the condition that 
 ** if the male line of the Eoyal House should become extinct, 
 ** that the two counties should return to them and their male 
 *' descendants, and likewise to the Agnates of their princely 
 "house."* 
 
 I may here parenthetically observe that Bremen stands in 
 the territory of Oldenburg as Hamburg does in that of 
 Holstein ; that it commands the entrance of the Weser as 
 Holstein does that of the Elbe. These two rivers are the 
 sole outlets of Germany, and the possessor of them, if equally 
 possessed of the Sound and the Eyder, holds the communi- 
 cations of the whole of the North. 
 
 The an'angement with Paul as to Holstein had therefore 
 reference solely to the male descendants of Frederick III. 
 On their extinction the Holstein equivalent reverted to 
 Eussia, and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg to the Duke of 
 Augustenburg. 
 
 With such claims and after such preparations, how are we 
 to account for the fact that in the recent troubles we neither 
 see her troops, nor hear her name, and that all the Powers or 
 the world, she excepted, are there intei-posing by arms, 
 or interfering by Mediation.! By this prudent reserve 
 what fields are opened for adjustment- — what a harvest spread 
 for ambition. ! 
 
 It is now assumed that on the failure of the male line of 
 Prederick III, no pretensions can be put forward by the 
 Agnatic line, and that the Duchies follow of right the same 
 order of Succession as the Kingdom. It may be so, but so 
 recently as 1843 the perturbation of the Danish Court and 
 of the whole Monarchy on this score was so extreme that 
 they hailed with delight the marriage of Prince Frederick of 
 Hesse with a daughter of the Emperor of Russia, as a means 
 of escaping from Partition. This combination, however, 
 failed by an accident such as even the best laid schemes are 
 
 • Griiner, p. 109. 
 
 t At the time this was written Kussia had not articulated a word 
 in public. 
 
1^5 THE DiVNISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 exposed to. The Archduchess died in giving birth to a dead 
 child, and the Emperor was at once afflicted with the loss of 
 a daughter and a Crown :* tlie daughter indeed could not be 
 restored to life, but other means remained for securing the 
 Crown. 
 
 Shortly after the death of the Princess, a Eoyal Ordinance 
 appeared, which became the signal of discontent for one 
 portion of the possessions of the King of Denmark, and 
 falsely directed the theories and ambition of the other. From 
 that hour Denmark and the Duchies were established as 
 having hostile interests in which were woven up on the one 
 side the succession of the Crown with Local Eights, and on 
 the other, the integrity of the Monarchy with Popular Privi- 
 leges : I refer to the Letters Patent of 1846, which declared 
 the succession according to the Lex JRegia to be extended to 
 the Duchies, but at the same time acknowledging that 
 respecting " Holstein " there are circumstances which oppose 
 our asserting with equal certitude the title of all our lines 
 to this Duchy." Supposing this step to have been perfectly 
 legal its effect was destroyed by this admission ; but it doubly 
 unsettled the matter : first, by the manner in which it dealt 
 with the Duchies ; secondly, by letting in the pretensions of a 
 third Power — Eussia, while exciting the opposition of a neigh- 
 bouring state, the German Confederation. The results of the 
 measure were so unmistakeabie that they must be assigned 
 as its object, namely, the encouragement of the Duchies to 
 resist, and the excitement of Denmark by their insolence and 
 extravagance. To render this matter clear I must revert to 
 the antecedent circumstances. 
 
 The House of Gottorp, so long as it had been in possession, 
 had done its best to assimilate Schleswig to Holstein, and to 
 introduce German ideas together with tlie use of the German 
 language. The University of Kiel had been established with 
 that view, and education followed that impulse long after the 
 
   " Poor Emperor ! he has lost by one blow a daughter and a 
 kingdom," — General SJcrznechi. 
 
THE RUPTUEE, 189 
 
 family had been swept away. The same policy had been 
 recently revived by the Duke of Augustenburg, through a 
 mere personal agency, partially making use of the Press. The 
 Danish Government at both periods regarded this movement 
 with indifference, and in fact, so late as the year 1842, no 
 proposition of a specific kind had been uttered on either side. 
 In that year the States of Holsfein were the first to raise 
 the question of succession by the simple declaration that it 
 was uncertain, and the Eoyal Commissioner undertook to 
 transmit to the Government the wishes of the Assembly that 
 'it should be settled in such a manner as to prevent a«y 
 possible separation. On this the Diet of the Insular portion 
 of Denmark declared itself for the application of the Suc- 
 cession according to the Lex Regia to the Duchies. Now 
 the States of Holstein were violently disturbed ; they pro- 
 tested against the pretemion of the Government to decide by 
 itself the question of the Succession; and declared that 
 Schleswig and Holstein were independent states hereditarily 
 following the Agnatic Line. 
 
 Such were the short and trifling antecedents, but they 
 suffice to remove any possible delusion as to the peaceable 
 submission of the Duchies* to an act of authority so inju- 
 diciously exerted. 
 
 It is further to be observed that at the very moment it w^as 
 transmitted, the Lieutenant Governor was the Prince of 
 Schleswig Holstein, and the Duke of Augustenburg, w^ho has 
 acquired the character of the first intriguer in Europe, held 
 supreme influence in those Dependencies, So totally was 
 neglected every precaution, that the Grand Duke of Olden- 
 burg instantly transmitted his protest against the act to the 
 
 * " Is it supposed that the Duke of Augustenburg will sell his 
 birthright for a mess of pottage ? or is it expected tliat the peojile 
 of the Duchies will yield ? They will not bo coaxed, nor will they be 
 menaced into unworthy submission. They do not want any com- 
 promise, but they want that * separate and equal station,' to which 
 in such an event they are entitled by tlie laws of their * common 
 country."* — Oermanicus Vindex, in the Times, January, 1846. 
 
190 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Germanic Confederation. That body declared that the King 
 of Denmark never could have intended what he had said, 
 and that monarch politely acknowledged the correctness of 
 their interpretation. Had the measure been a bond fide one, 
 must not the sentiments of the Diet have been previously 
 ascertained — must not the adhesion of at least the Gottorp 
 Line been secured — and would not a Lieutenant Governor 
 have been despatched to the Duchies qualified to cope -^ith 
 the influence of the Augustenburgs, and to carry out the 
 ordinance ? 
 
 But if the Duchies were intemperate, they were not revo-' 
 lutionary, if they were irritated by the letter of the King, 
 they were attached to the succession of the Crown. But we 
 have nothing to do with the Duchies, the power was' in the 
 hands of Denmark ; she therefore was responsible for the 
 errors and acts of the Duchies no less than for her ovv'n; 
 ever^^thing was in her hands. That very agitation for the 
 " Indivisibility " of the Duchies for which the war was made,* 
 if unfounded in right, presented to the Danish Crown the 
 most important securities, for it protected Denmark, or pro- 
 perly handled woidd have protected her, from the invasion of 
 Germanism, as formerly the Governing Union of these 
 Duchies had protected her against Germany. 
 
 The suggestion of the Letters Patent did not of course 
 come from St. Petersburg, but from Paris j it was offered as 
 a means of escaping from Kussia.f At the time I was 
 
 * Mr. Wegener, after showing that Sclileswig and Ilolstein were 
 separate Duchies originaUj belonging to different countries, and 
 conjoined and disjoined through many centuries in various degrees 
 by acts of violence or motives of expediency, exclaims, " And it is 
 for this doctrine of Indivisibility that our country is deluged in blood, 
 and Europe tlireatened with war." 
 
 t At that moment the Spanish marriages were in preparation, 
 and Louis Philippe was accused of seeking to gain Kussia to secure 
 himseK against the effects of his ruptm'e with England. The Times 
 said he was ready, in return for some show of countenance from a 
 Russian ambassador, "to sacrifice everything from Cracow to 
 
THE EUPTURE. 191 
 
 made aware of the scheme by a letter, of which I obtained 
 knowledge, from Christian YIII to the Due de Cazes, 
 who had been sent for this purpose by Louis Philippe to 
 Copenhagen. The Memoir of Mr. Bunsen has, however, 
 since established the fact, as also that of an engagement on 
 the part of France to support by arms the Danish Govern- 
 ment if necessary.* 
 
 The object of Christian VIII was to preserve the " Integrity 
 of the Succession," a maxim soon converted into " In- 
 tegrity of the Monarchy." Thus was let in " Union of 
 Administration," then came " Unity of Representation." 
 On the one side the sense of right was strained, on the other, 
 the chord of ambition struck, — the passage was short to 
 martial glorj^, and that involved diplomatic composition. 
 If you wish to lead an individual into a false coui'se instil a 
 fallacious maxim : how much easier with millions and with 
 fallacious terms. 
 
 The "Integrity of the Succession" might have been secured 
 in two ways : the establishment of the Cognatic Line in the 
 Duchies, or of the Agnatic in the Kingdom. There was no 
 difficulty in either. 
 
 Before 1660 the Duchies and the Kingdom had been ruled 
 by the same line of monarchs for two hundred years, that 
 line being hereditaiy in the Duchies, and maintained in 
 Denmark in succession, although there only elective. In con- 
 sequence of the Revolution of that year, the Crown there was 
 also rendered hereditary, but with the admission of females, 
 and hence arose the difference between the succession of the 
 two portions of the United State : but the Lex Begia of 1665, 
 
 Constantinople;" and the Morning Chronicle, the official organ, 
 pointed to tlie scaffold as the consequence of his betrayal of the 
 interests of France and Europe. 
 
 * " It was only too much to be feared that the plan now proposed 
 was nothing but the execution of the project which the late French 
 Government had recommended, and as it appears with a decided 
 promise of French support against any claims of the Gennanio 
 Diet and the German Nation." — Bunsen, p. 31, 
 
192 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 was not a fundamental law, beyond the establishment of 
 despotic power, and any successor of Erederick III could 
 " alter, repeal, or dispense with " every existing law. Chris- 
 tian YIII succeeded to this unlimited power and by a stroke 
 of the pen could have brought back the old "Unity of 
 Succession with the Duchies." 
 
 "Were it not so, the Law itself has been virtually repealed 
 by being broken in two points, and these its principal pro- 
 visions. It settles conjointly the succession of Denmark and 
 Norway, expressly stating, in section 19, that both kingdoms 
 *' shall remain undivided in the possession of one absolute 
 and hereditary King of Benmarh and Norway .^^ In section 
 2^ it is enacted that the Kings of Denmark and Norway 
 enjoy " uncircumscribed and unlimited power and authority 
 in the strongest sense that any other Christian hereditary 
 and despotic King can be said to enjoy the same, * * * * 
 and for the further strengthening of the same, we will and 
 COMMAND that whosoever presumes to speak or act 
 anything which may be prejudicial to our absolute power and 
 authority, be proceeded against as a traitor to our Crown 
 and dignity, and be severely punished, as usual in cases of 
 High Treason." 
 
 Thus then the Lex Regia has been extinguished by the 
 Congress of Vienna, and there no longer exists the Potentate 
 from whom it emanated, viz. a King of Denmark and Nor- 
 way. If it did remain in force Christian VIII would have 
 been, and Erederick VII w^ould be, together with the minis- 
 ters of both, liable to the pains and penalties of high treason; 
 having plotted to subvert " that absolute sovereignty," by 
 the introduction of a Constitutional form of government. 
 
 It is to be remarked, that the hereditary and absolute 
 character and quality of the Monarchy were esentially com- 
 bined; that the hereditary was auxiUary to the absolute; that 
 the absolute was the aim and purpose of the State reasons of 
 that time : whence it is to be inferred that the absolute cha- 
 racter cannot be attacked without destroying the hereditarj', 
 either in regard to the legal or the political view of the case. 
 
THE EUPTURE. 193 
 
 The object of the Revolution of 1660, was the establishment 
 of despotic power : the introduction of a Constitution vitiates 
 the proceeding, and nullifies all its consequences. It re- 
 mained to revert to the anterior state, or to create a new one. 
 In the one case the Crown of Denmark again becomes 
 elective ; in the other, you must deal with the succession of 
 the Crown as you have with the Institutions of the countiy. 
 
 But supposing that Denmark had been indisposed to accept 
 the Line of Augustcnburg — ^a supposition not entertained at 
 the time, it then would have remained to obtain the consent 
 of the Duchies to the Cognatic succession under the Line of 
 Hesse ; but in that case, it had to be proposed to them, not 
 enforced on them. By this course it certainly was possible to 
 fail, but by the course adopted it was impossible to succeed, 
 except indeed by civil war. The integrity of the succession 
 had therefore been sacrificed to Prince Frederick of Hesse, * 
 the son-in-law of the Emperor, who was himself excluded so 
 soon as he lost his wife. No one has denied the facility of 
 this adjustment. 
 
 •• It is clear," says Mr. Bunsen, " that the late King of 
 Denmark might have easily prevented the disruption of his 
 Estates, by establishing, in virtue of his absolute power, the 
 male succession in Denmark. But whether an overthrow of 
 the male succession in the Duchies flattered certain dynastic 
 propeimties (/) and national vanity^!), or offered the additional 
 attraction of the prospects of getting rid of ancient incon- 
 venient constitutional liberties (/), this very simple means has 
 not been adopted."! 
 
 A manner so lax of dealing with a question so grave, in 
 a document purporting to be a State paper, put forth in justi- 
 
 * "Wliat can be more strange than tlie dropping of this candidate? 
 Would he not have served the purposes of the Treaty as well as 
 Princess Louisa and licr husband ? Is it not clear that the object 
 was tlic displacing of the intervening heii's : who Russia chooses to 
 put out of the way of course is never after heard of. There are cir- 
 cumstances, however, of a dehcate nature affecting the legitimacy ot 
 that family which have placed them at Russia's mercy. 
 
 t Memoir to Lord Palmerston, p. 25. 
 
194 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 fication of an Invasion, and in prospect of an European war 
 arising out of the event, fills the mind with astonishment. 
 The only conclusion to be drawn is, that the case was inten- 
 tionally embroiled. Every passion and every frailty of 
 humanity, had been called forth to obscure the judgment of 
 the parties in a matter in which a Eoreign Power had so great 
 an interest at stake. It was, in fact, a contest between the 
 Eussian and Danish Cabinets : Denmark having no man equal 
 to cope with those employed by Eussia, the consequences 
 which have followed must, under similar circumstances, follow 
 in every transaction, public or private. 
 
 We now pass to the second stage : we have closed the 
 chapter of "Integrity of Succession;" we come to that of " Inte- 
 grity of Monarchy," — the generous concession of Legislative 
 Amalgamation, replaces the abortive act of Arbitrary Power. 
 
 It is in the spirit of our times, not by ambition, but on 
 principle to concentrate power ; customs, rights, are held to 
 be only distinctions which separate men and impair the strength 
 of Governments. This is the blight on every political ex- 
 periment ; by it despotism reaps the victory, whenever the 
 people wins the battle. It does not therefore suggest of 
 necessity any profound or malignant purpose to hear of a 
 Constitution proposed by the Danish, or any other monarch, 
 for " the whole of his States ; " yet a prince like Christian 
 VIII, could not have fallen into such a scheme either through 
 liberalism or inadvertence, which were neither to his nature, 
 antecedents, nor his circumstances. In the case of fractions 
 nearly equally balanced, the vulgar doctrines of Centralisation 
 could not apply, and he had before his eyes the experience of 
 surrounding nations. 
 
 The last event which had disturbed the tranquillity and 
 threatened the peace of Europe was an attempt to impose 
 on a population of 300,000 souls, in the Pyrenees, the b&ne- 
 fits of a liberal Constitution; and although the Queen of 
 Spain at the head of ninety-seven and a half per cent, of the 
 Spanish people, against two and a half per cent, was backed 
 by the active interference of England, Prance, and l^rtugal, 
 yet did she run a naiTow risk of losing her Crown, and after 
 
THE EUPTUEE. 195 
 
 the expenditure of forty millions sterling, and the periodical 
 devastation of Spain during six years, did these ancient 
 liberties of that trifling popidation triumph in the Conventioii 
 of Bergara over the power and the wisdom of civilised and 
 Constitutional Europe. 
 
 Or going back to the last century, did not a similar cause 
 biing on those disturbances of Eui'ope which ended in the 
 great llevolution of France, and caused to England the loss 
 of her magnificent Transatlantic possessions ? Was not this 
 a result of her wishing to cooce-ntrate Administrative power, 
 and giving undue extension to Parliamentaiy authority ? 
 
 A more recent and apposite experience is presented by 
 Eassia herself, — a fact which, though hidden from the eyes 
 of Europe, could scarcely be unknown to Christain VIII, 
 The Cossacks, little as it may be suspected abroad, are not a 
 mere troop of irregular horse, but a constituted Eepublic 
 separated from Eussia in a far more distinct manner than the 
 Duchies are from Denmark ; they admit no Eussian to civil 
 or military rank or post, and utterly repudiate the Eccle- 
 siastical pretensions and usurpations of tlie official Eussian 
 Church. An Ukase was published assimilating their Admi- 
 nistration to that of the other provinces of the empire : their 
 contingent had by precaution been already despatched to dis- 
 tant frontiers ; nevertheless the Deputy Hetman instantly 
 sent orders for the regiments of reserve to rendezvous at the 
 point of th«ir teiTitories nearest to Moscow. Tlie Emperor 
 did not accuse them of beginning the war, but with an army 
 of 1,200,000 men at his disposal explained the Ukase as a 
 mistake. 
 
 It is possible to conceive that Eussia should seek to get 
 rid of a Constitution which interfered with her nuKtary 
 system and religious miity — that the doctrinaires of Madrid 
 should attempt to efface a contrast that put to shame their 
 constitutional freedom when sustained only by a population 
 insignificant in nimibers — that England should have erred in 
 estimating the'strengtli and dispositions of a colonial popula- 
 tion, unarmed, unorganised, unrepresented, and only an out- 
 lying portion of her immense domains ; but that Denmark 
 
196 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 should have, out of her own head, de\dsed an Administrative 
 union with the Duchies is too preposterous to believe. The 
 Government of Copenhagen had neither project of conquests 
 nor of religious concentration with which their rights or creed 
 interfered ; these provinces were neither insignificant nor 
 remote ; there could be no mistake as to their disposition or 
 their power to resist ; they compose two-fifths of the popida- 
 tion of the kingdom, and constitute one half of its wealth; 
 without them Denmark is nothing — less than nothing with 
 them in arms against her. Denmark furnishes exclusively 
 the maritime force of the kingdom, of little or no avail 
 against the Duchies : and a contest would assuredly give to 
 them powerful allies, and draw down on her the chances of 
 a terrible retribution. Dismemberment was not then the 
 limit of the consequences to be apprehended from such a 
 design, but was one so evident as not to escape the penetra- 
 tion even of a child. 
 
 Christian VIII is gathered to his fathers, and Fre- 
 derick YII reigns in his stead. The dying King addresses a 
 letter imploring him to walk in his footsteps ; the successor 
 with Oriental deference kisses the signature, and with filial 
 piety obeys the command. Within three days the benevolent 
 intentions of the new monarch are announced by a Procla- 
 mation. 
 
 The Constitution was not, however, absolutely enacted. 
 The King called on the different portions of the kingdom to 
 elect in common with himself, men of trust and experience 
 to advise respecting it. He declared at the same time that 
 the "existing Laws and Institutions of the Provincial States'* 
 should be respected, and also " the existing union of the 
 Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein." The Duchies were not 
 Bcduced by the ofi"er of equality, the temptation of controlling 
 the Exchequer, or of seeing the Parliament held in their 
 tenitory alternately with Copenhagen: but they did not 
 conceive that the case was desperate, and proposed to comply 
 with the orders of the King to select advisers ; these were 
 not empowered to concur in any centralized representation, 
 and were intrusted to speak and advise in an opposite sense. 
 
THE RUPTURE. 197 
 
 Up to the middle of February, 18i8, nothing had been 
 done that could not be recalled. The caution of the mode 
 of procedure, tlie determined manner in which it was met, 
 alike gave promise of the adoption of a course which should 
 prevent the catastrophe of civil war ; and this solution was 
 the more to be expected from the fact that, in the then, 
 reigning agitation of men's minds, the Crown of Denmark, 
 which had ever had a leaning towards those Dependencies 
 which, in the Chancery style of Denmark were "personal" 
 to itself, had in the Duchies a sure support. The Dews of 
 Faction, however, watered the Seeds which an Enemy had 
 sown, and the popular party prepared the way for Russia's 
 Combinations at Copenhagen no less effectually than at Berne 
 or Bucharest, Paris or Palermo. We must now glance at the 
 internal events which reversed in a few days the relative 
 position of the parties. 
 
 There were on the accession of Erederick VII, three 
 parties : tliat of the Court, that of the Liberals, and that of 
 the Ducliies. The Court looked to the Duchies as a Bulwark 
 against the popular Invasion, and deprecated an amalgamation 
 which would reduce them to a powerless minority. It sided 
 therefore, with the Duchies, and both were united against the 
 Radicals. The objects of the Liberals were the diminishing 
 of the Royal Prerogative, the establishing of a Representative 
 Constitution, and a Centralized Administration ; with these 
 views, the facsimile of those of Paris, they associated "Dan- 
 ism," the counterpart of the "Germanism" of Erankfort. 
 In both points the obstruction they met, and the danger they 
 had to apprehend, proceeded trom tlie Duchies : there Avas b,^ • 
 army of which the King could dispose — there a place oi 
 refuge whither in a possible contingency he might fly. The 
 Duchies at once presented a popular triumph to achieve, a 
 Danish territory to assimilate, and a German principle to 
 subdue. 
 
 The practical point was the rupture oftheii* Federal Bond.* 
 
 * Their watcliwoi'd was " Denmai'k to the Eyder." iN'o doubt, Den- 
 mark extended to the Eyder and beyond it : it was not the question 
 of power that was raised, but the figment of imifonnity, and tliis 
 
198 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Holstein, backed by the German people, and linked to the 
 German Confederation, it was dangerous to attack, and hope- 
 less to subdue ; Schleswig could be attacked and subdued 
 only by isolating it. The plan was therefore simply this — to 
 incorporate Schleswig and cut Holstein adrift; hence the 
 anomaly of a simultaneous proposition of "Incorporation" 
 and " Separation." By this single blow they expected to gefc 
 rid of German interference, to extend Danish nationality, to 
 deprive the Crown of a German fief, to take from it the sup- 
 port of the Aristocratic Duchies, and place it in a position in 
 which it could no longer resist the elevation of Parliamentary 
 Privilege on the ruins of royal Prerogative and Popular Plights. 
 
 liow had such a debate been reserved for the fourth century 
 of the co-existence of these Estates ? for one half that period 
 the Danish Crown had been sufficiently despotic and not 
 moderately ambitious. Had they become more powerful, or 
 the Duchies more weak? No, "Germanism" and "Danism" 
 had arisen. 
 
 Now will be understood the object of the proposal of the 
 King, in the nomination of " men of experience." He was 
 himself to nominate sixteen, eight for Denma-rk, and eight for 
 the Duchies ; Denmark was to choose eighteen, and the 
 Duchies as many. The sixteen nominees and the eighteen 
 men of the Duchies secured to him a majority against the 
 Eadicals.f 
 
 Now came the news from Paris. Everywhere it is the 
 same story : be it Bucharest — be it Palermo — be it Presburg 
 — be it Vienna — be it Berlin — be it Copenhagen — be it 
 "Sendsburg ; at each events are, at the close of February, 
 
 furor of "Denmark to the Eyder" has deprived of all teiTor, 
 *' Russia to the Sound." 
 
 t The Eoyal Power was attacked tlirough the Duchies : the Court 
 Ministry were held up to public odium as " Datmh Sclileswig- 
 Holstein." In the Fcedrelandet (the movement paper) the Ministry 
 of Count Molkte is denounced for having for its principal object 
 "the preservation of Holstein," and he is charged with being equally 
 ready to sacrifice " Danism in the one Duchy, and GermanUm m the 
 other." 
 
THE EUPTURE. 199 
 
 184S, conducted to that point where the narrator has to say, 
 **Now came the news of Paris, and the explosion took 
 place : " " Preordinations of good luck " * too systematic to 
 be misunderstood ! 
 
 The Molkte ministry fell. The men of the Clubs, the men 
 whose watchword was "Denmark to the Eyder," who had 
 threatened to write with the sword the laws of Denmark on 
 the backs of the Duchies, came into power. There were no 
 longer three parties : the Court was absorbed into the Liberals, 
 and nothing stood in the way of the plans of the Casino. 
 Schleswig was now to be a Danish province, and Holstein 
 cast to Frankfort, or any otb.er monster, with an appetite for 
 the meal. 
 
 These measures were of course no justification for the re- 
 volt of the Duchies, but is it to be expected that the people 
 of the Duchies should be more wise than the people of 
 Copenhagen ? the insanity was in the air, and each has 
 load enough of shame without added thereto that of 
 criminating the other. The Danes deny to-day that intimi- 
 dation was used to their Sovereign ; the Duchies, that they 
 had claimed anything beyond their former privileges ; in fact 
 they both had a fit of delirium which they have now forgotten. 
 If both were wTong, so both were right ; for the wrong of each 
 was the justification for the other. 
 
 The following statement has been furnished to me as 
 explanation and justification of the proceedings of Denmark : 
 
 " On Januaiy 28th, 1848, the King signed an ordinance, by 
 which he conferred a Constitution on his States, with a common 
 Chamber for the Kingdom and the two Duchies, to be assem- 
 bled regularly at fixed periods in places to be determined 
 afterwards, and alternately in the Kingdom and the Duchies. 
 
 " The Constitution was to be submitted for examination 
 to Deputies, of which the majority should be elected by the 
 Provincial States, the same number for the Duchies as foi 
 the Kingdom, though the population of the former was not 
 equal to that of the Kingdom. 
 
 •*The Separatist party in the Duchies did not conceal 
 * Lord Malmesbiuy. 
 
200 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 tlieir dissatisfaction at this Hof/al act of favour. On the 17tU 
 of February, 1848, an assembly was held at Kiel to consult 
 on the steps to be taken, and it was decided to choose Depu- 
 ties opposed to the Union. 
 
 " Whilst parties were in this position of mutual appreJien- 
 uon and embarrassment, intelligence arrived of the events at 
 Paris, and the Schleswig-Holsteiners regarded the opportu- 
 nity arrived for realizing those projects. A meeting of 
 members of the States of the two Duchies took place at 
 Eendsburg the 18th of March, 1848, when it was determined 
 to send a deputation to Copenhagen to represent to the 
 King the desires of his subjects in the Duchies, and the 
 state of the country. 
 
 *' The establishment of a separate Constitution for Schles- 
 wig Holstein, based on universal sufltrage — formation of a 
 civic guard — complete freedom of the Press and of meeting, 
 — immediate union of Schleswdg to the Confederation — im- 
 mediate dismissal of President Scheel : such were in substance 
 the demands addressed to the King. 
 
 " Messrs. Beseler, Reventlow, Preetz, and Bargum, were 
 authorised again to convene the Assembly in case of emergency. 
 The Deputation left Kiel the 31st. 
 
 "Tlie news of the Assembly at Rendsburg reached 
 Copenhagen early in the morning on the 20th, together with 
 the intimation that the Deputation would arrive two days 
 after. The sensation it caused was very great. That evening 
 (20 March) there teas a great meeting at the Casino (club), 
 when it was determined to solicit the king to change his 
 ministry and elect another wdio had sufficient determination 
 and energy to defend the rights of the crown in regard to 
 Schleswig, whilst yielding to Germany what should be 
 demanded in regard to Holstein. The following morning 
 a deputation presented an address to the King, who replied 
 that the Ministry was dissolved, and another should be 
 formed, which did not take place until three days afterwards 
 (24th). It is superfluous to repeat that the King could not 
 give an answer to the Deputation of Kiel before the formation 
 of the New Ministry. They therefore could not leave Copen- 
 
THE IIUPTUEE. 201 
 
 liagen before the evening of the 24ili. But before their 
 departure tlie revolt had already broken out in Holstein. 
 The niglit of tlie twenty-third or twenty -fourtli, without 
 waiting for the reply of tlie King, it was decided at Kiel to 
 appoint a Provisional Government. The Prince of Augus- 
 tenburg immediately repaired to Eendsburg on the morning 
 of the twenty-fourth, where he seduced the garrison to 
 embrace the side of the revolt, on the pretext that tlie King 
 was a prisoner at CopenJia[/en.^^ 
 
 This ex parte statement of Denmark may, if we except the 
 opinion respecting the Royal A et of Favour in the conferring 
 of a common Constitution, be taken, also as that of the 
 Duchies. 
 
 . After all, Denmark has lost the Duchies and herself ; what 
 satisfaction can she dbrive from saying we can demon- 
 strate the Divisi])ility of the Duchies ^- — we can prove that 
 the Agnates had no right. 
 
 About the same time that the Duchies elected Christian I 
 the Principalities on the Danube gave themselves to the 
 Sultans of Turkey. In the course of the four hundred years 
 that have since elapsed, that Empire has passed through the 
 extremest vicissitudes ; the Provinces in question have been 
 the field of furious wars and tlie object of the fiercest con- 
 tention. There is no region, probably, of the earth that has 
 more severely suftered, and that under circumstances which 
 might justify the people in charging their misery upon their 
 Sovereign. Contrast now the dispositions of Wallachia and 
 Moldavia towards Turkey, and those of Schleswig-Holstein 
 towards Denmark : " Turkey to the Pruth " was never a 
 watchword in the Streets of Constantinople. 
 
 " These provinces were not a conquest of the sword, tliey 
 
 * Mr. Wegener lays gi-cat stress on the change tliat was made in 
 the Arms of Denmark in 1721, by removing those of Schleswig from 
 the Shield of Pretence, and placing it in eliief in quarter with the 
 Danish Arms. The argument is indeed conclusive against the case 
 set up by tlie Duchies, but it establishes against Denmark all that it 
 is requisite to establish. 
 
203 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 yielded themselves voluntarily to the Empire, and the Sultan 
 has no power to dispose of them save by their own consent.'* 
 Such on one occasion was the reply of the Poi-te to a 
 Foreign Power. With such maxims a state may endure even 
 in face of Eussia, and even without capacity. 
 
 The crisis of the Duchies in 1840 had its exact parallel on 
 the Danube. The Principalities went quite as far as the 
 Duchies : they declared their entire Administrative Inde- 
 pendence, inaugui'ated their Provincial Government, and 
 institirted even their Civic Guard. On the other hand 
 the Porte went quite as far as the Casino Government 
 of Copenhagen : it seized the chiefs invited to a confer- 
 ence and carried them off ; it fulminated a manifesto against 
 the Eevolution, and appeared ever to sanction the en- 
 trance of foreign troops to put it "down. But yet there 
 was no animosity of the Porte against the VVallachians, 
 or of the Wallachians against the Porte : on the con- 
 trary, there was the most perfect reliance of each upon 
 the other : how are we to account for this extraordinary 
 difference in exactly similar cases ? It is simply that the 
 Wallachians and the Turks were men of more sense than the 
 Danes and the Schles\^dg-Holsteiners ; but sense is natm-al 
 to man — folly is exotic; it is never reason that has to 
 be accounted for, but eiTor. The Turks and the Walla- 
 chians, besides the advantage of having no theories, had the 
 good fortune to know tlieir enemy : it was the presence 
 of 60,000 Bussians which constituted the bond of their 
 amity ; it was the concealment of the hand of Eussia that 
 suffered the mutual animosities of Denmark and of the 
 Duchies to fasten upon each other. Look at the results. 
 Schleswig-Holsteiners ! where now are your "ancient 
 rights ? " — Danes ! where your " liberal constitution? "* 
 
 * *' Pendant que les autres nations de I'Europe sont aux prises 
 avec des questions de vie materielle et d'existance sociale, le peuple 
 russe vous demande la Turquie, (La Danemark) en compensation de 
 son servage et en recompense de sa docilite." — L' Occupation do 
 Constantinople. Par un Piplomate Eusse, p. 5. 
 
203 
 
 CHAPTEK IT. 
 Interposition of Prussia. 
 
 The Duchies are up, Rendsburg is surrendered by the 
 Banish Commandant in his dressing-go\Am, and they muster 
 about 5,000 men. But the Danes, who had already been 
 taldng their measures for the occupation of the country, 
 suddenly enter with double that force, drive them from their 
 positions, and they fly to the Eyder ; and here this silly 
 affair would have ended had not a foreign army presented 
 itself on their path. The Quixotic regiments were not 
 transported by a magician's wand, but conveyed to the spot 
 comfortably by a railway : they were no band of sympa- 
 thisers — no, nor even an Auxiliary Legion : they were the 
 troops of a Great Power which, by a single word, might have 
 stopped the quarrel. Now, without so much as the mere 
 form of a Proclamation, they enter the territories of thd 
 Danish King, they do not, even like footpads, say, " Stand, 
 and deliver !" 
 
 This act has been explained, simply with reference to 
 immediate interests and ephemeral doctrines : the sympathy 
 of the Germans for the Duchies, the necessity in which the 
 King of Pmssia stood to conciliate favour at Berlin, the 
 necessity of crushing the . revolutionary elemrent,* the influ- 
 
 * " It was only tlie wish to prevent the Eadical and Republican 
 Elements of Germany from exercising any pernicious influence that 
 Lad moved Prussia to the steps she had adopted ; tlie idea of a North- 
 Albingian Repubhc being apt to endanger Denmark as well as the 
 neighbouring frontier of Germany," — Note of Major AVildenbruch, 
 the Prussian Plenipotentiary to the Danish Government, April 8, 
 1848. 
 
 " The King considered himself in duty bound to take measures in 
 
204 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 • 
 
 ence wliicli liad been acquired over him by the Duke of 
 Augustenberg, &c. No doubt that the movement was 
 poi^uhir at Berlin ; but will this account for the conduct 
 of the King of Prussia ? Without the encouragement which 
 he had afforded, and of which the evidence is to be 
 found in his autograph letter to the Duke of Augustenberg, 
 never could the Duchies have hazarded that step ; the 
 declaration of his resolution to maintain the rights of the 
 Agnatic Princes and the Duchies, had it been a bond fide 
 one, would have been transmitted to Copenhagen, not to 
 Augustenberg. He prolonged the war, by ensuring the defeat 
 of his own troops and his allies ; he sacrificed at the settle- 
 ment all he had contended for by arms ; not being thereto 
 constrained, but acting as a party to entrap others. To 
 understand, then, the motives of Prussia, we must revert to 
 antecedent transactions explanatory of her permanent interests, 
 engagements, and necessities. 
 
 At the close of the last war, Prussia had been reduced to the 
 iX)ndition of a tliird-rate Power; at the peace, she was recon- 
 structed into one of the first order, tlu'ough the influence of 
 Eussia. All her neighbours were dismembered for her advan- 
 tage, — Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Hanover, Saxony, and 
 Poland. It was to coerce the resistance of the Congress in this 
 respect, that the Emperor Alexander spoke of the " million of 
 bayonets confided to him by Providence." Kussia did not act 
 by caprice, but by careful and profound calculation ; she was, 
 in fact, securing to herself a "German Empire under a second 
 name." Talleyrand so successfully strove at the first Con- 
 gress of Vienna to convince the other Powers of this danger, 
 that lie induced England, Prance, Austria, and Sweden to 
 enter into a secret defensive alliance against Russia •and 
 Prussia ; to counteract which, as alrea^Iy stated, Eussia had 
 recourse to the opening to Napoleon of his prison doors at 
 
 order to prevent the movement in Lombaixly, from taking a Repub- 
 lican dii-ection." — Note by tlie Sardinian Minister Pareto to the 
 
 British Ambassador at Tuiin, lilareh 23, 1S'18. 
 
INTERPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 205 
 
 Elba. From that time the conduct of Prussia has iuvanal)ly 
 confirmed, alike the fears of "(.'alleyrand, and the expectations 
 of Russia. » 
 
 During the Russo-Tui'kish war of 1828-9, a Memoir was 
 drawn up by Russia's ablest diplomatist, on her relations 
 with tlie different Powers of Europe ; that memoir has been 
 published, and removes every ambiguity ; Prussia is disposed 
 of in a single and short paragraph, as a Government which 
 can give to Russia no umbrage. " Prussia," says he, " a son 
 role tout fait." Her rule is that of encroachments (empiete- 
 mens), " and the objects of her amhltlon under her hand.'' It 
 was in Germany that these encroachments were to take effect 
 — she was to balance, then subvert, Austria. The present 
 King did not yield to his predecessor in those qualities and 
 in that ambition (if the word may be so employed) which 
 had been signalised in his predecessor. To him was made to 
 apply the old monkish prophecy, 
 
 Pastor expectat gregem, 
 Germania, regem. 
 And it failed not to be remarked that his accession had 
 occurred in the con-esponding year of this century to that of 
 Frederick the Great in the last, and of the great Elector in 
 the one which had preceded it. Pmssia was one of the first 
 victims of the explosion of 1848 ; she was not only swept 
 internally, but was nearly driven, by the, revolutionaiy fury, 
 against her northern Protector. The King succeeded in 
 turning on the Poles the popular frenzy excited against 
 Russia ; then a diversion was furnished in the Puchies for 
 the young fervour so troublesome at Frankfort, so alarming 
 at Berlin. But it was not that a door was to be opened to 
 military enterprise ; revolution was to be shamed by discom- 
 fiture, and to be put down by disgrace. 
 
 It thus happened that the immediate objects at home of 
 the King of Prussia exactly tallied with Russia's objects in 
 Denmark ; and tlie service which would have been required 
 from his unwilling obedience was no less grateful to hia 
 character than convenient for his position. 
 
206 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 An Invasion is, however, a war; and although we have 
 dispensed in these days with the forms requisite to legalise 
 war, there has, as yet, been no such act without a printed 
 gloze of some description to cover it; an Ultimatum — a 
 Proclamation — or, at all events, a Treaty, or a Protocol. 
 Here there was nothing of the kind. It is the first point 
 that presents itself, and it is of the deepest importance, 
 because such a document must have appeared unless there 
 was an impossibility in the way ; the impossibility was that 
 of adducing any specific statement whatever. The Pmssian 
 Government could have committed itself, then, to no asser- 
 tion, either in respect to what it claimed, or to what it 
 purposed. A declaration of war required a previous demand 
 of redress, and there was none; a manifesto required at 
 least an enunciation of principles where the purpose was to 
 betray the very cause that was professed; the Prussian 
 Government coidd march its troops, but could not open its 
 mouth. 
 
 In this dilemma it adopted the expedient of publishing a 
 pamphlet in London, to wliich importance was given by calling 
 it a Memoir addressed to LordPalmerston by ^Mr.Bunsen. But 
 even this pamphlet does not professedly undertake to explain 
 the Invasion and to justify the war — ^it is a long, rambling piece 
 of special pleading, and the Invasion is slipped in in a post- 
 script, as if a mere piece of news, confirmatory of the writer's 
 apprehensions. The Prussian Minister is careful privately to 
 throw discredit upon his own production, by describing it as 
 the child of enthusiasm and zeal, in the parturition of which, 
 he had obeyed the mere instincts of his generous nature, and 
 which was likely to compromise his official, and to extinguish 
 his diplomatic, existence. Mr. Bunsen has at least proved 
 that in this age devotion is not extinct, and that men are to 
 be found ready, like the Persian of old, to undergo any mutila- 
 tion of face or fame, when there are despots to serve and 
 Babylonians to circumvent. 
 
 Stripped of misrepresentation and other verbiage, Mr. • 
 Bunsen's argument is this: Schleswig andHolstein areinse- 
 
INTEEPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 207 
 
 pai'able; therefore, Holstein being a German fief, Sclileswig is 
 Grerman also : and thus, Prussia is justified in making proposals 
 to cut Sclileswig in two ; because the Danes reject the proposal 
 they make an " attack on Germany," and Prussia is jus- 
 tified in " repelling force by force." When in the Postscript 
 he learns that this force has been employed, the Prussian 
 troops are described as having entered to support the "basis 
 OP MEDIATION," and because " to have waited one 
 
 MOMENT LONGER WOULD HAVE STULTIFIED GERJfANY." * 
 
 After this the King of Denmark is frankly told that he has 
 been befooled from the beginning, * for that nothing was 
 easier than to have settled the succesbion, without mixing up 
 with it other matters." Why was not this stated in 1846, or 
 in 1844 ? Why is it urged in 1848 as a railing accusation? 
 
 But this is a Diplomatic Document : where is the reply ? 
 what did England say to it — what to its publication? 
 Here is an enigma. Did England accept this view of the 
 case, or did she not? two months solved the difficulty; 
 after the parties are fully compromised, England steps in 
 with an offer of mecHation, which is the echo of Mr. Bunsen's 
 Memoir, and the ct tinterpart of Russia's proceedings.f 
 
 Now let us see in what strain jVfr. Bimsen deals with 
 Bussia. It is utterly impossible that here We shall not 
 detect him if he be playing false. He begins by asserting (at 
 p. 3), that the question possesses no European interest because 
 of the generosity of Russia in renouncing her claims. Was 
 this tme ? If false could he be mistaken. Further on (p. 19), 
 he contradicts himself, not by saying that Eussia had not 
 renounced, but by asserting that she had no claims to 
 
 * Memoir, p. 58. 
 
 t " First, that the Duchy of Schleswig be divided into two parts 
 with reference to the German or Danish nationality of its inliahitants^ 
 tlie southern and Gt^rman part being to be called the Soutliem Duchy ; 
 the Northern or Danish part being to be calied the Northern Duchy. 
 On the other liand, Northern Schleswig would bo attached by it* 
 law of succession to the Crown of Denmark, and the sovereignty 0¥ 
 THAT Duchy would be inseparably united with the Danisli Crown." 
 — Lord Palmerston's Proposal of Mediation^ June 23, 1848. 
 
208 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 renownce. What riglit had My. Biinsen thus to dispose of 
 the claims of Russia ; and if it be the Pmssian government 
 that speaks, how has it not ascertained the views of the 
 Eussian government respecting its own claims. Can any 
 one believe that the Minister of a Power so dependent, and 
 an individual so astute, should venture such a sneer on such 
 an assertion of his own caprice ? Such language on the part 
 of Prussia and such conduct could never have been endured 
 had it not been commanded. 
 
 While Mr. Bunsen relieves the mind of Europe from any 
 anxiety in regard to Russia in respect to this special case, 
 he is far from blind to lier ge;ieral purposes; in this 
 respect no man can be more watchful, or alert. He 
 places before the Danes and the Duchies, who, of course, 
 had never dreamt of such a thing, the appalling fact (after 
 the quaiTel is made) of the longing to possess the Sound * by 
 a neighbouring sovereign who "never yet refused the appeal 
 of a king whose despotic tendencies had aroused his subjects 
 against him." 
 
 It never rains but it pours ; Mr. Bunsen might have done 
 something if he presented his one Giant to the imdivided 
 gaze of his audience, but he manufactures a second ; Eussia 
 is ambitious, but Prance is active. If Eussia covets the 
 Sound and loves Despotism, these after all are mere affections 
 of the mind, — the practical danger is from Prance, who has 
 prompted the schemes of the King of Denmark — who in fact 
 has created the Schism in the Duciiies ! 
 
 * Mr. Bunsen, on pldlosopliical grounds, namely, the civilisiiig 
 and the " Japhetismg " of the Orientals, professes his anxious desii-e 
 to see the power of Kussia established on the Bosphorus. On Ger- 
 manic grounds, he devotes himself to preventing her ascendancy 
 on the Sound. He is, no doubt, not destitute of valid reasons- 
 by which to reconcile the apparent discrepancy, if disci'epancy there 
 be. To his diplomatic management Kussia is cliiefly indebted for 
 the present result : she is possessed of no agent more indefatigable or 
 tortuous ; none have worked for her with more consciousness or 
 premeditation ; he is to be found at every corner with a different 
 story, and able to effect for her what her avowed agents could not 
 •ccouTiplisli. 
 
INTERPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 209 
 
 How, it may be asked, could bare decency permit the 
 introduction into a State paper of propositions so imseemly 
 and contradictions so preposterous ? It is managed in this 
 manner ; the " Memoir " is preceded by a " Preface," and that 
 "Preface" is under another name. The anonymous indi- 
 vidual, if I may so call him, is the introducer of jNIi-. Bunsen 
 to the British Public ; it is Mr. Bunsen who publishes the 
 Introducer and the Introduction ; the Memoir attacks France, 
 the Introduction Russia. 
 
 Although it is anticipating events, yet with a view of present- 
 ing connectedly the part which Prussia has taken I shall here 
 introduce her share in the conclusion of the matter. After 
 being a belligerent in two campaigns, having taken up arms 
 for the defence of the rights of the Duchies and of the Duke 
 of Augustenburg, she withdrew from the contest, making a 
 separate peace -with Denmark in which nothing was stipulated 
 in reference to the causes of the war. It would have been 
 natural that such conduct should have been cloaked by some 
 form of conditions, however deceptive — some pretext of nego- 
 tiation, however hollow ; but exactly the opposite course was 
 pursued. She paraded, and in an epigrammatic form, her 
 treachery to the Ally whom she had compromised ; and tke 
 peace she signed was known tlu'oughout the World as the 
 " Paix pm'c et simple." This " Pure and simple peace " was 
 a peace with a secret article, and that secret article was an 
 engagement to sanction beforehand whatever the King of 
 Denmark chose to do. * Why was this article secret ? 
 
 Having thus tied up her hands, she ostensibly figured in the 
 conferences as a recusant. She refused to sign, with England, 
 Denmark, and Russia, the Protocol oiiginally proposed, and 
 while she thus held out to the Duchies the semblance of pro- 
 tecting their interests, she made her adhesion to the Protocol 
 
 * « AHicle Secret, le 2 Juillet, 1850. 
 
 "S. M. le Roi de Pvussc s'engage h. prendi-e } art aux negociationa 
 dont S. M. le Eoi de Daiiemarc prendra I'mitiative a reffet de regler 
 I'ordre de succession dans les etats reuiiis sous le sceptre de S. M.. 
 Danoise.** 
 
SIO THE DANISPI SUCCESSION. 
 
 contirxgent on the modifying of one of the original ph4*ascs in. 
 '^uch a manner as to exclude the very mention of their 
 existence, and the substitution of another which implied that 
 *' Integrity of the Monarchy " which has been construed to 
 signify the extinction of the Duchies.* 
 
 ^lien this Protocol was converted into a Treaty — the 
 Treaty of the 8th of May, 1853, her Minister in London was 
 actively employed at once in extorting the reluctant adhesion 
 of the English Ministry and in threatening the parties v»^hose 
 lights were disposed of into submission and silence. 
 
 A course so systematic could not have resulted from mere 
 blindness. The Cabinet of Berlin must have been fully- 
 possessed of the bearings of the case as affecting no less the 
 interests of Prassia, than of Denmark, and of Europe. These 
 I am able to give in the words of the Prussian Minister of 
 Foreign Affaii's when the Treaty was signed. 
 
 " Having been for some time occupied with this affair, I 
 have come to a most intimate conviction concerning the 
 embarrassments and positive disadvantages to which Prussia 
 would expose herself by the signature of the London Protocol. 
 No human intellect has as yet been able to devise any advan- 
 tage that might be obtained for Prussia by such a proceeding, 
 for there is not a fable in the range of mythology less credible 
 than the supposition, that the policy of Denmark should more 
 closely join the North of Germany and Prussia in consequence 
 of the union with the Duchies being rendered perpetual. On. 
 the contrary, it is the irrational hatred of the Duchies against 
 everything that is German, more especially against Prussia, 
 
 * Troposed Draught of the Protocol, Proposed emetula" 
 
 «S. 2. En consequence Elles reconnaissent Hon ly Prussia. 
 la sagesse des vues qui determinent S. M. le 
 Boi de Danemarc a regler eventueUement 
 Vordre de succession dans sa Eoyale maison 
 de maniere a faciliter les arrangements auxj 
 
 moyons desquels f les liens qui rattaclieut les I f " I'integrite de la 
 Duches de Holstein et de Slesvic a la monar- monarchie Danoise 
 chie Danoise demem^ent intactes." I demem-era intacte," 
 
INTERPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 211 
 
 which will be perpetuated by such a lasting union. Wliy 
 then increase hostile influences in the North of Gennany. 
 The policy of Prussia will at last be all but shut out from 
 anything like free movement in its proper temtoiy. Would 
 your Majesty have chosen to labour for a pei-petual union o 
 Hanover mth England ? or would your Majesty have chosen 
 to interfere in hostility to the Basque Provinces, which were 
 then defending their Fueros, and their Male Succession ? Sire^ 
 the Duchies, too, had their Fueros, and they will in future 
 stand up to defend their Male Succession. In attempting to 
 break the Legitimate Succession in the Duchies, violently and 
 without a free remmciation on the part of those concerned, the 
 dangerous principle of Arbitrary Power is installed in the place 
 of positively existing Hereditary Rights ; numerous Preten- 
 ders, and families of Pretenders wiU be established, the seed 
 of futui-e insurrections and those in favour of Legitimacy 
 will be liberally sown. If your Majesty should give orders 
 to sign the London Protocol, your Majesty will at all events 
 sooner or later be obliged to interfere in favour of the 
 illegithnaie course, against the right and the interest of the 
 Duchies, and even against the interest of your Majesty's own 
 dominion. I pray to God that your Majesty may, at any 
 risk, keep yourself free from establishing the Principle of 
 * Integi'ity * which is not in existence, but 'wMch is only in- 
 tended to be artificially created. The right of Denmark with 
 regard to such " Integrity " has hitherto no other foundation 
 than her own desire. And your Majesty can find no difficulty 
 in keeping yourself thus free, if you shall think fit to adhere io 
 the old declaration given once by Prince Mettemich, and by the 
 late M. de Canitz, and which has since been maintained, viz. 
 that the proposed principle of * Integrity ' is not to be pre- 
 ferred, but that it is to be postponed to the Principle of 
 Legitimate Succession, — that is to say to the Right of the 
 Agnates, and that it is only after all the "parties concerned shall 
 Tiave freely renounced, that there can be any question of the 
 Principle of Integiity." * 
 
 * Memoir to the King of Prussia, by M. Usedom, 4th Feb., 1851« 
 
212 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 That these objections were not considered frivolous, nor 
 their views visionary, is proved by the fact that J\I. Von 
 Usedom was not dismissed from the service, and that he was 
 selected to conclude this very negotiation. What a picture 
 have we not here of the public morality of Prussia ! 
 
 No doubt can be, I think, now rationally entertained that 
 every step taken by Prussia was collusive. Such indeed is 
 the present universal impression of the people in favour of 
 whom she appeared to interpose ; the first words that saluted 
 me in the Duchies* were, " the Pnissians were our enemies, 
 not the Danes ; they came with orders to spare the Danes 
 and sacrifice us." We must now turn to tlie military events 
 which have left behind them this impression. 
 
 • This clmpter ou the Interposition of Prussia is now added. 
 
213 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 Tlie War. 
 
 The war was, so to say, extingiiislied at its birth. Scarcely 
 Had the insurgent forces assumed an attitude and occupied 
 positions, when the Danes, akcady prepared for the Invasion, 
 of the Duchies, entered and di*ove them before them. In fact 
 the Danes consisted of a well-conditioned, equipped, and 
 commanded force of 10,000 men. The hasty gathering of 
 the Duchies amounted to but lialf the number ; but when 
 on the 23d of April they met in their flight 14,000 Prus- 
 sians crossing the Eyder to their support, and learned that 
 all the neighbouring States were pouring forth their thousands 
 to join them, matters assumed a diflerent aspect, and the 
 desperate and triumphant ca\ises changed sides, — that is to 
 say, the aimy so lately in pursuit was exposed to being 
 annihilated, finding itself hemmed in in its sudden retreat 
 between a dyke and a defile on the North of Schleswig ; but 
 the first exercise of the Prussian authority was to sound the 
 recall, the reason assigned being that it was the hour for 
 dinner. 
 
 The soldier on the battle-field is not the best judge of the 
 combinations by which battles are won, or of the blunders 
 by which they are lost ; and the reputations of generals are 
 not staked upon the evanescent impressions of a camp : but 
 there are cases in which he who runs may read, and where a 
 camp follower may see as clearly as a strategist. Such was 
 the case at present ; and beside the fact of the impression 
 made upon troops as yet destitute of experience, we have 
 hat of the result. Moreover, a vehement altercation took place 
 behveen the Commander of the troops of tlie Duchies and 
 
214 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 tlie Prussian General, to whom the latter replied in these 
 terms : " The responsibility rests with me, and not with j^ou. 
 Nothing is lost. The Danish army wiU be annihilated in a 
 week ; and it is but fair to reserve some of the laurels for 
 the troops of the Confederation." 
 
 The Hanoverians, Mecklenbrn-gers, Oldenburgers, Bruns- 
 wickers, pour in by railways, and General Wrangel found 
 himself at the head of 50,000 men, five-fold the number of 
 the retreating foe, and dispositions were made for a hot pursuit 
 the following morning. At four o'clock a.m. the infantry 
 were under arms, and the cavalry mounted, but no word 
 "march " was given. There they stood, the men under their 
 accoutrements, the cavaliy on the backs of their horses, 
 hour after hour looking on while the Danes quietly defiled. 
 At nine o'clock, that is to say after five hours' fatigue, the 
 pursuit commenced. The Prussians were pushed out so as 
 to (mtflanh the retreating force, on the right and on the left. 
 The Confederates however, under the Duke of Brunswick and 
 General Halkett fell upon them. Immediately was sounded 
 the Prussian recall ! In this multitude of nations it was diffi- 
 cult to prevent liberties being taken incompatible with militaiy 
 discipline. The General was urged at least to send a body to 
 intercept the retreat of the Da»nes to the Isle of Alsen, where 
 they would take refuge under the guns of their ships. He is 
 reported to have replied "God only knows where they will go !" 
 The Duke of Brunswick was so indignant, that after a stormy 
 discussion v/ith General Wrangel, he refused to take any 
 further part in the Campaign, threw up his command in 
 disgust, and returned home. The Danes had positively been 
 suffered to return, and carry off the baggage they had aban- 
 doned, bringing their horses to reyoke to the waggons and 
 guns. 
 
 Tlie Danish force being expelled and the Duchies freed, 
 what remained to be done ? Surely it was to open negotiations 
 with Denmark. No, Denmark was to be invaded ; General 
 Wrangel entered Jutland by orders from. Berlin, and in 
 defiance of the Protest of the Schleswig-Holsteiners. * 
 
 * *' Prince Frederick of Sclileswig-Holstein, the then Commander of 
 
• THE WAB, , 215 
 
 At least then the object must have been to press the war 
 to a conclusion ; there were no Danish forces in Jutland, the 
 Danes, at the utmost, amounting to 15,000 men, were in the 
 Isle of Alsen, where they were observed by a superior force 
 of the Confederates, who mustered in all 53,000 men, whilst 
 the main body of General Wrangel, who had taken care to 
 carry with him the Sclileswig-Holsteiners, were in Jutland. 
 Nothing, therefore, prevented his occupation of the whole 
 mainland, but he remained perfectly inactive. 
 
 Notwithstanding the superior force under General Halkett, 
 stationed opposite the island of Alsen, the Danes were allowed 
 to cross the strait, to establish a tete du pont, to construct a 
 bridge, to seize on the heights which commanded it, on them 
 to build redoubts, and plant heavy artillery ! When these 
 works had been completed, he commenced operations, by 
 besieging them, he placed his troops in a half circle round 
 Duppel ; this point being in direct communication with the 
 tete du pont and the island, could in a single night be occupied 
 by the Danish force which would then find itself in the centre 
 of the Germans, and be able by a sortie to beat and destroy 
 them in detail. This was foreseen by the whole army of the 
 besiegers, except the General, and it was executed with equal 
 facility and success by the besieged. 
 
 On the 28th of May, at the dawn of day, the Danes feE 
 upon the Germans with their entire force. Halkett sent aides- 
 du-carap to order one division after another ; each in suc- 
 cession arrived too late. 
 
 But where was General Wrangel ? in the north of Jutland ? 
 No, he had returned into Schleswig ; and had entered it four 
 
 the Troops of the T)\xc\i\es,jprotested and remonstrated agoxnst passing 
 the frontier of Jutland on the 1st of May, 1848. This measure was 
 not only suggested, but 'imperatively ordered by General WrangeL' 
 Piince Frederick represented that the Ducliies carried on a wholly 
 * defensive' war, and not an * offensive' one. He then wanted hia 
 corps to be left as a reserve to tlie Confederate Army on the northern 
 frontier of Schles\\'ig. This too was overruled, and this forced step 
 furnished one more argument to prove the rebelhous intentions of th» 
 Duchies." — Note by a Schlesvoig-Holsteiner, 
 
216 . THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 days before the catastropJie of Liq^pel ; the distance was but 
 twenty leagues; lie was marcliing to the support of the 
 Germans but he also arrived too late. 
 
 The murmurs of an army beaten and baffled at every turn 
 by an inferior force were not to be restrained, — something had 
 to be undertaken. An attack was now made on the Danish 
 redoubts, and the Prussian guard was led to the storm, but 
 fortune did not favour them ; at all events it could no longer 
 be said that the Prussian General had orders " to spare the 
 Danes and expose the Confederates." 
 
 Their reciprocal position having now been rendered suffi- 
 ciently interesting and dramatic, Denmark and the Con- 
 federation come to an arrangement; surely then the affair of 
 the Duchies is settled. No, it was not for this that M. 
 de Cazes had been sent to Copenhagen, M. Bunsen's horn 
 winded in London, and the Prussian recall so often sounded 
 in Schleswig. In this arrangement the Duchies are entirely 
 forgotten ; England is, however, at hand to take up their, 
 cause ; she strides into the arena as Mediatrix. 
 
 Nothing can happen in Europe, Asia, in the New World, 
 or on the coasts of Africa without a London Protocol — could 
 the Duchies escape ? 
 
 The case was sufficiently grave and sufficiently urgent,. 
 nor liad the English Government been taken by surprise, yet 
 the matter to tins moment had been wholly ignored ; whilst 
 the war had raged her minister had been called upon for 
 explanations — had admitted that England was bound by the 
 old Treaties of Guarantee, which as we have seen had been 
 dropped in 1814 ; it was consequently expected that he was 
 taking measures for carrying that Guarantee into effect ; when 
 this hope had proved delusive, he explained his conduct by 
 saying that the Guarantee, though it did exist did not apply to 
 the present case ; by this ambiguity both parties were encou- 
 raged and each believed it had the support of England. Aftei* 
 the campaign had worked itself out, then England interposes 
 to mediate. Prom that mediation the results are that six 
 months are afforded to the bellic^erents to recruit their strenoih.. 
 
THE WAK. 217 
 
 This course of England is perfectly parallel to that of Prussia, 
 who secured victories to Denmark while she lent armies to 
 the Duchies : and as the military failures of the one are ex- 
 plicable by no inexperience of the General, so are the 
 diplomatic mistakes of the other referable to no incapacity 
 in the minister. 
 
 The Campaign of 1849 opened by the entrance of 20,000 
 Danes into Schleswig. The Duchies mustered a nearly equal 
 force, consisting, however, in a considerable degree of German 
 volunteers and Prussians; they were commanded by a 
 Prussian General — Bonin, who had been sent by the Cabinet 
 of Berlin to supersede the General of the Duchies. * There 
 soon arrived 50,000 troops of the Confederation, of which 
 nearly the half were Prussians ; in fact, the Duchies furnished 
 to the King of Prussia a Siberia and a Circassia, where the 
 turbulent found occupation and the seditious repose. 
 
 The Danes were speedily driven back, and, following 
 them, the Scldeswig-Iiolsteiners entered Jutland, and were 
 soon joined by the Prussians, under General Pritwitz, who 
 had succeeded Geneiiil AVrangel. He divided this powerful 
 Army into two bodies : the one, composed of Prussians and 
 Hessians, was sent in pursuit of a body of Danes, a third of 
 their number ; — the Schleswig-Holsteiners, to the amount of 
 14,000, were despatched to blockade Eredericia, which was 
 ojjeti to the sea, of which the Danes had the command ! The 
 heights of Goulsk, three leagues from the fortress, were 
 ci'owned with redoubts : these were taken by assault, and 
 
 * Wliilst Prince Frederick, General-in-Chief of the array of tljo 
 Ducliie!?, \va3 in Schleswig trying to reorganise his troops, a deputy? 
 at the Diet at Kiel obsei-ved, that " Fortune favoured tlic Duchies by 
 giving them the opportunity of obtaining a distinguislicd Prussiau 
 oCicer as their general, whose appointment would avert such disast<jr3 
 as those which had occurred." The Prince on this sent in his resig- 
 nation, and two days after General Bonin arrived, empowered by an 
 order of the Prussian Cabinet, to accept the command of the army 
 of the Duchies. 
 
218 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 the victors pursuing tlie fugitives might have entered the 
 fortress with them, when again the Prussian recall sounded. 
 A blockade being perceived to be of no possible use, it was 
 resolved to besiege the place in form : the Anny sat down 
 before it. Now Eredericia lies on the sea, which was com- 
 manded by the Danish Navy. Into the place w^hich you pro- 
 pose to besiege the enemy can throw at pleasure any amount 
 of men, and remove from it, if necessary, the garrison! 
 General Bonin was perfectly familiar with the nature of the 
 place, having been stationed there for four weeks during the 
 preceding year. There could not have been a point selected 
 more available for wasting the time and exhausting the 
 strength of the Confederates, and affording to the Danes the 
 opportunity of striking without risk a fatal blow. This is 
 what happened. 
 
 Each party has three pieces on the board : the Confede- 
 rates, the besieging fort at Eredericia, opposed to the Danish 
 gaiTison, an army opposite Alsen and another at Jutland, the 
 two latter being opposed to two Danish bodies : they had 
 on the three points an overwhelming* numerical majority, 
 everywhere acting on the offensive. The two Danish corps 
 in Jutland and Alsen give their several antagonists the slip, 
 and the whole Danish army is concentrated in Eredericia. 
 The Confederates do not march to support the besiegers, 
 nor is the siege raised and the force concentrated : it is left 
 scattered round the place in its trenches, and, consecjuently, 
 one fine morning it is cut to pieces; its camp is taken, and 
 fifty guns fall into the hands of the Danes. 
 
 These operations were not conducted in a sudden and 
 secret manner ; the reinforcements were daily seen entering 
 the place, and, after the besieged were known far to out- 
 number the besiegers, still were the men kept in the entrench- 
 ments, hut tJie fire ceased. The explanation offered was that 
 it was not advisable to exasperate the enemy, whose fire, 
 however, never ceased. The discontent and the alarm of the 
 troops could not be restrained, and the General attempted 
 
THE WAE. 219 
 
 to justify himself and to allay apprehensions, by explaining 
 that his measures were concerted Avith General Pritwitz, who 
 would be on the spot to support them when necessary. 
 
 Notwithstanding this disaster, the forces of the Confe- 
 derates were still gi'eatly superior to those of the Danes. 
 Fredericia is in Jutland : tlie Danes luid, therefore, only raain- 
 ained a post of their own, and had not a man in Sclilcswig-. 
 The Confederates had either to pursue their attack against 
 Denmark, or to bring matters tO an accommodation. But 
 neither course is adopted : again the military operations 
 cease ; again an armistice is introduced to prepare for the 
 resumption of hostilities in the following year. There is, 
 however, a separate incident of this campaign, which must 
 not be overlooked. 
 
 The Germans were enthusiastic about ships, and resolved 
 to have a navy, not because they had a coast and colonies, 
 but precisely because they had none. The first event in their 
 maritime annals occurred on the 4th June, 1849, when three 
 steam vessels built in England, with gunners taught on 
 board the "Excellent," and carrying 68-pounders, issued 
 from the Weser to amuse themselves-with firing at a mark on 
 the tranquil ocean. When about to begin this exercise, they 
 perceived the smoke of a steamer coming out of the Elbe, 
 and they soon made her out to be a Dane, and gave chase. 
 Tlie steamer distanced them; but they fell unexpectedly on 
 a Danish corvette, under Heligoland, where she was enjoying 
 the sunshine, and diying her sails. The little steam squadron 
 dignified itself with a broad pendant ; the " Commodore '* 
 was Mr. Brommy,* who, after some shots were exchanged, 
 steered away. The astonishment of the inhabitants of Heli- 
 goland at such desperation on the part of tlie " pirates " f 
 
 * Mr. Brommy began by being a cabin-boy on board a Hamburg 
 vessel, and after several changes of fortune found himself lieutenant 
 of a corvette taken from tlie Tm*ks by Lord Cochrane dm*ing tlie 
 Greek war, and afterwards commander of a steamer ; but he arrived 
 in Greece only after the close of the struggle. 
 
 t Lord Paimerston wrote to the Senate of Bremen to demand hoir 
 
220 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 may be easily imagined; the Governor^ himself a sailor, 
 had just exclaimed, " Poor corvette, five minutes more and 
 she must strike !" The " Commodore " obtained the deco- 
 ration of Commander of the Order of ^lerit of Oldenburg, 
 of the Guelph from Hanover, and some others. This is the 
 beginning, progress, and termination of the history of a Ger- 
 man fleet, unless the following fact is to be added as an 
 appendix : Brommy was created Admiral, and thereupon the 
 German empire expired. 
 
 We have seen that Mr. Bunsen, in his Memoir, had pro- 
 posed cutting Schleswig in two, we have also seen of what 
 importance was this step for the workers of confusion. This 
 is the result of the Campaign of 1849, by which the Danish 
 troops were driven out of both Duchies, and it is effected 
 by an Armistice ! A line is drawn from Tondern to Elens- 
 burg, to be occupied on either side by neutrals, the parties 
 having to evacuate entirely. These neutrals are to be Swedes 
 and Norwegians on the North, Prussians and Oldenburgers 
 on the South ; and while England and Prussia are occupied 
 in these inconceivable monstrosities, the Muscovites are 
 pouring down the Carpathians, and the Czar is allowed 
 quietly to appropriate, by propping up, the crown of the 
 Caesars, which he had first cast into the mire.* 
 
 But, in all this, what part does Denmark play ? Does 
 she not expose and denounce to Europe this scandalous 
 violation of all form and of all law ? She had been made 
 safe; and besides, what did she know of law.f 
 
 A Triumvirate is now appointed for the government of the 
 Duchies, and again the Duchies are altogether excluded from 
 the arrangement of a matter in which they are the principals. 
 Denmark is to name one Functionary, Prussia another, and 
 
 three pirate steamers under an imaginary flag had issued from the 
 Weser to attack a Danish slaip in the neutral waters of Heligoland- 
 
 * " Pas une couronne ne tombe dans le boue, qu'un de mes cousins 
 de Cobourg ne la ramasse." — Nicolas. 
 
 t A Danish class-book defines " Declaration of war" — "a formality 
 formerly considered necessary but now generality omitted,'^ 
 
THE WAR. 221 
 
 the third is to be appointed by Ewjland. As the third must 
 in reality be the umpire, the Conference appended a condition 
 to his nomination, that of his being acceptable to both par- 
 ties. The person whom the English Minister did appoint 
 did not fidfil these conditions ; he was accepted by neither, 
 and was protested against by both. We must glance at his 
 previous career. 
 
 Colonel Hodges distinguished himself, (if the expression 
 may be so applied,) amongst the mercenaries sent to Spain to 
 put down the Basques ; he was then selected for an important 
 and delicate post Avhich had just been created — that of Bri- 
 tish Consul in Serbia, (1837.) At this time the "entente 
 cordiale " reigned between England and France, there had 
 been then no Syrian war, no Pritchard affair, and no Spanish 
 marriages. Serbia was of all points in Europe that where 
 the opposition most displayed itself of Eussian sehemes and 
 English interests, and with a view to this very antagonism 
 the post had been created. Yet the verbal instructions which 
 Colonel Hodges received, ambiguous indeed in fonn, but 
 unmistakeable in effect, were to act with Eussia and not to 
 act with France ! The precise terms addressed to him were : 
 " You deceive yourself if you expect to receive a real sup- 
 port from France, and you will see that it is not Eussia 
 that England will have occasion to distrust." It is needless 
 to say how Colonel Hodges acted under the impression of 
 these prophetic words, what troubles he raised in Serbia, 
 what embarrassments he occasioned to Sir Stratford Canning, 
 not equally confided in by their common chief; so well did 
 he do his patron's work that when the country cast out the 
 ci'eature of Eussia, their then Prince, it cast out also the 
 Consul of England. Mr. Disraeli on the 8th March, 1842, 
 said : " When he anived he found his consular duties 
 slight ; but events were stirring of the greatest importance, 
 and he threw himself into the heat of eveiy political intrigue, 
 so that in the course of eighteen months he had produced 
 such a complication of circumstances as would take two 
 ambassadors extraordhiary to resolve. The Noble Viscouat 
 
222 THE DA:NISH SUCCESSIOiT. 
 
 did not recall him, and for this reason Colonel Hodges was 
 driven out, the Prince he had supported lost his throne, the 
 house of Colonel Hodges was burnt, and he fled to Vienna." 
 His zeal was soon rewarded by a better post, the Consulate- 
 General of Egypt ; when in course of time a cooler one 
 again became requisite, he was transferred to Hamburg. 
 
 When the English minister proposed Colonel Hodges as 
 the third Triumvir for Schleswig, Prussia, in condescension 
 to the public feelings existing in the Duchies in respect to 
 that functionary, protested against the nomination. The 
 protest was final according to the terms of the convention, 
 and consequently, in any ordinary transaction. Colonel 
 Hodges was ijjso facto excluded. But this transaction, as 
 evinced in every step, was not an ordinary one. The Danish 
 minister protested against him also, and Colonel Hodges 
 (who coidd not be accepted if disagreeable to one of the 
 parties), is accepted because disagreeable to both. With 
 these documents. Lord Palmerston could present himself to 
 his colleagues and say, " Here I can offer you the best evi- 
 dence of my impartiality. In this hand I hold the protest 
 of Prussia, in this, that of Denmark : as to the terms of the 
 Convention, we who have settled them have surely the power 
 to alter them." His colleagues, with a courtesy become 
 habitual, bow to his decision. 
 
 At length the Armistice reached its term, and the Cam- 
 paign recommenced its course ; but how different are now 
 the circumstances. Prussia has withdrawn from the contest 
 — Prussia, a first-rate Power — Prussia, by whose encourage- 
 ment it had been commenced — by whose troops it had been 
 sustained — by whose Generals it had been directed. How 
 could Prussia abandon her fond ally ? How could the 
 Duchies persevere without their powerful protector? If 
 they did, it is wonderful ; but it is impossible that they 
 should not be troubled with misgivings, if not overwhelmed 
 with fear. This is what it would be reasonable to expect, 
 but the facts throughout this whole business defy expectation. 
 The Duchies were rejoiced at this result, and considered 
 
THE WAR. 223 
 
 themselves not deprived of strength, but relieved from an 
 oppression, and expected now to be allowed to fight it out 
 with their antagonist. Diplomacy, however, with generous 
 providence, looked to holding the balance even, and the 
 Swedes and Norwegians were also embarked and sent home. 
 
 Denmark, with great efforts, had been able to assemble 
 40,000 men with ninety-six gims : her maritime strength 
 need not be reckoned, being of little or no avail. With this 
 force she could not expect to conquer the Duchies, and she 
 had the certainty before her eyes that their defeat and her 
 triimiph woiild reawaken enthusiasm and exasperation in 
 Germany, and excite another tide of Invasion. How was it, 
 then, that no thought arose of an accommodation ? New 
 incentives and stimulants had, however, been found requisite 
 at Copenhagen. France sent a distinguished general, the 
 celebrated Philhellcnist Fabvier, to discourse of campaigns 
 and suggest plans of operations, and Russia herself had come 
 forward at length to smile on the undertaking. She allowed 
 hopes of a subsidy to be entertained, sent a squadron to hover 
 on the coasts, and, together with the use of steamers for the 
 transport of troops, lent to the enterprise that gi*eat modern 
 invention — " moral support." 
 
 The renewal of hostilities took place, indeed, by the act of 
 the Duchies, who crossed the Eydcr, — that is to say, who 
 entered their own territoiy. Their object was to anticipate 
 the Danes in securing that important line of defence, which 
 crosses the isthmus at Isted. 
 
 Schleswig, the field to which this contest was circum- 
 scribed, is one hundi*ed miles in length and not fifty in 
 breadth ; but in fact the arena was furthered narrowed to its 
 southern extremity, and consisted in the maintenance of those' 
 strong positions, which from the remotest times had been the 
 barrier of the Northmen against the Germans. 
 
 Tlic forces employed were, in proportion to the means of 
 the parties, enormous. If England in a civil war made a 
 similar effort, her armies in the field would amount to a 
 1,000,000 men. Denmark, as I have said, mustered 40,000 
 
224 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 with ninety-six guns : tlie Ducliies moved across the Eyder 
 30,000 men Avith eighty guns, chiefly of large calibre, leaving 
 four battalions of reserve. 
 
 A causeway and military road leads from Flensburg, 
 (where the Danish troops, entering from Jutland, or arriving 
 iDy sea, would effect their junction,) southward through the 
 centre of the province to the town of Schleswig. On both 
 sides the country is difficult from broken ground and defensible 
 positions, but principally because interspersed with l)ogs and 
 marshes : some five or six miles in advance of Schleswig, a 
 natural line of defence composed of lakes, marshes, steep 
 banks of rivers, and forests extend across from east to west. 
 The causeway passing by the village of Isted is inclosed in a 
 gorge, the heights on the left being backed by the long lake 
 of "Lang So," and on the right by almost continuous 
 marshes. The heights on both sides were crowned by bat- 
 teries of which the crossing fire enfiladed the passage, and 
 these Avere strengthened by fieldworks and redoubts. Here 
 was stationed the mass of the forces of the Duchies and of 
 their artillery. Had the Danes been repulsed in an attack 
 upon this position, they must have abandoned their offen- 
 sive attitude, and the war would have terminated by 
 their inability to effect anything, for the Duchies, relieved 
 from the Prussians, would not have entered Jutland, but have 
 stood merely on the defensive. 
 
 On the 34th July, 1850, the Danish army appeared before 
 Isted, and drove in the outposts. On the 28th, at two 
 o'clock, they made an attack at every point, sending out 
 detachments right and left, to attempt the passages beyond 
 the marshes and beyond the lake. They were, however, 
 repulsed on all points, and at Stolk lost fom* guns and their 
 best General, Shleppegrell, who had led the, sortie at Frede- 
 ricia, beaten Wrangel at Duppel, and commanded on eveiy 
 occasion on which the Danes had been successful. After 
 such a check it was not to be supposed that the attack could 
 he renewed with discouraged troops, and without any neces- 
 sity ; but at nine o'clock, — that is to say, after seven hours* 
 
THE WAU. ^ 22a 
 
 fighting — they were on every point brought again to the 
 charge and again repulsed. The troops of the Duchies were 
 inferior in numbers by 10,000 men, and their sole business 
 was to defend their strong position ; they had been under 
 arms for twenty-four hours, and had liad to sustain one assault 
 during the night, and one in the morning, and though excited 
 by success, were exhausted and disordered, — reasons for 
 delay, even had an advance movement been on other grounds 
 imperative. They were led out into tlve })lain to purme their 
 adoantage. When well advanced, a fresh body of 10,000 
 Danes falls upon them, drives them back, and enters the 
 entrenchments with the fugitives. 
 
 As no General with the commonest qualifications could 
 have been guilty of so gross an imprudence, it might be 
 inferred that Prussia liaving now made peace with Denmark, 
 Imd withdrawn her officers of experience, and left the 
 Scldeswig-Holsteiners to the conduct of some provincial 
 Hannibal ; but Prussia was not so unmindful of her friends, 
 and if pi-udent had not ceased to be considerate. She had 
 not left them in so hopeless a predicament, and the catastrophe 
 was, therefore, not to be laid to the charge of inconsiderate 
 patriotism and inexperienced valour. 
 
 General Willisen won his spiu's at the Battle of Leipzig ; 
 during the peace he devoted himself to tactics, was professor 
 of the military art, and published several works, which have 
 become class-books in Germany : but this branch did not 
 suffice to absorb his talents. In the convulsions of 1848, 
 the King of Prussia was in want of a " Pacificator " for 
 Posen, and upon him fell the Ptoyal choice. It may be recol- 
 lected, though in these days memory is short, that in the first 
 outbreak of revolutionary enthusiasm, the German people 
 took it into its head to war with the Czar, and seriously pro- 
 posed to drive Kussia into the deserts of Asia and the snows 
 of the Pole. 
 
 Revolution in the south and west presented only a local 
 colour J but to the north and east, although it failed not to 
 
226 THE DANISH SUCCESSION, 
 
 articulate the watchwords of freedom there was associated 
 therewith the idea of independence. They saw Eussia near 
 and imminent, beetling like an iceberg over their heads, and 
 menacing at every hour an avalanche. They well knew that 
 no form of internal government could resist her invasion, or 
 subsist if hostile to her views, so that the Eevolution in 
 Prussia was just as much directed against the Emperor at 
 St. Petersburgh, as against the King in Berlin. It turned 
 consequently to the Poles as its natural allies, and whilst 
 calling- out for "Free Press," "Free Meetings," "National 
 Guard," and " Kepresentative Chamber," it called out also 
 for " Eestoration of Poland :" it adopted as its philosophical 
 conclusion that its triumph was but temporary and incom- 
 plete till it had succeeded in disabling the Autocrat from 
 interfering ih the forms of government of other countries. 
 This it is which explains the momentary enthusiasm through- 
 out Germany in the cause of Poland, and the expectation of 
 seeing the outburst of revolution pour itself from that 
 country over the north. This direction of the public mind 
 would have united, had they not been so before, the 
 domestic and dynastic interests of the Kings with the poli- 
 tical ends of the Russian Cabinet. That of Prussia saw no 
 safety save in those veiy auxiliaries wiiich the people of 
 Prussia looked upon as their deadliest foes. But that aid 
 could not be obtained directly ; the means of safety lay in 
 establishing a schism between the Poles and the Germans. 
 Some estimate may thus be formed of the qualities required 
 for a "Pacificator" of Polish Posen: a man was requisite 
 who knew how to combine heart with head. 
 
 Willisen played his part to admiration : he succeeded in 
 presenting the King as the patron of the anti-Russian en- 
 thusiasm, and then returned to Berlin, aparently to counter- 
 act some secret machinations by which his royal master had 
 been overreached : he left his apartment after a long con- 
 ference, at two o'clock in the morning, when the king address- 
 ing his court, which awaited, said, " Gentlemen, you want 
 
THE WAR, '"^ "tn 
 
 war with Russia : well, you shall have it ; " and on this, the 
 secret order was despatched for disarming the Poles. The 
 shock of contradictor)- propositions, passion and mysteiy, 
 exasperations and uncertainty, effaced all anterior impressions; 
 the public was at sea and so the Anti-Russian projects fell, the 
 revolutionary spirit evaporated, and the royal diplomacy 
 triumphed at Berlin and in Posen, as at Duppel, and at 
 Prederioia. Willisen was, it is true, accused of treachery by 
 one party, he was therefore admired for patriotism by the 
 the other : he himself published a voluminous defence, which 
 evciybody devoured, but which no one could digest. It 
 was, however, said to be much to the taste of his master and 
 the Emperor. 
 
 Willisen now took the road to Italy, and directed his steps 
 to Piedmont. His liberal sympathies and Polish antecedents 
 opened to him every door and eveiy heart : he was con- 
 ducted from position to position, from army to aimy. 
 Passing from the military to the diplomatic branch. Ministers 
 underwent his examination ; public offices opened themselves 
 to his inspection. His review completed, he posted to 
 Peschiera, and soon after returned with Radetzski, to visit his 
 Sardinian friends : he so interested tlie Field-Marshal by his 
 conversation, that even with the pre-occupations of the field of 
 Novara, he did not allow him for a moment to quit his side.* 
 
 This adventure completed, Willisen again turned liis face 
 
 * Already has the defeat at Novara been attributed to on^ act of 
 treason, but the treason was much deeper than that of one General 
 of Division. The Austrian and Piedmontese governments were bot^^ 
 betrayed, the one to the other. Tlie independence of Lombardy, 
 which Austria offered tlu-ough England on tlie 22d of May, was 
 filched away by the game process ; and the victory, secured by ma- 
 nagement to the Austrian arms in the south, was the signal for the 
 blow struck at Hungary, whece all was already prepared to sacrifice 
 to Hungary the Austrian artmies, and then Hungaiy to Russia. The 
 warUke operations of tliese years were all made safe hke those w© 
 hate been examining. The Spanish mamages, the Confiscation of 
 Oracow, the Swiss mediation, the disturbances of Italy and Sicily, 
 the French^ with its concomitant revolutions', ftre all facts "which ar© 
 
228 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 northwards, and opportunely reached Berlin at the very 
 moment that the Peace with Denmark constrained the King 
 to recall General Bonin. Tlie successful " Pacificator" of 
 Posen was exactly the man required. It is true that the 
 objection which had caused the recall of his predecessor 
 equally applied to him. He too was Prussian officer and 
 Prussian general : but seeing how Conventions are executed, 
 and armistices observed, we must admit as good a distinc- 
 tion between General Willisen and General Bonin, as between 
 the two sides of the demarcation line from Tondern to Flens- 
 burg. Thus it will be readily conceived that though at 
 Isted General Bonin was no longer in command of the troops 
 of the Duchies, the " Pacification of the North" lost nothing 
 by the change. 
 
 After losing a strong position by an ambuscade, and sacri- 
 ficing about 4,000 men, continuing to apply the maxims of 
 strategy which he had been so long engaged in teaching, he 
 fell by mathematical gi-avitation on the south, never stopping 
 until he had placed behind him the fortress of Eendsburg. 
 Evacuating or abandoning the whole of Schleswig, he with- 
 drew behind the Eyder, which the neutrality of Holstein 
 forbade the Danes to cross. His army, though defeated, 
 had received reinforcements, which raised it far' above its 
 complement when it took the field, whilst that of the Danes, 
 which had suffered nearly as severely as its antagonist, received 
 no reinforcement whatever. It was in a hostile country, 
 and had to strengthen and to fortify its various positions. In 
 extending its operations, it was liable to be at any point 
 attacked by the whole force of the Duchies from beliind the 
 Eyder, which is a river or canal cut from sea to sea, and 
 across which it did not dare to venture, nay, not even to 
 fire. General Willisen was a great admirer of the Napoleon 
 
 linked together, and the process laid bare in regard to any may be 
 assumed to exist in respect to all. 
 
 I have been informed that I have mistaken General Willisen for 
 his brother. If so, the King of Prussia is lucky in haviiig two 
 Willisens instead of one. 
 
THE WxVU. 229 
 
 combination of concentration, tke art of which consisted in 
 inducing the enemy to radiate his torces. Here the enemy- 
 had hiid out for him the positions. He couhl attack them 
 at any point with his whole force, and annihilate them sepa- 
 rately ; and he selects their two exposed positions to the 
 extreme right and left ; marching under cover of the Eyder, 
 he attacks at both and is repidsed. Thus ends the campaign; 
 Willisen*- returns home ; and for the Ducliies, of course, we 
 will have an armistice. 
 
 This time the armistice is replaced by 20,000 Austrians. 
 Why Austrians ? Have we not had neutrals and belligerents 
 enougli ? If not, why not Russians ? Austria had just re- 
 quired the aid of Russian troops in her own territory. Tliey 
 could have reached Kiel, their ancient possession, in twenty- 
 four hours, without traversing or disturbing Germany. Let 
 any one consider what before the event he would have said, if 
 he had been told, that because of some petty troubles in an 
 unknown province on the Baltic he had been told that troops 
 shoidd have been called in from Drontheim on the North, and 
 from Petervardein on the South ? AVhat again, if such a con- 
 tingency being admitted as possible, it were then asserted that 
 the troops of Russia should alone be wanting ? 
 
 Clearly the matter is now about to be concluded ; Austria 
 owes Hungary to the Czar : her occupation will not cease 
 till a diplomatic act, bearing no longer on the disputes 
 of the parties but on the succession of the Crmcn^ shall have 
 decided that matter according to Russia's views, — to the 
 suppression of all the rights for which the antagonists have 
 been contending, and withdrawing from the Danish people all 
 faculty of disposing of themselves. . 
 
 * I have received various denials of the accuracy of the state- 
 inents here made with regard to tliis battle : these I have carefully 
 weighed, but cannot adnait. A pamphlet lias been also sent ma 
 in which I have been assured I should find the proof of the reverse. 
 I have added some extracts firom it at the end of thia Chapter, that 
 the reader may judge. 
 
2S0 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 NOTE. 
 BATTLE OF ISTED. 
 
 Ikctractedfroni a Tamphlet ly Scmmerich, Chaplain to the Danish 
 Army, 
 
 " Le moment decisif de la bataille etait arrive. Depui^ 
 quelques instants on s'apercevait qu'il y passait dans le 
 centre de Willisen quelque chose d'extraordinaire. Des divi- 
 sions entieres avaient epuise leurs provisions de poudre ; on 
 se plaignait que le General en Chef ne donnait pas d'ordre ; 
 de temps en temps des soldats de differents bataillons se 
 trainoient peniblement jusqu' aupres des notres harasses de 
 fatigue et incapables de continuer le combat. lis se cou- 
 chaient par terre ne songeant plus qu'a se reposer et a se 
 rafraichir. En vain les officiers les exhortaient a marcher. 
 Nous n'avons pas d'ordre a recevoir de vous, repoudaient ils. 
 Beaucoup d'autres personnes des environs se joignaient aux 
 officiers pom- piquer leur amour propre, en les engageant a 
 aller aux secours de leurs freres d'armes. Oui, disaient ils ; 
 quand nous aurons mange. Tout semblait devenir de plus 
 en plus contraiye a Farmee ennemie. Enfin Willisen apprit 
 que le Colonel Sehepelern etait a Schuby et menacait sa ligne 
 de retraite. 
 
 " Le Colonel Sehepelern selon le plan de la bataille se 
 tr^uvait vers onze heures et demi a Schuby sm* les derrieres 
 de I'ennemie. On a vu rarement un mouvement circulaire 
 reussir si completement." — p. 32. 
 
 " La confiance qu'on avait dans les talents militaires de 
 Willisen ^tait encore si grande dans les rangs de Tarmee, que 
 I'aile droite de I'ennemi qui avait soufFert de moins, p'enait 
 la retraite pour un stratageme" 
 
 " Les Holsteinois qui d'ailleurs se battaient bravement 
 eux-memes, disaient avec raison, ' Les Danois ne se battent 
 pas, ils ne font qu'avancer.' 
 
 "Willisen chercha a sauver sa reputation du grand Capi- 
 taine en disant que la bataille n'etait pas iinie. On ne rii'a 
 pas fait abandonner ma position par des manoeuvres, disait il j 
 'c'est et nous ecras^ant qu'on nous a fait quitter le cliamp de 
 bataille."— p. 39. 
 
 " Apres la bataille d'Isted il (Willisen) comprit qu'il avai<r 
 mal juge les Danois. Son entourage I'avait force malgres ses' 
 principes strategiques de perdre les avantages d'une position 
 
NOTES. 231 
 
 defensive pour prendre roffensive an risque de s'exposer 
 a mille dangers. Et maintenant il etait poussd malgre lui vers 
 Missund et Frederickstadt ; son lionneur etait engage il ne 
 pouvait plus s'arreter. 
 
 " Le General Wrangel se trouvait ceux aux lorsque la nou- 
 velle de la victoire lui ai'riva. II etait en compagnie d'une 
 noble famille Danoise, avec laquelle il etait tres lie. II fit 
 bonne contenanre, felicita les Danois et parla de Willisen 
 eomme d'un homme a qui Von neponvait sefier**'^ 
 
 The subjoined extract from the pubKc news, as printed in 
 London on the 25th of May, wiU fully justify the qualifica- 
 tions as tactician of this Prussian General : other men win 
 honours by gaining battles, they by losing them. 
 
 "Berlin, May 22. 
 
 •* The Bussian Imperial Chancellor, Count Nesselrode, sat 
 opposite the Emperor and the King of Prussia, between the 
 Ih-esident of the Cabinet, M. von Manteuffel, General von 
 Jf Mangel, whose next neighbour was Count Orloff, the Russian 
 Minister of Police. During dinner, the King himself called 
 oil the guests to fill their glasses to the brim {bis zum Rande), 
 and gave the following toast :— 
 
 " ' In my own name, and that of my armyyimd in the name 
 of all true Prussian hearts, T give the health of His Imperial 
 Majesty of Pussia ! God preserve him to that portion of the 
 world which God has g-iven him for an inheritahce, and to 
 this age, to which he is indispensable.' 
 
 "The Emperor replied, ' Dleu conserve voire Majestef 
 adding immediately afterwards in German,-—* I diiuk to the 
 welfare of the King of Prussia and //i's admirahle army* 
 
 " The toast was drunk with the utmost enthusiasm, and the 
 hall re-echoed with oft-repeated * HocJis !* " 
 
 In the same paper in which the above is reported, the 
 ** Times" observes : — "The conJtinent is governed literally, if 
 not symbolically, by Colonels in Bjissian uniforms.** 
 
CIIAPTEE IV. 
 Treaty of the Wi of May, 1852. 
 
 The anticipations with which the foregoing chapter closes, 
 and which were written at the end of 1850, were soon after 
 realised. Whilst the war continued, not a whisper transpired 
 respecting the succession : all the ostensible negotiations had 
 reference to the position of the parties, and closed by totally 
 ignoring the matters for which the war had been ostensibly 
 made. To an unexpected qiiestion in the House of Com- 
 mons, the Minister for Foreign Affairs confusedly replied by 
 admitting that there were communications affecting the suc- 
 cession ; but this was all tliat ever was extracted. In the 
 course however of 1851, the Protocol of Warsaw of the 
 24th of May was printed in the papers ; but the public 
 mind, fatigued with the subject, heeded it not. That Pro- 
 tocol was calculated to leave the impression that it was 
 an affair which concerned no foreign power and injured no 
 positive rights : it was between Branches of the House of 
 Oldenburg alone ; it assumed a complete right to deal with 
 the matters in question ; it specified the renunciations of the 
 persons set aside ; engaged that the King of Denmark should 
 charge himself with the indemnities to be afforded to any 
 other claimants ; and the only innocent reference to Foreign 
 Powers is, " that his Majesty shall make known his deter- 
 mination to the Powers, friends of Denmark." 
 
 But it so happened that tlie statement of the Protocol in 
 reference to the renunciations obtained was not true : not a 
 letter of renunciation had at that time been expedited or 
 signed. These renunciations, as appears by the documents 
 subsequently submitted to the Diet of Copenhagen, were onlj 
 
TREATY OF MAY. 'i i 233 
 
 obtained in the course of the sullsequont months of July, 
 August, and September.* It may be said that if not obtained 
 there was at least a moral certitude of obtaining them, but 
 observe that they are invalidated by the very date. A pre- 
 tender deriving from any one of these persons may clearly 
 allege coercion, and deny the validity of the act. 
 
 The promise of indemnities to any other claimants was not 
 kept : the sum paid to the Duke of Augusteuburg was only 
 equal to the value of the property he has since ceded, and 
 the entail of that compensation has by an illegal ordinance 
 (13th January, 1853) been cut off, excluding his own 
 immediate descendants and his collaterals ; the renunciation 
 which he has given is ambiguous, and he also and his family 
 may in like manner plead coercion; the very claims of Eussia 
 to-day are in opposition to a European Treaty, in which 
 E-ussia herself was a party against the then Puke of Gottorp. 
 
 But the King of Denmark had no power to dispose of 
 the Succession. The Protocol was a fraud from beginning 
 to end. 
 
 As already stated, Russia had abstained from ail appa- 
 rent interest in the transactions of Denmark, and allowed 
 the Minister of Pmssia in London, in the only diplo- 
 matic document then avowedly published by any Court, 
 to declare simultaneously, that she had renounced her rights 
 and that she had no rights to renounce. Now she reasserts 
 those claims, to make again a temporary renunciation, whilst 
 declaring her intention of enforcing them, ''should the present 
 Combination come to fail." 
 
 Whoever perused the document must have supposed the 
 matter concluded, and when he came to the final passage that 
 " in London the necessary negotiations must take place, to 
 give to this act the character of a European Transaction," 
 he would only thence derive the gratifying perception of the 
 compliment intended to Great Britain, by Russia and Den- 
 
 • Three on the 18th July, two on the 3d of August, one on th« 
 16th August, and two on the 13th September. 
 
iU THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 mark. Any further attempts to comprehend the mystery, 
 would be shipwrecked upon "European Transaction." 
 
 What was assumed to have been done in Warsaw was, 
 however, to be effected by what was to take place in London, 
 and this was to be done in London, because it was to be assumed 
 that everything had been settled at W^arsaw. It was not that 
 a measure of internal policy in Denmark was by a compli- 
 mentary notice in London to become a "European Trans- 
 action," but that a Conference in London was to interpose in 
 the internal concerns of Denmark ; and arrangements, which 
 if the averments had been true might have been quite innocent 
 in a Protocol between Eussia and Denmark, become most 
 criminal in a Treaty signed by England and France. 
 
 Will it be believed that this Warsaw Protocol between 
 Denmark and Bussia was but the echo of one already 
 secretly signed nearly a year before between the Powers in 
 London, obtained after prolonged and arduous struggles, 
 unconsciously confessed by Lord Clarendon when he spoke 
 of the thousands of folios to which the correspondence had 
 extended! The facts which I have stated can leave no 
 doubt that the English Minister was acting in concert 
 with Russia ; Denmark was her mere tool : Prussia, in the 
 secret Article of the "Paix pure et simple," had bound 
 Berself to back any proposition of Denmark : the Russian 
 troops were at the time in Hungary : the Prince President 
 was in the hands of the Czar. Whence then arose the" 
 necessity of any toil? The credit of the resistance is 
 evidently due to the Cabinet of Lord John RusseU, and in 
 those statements which have transpired, it is Lord Palmer-' 
 ston who figures as the recusant. He is represented as 
 having yielded only to the necessities imposed upon him by 
 the embarrassments occasioned by his proceedings in Greece,* 
 
 * The representative of a Foreign Court in reference to tliis 
 matter used these words : " Lord Palmerston has explained an act 
 which disgusted Prance as one which was necessary to vipset the 
 influence of Eussia in Greece. Why then did he not associate France 
 with liimself, the two Powers having been just before engaged iai res- 
 
TREATY OF MAT. 235 
 
 and the danger of a nipture with Russia, only be averted bj 
 the appending of his signature to the London Protocol oC 
 the 4th of July, 1850. 
 
 Such is the view of the case inseiied by a leading German 
 Statesman in a Pamphlet which he has left as a record (if 
 the transaction, and it coiTesponds \vith the statement from 
 a semi-official Prussian source, which appeared in the Ji^eser 
 Zeitung in April, 1853. I append extracts from both 1x1^4 
 note to this Chapter. 
 
 When then Lord Derby's Administration came into power, 
 it found a matter so complicated and voluminous, that it 
 would have required months to master the details, — so per- 
 plexed and yet adjusted, that years of labour upon the mate- 
 rials so furnished, would not have sufficed for fathoming it ; 
 tinless indeed the new Foreign Minister had been a man 
 capable of comprehending it at a glance there was no 
 escape ; in the words of the Times " the transaction was 
 brought to that point where the Conference had only to 
 append their signatures." The merits of the case were con- 
 sequently set aside, the matter was looked upon simply in 
 a practical point of view — ^that is to say, with reference to 
 the convenu of the Cabinet, and " its policy was made up " 
 accordingly. Lord Derby is indeed reported to have in- 
 quired — *' Who is to come in after the Line of Gliicksburg ?** 
 and M. Brunnow to have answered, " Time will show !** 
 There the matter closed. So absolute was their confidence in 
 the affair being concluded, that Members of the Cabinet itself 
 were not even aware that such Treaty had been signed, and 
 remained in that ignorance until the month of March of the 
 following year. The article in the Times, which M. Brunno-w 
 had launched immediately on obtaining the signatuies, wa» 
 considered a hoax. 
 
 I confess that, notwithstanding my long anticipation of 
 
 cuing the Ilungarian refugees ? and why did he attack the commerce 
 of Greece and not its Government. He is too astute a man not to 
 hftre perceived that by one blow he was giving to Russia the qjh'»^^^^ 
 of France and the control of Greece." 
 
236 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 such a Treaty, I was influenced by these statements, cen- 
 firmed by the failure of my attempts to obtain a copy of 
 the Treaty so announced : I only became acquainted with. 
 it ten months after>vards by a communication from the Se- 
 cretary of State for Foreign Affairs to one of the excluded 
 Princes, who, begging to be informed regarding the nature 
 and conditions of the instrument by which the ancestral rights 
 and honours of his House, the independence of his country, 
 and his private property and possessions were disposed of, 
 was referred to the henceforward memorable shops, No. 6, 
 Great Turnstile, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and No. 32, Abingdon 
 Street, Westminster, where the Treaty was to be obtained for 
 a penny. English diplomatic correspondence is generally of 
 a heavy description, but there are occasions upon which it 
 can become lively, that is, when it happens that in " making 
 up the policy of the Cabinet," there is incidentally a nation 
 to ci-ush, or an individual to insult. 
 
 The article in the Times -^ proceeded from " authority ;** 
 the Treaty was signed on the 8th; it appeared on the 11th, 
 and required at least two days for composition ; it did not 
 proceed from an Bmjlhli authority ; for while stamping the 
 responsibility on Lord Malmesbuiy it refers all the honour 
 and credit to others. It contains, moreover, details with 
 which tlie English Government could not have been ac- 
 quainted, and falsifications of which it could not be 
 guilty, f According to the Thms it is a truly British 
 Document, it is not only a Treaty, but it is one of native 
 manufacture. Inquiring one day in a shop for a travelling 
 bag of Russian leather, some domestic calf skin, slightly 
 perfumed, was offered for my admiration and acceptance: 
 demurring somewhat, the shopman haughtily replied : " Sir, 
 I warrant it ! " Thus it is .with the British public ; it must 
 accept as the occasion may be, a " warranted " bag, or a 
 
 • The article will be found in extemo at the end of the Chapter. 
 t For instance, it reuresents the Princess Louisa as granddaughter 
 of Frederick YI. 
 
TREATY OF AL\Y. 237 
 
 ** wan-anted " Treaty, from the tradesman of Bond Street, or 
 Printinir House Square. There is however this diflerence, 
 that it is equally difficult to obtain a bag that is Russian, and 
 a Treaty that is not. 
 
 This Article in the Times might appear to indicate a very 
 superfluous care for the enlightenment of the English Nation, 
 but in fact it was not to instruct England in respect to 
 Denmark, but to overawe Denmark in the name of England. 
 The sli])s of type, incomprehensible to the British public, 
 were to be the declaration of England's judgment, and the 
 exposition of her policy. Not a line appeared in any other 
 paper. AYell has a Russian diplomatist said, " The Press is 
 ■a Power which no intelligent Government will neglect ; " 
 with what ease is it wielded when one Monster Journal, like 
 Aaron's rod, has swallowed up all the rest. Now let us look 
 «t this Treaty. 
 
 It commences as a Treaty of Guarantee for the maintenance 
 of the " Integrity of the Danish Monarchy as connected with 
 the general interests of the balance of Power ; " solar the 
 countei*part of the Treaty of 1840 in respect to Turkey. Now 
 the maintenance of the Integrity of a country has no referenoe 
 to internal laws, but foreign aggression. In this there is no 
 Guarantee given for the Integrity thus introduced. The 
 Turkish Treaty of Integrity was to effect, as far as it could, 
 the hereditary Separation of Egypt and to sanction the occu- 
 pation of Constantinople by a Russian military force. The 
 Danish Treaty of Integrity is for the transfer of that Integrity 
 to Russia by the subversion of internal law. 
 
 It goes on to state that the means of securing this Inte- 
 gi'ity is by the devolution of the Crown " upon the Male 
 Line to the exclusion of Females:" that is, it abro- 
 gates the Lex Beg'ia. 
 
 ArtiC'.e first declares, that with the assent of the various 
 Cognates, and by their Renunciation?, the Crown is to 
 devolve upon Prince Christian of Gliicksburg. This is in 
 a breath admitting and denying the Lex Regia ; for though 
 the Tnncess Loui.sa and his descendants might come in by the 
 
238 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 renunciations of tiiose that stood before her, for which no 
 Treaty was required, her husband could not so come in. 
 But in the preamble the Male Succession is introduced to 
 the exclusion of Females, whilst Prince Christian is made to 
 renounce (in the letters of Eenunciation not presented to 
 Parliament) eveiy claim in his own right, and to acknow- 
 ledge that he comes in merely in virtue of the rights of 
 his wife. The Article then goes on to declare the Princess 
 Louisa to be " born a Princess of Hesse by order of Primo- 
 geniture from Male to Male,'' (What on earth has this to do 
 with the matter ?) and thereafter the Succession is to follow 
 the ^^ Issue Male in the direct Line " of this Marriage. 
 
 But why is Prince Christian necessary to secure the In- 
 tegiity of the Danish Monarchy ? What superiority has he 
 that he should be preferred before Prince Prederick, or the 
 others who stand above him ? What excellence is there in his 
 dii-ect Line that all behind it should be cut off ? Why should 
 a daughter, or a granddaughter of his be less qualified than 
 a son, or grandson, to wear a Crown, transmitted through a 
 female, and the integrity of whose possessions has been 
 secured by the care and wisdom of all Europe ? The mean- 
 ing of the Integiity is the supercession of Russia's Holstein 
 claims; those having been admitted, she drives her bar- 
 gain. Prince Christian suited her on account of these 
 various reasons which render the Treaty monstrous and con- 
 tradictory. By fixing on him she forces seven renunciations 
 from the Cognates, that of Princess Louisa included, and 
 cuts out the whole of the Agnates, who would come in after 
 her and before her husband as Cognates. She admits him 
 on the condition of excluding the Females and the indirect 
 branches of his own line, so that on their failure the whole 
 of the ascending and descending Lines are utterly excluded. 
 These are the grounds upon which the Protocol of Warsaw 
 asserts that the " Integrity of the Banish Monarchy can be 
 realised under no other consideration'' 
 
 But Prince Christian has to accept the Crown on condi- 
 tions the most extraordinary. He has fii'st to renounce all 
 
TREATY OF MAY. Sa9 
 
 right in his own person ; he has secondly to accept the office 
 merely as a delegation from his wife — a delegation in itself 
 illegal, since by the Lex Regia no princess mamed to a reign- 
 ing King can succeed. 
 
 He however contributes his share to the figment of con- 
 joint succession. Princess Louisa brings the inheritance 
 exclusive of Holstein ! Prince Christian brings the Ilolstein 
 inheritance ; but here again he is only a Locum tenens. 
 
 " What," says the Danish report, *' has been brought into 
 effect by this transaction ? His Majesty, the Emperor, has 
 deigned to transfer the exeecise of the rights which he 
 may have on Holstein to the Prince of Gliicksburg and his 
 male descendants."* Thus, in the person of Prince Chris- 
 tian of Gliicksburg, does Russia enter into virtual possession 
 of Denmark, not only by the power she has exercised through 
 her Allies in disposing of the crown at her good pleasure, 
 but, also, by the very terms on which that crown is to be 
 held, elaborately set forth in numerous acts of renunciation 
 reciprocally obtained from the very parties who are put in 
 possession, no less than from those who are excluded. 
 
 When in 1773, Russia first devised her renunciation in 
 favour of the male descendants of Frederick the Third, at 
 least no violence was done to the established order of succes- 
 sion ; yet the two renunciations are accepted as identical in 
 nature. By the one she bided her time, by the other she has 
 aeized it. 
 
 There is an old maxim, " crawl to get up, and stand when 
 you are on the top :" it is not, however, applicable to 
 Prince Christian. The hill-top to which he will ascend is 
 itself commanded, and it is depressed by his elevation. 
 Denmark, long sunk under the weight of protection, has, by 
 recent events, especially the war and the enormous debt 
 which it has entailed, and then by the Intervention been wiped 
 out from the number of independent States. But this is not 
 alL In all the adjustments, care has been taken to ensure 
 
 * Report, p. 33. ^ 
 
240 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 invalidity ; Pretenders can be raised up against him on every 
 field and on every principle. Russia holds tliem in leashes 
 in her right hand and in her left; and she can upset a 
 Dynasty of Copenhagen as easily as one of Paris. 
 
 By the second Article, the high contracting parties, on 
 the failure of the House of Gliicksburg, " engage to take into 
 consideration the further propositions which his Majesty the 
 King of Denmark may deem it expedient to address to them.'* 
 This King of Denmark will be the one so set up. While the 
 rights of inheritance are laid prostrate, the faculty of the 
 People of Denmark to dispose of itself in like manner 
 disappears.* 
 
 When I first advanced this view of tlie case, I was not 
 aware that the Ai'chivist of tlie Danish crown, the strenuous 
 advocate of the Treaty, in so far as regards the line of 
 Gliicksburg, went to the full extent of my objections on tliis 
 point. He says, " should Prince Christian and his sons die 
 -without male successors, who would then inherit ? no one is 
 alle to answer that question. Denmark would be disinherited 
 by the abolition of the Lex Eegia, Holstein would invite a 
 crowd of Pretenders — Augustenburg, Gliicksburg, Imperial 
 Russia, and Oldenburg Princes." 
 
 It is very possible that these Pretenders may arise, but 
 there is another possibility which comes first, and that is, 
 that Russia shall herself claim as Heir-general. As the 
 Gottorp line branches off from Prcderick I, that is to say 
 before the establishment in Denmark of Plereditary Right, 
 such a pretension might have little Aveight in a court of law; 
 but wdth this Treaty before us, it must be evident that in the 
 Coui't where this matter will have to be decided, the objection 
 
 * " We are not ignorant that tlie arguments wlncli may be drawn 
 from stri(!t right to prove that the election of a successor by concert. 
 of the Khig and the Danisli Diet, would in that alone be obhgatory on 
 the countries dependent on the Danish Crown. Hut these arguments 
 are not generally admitted, and above all it appears that the Govern.' 
 ment does not achnoioledge their force : it is therefore to be deskad 
 that they should never be advanced," — Heporf, p. 54. 
 
TKEATT OF MAY 341 
 
 will have none. Thus she resei-ves the threefold chance — 
 nomination to the Crown, Pretenders to be set np, and Heir* 
 ship'General ; to be used according to circumstances. 
 
 But before these comes another, which is a certainty. 
 Before the Treaty of the 8th of IMay, the Holstein claims 
 might as a last -resort have been disposed of by the 
 cession of the district ; now it cannot be got rid of, it 
 is a millstone fastened round Denmark's neck. All other 
 claims are abolished by Treaty, all other Succession in- 
 terdicted, all right of the Danish people to act for them- 
 selves destroyed; the Holstein claims alone maintain, ad- 
 mitted by Denmark, recognised by the Powers. When 
 then the Male Line now set up comes to be extinguished 
 by the course of nature, or the decree of fate, the Heir 
 to the fraction of Holstein will find himself Heir to the 
 entire monarchy, the maintenance of the Integrity of which, 
 as the Treaty tells us, is so intimately "connected with 
 the general interest of the balance of power in Europe," and 
 of such high " importance to the preservation of peace.'* 
 
 As was natural, this Treaty, which " stidtified " * the 
 Governments which signed it, produced a similar effect 
 upon the people for whom it was intended. The Danes, lost 
 in its contradictions, while crushed under its weight, vainly 
 endeavoured to fathom the purposes for which it was signed, 
 or to discover the principles upon which it proceeded: 
 to such a pitch did confusion rise, that the opposition in the 
 Diet was based upon the Treaty itself. The learned writer 
 to whom I have already referred, speaks as follows : — 
 
 " Neither this London Treaty, nor the Warsaw Protocol, 
 however little we may admire the pen of the publicist who 
 excogitated the latter, really contains anything which compels 
 the Government to throw up the succession for the kingdom 
 of Denmark according to LexRegia. The contracting Powers 
 
 * "This Treaty is a masterpiece j it has compromised and stul- 
 tified every Minister aud every Cabinet that has liad anything to do 
 with it. Thank God it was no work of mine !" — Words aftrthuled 
 to Lord Mahneshury. 
 
243 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 undoubtedly executed these Treaties under the suppositioa 
 that this law of succession would remain as before, only the 
 person of Prince Christian being temporarily and for the nonce 
 inserted. They could never dream of the Danish Government 
 in direct contradiction to the 'note* laid before them, wishing 
 to sacrifice the hereditary right of the Danish dynasty, and 
 thereby transfer all legitimate claims into the hands of the 
 Kussian Gottorp house. The contracting Powers are there- 
 fore justified in complaining that the unexpected plan now 
 laid before the Parliament constitutes a new Danish State* 
 right, one which they were by no means prepared to support 
 when they concluded the Treaty in question."* 
 
 He continues : — 
 
 " TJie abrogation of the Succession hy Lex Hegia moJces tks 
 House of Gottorp the sole legitimate ^rete^ider to Holstein : 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE ' INDIVI- 
 SIBILITY OF THE Monarchy ' enables this Pretendek 
 
 TO extend his claims TO THE "WHOLE OP THE DANISH 
 
 Kingdom. Could the Great Powers have signed a Treaty to 
 change first principles and make the Danish monarchy a 
 Eussian Gottorp secundo-geniture." 
 
 Up to the time that the Treaty was signed the questioa 
 was never mooted as to Eussia coming in as Heir- General, 
 or as succeeding to the whole in virtue of the fragment of 
 Holstein; the piece had been a travesty of Hamlet with 
 the part of the Prince of Denmark left out: there had. 
 therefore been no necessity to argue against an objection, 
 never raised ; in fact Hussia was heard of as renouncing 
 claims, not as advancing pretensions. It was not tDl after 
 the 8th of May that this view was presented, in this 
 country, in my own pamphlet, printed and circulated within 
 the same month, and towards the end of the year by Mr. 
 Wegener's pamphlet, circulated in the Copenhagen Diet. 
 These opinions gradually found their way to the public, 
 
 • C. F. Wegener's ' Defence ior the PuU Hereditary Eight/ p. 21. 
 
TIffiATY OF MAY. 24.3 
 
 iittised opposition in the Danish Diet, and created consider- 
 able alarm in influential quarters in this country; Russia 
 now found herself under the necessity of counteracting the 
 effect, and her manner of doing so is highly characteristic 
 of the power of secresy. Individuals have sought explana- 
 tions from the Eussian Representative, andj after having 
 received them have altered their tone. I speak not of soli- 
 tary instances; the very same words have been repeated at 
 remote points : — *' I can assure you, that after the Line of 
 Gliicksburg Russia tvill not come in." Pressed for expla- 
 nation, they have refused any; invited to state what it is 
 that is to prevent her coming in, or who it is that is to come 
 in in her stead, they have declined to open their lips. 
 
 The uninitiated will, no doubt, be startled by such a state- 
 ment; they may suppose that money is the argument in 
 such cases employed. No doubt money is there if necessary, 
 and in heavy sums too ; but that, I say it by no means to 
 the credit of the pai'ties concerned^ is seldom required. A 
 government that has an object is so entii-ely master of those 
 which have none, that it can work with the most trifling 
 means : it only can meet with intelligent opposition in the 
 case of an individual in a position of authority or influence, 
 who combines in his own mind the faculties, and has worked 
 out for himself the elements of knowledge which accrue to 
 her from the long operations of her system. Such incidents 
 must be exceedingly rare, if indeed they can be said in any 
 . case to be possible ; as well expect that a man, by natural 
 intuition, should be able to lay down a railway, as that a 
 European Statesman should be able to cope with a Russian 
 Diplomatist. The individuals to whom in the present case 
 I refer, when nnder the necessity of making a public declara- 
 tion, speak in this fashion : " The designs of Russia are very 
 alarming, and consequently all Europe ',is on the alert, so 
 that no apprehension need to be entertained that she wiU 
 be allowed to come in for Denmark :" the Danish minis- 
 ter expressed himself thus in the Diet. Such is the theme 
 
244 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 of tlie * rrtidrelandet,'* which plays at Copenhagen the part 
 of the ' Times.' 
 
 Mr. Wegener's pamphlet above quoted was made the 
 subject of a note from the Russian Government calling upon 
 Denmark to declare herself; to avow, if she entertained 
 them, her suspicions, or to punish the traducer. The 
 author was disavowed, and although not displaced from 
 his official situation, criminal proceedings have been takea 
 against him before the Courts. This, then, is the point 
 upon which Eussia dares not explain herself. Before 
 adverting to its solution I must notice two general maxims 
 enunciated in the Treaty. 
 
 The succession in England is Female as well as Male, and 
 so is by law the Succession in Denmark : why should England 
 
 * The day aftor my arrival at Copenhagen, that paper in a ve- 
 hement article, of which I got the credit, dwells on tliat feature 
 of the Testament of Peter the Great, which prepares the double 
 iiheritance for Russia of th6 Black Sea and the Baltic : it tells a story 
 of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary being constantly kept in 
 a travelling carriage and four horses waiting in tlie Palace Yard for 
 the moment when it is to start with the cortege of a Russian army 
 for Constantinople ; it continues : " With regard to the Sound, it is a 
 different busmess altogether. Here there are no religious groundsi* 
 Doubtful and mipopular hereditary claims are not possessed of the 
 power which religion exercises on popular passions. In the Sound 
 instead of Legends, there are but hereditary pretensions ; instead of 
 the Holy Virgin, we have but IIolstein-Grottorp ; and in the place 
 of the travelling carriage and four, the second article of the Treaty 
 of Loudon. More powerful agents will be required to render Den- 
 mark and the North, Russian. The remainder of Europe besides 
 ioill look with Jealousy on such mews on the part of the Czar; 
 the evidences of that jealousy are getting more numerous from day to 
 day (!) In the mean time it is well enough that we should all of 
 us watcli and pray lest we fall into temptation, and it is more 
 especially the bomiden duty of every Danish administration with 
 the utmost care to avoid even the semblance of a Russian Protec- 
 torsliip. It is by such means that Russian policy in our days, 
 like the Roman poUcy of old, encu'cles the minor states by ties, which 
 will in a short time cost them their independence." 
 
TREATY OF MAY. 245 
 
 adopt the principle of exclusive male Succession ? I put aside 
 for the present, the results, and I ask on what English prin- 
 ciple could this declaration be founded — does not a Queen 
 sit upon our throne ? On what Danish principle could it 
 be founded — is the Princess Louisa a male ? 
 
 What Interest has England in the Integrity of the Danish 
 Monarchy ? I speak not of the Holstein claims, but I ask 
 how, after proposing the separation of Schleswig into two 
 parts, and treating during three years the Duchies as 
 independent of the Succession of Denmark, you can sud- 
 denly proclaim the maxim of "Integrity?" Is this to be 
 accounted for by anything that has appeared? Even if 
 you had in nowise sanctioned the pretensions of the 
 Duchies, and if these pretensions were gi-oundless, what 
 right have you to interpose and decide the matter ?* Let 
 ns look at the case with the help of the map. Supposing 
 Eussia to extend her dominion, or her influence, over Den- 
 mark, then if the Duchies were separated, the present Canal 
 of the Eyder might be enlarged for the passage of sea-going 
 vessels, and not only would the controlling power of the 
 Sound be destroyed, but a channel opened, saving a cir- 
 cuitous navigation of nearly 400 miles ; it must, therefore, 
 be a primai-y object for England, from the moment that 
 the substantive independence of Denmark is perilled, to 
 separate from her the Duchies, f 
 
 • See note at the end of the chapter cm. the " Distinct Successioo 
 of Denmark and the Duchies." 
 
 t " The question of the Sound Dues is moi*c closely connected with 
 that of Succession in tlie Duchies than may be evident at first sight. 
 By the new Tariff of the ScUeswig-IIolsteiu Canal, to commence 
 from May 1, 1850, the number of articles subject to duty has 
 been reduced from 518 to 240. The preference can only be expected 
 to be given to the Canal passage, if the expenses of the latter, com- 
 pared with the Sound Dues, will hold out the prospect of a clear 
 saving to the shipowner and merchant. This reasoning will hold 
 good in the case of these parallel water communications being 
 placed under the control of two different governments, when the 
 Canal duty on the one hand, and the Sound duty on the other, will 
 
246 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Before you had mped out the intermediate Lines, before 
 you had limited the Gliicksburg Line itself, before you 
 had established the principle of " Integrity," you had, if 
 you interfered in the matter at all, one thing to do, and 
 it was the only intelligible object fen- the interference *©£ 
 Foreign powers, to obtain, or enforce, Russia's renun^ 
 ciation of her claims on Holstein. This was the bar— 
 the only bar to the union under the Cognatic Line, or to 
 the separation ; this was the only ground of Russia's inter- 
 ference, and consequently the only danger which it involved. 
 In 1773 the renunciation was made, but with a limit; in 
 1853 it is again made, and again -wdth a reserve. Why did 
 not the Powers require that it should be absolute? the 
 Transaction in 1773 was between Denmark and Russia 
 alone ; then there was no " additional pledge for the security 
 of the peace of Europe;" in 1852, this " additional pledge " 
 is a sanction to these groundless claims. ; 
 
 The claim, I say, is groundless, and if it were not, the 
 Powers had no right to admit it since they had not examined 
 it. If they interfere for "the peace of Europe" they cannot 
 proceed upon Denmark's voluntary submission. 
 
 It is groundless in feudal law, except as a claim upon the 
 whole Duchy of Holstein, which is not advanced. 
 
 If grounded, it is extinguished by compensation already 
 received. The renunciation of 1773 was purchased by a 
 Sea-et Treaty which gave to Russia the faculty of disposing of 
 the military and naval power of Denmark for her own 
 aggrandisement : this faculty has been exercised in a manner 
 to ensure that aggrandisement, and that not only at the 
 expense of others, but also at the expense of the territory 
 
 areciprocally act as a regulator upon eacli other. RiYal interests will 
 secure every facility to the public ; whereas, in the opposite case^ 
 any fui-ther reduction of the Sound dues would depend upon the 
 issue of the repeated negotiations, in which Eussia vrould once more 
 enhst on the side of Denmark j or to say more justly, of tliat clienfc 
 of hers whom she might have succeeded in raishig to the joint 
 dominion of the Kingdom and the Ducliies." — Pi-ofessor Wiirm to 
 liord Palmerston on the Schleswig-Holstein Question, p. 16-18. 
 
TREATY OF MAY. 247 
 
 and power of Denmark itself. It was first called into operation 
 when Gustavus III of Sweden was waging a successful war 
 against her in the north, and the Turks waging one which 
 might otherwise have issued favourably for them upon the 
 Dnieper. She made use of the Treaty to cause Denmark to 
 attack Sweden ; breaking the power of that State, she was 
 enabled to terminate the war in the east in a manner which 
 soon put her in possession of the Crimea and the Euxine. The 
 results were still more profitable in the north : the ai-med 
 Neutrality followed, the prostration of the Scandinavian 
 Kingdoms, the dominion of the Baltic, and finally the anni- 
 hilation of Denmark's maritime power by England's reta- 
 liation. These i-esults are permanent ; they are not offered 
 back, now that she resumes her right to a fragment of Hol- 
 stein by a new renunciation a thousand times more pro- 
 fitable than any possession. Let it be remembered that these 
 Hereditary claims of Eussia flow from an illegitmate 
 daughter of Peter I married to the heir of the line of 
 Gottorp, whose son ascended the Russian throne by a 
 revolution. 
 
 It may indeed be said that these consequences of the Secret 
 Treaty depended upon the possession of other means and their 
 use, and that if abiKty had been on the side of Denmark, and 
 inability on the side of Russia, as it might have been, the 
 Treaty would have borne no such fruits. I can admit to its 
 fullest extent the objection, and place the issue solely on the 
 next count. 
 
 She got Delmenhorst and Oldenburg conditionally on her 
 renunciation. On her resuming her claims they were to 
 revert to the Agnatic Line, or say, to Denmark. Can she 
 simultaneously use the renunciations and possess the equiva- 
 lent ? Was not this the point which the Powers had to 
 examine ; until they had decided upon it could they have 
 treated with her at all ? 
 
 •> In the negotiations not a word is dropped respecting the 
 grand Duchy of Oldenburg, it is ceded to her absolutely 
 by silence. If so, what claim can she have on Holstein f 
 
248 THE. DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Was there then any difficulty in treating for her renunciation, 
 leaving it even at her option to retain the one, or to retake the 
 other ? 
 
 But I am understating the case ; it is no longer a poi'tion 
 of Holstein, but Holstein altogether. In the three lleports 
 presented to the Diet on the 10th January, 1853, the expres- 
 sion of " portions of the Duchy of Holstein" is never intro- 
 duced except when speaking of the King of Denmark ; wheu 
 the claims of the Emperor are mentioned, it is as bearing 
 upon the " ancient Duchy-fief of Holstein." In reference to 
 the Grand Ducal portion acquired by the cession of 1773 this 
 expression occurs : ^'doubts piecail as to the validity of the 
 said right of inheritance, the pretensions of the Gottorp 
 Lines, and the Koyal Danish House being in conflict. It 
 w^ould appear, however, that the be?<t means to preserve 
 Holstein to the Monarchy is to renounce the pretensions of 
 the Eoyai House to this Duchy."* 
 
 Those at Copenhagen who dare to avow their apprehensions 
 say that, it is not the direct succession of Bussia that 
 they apprehend, but her dominating influence ; it is not her 
 flag flying at Elsineur, but her control in the councils of 
 the king whoever he might be. No doubt this is true, but 
 not as a prospective case ; this is already secured. What can 
 mean those multiplied arrangements, if Eussia contemplated 
 nothing more than an influence and a control ? She wants 
 possession; she has never stopped short of that, one hour 
 after she could obtain it. If the line of Glucksburg did, 
 as it is possible, come in and go out within the year, a 
 Eussian governor w^ould occupy Fredericksburg just as hd has 
 occupied Baktche-Serai, Teflis, and Warsaw. 
 
 The Treaty is, however, signed in total ignorance, and the 
 Administration which signed it, if it discovers gradually the 
 deceptions practised upon it, is at all events in that position, 
 which is rendered by the word, committed. It falls from 
 power, a new Ministiy comes in. They are no longer in the 
 dark ; now the eiTor will be retrieved, the fraud repudiated, 
 * Report of the Commission d. 41. 
 
TREATY OF MAY. 249 
 
 tlie infamous compact torn to shreds, and England released 
 from the chain of subserviency. Not in the least : they too 
 were committed by their acts — in opposition ; while free they 
 had not exposed it, bound (every man in the Foreign 
 Office is so), they must adopt it ; adopting it, conscious of its 
 character, they will pursue it with bitterness if not with 
 desperation : scarcely a milder term can be used when 
 they persevere after the knowledge that the Constitution of 
 Denmark is under the process of being crushed by successive 
 dissolutions, in order to force the acceptance of a Treaty 
 purporting to be only the acknowledgment of an internal and 
 spontaneous act. 
 
 But another circumstance has brought into evidence the 
 spirit, or rather the abjectness, of the new government. The 
 brother of the Duke of Augustenburg, like the father of 
 Peter III, has protested against a Treaty which deprived his 
 House of its rights. This protest has been rendered all the 
 more galling by being accompanied by ah offer to resign 
 eveiy claim, he being the last who held out, in case that 
 measures were taken to secure the Succession against Russia 
 on the failure of the Line of Gliicksburg : this was putting 
 the linger on the blot. After manifold endeavours to prevent 
 the protest by compromising the parties, the Foreign Minister 
 absolutely declared in Parliament that no protest had been 
 made. * 
 
 Lord Aberdeen has, however, one relief, and it is a standing 
 gi'ound — '* I have never said a word in favour of the Ti-eaty.** 
 Lord Aberdeen is always saddled with the can-ying of Treaties 
 which he will not approve, the responsibility of acts whicli he 
 repudiates, and the execution of proi)hecies which he never 
 made. He will not justify, but he will execute ; he will not 
 predict, but perform. He is the only survivor of the band of 
 spoilers who partitioned Denmark. In the next great 
 European event, the Treaty which led to the Battle of 
 
 * Lord John Eussell had stated tlmt it had been rccoived, but 
 refused to produce it, on the gi-ounds of " inconvenience to the public 
 ferviee." 
 
250 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Navarino, we see him reliearsing to the letter his performance 
 of to-day. The foUo^nng words were uttered in the House 
 of Lords, on the 19th of June, 1829. 
 
 " Marquis of Clanricarde — The noble Earl (Aberdeen) laid 
 great stress upon the fact of the Emj^eror of Eussia having 
 waived his rights as a belligerent in the Mediterranean, aa 
 afford'mg facilities for the execution of the Treaty of London 
 (6th July, 1827). All that we are yet acquainted with is, 
 that Turkey is in danger, and that the Emperor of Bussia 
 has broken his engagements with impunity," &c. &c. &c. 
 
 "Lord Aberdeen — It is quite enough for Government to 
 have it on their hands to execute the Treaty, without being 
 obliged to prophecy how it is to he executed, I have rieoer 
 given any opinion as to this Treaty.'* 
 
 " A first crime inoculates,'* says Machiavelli, *' an endless 
 series of uncontemplated crimes." A first heedlessness in 
 responsible station, instils in like manner a virus, wliich wiU 
 break out on all the members, and finally settle on the 
 heart ; — it may show itself, too, in morbid fortunes, and in 
 putrid fame. This is the least deplorable of its consequences; 
 should the secret disease invest itself with the halo of hectic 
 health, then the very air is polluted; and nations breathe the 
 infection. 
 
 The game is Kussian : the play, English : being upon the 
 same line, both must equally cultivate perfidy and cowardice 
 in the members of these devoted families ; the interest is 
 indeed more immediately English, it being the British minis- 
 ter who woidd be incommoded should there be found amongst 
 them honour or character. It is not to St. Petersburg!! that the 
 Tictims of persecution wiU rush : it is not the Nestor of 
 Eussian diplomacy whose equanimity will be shipwrecked 
 between the rocks of conscience and the shoals of ofiice ; it ia 
 not from his lips that mil distil the milk of sourness, or tlie 
 honey of insanity ; it is not the chief of the House of 
 Eomanoff who will have to writhe under a family insult, ot 
 to cower under a Cabinet incubus. On the banks of the 
 gelid Neva no scandalous exhibition will be made of heretical 
 
•TREATY OF MA^. i; 251 
 
 honesty, and impious worth. In the great temple of the 
 Sarraatiau Moloch nothing disturbs the solemnity of wor- 
 ship: secular cares devolve on the ministering priests of 
 the subsidiary chapel of Downing Street. 
 
 How do you stand with your allies in this compact as to 
 matters of business ? You have protested against tlie viola- 
 tion of the Treaty of Vienna in Cracow : your Minister has 
 authoritatively announced another violation of the Treaty of 
 Vienna, by the establishment of the Russian quarantine at the 
 mouths of the Danube : the same power has violated the 
 Treaty of the 6th of July, 1827, by forcing from Turkey 
 tlie surrender of that island upon which the quarantine is 
 established. I restrict myself to these three infractions ot 
 public law by the Government who has proposed to you thia 
 Treaty, and I ask if this and similar acts are not the legiti- 
 mate consequence of holding any relations whatsoever with 
 that Government ? If uo Treaty can or does in law or right 
 exist between Russia and England, in consequence of her past 
 acts, can any Treaty which you now enter into with her be 
 more valid than these violated compacts ? And what is to 
 be said of the men who continue undisr such cii'cumstances to 
 treat with her ? When Catherine II proposed a new Treaty 
 to Kien Lung, his Mantchu Majesty replied, " Let her learn 
 first to observe the old." But, alas, when she turns her 
 face to the setting sun, she catches no Tartars. 
 
 But there is stiU one hope — a lingering hope which has 
 clung to me through disheartening vicissitudes. Every con- 
 stitution in its foundation has possessed an original germ 
 and fibre ; and decay, or its equivalent — mismanagement, 
 results not so much from the introduction of evQ novelties 
 as from the obscuration of its inherent light, and the dis- 
 turbance of its severally balancing and compensating, func- 
 tions. The suppressed element in our present state is the 
 Regal one : still it subsists ; it may be evoked. This is no 
 ^lypothesis j on two signal occasions within a couple of 
 j^^ fWe haijeseen. the Prerogatiye exerted, once in the 
 
252 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 appointment of a Ministry''; once by the coercion of the 
 Foreign Department. } 
 
 In the first case (the second in point of time), the Minister 
 to whom the important experiment was entrusted, failed to 
 perceive its bearing, and consequently the means of its 
 execution. I refer, however, to the fact, not to the failure. 
 In the second, something more was revealed than power 
 latent in the Crown ; there was also manifested ability and 
 courage in the Sovereign. The Queen had detected, even in 
 matters within her own knowledge, that she had been over- 
 reached by the Minister, up to that time lier sole guide and 
 instructor. 
 
 On this she negotiated with the Chief Minister to obtain 
 that she should no longer be exposed to deception by his 
 subordinate. On the repetition of the offence, that subordi- 
 nate was excluded from the Cabinet, and the Queen required 
 (for the fiict could not otherwise have occurred) the Prime 
 Minister to produce in Parliament the document consigning 
 the previous compact.* The people of this country might 
 then have learned that in the Crown they possessed a check 
 upon faction, and in the Queen a defence against malversa- 
 tion. The experiment again failed ; again has that Minister 
 been forced upon the Crown by colleagues who, in excluding 
 
 * "The Queen requires, first, that Lord Palmerston will dis- 
 tinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order that tlie Queen 
 may know as distinctly to what She is giving Her Royal Sanction. 
 Secondly, that having once given Her sanction to a measure, that it 
 be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the minister. Such an act 
 She must consider as failing in sinceiity towards the Crown, and 
 justly to be visited by the exercise of Her Constitutional riglit of 
 dismissing that minister. She expects to be kept informed of what 
 passes between him and the Foreign Ministers before important de- 
 cisions are taken, based upon that intercourse ; to receive the Foreign 
 despatches in good time ; and to have the draughts for Her approval 
 sent to Her in sufficient time to make Herself acquainted witli their 
 contents before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it better 
 that Lord Jolm RusseU shoidd show tliis letter to LordPalmerstoji." 
 — Read in the House of Commons, by Lord Jolin Eussell, Februarf 
 3d, 1852. 
 
TREATY OF MAY. 25S 
 
 hiin from the Foreign Department, avow their conciin-ence 
 with the Queen in their judgment of his character.* But 
 again I refer to the fact and not to the experiment. 
 
 Now, this Minister is the man who phnnned the Treaty of 
 the 8th of May, without whose concerted activity or mea- 
 sured inaction, neither coukl Denmark have been compro- 
 mised against the Duchies, nor the Duchies against Denmark, 
 Prussia and Germany involved in the war, or the war itself 
 prolonged until the occasion was afforded for that restoration 
 of the *' Integrity of the Monarchy " which we have before us. 
 Is it to be supposed that these transactions had no share in 
 the judgment and act of the Queen ? is it safe for a subse- 
 quent Minister to pursue a scheme planned imder such 
 auspices, to the persecution and downfall of Princes of the 
 House of Guelph, and no less connected with her Majesty by 
 the ties of blood, than England is connected with them by 
 those of interest ? 
 
 What, if it did apply, would be the value of the argument — 
 "Sanctity of Treaties." With what wonder would such 
 words, issuing from the lips of an English Minister, be lis- 
 tened to by the Rajahs of India, the Ameers of Scinde, the 
 chieftains of Affghanistan, the Shahs of Persia, tlie nobles of 
 Poland, and the burghers of Cracow. Shall the Dukes and 
 Princes of the Baltic receive as a holy word tliat which the 
 rest of the world knows to be a lie ? Or are they treated 
 exceptionally, not being barbarians. Yes ! there barbarism 
 — here civilization, justifies perfidy. England is equally dex- 
 terous at keeping and at breaking words — breaking that fairly 
 pledged in honour, keeping that filched from her by fraud ; 
 but true iii botli to a simple rule — tlie service of the Czar. 
 
 Russia is a monster that devours ; but it is one also which 
 
 • " Where lie is, he can do no harm ;" sucli is the consolation of 
 his colleagues, when they hare resigned to liim the Post Oinco, 
 tlirongh the instnimentulity of wliieh, even when not direct!} under 
 his control, he obtained in fornjer years tlie exclusion, or " descent," 
 of Lord Grey from ofliee. But wherever that minister is, he must 
 of necessity become everj-tlung. ^^ 
 
2^54 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 exists only by its voracity. Around its den it has thinnedr 
 the hunting grounds, and it has long remained with spring 
 too short to reach, and growl too iierce to allure. It then 
 got keepers, who, in dread of being devoured themselves, 
 began to foray for its wants. Of those keepers^ the indivi- 
 duals called " Foreign Ministers" in England have been the 
 most venturesome and persevering. "What now is to be 
 done with the monster ?" exclaims the simple and agitated 
 mind. The answer is easy: starve it; cease to heap its 
 trough with lacerated laws — cease to cast fractured scepi-res 
 and diadems into its sty, and, like the wolf, it will die in 
 silence. 
 
 The plains of Europe have been ensanguined to bar 
 heraldic claims, affecting a German fortress or an Italian 
 dukedom ; the case never arose of a union through Here- 
 ditary succession, of powerful kingdoms. Since the time 
 of Charlemagne (that is to say, in the course of a thousand 
 years), the prospect of such an event has presented itself but 
 once, and that prospect, centimes before the contingency 
 could occur, moved all Europe as by a present dauo-er, 
 namely, the testament of Charles III. ,'r],)^ -i{^ 
 
 England, though discomfited in the war whieh ensued, and 
 forced to recognise Philip Y as King of Spain, still refused 
 to lay down arms until he on his side, and the King of 
 Erance upon the other, renounced every claim which the 
 descendants of either might have to inherit simultaneously 
 the two Crowns. This was carried into effect, not by, a 
 Treaty between England, Holland, and Austria, but by le^al 
 mstrunmits executed hy these MonurcJis, and confirmed by the 
 Cortes of Castile. These acts are recorded and incorporated 
 in the Treaty of Utrecht, their validity does not depend upon 
 any national stipulation ; and although the Treaty of Utrecht 
 has lapsed by incidents these denunciations are as binding 
 as on the day on which they were signed. 
 
 Judging by events, so far from concluding the convictions 
 of Europe in this respect weakened within.a.centmyand. » 
 half, we must infer them to have been strengthened, . Onl/ 
 
NOTES. -2S5 
 
 eax years ago when the power of Spain had ceased to be 
 alarming, and after the hereditary principle had been swept 
 away in France, Europe was all but plunged in a war (the 
 dynasty in France was upset) by the marriage of a princess 
 of Spain to a junior son of Louis Philippe, because it was 
 supposed that that alliance miglit invalidate the non-existing 
 Treaty of Utixjcht. 
 
 Here then is the precedent for the course to be pursued in 
 reference to Denmark. If Russia has no designs, there can 
 be no difficulty in obtaining such a renunciation ; if there be 
 difficulty, then is the necessity proved. But having obtained 
 her enfeoffment of the Sound she keeps the attention of 
 Europe fully occupied about the keys of the Church of Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 Note I. 
 
 MOTIVES OF ENGLAND IN ACCEDING TO 
 
 RUSSIA'S PROPOSALS. 
 
 (See p. 235.) 
 
 Trom tJve ^Weser Zeitung* April, 1853. 
 
 Never has Denmark been in more absolute dependence 
 upon Russia than at present, and in such rapid downward 
 progress from the summit of imaginary success. Count 
 Reventlow, the active Minister of Denmark in London, had 
 long been preparing the first London Protocol, in which the 
 Integrity of the Danish Monarchy was pointed out as a 
 thing to be wished; Russia was seconding, England was 
 tem]X)rising ; and Pmssia at that time kept so far aloof, that 
 the Chevalier Bunsen, on August 1, 1850, even handed a 
 note of protest to Lord Palmerston. Russia availed herself 
 of tlie confusion brought about in the Pii-ajus by Lord 
 Palmerston and of the favour shown by him to M. Pacifico, 
 to instnict M. Brunnow to demand his passport. Lord 
 Palmerston, apparently surprised, demanded whether there 
 was not any means of adjusting the difference. To be sure, 
 ■was tke reply, — the signature of the London Protocol. That 
 
256 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 mgnature was given, — a'iid this was the first triumph of Russia, 
 In enacting the bully against diminutive Greece, Lord Pal- 
 merston became the instrument througli which on the Baltic 
 the dominion of Eussia was increased and established more 
 firmly. But Paissia was a gainer — not on the Baltic only, 
 but also in Greece and Turkey. * * * On the 23d of 
 August, 1850, the Austrian Plenipotentiary joined the Pleni- 
 potentiaries of Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ptussia, 
 Sweden, and Norway. His accession, it is true, contained a 
 reservation of tlie rights of the German Confederation ; but 
 these rights had already been most deeply violated by the 
 very fact of the Protocol. 
 
 Extract from " A Protest against tlte Theory of the Danish 
 Collective Monarchy, and against the attempt at realising it 
 hy means of the Treaty of the Wt, of May, 1852. Manheim, 
 1852. Attributed to lleinrich von Gagern: — 
 (See p. 255.) 
 
 Denmark, Eussia, and France had, from 1846, been 
 active in urging the institution of the Collective Monarchy. 
 In the spring of 1850, a favourable conjuncture had arisen, 
 which Eussia was the first to perceive, in the unfortunate 
 division of the German Powers ; secondly, in the disgust of 
 the English Ministry at the long delay of the negotiations of 
 peace at Berlin ; and last, not least, in the personal embar- 
 rassment of Lord Palmerston, whose ministerial position had 
 been endangered. 
 
 In consequence of the intervention of England against 
 Greece, in behalf of the sordid claims of a M. Pacifico, a 
 pscudo Englishman, resident at Athens, and generally speak» 
 ing, in consequence of the extent to which England, under 
 Lord Palmerston's giddance, thought itself warranted to carry 
 the support given to Englishmen in foreign parts, England 
 had got into so serious a scrape with Eussia, that the Eus- 
 sian Ambassador in London had, in solemn indignation, 
 announced his expected recall. At the same time. Lord 
 Palmerston's foreign policy had been in Parliament submitted 
 to severe criticism, and at the close of the debate the ministe- 
 rial majority was so small that the victory was almost equi- 
 valent to a defeat. Some diplomatic access, to assuage the 
 Tories, the adjustment of that difference, and an apparent 
 
NOTES. 257 
 
 reconciliation with Russia, was under such circumstances 
 what Lord Pahnerston could not do without if he wanted to 
 remain at the helm. 
 
 The accession of England to that Protocol was the first 
 desideratum, and Lord Palmerston, under the circumstances, 
 had declared himself ready to sign, thereon Brunnow pre- 
 feiTcd to accept the satisfaction demanded by Russia in the 
 shape of the signature by the English Minister of the Proto- 
 col, in preference to his departure from London, 
 
 After the readiness of Lord Palmerston had been intimated, 
 the thing was delayed for several weeks, ostensibly in conse- 
 quence of some modifications proposed by England, which, 
 without neutralizing the poison of the nut, were intended to 
 soften somewhat the taste of the shell, and which at last 
 were agreed upon without any great difficulty. That it 
 would oppose, that not only the draught of the Protocol, but 
 the plan itself had been kej^t as a perfect mystery from Prussia, 
 and even from Austria, until withhi a few days previous to 
 the first conference. Tlie foreign powers appear to have been 
 conscious that the German powers, as representatives of the 
 German Confederation, could not in honour have signed a 
 Protocol wliich was exclusively calculated to injure that Con- 
 federation in all and any claims and rights which had proved 
 tlie object of the negotiations, and of the war, a war, in 
 which Germany had not been vanquished, and could not 
 tiierefore have lost the object at stake. 
 
 At last, in July 4, 1850, a Conference was summoned 
 together in order to come to an agreement on the Protocol, 
 arid to this conference were the representatives of Austria 
 and Prussia invited in their turn. 
 
 It must, however, be granted, that the Protocol was but of 
 trifling signification compared with the Treaty of May 8, 
 1852, the signatures of which, on the part of England, 
 Lord Palmerston has not officially to account for. 
 
 The main points of difference are the following : — 
 
 1st. The Protocol of June 2, 1850, in its first article, 
 merely conveys the unanimous desire of the powers, which the' 
 present status gave of the possessors of the Danish Crown 
 may be maintained in its integrity, whereas by article 2d of 
 the Treaty of May 8, 1852, ^q principle oi the "integrity of 
 the Danish Monarchy" is laid down and recognised as a per- 
 manent one. 
 
 2d. The Protocol of June 2, 1860, in its 2d article, does 
 
 9 
 
258 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 not actually alter the right of succession in Denmark and in 
 Schleswig-Holstein, as it is announced to have been altered by 
 article 1 of the Treaty of May 8, 1852 ; but it is only declared 
 to be a very wise view of the King of Denmark to intend to 
 alter the succession in the Royal Dynasty, in order to facilitate 
 those measures, by means of which the Danish Monarchy may 
 eventually be kept together. 
 
 At all; events. Lord Palmerston, in signing the Protocol of 
 June 2, 1850, was Vidmg contrary to the duty of England and 
 contrary to the honour of a statesman; for, while that was 
 going on in London, England was still enacting the part of 
 Tiiediator at Berlin, and the negotiations for peace, which only 
 attained this conclusion on July 2, 1850, the Conference taking 
 place in London on July 4th, before that event (the signature 
 of the peace of Berlin) could be known in London. If the part 
 of a mediator is to be exempt from the character of per- 
 fidiousness, it presupposes a certain degree of impartiality. 
 
 Note II. 
 
 TREATY RELATIVE TO THE SUCCESSION OF THE 
 GROWN OF DENMARK. 
 
 Signed at London^ May 8, 1852. 
 [Ratifications exchanged at London^ June 19, 1852.] 
 
 In the name op the Most Holt and Indivisible 
 Trinity. 
 
 Preamble. Her Majesty the Queen of the United King- 
 dom of Great Britain and Ireland, His Majesty the Emperor 
 of Austria, King of Hungaiy and Bohemia, the Prince Presi- 
 dent of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of 
 Prussia, His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, and 
 His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, taking into 
 consideration that the maintenance of the integ-rity of the 
 Danish Monarchy, as connected with the general interests of 
 the balance of power in Europe, is of high importance to 
 the preservation of peace, and that an arrangement by which 
 the succession to the whole of the dominions now united 
 imder the sceptre of His Majesty the King of Denmark, 
 should devolve upon the male line, to the exclusion of females. 
 
NOTES, J59 
 
 would be the best means of securing the integrity of that 
 Monarchy, have resolved, at the invitation of His Danish 
 Majesty, to conclude a Treaty, in order to give to the 
 arrangements relating to such order of succession, an ad- 
 ditional pledge of stability by an act of European acknow- 
 ledgment. 
 
 Article I. After having taken into serious consideration 
 the interests of his Monarchy, His Majesty the King of 
 Denmark, with the assent of His Eoyal Highness the 
 Hereditary Prince, and of his nearest cognates, entitled to 
 the succession by the Royal Law of Denmark, as well as in 
 <x)ncert with his Majesty the Emperor of all the Eussias, 
 Head of the elder branch of the House of Holstein- 
 Gottorp, having declared his wish to regulate the order of 
 succession in his dominions, in such manner that, in default 
 of issue male in a direct line from King Frederick III 
 of Denmark, his Crown should devolve upon his Highness 
 the Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg- 
 Gliicksbourg, and upon the issue of the marriage of that 
 Prince with her Highness the Princess Louisa of Schleswig- 
 Holstein-Sonderbourg-Gliicksbourg, born a Princess of 
 Hesse, by order of Primogeniture, from male to male ; the 
 High Contracting Parties, appreciating the wisdom of the 
 views which have determined the eventual adoption of that 
 arrangement, engaged by common consent, in case the con- 
 templated contingency should be realized, to acknowledge in 
 His Highness the Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein- 
 Sonderbourg-GlUcksbourg, and h\s issue male in the direct 
 line by his marriage witii the said Princess, the right of 
 tucceeding to the whole of the dominions now united under 
 the sceptre of His Majesty the King of Denmark. 
 
 Article IL The High Contracting Parties, acknowledg- 
 ing as permanent the principle of the integrity of the Danish 
 Monarchy, engage to take into consideration the further pro- 
 positions which His Majesty the King of Denmark may deem 
 it expedient to address to them, in case (which God forbid) the 
 extinction of the issue male, in the dii-ect line, of His High- 
 ness the Prince Christian of Scldeswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg- 
 Gliicksbourg, by his marriage with Her Highness the 
 Princess Louisa of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg-Gliicks- 
 bourg, born a Princess of Hesse, should become imminent. 
 
 Article HI. It is expressly understood that the reciprocal 
 fights and obligations of His Majesty the King of Denmark, 
 
2G0 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 and of the Germanic Confederation, concerning the Duchies 
 of Holstein and Lauenberg, rights and obligations established 
 by the Eederal Act of 1815, and by the existing Federal 
 right, shall not be affected by the present Treaty. 
 
 Article IV. The High Contracting Parties reserve to 
 themselves to bring the present Treaty to the knowledge of 
 the other Powers, and to invite them to accede to it. 
 
 Aeticle V. The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the 
 ratifications shall be exchanged at London at the expiration 
 of six weeks, or sooner if possible. 
 
 In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have 
 signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their 
 arms. 
 
 Done at London, the eighth day of May, in the year of 
 Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 
 
 (l.s.) Malmesbuey. (l.s.) Bille. 
 
 (l.s.) Kubeck. 
 
 (l.s.) a. Walewski. 
 
 (l.s.) Bunsen. 
 
 (l.s.) Brunnow. 
 
 (l.s.) Kehausen. 
 
 Note III. 
 
 AETICLE OF THE TIMES, MAY 11, 1853. 
 
 (See p. 236.) 
 
 It is a fortunate circumstance for the Earl of Mahnesbury 
 that, mthin the short period that he has held the seals of the 
 Foreign Office, he has already had the opportunity of signing 
 a Treaty with all the great Powers which restores peace to an 
 important part of Northern Europe, secures the integrity of 
 the Danish monarchy, 'd.'ii^iL provides upon a safe basis and by 
 an ecpitable compromise, for the eventual succession to that 
 Croicn. But, in fact, this question had been so fully consi- 
 dered for the last few years, and the negotiations had already 
 been so actively carried on in all parts of Europe, that, upon 
 the arrival of M. de Bille, the Danish Plenipotentiary, in 
 London, nothing remained to be done by the Conference 
 but to complete its work by signing the instruments already 
 agreed upon. This act was concluded on Saturday, the 8th 
 of May, at the Foreign Office, and, as the Treaty was imme- 
 diately forwarded to Copenhagen for ratification, it may now 
 
NOTES. 261 
 
 be considered that every part of this harassing controversy is 
 brought to a close, and that the future peace of the country 
 is secured, while the causes of past irritation and hostility are 
 removed. For nearly six years the question of the Danish 
 succession in the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein has dis- 
 turbed the tranquillity of Northern Europe, for it Avas in 1846 
 that the late King of Denmark published his letters patent on 
 the order of inheritance in the Duchies. But the train had 
 long before been laid by the intrigues of the Augustenburg 
 family, and the explosion was greatly assisted by the convul- 
 sions which soon afterwards took place in Germany, followed 
 by the temporary ascendancy of revolutionary principles at 
 Frankfort and Berlin. We need scarcely remind our readers, 
 that throughout the chances and perils of this difficult period, 
 WE neve7' despaired for an instant of a cause which was sup- 
 ported by the whole authority of public law, and defended by 
 the spirit of the Danish people. The odds against them were 
 overwhelming, but right has prevailed. Denmark owes her 
 success to no Foreign Power, for throughout the contest she 
 received no active military or naval succour. But she had 
 tlie goodwill and the respect of Europe ; she was upheld by 
 public opinion, to which, we trust, we may have in some de- 
 gi'ee contributed ; and when at length Lord Palmerston loas 
 induced to lay down the principles which were established on 
 the 2d of August, 1850, by the Protocol of London, the 
 rights of Denmark were saved. 
 
 It will be remembered that the cause of this dispute was, 
 tJiat in the probable event of the failure of issue to the eldest 
 male line now reigning in Denmark, the several dominions of 
 that Crown icould pass, according to different laws of succes- 
 sion, and the monarchy would consequently have been divided. 
 Denmark Proper would have descended through a female 
 branch to the Princes of Hesse Cassel ; Holstein would have 
 followed the strict line of male succession, because it was a 
 fief of the German Empire ; and the succession of Schleswig 
 was disputed, one party contending that it followed the 
 descent of the Crown of Denmark, the other that it was in- 
 dissolubly united to Plolstein. To meet these difficulties, the 
 course which has noio been successfully adopted was to select 
 one scion of the Royal family as its common heir; to obtain 
 renunciations of the conflicting and collateral interests of aU 
 other parties, and to place the whole of these arrangements 
 under tJie collective sanction of Europe. The next heir to the 
 
262 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Crown of Denmark, in the event of the King*^s demise without 
 issue, is His Majesty's uncle, Ferdinand, a Prince of sixty 
 years of age, manied, and likewise without issue. On his 
 death it is presumed that the reigning line will become 
 extinct. The present Treaty, therefore, recognises as the 
 next heir after him Prince Christian, of the line of Sonder- 
 hurg Gliicksbourg, who is married to Princess Louise of 
 Hesse Cassel, a grayid-daugJder of King Frederick VI of Ben- 
 mark (!), by the eldest daughter of that Sovereign, who 
 became the wife of Landgi-ave William of Hesse. The issue 
 of the marriage of Prince Christian and the Princess Louise 
 of Hesse consists of four children, the eldest a boy about 
 nine years old ; and this young Frince, therefore, represents 
 both the male and the female line of succession to the Kingdom 
 and the Duchies, though not in i\\Q first degree. The line of 
 Augustenburg is senior to the line of Sonderburg Gliick^ 
 bourg, but it is attainted for the part it took in the late con- 
 test, which was mainly fomented by those Princes in order 
 to secure and extend their own excltisive pretensions hy the dia- 
 fneniberment of the Banish monarchy. The Duke of Augus- 
 tenburg has, therefore, forfeited his rights, and stands excluded 
 from the amnesty ; but an arrangement has now, we believe, 
 been concluded between him and the King of Denmark, by 
 which his estates in the Duchy of Sclileswig are to be pur- 
 chased at a high valuation, and the proceeds will suffice to 
 provide liberally for his subsistence and station. No further 
 difficulty is, therefore, to be apprehended in that quarter, and 
 it is comparatively immaterial whether his renunciation Juts 
 taken place. But the elder members of the Hessian branch 
 had undoubted rights to the Crown of Denmark, which they 
 have honourably renounced in favour of the husband and 
 children of the Princess Louise, without exacting any com* 
 pensation. The Emperor of Russia, as representative of the 
 line of Holstein Gottorp, had rights on one portion of the 
 Ihichy of Holstein ; for the act of cession, confirmed, and 
 executed by the Grand Duke Paul, on his coming of age, in 
 1773, was exclusively in favour of the male line reigning in 
 Denmark, and in the event of the extinction of the male 
 line that renunciation so made by the father of the. present 
 Emperor Nicholas would have become null and void. Far 
 from showing any eagerness to avail himself of this circumr- 
 stance to acquire a preponderating influence in that part 
 of Fkrope, it is dus to the Court of Eussia to state iJuxi 
 
NOTES. fi€8 
 
 i%ey have never attempted to sacrifice the general welfare of 
 ike Danish monarchy to any petty interest, and that the Em- 
 peror has been constantly foremost in promoting this negotia- 
 tion, of which a renewal of his father's cession of all claims 
 on Holstein/or«z5 an essential part. Throughout this trans- 
 action Russia has acted with great judgment (!) and good 
 faith, and, althougli her own interests are deeply involved in 
 all that concerns the entrance to the Baltic, she has sought 
 to gain no advantage for herself, but simply to strengthea 
 and preserve the independent rights of Denmark. In like 
 manner France, under the successive Governments of Louis 
 Philippe, Lamartine, Cavaignac, and Louis Napoleon, has 
 pursued the same frank and consistent line of conduct 
 towards Denmark. The difficulties came, as is well known, 
 from the side of Germany, for this question was curiously 
 intermingled with the political passions of the time, and the 
 8ong of ^^ Schlesicig-Holstein mecrumschhmyun" was for 
 many months the qa ira of the German revolution. At 
 length, however, tlte restoration of the legitimate federal 
 authority in Frankfort terminated the hostilities in the Duchies : 
 and, in spite of. the scorn and resentment with which our 
 announcement of the Danish Protocol of 1850 was received; 
 in Germany, when the Prussitm Envoy in London declined 
 to "sign that document, we have noio great satisfaction in re- 
 cording the fact, that all differences of opinion between the 
 great Powers have disappeared, and that Chevalier Bunsen. 
 himself \i?is placed his name by the side of the Plenipo- 
 tentiaries of all the other Powers in this final arrangement ! 
 We may, therefore, now invoke his high testimony to the 
 soundness of the policy which that Protocol was intended to 
 establish ; and if any sacrifices have been made by Prussia 
 before she amved at that conclusion, we sincerely hope that 
 she may be rewarded for them by the establishment of a 
 cordial alliance between herself and Denmark, whose geogra- 
 phical position and maritime power make her a neighbour of 
 the utmost value to tlie Prussian dominions. Upon the whole, 
 tliis Treaty is another proof that in spite of the most serious 
 obstacles and the most violent passions, the active, intelligent, 
 and pacific diplomacy of our day does contrive to avert the 
 calamities of general war, and even when hostilities are 
 raging, to confine them, as far as possible, within a narrow 
 compass ! In any other age, it is highly probable that the 
 Danish struggle would have led to far more formidable 
 
264 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 results (!) and, although it was too long protracted, because 
 vigorous means were not early employed to check it, the termi- 
 nation of the whole negotiation proves that the great Powers 
 will see justice done and peace preserved. 
 
 (Whilst the correspondence, amounting to thousands of 
 folios, was passing between the Governments, not a whisper 
 reached the public of any plan for altering the succession of 
 Denmark. So soon as the matter is concluded the Article 
 appears : no other paper has a word upon the sul)ject. If 
 any body does give it a moment's consideration, it is to 
 console himself with the belief that this Treaty has " restored 
 peace to Denmark," and "removed the causes of past irrita- 
 tion.") 
 
 Note IV. 
 
 DISTINCT SUCCESSION OF DENMAEK AND 
 THE DUCHIES. 
 
 (See page 245.) 
 
 The male succession in the Ducliies, wliether mediate or 
 immediate, has always been assumed up to the negotiations 
 ending in the Treaty of May; amongst the documents 
 presented to the Danish Diet, there is an argument against the 
 Agnatic Succession : but the matter has never been brought to 
 any judicial or diplomatic solution. In the Treaty of May, the 
 question is wholly evaded, and the Agnatic Line is passed 
 over without mention, whether as to claims upon the 
 Duchies, or as to Cognatic claims upon Denmark ; it may, 
 therefore, be desirable to point out the documents, containing 
 the data, requisite for a decision. 
 
 In 1232, the Duchy of Schleswig appears as a Hereditary 
 Male Eief of the Crown of Denmark. 
 
 In 1326, an investiture took place, in express terms as an. 
 Hereditary Eief by tenure of Knight service, the Domiuhim 
 directum and utile, being vested in the Court, the J)o?uinitmi 
 supremum being alone reserved to the Crown. 
 
 In 1459, the Duchy reverted to the Crown as an Escheat 
 on failure of right heirs of Duke Athol. 
 
NOTES. 265 
 
 In 1460, the right of electing a Duke and Count from 
 amongst the heirs of Chnstian the First was established. 
 
 In 1553, stipulations were entered into, fixing the means 
 of adjustment by Arbitration, in cases of dift'erences arising 
 between the Crown of Denmark and the Duchies. 
 
 In 1570 and 164.2, Imperial diplomas for the counties of 
 Oldenburg and Delmenhorst to the Danish Kings and the 
 Dukes of Ilolsteiu, with reversion to their Agnates. 
 
 In 158-0, the division took place into Eoyal and Ducal, or 
 Gottorp portions. 
 
 In 1581, a partition of the succession of John Duke of 
 Schleswig and of Holstein Avas made between Frederick the 
 Second and Adolph, Duke of Schlcswig-Holstein, by Arbi- 
 tration of the Elector of Saxony. 
 
 In 1608, Duke John Gottorp, with the sanction of Christian 
 the Fourth, as Suzerain of Schleswig, entailed the succession 
 in the Gottorp portion upon his eldest male heir in right of 
 primogeniture. 
 
 In 1610, Frederick the Third established an analogous 
 family statute for the Royal portion. 
 
 In 1636, Defensive Treaty between Christian the Fourth 
 and Frederick Duke of SchlesAvig-IIolstein. 
 
 In 1658, the Treaty of Copenhagen, sanctioned by the 
 Danish Senate, ceded the Sovereignty over the Gottoi-p portion 
 of the Duchy of Schleswig to the Duke of (Holstein-Gottorp) 
 and granted a diploma of Sovereignty by which the Duke and 
 his male descendants were released from all feudal obligations 
 as vassals of Denmark, and the Sovereignty was ceded to 
 them. The King at the same time ceded to himself as Lord 
 of the Royal Duchies of Schleswig the Sovereignty over it, 
 with an express reservation of the reversionary interests of 
 the Crown of Denmark in the Duchies npon the extinction of 
 the respective Male Lines. The cession of the Sovereignty 
 was then limited to the mole descendants of the Duke, so 
 that the Fief was not abolished, but the sovereignty sub modo 
 transferred. The King of Denmark, however, had no power 
 whatever over the Sovereignty. 
 
 In 1660, the succession to the Ci'own of Denmark, which 
 was till then elective, became hereditary in the male and 
 female descendants of Frederick III, subsequently regidated 
 by the Lex Regia in 1665. 
 
 This change in the succession to the Crown of Denmark 
 could only allect the succession in the Sovereignty of the 
 
266 TPIE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 Duchy of Schleswig as far as it followed the succession to the 
 Crown of Denmark. 
 
 It might in accordance with the Lex Eegia descend to 
 females, although the succession in the Lordship might stiU 
 be governed by the Feudal Law. 
 
 In 1721, the re-union of the Gottorp Duchy with the Eoyal 
 Duchy of Schleswig took place, and formal homage to the Kin^ 
 of Denmark as sovereign, Lord Paramount of the Duchy, was 
 rendered " Secundum tenorum legis regias." It is a serious 
 question whether the Royal and Gottorp portions of the Duchy 
 were then united as one allodial Duchy with the kingdom of 
 Denmark, so as to become subject to the same lawof Hereditary 
 Succession, or whether the Gottorp portion was merely re- 
 incorporated with the Royal portion, and the ancient feudal 
 Constitution of the entire Duchy continued. 
 
 In 1773, the Grand Duke Paul renounced, as head of the 
 elder Gottorp Line, all his rights to the Duchy of Schleswig 
 in favour of the King of Denmark and the Heirs of the 
 Crown. The head of the younger Gottorp Line had abeady 
 done the same in 1750. 
 
 Catherine of Russia, in the provisional Treaty of 1767, 
 undertook that all the surviving Princes of the House of 
 Holstein Gottorp should renounce, and by theTreaty of 1773 
 the Counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst were ceded by 
 the King of Denmark in exchange, as an endowment for the 
 younger branches. 
 
 Note V. 
 
 EXCLUSION OF THE CLAIMS OF THE LINE 
 OF AUGUSTENBURG. 
 
 The pretensions of the Augustenburgs, in one shape or 
 another,, cover the whole of this extensive field, yet they 
 have never been raised in any manner. They are the only 
 Pretenders who can become dangerous, through the exclusion 
 of the Duchies from the settlement and their consequent 
 alienation, and the support they might receive from Germany. 
 These consequences have struck all the Danish writers, but 
 every step has been avoided to close the door. 
 
 Considering the case from a Russian point of view, there 
 
NOTES. 267 
 
 are various considerations which coincide to render this 
 ambiguity desirable. The first of these is the opportunity of 
 a new Civil War in Denmark : this is a matter which ailects 
 not Denmark alone, but Prussia also and Germany. Here is 
 a lever for the convulsion of those countries, and from it may 
 not be improbably worked out a Russian intervention at 
 Berlin. Independently, however, of tlipse ulterior objects, 
 there were reasons so strong as to amount to a necessity, for 
 excluding the discussion of those claims at the present mo- 
 ment : they consist in^- 
 
 1. The Agnatic Succession in the Duchies. 
 
 2. The Cognatic Succession in the Kingdom. 
 
 3. The Reversion of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. 
 
 4. The Heirship-General. 
 
 The first point would have raised the question of the 
 Integrity of the Monarchy, M^hich Russia had to settle as a 
 preliminary matter, so as to get the Ducliies through the 
 Kingdom, or the Kingdom through Holstein. 
 
 The second would have interfered with the nomination of 
 Prince Christian, the Agnatic Line coming before as Cognatic 
 (the mother of the present Duke had indeed given a renun- 
 ciation, but we know what value attaches to such instru- 
 ments). 
 
 The third is of the gravest importance, for, if only raised, 
 the Holstein claims fell to the ground. 
 
 As to the Heirship-General it was impossible for Russia to 
 have pronounced herself either way. If she admitted the 
 claim she acknowledged a branch that came in before herself. 
 If she rejected it on the plea of the Line having come off 
 before Hereditary Right was established, she deprived her- 
 self of that ground, should it prove to be desirable to 
 advance it. 
 
 The civil war enabled her, through the animosity of the 
 parties, to put aside at once those inconvenient discussions 
 and a numerous line of claimants. The powers of Europe 
 were, however, not under the influence of local passions, and 
 whatever the part taken by the Augustenburgs in the civil 
 war, no judicial steps have been taken to deprive them of 
 their rights. The shield of the Duke of Augustenburg is 
 suspended amongst those of the other Knights Commanders 
 of thcDanish Order of the Elephant. 
 
968 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 The Diet of Copenhagen and the Banish 
 Constitution, 
 
 The resistance of the Danish Diet, which has ah-eady led 
 to three Dissolutions of that Body, was not made to the 
 Treaty, but arose entirely out of the manner in which tlte 
 measure was presented to it. 
 
 The Diet itself was Provisional and Provincial ; the 
 Duchies were not represented. On the 28th of the pre- 
 vious January, a Royal Proclamation had promised the Insti- 
 tution of a General Diet : there was no reason why this 
 promise should not have been fulfilled, and every reason for 
 fulfilling it before submitting a fundamental matter which 
 as every one felt could not be settled in a partial assembly. 
 The Constitution required that no change in the succession 
 should be adopted except by three-fourths of the votes ; the 
 Body which had to vote required to have existence. This 
 objection was put forward as a preliminary one. 
 
 It may have been very unwise to force so grave matter in 
 80 indecorous a manner, but from this fact alone, a sinister 
 purpose need not be inferred. If the Danish Government 
 had no other object than the adhesion of the Diet to the 
 Treaty, it could have floated over the preliminary objection 
 by rendering the measure in other respects acceptable. It, 
 however, treated this Constitutional body harshly and insult- 
 ingly ; told it that no advice would be accepted at its hands; 
 informed it that the measure to which its assent by anticipa- 
 tion was required, should not even be presented to it ; * and 
 
 * "Although the communications which the Government has 
 made to us allow us no ground to hope that tlie act will be presented 
 for the adoption of the Diet, &c." — Re;port, p. 6i. 
 
DIET OF COPENHAGEN. 269^ 
 
 that it was required to utter a simple " Yes," or a simple 
 " No" to the Royal message,* which Royal message in ex- 
 press terms abolished Hereditaky Right ! 
 
 We have not to seek far for the object in view. A Con- 
 stitution was very necessary for Russia in Denmark, generally 
 for the creation of faction, and immediately for giving an 
 apparently national sanction to the Treaty : but it w^s not 
 desirable that that Constitution should have or acquire, 
 vigour, or that a sense of independence, or a consciousness of 
 power should arise amongst the people. Here was an oppor- 
 tunity of crushing that Constitution by the weight of Europe. 
 The objects of the Danish Government, though distinct, 
 coincide; they coidd not fail to profit by the occasion 
 thus aflbrded them, of bringing into coincidence the dis- 
 positions of the Diet with the will of the Cabinet. In 
 fact the Cabinet was absolute from the moment, it would say 
 " unless you answer by an unconditional * Yes,' we dissolve, 
 and will go on dissolving till you have said it," It is Eng- 
 land whose influence is called into action in this matter ; and 
 it is exerted in reference to a measure, into which the British 
 Parliament has never inquired, and respecting which it has 
 received neither documents nor explanation. 
 
 The first Dissolution took place, nominally indeed, in con- 
 sequence of the failure of another measure which the govern- 
 ment might have easily carried. This was a bill for the exten- 
 sion of the Custom Lines, so as to include Hol&tein, to which 
 the Diet objected solely because the Duchies were not repre- 
 sented ; the government was beaten on some details in the 
 Lower House by three, and the Upper was known to be 
 
 t "That if the male issue of King Frederic III should fail, all 
 hereditary right according to tlie ai-iicles 27—40 of the said royal 
 law shall he abolislied, and the succession for all the territories which 
 are now miited under the Danish cro^^^l be transferred on the head 
 of His Highness Prince Cliristian, in this way that His isseue, mal 
 after male, of lawful marriage, shall succeed to the crown in accor- 
 dance with tlie law of primogenitiire, and the Agnatic liue^ euccei- 
 feioc."— i%a^ Message, Uh Oct., 1852. 
 
370 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 favourable, but it was never submitted to them. By mean» 
 of a conference tiie trifling objections of the Lower House 
 would have been removed. 
 
 The new Diet was elected with a view to the message, and 
 the government was favoured in an extraordinary manner by 
 an internal schism. Denmark has long been distracted by an 
 agitation which may be rendered intelligible to the reader by 
 the term " Tenant-Right," although it more properly belongs 
 to the class of dissensions which formerly afflicted Gallicia 
 and Hungary, and still afflict Wallacliia and Moldavia. The 
 popular party had the command of the Lower House, and 
 having been the most violent in the war, it was now most 
 zealous for the Eoyal message. 
 
 The new Diet which met in March, 1853, was, neverthe- 
 less, prepared for resistance, and surrender was imperiously 
 required by the government in the name of a " European, 
 necessity,"* and they were unambiguously threatened in case 
 of contumacy, with the withdrawal of a Constitution which 
 they were so little qualified to possess ; lest such menaces, 
 should be mistaken for the mere desires of a faction, or 
 associated with the pm'poses of Eussia, the Times lent the 
 willing aid of its thunders to batter unhappy Denmark in 
 the name of constitutional freedom and the enlightened 
 opinion of the British people.f 
 
 The previous Diet had appointed a Commission of twenty- 
 
 * " At the opening of the Eeiehstag, at Copenhagen, the Prime 
 Minister read the Royal Address of the 4th October last, respecting 
 the regulation of the Succession. As the Ministry presumed that the 
 proposed succession was the right one, it would not admit of any 
 alteration, as that would appear as if the King intended to break the 
 engagements he had contracted with the G-i*eat Powers. To show to 
 the Diet the opinion of Foreign Cabinets of the former discussions, 
 he would lay all the correspondence on the unconditional approval of 
 the motion was a European Necessity." — Altona Mercury. 
 
 t Eor instance, on the 12th of February the Times^ after speaking 
 of the Danish Constitution as one of the satisfactory results of 1848, 
 says : — 
 
 "But it is not less essential to the maintenance and success oftket^ 
 
DIET OF COPENHAGEN. «71 
 
 five members to examine the small pampUet of forty pages, 
 ■which is all that was considered necessaiy for their en- 
 lighteronent, and which has not even been presented to the 
 English Parliament. That Commission drew up three separate 
 Beports : the first two signed by sixteen members was un- 
 favourable to the absolute " Yes." All accepted v\dth joy the 
 nomination of the Duke of Glucksburg. Opposition took 
 their chief stand upon the Lex Regia abolished by the message, 
 and presented the singular anomaly of opposing the Crown 
 by means of a charter of unlimited despotic power. But the 
 most remarkable part of the story is, that they appeal to the 
 Treaty against the Message ! 
 
 These opinions were reechoed in the New Diet, and the 
 government measm'e was opposed by forty-five to ninety-seven 
 votes, which, as three-fourths was required, was its rejection. 
 On this the Diet was again dissolved. 
 
 Having been present at the election of the next one, I can 
 speak from personal observation. The prevailing sense was 
 that of fatigue, the intimate conviction that of helplessness. 
 ** In God's name let the matter be settled :" such was the 
 expression on every one's lip. In Copenhagen there were out 
 of nine districts but two contests, and one of these was a 
 mere personal competition. In those districts w^here there 
 was a contest but a small number of the electors voted : 
 
 institutions that the elective Assembly should pursue a rational and 
 poetical course with reference to the important questions which have 
 recently occupied not only the Danish Cabinet, but the great powers 
 of Em'ope ; and nothing is more calculated to tceaJcen the due au' 
 ihontg of the representatives of t/ie nation than a disposition to 
 tacrijice the public engagements and common interests of the monarchy 
 to a spirit of narrow and exclusive party feeling. We have taken so 
 much interest in the gallant struggle of the Danes against the party 
 which sought to eifect the dissolution of the monarchy, and in the 
 establishment of those Uberal institutions in Denmark which no 
 people is better quahfied to enjoy, that we hope the observations we 
 may venture to make on this ParHamentary crisis in their affau's will 
 be favourably received before the country proceeds to the business of 
 the elections on the 2Gth of February/,'* 
 
272 THE DANISH SUCCESSION 
 
 it was a matter of surprise that one opposition member was 
 returned. Such being the state of the capital, judge of 
 the provinces. Not a single landed proprietor was returned 
 for the Lower House. The rancour of the Tenant-Eight 
 question combining with the rage for the Gliicksburg suc- 
 cession, excluded the distinguished men who had figured in 
 the former Diets, and not one of the liberal members who had 
 voted against the government was re-elected. 
 
 It is different with respect tp the other House. It is also 
 elected, but indirectl}^ that is to say, by electoral colleges, as 
 in France. In this body the proprietors are represented, and 
 consequently the two bodies are balanced against each other, 
 or will be so upon the Tenant-Eight question, where each will 
 vote separately, while on that of succession, the two being 
 united, the opposition of the Upper House will be over- 
 powered. Thus then whilst the process of rapid and reiterated 
 dissolution is employed to coerce the Diet into a concurrence 
 of will with the ministry, the forms of a constitutional assent 
 are obtained to a measure extorted by violence ; and the 
 authority of the powers of Europe is employed to effect 
 a violence not contemplated in the act by which it- has been 
 produced. 
 
 Had the Government still been despotic, commiseration 
 might have been awakened ; but now, when in consequence 
 of this act, Denmark comes to be used against England, she 
 will no longer be looked upon as a suffering victim but 
 treated as a willing instrument, and we will proceed as here- 
 tofore to complete her subjection, by partition, if need be, or 
 by bombardment. 
 
 Denmark had a beneficent Despotism, that has disap- 
 peared ; she was gratified with a liberal Constitution, tixat 
 is trodden down; she had an established Succession, that 
 is broken up : by the blood she has spilt in a civil broil fifty 
 millions of dollars have been added to her debt. Such are 
 the results of Constitutional Diplomacy ! 
 
 If the past conduct of the Diet did encourage abroad the 
 hope that by its means the errors of the London Treaty 
 
DIET OF COPENHAGEN. 273 
 
 might be repaired, that hope is now extinguished : if the 
 matter is now to be taken up, it can only be by England 
 herself. There is now no possibility of mistake on any 
 point ; the statement of the case, which appeared so incre- 
 dible when first made, is now re-echoed from every quarter.* 
 
 * " Lord Clarendon's declaration iii the Upper House is liere [Ber- 
 Sn] declared to be utterly false. He stated that 'the Emperor of Russia 
 had acceded to the London Treaty settling the Danish Succession 
 without bringing forward the slightest imdue pretension.' The state 
 of the case is exactly the reverse of what Lord Clarendon stated. By 
 the London, as well as by the Warsaw Protocol, the whole of the 
 Danish dominions are menaced with falling under the Russian 
 sceptre. Germany may look forward to see Russia a member of 
 the German Confederation in respect to the Duchies of Ilolstein and 
 Lauenburg. It is wonderful how people can shut their cyea to 
 anything so evident." — Aacliener Zeitung^^wxc'Zii]!. 
 
 So much for Bei'lm : now for Vienna : — 
 
 " No man can shut his eyes to the tendency of the reigning House 
 of Russia to introduce itself into the Germanic Confederation in its 
 quahty of Sovereign of the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, over 
 which it pretends that it will have to exercise power after the death, 
 of Prince Christian of Gliicksburg. The danger for the future fortune 
 of Prussia is consequently imminent, and that is the reason why the 
 Cabinet of Berlin would be most unwise to remain neutral in the 
 Eastern question.''* (\) — Wanderer of Vienna, 2ith June. 
 ., The Allgemeine ZeUung, June 23d, has the following : — 
 
 "There appears to be a settled resolution at Copenhagen to 
 ffespatdh all the pending questions as rapidly and sine sirepitu as 
 possible. The royal message has indeed been read for the fu'st time 
 at the second meeting, in spite of the opposition of Lindberg. The 
 former prime minister, A. W. Moltke, has actuaDy adopted the 
 motion formerly brought in by Oersted. But there is considerable 
 scruple as to its effect ; hence in fact that motion will not settle any- 
 thing, for the Danish Diet is but a provincial diet ; it cannot resolve 
 for Sclilcswig, nor for Holstein either, and the Succession will not 
 be settled for the collective Monarcliy any more than for th.e 
 Duchies, The Treaty of the 8th of May will step in with all its 
 difficulties and embarrassments. There is in fact no doubt that 
 England has of late attended very seriously to the Sound, and 
 although David Urquliart is not properly to be considered as an 
 agent of the Administration, yet you may rely upon his being the 
 representative of no inconsiderable share of public opinion on the 
 
274 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 The Danish nation has just spirit enough left to pretend 
 to assume as its own will, the violence it suiters, and thus 
 loses the only chance of that support on which in their hearte 
 they yet rely. " Surely England will at last see to what she 
 is bringing us," said one of the leading men in a conver- 
 sation which had commenced with the stout assertion that 
 the Treaty was an excellent measure and calculated to heal 
 the wounds of Denmark. The answer to this melancholy 
 avowal and pitiable appeal, could only be : " England acted 
 when she was ignorant : now she is informed, but committed; 
 three Administrations and five Foreign secretaries are partners 
 in the deed." The Danes too are committed. Terrible word 
 is that " committed " — dead lock of a political mechanism, 
 possessed of functions and destitute of ends. 
 
 other side of the Gernfan Ocean. Tlie new English minkter, 
 Mr. Buchanan, arrived at Copenhagen on the IStii inst., and he 
 is understood to have very decided instructions. An English 
 squadron is expected in the Baltic. In consequence of all this. 
 Count Charles Moltke is said to entertain a desire of resigning as 
 minister for Schleswig. It is supposed, and no doubt the supposi- 
 tion is founded in fact, that the measures which for upwards of a 
 year have been showered down upon the Duchies, and the aimoat 
 desperate complaints which are echoed back to the capital will only 
 tend to embitter and to alienate the minds, and will necessitate the 
 Government to fall back upon Russia. The late prime minister, all 
 but in plain words, proclaimed this dependence upon Russia, in his 
 place in the Diet." 
 
d76 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The position of Austria in the North and in the 
 South, as affected by the Treaty of the Wi 
 of May. 
 
 Austria, above half a century ago, exclianged the Nether- 
 lands for a position on the Adriatic ; from the North, where 
 the increasing consistency of an Extrinsic Power closed the 
 door to ambition, she turned to the South and East, hoping 
 to reap in the expected dissohition of a great Empire a har- 
 vest of maritime power and military strength. 
 
 Her retreat from the North has enabled Russia to extend 
 over Germany a controlling influence, and her advance on 
 the South has brought her into collision with Turkey, now 
 perceived to be possessed of great and increasing strength. 
 
 Placed by an internal distribution of ,a few Turkish soldiers 
 at the mouth of the Cattaro, under the necessity of having 
 to struggle to gain back, through external and compro- 
 mising aid, the cession made to her formerly by France, she 
 has discovered that the Ottoman Empire, instead of an in- 
 heritance to be divided, affords the basis on which to con- 
 struct a system of defensive policy for the future. 
 
 The events of Poland, those more recent and alarming 
 of Hungary, the usurpation of the Danube, and the habit of 
 subverting Governments introduced amongst the Nations 
 of the West, present so many additional reasons for seeking 
 to escape from the control of her ally, and for looking in 
 Turkey for friendship which will afford real support upon 
 honourable conditions. 
 I In a word, aggrandisement must be abandoned abroad, and 
 
276 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 the doctrine of uniformity surrendered at home. Nor is this 
 idea unfamiliar to the Austrian Cabinet. Prince Svvartzenburg 
 has tojd Germany that she "has nothing to fear from 
 the strength of Austria, but much to apprehend from her 
 weakness." Austria is only weak because her own subjects 
 dread her doctrine of uniformity, and her neighbours her 
 designs of aggrandisement. 
 
 The Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852, for the Danish 
 Succession, has now recast the relations of the Powers of 
 Europe, by the prospective union of that Crown with the 
 Crown of Russia, and indeed the fact . of having used the 
 Powers of Europe for effecting this arrangement, gives her a 
 present ascendancy not far removed from possession. It is 
 important, therefore, for Austria to consider, before it is too 
 late, the consequences to herself of this change. 
 
 Like the Dai'danelles, the aggressive Forcer of the Sound, 
 from its possession by a weak or inoffensive State, has re- 
 riained latent : we have to look at that position now no 
 less in its offensive than its defensive character. 
 
 The Eussian frontiers springing across Prussia will be 
 brought to the West of Berlin and Vienna, to within 400 
 miles of Paris, and two days by steam to the Thames. 
 To these frontiers she yill be able, by steam, to transfer in 
 a couple of days, regiments and armies, which a few hours 
 can bring by rad to Berlin, and a couple of days over the 
 whole of Germany. 
 
 Possessing the Sound, the entrance of the Baltic will be 
 practically and dljilomatically closed. Her navy will then 
 possess an internal Sea where it will be unattackable, and 
 whence it may issue at pleasure. 
 
 This revolution touches Austria in the most sensitive 
 point. Her reliance against France was on the maritime 
 power ot Britain : held in check, as England will now be, 
 that security is withdrawn. 
 
 The conversion of the Baltic into a close Sea affects almost 
 as immediately Stockholm as Copenhagen itself. Holding- 
 Denmark and the Baltic, she has in fact virtually incorporated 
 
AUSTRIA, 277 
 
 the Northern as well as the Southern Scandinavian Peninsula, 
 and the North, in a block, falls into her hands. 
 
 It is not merely Denmark which she is to acquire, but aha 
 the Duchies of Schle»iclg and Kolstein, which, even if Den- 
 mark had been singly inherited, might have afforded a check 
 upon her : the Treaty, declaring those to be inseparably 
 united, places the whole in her hands. 
 
 The Duchies, not Denmark, give her the Eyder, the mouths 
 of the Elbe, and the position of Rensburg ; in a word, tlie 
 hold over the commerce of Germany by its main river arteries, 
 and over the will of Germany by access to the railways, for 
 the transfer of her troops. 
 
 It will be evident, that what may remain of independence 
 in Prussia will now vanish, and that that government can be 
 no more than a Subsidiary Office wearing the deceptive mask 
 of a distinct existence. 
 
 If, then, Austria had prior and independent reasons for a 
 change in her policy, there is every reason not to delay, its 
 adoption until the accomplishment of the Treaty of the 
 8tli of May deprives her of all power of giving to that 
 change eifect ; in that case the object to be attempted, 
 and one presenting no great difficulty in its realization if 
 undertaken at once, is the breaking of the Treaty. One 
 generous word uttered to the Porte secures her in the rear ; 
 one well-adapted phrase gives her Germany, and then she 
 can meet the common enemy on a favourable field ; an able 
 and incorruptible envoy in London brings at once the fall of 
 the Treaty, and the co-operation of a secured and strengthened 
 England. Unless Austria possess such a man, the attempt is 
 of course impracticable. 
 
 If not, Austria and Turkey will mutually be involved in 
 projects of dismemberment, and the one used to pull down 
 the other. To them will be applied tlie injunction of the will 
 of Peter in regard to Austria and France, namely, the in- 
 spiring of each with the design of imiversal dominion, by 
 which such an amount of hatred shall be engendered between 
 them as must finally destroy them. 
 
S78 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 For the adoption or prosecution of any defensive measures 
 against Eussia, tlie basis must be the knowledge of the East, 
 at least in regard to the following points : — 
 
 1. The inherent vitality of Turkey. 
 
 2. Eacility of co-operation in this sense with the Turkish 
 government. 
 
 3. Its inassailahility by the Military Tower of Russia. 
 
 4. The elements of convulsion throughout the South of 
 Kussia to be of necessity used by Austria or against her. 
 
 5. The facility of the extinction of Russia's aggressive 
 powers by the mnancijjation of the expo7't trade of TwJcey and 
 the Danube. 
 
 The effect of the concentration of the power and thoughts 
 of Europe on the South is at once to expose the North to 
 Bussia, and to break down the Ottoman Empire by convert- 
 ing it into a field and object of contention — effects strikingly 
 illustrated at the present moment when squadrons of England 
 and of France are sailing to the Levant about the Parish 
 Church of Jerusalem, and the governments of London and 
 Paris are actively engaged in their despatches in procuiing 
 for Eussia the Sound. 
 
 Whether by accident or design, the displacement which 
 has occurred in respect to Austria finds its parallel in the 
 other States. Prussia has extended a preparatory and 
 vicarious dominion over the South of Germany, and appears 
 hand in hand with England in Syria, furthering a scheme of 
 religious propagandism. 
 
 England, who in 1800 drove France out of Egypt and 
 restored it to the Porte, is now casting on it an eye of 
 cupidity, and turning one of jealousy on France. She is also 
 herself become a proprietor in the Levant by the acquisition 
 of Malta and the Ionian Islands. 
 
 France has forgotten her fervour for the frontier of the 
 Ehine in her African dominion, her Egyptian schemes, and 
 her projects of religious supremacy ; whilst, by the acquisition 
 of a Piratical State of Barbaiy, she has become the Algiers of 
 Europe. 
 
AUSTRIA. 279 
 
 In the course of this great and universal propulsion 
 towards the South, the character of Europe has been 
 changed; in this resides, more than in any special diplo- 
 matic transactions or territorial acquisitions, the present 
 security and the future hopes of Russia. Whenever in any 
 Cabinet there arises a man equal to cope with her, to this 
 first of all will his attention be given. Revolution comes 
 from the disorder of the judgment of nations : they misjudge 
 when governments have mismanaged. Mismanagement re- 
 solves itself into injustice, and so justice has a restoring no 
 less than a preserving power. 
 
280 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Tlie Baltic and the Euxine — The Sound Dues. 
 
 A Strait which brings the power of the land to control 
 the navigation of the seas is not only interesting as a geo- 
 graphical and political, but, also, as an intellectual, matter : 
 it fixes the attention, excites curiosity, awakens activity, 
 suggests apprehension, and, finally, prompts designs, and 
 thus calls into existence faculties of the mind seldom appre- 
 ciated, even in those very transactions of which it is the 
 spring. 
 
 The traffic of thirty millions of souls passes through the 
 Sound ; it is conveyed in some twenty thousand vessels ; 
 that traffic consists of grain, timber, spars, hemp, and iron : 
 the holder of these Straits has, therefore, a power over, at 
 once, the material existence and the military operations of 
 the rest of Europe. But this exportation afl^'ects the internal 
 prosperity of the countries from which it is derived. 
 
 Supposing Denmark to be a Power with substantive 
 strength, she might thus exercise dominating influence, alike 
 over the countries without the Baltic and those within ; the 
 operations of war, in Europe, would depend upon her will ; 
 and the prosperity of Eussia woidd at all' times be at her 
 mercy. Denmark, however, is unconscious that she pos- 
 sesses such power ; whilst Eussia looks upon her, at once, 
 with dread, for she may ally herself with stronger States, 
 and with cupidity, because she may converted into an instru- 
 ment against them. 
 
 It is not, however, one enclosed sea with a narrow outlet 
 which Eussia has had to study, nor one circle of countries 
 which are dependent on her conch isions ; as the Xorth may 
 be said to have its Dardanelles, there is in the South a Baltic 
 
THE BALTIC AND THE EUXINE. 281 
 
 and a Sound ; there, also, is a vast internal sea, whence issue 
 grain, timber, and hemp ; there, also, are foreign batteries 
 commanding the outlets of her trade and the commerce of 
 surrounding countries. 
 
 Little more than a hundred years ago, Russia had no pos- 
 sessions on either sea ; she has simultaneously spread herself 
 over both, making them the passage of a new-born trade, 
 and the experimental fields of a suddenly -created navy : as 
 she expands she stands in tlie centre, containing within her 
 own breast the completeness of knowledge and of system ; 
 whilst her antagonists, severally destitute of both, have been, 
 alike incapable of separate resistance, or concerted action. 
 
 In two nations of the world political vitality is concentrated 
 in the capital ; those two capitals are exposed to bombard- 
 ment from a fleet ; both are placed on the inner side of 
 narrow and defensible Straits; both are exposed from 
 -.vithin to a superior Russian naval force; the maritime 
 power of both has been destroyed by England ; and Russia 
 nas constructed a powerful arsenal and fortress, which from 
 an equal distance permanently menaces both — Cronstadt for 
 Copenhagen, Sevastapol for Constantinople. 
 
 Adjoining both Straits there are two provinces united to 
 the Crown of their respective countries, severally acquired by 
 oompact not conquest, ana having equally remained so for 
 four hundred years. Russia, at the beginning of the last 
 century, commenced the invasion of the provinces of the 
 Danube, and united to her own House a Pretender, from 
 whom she has derived claims on the Ducliies of the Baltic. 
 In the recent convulsions of 1848, a revolution for the first 
 time occurred in the one and in the other: she used the 
 pretext of that upon the Danube to send forward the troops 
 for the war in Hungary : on its conclusion, troops were 
 despatched from Hungary finally to settle her hereditary 
 pretensions on the Duchies of the Baltic. The similarity of 
 geographical structure* has thus led to identity of political 
 
 * Tlie word " Belt" is supposed to be derived from the general 
 name of "Baltic," a word probably of Tartarian origin, being the 
 
282 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 action, and at last the operations on the two fields have been 
 concerted : so soon as a stealthy Treaty has given to her the 
 Sound, she advances her armies on the Danube, and covers 
 the triumph by a feint on tlie Ottoman Empire. This con- 
 cert is, however, on her side alone : the sight of her antago- 
 nists is bounded each by his own horizon — on it neither sees 
 what is to be done with him, — what she is accomplishing ou 
 earth, they attribute to the stars. 
 
 In 1849, she appeared to be in absolute and final posses- 
 sion of the Principalities. A treaty was signed on the first 
 pf May of that year, for the prolongation of their occupation 
 for seven years ; no one doubted that they were occupied for 
 ever. She had notwithstanding shortly afterwards to retire 
 on a demand from the Porte for their evacuation, made in 
 consequence of the expedition of the Hungarian and Austrian 
 troops to the Baltic. It was at the time supposed that " the 
 feint on the Bosphorus was only to secure the Sound;"* 
 but her failure on the one point arose out of a temporary 
 coolness, which inteimpted confidential relations with the 
 English Embassy, and allowed for once Turkey to act for 
 herself. 
 
 1 There is one diiference between the two outlets : for trade 
 that of the Dardanelles is free, that of the Sound is not. The 
 first strait lies between Turkish territoiy on both sides; 
 the other between those of Denmark and Sweden. The 
 Black Sea formerly was a TwTmli Lake ;t the Baltic has ever 
 
 ancient name of Little Thibet, and signifying also in Turkish, hatchet. 
 It is singular that the Bight of the Bosphorus where Europe and 
 Asia nearest approach, is also termed Balta Liman. 
 , * Words of Greneral Aupich, the French Ambassador. 
 
 + It is upon this very plea that men-of-war of foreign nations are 
 now excluded from the Euxine. The first was the English Treaty 
 of 1809, concluding the war, if it may be so caUed, which was com- 
 menced by an attempt to bombard Constantinople, wherein she 
 promised not to do " the like again." In 1841, the next and last 
 step was taken, then England, France, Austria, Prussia, and Ewsia, 
 agreed to exclude themselyes. 
 
THE SOUND DUES. 283 
 
 been occupied by various nations. There might, therefore, 
 be grounds for a toll at the Dardanelles, but it is difficult to 
 imagine what grounds there can be for one at the Sound. 
 Bussia forced open the Dardanelles : she maintains the toU 
 of the Sound. The tune was when she loudly demanded 
 the freedom of the Baltic. 
 
 The Kings of Denmark oi-iginally exacted these tolls when 
 they ruled the three Scandinavian kingdoms, and when, 
 consequently, they occupied both sides of the Sound and the 
 larger portion of the Baltic. On the separation of Sweden, 
 the Southern extremity of the Scandinavian Peninsula still- 
 remained to Denmark, and was not lost till 1645, or defi- 
 nitively till 1657. During this period the Dues had been 
 a subject of constant dissension with Sweden, and in the 
 latter year they were abandoned by Treaty, though afterwards 
 reimposed. The Kings of Denmark, however, did not 
 retain them by their own strength, nor receive them for 
 their own benefit ; they were but the tax-gatherers of the 
 Hanseatic League, whose object indeed was rather to ex- 
 clude foreign trade than to tax it, and they instituted a 
 Navigation Law for the Baltic which was afterwards copied by 
 Cromwell. 
 
 When Scania was surrendered, the naiTOw passage of the 
 Kattegat was brought under Swedish jurisdiction no less than 
 Danish ; the breadth is but three miles, and the waters were 
 consequently neutral, nor could the mere passage along the 
 coast of a country justify any exaction. It was clear piracy ; 
 not more cloaked, but far more regular, than that of the 
 Barbary States. Nor was there ever power to enforce it, for 
 the batteries were weak, and vessels could pass on the Swedish 
 side. 
 
 The power of the Hanseatic towns had fallen ; Denmark 
 was thus left singlehanded to maintain her pretensions, which 
 placed her in a false position with all her neighbours, and 
 involved her in continual wars. Thus has been entailed on her 
 the debt, by the interest of which the toll itself is actually 
 absorbed. 
 
284 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 It was to emancipate Russian trade that Peter the Great 
 espoused the cause of the Duke of Holstein, and commenced 
 a system of exhausting Denmark by preparatives against a 
 constantly impending attack. This policy slumbered for a 
 while in consequence of the internal dissensions of the 
 Russian family until the reign of Catherine, when Denmark 
 had so fallen that Russia's purposes were reversed. The 
 demand was still pressed, to afford by its withdrawal, as in 
 the case of the Holstein claims, the opportunity of imposing 
 new obligations. 
 
 The negotiation to which I refer is not indeed to be found in 
 any history, nor are the documents inserted in any diplomatic 
 collection. It occui'ed at the close of 1766, at St. Petersburg. 
 The Danish Government was at the time in the greatest 
 alarm respecting the Holstein claims, which were adjusted 
 only a few months later. It could refuse Russia nothing. 
 It threw itself on her mercy, avowing that one half of the 
 revenue of the state depended upon the non-pressing of the 
 demand, which it did not resist. It represented that the re- 
 mission of the Dues to Russian vessels must entail remission 
 for the vessels of all other Powers, and that it would be 
 utterly impracticable to devise any effectual means of conceal- 
 ment ;* but, continues the Danish minister, if the Russian 
 Government will concede this point, there is nothing which 
 Denmark will fail to do " to render, in as far as it is permit- 
 ted andpossiblefor humanity, that union indissoluble to which, 
 this point excepted, eveiything else invites, and nothing- 
 opposes." Catherine graciously yields to Denmark's neces- 
 sities and entreaties, and replies " that the King of Denmark 
 cannot do better than attach himself to Russia as an ally, 
 who will exact nothing from him, and can and will do every- 
 thing for him." 
 
 The matter did not rest here : again we have Secret Arti- 
 cles, six in number ; with one alone we are acquainted ; it 
 
 * In two notes, one confidential and one public, of the 6th of 
 September, 1766 : see Memoirs of Baron Asseburg, Danish Repre- 
 Fcntative at St. Petersburg. 
 
THE SOUND DUES. 2S5 
 
 refers to Prussian Navigation, and in it the "indissoluble 
 union" is defined as one which is " to subsist in all time to 
 come, in every case and circumstance, without any depend- 
 ence whatever on alliances, defensive and occasional, tempo- 
 rary or permanent, or any Treaties whatever, whether with 
 Bussia herself, or with other Powers." * 
 
 At the CongTess of Vienna the States of Europe estab- 
 lished the most perfect freedom of navigation for rivers 
 passing through different territories, providing that no 
 regulations should be made by any one save with the con- 
 currence of all the rest. The Sound, however, was left 
 shackled ; the reason assigned was, tluit some compensation 
 was required for the wrongs which Denmark had suffered ! 
 When in March 1S4S, the Pnissian troops were about to 
 invade the Duchies, one of the incentives administered to the 
 popular enthusiasm, was the shame of submission to the 
 Sound Dues ; this aspiration met the same fate as all the 
 other professed objects of Prussia. 
 
 But tlie Sound is not the only access to the Baltic. The 
 Peninsula which stretches to form this passage in the South 
 is low and narrow at its base, traversed by a river nearly 
 from sea to sea. The Peninsula which advances from the 
 North affords like fi\ciiities for internal navigation, by a suc- 
 cession of lakes, iiTCgular, but almost connected between 
 Gottenberg and Stockholm. Either of those passages lay at 
 a more direct route for. the commerce of the Baltic and St. 
 Petersburg than the Sound, which involved a lengthened and 
 devious navigation, first stretching to the North and then to 
 the South. Without reference to political objects, and 
 merely with a view to expedite communication, it was most 
 desirable to open one or other of those passages, or both ; 
 that of the Eyder shortening the distance to the coasts of 
 Prussia and to the Bothnian Gulf by nearly four hundred 
 miles, and that through Sweden, shortening the distance to 
 he North and the Gulf of Finland by about three hundred. 
 
 * For Treaties bearing on the Sound Dues, see Colleetiou of 
 Hauterive and Cussy, 
 
286 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 These enterprises were further prompted by local interests, 
 and in fact a canal has been cut through both ; but those 
 canals are not large enough for sea-going vessels. The in- 
 terests of Denmark suffice to explain the limited dimensions 
 of that of the Eyder, but it is the interests of Eussia which 
 alone can explain the parallel restriction of that of Gotha.* 
 It is, however, the canal of the Eyder which is of im- 
 portance, and in case of the separation of the Duchies 
 from Denmark, it is natural to expect that it should be en- 
 larged ; in fact, the inducements would be too strong to be 
 resisted. In this competition not only would the Commerce 
 of the world be relieved from the Sound Dues, but the navi- 
 gation of the Baltic would be facilitated to an extent exceeding 
 even the remission of those Dues. This chance is now 
 closed, by the " IntegTity" article of the Treaty of the 8th of 
 May, and Denmark is placed in the doubly invidious position 
 of preventing the opening of one passage that she may levy 
 a contribution at another. 
 
 We have now, however, to consider the matter no longer 
 as Danish, but as Eussian. Will the Government which has 
 blocked up the Danube, and actually exacts in its o\\ti 
 Consulates of London and Liverpool duties amounting almost 
 to a prohibition on the few vessels that leave these ports for 
 that river, deal differently with the Eyder, the Gotha Canal, 
 the Soimd, the Elbe, and the Weser ? ShaU we allow the 
 occasion to pass by of resisting an impost soon to be paid 
 directly into the Eussian Exchequer ? We are, indeed, bound 
 by treaty, and so are the other Governments of Europe, but 
 there is one government which is not ; the United States 
 are under no obligation to pay an impost wholly lawless, and 
 by resisting it would place a fulcrum in the very centre of the 
 
 * A Company has just been instituted to build small vessels for the 
 Baltic Trade, to pass through the Gotha Canal. It will be seen in. 
 the chapter on the Canal of the Danube, that I had already proposed 
 the same plan for the navigation of the Black 3ea. 
 
THE SOUND DUES. 287 
 
 interests wliicli agitate the Old World, where it is so ambitious 
 of exercising an influence.* 
 
 The suggestion alone, it will be said, suffices to throw Den- 
 mark absolutely into Eussia's hands, for what is she to do if 
 "half of her revenue is withdrawn, now that her debt by the 
 recent war has been doubled ? I answer, can her position be 
 worse than it is. Is it not now essential to throw upon 
 Eussia the burden of her support ? By the act of her Diet, 
 Denmark has now assumed upon her own head the respon- 
 sibility of her own degradation ; it is the consequence of the 
 exercise of a hollow Constitutional Power. Not a man has 
 raised his voice to protect against a foreigii Treaty disposing 
 of the Succession, or against this fiction of a Constitution. 
 Shall a degraded nation fare difl^'erently from a degraded 
 man? Virtue has its rewards even in this world, although 
 these may often consist in its very trials. 
 
 It is not on me that reproach can lie for the suggestion, 
 or it is now ten years since I have earnestly laboured to 
 awaken the Danes to a sense of the coming evd ; that I have 
 spared no toil, there are those who can testify, who them- 
 selves at the time concurred with me in apprehensions, and 
 in the means for averting their realisation. Those verv men, 
 since raised by the confidence of their King and their 
 country to the liighest posts, have become servile instruments 
 for the deception of the one, and the betrayal of the other. 
 In fact there is not a politician in Denmark that does not 
 inspire pity as a man, and contempt as a functionary. 
 
 It is well that Denmark should learn without delay the 
 penalties of her present course ; she can never be gratified 
 like Poland, or Circassia if prostrated, like Turkey or Persia 
 if deprived of their own independence, with the prospect of 
 vengeance, or the lust of conquest ; she will be placed simply 
 between the upper and the nether millstone. 
 
 * An American fingate has recently entered that Black 3ea from 
 which England holds herself excluded. 
 
THE SOUTH 
 
 Part I.— THE DANUBE AND THE EUXINE. 
 
 Part II.— THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 LEVANT AND TEE RED SEA. 
 
 " I offer you the half of Europe^ I will help yon to obtam 
 it, secure you in the possession of ity and all I ask in return- 
 \ is the possession of a sinyle Strait^ which is also the key of 
 my House." — Alexandee to Napoleon, 
 
 10 
 
IT T TT A 9 IT TT np 
 
 ■■J vi, ili 
 
 ruOD tlllT— .] 
 
 T a/.A T/.Avaj 
 
PAUT I. 
 
 THE DAMJBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Tlie Commerce of Europe and Asia, 
 
 •* Peter had long meditated the project of the occupation of the 
 Caspian, thus to draw the commerce of Asia and a part of India 
 •within his dominions," — Voltaiee, 
 
 While so many lives are risked to find out the sources of 
 the Niger, and the currents of the Pole, what discoveries in 
 the centre of Europe await the enterprising navigator in his 
 library chair ! The course of the Danube is indeed laid 
 down upon our maps ; the volume of its waters, and their 
 velocity minutely determined on our statistical tables ; but 
 mystery, deeper than Colchian darkness, envelopes the hidden 
 sources of its fictitious nullity, and the frigifying processes 
 of its Arctic obstructions. 
 
 The paramount importance of the freedom of the Darda- 
 nelles and the Bosphorus to the well-being of the people, 
 and the independence of the nations, of Europe, none iwill 
 deny. The Black Sea linking these to the Danube, and that 
 river joined by railway to the Khine, we have a system 
 of communication by internal waters, which armies can 
 span and .batteries close, capable of realising the old 
 maxim of Neptune's lordship of the land. That ancient 
 supremacy rested upon the joining of rafters and the man- 
 
292 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 uing of ships : this was no commonplace or practical 
 affair; the element itself was to be created. The Danube 
 pursued its tranquil course through the picturesque Teutonic 
 valleys, the vast plains of the descendants of the Avars, and the 
 teeming granaries, the inheritance of the Dacians ; the Euxine 
 nestled in the bosom of the Othmanic King;* the Bosphorus 
 end Dardanelles bisected his states. These water courses, dis- 
 persed to many nations, were clung to by each, and all had 
 to surrender up their patrimonies before this unity could 
 appear. It was not by any of the partners that this new 
 edifice was planned ; a stranger conceived it ; possessed 
 herself of the ground for its erection ; has gone on from 
 foundation to parapet, from stoiy to story, buttress to 
 buttress ; the covering in is all that is now wanting to this 
 creation of enchantment, suiTounded, as it has risen, by that 
 cloud of invisibility which conducted Eneas into the Tyrian 
 citadel; here has been surpassed the invention of the 
 bards of Etruria and Samos, and by illusion the means have 
 been found of acquiring such command of the will of the 
 world as they have achieved of its admiration. 
 
 At the time that this project w^as first formed the frontiers 
 of Russia on the west were restrained behind the Dnieper, 
 and on the east fell far short of the Caucasus • she had no 
 port whatever, or outlet, upon the Black Sea, and touched tlie 
 Caspian only by uninhabited wastes. Yet the first basis of 
 operations required that she should be in possession of the 
 Danubian provinces and of the control of that river ; that 
 she should be in possession of the trans-Caucasian provinces, 
 and have the control of the Araxes ; also that rival flags 
 .should be excluded from the Caspian and the Euxine. 
 
 The sudden expansion of Russian power under Peter the 
 Great does not require repetition. Sir John M'NeiU has 
 traced it with a masterly hand, and after referring to the 
 disaster on the Pruth, and the recovery of Persia under Nadir 
 Shah, he concludes his sketch in these words: "The 
 
 * ** Populum late regem." 
 
COMMERCE OF EUROPE AND ASIA. 293 
 
 projects of Russia were thus for a time abandoned to be 
 renewed at a later period with better success." The events 
 of that later period I now propose to trace in respect to the 
 Danube and the coast of Circassia, refemng the curiom. 
 reader to the above-mentioned author for the various histories 
 of her advances in Georgia and Persia, and her establishment 
 on the southern banks of the Phasis, the Cyrus, and the 
 Araxes. 
 
 In 1812, Turkey had the opportunity of recovering all the 
 ground she had lost ; but England, who only thought of the 
 war with France, induced her to sign the treaty of Bucharest ; 
 by it Russia got possession of nearly a half of Moldavia, 
 and reached the Pruth. 
 
 Her advance eastward alarmed England, who, on that 
 side, concluded with her neighbour a defensive treaty. 
 Nevertheless, under the mediation of England, she extorted 
 in 1814, from Persia, the exclusive navigation of the Caspian, 
 and overstepped^ despite her own and England's pledge, the 
 Araxes.* Her usurpation of a further district brought the 
 war of 1827 ; then England broke the engagement of her 
 defensive treaty, left Persia single-handed, and abrogated the 
 treaty itself.f Her frontier was again advanced, and the 
 
 • " General Ritescheif— then Governor- General and Commander- 
 in-Chief in Georgia, and Plenipotentiary — solemnly pledged himself, 
 if the Persian Ambassador would accept it (the basis of uti possidetis)^ 
 to procure from his Court the restitution of TaUsh, and deliberately 
 held out the hope that other provinces also woidd be restored. The 
 British ambassador felt himself justified in confirming tlie confidence 
 of the Persians, and in undertaking that the good offices of his Govern* 
 ment should be exerted at the Court of St. Petersburg to procure 
 an adjustment of the stipulation respecting the territory, wliich might 
 fulfil not only the positive promises of General Eiteschefi", but the 
 larger hopes he had held out. 
 
 *' The Persians, accustomed to place the most implicit reliance on 
 the honour of Europeans, and not ignorant of the liberal assistance 
 that England had extended to Russia in the hour of her liumihation 
 and distress, never for a moment doubted, &c." — Progress of Rusda^ 
 p. 64. 
 
 t It applied only in case of Russia being the aggressor, and that 
 
294 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 stippresslon of the Persian flag on tlie Caspian as, ad antiquo, 
 was stipulated in the Treaty of Turkman Chai. 
 
 In 1829, in defiance of solemn engagements to England 
 and France not to acquire territory, she did extort, and by 
 their aid, from Turkey, the mouth of the Danube. In 1831, 
 she established a nominal quarantine on the Caucasian coast 
 not in her possession. In 1833, by threatening tLe lives of 
 the Ministers of the Sultan, she obtained the exclusion from 
 the Euxine, in time of war, of foreign men-of-war. In the 
 same year, she obtained a new accession of territoiy in Asia, 
 bringing her frontier within nine miles of the route by which 
 J]nglish commerce reaches Persia. In 1836, she established 
 a quarantine to intercept vessels entering the Danube, and 
 aiTogated the right of sending them to Odessa to perform 
 quarantine. 
 
 In 1838, she found means secretly to fi'ustrate a Treaty 
 between England and Turkey, which would have diminished 
 the export, and abrogated the transit, duties in the latter 
 country. The same year she frustrated a Treaty between 
 England, Turkey, and Austria, wliich would have secured 
 and opened the navigation of the Danube. In 18^1, by a 
 Ti-eaty signed at London, she made all nations exclude their 
 men-of-war in peace as well as in war from the Black Sea, 
 the Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi having then lapsed one week. 
 In 1844 she frustrated, by bribes, a proposal of Austria to 
 open by canal the old mouth of the Danube. In 1849, sh3 
 made Turkey sign a Treaty for the occupation of the Pro- 
 vinces during seven years by her troops. In 1850, she 
 frustrated the revived project of the Danube Canal. She is 
 now endeavouring to impose on the Danubian Principalities 
 
 case is made out in the 'Progress of Russia in the East.' The 
 authorities there used are official : the author at the time of its pub- 
 lication was the designated Envoy to the Shah ; the pamplilet was 
 as official as any mere publication could be. Yet on the 1st March, 
 1848, Lord Pahnerston said : — " Now, what had happened to Persia ? 
 In 1827 she had, very foolislily, and thoughtlessly, against adviqe, 
 -irushed into a conflict with Kussia, <S:c." ••• i f 
 
CO]\IMERCE OF EUEOPE AM) ASIA. 295 
 
 the English Commercial Treaty, from which they have 
 hitherto been exempt, and which must extinguish their 
 exportation. 
 
 Several of these steps have been infractions of general law; 
 several of positive treaty engagements; all have been in 
 opposition to the avowed interests and declared policy of 
 England. The subordinate agents of the British Government 
 have been unremitting in efforts meanwhile to tln\ art and 
 expose her, and have been advanced or rewarded for zeal 
 displayed in urging that course. 
 
 In one character alone do the systems of England and 
 Eussia correspond, and that is in extent. There is no point 
 where the one has an interest that the other has not an object, 
 and defeat or triumph upon any one field, affects the relative 
 balance between the two upon every other. In the unit, 
 England is vigorous and intelligent; in the mass, passive 
 and inert. Eussia, individually, is sluggish and incapable ; 
 but as a state, active and able. England pursues the 
 profits of speculation, and looks no further than trade ; but 
 in both cases Eussia is exactly the reverse. 
 
 The feelings with which they regard every other country 
 are exactly the converse the one to the other. England re- 
 joices in the prosperity of all countries which supply raw pro- 
 duce ; Eussia looks on them with hatred, because with fear; 
 wherever there is a land which does produce, or is fitted to 
 produce, gi'ain, timber, oil, tallow, hides, or hemp, thither 
 England sends her merchants to buy ; Eussia her emissaries' 
 to convulse. The contest, however, will be determined, not 
 by their respective interests or power, but according to their 
 respective characters. 
 
 Europe contains two great basins, watered by two magni- 
 ficent streams, which present in their natures a corresponding 
 contrast to that of the two systems. Erom the mountains of 
 Switzerland to the mouths of the Scheldt extends a mecha- 
 nical reticulation, identical with that of the manufacturing 
 counties of Great Britain. From the reverse of the moun- 
 tains which supply the Ehine, down to the mouths of the 
 
296 THE DAmJBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 Danube and tlie Black Sea (a vast region of unbounded 
 exuberance), there is a total absence of mechanical power. 
 This region competes with Russia in the production of the 
 sources of her wealth, as the basin of the Biiine does with 
 England. It would be in the interests of England to thwart 
 the enterpiise of the one no less than to call forth the energies 
 of the otlier ; but neither is in her character. It is in Russia's 
 character to do that which her interests require, and while 
 turning to account the activity of the one, she has almost 
 exterminated the producing pow'er of the other. 
 
 The banks of the Rhine, inhabited by a free people of 
 Germans, divided into distinct governments, may appear to 
 be little exposed to the action of diplomacy, as far as material 
 interests are concerned ; but, in fact, these populations have, 
 as regards duties, been united into one system, professedly 
 organised with the view^ of giving strength to Germany 
 against foreign aggression ; but the agent of this unity is a 
 Government, described by a Russian diplomatist " as seeking 
 to strengthen, with Russia, the already existing bonds of 
 blood by these of policy." Indeed, the "Customs Union" 
 ;ould not have come into existence if Russia had thought 
 proper to prevent it, which is equivalent to saying that she 
 suggested it. A German as distinct from a Saxon, or a 
 Prussian trade, is called into existence, and finds itself ham- 
 pered on every side ; it is cut off from England, and stopped 
 by Russia; its competition being thus with the first it 
 must turn to Russia ; seeking to propitiate her, it will argue, 
 demonstrate, and project ; Russia will gi'adually yield to be 
 brought to understand, that being unable herself to supply 
 the demand of Asia, she may exclude England by favouring 
 German exports. Germany, desiring the commercial progress 
 of Russia eastward, becomes associated with her against 
 England's political power in the west : the establishment of 
 Russia on the Bosphorus, the Christianising of the Turks 
 and the *' Japhetising of the Orientals,"* wall become the 
 profound aspiration of the labouring German mind. All this 
 * Chevalier Bunsen. 
 
COMMERCE OF EUROPE AND ASIA. 297 
 
 was urged on the English Government at the time the 
 Zollverein was preparing, when a word from her would have 
 sufficed to have fmstrated it.* 
 
 Since that period a semi-official work has appeared at a 
 German Court under Russian dependence, which so undis- 
 guisedly reveals the whole scheme that I hesitate not in 
 quoting it : — 
 
 "The Asiatic commerce of Russia stands both directly and 
 indirectly in competition with the intercourse which the 
 western countries, including North America, entertain in 
 various ways with that quarter of the globe, Avhich sui-passes 
 all the rest in size, and density of population. The Levantine, 
 East Indian, and Chinese trade of the English, North Ame- 
 ricans, French, and Dutch, has not yet so deeply felt the 
 effects of the competition of the Russian land trade extend- 
 ing far into Asia from the frontier walls of the Chinese 
 Empire to the Caspian and Black Seas, as it ultimately 
 must, from the vastly increasing means of this colossal 
 empire. 
 
 "The acquisition, in 1829, of a district of 10,000 square 
 miles, inhabited by nomadic tribes, has promoted its con- 
 nection with the interior of Asia, and particularly with Buk- 
 haria ; and though the British East Indian trade has not 
 been much decreased, yet in the opinion of many even the 
 position of Russia threatens the British dominion in that 
 quarter. Its speedy destruction is not probable, and the contin- 
 gency, when it arises, will spring out of internal disturbance ; 
 but it is to be hoped that the active emulation in peaceful 
 undertakings of the two Powers will promote progress in the 
 East, and that the balance shall preponderate in favour of 
 Russia. 
 
 * See ' The Prussian League,' in the first number of the ' British 
 and Foreign Review.' 
 
 Mr. Poulett Thompson quoted Mse figures in the ITouse of Com- 
 mons to prove tliat it would be beneficial to British Trade, and 
 Lord Pahuei'ston vouched for its having no political end. 
 
29S THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 "England, who turns all Asia into a source of profit, 
 supplying, by means of Smyrna, Trebizond, and the Persian 
 Gulf, the markets of Asiatic Turkey, Persia, and the neigh- 
 bouiing countries, now seeks to extend her China trade even 
 to the Northern coasts of that Empire, while for the longer 
 passage of the Indian Sea she substitutes the Euphi-ates, 
 or a railroad <icross the Isthmus of Suez. In opposition 
 to this, Eussia will not fail to take advantage of every 
 facility presented by her position, and the extension of 
 her dominion in Asia. But the most effectual means 
 is to open a passage to German commerce, so as conjointly 
 to reap the harvest of British commerce which contributes 
 nothing to the Ptussian transit and carrying trade. By 
 handing it over to Germany, its own transit and carrying 
 trade would be much benefited, and the means are in her 
 hands by the navigation of the Danube, in connection with 
 Trebizond. 
 
 " It is clear that to obtain this end, there must take place 
 a decrease of mutual duties hetioeen Frussia and Russia. Eussia 
 will find an equivalent in the produce of its trans-Caucasiaa 
 provinces, particularly silk and cotton ; and in the increasing 
 demand for the produce of those countries it will find the 
 surest means for a more rapid development of its production 
 and its power. The Eussian land trade, will rival the sea 
 trade, only in so far as it can offer European goods cheaper 
 in the Asiatic market, and the more active the intercourse 
 upon the whole line of transport, the more economical will 
 be the exchanges. The time is come which invites to this 
 concurrent enterprise, and a series of favom-able events 
 promise rapid residts. These are: the extension and the 
 strengthening of the Russian dominion on the Black Sea, 
 the acquisition of the eastern ports of the same sea, con- 
 firmed by the peace of 1829; the decided dependence of 
 the Ftrsian empire; the exclusive navigation of the Cas- 
 pian ; the recently-effected complete subjection of the Cauca' 
 aian tribes; and finally the extension of the Eussian domi- 
 nion, which within these few years has spread its frontiers 
 
COMMEECE OF EUROPE AND ASIA. 2W 
 
 eastward from the Caspian, and nearer to the British posses- 
 sions in the East Indies, 280 leagues. 
 
 " The re-establishment of that ancient channel of commerce 
 through the Black Sea, and in connection with the Danube, 
 would give to Europe the important advantage in its inter- 
 course \vith Asia of having entire independence of the Naval 
 Powers. Should ever the time again return in which Great 
 Britain shall rule the ocean, and enact a maritime law, dic- 
 tated by her own exclusive advantage, the Black Sea, at least, 
 will be closed to her, and commerce with that division of the 
 world will not only remain undisturbed, but furnish us in 
 great abundance with all the produce she can ofier us herself, 
 or prevent us by a blockade from procuring. We need but 
 call to remembrance the years 1808-1812, particularly with 
 respect to cotton, to perceive the full importance of this 
 matter." * 
 
 It was said by one of the plenipotentiaiies at the Congress 
 of Keichenbach that the Black Sea was more important to 
 England than all Asia : this is no paradox ; in the words of 
 Sir John M'Neill, " tlie policy of Russia is based upon the 
 certainty of spoiling England of her Indian dominion:" 
 this spoliation can be prevented only in the Black Sea. Were 
 the space filled by that water, diy land, or were it, like the 
 Caspian, girt round with coasts, England would probably have 
 had nothing in Asia to possess ; at all events, she would be 
 now without the means of defending what she has. If you 
 stop up the passage by a parchment chain, it is just as if in 
 the Euxine there remained no water to float your vessels, and 
 in tlie Bosphorus no soundings for them to pass. 
 
 To close the entrance against you, is to open the passage 
 to the Indus to Russia. To that end it is that the fabulous 
 darkness of the ancient Pontus has been diplomatically ex- 
 tended over the modern Euxine, and that no Jason is to be 
 found in the British Navy. How resolute and intent has 
 she been during your languid slumber, or somnambulent 
   These extracts are frova. Dr. Nebenius. 
 
300 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 convulsions ! During the great European war, in which her 
 very existence seemed at stake, Russia would not concede one 
 point in reference to the Danubian Principalities. In 1812 she 
 would not, when struck home by Napoleon, relieve herself from 
 the Ottoman Empire as a foe by the slightest suri'ender. * 
 The pertinacity with which she clung to what appeared 
 useless and unintelligible clauses bearing upon wilds and 
 deserts, so far from awakening the curiosity of European 
 statesmen, raised only a smile of pity at her expense. 
 
 Up to the year 1833, no direct trade had been carried on 
 between England and the Euxine. Whether, however, a large 
 quantity of her goods were sent by Constantinople and 
 Germany, at the fair of Leipsic alone, the demand amounted 
 to £300,000. In the following year two British vessels en- 
 tered the Danube, in the next year fifteen, in the course of 1836 
 twice that number were expected ; the native traffic in small 
 vessels amounting to between 700 and 800 cargoes. This 
 rapid development roused Eussia to the adoption of decisive 
 measures, which were as minute as they were daring, as in- 
 tricate as comprehensive ; now discrediting a firm, now firing 
 on a. brig, now fingering kegs of butter and skins of 
 tallow, now grasping an estuary : at last came the " crowning 
 work," — the robbery from Europe of its principal river by 
 care for its health ! 
 
 The exports are raw and heavy produce, for which water 
 carriage is essential. The return manufactured articles 
 might bear the charges of land carriage, but the demand is 
 limited by the amount of exportation. The Danube is not 
 only the only water communication, but it is the only road. 
 Ores of metals (its mines were the richest of the Eoman 
 empire) ; rocksalt (of which it contains mountains) ; timber 
 (with which the sides of its mountains are clothed) ; hides, 
 loool, taUo7V, sheep, goatskins (flocks and herds may be mul- 
 tiplied to any extent), grain (in 1833 and 1834, when 
 Tiussia, suftering fi'om famine, was supplied by them, although 
 
 * In 1806 she made these Principalities the occasion of replunging 
 England and France in war, and in 1812, gained Bessarabia. 
 
COMMERCE OE EUROPE AND ASIA. 801 
 
 recently relieved from occupation, and still suffering from the 
 eifect of a war, which had drawn from them five millions sterling, 
 and destroyed one quarter of the cattle) ; hemp of the finest 
 quality (in the year 1835, it competed in London with that 
 of St. Petersburg, notwithstanding the quadruple charge 
 of transport) : such were the products they could ofl'er to 
 England. Nor are these all : the Princes of Wallachia and 
 Moldavia, were anxious to rival the Pasha of Egypt in the 
 production of cotton (upon the importance to England of 
 multiplying the sources, and augmenting the amount of that 
 raw material, it is needless to dwell), and a vast region is 
 available for the culture of the mulberry. 
 
 This traffic woidd have been of peculiar advantage to the 
 English shipping interest ; the freight to the Danube is 6O5. 
 when that to the Baltic is 155. and to Canada 305. ; thus the 
 hemp, tallow, grain, or timber, coming from the Provinces, 
 woidd have given, as compared with Canada, an increased 
 employment of shipping of one-Jialf, and as compared with 
 the Baltic of three-fourths. 
 
 The natural difficulties of the navigation were indeed great, 
 but capable of being easily removed ; and notwithstanding 
 their existence, tliis commerce, till arrested by extraneous 
 means, was rapidly increasing, and miglit by this time have 
 exceeded that which we carry on with Prance. If it has not 
 been entirely crushed, it is owing to the enormous resources 
 of the country, — its exuberant fertility, the lowness of price, 
 and the laboriousness and parsimony of the people. 
 
 The basin of the Danube producing, as we have seen, 
 exactly the same articles as Russia, every ton exported from 
 the Danube was a ton less exported from Odessa or St. 
 Petersburg. But besides the difference in the source, com- 
 petition woidd have afl:ected the price; one shilling reduction 
 on the cwt. of tallow or the quarter of grain, is a loss to 
 Russia of from £50,000 to £100,000. A document pub- 
 lished at Odessa under the authority of Count Woronzow, at 
 a time when no danger was anticipated, is plain and conclu- 
 sive on these points. 
 
SOS THE^DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 " Although the three principal mouths of the Danube are 
 in the power of Russia, it is only a small number of her pro- 
 ducts that are exported by the two ports of Bessarabia, — • 
 Ismail, and Reni. The towns of Galatz and Ibrail, the only 
 * debouches' of Moldavia and Wallachia, pom* the supei-fluity 
 of these rich provinces into the commerce of the Black Sea. 
 The protecting sceptre of Russia has created these formidable 
 rivals of herself. If the obstacles which have hitherto impeded 
 the navigation of the Danube come to be entirely removed, 
 this will much facilitate the vent of Austrian articles of 
 merchandise in the provinces, and will open tijp for soiiie of 
 them a way to arrive at other countries. 
 
 " The advantages of this navigation for the trade of the 
 Principalities, which consists principally in exchanges for the 
 products of Austria, are incalculable. Galatz especially will 
 gain by it greatly as an entrepot for Austrian goods, which 
 will be sent thence to the Levant and to the ports of the 
 Black Sea. Austria may even export by the Danube the wheat 
 of the Banat, which can be bought on the spot at eleven roubles 
 the tcheticert, and is said to be of a superior quality. The 
 hemp of Hungary, of which the English have abeady made 
 great purchases and formed depots at Apathin and at Eszek 
 (whence it is sent by water to Siszeck and Carlstadt, and 
 from these places by land to Trieste), might here find perhaps 
 an easier route than by Trieste, as well as timber, which is 
 at present sent with difficulty to Fium. Galatz and Ibrail 
 are about to cultivate virgin countries and of great extent. 
 Ismail and Reni (the Russian ports) must of necessity 
 attach themselves to these giants who threaten to over- 
 whelm them. So long as those who are engaged m tJie 
 trade of Ibrail and Galatz shall be free from every impost, 
 it would be necessary at least to reserve to the merchants of 
 Bessarabia the same immunity, to prevent their leaving the 
 country, as many of them have already done. 
 
 "Trebizond has always been of importance as the port 
 nearest to Erzerum, and its commerce may be estimated at 
 twenty million roubles per annum. By this route, England 
 
COMMERCE OF EUROPE AND ASIA. 303 
 
 and Germany supply Persia and Anatolia with cloths, ladies' 
 cloths, calicos, cotton yam, paper, sugar, colfee, glass ware, 
 porcelain, iron, tin, and steel goods. France takes but little 
 share in tliis trade ; but England will soon have crushed her 
 rivals by the great establishment which she has formed at 
 this point. A single caravan, despatched for Tabriz in 1834, 
 was composed of 650 camel loads, 450 of which were pil- 
 laged by the Kurds on the road from Erzerum to Tabriz. 
 What means can Russia adopt for rivalling the English 
 in this locality?" 
 
 These last words indicate the purpose of all Russia's com- 
 mercial efforts. She is no rival of England, as far as manu- 
 factm-es or commerce go ; her rivalry is political. The 
 question really means, " How can an end be put to English, 
 commerce, and what other commerce is to be substituted in 
 its place?" This, like the statement I have before quoted, 
 is addressed to Germany, and it says — Russia is open to an 
 offer. 
 
 I shall now proceed to the means of execution. No history- 
 has recorded, no fable has devised, things more marvellous 
 than the events connected with this river. Here will be 
 seen how Russia bends every will, Procrusteses every measure 
 to suit and fit her purposes. I shall have to record my own 
 failures ; but, in tliis case, failure, of necessity, is parent of 
 success. It was not her sight but oiu- blindness that was 
 terrible. There is a time when evil measures prevail, but 
 that time comes, too, when they are brought to light. The 
 series of facts now completed — disconnected during their 
 course by time and distance, here brought together, may 
 furnish that light, and enable eyes to see that have long been 
 closed. 
 
304. 
 
 CHAPTEB 11. 
 
 'Russian (Quarantine on the JDanuhe, and the 
 Coast of Circasda, 
 
 The marshy islands forming the Delta of the Damibe are 
 iminhabited and utterly valueless, except as a station com- 
 manding the river in war, and for that purpose only in so far 
 as they are fortified. They were ceded to Eussia at the 
 Treaty of Adrianople, by which any fortification on them v,'as 
 prohibited. The plague, however, is in those countries the 
 fierce enemy of mankind, and it was an interest common to 
 the contracting parties, and indeed to all Europe, to arrest its 
 ravages. Provision was therefore made for effecting this 
 pui'pose at the mouth of the Danube, and quarantines were 
 excepted from the sweeping restriction against all constructions 
 whatever within six miles of the river, and so on the unin- 
 habited and useless islands a lazzaretto was budt. But if 
 sanitary regulations are established, they must be enforced ; 
 and the method of enforcing them is by guns. These were, 
 therefore, placed in such a manner as to command the vessels 
 passing up the river. 
 
 The Treaty by which these islands were obtained closed a 
 long series of negotiations and warlike operations in which 
 Eussia was allied with England and France ; consequently, 
 reciprocal engagements existed as to the terms of future set- 
 tlement. It is necessaiyto recall the outline of theevenjs to 
 explain the nature of these engagements. 
 
 In 1821, an armed force crossed the Pruth, headed by a 
 Eussian general. This was the Greek Insurrection. She 
 required the Porte to withdraw its troops, offering her own 
 
liUSSIAN QUAKANTINE. 30{9 
 
 to put it down. On the refusal of the Porte, she appealed 
 to the Sanctity of Treaties, and recalled her ambassador, 
 entrusting her interests to tlic ambassador of England. 
 
 For five years the Greek war and the Eussian differences go 
 on ; an adjustment then takes place at Ackermann, on the 
 pledge of Ilussia not to interfere any more in Greece : she had 
 just signed a Protocol (secret) with England to interfere in. 
 
 The Greeks had applied for protection, not to Eussia, but 
 to England ; not against Turkey but Eussia.* Mr. Canning 
 sends the Duke of Wellington to concert measures at St. 
 Tetershurah. Thus was imposed on two litigants the mediation 
 of the very power whom both charged with being the source 
 of their iU will. The Protocol of the 4th of April, 1826, is 
 the record of this infatuation. 
 
 " His Britannic Majesty having been requested hy the GreeJcs 
 to interpose his good offices in order to obtain their recon- 
 ciliation with the Ottomon Porte, having in consequence 
 offered his Mediation to that Power, and being desii'ous of 
 concerting the measure of his Government upon this subject, 
 with His Majesty the Emperor of all the Eussias, &c." 
 
 By being imposed upon the belligerents as Mediatrix, 
 Eussia was constituted Arbitress of the Alliance, which had 
 been called into being only with the view of clogging her 
 separate action, who was dreaded as all-powerfid, and had for 
 effect to make her so by subjecting to her control the 
 measures of the allies. f 
 
 England took precautions to prevent any misapplication of 
 
 * M. Eodios to Mr. Canning, August 12, 1824.— *' The Govem- 
 mcnt (of Greece) would have persevered in its system ot silence were 
 it not forced to break it by a note proceeding from tlie north of 
 Europe. This note decides on the fate of Greece, by a will that is 
 foreign to it. The Greek nation prefer a glorious death to the dis- 
 graceful lot intended to be imposed upon them." 
 
 Mr. Canning replies : — " The opinion of the British Government 
 is that any plan proceeding from the Cabinet of St. Petersburg can 
 be drawn up only witli friendly intentions towards Greece." 
 
 t See extract from M. Von Prokesch at the end of tliis Chapter. 
 Note II, 
 
806 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 this unconsciously transfen-ed power ; and at least the proof 
 of her good faith shines forth in the following moral and 
 benignant period : — 
 
 " His Britannic Majesty and his Imperial Majesty will not 
 seek in this aiTangement for any increase of teiTitory, nor any 
 exclusive influence nor advantages in commerce for theii* 
 subjects wliich shall not be equally attainable by all other 
 nations." 
 
 Eussia now proposed that the Protocol should beccme a 
 Treaty, stipulating in certain contingencies measures of 
 coercion. 
 
 Mr. Canning stood aghast. He perceived at a glance the 
 consequences, but it was too late. He had been oven*eached 
 in the Protocol,* and could not face the threatened exposure 
 to his colleagues. (The despatch instructing the Russian 
 Ambassador, as to how he was to be handled, has been pub- 
 lished in the second number of the " Portfolio," new series.) 
 He put his hand to the Treaty on the 6th of July (1827), and 
 in a couple of months died of a broken heart. Yet that 
 Treaty, be it ever remembered, did bind each of the allies 7iot 
 to acquire territory, nor to suffeu it to be acquired. 
 
 Within a few weeks of the Treaty for the " Pacification of 
 the East,'' the Turkish navy is annihilated. The Porte 
 demands satisfaction, and suspends intercourse with the 
 Ambassadors. ''These functionaries retire, and the Porte 
 believes itself already at war with England, France, and 
 Eussia." Then the Powers " solemnly take upon themselves 
 the obligation that the successes their superiority seems to 
 promise them hi this struggle shall not lead them to seek any 
 exclusive advantage whatever." 
 
 Eussia, however, relieves them from belligerent duties and 
 the care of " exclusive advantages." She invades the pro- 
 vinces in the beginning of the neit year, and notwithstanding 
 the extinction by the allies of the Turkish naval force, to 
 
 * Negotiated to prevent the separate action of Russia, and stipu- 
 lating the right of separate action for each. The double infatuation 
 passes belief. 
 
EUSSIAN QUARANTINBii; 307 
 
 the astonishment of Europe, the campaign is a dra^vn one. 
 " The experience," says Pozzo de Borgo, confidentially ad- 
 dressing his chief, " we have just made must now reconcile all 
 opinions in favour of the resolution toJiich Jias heeii taken. If 
 the Sultan has been enabled to offer us so determined and 
 regidar a resistance, whilst he had scarcely drawn together 
 the elements of his new plan, how formidable should we have 
 found him had he had time to give to it more solidity." 
 
 Her contemporaneous view of her engagements to her 
 allies is rather amusing ; the avowal of her agents is frank,* 
 and theii* language always naive. One sentence will suffice. 
 The two Russian Ambassadors in London v/rite on the 13th 
 of June: — 
 
 ** The news which Count Pozzo de Borgo has sent us, on 
 the position of the French Ministiy, which is every day more and 
 more uncertain, have determined m not to alienate completely 
 the Cabinet of London before the answers from Constantinople 
 relieve us from anxiety." They, therefore, assure Lord 
 Aberdeen, " That, in case of success the Emperor would be 
 iinde?' an ohligation to consult his allies, and that a definite 
 state of things would not be established without their assent 
 and concurrence.''* On this they require a public manifestation 
 which shall " discourage the resistance of the Porte ! " 
 Lord Aberdeen strives to extract in the first instance some 
 knowledge of the proposed conditions of the peace, in which 
 he was to concur, but the Russian diplomatists, duly estimating 
 Lord Aberdeen's penetration, confine themselves to gene- 
 ralities ; as eveiy " substantive communication on so delicate 
 a subject would draw down real dangers." 
 
 No doubt it was toil and embaiTassment enough for the 
 * " With respect to the free navigation of the Bosphorus," says 
 the Russian ambassador to Loxd Aberdeen, in Juno, 1829, " it con- 
 etitutcs one of our necessities, for to it the prosperity of a part of 
 the domains of the Emperor is united by an indissoluble link. We 
 cannot permit the caprice of a vizier, or a favourite sultana, to arrest at 
 "will the whole movement of commerce, the whole progress of public 
 and private industiy in many of our provinces." This to the British 
 Minister is an argument, not a revelation* 
 
308 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 English Forei^i Secretary to have to deal with one Russian 
 Ambassador ; but on this occasion two were sprung upon him, 
 and these not of equal mettle, but the one heavy and the other 
 fleet ; so that as " force needs when the devil drives," there 
 was no escape for him either with the hare or with the hounds. 
 The pallid statesman was saddled with the Treaty (he is 
 always burdened with a Treaty) — the Treaty of the 6th of 
 July;* combining perspicuity with integrity, he avows his 
 resolution to carry it into effect, and his inability to compre- 
 hend what the effect would be. One assurance he does 
 possess, the disinterestedness of Eussia in waiving her bel- 
 ligerent rights in the Mediterranean (which she did not waive) 
 to afford facilities for the settlement of the Eastern question. 
 His troubles, however, were not confined to the torture 
 of diplomatic discussions, or the toil of despatches. He 
 had to encounter the fire of St. Stephen's and the wordy 
 war that breaks no bones, but sometimes does worse. Like 
 n thunderbolt in a clear sky, opposition to Foreign policy 
 flashes for the first time forth, and in the Peers and the 
 Commons he is exposed to questions, sneers, and denun- 
 ciations. This energy of the insular mind must be prompted 
 by the danger of Turkey and the pretensions of Russia, the 
 commercial interests of England and the illegal interference 
 with her trade ? Not in the least. He is assailed because not 
 sufficiently " Russian," and is imperiously required to give an 
 account of his false dealing with Sultan Mahmoud against 
 Czar Nicholas, because of his antiquated aspirations for 
 despotism, and 'his inveterate animosity to liberty and inde- 
 pendence. He is told that Tm-key is the aggressor, Russia 
 the victim, and that the peace of Europe and the honour of 
 England were not to be sacrificed on account of " unpro- 
 nouncable fortresses on- the Danube."f In fact, the oppo- 
 sition of 1829 in the British Parliament presented a parallel 
 
 * This is the first of the " July " Treaties which became known at 
 the end of one session to be forgotten befoi'e the opening of the 
 next. 
 
 t Speech of Lord Palmerston, 1st June, 1829. 
 
KUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 809 
 
 to the oppoi*itiou in 1791, with this difference however, 
 that the collusion of Fox Avith the Czarina was directed 
 against statesmanlike measures of resistance, whilst the 
 compact between the Russian embassy and the then ex- 
 Secretary-at-War was for the purpose of goading on a 
 sulky beast of burden in its miry path. It therelore 
 required no gre^it knowledge of the world for the two 
 Russian ambassadors, on concluding the report of the in- 
 terviews with Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Wellington, 
 to write " It is in the midst of our camp that peace must be 
 signed : Europe must learn its conditions only when it is 
 concluded. Remonstrances will then be too late, and it will 
 patiently suifer what it can no longer prevent.'* 
 
 The declaration of war (26th April, 1828) had asserted 
 that Russia was far from cherishing ambitious projects, suffi- 
 cient people and countries acknowledging already her sway ; 
 akeady sufficient anxieties were connected with the extent 
 of her dominion. 
 
 In the manifesto at its close (1st of October, 1829), she 
 declares, "that she has remained constantly a stranger to 
 every desire of conquest, and to every view of aggrandise- 
 ment." She announces, as the consequence of her triumph, 
 the freedom of the Dardanelles " to the commerce of all 
 nations," and the arrestation of the plague by the occupation 
 of the left bank of the Danube. 
 
 A doubt has been rAised whether tlie stipulation forbid- 
 ding acquisition did apply in reference to Turkish territorj^ 
 insomuch as the Porte had not accepted the Treaty of July 6th 
 (she had objected only on the ground that Russia was a party 
 to it)', but on the 9th September, 1829, that is, before the 
 signature of the Treaty of Adriauople, her form.al adhesion 
 was given in these terms : — 
 
 " The Sublime Porte declares, that having already adhered 
 to the Treaty of London, it now further promises and pledges 
 to subscribe entirely to all the decisions which the Conference 
 of London sJuill adopt with respect to its execution." 
 
 The letter of Pertef Pasha to the Pashas of the Empire, 
 
310 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 which Kussia made the pretext of the rupture, his country- 
 men are now pleased to censure with misjudging bitterness. 
 The rupture, as seen by the words quoted from the Despatch 
 of Pozzo de Borgo, was determined on other grounds, and had 
 been for two years prepared for with unceasing activity. 
 
 All this had come out of a false term. Mediation is 
 Arbitration, and can be undertaken only ai the request and 
 with the consent of both litigants. A forced Mediation is a 
 War in disguise. 
 
 England determines to mediate ; but, instead of commu- 
 nicating with the parties, she communicates with the Govern- 
 ment obnoxious to both, and which actually was on the point 
 of rupture with one of them. This communication is sea-et. 
 Having concerted measures, they apply not even then to 
 the parties, but to another Foreign Power. This is a cow 
 sj)iracy ! The three then draw up a Treaty to enforce by 
 arms, if necessaiy, the common decisions of their ministers. 
 They commence, indeed, by placing one limit to their omni- 
 potence — they shall spare the sovereignty of the Sultan. 
 Their first act is to destroy his fleet ; their next, to make 
 Greece independent. With a heroism that found no appre- 
 ciation, the Porte prepared to perish, and accepted tlie war. 
 The two associates then hold back, and Eussia makes her 
 separate war — but the Conferences continue! The Porte, 
 though not again attacked by the Powers, except through 
 Greece, lies under all the effect of a suspended invasion, and 
 thus at last does England constrain her to accomplish the 
 Treaty of the 6th of July by forcing her to submit to the 
 decisions of a Mediation wdth one of the members op 
 
 ■WHICH she was actually AT WAR. 
 
 To the inhumanity of her acts England was blinded by her 
 philanthropy and integrity ; to the consequences of her policy, 
 by her trust in her ally. She had proceeded upon the faith 
 pledged, that the stipulations of the Treaty of the 6th of 
 July should ever be sacred in the eyes of that Government. 
 When she made at last the discovery that these stipulations 
 nad in its eyes no value, when she found herself betrayed at 
 
RUSSIAN QUABANTINB. 311 
 
 the close as she had been duped at the beginning, then she 
 ** reserves " her judgment ! 
 
 Some credit is due to Lord Aberdeen for having, at the 
 conclusion of the war, ventured to pen a despatch to 
 St. Petersburg, reserving to the King, his master, the futde 
 and superfluous right " of judging of the sacrifices whicli 
 Turkey would be called tipon to make," a right which, it is 
 needless to say, was never exercised, and a despatch which, 
 it has been asserted, by some com'se of necromancy, has dis- 
 appeared from the archives of the Foreign Office. Russia 
 knew that England was as destitute of knowledge to restore 
 as of ability to construct, of courage to avenge as of fore- 
 sight to prevent ; at least it is not necessary now to misjudge. 
 Let us learn one lesson from our shame — that to associate 
 ourselves with Russia is not the way to counteract. As 
 regards the mouths of the Danube, the advantage which she 
 secured was solely of value to her by their exclusion, and the 
 injmy which thereby she was enabled to inflict upon them. 
 The following is the article of the Treaty : — 
 
 " The frontier line will follow the course of the Danube to 
 the mouth of St. George, leaving all the islands formed by the 
 different branches in the possession of Russia. The right 
 bank will remain as formerly, in the possession of the Otto- 
 man Porte. It is, however, agreed, that that right bank, 
 from the point where the arm of St. George departs from that 
 of Souline, sJtall remain tmmhahited to a distance of two hours 
 (six miles) from the river, and that no kind of structiu'e shall 
 be raised there ; and in like manner, on the islands, which will 
 remain in the possession of the couii, of Russia. With the 
 exception of quarantines which tcill be there established, it will 
 not be permitted to make any other establishment or forti- 
 fication." 
 
 Of what toil have we not here the fruit — of what purposes 
 the germ ! Observe the limitation to the navigation of the 
 Danube assumed in the form of a concession: here is the 
 announcement of the intended quarantine so long after 
 established. 
 
313 THE DANUBE AND EUXINK 
 
 The attitude and language of Eussia now changes. Sie 
 lias no longer to draw us on : she has only to prevent us from 
 escaping. In our conduct a similar alteration appears ; the 
 cold fit succeeds to the hot, and we are now all apathy 
 and endurance. She waits nearly two years before the next 
 step ; it is, of course. Quarantine, but not on the Danube, 
 she turns to the fabulous regions beyond the Euxine. 
 
 On the 8th of August, 1831, the Eussian Cabinet addressed 
 a despatch to its representative at Constantinople, informing 
 him of the " constant care devoted by our government in order 
 to preserve the nejgMouring foreign countries from the con- 
 tagious disease arising from Turkey," and of its intention to 
 subject to sanitary regulations "the communications which 
 freely exist between the inhabitants of the Caucasus and tlie 
 neiglibouring TiirkisJi Provinces.''^ This admission of the 
 Caucasus being a " foreign country " has in view the esta- 
 blishing of a case applicable to the Danubian Provinces. " It 
 becomes indispensable that you should communicate the above 
 mentioned regidations to the foreign missions at Constantinople, 
 as well as to the Ottoman government itself." 
 
 Now was the time come for the exercise of the right reserved 
 by the English Government to judge of sacrifices to be imposed 
 on Turkey. It could not by silence escape from a decision ; 
 there was no alternative between protesting and publishing 
 the Notification in the " Gazette ; " all such Notifications of 
 Quarantine being published in the " Gazette ; indeed the 
 minister is personally liable in the courts of law for damage 
 accruing from such suppression. But mere silence sufficed 
 so far as Eussia was concerned, for thereafter no step could 
 be taken against the Treaty, and, therefore, while the Protest 
 was not made, neither was the Notification published. To 
 avoid this last difficulty, the communication Avas not made 
 direct i but through the minister at Constantinople; while 
 suppressed in England, it was exhibited by the consul at 
 Constantinople and so all vessels were warned off the coast. 
 The Foreign Secretary was no longer Lord Aberdeen, but his 
 vehement Parliamentary Antagonist. 
 
RUSSIAN QUAKANTINE. tU 
 
 The curious part is that these ** Regulations " had no 
 existence. They are refeiTed to as enclosed first by the 
 Bussian Minister, then by the Russian Ambassador, and 
 lastly by the British Minister at Constantinople ; yet are they 
 not to be found in any one of the three despatches. 
 
 But -that is a small matter. The Quarantine in itself had 
 no existence. I visited the whole coast in 1834, and found 
 none. From Nicolai, the frontier Tmirish port which was in 
 quarantine, I sailed for the Russian station at Gelengick, 
 where Russian officers, after a few words a6o?d quarantine, 
 came on board ; and I was received on board the Russian 
 brig of war, which captured the Vixen ; thence I went on 
 shore ; accompanied by the commandant of the fort T went 
 to the place of intercourse with the Circassians, which had, 
 indeed, the form of a Parlatorio, but where no measures of 
 quarantine whatever were observed. I then sailed for Sou- 
 jouk Su, where I landed, and then to Sevastapol, and was put 
 in quarantine because coming from the coast of Clrcassia- 
 The Admiral came alongside and was informed of our inter- 
 course with the Russian authorities on the coast, and of our 
 landing there ; no excepiion was taken to their conduct.* It 
 follows that Russia's doctrines on contagion was of the same 
 texture as her opinions on jwlitics and framed exclusively for 
 the good of " Foreign Countries." 
 
 It has been argued /or Russia, that the regulations existed 
 for Anapa and Redout Kale where there were quarantines, 
 and that as to the rest of the coasts the prohibition to 
 approach was a Regulation. Then why does she approach ? 
 A sanitary Regulation that is not good to stop a Russian is 
 surely bad for the other inhabitants of the earth. 
 
 • I visited Silistria when occupied by the Russians; "travel- 
 lers" had to perform fifteen days' quarantine, but Russians were 
 liable to infection only by a graduated scale: ten days for a 
 private, five for a captain ; a field officer had three, a superior officer 
 none. Foreign despatches were fumigated with much care, Russian 
 despatches utterly neglected. 
 
ZU THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 All this time notliing has been done as to the foreshadowed 
 Quarantine of the Danube ; but the sudden development of 
 the trade of the Principalities, vvhieh commenced in 1834, 
 when they supplied 500,000 tchetverts of grain to southern 
 Eussia re-awakened her solicitude ; and on the 7th of Fe- 
 bruary, 1836, appeared the Ukase to intercept vessels 
 *' proceeding on their voyage up the Danube," and send 
 them to Odessa ! If the Turkish Government, in its pro- 
 verbial improvidence, had neglected the care of the health of 
 the populations bordering on the Danube, it had at least 
 attended to their comforts so far as to keep open the naviga- 
 tion of the stream by pallisades to narrow the current, and 
 dredges to prevent accumulation of sand. When surren- 
 dered by Turkey the channel averaged a depth of twelve 
 feet, in the beginning of 1836 it had been reduced to eight. 
 Thus, says a contemporary writer, " an impenetraVic Ibar will 
 be formed at the mouth of this river, and Russia to her 
 important possessions will add that of an iron gate between 
 the Danube and the Euxine."* 
 
 It mattered uet whether the vessel came from Liverpool 
 or Trebizond, or ^as destined for Eussian or Turkish Ports, 
 and as in the "Eegulation" for Circassia, Custom-house 
 and Quarantine are jumbled together, so here, "This 
 Quarantine, in so far as regards the Cmtoim, is to be 
 regulated by the same laws as the present Quarantine of 
 Bazertcheck." 
 
 Before adventuring on the Ukase of the 7th Eebiniary she 
 had felt her way by the forced visit of vessels, the inspec- 
 tion of their papers, the exaction of fees, facts brought to the 
 knowledge of the British Foreign Office two months before 
 the Ukase, and anxiously sought out by that Office. The 
 chief partner of the principal English House at Bucharest 
 writes on the 7th December, 1835 ; "I saw Mr. Strang- 
 ways to-day, and told him that I had information to-day from 
 two captains of vessels I have had arrived from the Danube, 
 that they were both required to show their papers to th«» 
 
 • Times Cor., March 2, 1836. 
 
EUSSLVN QUAHAKTINB. Sl5 
 
 Kussian Commandant at the mouth of that river, settled 
 with about 100 troops on the Tnrklsk side, and they were 
 told that there were three and four dollars to be paid when 
 their papers were returned to them signed. They were also 
 required almost by force to desist from tracking their vessels 
 on the Russian side of the river, although Greek and Turkish 
 vessels were allowed to do so. Mr. S. desired me to furnish 
 the details for Lord Palmerston, which I hope to be able to 
 do to-night." 
 
 Each of these acts was an infraction of the public law of 
 Euix)pe. The Treaty of Vienna (Art. 109) declares that the 
 Navigation of Eivers " along their whole course, from the 
 point where each of them become navigable to its mouth, 
 'shall be entirely free." By Art. Ill, *' the amount of the 
 duties shall, in no case, exceed those now (1815) paid," and 
 •' no increase shall take place except with the common con- 
 Bent of the States bordeiing on the rivers." By Art. 113> 
 " each State shall be at the expense of keeping in good re- 
 pair the Towing Paths," and " shall maintain the necessary 
 works in order that no obstruction shall be experienced by 
 the navigation." 
 
 The British Nation, and indeed all Europe, was vehe- 
 mently excited ; an indignation was aroused, such as had 
 never on any occasion been manifested since the war with. 
 France. The papers were unanimous in their denunciations ; 
 the leading commercial cities sent up petitions to Parliament, 
 praying for " protection " and resistance to " the encroach- 
 ments of Eussia." Addresses in the same sense were laid 
 at the feet of the King, who, himself a sailor, was known to 
 " share to the fullest extent in the emotion of his people ;" 
 and it was generally understood that a Majority of the 
 Commons were ready to vote an Address, embodying the 
 appeal of the merchants, and further praying for the adoption 
 of measures for the entrance of a British squadron into the 
 Bkck Sea. 
 
 But in what position stood the minister? He had ad* 
 mitted the measures on the Circassian coast ; no more than 
 
816 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 Mr. Canning could he stand the effects of such a discbsure. 
 The trouble of his position is revealed in a trifling circum- 
 stance. I Iiave said that the press was unanimous : there was, 
 however, one exception, — The "Morning Chronicle," the 
 avowed organ of the Foreign Office. Another, though un- 
 avowed organ of that office, " The Portfolio," took lead on 
 the opposite side.* 
 
 The Address was to be moved by Mr. Patrick Stewart, in 
 the Commons, on the 20th of April, and as the Government 
 had reserved every expression of its views, no less curiosity 
 than excitement prevailed. Late on the night of the 19th 
 I was informed that the motion was to be put oif. I hastened 
 to Mr. P. Stewart, and found him in bed ; he told me that 
 he had yielded to a representation that the Cabinet was " all 
 right and firm," and likely to be embarrassed by a public 
 discussion. It required but few words to induce him to 
 withdraw his assent to the postponement, and he moved 
 according to notice on the following night. 
 
 Mr. Patrick Stewart's exposition of the case was complete. 
 He justified the demand for " protection," by proving the 
 violation of natural rights, treaty stipulations, and solemn 
 pledges ; he showed the infraction of the Treaty of Vienna, 
 exposed the perfidious character of Eussia's policy, and the 
 alarming nature of her projects. The Minister concwred 
 in the statement and resisted the Address. " His Majesty's 
 Government, he said, had no desire or disposition to submit 
 to aggression from any power." Mr. Stewart, conceiving 
 
 • The views of that periodical the following extracts will sliow : — 
 " The formation of Englisli establishments in those provinces, and 
 the exportation of raw produce, which are the staples of Russia, by 
 means of British capital and enterprise, naturally inspire her with 
 great and not unfounded alarm. She therefore has proceeded quietly 
 to establish point by point, control over the river. * * * Against 
 this outrage it was understood that remonstrance had been made by 
 Great Britain^ and we suppose that according to custom the Ukase 
 referred to in the St. Petersburg paragraph is the answer of the 
 Autocrat to this remonstrance ! What can England be supposed tO 
 •ay, save * Pour on, I will endure?* " 
 
RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 317 
 
 that by tliis declaration he " was as much committed as he 
 could be by any act," withdrew his motion : it entered into 
 no man's mind to doubt, that the quarantine and tolls on the 
 Danube would be removed. In Parliament the matter was 
 never revived : there is no trace of a communication with the 
 Russian Cabinet on the subject: bnt the quarantine still 
 stands on the Island of Forgetfulness (Leti). 
 
 Fifteen days after the debate; the following letter was 
 written to Messrs. Bell : — 
 
 **Iorelfjn Office, May 5^/«, 1836. 
 ** Gentlemen, 
 
 '* In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 
 27th ultimo, upon the subject of the obstructions offered by 
 the Russian authorities to the free navigation of the Danube, 
 I am directed by Viscount Palmerstou, to acquaint you that 
 his Lordship has called upon the law adviser for the Crown for 
 Ids opinion as to the regulations promulgated hj the Russian 
 vkase of the 1th of Fehruarj/, 1836; but in the meantime. 
 Lord Pahnerston directs me to acquaint you with respect to 
 the latter part of your letter, that it is the opinion of his 
 Majesty's government, that no toll is justly demanded by the 
 Russian authorities at the mouth of the Danube, and that 
 you have acted properly in directing your agents to refuse to 
 pay it. 
 
 " I am, Gentlemen, &c., &c., 
 
 (Signed) "J. Backhouse." 
 
 The fact so communicated to a merchant is reserved from 
 Parliament. The reference to the law officers showed that 
 the Government had not made up its mind ; how, then, 
 should it concur in the statements of Mr. P. Stewart ? The 
 merchant is encouraged to resist aggressions of a foreign 
 state. Why is that Government not required to desist from 
 them ? The distinction drawn between similar acts, respect- 
 ing one of which the Government had only asked an opinion, 
 was not likely to produce collision between the Hottse of 
 
318 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 Bell and the Imperial troops. The bold letter of the minis- 
 ter puts an end to all resistance, no opinion of the law ofiicers 
 ever appears ; and now a Eussian toll is exacted in Londan 
 and Liverpool on every English vessel sailing for the Turkish 
 ports on the Danube.* 
 
 Whilst the impression prevailed that vigorous measures 
 were to be taken, the idea arose of sending a trading vessel 
 direct to Circassia. 
 
 This matter was being discussed'by the chief authorities.f 
 The king so warmly entered into it, that a letter was written 
 
 * Liverpool^ MarcJi, 1848. 
 
 In shipping goods to the Danube there are fees to be paid to the 
 Hussian consul amounting to nearly £100 per cargo. On each bale, 
 or article, even though of metal, two roubles silver are charged 
 (6s. Aid. to 6s. 8d.) There are other expenses for seals, tin cases, and 
 extra coverings, imposed by the Russian regVtlations, vrithout which 
 vessels would be sent to Odessa, and subjected to forty days' qua- 
 rantine ; interest of money thereby lost, perhaps a market for their 
 sale, &c. The agent complained bitterly of the extortion, but his 
 London correspondent advised him on no accoiuit to agitate tha 
 matter, as the cliief Iiouse at Bucharest had tried and had failed, and 
 their vessel had been confiscated without compensation. I have been 
 told that from the Americans this impost is not exacted. 
 
 t The followuig extract from a letter of Lord Ponsonby, quoted 
 in the House of Commons on the 23 d Feb., 184.'8, will show his 
 entire concurrence : — 
 
 "I had been led to believe that you had changed your mind 
 respectmg Circassia. No ! I did not beheve it, but I heard it. I am 
 delighted with the manner m which you have treated this subject. 
 It is admirable. I hope you have approved ofichat I have done in 
 my despatches respecting it. I considered it from the begmning to 
 be next in importance to the possession of Constantinople itself : but 
 it is only lately, comparatively speaking, that I have known the facts 
 of the total freedom of that country from every legitimate connec- 
 tion or tie, and therefore the total illegahty of any title assumed to 
 It by Nicholas. If we had any man in England worth a straw wo 
 should soon settle these matters ; but our statesmen, liigh or low, 
 are pedlars, but without the sagacity that distinguishes the 
 Israelite who carries about his small wares for sale to housemaids and 
 •ouilions." ^jjj ^g,^ 
 
BUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 319 
 
 by his private secretary, stating the great service to his 
 country which any merchant might so render. This letter 
 was shown to INIr. Bell, and was the origin of the voyage 
 of the Vixen. I owe it to Mr. Bell, who is now dead, 
 to state that in all the misery and subsequent ruin in- 
 curred thereby, he never once alluded to that letter, on 
 which alone the step was taken ; and yet he had authority 
 to do so. 
 
 Up to this time a Blockade had alone been heard of. The 
 Eussian cruisers had frequently detained and warned off 
 neutral vessels. Several cases had come before the Foreign 
 Office, and it was urgent in its inquiries respecting the 
 blockade of the coast of Circassia. If there was blockade 
 there was war, and there could be neither quarantine nor 
 custom-house regulations. But it was not judged pradent 
 by Mr. Bell to send his vessel without a specific declaration 
 from the Foreign Minister. This letter, however, merely 
 asked if there were " anij restrictions on trade recognised by 
 Her Majesty's Government ?" as if not, he intended to send 
 thither a vessel with a cargo of salt. Lord Palmerston answers, 
 ** You ask me whether it woidd be for your advantage to engage 
 in a speculation in salt in the province of Wallachia," and tells 
 him that it is for commercial firms to judge for themselves 
 in determining " whether they shall enter into or decline 
 Qpmmercial speculations." Mr. Bell, now advised from the 
 Foreign Office, specifies : he asks, " whether or not Her 
 Majesty's Government recogni^ the Russian Blockade on 
 the Black Sea to the south of trie river Kouban ?" Now he 
 is referred to the " Gazette, in which all Notifications, such 
 €LS those alluded to hy you, are made." There having appeared 
 in the Gazette neither Notification of " Blockade," 7ior of 
 " Uestrictions," Mr. Bell is satisfied, and the Vixen sails. 
 Mr. BeU's brother is to go as supercargo, and he is sent to 
 Constantinople with despatches from the Foreign Office. 
 There he is informed by the Ambassador of the " Restric- 
 tions," but is told, *' that Russia had no right whatever to 
 p'escrihe rerjulations for that trade.'^ The vessel sailed, and 
 
S20 THE DANUBE* AND EUXINE. 
 
 was seized for breaking the Blockade,* and confiscated on 
 the 2oth of Novemloer, 1836. On April 19, 1837, the, 
 Eussian Government is " requested to state the reasons on 
 account of which it has thought itself warranted to seize and 
 confiscate in time of peace, a merchant-vessel belonging to 
 British subjects." All specification of i\\Q place where this 
 seizure took place is avoided ; it is on the Black Sea. The 
 justificatory reasons, according to Lord Palmerston, are: 
 first, the receiving on board a cargo not allowed to be im- 
 ported at all ; second, an attempt to trade at a Russian port 
 where there is no custom-house. In the intemperate note 
 •demanding satisfaction, it had been forgotten to state where 
 this seizure, " in time of peace," had been made. In the 
 dignified despatch which closes the affair (23d May, 1837), 
 the English Government has discovered the spot where the 
 incident occurred, together with some curious historical points 
 connected therewith. 
 
 "His Majesty's Government, considering, in the first 
 place, that Soujouk Kale, which ^t•as achiowledged by Russia, 
 in the Treaty of 1783 as a Turkish possession, now belongs 
 to Russia, as stated hy Count Nesselrode, by virtue of the 
 Treaty of Adrianople * * see no sufficient reason to ques- 
 tion the right of Eussia to seize and confiscate the Vixen" 
 
 Was it by an tmhitentlonal oversiglit that the Russian 
 *ate of 1783 (according to the old style), was substituted 
 for 1784, which must have appeared in any despatch ori- 
 ginally drafted in Downing Street ? 
 
 I have subjoined, at the end of the chapter, the complete 
 disproof of these assumptions. The then British Ambas- 
 sador, — as will be seen from the note at p. 318 — denied the 
 power of Turkey to dispose of Soujouk Kale to Russia fron? 
 •* the absence of any legitimate subjection to the Sultan 
 Besides, there was node facto possession, no less thanthirty- 
 
 • " Such documents as will prove that the schooner Vixen was 
 employed on a hlocTcaded coast" — Admiral Lazareff to Mr. Cliilds 
 December 24th, 1836. 
 
BUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 321 
 
 six British subjects having offered testimony or nicide affi- 
 davit to the contra IT. 
 
 Now tear oif tlio lion's skin. "What, after the smoke has 
 blown away becomes public opinion — enliglitened age — 
 miglity engine the Press — great parties — constitutional me- 
 chanism — balance of powers — lloyal prerogative — res})onsi- 
 bility of Ministers — and omnipotence of Parliament ? 
 what, with such frauds standing in the place of truth, avails 
 physical strength ? 
 
 One, himself of no ordinary powers, who had had occasion 
 of making this discovery, observed : " "\Yliat shocks me, is 
 to think that whilst of us a very few can by any chance be 
 let into the knowledge of such thing?, and these few can 
 •only raise their hands in astonishment, or drop them in 
 despair — a barbarous race knew it all along, and deals with 
 ■our vices.and illusions as with property." 
 
 We have passed through three ])hases, under three Ad- 
 ministrations, who, whatever their differences in speculative 
 matters, coincide in the manner of exercising the highest pre- 
 rogative of the Crown. 
 
 In the first period we see the English Minister binding 
 Russia to abnegation. In the second, placing conditions 
 to his co-operation, and reserving his judgment on her acts. 
 In the third, dependent on her forbearance, forced to yield, 
 and — to disguise. Of the grave events which marked the 
 iirst period. Parliament took no notice. It allowed the 
 surrender of the power of the Crown into the hands of a 
 foreign Conspiracy without one word of approval or dis- 
 approval. The second period, that of Russia's " separate 
 war," called forth only an incidental notice, in a debate on 
 Portugal, on the 1st of .Tuue, 1829, when the Government 
 was attacked for not being sufiiciently Russian. During 
 tlirce years. Parliamentary histoiy mns in a wholly separate 
 channel from the diplomatic and real. In the third period, 
 Parliament is awakened — why did it not sleep on ? 
 
 On the 17th of March, 1S37, Lord Paluierston declared 
 that Russia's acquisitions on the Danube and in Circassia were 
 
 11 
 
323 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 violations of her pledges. Seven years and seven months had 
 then elapsed from the occupation of the Delta of the Danul e; 
 fixe years and four months from the notification in respect to 
 Circassia ; one year and four months from the admission of 
 the tolls on the Danube ; one year and three months from the 
 Ukase for the Quarantine. Since this declaration eighteen 
 years have elapsed without any steps being taken in con- 
 formity with it. 
 
 On the 6th of July, 1840, Lord Palmerston declared that 
 the Treaty of Vienna did apply to the navigation of the 
 Danube. I'our years and five months had then elapsed from 
 the communication of the Ukase ; four years and two months 
 from the assertion in reference to it, that Her Majesty's 
 government was not prepared to submit to any aggression ; 
 four years and one month from his commissioning a private 
 firm to resist the Russian authorities. Since that declaration 
 nearly fifteen years have elapsed without any steps having 
 been taken in accordance with this or any other declaration 
 of British rights or ministerial intentions. 
 
 The debate of the 6th of July, 1840, arose out of an 
 attempt to give effect to a tripartite Treaty proposed by 
 Austria, between herself, England, and Turkey, with a view 
 of overbearing the interference of Paissia in the Danube, and 
 which had been frustrated, as shall presently be detailed. It 
 is to meet this attempt that the minister brings in the Treaty 
 of Vienna. What more do you want ? says he. Have you 
 not got the Treaty of Vienna ? That Treaty forbids tolls, 
 forbids quarantines, and renders impossible aU usurpations. 
 Who could answer that question ? Mr. Patrick Stewart was 
 dead ; who recollected the Ukase of the 7th of February ? 
 Messrs. Bell & Co. had gone into the Gazette ! "Who recol- 
 lected the letter of marque of the 5th of May ?* 
 
 The Treaty of Adrianople is one day a bad treaty, and 
 
 * On the same occasion the minister assigned as the reason for 
 submitting to the infraction of the Treaty of Vienna at Cracow, the 
 inland position of the place, wliieh did not admit of the employment 
 of England's maritime strength. 
 
RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 323 
 
 another a good treaty.* It is bad when, by merely saying so, 
 a river may be sluit up ; it is good when a pretext is wanted 
 to enable a coast to be shut up. This facility of construction 
 belongs to a state of things in which a Parliament can one 
 day be disposed of, by telling them that a matter is under 
 discussion, and the next by telling them that it has been 
 discussed.-}- 
 
 These acquisitions have been made, notwithstanding the 
 declaration of Lord Aberdeen (6th of June, 18 28), that he 
 held his Imperial Majesty to the fullilment of the Treaty of 
 July. 1827 ; 
 
 Notwithstanding the protest of the King, that after the 
 war he reserved the right to judge of the sacrifices imposed 
 on Tm-key ; 
 
 Notwithstanding the address to the Crown to protect 
 British merchants in the Euxine against such usurpation, 
 (20th of April, 1836,) withdrawn because her ^lajesty's 
 government " concurred in the object, and was determined 
 to give it effect ;" 
 
 Notwithstanding the official sanction transmitted to a 
 private firm (5th of May, 1836), in resisting the liussian 
 authorities on that river ; 
 
 Notwithstanding the declaration of Lord Palmerston (17th 
 of Mai'ch, 1837,) that the acquisitions of Eussia were a 
 violation of EngKsh rights ; 
 
 Notwithstanding the declaration of Lord Palmerston, (6th 
 of July, 1840,), that the Treaty of Vienna applied to the 
 
 * " The Hon. and Learned Gentleman said, that the Earl of 
 Aberdeen protested against the Treaty of Adrianople ; but when ho 
 says that they did not a<jknowlcdge it as a part of the law of Europe, 
 he states that which is not borne out by liistorical facts. T/ier/ pro- 
 test against it. But does that amount to deni/inq that the Treaty is 
 valid, and that the rights conveyed by it are rights -vvhicli the con- 
 tracting parties are justified in enlorcmg and maintaining ? " &c. — 
 Lord Palmerston, Feb. 23cZ, 1848. 
 
 + On the 17th of March, in one breath the Vixen papers were 
 refused because the matter was under discussion, and the Adrianople 
 papers because no longer under negotiation. 
 
334 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 Danube, and forbade nny interference with it by any one 
 power. 
 
 If any Government, lawfully in possession of their banks, 
 were to interfere with the navigation of the Elbe, or the Khine, 
 Europe M'ould be aroused from one extremity to another. 
 But what is the commerce of all the rivers of Europe com- 
 pared to that which might flow through tlie Danube ? 
 
 When this insolent robbery from Europe of its most im- 
 portant river was perpetrated, Kussia was exhausted by tlie 
 Turkish war, during which Austria had marshalled 200,000 
 men to oppose her ; Poland had not yet been subjugated ; 
 cordicdity reigned between England and France. That robbery 
 was formally adopted by the English minister, after an 
 interval of seven years, when England and France were 
 united in the most intimate alliance based on the necessity 
 of resisting her encroachments, tlie press of Europe was 
 ringing with denunciations of her perfidy and designs, and 
 the announcement of the increase of the Britisli Navy, * as 
 the reply to tlie speech at Warsaw, had been made amidst 
 the acclamations of Parliament and Nation. Such was the 
 moment seized for the perpetration of outrage, such as Spain 
 never dared under Phillip II, or France under Louis XIV. 
 
 * It was msmuated, indeed, at the time, iii Parliament, that tlie 
 augmentation was against France, but an explanation was offered to 
 the French gorernnient, and with the recommendation, so at least I 
 have been informed by M. Thiers, to augment its navy — with what 
 purpose the following passage may suggest. On the 1st of Marcli, 
 181-8, Lord Palmerston said : — 
 
 *' Of course, also, though I do not recollect the cu*cumstance as 
 baring happened in 1835, or 1836, the immense amount of the naval 
 preparation in France, must always form an element in taking into 
 account the means which England must possess," &o. 
 
32; 
 
 Note I. 
 
 DOCUMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE CONFISCA- 
 TION OE THE VIXEN AND THE INDEPEND- 
 ENCE OF CmCASSIA. 
 
 Mil. J. S. BELL TO MR. URQUHAKT. 
 
 *'Pera, Nov. 2, 1836. 
 
 "Sir, — In consequence of your luiving referred me to 
 Lord Ponsonby for information respecting any legal impedi- 
 ment that might exist to prevent my projected trading voyage 
 to Cii'cassia, I proceeded to Therapia on Thursday last and 
 obtained an intcn-view with his Lordship. 
 
 ** I now send you, according to your request, the enclosed 
 copy of the memorandum I took of the conversation that 
 passed between his Lordship and myself, a copy of which I 
 have transmitted to his Lordship also for his approval. 
 " I remain, Sir, your obedient humble servant, 
 
 •• D. Urquhart, Esq. James S. Bell." 
 
 "memorandum of interview "WITH lord ponsonby. 
 
 "On Thursday, the 27th of October, 1836, I proceeded to 
 Therapia, and having obtained an interview with Lord 
 Ponsonby, I begged of his Lordship to inform me if he were 
 aware of any legal impediment existing to prevent my making 
 a mercantile voyage to the coast of Circassia. 
 
 " His lordship in reply observed, that he had lately received 
 a renewal of the previous iutimation given by the Russian 
 Government as to trade M'ith that coast being interdicted, 
 except upon certain conditions. But that as he considered 
 that the Russian Government had no right whatever to pre- 
 scribe rules for that trade, he had not complied with the request 
 of the Charge d*x\fFaires to hav^ such notice intimated to our 
 Consul at Constantinople, but had sent a copy of the intima- 
 tion to the Foreign Office i-j London, from which he had not 
 received any communication on the subject. 
 
 ** I then informed his Lordship that it was my intention to 
 proceed in a vessel I expected daily, to a certain point on the 
 coast of Circassia, which I had fixed upon as most eligible 
 for the trade I had in view] and that as I had ascertained 
 
326 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 before leaving* London tliat our Government did not then 
 acknowledge any right on the part of Eussia to impede trade 
 Tvith the country in question ; and as nothing seemed to have 
 since occurred to change the position of affairs; I should 
 epdeavour to attain the object I had in view, and should not 
 be diverted from it unless force were employed on the part of 
 the Russian Government, and hoped to obtain his Lordship's 
 aid in so doing. 
 
 " Li reply to this his Lordship stated, that he perfectly 
 coincided in the propriety of the plan I had adopted, to which, 
 he had no objection whatever to offer, as he considered it an 
 indisputable point that Russia had no right to interfere with 
 or prescribe rules for British trade with Circassia -, and that> 
 if I adhered to the straightforward course I had detailed to 
 him, he had no doubt of my being enabled to establish a 
 claim for support from the British Government, in which he 
 would be glad to render me all the assistance in his power, 
 requesting me at the same time to transmit him information 
 as to what success attended my enterprise. 
 
 "James S.Bell." 
 mr. stiiangw^^ys to mr. urquhart. 
 (Extract). Foreign Office, Wl Feb. 
 
 '* I cannot omit alluding to the capture of the Vixen with- 
 out telling you that it has had all the effect on the public 
 that you could have anticipated, and even more than I 
 expected, knowing the temper of the people here. It is now 
 under legal and Government discussion, so I need say no 
 more. Bell's statements and liis brother's documents tell 
 Tery well for him. 
 
 " As the public here are very obtuse on foreign matters, 
 et ilfautfaireJiecJie de tout hois, I wish w^hen the coast is cleared, 
 which I hope it will be by this business, you could send some 
 ai'tist, or better, a gentleman who can draw and write travels, 
 &c., to make a tour in Circassia ; it would do admirably for 
 London and be well got up here. 
 
 " I should warn you. that in giving any accounts of the 
 Vixen transaction, yon may be liable to misrepresentation, as 
 it would not be thought proper, if, being Secretary of Em- 
 bassy, you had incited Mr. J. Bell to make the voyage as a 
 diplomatic experiment ; I can answer for its having been the 
 intention of Mr. G. Bell long before in London. This hint 
 jBomes from high authority." 
 
NOTES. 327 
 
 VISCOUNT PALME BSTON TO MR. URQUHART, 
 
 (Extract). " March 10th, 1837. 
 
 " The present communication [Mr. U.'s recall] is founded 
 upon your letter of the 7th of December last, to Mr. Strang- 
 ■ways, which I have latt'ly had under my consideration. It 
 appears by that letter, you took steps with respect to Mr. 
 Bell's voynge in the Fiveii, which, I regret to say, were in my 
 opinion wholly incompatible with your public duty as a 
 diplomatic sen'ant of the Crown; and I should not think 
 myself properly performing ray own duty, if, after a knowledge 
 of such circumstance, I were to continue you in the situation 
 which you now hold." 
 
 VISCOUNT PALMERSTON TO MR. URQUHART. 
 
 (Extract) ''June 30, 1838. 
 
 *' You say in your letter that having up to the moment of 
 your conversation with me considered the voyage of the Vixoi 
 as a Government measure, and as one which I looked upon 
 with peculiar interest and with great expectation of national 
 benefit, you are naturally surprised beyond expression at the 
 views which I then expressed to you upon that subject. Now, 
 I think that I may be justified in expressing, in my turn, some 
 considerable surprise at this passage in your letter ; because 
 wliile, on the one hand, I am quite sure that nothing which I 
 ever said or did could justify you or any other man in form- 
 ing the opinion which in this passage you express of my view 
 of the voyage of the Viceu ; on the other hand, my private 
 letter to you, dated 10th of March, 1837, and which you 
 received before you left Constantinople, and therefore long 
 before our conversation in Downing Street, was calculated, as 
 it seems to me, to have efl'ectually dispelled any illusion 
 which other persons might have created in your mind on 
 this point." 
 
 MR. URQUHART TO MR. BACKHOUSE. 
 
 (Extract) ''July 20a, 1838. 
 
 " Who were the parties who could have misled me ? The 
 only persons with whom I had communication upon this 
 subject were, his late Majesty ; Sir Herbert Taylor, his 
 Majesty's Private Secretary; Mr. M'NeiU, Envoy to Persia; 
 Mr. Strang ways, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; and 
 (by letter) Lord Pousonby : added to the positive approval 
 
328 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 of Lord Palmerstoii of my own reports and published paper? 
 on the subject, and of ' every •word ' that had appeared in the 
 Portfolio. If Lord Pahnerston has considered my conduct in 
 this respect as reprehensible, I have made no remonstrance 
 against such decision ; but when his Lordship sanctions in 
 Lord Poiisonby the active and official approval of an enter- 
 prise, and punishes rae for encouragement of a pri\'ate kind 
 given to it — when he punishes me in the month of March 
 for what he pretends to approve of in the month of January 
 — when he denounces me as a traitor to my country, while 
 lie continues his favour to his own confidential agent (Mr. 
 Strangways), who ha^ commended the act so denounced, and 
 volunteered his testimony against any misconstruction of my 
 conduct respecting it — then do I assert, not indeed tliat I 
 am uujustly treated, but that the prhiciplesof Eastern policy, 
 of which I was the advocate, and which had previously 
 triumphed in London, were to be overthrown through my 
 disgrace. Lord Palmerston was to escape from the conse- 
 quences of the part he had taken therein by marking me as 
 the guilty victim, by the sacriiice of which harmony was to 
 be restored between his language in 1836, and his deeds in 
 1837. 
 
 That no misunderstanding may possibly exist as to the 
 value of the only allegation against me contained in Lord 
 Palmerston's letter of June 20th — namely my encouragement 
 given to Mr. J. Bell (which rests only on my own testimony, 
 and on a private letter which ought neither to have been 
 communicated nor used) — I must state that the step which 
 I encouraged was entering the territory of the independent 
 Circassians, in violation, of course, of any supposed Russian 
 regulations ; that offence, if offence it be, has been over and 
 over again repeated, afid as often approved by his Ijordship. 
 
 In 1834, I, confidentially employed by the British Govern- 
 ment, with the sanction and by the advice of His Majesty's 
 ambassador at Constantinople, did so enter that country. I 
 was not censured for so doing, but on the contrary my con- 
 duct was approved, my views adopted, and I was advanced 
 in a manner that extraordinary services and important views 
 could only justify. In 1836, Mr. Stewart, as alluded to in 
 Lord Palmerston's letter, admitting my statement on the 
 subject, was sent into the same country, equally in defiance 
 of all Russian regulations, by Lord Ponsonby. At the end 
 of the same' year Mr. Bell and the Fixeit were sent by tht 
 
NOTES. 829 
 
 joint concurrence of tlie Foreign Office, nnd of tlie ambas- 
 sador at Constantinople. After the capture of the Vixen, 
 Mr. Strans2:\vaYs wrote to me to get some person fitted to 
 describe Circassia, and to send him to tliat country, which 
 communication has been in Lord Pahnerston's possession 
 since September 20th, without leading to the removal of that 
 officer, rinally. Lord Ponsonby has held communication 
 with that country through individuals sent there by himself 
 (one of them a discarded servant of my own, of the name of 
 Andrew, who has recently been accused of abstracting the 
 corrcspondcucc of the Englishmen in Circassia), in equal 
 violation V the Regulations under which the illegality of tlie 
 voyage lias been assumed, and English property confiscated. 
 
 To this letter there was an elaborate reply from Mr. 
 Backhouse, but no statement or inference here contained was 
 impugned. 
 
 Statement of Lord Palmerston in the House or Commons, 
 March 1st, 1S48 :— 
 
 " In those circumstances a certain Mr, Bell imagined tiiat 
 he would take a shipful of salt to Circassia, and ' try the 
 question.' The Bussian Government had i-wned an edict 
 p'ohlbitirig tlie importation of salt, or I belie^^ rather 
 generallij establishinf/ a blockade a(jaiud tlie coast; and Mr. 
 Bell determined to take a shipful of salt, of which the Cir- 
 cassians wore greatly in need, and to see what Russia would 
 do ; intending, if the ship were seized, to demand restitution 
 from the Government, and that being refused by Bussia, that 
 Great Britain should send a fieet to the Baltic, endeavour to 
 destroy the Bussian arsenals — in short, that there should be 
 a regular ' set-to ' between this country and Bussia. I have 
 been accused frequently of being too warlike ; but I own 
 that my courage did not rise to that point. I did not fancy 
 it. Not liking the matter, I gave to Mr. Bell the answers 
 which were published — which I knew very well would be 
 published next day in the papers — which were charged with 
 being evasive, and like some answers which one gives in this 
 House, when one's official duties prevent him gratifying the 
 curiosity of an hon. Member. However, the result icaa tJuit 
 Mr. Bdl was so discourafjed iJiat lie gave up all intentions of 
 (joiiKj io the Circassian coast, lie had gone to Constantinople; 
 
880 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 but lie was warned by Lord Ponsonby, our Ambassador, to 
 take care not to violate the Kussian blockade. He did tlien 
 give up his intention of going to Circassia. All of a sudden, 
 however, he took it up again. His ship was seized by a 
 Hussian cruiser." 
 
 Note II. 
 
 THE EASTERN POLICY OF ENGLAND AND 
 EPtANCE. 
 
 FROM THE BAEON V, PROKESCH, PRESIDENT OF THE 
 GEllMAKIC DIET. 
 
 Note to p. 303. 
 
 M. V. Prokesch is not only the first diplomatist of Austria 
 but the first writer, perhaps, I might say, the first German 
 writer. His works not being accessible to the English or 
 French public, I subjoin some extracts from the third volume 
 of his Memoirs, in which he has recorded his contemporary 
 opinion of that Treaty by which England and France first 
 bound themselves to concert their "policy " with Eussia. The 
 details connected with the Battle of Navarino well deserved 
 to be recalled. 
 
 It is astonishing that an individual who has so extensively 
 used the Press should not be disqualified for the highest 
 official stations in Austria, and that in the diplomatic branch ; 
 and the more so when we consider the nature of his works, 
 which are not confined within the pale of the abstruser 
 orders of literature, and are addressed and adapted to the 
 most popular portion of the Public. They are not the out- 
 pourings of a fertile imagination, nor the accumulation of an- 
 unquiet and industrious spirit. Seldom, indeed, is the didactic 
 tone assumed, but throughout there is evidence of a mind 
 at work for an end, to advance which labour is undergone, 
 incidents are accumulated, and pictures drawn, to serve as 
 
NOTES. "^ '"^^^T 831 
 
 vehicles for thought. He spares no toil, and will write a 
 Tolume to slip in a phrase. The end in view is neither a 
 political purpose nor a speculative theory ; it is to urge the 
 mind of his reader to a useful effort, and, himself above them, 
 his war is with the doctrines of our times and the fallacies 
 of our opinion. • He has not hesitated to enter upon the 
 transactions in which he has bortie so prominent a part, and 
 on the interests and objects of the governments of Europe, 
 He has not disguised what it was important for the nations 
 of Europe to know ; he is indeed cautious but not reserved. 
 
 M. V. Prokesch has been able throughout a long and 
 laborious life to stand by himself and to suffice for himself ; 
 he has advanced from station to station in the government 
 considered the most umbrageous at home and servile abroad 
 whilst incessantly addressing himself to the public and avow 
 ing opinions in reference to Eussia which severally must 
 have excluded him from public service in England or in France, 
 This in itself is a fact, second in importance to none of those 
 that hav^ agitated the world in latter times ; it is a flag of 
 hope held out at a moment when the few who see are crushed 
 by despondency ; Austria is not lost when she possesses such 
 a man and dares to trust him ; Europe is saved for the pre- 
 sent, at least when the policy of any government is directed 
 by a man combining capacity and character. 
 
 Baron von FroJcescWs Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 538. 
 
 Smyrna, Oct. 3c?, 1827. 
 I have, in judging of the future, invariably found that th 
 simple, clear, "immediate view, the first impression, canied the 
 day over the best planned scheme for which I have not unfre- 
 quently been tempted to give up my original plan. In the 
 same manner, unless I am altogether mistaken, England and 
 Erance are miserably deceiving themselves and are working 
 out the plans of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. They say 
 they are binding Russia, and see not that it is they who are 
 bound. They desire to prevent Ilussia's making war, so they 
 endeavour to gain for her objects. I fear that even Greece, 
 the immediate pretext, but in reality a subordinate matter, 
 will not be the gainer, but will deeply rue the Treaty which it 
 
882 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 has received witli such rejoicing. The news of Carming^s 
 death reached us on Sept. 7th. . . . Russia will not rejoice 
 a little thereat, for it makes her success the more certain. 
 
 Smyrna, Nov. 3^, 1827. 
 
 The London Treaty has led to becoming results. There is 
 now only the Russian war remaining. How greatly wall the 
 crime and madness of the battle of Navarin be praised in 
 Europe. How loud will be the accusations and regrets, and 
 how completely will men's eyes be opened. Public opinion 
 is usually led by passion, never by reason, and rarely even 
 by instinct. . . . Every word that appears in the European 
 papers about the battle is false. The battle was necessary as 
 winter was coming on, and the west coast of the Morea is, 
 to say the h:ast, an inconvenient cruising ground. It was 
 necessary since ordinary means of coercion were found 
 insufficient, and because the iniiuence of public opinion was 
 making itself dreaded. Codrington was led by ambition to 
 commit this crime. Rigny looked only at the English, and 
 felt himself a Frenchman. Heiden alone acted as a man who 
 knew what he was about. 
 
 As a pretext for the battle, the Admirals on the 19th 
 demanded ths immediate return of the Turkish Eieet to 
 Constantinople, and of the Egyptian to Alexandria, as well 
 as the cessation of all acts of hostility within the Peninsula. 
 The grounds given were, that Ibrahim had broken his word 
 in making the attempt to supply Patras wdth provisions, and 
 that therefore further security was necessary. That Pafras 
 had been attacked by the Greeks during the truce enforced by 
 the allies, and that the Turkish Chief sailed from one Turkish 
 haven to another, went for nothing. Equally little did it 
 avail that Ibrahim w^as in the interior, and that his officers 
 asked for time to consult him. Hamilton had found Kiaja- 
 Bey fighting with the Mainotes in the Gulph of Corinth ; he 
 ordered him to desist — the Turk obeyed, yet even this was 
 used as a pretext. Under pretence of taking in water on the 
 19th an English frigate was sent into the harbour to observ^e 
 the position of the Turkish fleet ; and on the 30th the whole 
 allied fleet with Codrington's ship the Asia leading, sailed in 
 and took up a position within a pistol shot of the Turkish 
 anchors, each vessel having a spring on the cable. The 
 Turks anticipating no attack, but at most a menace, and 
 
NOTES. 833 
 
 detennined to ^ive no excuse for hostilities, made no 
 opposition. Tlicir land batteries which might have disputed 
 the eutrance, were silent as the ships. When all was ready 
 the frigate Dartmouth ordered two Turkish lireships to raise 
 their anchors and move to a greater distance — The Com- 
 mander replied, that it was the custom in every harbour in 
 the World that the ship last arrived should anchor where 
 there was room and should not disturb ships already moored. 
 The Dartmouth threateued to cut their cables — The Turk 
 replied he would not endure it without exercising his right 
 of firing on the boat that attempted it. The boat was sent 
 the fire ship opened upon it with musquetry, the Dartmouth 
 replied with cannon — Codrington gave the signal, and the 
 attack began along the whole line. . . . The Turks fought 
 with desperation, in spite of their confined position, their 
 being surprised, and their want of men, besides they had only 
 three line of battle ships against ten. The action began at 
 22" — by sunset the destruction was complete. The Armida 
 had taken three frigates, on board of which the Turkish 
 wounded and prisoners were placed, but prisoners made in 
 peace being looked upon as an embarrassment, orders were 
 £2:iven to sink the three frigates, which was instantly done. 
 During the night the Turks destroyed many of their own 
 ships. The rising sun of the 2 1st shone upon wrecks and 
 corpses, the remains of three line battle ships, three iirst-rate 
 frigates and eighteen second-rate, the corvettes and six 
 smaller vessels. The first blossoms of the Cairo schools, the 
 Egyptian youth, was destroyed. The victors were embarrassed 
 by no prisoners. 
 
 The news of this philanthropic battle reached ns on the 
 27th. We warned the Pasha to prepare for the burst of fuiy 
 which this treason would produce amongst the Turks both of 
 town and country. The immediate effect was terrific, 
 thousands of Christians, men, women, and children huiTying 
 in wild panic to the ships, fearing that the 80,000 Turks in 
 the city would rise to avenge their countrymen and their 
 faith. The panic was felt through all Asia Minor, but no 
 outrage occurred, and we observed with wonder and respect 
 the bearing and self-restraint of the Turks. 
 
 Poor Greece, only a miracle can save thee ! Abuse of 
 power, bold arrogance, and the trampling under foot of all 
 rights — these are midwives which can bring nought but a 
 
334 THE DANUBE AND EXUINE. 
 
 slave into the world. The independence which you had 
 neither virtue nor courage to gain for yourself is lost for ever. 
 Instead of a Turkish you will find yourself a Bussian province, 
 and a thousand times, with tears in your eyes and without 
 hope in your heart, you wiU look back with regret to your 
 former state. Europe looks on at your destruction and claps 
 her hands, for by the bills posted on the walls the play ift- 
 called " Ths Fueedom of Greece.'* 
 
S35 
 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 
 Treaty with Austria for the Free Nam^jation of 
 the Danube. 
 
 W HEN the first cargo which arrived under it was seized, 
 this Treaty was discovered to be the "most extraordinary- 
 proceeding in the history of this or any other country."* 
 Yet, to the sagacious mind of an Ex-Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer the perusal of the subjoined clause ought to have 
 suggested that conclusion long before. 
 
 " All Austrian vessels piwceeding from the Harbours of tJie 
 Danube as far as Gdatz, inckisive, as well as their cargoes, 
 may sail direct for the 2^orts of Great Britain, and of all other 
 possessions of her Britannic Majesty, as if tliey came direct 
 from the Harbours of Austria ; and, reciprocally, all English 
 vessels, as well as their cargoes, shall be admitted into tJie 
 Austrian Harhours, and depart therefrom with the same inr- 
 munities as Austrian vessels." 
 
 If this age is modest as to diplomacy, it is somewhat con- 
 fident in its geography. Was there no " Penny Cyclopaedia" 
 in the House? 
 
 Below Galatz the Danube flows between Turkish and 
 Hussian territories ; above Galatz it flows through Turkish 
 territory, up to the frontiers of Hungary, where the Iron 
 Gate arrests the upward navigation as completely as if the 
 height and foam of Niagara interposed. Neither above nor 
 below Galatz is there an Austrian port. 
 
 This is a "Reciprocity Treaty," granting the faculty of 
 importing the produce of their own territory, and the non- 
 enumerated articles, the pj-oduce of other countries of Europe, 
 
 • Mr. Hemes. 
 
336 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 on tlic payment of no higher duties than British vessels ; but 
 in this case the privilege is to extend to all ports of the 
 Danube, as fcir as Galatz, that is, to ports not Austrian ; yet 
 the treaty is with Austria, and admits to these harbours 
 English vessels as Austrian. Every man connected with 
 commerce or politics knew that a Hcciprocity Treaty could 
 not have effect in neutral tenitoi-y ; but, to their minds^ 
 •' the mistake was too gross to be committed in a Treaty,'* 
 and credence f>Tew from incredulitv- The world is now at 
 least six thousand years old ; but tutrrc has never yet ap- 
 peared, maturity such as this, of contemptuous invention — 
 dotage such as tV.is, of decrepit belief. 
 
 When people say that a thing is extraordinary, they would 
 generally imply that to them it is incomprehensible. When, 
 therefore, after the. announcement from the throne or this 
 Treaty and that with Turkey, they believe it to be deep as it 
 was dark, it was only that they feared that any one should 
 suspect they had not fathomed it. After a time, however, 
 an adventurous spirit arose among the leaders of the people, 
 and they approached the stream. They stripped and plunged 
 in, and each in turn, baffled by his own lightness, reboimded 
 to the surface, and back to the bank, dry. The darkly- 
 rolling Danube, the while, bore on to futurity, the mystery 
 in its troubled breast. 
 
 The first who rushes in, of course, is Lord Aberdeen, who,, 
 on the 8th of Eebruary, 1839, sought Vo find ''how under 
 this Treaty British vessels could be admitted as Austrian 
 into Turkish ports ? " 
 
 A voice like Lord Melbourne's answers from the waters : 
 
 " That adcantarje must be procured by another Treaty'' 
 
 I am ashamed, yet constrained, to explain. 
 
 The professed object was to admit into England Austrian. 
 vessels bringing Turkish produce from Turkish ports on the 
 same terms as if they brought Austrian produce from 
 Austrian ports, that could be effected only by a concurrent 
 Treaty with Turkey, and a Bill in Parliament. Lord 
 Aberdeen does not ask how this is to be effected, but some- 
 
THEATY Vv^ITlI AUSTRIA. 857 
 
 thing else whicli has no analogy to the Treaty, or the facts. 
 Lord Melbourne's answer has as little to do with the question 
 as the question with tlic Treaty. Indeed, he answers the 
 question tliat Lord Aberdeen ought to have put, and for 
 whieh he was prepared. However, the ex-foreign minister is 
 perfectly satisfied, and believes he has suggested, or hastened, 
 a negotiation to confer on English bottoms an Austrian 
 natioivility in Turkish ports ! 
 
 Two days later in the Commons, Lord Palmerston states 
 that the contemplated purposes are to be earned out by 
 "MUTUAL CONSENT."* If the omissiou of Treaties can be 
 thus repaired, why treat? 
 
 What mutual consent could bring Austrian vessels in 
 against the Navigation Laws. Now the "Austrian harbours " 
 have dissolved into " Turkish ports." 
 
 Sir Robert PceL after an eulogium on the document and 
 negotiation inquires, *' Whether another Treaty mtU Turlcf/ 
 was not necessary to secure the full ' advantages of the 
 Austrian Treaty ? *' Lord Palmerston tells him that " Nothing^ 
 of the kind is required, as to the footing on which ships 
 coming from the Danube are to proceed, and no engagement 
 necessary between Austria and England. Sir Robert Feel is 
 refractory, and again asks, " whether Turkey cannot imposs 
 restrictlo7is on the Danube, \mless she is a concurrent party in 
 the Treaty ? On Lord Palmerstou's emphatic " she cannot,'* 
 the matter drops. 
 
 But one unquiet spirit being settled, another rises : to the 
 knight of Tamworth, succeeds the thane of Haddo, who- 
 rides fiercely in, and charges on his adversary unchivalrous 
 tergiversation. But he himself has shifted his grounds, 
 when he asserts that it is clear that without the concur- 
 rence of the Forte, British vessels co?ild not be received into 
 TurJcish 2^oris. 
 
 * " By mutual consent the benefits oi'tlic treaty are to be applied 
 to the ships of either eountiy coming not direct from the porlcs of the 
 other country, but from any ports above Galatz, that is, the Turkish 
 ports of the Danube." 
 
338 THE DANUBE AND EUXINl!;. 
 
 Lord Melbourne's answer is worthy of a place in the 
 British Museum. The Ti-eaty was a bad Treaty, the stipu- 
 ation a worthless stipulation, and he apprehended that 
 nothing repugnant to this view had been said in the other 
 House ; it was, in fact, a freak of Austria, who wished to do 
 something impossible, and which the English Go-vernment, 
 for peace and quietness, consented to.* So that it was only 
 a schoolboy-romp with the Austrian plenipotentiaries, and a 
 practical joke on the Queen, the Opposition, and the mer- 
 chants of the Danube. 
 
 At least here is the avowal of Austria's anxiety to do 
 something in reference to the Danube which England had 
 frustrated. Lord Melbourne would make it appear that this 
 was a Treaty with Turkey, and that the other Treaty to 
 allow British vessels to enter as Austrian into Turkish ports, 
 was therefore still necessary. Lord Palmerston declares it 
 was not ; that everything was to be settled by " mutual 
 consent." All this while no one perceives that the whole 
 question lies in the state of the law at home. They ai*e 
 bandied about from post to pillar, from Austria to Turkey, 
 and from Turkey to Austria, and back again into the river, 
 in order that they may not see that they have got before them, 
 a Mutilated Treaty, 
 
 The shippers of the Danube dive also ; they get through 
 the foam and surge of " Austrian " and " Turkish ports," of 
 *' Turkish prohibitions to the navigation of the Danube ; " and 
 opening their eyes in the clear water, perceive what the 
 gladiatorial intellects of the British senate had never di'eamt 
 
 * ** That the stipulation complained of was an Austrian stipula- 
 tion — that it was prepared by the Austrian Pleni]3otentiary, and 
 insisted upon by him — that those eiigaged in the negotiation on tho 
 part of this country saw that it was hable to this objection ; yet, as it 
 was the wish of the Austrian Goveriiment, the stipulation wa» 
 inserted. Therefore there was no question but that there was a sti- 
 pulation to do a certain thing vipon the ^art of Austria^ wliich 
 Austria had no povrer to do, and therefore -which was not binding 
 upon Austria, and he apprehended that notldng repugnant io iltis 
 7iad heen stated in tlie other Jlonse" — Lord Ilelbourne, 
 
TREATY WITH AUSTRIA. ^59 
 
 of, — a relaxation of the Navigation Laws. Scarcely had six 
 weeks elapsed from the announcement from the throne, and 
 the skinnishiug in the Houses of Parliament, when the seizure 
 at Gloucester of a cargo of Turkish produce, shipped at a 
 Turkish port, in an Austrian bottom, reveals the hoax. 
 
 Did then, the Austrian shippers misconceive the Treaty ? 
 Not in the least. But into whose mind could it have then 
 entered that the English Government should set down as a 
 stipulation in a Treaty, a concession which they never made ? 
 
 Now (25th of March), Lord Aberdeen has discovered 
 " that the advantage of the Treaty cannot be enjoyed without 
 a relaxation of the Navigation Laws/' Lord Melbourne 
 *' admits" that this relaxation ought to have been made; 
 ** confesses " that he cannot teU why it has not ; is " not 
 able " even to ascertain what the reason has been — for Mr. 
 Poidett Thomson is in Canada. But he " supposes " " that 
 as negotiations icere on foot with TurJiei/" he did not think 
 fit to apply to Parliament " twice iijpon the same subject." — 
 And again the subject drops. 
 
 The vessel is released under a nominal fine, and the 
 leaders of the Opposition are satisfied that matters are put 
 straight ; but again there is a difTerence between them and 
 the shippers of the Danube. They will no longer trust to an 
 English Treaty, or take the explanations of an English minister, 
 and consequently no more cargoes of grain are shipped from 
 the obnoxious Danube. A powerful opposition, meanwhile, 
 believe that they had taken steps to realise the "full 
 advantages " of the measures which they had applauded to 
 the skies. 
 
 This transaction is the counterpart of the one we shall 
 presently have to examine with Turkey. Eussia, indeed, 
 did not prevent, by menace, the exportation of Austrian 
 produce ; but she stopped its passage through the Danube. 
 
 Austrian Ministers were not apprehensive for their lives ; 
 tut they were hampered by other considerations.* Like 
 
 * The highest pereonages had pensions, and influential ladies were 
 in debt to the Czar. 
 
S40 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 Turkey, Austria, holding England to be the antagonist of 
 Eussia,* applied to her, wishing that the measure should 
 come as her proposal. Prince Metternich and Count Koh> 
 ■wrat adopted precisely the same course as Achmet Pasha and 
 Perteff Pasha. They had the co-operation of the ambassador, 
 Lord Beauvale, and, througli him, of his brother, the Prime 
 Minister; the Foreign Minister found himself, as in the 
 Turkish Treaty, placed under the necessity of accepting 
 ostensibly a project which he was resolved secretly to frus- 
 trate. 
 
 Austria, to remove every possibility of delay or miscon- 
 ception, offered to place her interests in the negotiation with 
 Turkey, in the hands of the English negotiators ; and the 
 g-entleman who was to have charge of it was hurriedly 
 despatched to Milan, where the Emperor then was with 
 Prince Metternich, the Treaty being to be sent after him the 
 next or the following day. It v.-as delaj^ed and altered. 
 
 * On tlio person of Latom* was found a letter to M. Prokcscb, 
 clited Athens, 30th of August, 1S48, which sliows tliis delusion was 
 not universal at Vienna : — " What makes me most mieasy are our 
 unfortunate relations tviih rerjard to Hungary. I think we ought 
 not to deceive oiu'selves as to the complete separation of that country, 
 and it Avould he one of the greatest blunders possible to furnish the 
 Hungarians with tlie means of effecting their object. I explain that 
 state of affair.'; hy the co-operation of JEsterhazy with Lord Falmer- 
 gton, and by the infiiience tohicli the latter exercises with us. Kow, I 
 have for years considered Lord Palmcrston our most decided enemy, 
 and still consider him to be so ; and to trust to Enylaml^ as long as 
 that man guides lier policy, appears to me an anaclironism scarcely 
 to be equalled. . . . The Russians gain ground in the Danubian 
 Principahtics. AYc have (in the year 1829), with an inactivity bor- 
 dering on treason, allowed the mouth of the Danube to fall into 
 their hands, and tliat at the very moment when the position of the 
 Eussian army was such that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg readily 
 would have hstcned to any proposal. Periiaps even no-v\- Ave shall 
 allow ourselves to be duped by phrases, and we shall assist the Rus- 
 sians in establisliing their paramount influence as fur as the Drave 
 and Save. The Porte resists, but there is no one to back her. 
 France folloics in the train of England ; England is in understanding 
 with Ei'.&sia.''* 
 
TREATY WITH AUSTRIA. S4I 
 
 There was no longer to be negotiation with Turkey ; and, 
 consequently, the clause respecting Turkish vessels, which 
 lielonged to a tripartite Treaty, remained as futile and absurd 
 as Lord ^lelbourne described it to be. Great indignation 
 was expressed by Prince Metternich, who, as I have it on the 
 the authority of the negotiator, did not fail to intimate to 
 Lord Melbourne his suspicions of the quarter whence the blow 
 was dealt. Having failed to obtain the support of England, 
 he from that day resigned himself, and signed with Russia a 
 Treaty for the interruption of the navigation of the Danube. 
 
 From the seizure of the " Vallaco," Parliament slumbered 
 for sixteen months. At that period Mr. Herries rudely 
 disturbed its equanimity, by proposing a vote of censure, in 
 the form of an address to the Crown, imploring her ^Majesty 
 to put an end to such proceedings as these on tlie part of her 
 ^Ministers. He demanded " Why a Treaty had been signed 
 in \iolation of the law, or why the law had not been altered 
 to suit the Treaty ?" Mr. Labouehere could only answer on 
 the 6th July, 1840, that " Mr. Poulett Thomson Avas in 
 Canada." But he, too, has his supposition; it differs from. 
 Lord Melbourne's. Some discussions, " he supposes," were 
 going on at the time, which " it ironld not be expedient to 
 ^ublkh; he had consulted with the Secretary for Foreign 
 Alfairs, rclto had agreed with hint, that it was a subject wliick 
 ought to be broiujlit under the cqjLisideration of Parliament by 
 the Government !" 
 
 Lord Palmerston — he was not in Canada, the Treaty was 
 his, not Mr. Poulett Thomson's, he was the responsible 
 person, and on the spot, and in the house — no one has 
 troubled him with questions. He rises at the end of the. 
 debate, after the opposition had lost the thread and had 
 swallowed " Mr. P. Thomson in Canada ;" his task is easy> 
 and is lunitcd to sneering at the traffic of the West of the 
 Euxine, as in 1836 he had scoffed at that of the East. By 
 the Treaty, he informed the house, Austria was precluded 
 from seeking, or asking from Turkey SiW^ farther prlcUeye for . 
 Austriati vea^els than were enjoyed hj British vessels in Turhlah 
 
342 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 ports ! Anstiia, of course, must liave been trying to over- 
 reaclL England. " It was noio said that another Treaty with 
 Russia would be necessary to ;prevent the Turkhh Government 
 being moved by any other influence to exclude our vessels from 
 ilie Danuhey The question was the exclusion of British ships 
 from Turkish points, and Austrian vessels from Turkish ports, 
 and Turkish vessels from her own ports — by Eussia ; but it 
 seems, that on this, as on all other occasions, it is Turkey 
 who, according to Lord Palmerston, is the aggressor.* He 
 continues, " but according to the old Treaty between England 
 and Turkey, British ships were entitled to enter the Turkish 
 ports of the Danube, and as to their pi'oceeding to the higher 
 partoi the Danube that teas secured hy the Treaty of Vienna.^'' 
 So that the Treaty of Vienna does apply to the Danube, but 
 not to its harbours ! 
 
 This assertion of the rights which Eussia had infringed is 
 adduced as an argument against taking any steps to maintain 
 them — is a denial of the very facts ; for to assert that no 
 measures were requisite to maintain British rights was to 
 assert that no obstruction to British trade existed. What 
 would have been said if Eussia had argued, " You have no 
 reason to complain of my quarantine establishments at the 
 mouth of the Danube, of my visiting your vessels, or exact- 
 ing a toll from them, because you have free right of naviga- 
 tion in this river, by your Ti'eaties with Turkey, and by the 
 Treaty of Vienna?" An English Minister can say for her 
 what she cannot say for herself; he can do for her by a word 
 what all her armies could not effect. 
 
 Lord Palmerston admitted that the Treaty of Vienna 
 applied to the Danube only when he could declare that 
 Treaty null and of no effect ; a Treaty violated in one point 
 is violated in all ; and he admitted that it was violated by 
 the confiscation of Cracow, — an act which he then explained 
 by England's physical inability to prevent it. Austria, 
 
 * Speaking of the war of 1828 lie says, " I say that Turkey had 
 ▼iolated her treaties Vtath Eussia, and had been induced to commit 
 acts of aggression agamst Eussia." — 23c? February^ 1848. 
 
TREATY WITH AUSTRIA. 343 
 
 repulsed and betrayed in her attempted federation with 
 England in reference to the Danube, had joined in the con- 
 fiscation of Cracow. Russia was thus doubly in flagrant hos- 
 tility against England ; yet, at the mouths of the Danube, 
 there were soundings for line-of-battle ships. It was nine 
 days after this declaration that she signed a Treaty sent from 
 St. Petersburgh (15 July, 1840) which stipulates the even- 
 tual occupation of the Turkish ca]ntal by a Russian military 
 and naval force ; the Foreign Secretary justified this step by 
 his "entire conviction" of Russia's good faith, and the 
 identity of her policy and interests with those of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 But the consequence of the act which more particularly 
 concerns us is the Danube Treaty between Austria and 
 Russia. It stipulates that those vessels only are to enter 
 ^^'hich belong to countries *' having a right to navigate the 
 Black Sea," and who "are at peace with Russia."* In 
 1822, she in like manner claimed the right of converting 
 the North Pacific into a riiare clausum : the pretension was 
 indeed abandoned, but only in consequence of the undiplo- 
 matic resolution of the Americans to arm their trading 
 vessels. She has obtained the exclusion of the men-of-war 
 of all Eui'opean countries from the Black Sea: the next 
 step is to make it a mare clausum also for merchantmen. As 
 regards any resistance from the Western Powers she has 
 nothing to apprehend ; there remains to dare nothing more 
 than what shfe has done. She has baffled every attempt of 
 the House of Commons, of the Sovereign of England, of the 
 Government of Austria, to open the river which she has 
 closed. She has done so without having to apply force, or 
 to utter threats. Her preponderance and conquests are 
 secured on the prostration of character and honour in the 
 
 * Treaty of the Danube between Austria and Eussia, July, ISlOt 
 — " Les navires marchands Autricliiens, ainsi que ceux de toute autre 
 nation, ayant le droit de navigeur dans la mer noire, et qui est en 
 paix avee la Russie, pourront entrer librement dans les embouchurea 
 navigables de Danube, le remonter, le descendre, &c." 
 
344 THE DANUr)E AND EUXINE. 
 
 Parliament of England — a securer ground of dominion than 
 any strena-tli of her own. 
 
 The diiiiculty of credence constitutes here the difficulty of 
 sight : people cannot trust their very eyes. But the snme 
 process has been over and over again repeated in the Treaties 
 proposed with Persia, Turkey, the small states of Italy, 
 Naples, and France. In respect to the latter Lord Palroerston, 
 on the 1st of March, 1848, coupled it with that of Turkey, 
 and attributed to me its " details." The general bearing of 
 all coincided with that with Turkey, — on that the battle had 
 been fougJit, and that carried, the plan of a general league of 
 free commercial intercourse followed as a matter of course : 
 I had no more than this to do with either the Erench, 
 Austrian, or Neapolitan Treaties : T was, however, conversant 
 with them in every stage, from the beginning to the end. 
 Well, the Treaty with Erance w'as a matter of jthe gravest 
 importance, it opened the prospect of traffic to the amount 
 of many millions yearly. The gentleman selected for the 
 negotiation relused to go Paris, unless on the assurance that 
 Lord Palmerston would not be allow^ed to interfere; he 
 received that assurance, and it availed him nothing. All this 
 has been alleged in Parliament,* and Lcrd Palmerston is 
 
 * ''Mr. Porter, then of the Board of Trade, has lately been promoted 
 *o a higher office. I presume, tliorefore, that he enjoys the eonfidenee 
 of the colleagues of the noble Lord. iS'ow, on this gentleman's bein^ 
 selected in 1840, — before the Treaty o'f July, — by the tlien colleagues 
 of the noble lord, in consequence of his connection with the Board 
 of Trade, to negotiate a treaty of commerce with France, Mr. Porter 
 informed those ministers that he was confident that, whatever treaty 
 he might negotiate for such a purpose, would be interfered with by 
 the noble lord, — and either brovight to nothing, or, as in the case of 
 the Turkish treaty, jDcrverted to the ruin of its objects. Mr. Porter, 
 therefore, demanded and obtained this condition from the then 
 ministry — that tlie treaty should be kept out of the Foreign Office ; 
 »nd that lie should not be called upon to report to, or to receive 
 any instructions whatever from the noble lord, or his department, 
 in the conduct of tliat negotiation. On tlie faith of that conditioa 
 alone he undertook the mission. It is further stated, on the same 
 gentleman's authority, and in the same document, that lie brought 
 
TREATY WITH AUSTIUA. 345 
 
 mimf; had it been groundless, nothing could have been more 
 easy than a refutation ? 
 
 Thus were cast away at once tlie good- will and co-opera- 
 tion of the Austrian Government, which while setting free 
 the Danube, would have unlocked the resources of the Pro- 
 vinces, and, at a time when restrictive barriers were raised 
 against them in the West, have aftbrded an entrance to 
 Britisli goods into Germany. On the 1st of June, 1829, 
 Lord Palmerston declared an ** Austro-Turkish alliance " 
 to be " dangerous" to England; in 1838, /(e substituted for 
 it an Austro-Eussian. 
 
 But the Treaty was to have been tripartite, including 
 Turkey, so that the three Governments would have been 
 united in a league for mutual defence, their common shield 
 would have been planted on the Pruth, the link uniting the 
 Principalities with Turkey would have been strengthened, 
 the attempts of Pussia to implant her influence foiled, and, 
 under the shadow of this security, those resources would be 
 developed, which in course of time would have quietly removed 
 Pussia from her menacing position as an ambitious Power. 
 
 Considering Avhat England's conduct has been, how won- 
 derful that such a plan should have emanated from its own 
 breast, how much more so, that having so emanated, its own 
 Minister had to thwart it, and most of all, that he should 
 have been successful in doing so by the ignorance of the 
 Parliamentary Leaders, of the commonest geographic facts, 
 and of the application of the Navigation Laws. Though 
 Eussia has her all at stake, by that ignorance alone has she 
 saved her venture. 
 
 the matter to a happy conclusion — and that in spit* of the pre* 
 cautions he liad taken, and the conditions he liad exacted, that 
 treaty was at lengtli set aside by the noble lord. There is no doubt 
 that the direct act of the noble lord occasioned this failui-e. I st^ite 
 this on the authority of Mr. Porter, and I refer to the fact ot his 
 recent appointment, as showing, that notNvithstanding that decla- 
 ration was made in 1841, the noble lord has not induced ln.'< 
 colleagues to disgrace that gentleman." — Speech of Mr. A/isle^, 
 23d Feb. 1818. 
 
346 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 Stiil tlie configuration of the soil admitted of lier being 
 cut out practically ; tlie ancient mouth of the Danube stands 
 in reference to the present one, much as the Eyder does 
 to the Sound. To this subject I have devoted a chapter; 
 it is part of the history of the past, if too late as suggesting 
 measures for the future. 
 
3rt7 
 
 CHAPTEB IV. 
 Apologij for Bussia, 
 
 As these pages are passing through the press an incident 
 of a very extraordinary nature has occurred. The Minister 
 wlio has so long managed Europe from the British Eoreign 
 Office, but whom k has been judged prudent or expedient to 
 exclude from that Office, has suddenly resumed its functions 
 in the House of Commons ; the occasion is the shutting up 
 of English vessels in the JDamihe, which he takes advantage 
 of to resume what he himself has done in reference to the 
 Danube, to explain the motives of Eussia, and to exhibit m 
 his fashion the results. To this conversation I may well 
 devote a chapter, seeing that it is itself a monument of 
 brass. 
 
 Navigation op the Danube. 
 
 House of Commons, Juhj 7, 1853. 
 
 Mr. LiDDELL asked, whether any instructions had been 
 cant out by Her Majesty's Government to inquire into the 
 case of British vessels at present detained in the Danube, 
 owing to the imperfect state of the navigation of that river ; 
 and whether, in the event of hostilities with Eussia before 
 such ships could be liberated, a sufficient force would be sent 
 out to that part to prevent their falling into the hands of 
 hostile powers ? 
 
 Lord Palmerston. — The recent obstruction of the navi- 
 gation of the Sulina channel of the Danube has been 
 caused by the accidental circumstances of the waters of 
 the rimr liamnfj overjlowed and spread over the banks, 
 and so far diminished the force of the current as to increase 
 the quantity of mud on the bar. This particular inconve- 
 
348 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 iiience is temporary, and will no doubt cease when its 
 cause has also ceased ; but I am bound to say that, for many 
 years past, the Government have had reason to complain of 
 the neglect of the Government of Russia to perform its duties 
 as possessor of the territory of which the delta of the Danube 
 is composed, and to maintain the channel of the Sulina in 
 a'n efficient navigable state. (Hear, hear.) It was my duty, 
 when Secretary for Foreign xiffairs, to make frefj[He)it repre- 
 sentatlons to the Eussian Government on the subject ; and 
 Eussia, although she always admitted that it was her duty 
 to do so — admitting that which we asserted — that as Russia 
 thought fit, by virtue of the Treaty of Adrianople, to possess 
 herself of the mouths of the Danube, that great watercourse 
 and higliway of nations, lending into the centre of Germany, 
 it washer duty to see that that great highway was maintained 
 and made accessible (according to the Treaty of Vienna) to 
 the commerce of all nations. (Hear, hear.) Russia never 
 disputed til at statement, and she asserted always that she was 
 employed in using means to remedy the grievance. The 
 grievance was this — that while these mouths of the Danube 
 formed part of the Turkish territory, there was maintained a 
 depth of 16 feet on the bar, whereas, by the neglect of the 
 Russian authorities the depth had diminished to 11 feet, and 
 even those 11 feet were reduced to a small and narrow chan- 
 nel from obstructions on the side, from sand-banks, and from 
 vessels wrecked and sunk (when sunk ?) and allovrcd to re- 
 main there, so that it was difficult for any vessel to pass, 
 except in calm weather and with a skilful pilot. (Hear.) 
 We were also aware that there were local interests that tended 
 to thwart what w^e believed to be the intentions of the Russian 
 Government. In the first place there was rivalsJiip on the 
 part of Odessa, where there existed a desire to obstruct the 
 export of produce by the Danube, and to direct it, if possible, 
 by way of Odessa. (Hear.) There were also those little 
 local interests which arise from the profits that bargemen and 
 Uf/litermen, and persons of that class, make by unloading the 
 steamers that come down the Danube, so as to enable them 
 
APOLOGY FOR PtUSSIA. S40 
 
 to pass the bar, reloading them again outside the bar. 
 These local feelings and interests must have obstructed, with- 
 out their being aware of it, the good intentions of the lUissian 
 Government, for they always promised they would take the 
 most effectual measures. They said they would send a steam- 
 dredge to carry away all the obstructions on the bar. The 
 steam-dredge came, and the steam-dredge worked, but in two 
 hours it was always put out of gear from some accident or 
 other (a laugh), and they were obliged to go back to Odessa 
 for repairs. (A laugh.) We recommended that the Russian 
 Government should pursue the method by which the Turkish 
 Government kept the channel clear. That method was a very 
 simple one. They required every vessel that went out of the 
 Danube to tack to their stern a good iron rake, and by that 
 means the passage of each vessel kept the channel clear, a 
 depth of sixteen feet being constantly maintained. (Hear, 
 hear.) I understand that, in addition to the representations 
 I made when at the Foreign Office, constant and emphatic 
 representations have been made to the Russian Government 
 on this subject, and I hope that that Government, while they 
 hrealx through those trammels ichich hitherto seem to have 
 impeded their proper action, will see that it is a positive duty 
 which they owe to Europe to maintain free and open that 
 passage which, by force of arms, they obtained and which 
 they believed themselves justified in retaining by the Treaty 
 of Adrianople. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Mr. LiDDELL directed the attention of the noble lord to 
 the second pai-t of his question, which he had not answered. 
 
 Lord Palmerston. — I apprehend the question of the 
 hon. gentleman relates to vessels which are now confined 
 within the Danube and the Russian temtory for want of 
 water. If, by any misfortune, which I cannot anticipate, war 
 should arise between this country and Russia, it wonld not 
 be ea^i) for a British ship of war to get up to those vessel-^ 
 without water. (Laughter.) 
 
S50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Canal of the Danube, 
 
 The face of the earth presents no invitation to enterprise 
 comparable to this. The facility of execution reduces to 
 dimensions, not exceeding the resources of a parish, a work 
 ■which would unite and enrich two quarters of the globe, 
 waiich would add in security and wealth to the Empire, more 
 tlian the conquest of a powerful kingdom. 
 
 The Danube, running in nearly a straight line from the 
 centre of Hungary, to within a few miles of tV.e coast, sud- 
 denly turns up to the North, and after a devious and intri- 
 cate course, loses itself through shallower cliannels, amongst 
 noxious marshes, in the Black Sea. Its useless wanderings 
 extend a hundred and fifty miles, carrying it away from the 
 direction of its usefulness, and bringing its navigation within 
 autumn's fatal miasmata, and winter's icy chains. But the 
 degTces of northing it attains exposes it to worse infection 
 than that which strikes the fxesh, and to more benumbing 
 thrall than that of polar snov»^s: the fabled dragon of the 
 Pontine eastern coast, called to-day into virident existence, 
 guards and covers the inho3pita])le. western shore ; guards 
 but to crush, covers to devour. Erom these to set free the 
 kings of rivers — to open the floodgates of fertility on the 
 heaven-blessed and man-cursed Hacian plains; to cast off 
 — no, to escape from, — the hard dominion of lawless might 
 and direr craft, such are the guerdons of a labour which 
 every consideration of prudence recommends to the wonder- 
 working ingenuity of oui- Phoenician times. 
 
CANAL OF THE DANUBE. S51 
 
 The exports of the countries watered by the Danube have 
 to pass through the Bosphorus to reach their ultimate desti- 
 nation, so that for commercial pui^ioses, the river may be con- 
 sidered a continuation of those straits and the Dardanelles : 
 in former times these were considered a continuation of the 
 Danube. The winding of the river lengthens the voyage 
 two or three hundred miles but the difference in time has to 
 be calculated by months. The marshy nature of the country 
 through which the crews have to track the vessels to the ports 
 of shipment, occasions loss of life ; and the accumulation of 
 sand at the only mouth, necessitates the unloading of vessels 
 of any size ; political and sanitary obstacles aitect vessels 
 of every' class and nation, and consequently the freights are 
 so much increased as to amount to a charge of fifty per cent. 
 on the staple produce of the countiy. 
 
 The proposed canal woidd bring the Danube straight out 
 into the Euxine, clear of obstmction, fever, and violence ; and 
 for all practical piu-poses, the inland countries of Transylvania 
 Serbia, and Hungaiy would find themselves possessed of a 
 maritime coast. 
 
 These countries have not yet gone through our laborious 
 experience, in advancing from the pack-saddle to the cart, 
 track-boat and railway waggon ; they have not made even 
 the first step.* They woidd at once attain to thcmost perfect 
 communications being destitute of the worst. By reference 
 to the map, it will be seen, that the river passes along the 
 great plain of Hungary, and afterwards takes the very centre 
 of the rich alluvial lands, lying between the Carpathians and 
 the Haemus : these are the two largest and richest plains in 
 Europe ; they .are inhabited by 23,000,000 of an almost ex- 
 clusively agricultural and pastoral population. The tributary 
 Theisse traverses the centre of the plain lands of Hungaiy ; 
 the Save comes down almost from the head of the Adriatic : 
 
 * Yet springs arc a ITungarian invention, first applied by Matthias 
 CoiTiuus to relieve his gouty leg ; and from the village, where his 
 essay was made, Cotzi, comes our " coach." The Turks still retain 
 the original word. 
 
S52 THE DANUBE AND ETJXINE. 
 
 various small confluents afford limited ranges of navigation 
 transversely through AYallachia ; and the Pruth and the 
 Sereth bring down the produce of Moldavia : from the nortli 
 and from the west all the communications converge to that 
 point where the river is nearest to the Black Sea, and to 
 Constantinople. The river in itself, and its chief confluejits, 
 present an inland navigation of two thousand miles ; the stream 
 is not rapid ; vessels, properly rigged and managed, might 
 aid themselves greatly by sails, but in consequence of its 
 being shut out from the sea every process is rude and bar- 
 barous ; in fact, nothing has been done by art, to turn to 
 account the incalculable resources of this region, or to profit 
 by the unrivalled facilities of this river. 
 
 It would be natural to suppose that this work has been 
 hitherto prevented by obstructions such as rocks, mountain?, 
 or sand. There is, however, nothing of the kind ; in fact tlie 
 Danube anciently discharged its v^^ater through this channel, 
 and all that is to be effected is tlie reopening of the ancient 
 mouth, which is indeed through half its course at present 
 filled with water. 
 
 The western coast of the Black Sea is difficult and in- 
 tiboardable ; the canal would in a great measure be de- 
 prived of its utility if there were no port and no shelter for 
 vessels at the point where it meets the sea ; but it so happens 
 that at that very point a headland runs out to the east- 
 w=-ard, affording shelter. The ruins, no less than ancient 
 reports, show that it has been a place of importance; although 
 by the shoaling of the waters, and the drifting of the sands, 
 it is now of comparative insignificance, it might however at 
 very little cost be made to serve for the purposes of the 
 canal. 
 
 In 1844 the Austrian government, in consequence of the 
 interruption of its navigation for the larger vessels by tlie 
 shoaling of the waters, and urged by the Austrian Lloyd 
 Company, adopted this project, and sent engineers to make 
 the necessary surveys, who estimated the expense at under 
 half a million sterling. Negotiations were then opened with 
 
CANAL OF THE DANUBE. 853 
 
 the Turkish government ; it was not unfavourably disposed, 
 yet difficulties arose, and altercations ensued, which were 
 carried to such a pitch that the representative of Aust^'in 
 threatened to demand his passports, and the project was 
 finally abandoned. It is said, however, that Russia expended 
 jE10d,000 in bribes. 
 
 The Austrian project was for a ship canal, to enable her 
 large steamers to pass up the river ; the expense was con- 
 sequently calculated on this scale ; the facilities afiorded by 
 the long lake of Carasou had to be neglected. However, 
 it is by no means requisite that the canal should be for sea- 
 going ships; if for smaller vessels the expense would be 
 reduced one half, and considering the matter from the point 
 of vierv' of Turkish interests, greater advantages would accrue, 
 for a new class of vessels would arise fitted for sea and river 
 navigation. These would penetrate high into the interior, 
 and by short and rapid voyages transfer at small cost the 
 produce of the Danu1)ian provinces to Constantinople, 
 which would thus become the centre of the grain trade of 
 the South, a trade which carries many others along with 
 it. These small vessels would also be capable of being 
 tracked by their crews against the currents of the Bosphorus, 
 where the large seagoing vessels are sometimes detained for 
 months. j ; 
 
 The Black Sea contains immense maritime resources in 
 timber, iron, hemp, pitch, at a quarter of the cost in Europe. 
 Around its coasts there is a numerous maritime population 
 to whom an impulse would be given by this new traffic, and 
 a new class of vessels to be built. Meanwhile their enterprise 
 would be let into the Danube and its confluents, where 
 everything connected with n<ivigation is of the rudest and 
 most primitive description. Their barges being of the burden 
 sometimes of 2000 tons are utterly unmanageable, tiie use 
 of sails is scarcely known, and their oars are unfashioned 
 pieces of wood. With all these advantages Turkey would 
 obtain a nursery of native seamen, strengthening her in 
 her weak point, and guarding her in her exposed quarter : 
 
 1 2 
 
354 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 in this respect alone the Danube canal would be to her 
 more important than Newfoundland to England. The 
 Genoese, when they had their establishments at Galata and ia 
 the Crimea, had recourse to the same plan. They had a 
 small class of vessels which navigated the Black Sea, and 
 brought the corn down to Constantinople, whence the vessels 
 from Europe carried it away. 
 
 By restricting the dimensions of the canal, the purpose of 
 the larger one would be more than attained, without its 
 expense : works at Kustendji, would be no longer required, 
 for these hoys woidd be able to enter at once the basin 
 opening on a tideless sea. This coast is not exposed ta 
 the dangers of the other portions of the Euxine. Eogs, low 
 invisible coasts, deceptive appearances, or a current setting- 
 on shore, render perilous every other frequented port, such as 
 the mouths of the Danube, Odessa, Taganrog, and the 
 entrance of the Bosphorus. The current here sets off shore; 
 the land is not low, and is well defined; against the prevailing 
 westerly and northerly winds there is shelter; with a 
 southerly wind there is no danger in making the coast ; the 
 holding ground is good. At the present rate of exportation, 
 2000 of these craft would be required, making five or six trips 
 in the year; they would employ 15,000 seamen. The enter- 
 prise would thus be reduced to ver^^ manageable proportions, 
 and the character of the workmanship brought nearer to the 
 level of what the country can supply. 
 
 We may then be safe in setting down the cost as not 
 above £2000 per mile for the cutting, or £1000 for dredg- 
 ing, banking, pile driving, &c. on the Lake of Carasou, which 
 would bring the expense under £60,000, for the Kne it- 
 self; the entire expenditure would be amply covered by 
 £200,000. 
 
 Everj'thing consumed by 10,000,000 of people, every 
 article produced on 60,000 square miles of arable land, 
 would pass through it. A considerable proportion of what 
 is consumed by other 16,000,000 of, people and the larger 
 amount of the exported produce of their 120,000 square 
 
CANAL OF THE DANUBE. 355 
 
 miles would also pass through it ; with this latter country 
 (Hungary) — traffic is actually impeded as regards imports by 
 the Austrian TarilF; but this new opening' would change that 
 Tariff. The States of Austria, Galiicia, Bohemia, the Here- 
 ditary States, and Bavaria, would feel, more or less, the benefit 
 of this eastern passage to the sea, affording to them new 
 markets and new supplies. 
 
 Wallaehia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria produce the finest and 
 the cheapest Indian corn, and if not the finest wheat, at least 
 the cheapest within range of the Black Sea. The charges at 
 present incurred on passing through the Danube amount to 
 three shillings the cpuirter,* w hich is equal to twenty per cent. 
 on the cost price of wheat, and fifty per cent, on that of Indian 
 com; under this charge the export amounts to 1,000,000 
 -quarters, of which 450,000 directly, and 250,000 indirectly, 
 reach England. An agriculturist of eastern reputation 
 (Joanesko) calculates that a rise of price of ten per cent, 
 would suffice to double the production for exportation in the 
 Principalities. To those who have visited the provinces and 
 Houmelia this statement will perhaps be more surprising than 
 to strangers. The processes are so rude, the means of 
 transport so cumbersome, the want of care in threshing and 
 housing so great, the taxes and forced labour in Wallaehia and 
 Moldavia so oppressive, that the impression made tlurough the 
 
 * Statement of a London BroJcer. — " Gralatz and Ibrail are free 
 ports. At Odessa there are great inconveniences from quarantine, 
 heavy charges, uncertainty, venality, and your business is not dis- 
 charged without some payments, as bribes, wbifh a master must 
 know liow to manage ; nevertheless we can take chartei's from 
 Odessa at from lO^. Qd. to 3*. less per quarter than froni the few 
 ports of the Danube. These additional charges are incurred partly 
 from tiie state of tlie river, partly from the nature of the ehmate, and 
 from Russia. The lighterage is effected under contract with Eussian 
 boats, so that at times they charge what tliey like, and vessels are 
 exposed to great risks. The climate in the autumn is so bad that 
 gireat expense is incurred for medical aid : a veeeel recently came 
 borne, liaving lost all her crew save two. The other cliarges are fo? 
 quarautme, wliich is vexatious, and in the last degree hampering." 
 
S56 THE DANUBE AND EUXINT3. 
 
 eye on the traveller is that of disbelief in any pvospenty, 
 and hopelessness of any amelioration. These impressions, as 
 I know in my own case, can only be removed by unquestion- 
 able results, 
 
 Knssian com sells at an advance over that of the Danube 
 of ten per cent, for soft wheat, twenty for hard. This 
 difference does not result from the soil, but from want of 
 care in the selection of seed, cleanliness in threshing, atten- 
 tion to housing, &c., all of which would disappear under the 
 effects of a steady demand. The charges by the Danube 
 exceed those at Odessa by nearly one and a half piastres 
 per kilo, or twenty per cent, on the cost price. Russia 
 thus enjoys a fictitious advantage of from thirty to forty 
 per cent. ; by it her export trade alone subsists : against it 
 the Provinces not only contend, but have created their 
 present commerce, Avhich only commenced in 1834. The 
 total charges on all grain supplied from Russia are calculated 
 at fifteen per cent. In the Turkish Province of Bulgaria, 
 south of the Danube, grain is charged the tithe, and a local 
 tax (salian) which may amount to as much more ; but then 
 comes the export duty of the English Treaty, which imposes 
 twenty per cent, more, raising the duty to forty per cent. 
 In the Provinces north of the Danube, the English Treaty is 
 not in operation, but the charges upon the Danube are nearly 
 equivalent to it, yet when a sudden demand arises, Turkey 
 can export from the Provinces north and south of the 
 Danube as much as the whole of Southern Russia and one fifth 
 more. It will thus be apparent that either by lowering the 
 <5harges on the Danube, or by abrogating the export duty, 
 the only limit to this exportation would be the necessities of 
 Europe. 
 
 But grain is not the only produce. Wallachia contains 
 mountains of salt, which would supply the whole of the 
 Levant. Operations of this description, and the impulse 
 given to enterprise, would doubtless lead to the re-opening of 
 the ancient mines of which Russia has already endeavoured to 
 
CANAL OF THE DANUBE. S57 
 
 obtain possession, and to which she proposed to send 40,000 
 miners to work. Another important freight for the canal 
 -wonhl be timber, and staves, from the oak forests of Serbia, 
 and tlie upper parts of WaUachia. The herds and flocks are 
 worth, at present, little more than their hides, skins, wool, 
 and tallow : with their extension, what limit is there to the 
 supply of tallow and hides ? * Already they export 200d 
 tons of tallow, and it is the best in the world : f Nor must 
 the pigs of Serbia be forgotten, either as live-stock, or cured. 
 Constantinople would be supplied with cattle for slaughter, 
 and at one quarter of the meat consumption of Englishmen, 
 would require 100,000 head ; which with the prevailing cur- 
 rents and winds would reach the Bosphorus in forty-eight 
 hours. 
 
 Whatever the Provinces gain by their exportation, they 
 immediately expend on foreign goods : the greater portion 
 of which is already from England; but the whole would 
 come from England, were it not for the obstructions so often 
 referred to. In 1849, £539,712 sterling in value, (10,000 
 tons bulk,) were shipped direct from London and Liverpool, 
 and it is estimated that the Eussian Consul's fees thereon 
 amounted to jS13,000. I have before me an account of fees 
 paid by a shipping house ; the following are specimens : — 
 
 Ships. 
 
 128 tons, Consul fees . . . £80 18 8 
 
 155 ditto 83 15 8 
 
 117 ditto 84 8 4 
 
 Eut these are not the only charges ; there are cases and 
 tarpaulins, which are required for making up the packages, 
 by the Russian regulations, of the expense of which I cannot 
 
 * Tlio cattle are at present exposed to epidemic diseases, which 
 commit fi'ightful ravages. Tliis is entirely owing to want of winter 
 shelter and provender. 
 
 t Tliose who use tlie blow-pipe know alone its value ; it gives the 
 best light, and clearest flame, owing to the careful application of 
 Leat in rendering it. 
 
1S5B THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 get a satisfactory statement. The charges may in all amount 
 to from 3 0*. to £2 per ton. 
 
 The Eussian Consular fees demanded in London and Liver- 
 pool are indeed mere extortion, and might be recovered a« 
 such in a court of law. This is not, however, the first time 
 that such a course has been adopted ; Peter the Great, on his 
 visit to this country, made a similiar arrangement for tobacco, 
 exported from the Port of London for Eussia, the proceeds 
 of which, amounting to about £100,000 a year, were paid 
 to the Marquis of Carmarthen : thus he obtained the co- 
 operation of England, in wrenching from Sweden the territory 
 on v/hich St. Petersburgh now stands. These charges were 
 however on merchandise, which, though ultimately destined 
 for Eussia, passed through neutral territory ; the present 
 imposition is upon goods proceeding to countries which are 
 not Eussian, to Avhich she pretends no right, and where she 
 has no possession. She exacts them in London rather than 
 at the mouth of the Danube, because she seems to have even 
 more reliance on the individual meanness of British traders, 
 than on the aggregate servility of public opinion. 
 
 The increase of price in the year 1847 exhibits, by anti- 
 cipation, the effect of a diminution of charges ; we may 
 therefore take it as a basis for calculating the traffic of the 
 canal. In that year about 500,000 tons* were shipped 
 from the Turkish ports in the Danube ; from the Eussian 
 ports, the Danube inclusive, 430,000 tons; from the Turkish 
 ports, south of the Danube, 500,000 tons; in all, from the 
 Black Sea, nearly 1,500,000 tons. Had the canal been 
 open in that year, at least 1,000^,000 tons would have passed 
 through it: let us, however, take it at 750,000 tons : very 
 reasonable dues upon that quality would furnish a yearly 
 return equal to the original expenditure. 
 
 * Ibrail 1688 Ships, averaghag 140 Tons . , 228,320 
 
 Turkish side 1200 „ „ 90 „ . . 105,500 
 
 Galata 1234 „ „ 110 „ . . 171,360 
 
 Tons . 505,180 
 
CANAL OF THE DANUBE. 3Bff 
 
 The Turkish Government if it received nothing, even if it 
 advanced the whole of the capital, without receiving any of 
 the return, would still be a gainer. It would save the money 
 at present sent to Odessa, to buy grain for the capital and 
 the troops, and that expended in the contrivances for regu- 
 lating the exchange; it would profit indirectly from the 
 increase of wealth of the capital, become the centre of the 
 grain trade ; it would feel in every branch of its revenue 
 the £3,000,000 poured in, in yearly repayment for harvests 
 gathered from fields now lying waste, or for gi'ain rotting in 
 the gi-anaries, or actually burnt on the threshing-floor; lastly, 
 it would have the tithe on every object exported, which is 
 equivalent to an export duty of ten per cent. 
 
 But to realise these advantages, there must be a relaxa- 
 tion of the export duty as regards grain : not a penny 
 is at present received from this tax, for that exported by 
 the Danube pays none. The duty is only maintained 
 from the notion carefully instilled that they are hoimd, 
 by the English Treaty to exact the sum it specifies; yet 
 already they have reduced it, though not indeed on articles 
 competing with Russian produce : they have allowed the free 
 exportation of carpets, reduced the duty by more than one- 
 third on valonia, one-half on manufactured silks from 
 Aleppo, and the Pasha of Egypt has reduced the transit 
 duty from three to half per cent. 
 
 This enterprise would augment the military strength of the 
 empire. By means of steam, and with this passage, the 
 contingents of the remotest Provinces, in case of a war, 
 might in a few days be distributed over the whole line of 
 operations. The canal, with the city that would soen arise 
 upon its boixler, would necessitate the strwigthening of that 
 important plain of the Dobroja, so singularly neglected to 
 this day. This channel would bind still closer the alliance 
 between the Danubian Provinces and the Porte, and would 
 connect with the Ottoman Empire the material well-being of 
 Hungary; these populations would find ou the Bosphorua 
 
360 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 the centre of their commercial activity, no less than that of 
 their political defence. 
 
 The Turkish government has expended £40,000 upon 
 b futile and absurd plan, which has ultimately failed, 
 the road from Trebizond to Erzerum. Its ostensible object 
 was to save the transit duties on the trade to Persia. If it 
 was an object to prevent this trade with the centre of Asia 
 from falling into the hands of Eussia, surely it is no less, to 
 rescue out of her hands that of the centre of Europe. If 
 Kussia can be beaten on the east of the Black Sea, she surely 
 ciin also be discomfited on the west — if indeed 1* 
 
 The English government so anxious to further the one 
 project, nay so violent for its execution, can it be indif- 
 ferent to the other ? If England possesses influence in Tur- 
 key, and uses it to lead her into the ways of progress and 
 civilisation, surely this was the occasion. When Austria, in 
 1844, pressed lier scheme to the utmost of her power and 
 Eussia set to work to oppose her, did England come forward 
 witli influence or counsel? No ! she left Russian threats and 
 gold to win the day. At the close of 1850 the plan was 
 revived, and the Porte was so favourably disposed, as to ap- 
 point a, Commission to examine it. linssla then necer movedt 
 for England awakiug from her trance suggested a counter- 
 project — a railway from Silistria to Varna ! 
 
 Even in Europe, railways are not found to pay for trafiic 
 alone. Here the merchandise is of the heaviest kind, and 
 the lowest value ; the gnat export of the provinces being 
 of less value than coal iu England. The distance is double 
 that of the canal. The capital required v/buld be at least 
 six times greater, and the traffic of the canal would not 
 pass over it : who would advance the money, when in three 
 or four months the canal miglit be cut. The proftts of the 
 enterprise and its value for Turkey, must depend on admitting 
 sea-going vessels in the Danube, or on bringing the vessels 
 
 * " The English amhassador has become a Russian engineei*." Such 
 was tlie remark of a person holding a large place in the public eye, 
 when he heard of the militaiy road from Trebizond to Erzerum. 
 
CANAL or THE DANUBE. SGI 
 
 of the Danube to the sea. One of the chief sources of profit 
 would he rafts of thnber, which never could support transit by 
 Tail. It "vvas this last consideration that •induced the Council 
 to negative tlie project of the raibroad, but the end had been 
 gained, the canal was dropped. 
 
 In this case I have no Parliamentaiy, or diplomatic evi- 
 dence to produce, the matter was managed in secret ; but it 
 is no secret at Constantinople that it was the English Am- 
 bassador who set himself against the plan ; and in such 
 points as these the influence of England no doubt is success- 
 fully exerted. It is a curious fact that the Foreig-n Secretary 
 who could not influence, except by his individual vote, and that 
 given openly and under responsibility as a member o-f 
 Parliament, the construction of any English Railway, however 
 insignificant, should be able by a whisper never in the ordi- 
 nary course to transpire, to fnistrate in a Foreign State an 
 operation of the greatest magnitude and benefit. Having 
 once, in consequence of this and such like acts, asked in 
 Parliament for the production of the intructions which he 
 expedited for the Govemmcnt of the Ottoman Empire, which 
 iis ho was not responsible to it, he was bound at least to com- 
 municate to those by whose power he acted, he replied : — 
 
 " It is obvious that any communication of that sort gene- 
 rally passes between Governments which are on the most 
 friendly and confidential footing, and from the very nature of 
 the case, such communications must not be made by one 
 party, nor required by the other, except with the perfect 
 understanding tltit they arc not to be made tlie subject of 
 discussion." 
 
 This plan was originally proposed twenty years ago, if 
 carried then into eflbct the Principalities might have benefited 
 up to this time, to the extent of from 100 to 130 millions 
 sterling paid to them for raw produce, and England might 
 have had, by this time, in the Black Sea, customers to the 
 amount of six or seven millions sterling. 
 
 The strength of a nation depends, as we have been told 
 long ago, upon its alliances, or in other words, upon the respect 
 
362 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 that is bome to it. In this kind of power Turkey has, in 
 recent times, rapidly progressed ; there is no measure which 
 could more raise it m the estimation of Europe than this ; it 
 ■would be looked upon as an evidence of political foresight, no 
 less than as an earnest of the faculty of imitating Europe in 
 things really beneficial. As to the obstacle, it is impossible 
 to offer to the Porte a stronger argument than its own ex- 
 ample. If it has braved Eussia by forming an army, it 
 can brave her also by cutting a ditch. A canal may be as 
 desirable as an army. In the one case it had enoimous 
 difficulties to contend with ; in the other, there are none ; 
 European capital and science are at its disposal ; the good- 
 will of all Europe, is at the disposal of Turkey, from the 
 moment it is seen that she has resolved to act for herself. 
 
 N.B.— The Times waited till the 2d of July, 1853, to 
 write : — 
 
 " If anything be done by the Eussians to intercept that 
 important channel of trade, or to prevent the free export of 
 corn from the Danubian ports, the question will become one 
 of universal interest. * * * Xhis reminds us of the 
 extreme importance, both commercial and political, of re- 
 opening the ancient mouth of the Danube. * * * A 
 ship canal would cut off two hundred miles of intricate river 
 navigation, and place the outlet /«•/ from the Russian fron- 
 tier. We shall not lose sight of these countries again until 
 their condition and their political rights are more satisfac- 
 torily settled." ^ 
 
 On the 8th of July it had to write : — 
 
 "All the money, all the ships, and all the sea in the World 
 cannot prevent Eussia from doing what she is now doing — 
 taking military occupation of the Danubian provinces. If 
 we proceed to hostilities now, it mus^ be to stop this process, 
 and we might as well attempt tc stop the north wind in its 
 passage from Eussia to the Mediterranean." 
 
 UJxioqxj 
 
963 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 T/ie JEvacuation of the Principalities in 1851. 
 
 While Russia has been advancing thus gradually and 
 unobtrusively her diplomatic hold over the Danube and the 
 Bkek Sea, a fact of a very different character and one weU 
 calculated to occasion surprise meets us in the evacuation of 
 the Principalities, effected at a moment when she appeared 
 all powerful. The circumstance derives immediate interest 
 from events now pending, and deserves mention if only 
 because it has remained unknown. q 
 
 The tenure of the Porte has long appeared of the 
 most precarious kind, but it has strengthened itself 
 — certainly not as the i*esult of dexterity and care — in 
 proportion as events Occurred which seemed calculated to 
 dissolve it. The Porte seemed to have no task on its 
 hands but to accomplish or anticipate the wishes of its 
 rival. We have seen' Russia with periodical regularity 
 malrching into these Dependencies without contention ^r 
 resistance; but it has so happened that she has had with equal 
 regularity to walk back again. It might be that the people/ 
 however disgusted with the Turks, had still some disgust in 
 reserve for the Kalmucks, and that at all event* they pre- 
 ferred to liberating armies they had to feed, tyrants they 
 never saw. The ill will of the people against the Turks was 
 exaggerated ; they could not misrule much, where they did 
 not rule at all ; nor be very ferocious where never present. 
 Their haughty carelessness removed deep grounds of opjjosi- 
 tion, and their subjects could not suspect them of insidious 
 designs, far less of theoretic viev.'s, against their independ- 
 ence. Their barbarism was sterling, a barbarism of gold, 
 beside the pinchbeck civilisation of the Russians ; it was a 
 
864^ THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 barbarism ignorant and stupid ; it inflicted neitlier conscrip- 
 tion nor serfage; warred with no peculiarity of tongue, 
 ^opinion, or habit; and did not bless the nations with 
 ainiformity or centralisation. Now Eussia's business was 
 to teach both lessons to the Porte ; for, from the day that it 
 ^proposed to miite ilie PrhicipaUties, she became mistress on 
 !thc Danube, — nay, her sway would have extended, if her flag 
 was not there unfurled, to the heights of the Bosphorus and 
 the fortresses of the Dardanelles. So far she did succeed as 
 to have administrative transformed into diplomatic questions, 
 and thus transferred the decision of all cases to Constanti- 
 nople, there to be managed by Dragomans, and settled by a 
 Firman : that, is, by arbitrary decrees such as the Ordon- 
 nances of Algeria. Governing by Firman was a quasi " admi- 
 nistrative union ;" for it was a \'iolation of the guaranteed 
 privileges of the Principalities, subjecting them to the gene- 
 ral administration of the empire, without the conditions or 
 guarantees on which that administration rests. However, 
 the people persisted in referring these acts not to the Turks 
 whom they believed to be stupid, but to the Russians whom 
 they knew to be artful. The Principalities, often irritated, 
 were never alienated, and the periodical success of Russian 
 ei'aft prepared the regular return of Turkish apathy. 
 
 In presence of the Russian army of occupation, so complete 
 was the ascendancy regained by the Porte in 1850, that 
 while in one of the Provincial capitals the Turkish Com- 
 missioner was received with every demonstration of enthusiasm 
 not one even of the P)oyards would visit or receive visits from 
 the Russian Commander-in-chief; yet the one is a distinguished 
 general and writer, the other a young untried man, recently 
 filling no higher post than that of clerk in the Foreign Office. 
 
 It is supposed that religion gives to Russia here a great 
 hold ; the mistake is as complete as it is universal. Every- 
 where throughout the East, Russia has lost that lever from 
 its too frequent use and its disastrous cft'gcts ; elsewhere she 
 sends religious bribes, silver chalices, brocade vestments, 
 painted missals, psalteries, and pensions : on the Principa- 
 
EVACUATION OF TPIE PRINCIPALITIES. 365 
 
 lities she imposes a religious tax, amounting to twelve 
 times their tribute to the Porte, £20,000 is paid to the one, 
 j6250,000 to the other. It is paid indeed in the shape of 
 the revenues of Monasteries, &c., and goes to Greek Priests, 
 but tliesc are not native ; it is Russia who maintains the 
 Impost, and who uses it to repay political services. Tims it 
 was that the priesthood took the lead, in their canonicals, in 
 the ovation prepared for the Turkish troops when they 
 crossed the Danube in 1848 ; and so entirely are the sympa- 
 thies of the people and their old traditions associated with 
 Mussulman greatness, that in the popular song for General 
 Bern, he is known as Murad Pasha. 
 
 It is in these favourable dispositions of the Principalities 
 towards Turkey, and their aversion to Russia, that for the 
 last century has resided the security of the Ottoman Empire, 
 Were these dispositions reversed it would have already been 
 handed over to the Czar to " preserve its integrity and inde- 
 pendence." It will suliice to state, that it is impossible for 
 Russia to act by military force upon the Ottoman Empire 
 from the Pruth ; and tliat even from the Danube she can 
 operate only by the aid of the resources she draws from the 
 Principalities. 
 
 As regards the futui-e, an attack upon the Ottoman Empire 
 is out of the question ; she will operate by means of internal 
 schism and revolt, and will bring herself within reach so as 
 to take advantage of it by a prior occupation of the Princi- 
 palities, for which the ambiguous position she has created for 
 them by Diplomatic means, Avill aflbrd the occasion. An 
 attempt of this kind was made in 1850, when her army was 
 there : it was not successful, but the circumstance is too 
 instructive not to be mentioned : the plan was so bold and 
 extensive that, as it has failed, it will with difficulty be cre- 
 dited; it was believed at the time by persons placed in the 
 highest positions, and there arc facts too authentic and 
 numerous to admit of doubt. 
 
 Nothing less was devised than a revolution in Bulgaria, 
 Bosnia, and Serbia, with a simultaneous one in Syria, con- 
 
366 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. -^ >< 
 
 certed with the Pasha of Egypt : the Sultan himself was 
 to be taken off; a revolution at Bucharest would liave 
 justified %e reinforcement of the army of occupation by 
 50,000 men collected at Bessarabia, and so 70,000 Russians 
 might have marched on Adrianople to place a New Sultan oil 
 the throne, whilst a squadron dropped down from Sevastapol 
 to the Bosphorus, to save the Capital and protect the- 
 Christians. 
 
 The scheme failed, because such schemes are more easy to 
 plan than to execute ; because in fact, at the time it was not 
 executable. The Bulgarian revolution was impracticable 
 without the support of Serbia — Serbia acted against it. The 
 Admiral's ship was blown np in the Golden Horn, but the 
 ministers had not at the moment arrived on board. A 
 draught prepared for the Sultan, was swallowed by an 
 Eunuch ; * the Syrian insurrection failed because Bern had 
 been sent to Aleppo to be out of the way. The revolution 
 
 * There is no secret as to the name of the physician who prepared 
 the draught — Dr. Spitzer. To the indignation of the Seraglio, the 
 Sultan would not allow him to be put to death, but dismissed him 
 to Yienna with a pension. The circumstance having been detailed 
 in a pamplilet which reached Vienna in June, 1852, a mystification 
 was put forth on the 28th of August in the Augsburg Gazette^ by 
 pretending a new conspiracy in that year and confounding it with 
 that of 1850. I extract a passage. 
 
 *' The Sultan's physician. Dr. Spitzer, has been suddenly removed, 
 and appointed Councillor of the Turkish Legation at Vienna. There 
 are many stories afloat, the most probable one is that Dr. Spitzer 
 was offered an enormous sum by the reactionary party if ho would 
 poison the Sultan, and threatened with a speedy death if he refused. 
 The Doctor showed the letter to the Sultan, and has been removed 
 to save him from danger. Last time it was the Sultan's brother, 
 whom it was attempted to gain over, but who made ths Sultan aware 
 of what was going on ... , The journey of the Sultan to Chalki, 
 to visit the new Marine School, was to be taken advantage of to 
 carry out the views of the conspirators, when the Sultana Vahde 
 sent a steamer after the Sultan, to make known the conspiracy to 
 him. Many persons have been arrested, and various Pashas hava 
 disappeared. People too have recollected that on that very day two 
 years, when the Sultan was to have gone on board, the Admiral'* 
 ship blew up." 
 
EVACUATION OP THE PEINCIPALITIES. 867 
 
 et Bucharest did not take place, because Aclimet Effendi 
 happened to fill tie office of Imperial Commissioner. 
 
 At Aleppo, however, an outbreak did take place, and it 
 affords us the opportunity of tracing the conspiracy to its 
 source, and of showing the preparations made in Europe for 
 profiting by the catastrophe had it been more signal and 
 general. 
 
 A certain Armenian, named Yazmadji, implicated in the 
 attempt to assassinate Kossuth,* and generally reputed to be 3 
 poisoner, arrived at Aleppo, accompanied by eight Hungarian 
 renegades. These men were paraded about the public places 
 in Mussulman costume; in a few days they recanted and 
 publicly reviled Islam, the deadliest offence to Maho- 
 medans, they then took refuge at the different consulates. 
 Other exasperating cn-cumstances were not wanting, and 
 the insurrection followed. It has been attributed to a 
 reaction of fanaticism against the new order of things, but 
 Europeans were not maltreated after Navarino : if it had 
 been so, how shc-ald the Armenians and Jews have been 
 spared and the popular fury directed only against the Franks, 
 Catholics, and Greeks ? 
 
 After the rage of the people had been exerted against the 
 ^Franks and the Consuls, the i\jabs of the Desert, with 
 admirable instinct, arrived. No Yazmadji had been amongst 
 them, but they had gone to Egypt, and had returned, each 
 man, with gold in his sack, some ten, some twenty, some thirty 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 Within the shortest time the intelligence of the events of 
 Aleppo could reach St.Petersburgh, that capital was astounded 
 at tlie appearance of a leader in the "Northern Bee," the 
 special organ of the Emperor. There Abbas Pasha was vindi- 
 cated against charges of treason, whilst at Constantinople 
 everything was explained by the repugnance of the Arabs to 
 the conscription ! 
 
 * A case into wliicli tlie Enghsh EmbasBy instituted an inquiry, 
 and conolutled for the reality of the charge j at least it allowed that 
 belief to be exitertained at Per*. 
 
S68 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 The alertness of the editor of the " Northern Bee '* wau 
 not a solitary incident : the instant the news reached London 
 the English Minister wrote to Paris to suggest the necessity 
 of measures against the Ottoman Empire. The English 
 Ambassador hastens to the Foreign Office, General La Hitte 
 listens with profound attention. The Representative of 
 Eussia happens to call at the same moment, and is waiting in 
 an adjoining room. The Protocol is in the very act of 
 parturition, when the door opens and a chef de bureau enters 
 and places in tlie hands of tlie General-Minister the official 
 report of General Bern, which had reached Paris in an 
 unofficial manner.* 
 
 By this document the total loss of life at Aleppo was 
 reduced to fifteen, and the explosion of fanaticism was 
 explained as arising from obscure and foreign intriguers; 
 the measures adopted by the Government were stated to have 
 arrested the disorders, and its resolution was declared to 
 punish the delinquents. So fell, still-born, the Protocol, and 
 the Eepresentatives of England and llussia had to return to 
 Aheir respecti^•e hotels re wfedd. The French Government, 
 which is sometimes given to oscillations, having desisted 
 from smiting the Porte by a " coalition," raised it to the skies 
 in an article in " La Patrie ; " and the Govea'nment, against 
 whom in the morning was to be evoked a crusade of revo- 
 lution and Christianity was, in the evening, held up to the 
 theatres and clubs of Paris as a model of firmness and 
 moderation. The CJief de Bureau^ however, not being 
 sufficiently Russian for the Foreign Department, was trans- 
 ferred to another : and Bern, who had killed both insurrection 
 and Protocol, was despatched to the other world, f 
 
 * Tins statement was made to me at the time in Constantinople; 
 I have no means of testing its accuracy ; but it partly rested on a 
 report of Callimaclii. 
 
 t The English Ambassador at Constantinople interposed to 
 prevent the Porte from conferring any mark of favom* on General 
 Bern. Into tlie circumstances of his death an inquiry was instituted 
 by confidential agents who reported that the treatment of his malady 
 (intermittent fever} had been such as to ensure a fatal issue. 
 
EVACUxVTION OF TIIE PRINCIPALITIES. 369 
 
 It is no unlikely thing that such events under such 
 circumstances should occur. • "W^at else indeed can be 
 expected with a foreign array in occupation — the occupying 
 Power being the most artful and unscrupulous of Govern- 
 ments, and the occupied state the most harmless and 
 negligent ? The circumstances which I detail are but the 
 programme to be again rehearsed, and over and over again 
 <imtil it passes from fiction to reality; No wonder that after 
 such an escape Turkey should have endeavoured to get rid of 
 its alarming guests, the marvel only is that it should have 
 succeeded. 
 
 The Principalities, however, aiford to Turkey the most 
 advantageous of fields for diplomatic contest. There Russia 
 can neither put forward her allies, nor, as in Egypt, Syria, or 
 Greece, play upon their mutual jealousies. Ereed from such 
 entanglements, Turkey is morally if not intellectually a 
 match for Russia. It may be difficult to move the Turks, 
 but once they have resolved, they will adhere to their point 
 with more pertinacity, and carry it out with as much dex- 
 terity as any people on earth. 
 
 The most oftcnsive feature of the occupation was the 
 charge for the support of the Russian troops, exacted with- 
 out Treaty or WaiTant, the expenses of the Turkish troops 
 conjointly occupying, being entirely defrayed by their own 
 Government. The resources of the Provincial Government 
 having failed, the Russian General oft'ered to open for them 
 a credit on St. Petersburgh, and so by supplying the Russians, 
 they had become indebted to Russia. It was on this point that 
 the Porte determined to raise the question and she waited 
 for an occasion. 
 
 The Hospodar of Wallachia, Stirbey, had proposed to place 
 his son in the Russian diplomatic service : on this Achmet 
 Effendi, Commissioner of the Porte, had taken offence. 
 A Hospodar lies on no bed of roses when the Porte declares 
 itself his adversary ; and to regain its good will it was well 
 worth making sacrifices. The Hospodar commissioned liis 
 agent to deliver to the Grand Vizier a memoir in which it 
 
370 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
 
 was stated that the Province could no longer bear the burden 
 of the Russian troops, and urging the Porte to take mea- 
 sures for their removal, or for the reimbursement of the 
 Provincial treasury. On presenting it, the agent said, " You. 
 will see that the Prince is not so black as Achmet Effendi' 
 would make you believe." The Grand Vizier replied, " Very 
 well, we will see what we can do for him." A few days 
 afterwards the Eussian dragoman, M. Aristarchi, went to 
 the Minister of Foreign Affairs to suggest, that if the Porte 
 was not inclined to withdraw its troops, and its Commissioner^ 
 it need not proceed on the application of the Prince. 
 
 The Porte did however proceed, and transmitted a formal 
 demand for the Evacuation, which left Constantinople upon 
 the 15th January. On the 21st, M. TitofF took occasion 
 informally and verbally to communicate to Ali Pasha that 
 the proposal would meet with no obstruction, as he had 
 already received the orders of his Court to make it ! No 
 steamer had arrived, and no messenger ; no communication 
 <;ould have reached M. TitofF for the eight previous days. 
 
 Either M. Titoff had by anticipation been armed with 
 powers to meet this contingency, or he acted under an un- 
 mistakeable necessity presented by the case. That necessity 
 consisted in the hostile dispositions of the Principalities and 
 in the respectable disciplined force now possessed by Turkey. 
 It must also be observed that the immediate object of the 
 occupation had been accomplished by the subjugation of 
 Hungary, and that the Eussian troops in contact with the 
 Turkish, so much better paid and fed, were being inoculated 
 with disaffection to that degree, that the regiments already 
 relieved, had been, dispersed and sent in small bodies to 
 remote stations. 
 
 If it was requisite to yield — than was it desirable to do so 
 with promptitude and gTace, so as to preserve a footing of 
 confidential friendship, which would give her the control of 
 the future measures of the Porte, and prevent it front 
 iakhuj steps by which her future return would he rendered 
 
EVACUATION OE THE PRINCIPALITIES. 371 
 
 The Turks having themselves seized and sent away the 
 leading men opposed to the Russians, and the Government 
 being in the hands of her partisans or faction, it would 
 be easy to fire off a revolution; this would be the signal 
 for the return of her army, or it may return on any other 
 pretext — then it will return alone, there will be no Turkish 
 army or Commissioner. The political evacuation can take place 
 only when the Porte on withdrawing her soldiers shall cause 
 the provisional system to cease, by giving them a simple and 
 intelligible charter by which to govern themselves. This 
 indeed constituted a part of the original plan of the Porte 
 and would have been carried out if Russia had exhibited any 
 signs of resistance, or even of hesitation ; but the unexpected 
 facility of lier assent confounded the Turkish Government 
 and made them suspect that they had fallen into a trap. 
 One of the members said " we thought we had hit her a 
 heavy blow — she smUes and thanks us." 
 
 At the critical moment of the negotiation, on the 21st 
 January, the British ambassador, after having been refused 
 a private audience, at a public audience represented to the 
 Sultan, his Ministers as having lost the confidence of England, 
 and being unworthy of that of their master.* As to Prance, 
 not that her word matters one way or the other, she was 
 sending in an ultimatum, and breathing flames about the 
 Holy Places. Thus Turkey, being relieved from her officious 
 friends, achieved the greatest diplomatic victory which her 
 annals have to record ; but that does not prevent the Great 
 Governments of the West from claiming as a diplomatic 
 triumph, the having driven back 50,000 Russian soldiers 
 five hundred miles, and that too, when preparing to sign the 
 Danish Protocol ! 
 
 * The day before, the Kussian Minister sent to the cliiefs of the 
 adverse party, to inform them of the step which next day the 
 English Ambassador would take, and of the language he woul<i 
 hodl. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Commercial Besourccs atid Legislation of Twrlcey, 
 
 The Greek Byzantine Emperors, wlioin the populace of 
 Constantinople raised at pleasure to the throne, or hurled 
 into the dust, had above all things to provide — cheap bread. 
 The neighbouring provinces were consequently prohibited 
 from exporthig wheat ; but this, like all other attempts 
 against nature, instead of supplying the capital, depressed 
 and exasperated the provinces, and ended by ruining the 
 Empire. 
 
 . The Turkish system was simplicity itself; it enacted by 
 law, and sealed by religion, that rule of administration which 
 belongs to the earliest times. L'nfortunatcly, however, tlie 
 Greek system was not entirely blotted out with the Greek 
 Empire, and, without the necessity, the Sultans followed 
 the pr/tctice of their predecessors, so far as to prohibit the 
 expoi-tation of grain. 
 
 This state of things lasted 376 years, from 1453 tiU 1829^ 
 when, after many ages of security, Constantinople was once 
 more placed between foes on the North and South, traffic by sea 
 was stopped, and she was in want of bread. She had still the 
 two continents open, but the corn administration (Moubaya), 
 invented to feed the capital, blockaded it as eftectually by 
 land as the Russian squadrons by sea. Under the presence 
 of absolute famine the old laws were suspended, and instantly 
 plenty reappeared. 
 
874 TilE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 Since Eussia obtained access to tlie Black Sea, her atten« 
 ion has been given to the cultivation of wheat. Her soil, 
 her climate, the distance -at which she is placed, a difficidt 
 navigation, and a frozen sea during several months of the 
 year, presented to such an enterprise great obstacles : the 
 Bosphorus, tqo, was then closed against this commerce. 
 Her perseverance has triumphed over all, even to the causing 
 of the prohibition to be repealed by the Porte for the passage 
 outward of her corn, while for that of Turkey it was retained 
 in force. Across the narrow, seas of the Ottomans, and be- 
 tween their vast uncultivated plains, Eussia sent her cargoes 
 to the markets of Europe, and received in ret^u-n those monies 
 which place • her in the position to aim at the empire of a 
 reasoning but stupid age — a warlike but venal world. 
 
 The Turkish Empire is composed of countries that in 
 former times were the most flourishing on earth. The con- 
 ditions of the teiiure of land, the relations between proprietor 
 and occupier, present no systematic impediment to prosperity. 
 It possesses the most remarkable natural facilities for trans- 
 port. The sea, which only washes the borders of other states, 
 penetrates Into its centre, and gives it a maritime coast of 
 about 1200 leagues, or twice and a half that of England, and 
 five times that of France. The rivers communicating with 
 these seas traverse the most fertile regions. Egypt has her 
 Nile : the rich plains of Syria touch or approach the sea 
 coast, reaching the Gulf of Acre to the south, and joining the 
 Orontes on the north ; to the east flows the Euphrates. The 
 mountain chains of Asia Minor run all east and west, so as 
 to allow the plains and watercourses to penetrate from the 
 sea to the interior ; by the four rivers that run to the west 
 and the two that run to the north, the elements are afforded 
 of a system of internal water-carriage through its whole 
 extent. Eoumelia is traversed by the great artery of Central 
 Europe, the Danube, which a canal of five leagues woidd 
 cover with craft, letting the Black Sea into the land, carrying 
 it right up to Hungary, and so uniting to the Bosphorus, the 
 repose and prosperity of the Ausfrricltv Empire. 
 
COJirMERCIAL LEGISLATION. 375 
 
 These provinces are placed under the most happy sky : 
 they neither know the rigours of winter, nor the intensity of 
 «immer : a fnigal and docile population of nearly forty mil- 
 lions is sprinkled over a soil not yet broken to labour, or 
 fashioned by art. 
 
 With such a surface for the growth of corn, with such 
 facilities for its transport, Turkey would unquestionably have 
 seized upon the commerce of the world, if the sentence had 
 not gone forth against her : " You shall not traffic in the 
 stores of your granaries, the flax shall dry upon the stalk, the 
 olive shall rot under its tree, the forests shall never descend 
 from the mountains, nor the brass and ii'on, the gold and 
 silver, emerge from their entrails.'* This sentence the SultaJi 
 Mahmoud undertook to reverse, but the times were no longer 
 when an Ottoman Sultan was his OAni master. He did not 
 dare to say to his people, "Enjoy the gifts of Providence ;" 
 he did luot dare to say to the nations, " Come and trade with 
 my people."* 
 
 Tui-key nevertheless had for the basis of her system free- 
 dom of trade : this freedom was avowed and consecrated in 
 
 • A recent work on Turkey has the following : — 
 ** If some of oiip enterprising countrymen, acquainted with com- 
 mercial pursuits were to visit these provinces of European Turkey, 
 they would find a rich field, as yet unexplored : I Ibund a most 
 anxious desire on the part of the iuliabitants to establish a more 
 intimate commercial connection with Great Britain for the disposal 
 of their timber, com, and ^cattle, which seemed to lie upon their 
 hands -without the possibility of a sale. 
 
 " In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low prices of 
 provisions and cattle of every description is almost fabulous com- 
 pared with the prices of Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb 
 ■UBually costs from cighteenpence to two shillings, an ox forty 
 gliillings, cows tliirty shillings, and a horse, in the best possible tra- 
 Vclhng condition, from foiir to five pounds sterling. Wool, hides, 
 tallow^, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the town and hans by 
 the road side, evei7thing is sold by weight ; you can get a pound of 
 meat for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which 
 m pSmo soli by weight, costs about the same money." 
 
"8'76 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 the treaties with all countries. The productions of foreigners 
 were not loaded with duties ; she did not wage a war of ex- 
 change against her neigiibours ; she did not dream of the 
 protection of national industry ; tlie talons of the Use did not 
 gripe salt and tobacco ; and no octroi blockaded the dwell- 
 ings of men. 
 
 Whence the mysterious contrast ? Why this monstrous 
 yoking of a living man and a carcass ? The cause is ex- 
 plained by its effects : in Turkey nothing could be bought 
 that Eussia sold ; but for all articles which Russia did not 
 sell, the markets were open without stint or limit. This 
 prohibition has made Russia what she is ; it was a singular 
 effect of her greatest militaiy triumph, that the war which 
 placed in her hands the second capital of the empire ended 
 with reversing the balance between the victor and the v;ui" 
 quished ; for after the removal of the restriction on the corn 
 trade occasioned by the pressure of her blockade, no European 
 vessel would have passed on to the Black Sea, but would 
 have laden on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The reimposition of the restriction was now a new enters- 
 prise, and its accomplishment a new victory : it was achieved 
 in tlie Treaty of Adnoupe, by means of a stipulation for un- 
 limited freedom of trade. Every Ivussian, or every subject of 
 the Porte, who chose to go to Odessa for a passport, or to 
 seek the protection of a Ilussian consulate, might traffic far 
 and near free from all charges, save that of the nominal 
 Ilussian tariff". Eussia at the time had not one native sub- 
 ject or merchant in Turkey, but soon the whole country was 
 covered with her " subjects ;" they possessed themselves of 
 all the channels of industry ; they broke through the whole 
 order of administration ; eveiy difference was solved in their 
 favour by a threat, for to this commercial stipulation Eussia 
 had appended for any remissness or neglect the unparalleled 
 penalty of "reprisals."* The Porte at last fell back oa 
 
 * Vllth Article of the Treaty of Acli-ianople. — Eussifm subjects 
 niil enjoy thi-ovigliout the whole extent of the Ottoman Empire, a» 
 
COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION. 377 
 
 Troliibition ; the old capitulations, while tiiey conferred on 
 «trangers the privilege to come to buj^ and sell whatever 
 tliey chose, were not enuncititions of principles but merely 
 grants of favour, and they specially reserved the right of 
 j»rohibiting the exportation of any article in cases of scarcity/' 
 Tlie revival of such a pretension may appear a very weak' 
 device, and one which would only expose Turkey to new 
 humiliations and embarrassments. The prohibition of the 
 article v,i\s of course with a view to the sale of firmans for 
 its exportation, those who purchased them stood in the light 
 of servants of the government. As article after article came 
 •thus to be monopolised, the dissensions with Russia were 
 brought to a close by the extinction of the trade out of 
 which they had originated, or by tlie transfer cf the indivi- 
 duals from the class of Russian subjects to that of Turkish 
 farmers. The Treaty of Adrianople was now more flagrantly 
 violated than by the small abnormal duties hitherto imposed; 
 nevertheless the terrors of the " casus belli " clause were 
 
 vrell on land as at sea, the full and entire liberty of Commerea which 
 tlie Treaties assure to them. Tlic liberty cannot be ijifriugcd in any 
 case or under any pretext, by any prohibition or restriction of Avhat- 
 ever kind, nor as Hie consequence of any regulation or measures 
 whether of interior administration or legislation. The Russian sub- 
 jects' ships of merchandise shall be i)rotected against every violence 
 and every fraud. The first will remain under the exclusive jurisdic- 
 tion and police of tlie Minister and Consuls of Russia ; the Russian 
 vessels will never be subjected to any visit on board whatever, on the 
 part of the Ottoman authoi'ities, neither in the open sea, nor in any 
 of its ports or anchorages, and merchandise or produce belonging to 
 the Rmdan stihjects, after having acqiiitted the duties estabhshed by 
 the tariff shall be freely sold, deposited or transported, from one 
 vessel to anotlier, whatever nation that vessel may belong to, without 
 the Russian subject having need to notify the fact to the local autho- 
 rities, and still less to ask them their permission ; and if, which God 
 forbid, any one of these stipulations should be infringed without full 
 and prompt satisfaction being made, the Sublime Forte recognises^ 
 beforehand, tJie right of tlw. Russian Court to consider sitch infraction 
 an act of hostilitg, aiui to have recourse imntediaielg to reprisal 
 against tlte Ottoman Empire, 
 
378 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 left to slumber. Eussia ceased to be the patron of liberty of 
 commerce, sacrificed her p'oteges^ retracted her demands, and 
 smoothed do^vn her countenance. "Her end was gained."* 
 
 But at this moment the Ottomon Empire, shaken from 
 without and agitated from within, was floating upon the tide 
 of experiment : if old institutions were in danger, habitual 
 abuses had also lost their hold. The results of 1829 could not 
 be forgotten : the incessant vexations connected with trade, 
 sun-ounded the doors of every minister with hosts of harass- 
 ing supplicants; disorder would not be silenced, the pre- 
 cariousness of the position in reference to Eussia by the 
 very measures into which she had driven them, could not fail 
 to obtrude itself upon graver minds. Above all the ne- 
 cessities of the Sultan, then intently engaged in creating an 
 army, forced the Divan to devise, or at least to listen to 
 schemes by which the restoration of commerce might be 
 made subservient to the replenishing of the Treasury.! Thus 
 arose the proposal made by Turkey, who had never before 
 proposed any novelty, and the mission of a special Ambassador 
 to England with no less an object than the revision of the 
 whole system of commercial legislation. 
 
 At this time, England's trade with her ancient customers 
 had been cut off, by the avowal of her minister, the ancient 
 channels had been blocked up, and she required to bring new 
 trafficing worlds into existence. The countries of the Con- 
 
 * See " England, France, Russia, and Turkey," where these facts 
 ttlU be found published, in 1835, under the sanction of the then 
 English Ambassador at Constantinople. It has been urged on me by 
 persons who would be esteemed the fii'st authorities in the matter 
 that I am whoUy mistaken in attributing Eussia' s conduct on this 
 occasion to such deep design, or indeed to any design at all ; and 
 that it is to be explained by the fact that these Apaltators^ wera 
 chiefly Eussian agents, and that largely profiting in the system, had 
 found means to induce the Russian Crovernment to overlook it. 
 All I can say is, that in this case, as in many others, accident favours 
 tlie skilful, as fortune does the brave. 
 
 t This idea was afterwards followed in the Budget of 1841, when 
 it was proposed to meet a deficiency by a reduction of taxes. 
 
COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION. Z19 
 
 tinent Lad in peace combined to make commercial war on this 
 nation, which, during the last struggle, had saved most of 
 them from subjugation, subsidised while protecting them, and 
 had been in the hour of victor}' as heedless of her interests, 
 as in that of danger, she had been prodigal of her blood. 
 Mistaken theories in some, political animosities in others, in 
 many both conjoined, had prompted a blockade of custom- 
 houses, inflicting loss, implanting notions inimical to her 
 prosperity and feelings dangerous to her power. 
 
 Against this concert we had striven bj'- arguments, pro- 
 fessions, statistics, and reduction ; we appealed to resem- 
 blances of manners, community of science and literature, 
 friendly recollections for benefits conferred, gratitude from 
 Dynasties, who owed to us their thrones or their existence — 
 we planned thirty-two commercial treaties ; but all in vain, 
 llepulsed and discomfited, we turned from the East to the 
 "West, and from the North to the South. The House of 
 Brunswick arrayed all Germany in a hostile league, sympa- 
 thetic France rejected our yams : subsidies, auxiliaries, and 
 all the muskets iu the Tower could obtain no hospitality for 
 our wares, from the Houses of Bourbon and Braganza : the 
 new continent, rivalling meanwhile the antipathies of the 
 old, was equally deaf to the channs of Downing Street. At 
 last, sick of defeats, and worn with toil, the President of the 
 Board of Trade exclaimed, amid the cheers and laughter of 
 the House, "Thank God, we have done with commercial 
 treaties." 
 
 How now stood the matter with Turkey ? What sjTnpathy 
 liad we to expect who had attempted to burn her capital, Avho 
 stood the avowed patron of her revolted subjects and the 
 dose ally of her deadly foe ? Whose professed community of 
 interest, had ever been exhibited in hostility of act ? We 
 burdened witli d\ity her wares, and refused her reciprocity, 
 who alone, in Euippe, or the world, gave free admission to 
 our industry, who aufiered us to enjoy the carrying trade of her 
 Goastis, conceded to us the faculty.of internal traffic, and per- 
 ttutted to our subjects settled in her dominions the exercise 
 
S85 THE LEVANT AND RET) SEA. 
 
 of every municipal, commercial, and judicial function, un- 
 shackled, unwatched, and untaxed. 
 
 Turkey and Russia stand in commercial legislation, as the 
 north and south poles. The one prohibits nearly all the ma- 
 nufactures of England, and seeks to enforce the imports of 
 her raw produce ; the other admits all the manufactures ot 
 England and prohibits the export of her raw produce. The 
 foreign merchant in Russia is surrounded and hampered by 
 the most minute and oppressive restrictions : he is in every 
 point inferior to the native. The foreign merchant in Turkey 
 enjoys the fullest immunities, and is placed above the native. 
 The Russian system is the result of no theories, it is a mere 
 calculation as to how commerce is to be used for political pur- 
 poses. The Turkish system, in as far as it is restrictive, proceeds 
 from no theories, but is the result of the success of Russia in 
 interfering with her internal regulations. Turkey is engaged 
 in no design against any neighbour to carry thither either 
 political influence or restrictive system. Russia is engaged in 
 designs against all her neighbours, and wherever she esta- 
 blishes her power, there follows her system. Against Russia 
 England takes no step, either to enlighten the people or to re- 
 sist the Government ; but favours her commerce, befriends her 
 political ends, lends to her the whole weight of her power to 
 support her aggressions, and extend her system. Yet these 
 two systems stood in balance because the two empires did so, 
 and we ought have thought of Turkey a little while, serving 
 Russia so much. With her activity pervading the world 
 England had no time to consider what might be eifected with 
 the empire through which flowed the Danube, and the Nile, 
 the Tigris, and the Euphrates ; ^vhich held in its hands the 
 Isthmus of Suez and the Strait of the Dardanelles ; which 
 extended from the torrid zone to the snows of the Caucasus, 
 from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf, — whose dominions 
 in Europe, Africa, and Asia (exclusive of Arabia), equalled 
 Prance, Germany, Italy, and Spain ; which was all agricul- 
 tural, and where freedom of trade was the law of the State. 
 This empire had to come to her to propose that mutual 
 
COMMERCIAL U^GISLATION. 381 
 
 abolition of restriction which she in vain had been preaching 
 all round the globe. 
 
 This appeal, strange to say, was not from the Porte to the 
 English Government, but from Sultan Mahmoud to William 
 the Fourth. The Ambassador was charged to say : — 
 
 " The SubHme Porte, who appreciates and esteems at its true 
 value the importance of tliese relations with one of tlie most 
 enlightened and powerful nations of the world, knows also, Sire, that 
 they have already secured the attention oi yonr Majesty, i\w(\. doubts 
 not that a benevolent system of reciprocity will soon come to be con- 
 sidered by the Oovenimenf of your Majesty as a means of fortifying 
 and increasing that desirable union which exists between these two 
 high Courts." 
 
 So that it would appear that the Turkish Government relied 
 more on the friendship of tlie King, than on the principles of 
 the Administration. 
 
 To the Porte it was not a simple matter of regulation : 
 had it been so, it needed not to send to England. It 
 was a delicate and precarious negotiation, in which it 
 was essential to succeed if once they adventured upon a 
 step ; their position was alarmingly insecure at home, they 
 were under the Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi, and tlie Eus- 
 sian debt was unliquidated. They could not venture on a 
 rupture with Eussia without the assurance of the support of 
 England, and without that support so assured beforehand, 
 they knew by hard experience that a rupture with Eussia 
 would be a rupture with England. They wished then that 
 England would make one of those proposals to them, that 
 she was scatterhig over the earth, so that they might appear 
 only to consent 
 
S82 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Negotiations loith Turhey. 
 
 Between the period wlien tliis mission was planned, and' 
 that when it arrived in England a discouraging change of 
 administration had taken place. The party favourable to Free 
 Trade had fallen from power, and the Duke of Wellington, 
 whom the nations of the East had been taught to consider as 
 a servant of the Emperor, was Prime Minister.* The two 
 grounds of hope were thus cut off, and it proved impossible 
 to effect anything. I owe it, however, to the Duke of 
 Wellington to say, that he neither closed the door to dis- 
 cussions, nor wrapped himself up in mystery and reservei 
 He entered frankly into tlie subject, and even laboriously 
 perused statements of the case both Avith reference to the 
 matters of trade and with respect to the means of political 
 existence of that empire ; and tlieii rejected the overtures 
 upon two grounds : First, his theoretic opinions upon 
 taxation which were in favour of those upon trade; 
 secondly, on his conclusion, which nothing could shake, that 
 Turkey was past salvation. He hesitated not to charge upon 
 Lord Grey the niin of that Empire in his admission of the 
 Ti-eaty of Adrianople, and subsequently of that of Hunkiar 
 Skelessi.f That, however deplorable such a result might be, 
 
 * The change of Administration was announced from St. Peters- 
 burgh in these terms : " A marshal of the Emperor is now minister 
 m England." 
 
 t Lord Grey with whom discussions were simultaneously carried 
 on, concurred with the Duke of Wellington in his opinion respecting 
 Turkey, but attributed to lihn the catastrophe, saving, that it had 
 been sacrificed by his own misjudgment of the war of 1828, and the 
 conduct of the Groyernment of which he was a member dunng that 
 war. 
 
KEGOTLVTIONS WITH TURKEY. 383 
 
 it was now incontestible and accomplished, and England 
 could not undertake the Quixotic task of setting up a dead 
 body upon its feet. He denied, moreover, that England was 
 possessed of faculties to carry out any system whatever, and 
 did not wish that it should be otherwise. "England," said 
 he, " has done nothing great save by insubordmation." I 
 may further add that he was greatly rejoiced at the publication 
 of Mr. Cobden's pamphlet, and exulted in my having been 
 *' answered.'* 
 
 Soon, however, the other party came into office, and we an- 
 ticipated an immediate and a joyful acceptance of our pro- 
 posals, for the last measure of Lord Palmerston on leaving 
 office had been one which implied the fullest approval of all 
 the steps I had taken at Constantinople in reference to this 
 matter. 
 
 I know not in what terms to describe the reception of the^ 
 proposal by the new Administration. Reception! it was 
 scouted and branded, with what withering epithet will the? 
 reader imagine, or believe ? — Russian.* The Porte of course 
 hastened to withdraw its proposal. 
 
 Fortunately thjre was then on the Throne a Sovereign who 
 believed it to be his right and duty to attend to those matters 
 which especially are confided to his prerogative. Then also 
 
 * " TO SIB HEEBEET TAYLOE. 
 
 ., (Extract.) ^'January 20, 1835. 
 
 •**I have just been dismayed to learn that Nouri Effendi has 
 TFritten to Constantinople, expressing all the discoui-agement and 
 despair that Lord Palmerston had filled him with in their last inier- 
 view, particularly Ixis Lordship's observation, that my proposal for 
 the tariff, that lias cost so much to bring to the pitch where it now 
 is, was a Rurssian proposal. Tliis indeed is an act of suicide, and I 
 am most anxious to know your opinion on t]ie subject. L^nless you 
 have gamed Lord Palmerston entirely — unless he understands the 
 fault he has committed, I do not see what chance there is of my 
 being of any — the slightest use, as serving the Government ; and, on 
 the other hand, I am sacrificing myself and the questien. 
 
 " I have just leanit, also, that tiie mission of Ellis is in a state of 
 abeyance, and that Mac ]^ei]l has come to tlie resolution of resigning 
 his situation, unless the government adopts a more worthy policy .*' 
 
384 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 the King had a Private Secretary who applied to the subject 
 his clear, judicious, and vigorous mind, and devoted to it his 
 unwearying assiduity. The ambassador at Constantinople 
 most heartily entered into the same views.* I need not 
 enumerate further; suffice it say that, excepting the two 
 chiefs of tlie Foreign and Trade Departments, the whole 
 official body concurred in the plan as originally sketched at 
 Constantinople. Several months of intense labour ensued, 
 nor did I shrink from attributing the opposition of the Foreign 
 Secretary to the only intelligible cause. At last he gave in, 
 and unfortunately T accepted the change as a bona fide one, 
 and was, therefore, willing to resign my previous convictions. 
 It w^as now resolved that the proposal w^hich the English 
 <jlovernm.ent had rejected when it came from the Turkish 
 should be presented to it as an English one, and I was com- 
 missioned to discuss it with the Board of Trade. 
 
 Here difilculties of an une^xpected nature arose ; at the 
 Foreign Office it had been hateful as a Russian project, at the 
 Board of Trade it was obnoxious as an Jnti-Baliic one. The 
 President of the Board of Trade was a Baltic merchant, and 
 the same process had to be adopted with respect to him as 
 with his colleague. After a futile attempt to bargain for the 
 imposition of an export duty of ten per cent, on Turkish 
 
 * "My dear Sir, — By Mr. Urqiiliart's desire, I forward to you a 
 Iietter for Moosheer Ahmed Paslia, and also a copy of a Memoir 
 **especting the commercial system of this country, &c. 
 
 " This Memoir, I think, deserves to be minutely explained to th« 
 Pasha, and studied by him. 
 
 " I am of opinion, that were it acted upon in its main points, it 
 would produce the most magnificent results to the Ottomon Empire* 
 
 " The latter part of the Memoir states the mode of acting, to which 
 I have always looked as the certain and effectual means whereby to 
 defeat Russia — means most easy to be applied by us, and which, in 
 the appHcation, will produce great benefit to England ; indeiiendent 
 of their political action. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, dear Sir, 
 '■<■ " Your?, very faithfully, 
 
 " POXSO^TBY.** 
 
NEGOTIATIONS WITH TURKEY. 885 
 
 produce, which lie Conceived would protect the Baltic trade, 
 he gave in. 
 
 The chiefs of the two departments had, however, yielded 
 only to necessity, and under the dread of exposure during the 
 lifetime of the King. I pass over the painful interval. In 
 little more than two years this Treaty, nominally the same but 
 really changed into that wMch Mr. Poulett Thomson had 
 desired for the prohibiting of Turkish exports, was imposed 
 on the Porte as the condition of that aid against !Mehemet 
 Ali, which subsequently furnished the pretest for the Syrian 
 Int-crveution, 
 
 13 
 
9m 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Com?nercial Treaty with Turkey of 1848. 
 
 This IVeaty as it stands merely doubles the duties of 
 import upon British goods, and quadruples the duty on 
 export of Turkish produce, and this concession is made on the 
 condition of abolishing all prohibitions and monopolies. 
 
 Two questions naturally arise : First, Was an equivalent 
 required ? Second, Was the concession so hampered of any 
 value ? That no equivalent was requisite must have already- 
 appeared ; what illegal vexations could counterbalance this 
 legal burden it is difficult to imagine. 
 
 Turkish exports must be classed in two categories. Many 
 articles were nowhere subject to monopolies, and provinces 
 containing ten millions of soids, were subject to no monopoly 
 of any article. Silk, cotton, opium, tobacco, gums, dyes, Sec. 
 were perfectly free everywhere : grain, tallow, wool, timber, 
 were free in Syria,* Egypt, Wallachia, Servia, Moldavia, and 
 Samos. In regard, then, to the first class of articles and to 
 all articles in tlie cited provinces, the increased duty was a 
 mere surrender of the rights of British subjects, and a 
 gratuitous imposition on Turkish trade. The Treaty was 
 assumed to be a substitution of one kind of import for 
 
 Aleppo, Augv.st 3cl, 1843. 
 
 * " The trade of the north of Syria, nor of Syria generally, 
 derives no benefit by the abohtion of monopohes ; because previous 
 to the Convention^ no commercial monopolies existed. The Con- 
 vention in relation thereto cannot be considered a boon, nor in fact a 
 compensation of any kind, to the trade of Great Britain with Syria j 
 certainly not for having inflicted on its produce an exportation duty 
 of 12 per cent,, after the grower has paid on the spot the usher of 
 10 per cent, to the government," — Mb. Webby. 
 
COMMEECIAL TREATY OF 1848. 387 
 
 another, but the relief of a taxed article could not be 
 obtained by the burdening of an untaxed one.* 
 
 The Prohibitions were not permanent or universal, and 
 might any day be unconditionally raised ; firmans could be 
 obtained on the payment of a certain sura ; and if it would 
 not pay they were not purchased. Eirmans \vere yearly pur- 
 chased for Mitylenc, and oil was exported : grain was at 
 times exported by firmans. Under the new system Mitylene 
 exports no oil, and Constantinople imports grain ! Thus, 
 then, the equivalent has placed on the free goods an uncom- 
 pensated burden, on the monopolised goods a tax which is a 
 prohibition ! In the restricted provinces it has replaced a 
 partial by a general impost, and into the free provinces in- 
 troduced the prohibitive system. The articles which were 
 obstructed before are obstructed now, and the articles that 
 were free before are burdened now.f 
 
 It required not to wait for the result to be certain that a 
 duty of twelve per cent, was more than heavy articles, such 
 as grain, Indian corn, oil, and the like, could bear. The 
 absence of roads had been the subject of lamentation to all 
 those who had taken an interest in the Ottoman Empire, 
 and what are bad roads, save a charge on heavy goods. By 
 them, the countiy, 150 miles from a point of shipment, was 
 doomed, as far as external traffic went, to sterility. The 
 new duty was equivalent to lengthening the journey by fifty 
 miles, and reduced to that extent the area of productive 
 land. This is the result of a change introduced by system 
 at the very moment that you are endeavouring to induce 
 Turkey to call science to her aid. 
 
 • " The duty of 12 per cent, amounts, in reality, on many of the 
 products of Turkey — especially the coarse ones — to a total pro- 
 hibition. It is, therefore, a matter of trifling consideration to 
 mercl^.ants, what estimate the tariff places on objects whicli the con- 
 vention lias now set without the sphere of speculation," — Times. 
 
 t What grain has been exported since 1839, has either been from 
 provinces where the Treaty has not come into operation, or during u& 
 iacrewe of price suflScient to over-ride the tariifi; 
 
388 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 But tiiis was not all : 
 
 The twelve per cent, was not left to be paid in kind, or 
 at a local valuation, but tlie amount in money was fixed by 
 a Tariff for all the Empire. At Constantinople, the price of 
 grain is raised by a consumption duty of eight per cent,, 
 and by heavy transport charges. The price of Constanti- 
 nople was taken as the basis of the Tariff, and the twelve 
 became twenty-five per cent. At this time England was 
 under the sliding scale, fixed every fortnight by averages 
 taken all over England ; she proposed tJik scale. She also 
 suggested the specification of the Constantinople kilo, — 
 the smallest measure, the highest price. 
 
 Nor was this all. 
 
 Goods derive in Turkey their nationality from the trader, 
 not from the place of production. Whatever the foreigner 
 buys is *' foreign." The word " exportation" was thus 
 a-ccepted in its first intention, and ap])lied in its natural 
 sense, and whatever was "carried out" paid the duty, 
 whether it vrent to the next town or to Canton. But 
 foreign goods came in for the subjects of Eussia, who did 
 not join in the Treaty, at one and a half per cent. : conse- 
 quently, at Constantinople, or the other ports, Eussian 
 grain was charged but a third or a fourth of the duty 
 imposed on Turkish grain. Constantinople now imports 
 from Odessa to the value of 40,000,000 of piastres of wheat 
 and flour. Such things njay appear incredible to a person 
 who reads them in Europe : they are so even in Turkey. 
 The late Minister for Eoreign Affairs would not believe the 
 fact here stated, till he had it confirmed to him by the 
 Customer. In fact the Turkish Government were utterly 
 in the dark respecting this negotiation from the beginning 
 to the end. 
 
 It is the same with respect to eveiy other article. Tobacco 
 is charged in the tariff two piastres, aU but four paras. The 
 tobacco exported from Syria to Alexandria averages two 
 piastres in value ; the duty amounts to nmety-five j^er cent. ; 
 consequently the tobacco of America, which at Alexandria 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1S48. 389 
 
 pays but three per cent, (the additional two per cent, is only 
 when sent into the interior), is brought across the Atlantic to 
 undersell in the ports of Turkey its own produce. Take 
 again a manufactured article, silk. The people of the Le- 
 banon pay an export duty of twelve per cent, (in reality fifteen,) 
 on sending- it to the towns where it is manufactured. Manu- 
 factured it is considered a new produce and is again subject 
 to an export duty, which amounts to twenty per cent, so that 
 an inhabitant of the Lebanon before he can wear his own 
 silk, manufactured in a neighbouring town, has to pay tldHy- 
 five per cent. He therefore buys the silk, or the silk and 
 cotton imitations of Switzerland and Prussia, which are 
 charged but five per cent. 
 
 So far then the two preliminary questions are answered, 
 and as no equivalent was required for the abrogation of 
 monopolies, so has their abrogation on such conditions proved 
 entirely sterile of all advantage. The commerce of the 
 country has increased, but it has not been in those articles in 
 which it was desired to open it, nor in those provinces on 
 which it has been imposed. 
 
 But England had the right in Turkey by the capitulations 
 of exporting and importing all articles, on the payment of 
 three per cent, and "nothing more."*" No vexation could 
 therefore exist save by sufferance ; and to resist these no new 
 Treaty was required:! w^hat use could there be in new 
 Treaties, if the old ones were not executed ? But let us 
 grant that the stipulations were not precise and specific 
 enough — then England possessed the right of the "most 
 favoured nation : " this Turkey did not desire to contest, the 
 seventh article of the Treaty of Adrianople was framed to 
 meet every supposable case. % 
 
 * " Cl-VUSE 30. — Tliat having once paid the customs at the ports^, 
 not an asper more shall be taken or demanded." See also Clauses 
 31, 34, 50, 51, 52, 53. 
 
 t "Clause 18. — All the capitulations, privileges, and articles 
 granted to tlie French government, and other powers, having been 
 in like manner granted to the English." See also Clauses 44, 48. 
 
 X " See this article cited at p. 376. 
 
390 THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 
 
 The object professed was to develope the resources of 
 Turkey ; if an equivalent in augmented duties was necessary, 
 surely it must have been laid on British imports. Why 
 invent a distinction between imports and exports to apply it 
 the wrong way ? The aggregate increase is ten per cent.; why 
 not halve it, and place five on imports, and five on exports ?* 
 The explanation oftered is that on no other terms could it be 
 obtained. " You cannot," said Lord Palmerston, on the 1st 
 March, 1847 ; "go to the minister of a foreign power with 
 a draft in one hand, and a pen in the other, and say, * there 
 sir, sign that or jump out of the window.' " This was said 
 in reference to the additional two per cent, on British goods; 
 there is no explanation for the burden on Turkish produce, 
 and for the best of reasons, for it was enforced by the process 
 above described. 
 
 Finally : the Treaty does not abrogate monopolies, nor being 
 abrogated does it prevent their reimposition. They were 
 abrogated by the act of the Turkish Goverament,f and the 
 wording of the Treaty, as we shall presently see, deprives 
 England of all powers under it, of resisting the imposition 
 of any and every tax ; and further deprives lier of those 
 rights which she possessed under the old Capitidations. 
 
 The negotiation, which commenced with the view of setting 
 free the ports of Turkey, has ended with sealing them up. 
 It has, at the moment when Turkey was about to abandon 
 its prohibitions, substituted for them prohibitory duties. 
 This is the measure for which the English minister has 
 
 * This was the original proposal of the Turkish government itself^ 
 and which it gave up on my urgent remonstrance, adopting in lieu of 
 it that stiggestion of the distinction between exports and imports, 
 which will be hereafter explained, and which has been so artfully 
 perverted. 
 
 t " En effet, apres 1' abolition de tous les drois interieurs qui ont 
 ete remplace par le droit de 9 per cent., payable a I'exportation, et de 
 deux sur I'emportation, nous voyons resusciter tous les jours les 
 anciens droits qui etoiente tonibes en desuetude avant d'etre supprimes 
 par les traifes." — The Consul General of Mussia to the Fasha of 
 Beyrouth 26 Marcht 1850. 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 391 
 
 claimed from applauding England and Europe, the credit of 
 having over-mastered and outwitted the cabinet of St. Peters- 
 burgh on the field of all its triumphs ; this is the Treaty 
 which all Europe has rushed to join, believing it to be a 
 masterpiece of commercial legislation and of political design. 
 
 I must now state what the principles of the Treaty were, 
 which I proposed and which the English Government adopted, 
 and sent out to Constantinople in 1837. 
 
 1st. The " most favoured nation '* clause. 
 
 2d. The privileges of the British merchants to be exten- 
 ded to subjects of Turkey. 
 
 3d. The duty on imports to be retained at three per cent. ; 
 those on exports to rise or fall on each 'article according to tJie 
 differ e^iice between its value in the marJcets of Turkey and 
 Europe : a commission of merchants at intervals of years to fix 
 the scale : in no case the sum to exceed that previously paid. 
 
 4th. Transit free. 
 
 5th. To come into operation only when all powers had 
 joined. 
 
 The negotiation was to have been secret, and when settled 
 between England and the Porte, they were conjointly to ad- 
 dress themselves to the other powers to obtain their adhesion. 
 No one would have gained by standing aloof. 
 
 The Treaty as signed stipulates, 
 
 1st. The '' most favoured nation " clause. 
 
 2d. Subjection of the English merchants in regard to 
 internal trade to the duties paid by the subjects of the Porte, 
 and not paid by other nations. 
 
 3d. The concession of the right of internal legislation as 
 against Treaties with foreign Powers. 
 
 4th. Imports raised from three to five per cent. Exports 
 from three to twelve : one and the same sum for all articles 
 whether they could bear it or not. 
 
 5 th. Transit charged at three per cent. 
 
 6th. To come into operation although no other nation 
 joined. 
 
 Such were the Treaties which, according toLord Palmci tton. 
 
S92 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 "differed in no material respect." * The changes were 
 made under the pretext of securing additional advantages. 
 The British merchant is made to pay " as much " as the 
 Turkish subject, by means of the Avords lie shall pay " no 
 more :" appealing to gain the privileges of the mod favoured 
 auhject, he loses those of " the most favoured nation." 
 
 On the Treaty coming into operation, the Porte made 
 arrangements to indemnify the farmers of customs, imagining 
 that the English duties were to be reduced to the level of 
 those of Russia, according to the 1st Article. One of our 
 consuls fell into the same mistake, and demanded the repay- 
 ment of duties on a cargo already shipped, and obtained it. 
 
 The truly marvellolis portion of this negotiation is, after 
 all, the adhesion of the other Powers. The abolition of mo- 
 nopolies being effected, was effected once for all, why then 
 should France submit to a gratuitous charge on the ground 
 that it was the price of their abolition ? The French Am- 
 bassador had received instructions to negotiate a Treaty 
 similar to the English, but on a memorial from the merchants, 
 lie wrote home to say that he could obtain more favourable 
 terms. He was answered by peremptory orders, the reason 
 assigned being that the French Government, " had yielded 
 this point to England." 
 
 The French merchants, so soon as their Treaty was signed, 
 demanded the execution of the first clause. They were 
 answered that a " tacit agreement existed between the Powers 
 not to require in that respect the execution of the Treaty ! " 
 One of them exclaimed, " had Turkey no friend when she 
 signed that Treaty?" 
 
 Austria's repugnance was openly avowed, she indeed 
 yielded as regarded the trade of the Mediterranean ; but 
 retained her old rights for the trade of the adjoining provinces 
 as Serbia, Moldavia, and Wallachia. 
 
 Every cabinet of Europe was brought to suiTcnder its 
 rights, and betray its people's interest ; not a single power, 
 however great, or however small, stood out. Eussia was left 
 
 * Lord Palmerston's statement in Parliament will be fourd at 
 the end of tliis Chaptei-. 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY OP 184.3. 893 
 
 alone to play the part of antagonist, and to realise tlie profits 
 of their self-imposed disabilities. 
 
 It thus appears that whenever England takes a course, 
 supposed to have in view the maintenance of public law, 
 she is immediately followed by every state and government 
 of Europe. A iact like this shows that the originality of 
 design, or tlic hostility of dispositions, we lend to France, are 
 but supposititious ; and that the obstructions we there meet 
 with, or the dangers we may thence apprehend, are solely, in 
 as far as they may be or become real, of our own creating. 
 
 It will be recollected that this had been treated by Russia, 
 not merely as a hostile, but as a perfidious measure. She 
 coupled it with the occupation of Carack, as acts forcing her 
 to have recourse to arms, laying " on England the terrible 
 responsibility of such a conflagration." -''■ In her avowed, as 
 in her oflicial organs, she threatened to retrieve at Calcutta 
 the defeat she had experienced on the Bosphorus ; but in the 
 manner of these threats she could not suppress her exultation, 
 and on the very day that the Treaty was settled at the Board 
 of Trade, these words were published in the J^rauhjort 
 Journal — 
 
 *' We will make their profoundest combinations and 
 master-strokes of design, the pivots of our policy, and the 
 instniments of our greatness." 
 
 On the other hand the English Journals, and especially 
 those connected with the Foreign Department,! asserted that 
 
 * Odessa Gazette. 
 
 + "It may bo assumed, without any iinseemly exaggeration of 
 Boll-deluding triumph, that by the prudence of Lord Pahnerston and 
 tlie efforts of Lord Ponsouby, seconded by fortunate dispositions in 
 the Court of Vienna and of the Porte, Russian influence has sustained 
 a signal defeat — a defeat whicli arms cannot retrieve, which bravado 
 cannot efiace, nor menace, nor perversion repaii*." — British and 
 Foreign Review. 
 
 " Lord Ponsonby, in a letter to me, quoted in the published cor- 
 respondence, says : — " I wrotd to you "when you wero away that I 
 was sure the agitation of it (tb« Treaty) would ler>' to nothing like a 
 •ettlement. I say, that I hay* not the smallest expectation of ita 
 
3«4 THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 
 
 it would transfer to Turkey from Russia that European 
 demand of raw materials by which she had been enriched 
 within the century to the amount of two hundred and sixty 
 millions sterling. When concluded, it was pompously 
 announced from the throne, extolled by the opposition, 
 rapturously hailed by the nation. Was it not then natural 
 for the statesmen of Europe, ignorant save in opinions, 
 blind save for print, to believe that England had taken the 
 lead in a great work which ^vas to secure pennanent tran- 
 quillity ? 
 
 If Eussia stood aloof, was it by mere indifference ? The 
 Treaty either served her, or threatened her. In the one 
 case, why did she not join — ^in the other, why did she not 
 oppose ? While any power stood out, the Treaty was in- 
 operative, because the merchants of the dissenting power, and 
 through them all other merchants, rode right over it. Had 
 she not influence with one ? If not one stood out, clearly 
 slie was not opposed. Why then did she not join ? 
 Because by her simulated opposition she ensured its success, 
 and justified the impression that the falsified Treaty was the 
 original one. When they had all joined, her position was 
 magnificent : her merchants could import at one quarter of 
 the duty paid by all others, and export at one quarter ; all 
 her triumphs had confeiTed upon her no privileges to be 
 compared with those which she reaped from a Treaty, levelled 
 at her existence. 
 
 A new administration comes into power in England; 
 remonstrances pour in from every quarter: the monstrous fact 
 was proclaimed of English Merchants being forced to borrow 
 the names of Eussian firms.* The necessity of a remedy was 
 
 being accepted. Russian interests would be deeply affected by it. 
 The Russians are not, I must presume, ignorant of the consequencea 
 of it ; and I know they are at this moment all poioerfuiy 
 
 * Col. Rose writes, on the Vth September, 1843 : — " An unan- 
 iwerable fact proves the superiority of the advantage which tho 
 Russian merchant now enjoys over the British merchant. I know 
 that a British merchant gave 1 per cent, to a person trading as a 
 
COMMEECIAL TREATY OF 1848. S95 
 
 80 evident that the Turkish government prepared for it. * But 
 means were found to set them on a false track, that of devising 
 a process for equalising the duty between the British and 
 Russian by making the native dealei' who sold to or bought 
 from the Russian, 'pay an illegal tax. The plan is designated by 
 one of our own agents, " a bold and unexpected attempt :" he 
 attributed it to Turkey. It was met by a Russian " armed 
 janissary " being sent to embark the goods " by force." f 
 
 Sussian merchant, whom I ako know to trade as a Russian merchant 
 in his name ; and I fui'ther know, that a sort of national pride alone 
 has prevented the rest of the British merchants in Syria from doing 
 the same." 
 
 , * « Even the Custom-house appaltators here, sensible of the ad- 
 vantages enjoyed by the Russian trade, and forseeing the probability 
 in consequence of a modification of the EngHsh Convention, have 
 ftijmlated icith the Government that they are to he indemnified for 
 the loss they will sustain should the modification take place 
 
 *' Need a clearer proof be adduced of the advantages which Russia 
 has gained by the Treaty, than the fact that a crowd of nominal 
 Russian merchants has sprung wp one hardly knows froyn tohere, since 
 it came into operation." — Conjoint Despatch of Colonel Rose and 
 Mb. Mooee {Consul- General for Syria and Consul of Beyrout.) 
 
 t The Ambassadoe. — " Upon my inquiring of the Miiiister of 
 Foreign Affairs in what manner tlie really important difference 
 between 12 and 5 per cent, paid by British merchants on exports and 
 imports respectively, and the uniform duty of 3 per cent, paid on 
 both by Russian traders was removed, his Excellency assured me that 
 in both cases that difference (!) was levied upon the Turkish subject 
 —in the former as a seller, in the latter as a -^\xvchsiserJ''^Sir Stratford 
 Canning (18//* Nov. 1842.) 
 
 TuE Consul- Genehal. — " A Russian merchant, or at any rate 
 trading as sucli, purchased lately a large quantity of silk, but the 
 ftppakator having been unable to discover the sellers or producers 
 thereof^ in order to exact the 9 per cent, export duty from them, 
 objected to his so doing. . , . The cancellier proceeded to the 
 Cufltom-house with a janissary armed, and declared his determination 
 to embark the silk by force. , . . The Custom-house officer 
 applied to Assad Pascha for support, to prevent its embarkation ; but 
 in consequence of a communication from the Russian canceUier, his 
 Excellency ordered the appaltators to allow the embarkation of the 
 bales on the payment of 3 per cent, only!" — Col. Eose, 7th Sept.^ 1842. 
 
396 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 Puzzled and confounded by the working of a measure 
 wliich, v»'hen in opposition, tliey had hastened to extol, the 
 new administration now sent about to the consuls and 
 merchants to ask their opinion ; this was the unanswerable 
 question which they put " Shall we keep the third clause, 
 or, abandoning it, take to the first ? " Here are the very words 
 of the inevitable Lord Aberdeen : — 
 
 " Whether the e?i.*advantages under which British mer- 
 chants labour are of such an extent as to render it more 
 advantageous to claim the benefit of the First Article, and 
 insist upon British merchants being placed on the same 
 footing with Russian merchants, although such a course 
 might lead to the sacrifice of ichatever advantages the British 
 trader now enjoys under the Convention, by the substitution 
 of fixed and for variable and arbitrary duties of import and 
 export, and by the abolition of monopolies and other ancient 
 sources of vexation and annoyance ? " 
 
 There can be no alternative between two clauses of a Treaty; 
 if you have something to choose between, you have nothing 
 to stand upon, for there must be contradiction. But you. 
 had none by the first article, for it is general, and the obli- 
 gations incurred by the third are special. The three volumes 
 of correspondence tally with their text. They contain, how- 
 ever, one passage of sense. 
 
 " We cannot see how our being placed ' on the footing of 
 the most favoured nation ' can in any way subject us to 
 * variable and arbitrary duties of import and export.' The 
 Russian IMerchants and others, under Russian protection, are 
 liable to no variable or arbitrary duty."* 
 
 When Lord Palmerston is at length charged in the House 
 vi'ith surrendering the rights of the " most favoured nation," 
 he answers : — 
 
 " The hon. and learned gentleman really hds not read the 
 the Treaty. He may lift up his eyes at that statement ; but 
 I repeat that he cannot have read the Treaty, or, if he has, 
 
 * Mr. Scctt of Slumlan. 
 
COMMEKCIAL TREi\.TY OF ]848. 897 
 
 he has not read it correctly. He stated, that by the Treaty 
 as signed, British subjects and sliips were not placed upon 
 the footing of the most favoured nation ; if the hon. Member 
 will only look at the Treaty itself, he will see that the first 
 Article states — 
 
 * All former rights and privileges are confirmed, and all rights, 
 privilege?, and immunities, which the Subhrae Porte now grants, or 
 may hereafter grant, to the ships and subjects of any other foreign 
 Power, or which it may suffer [not merely grant] the ships and sub- 
 jeets of any other foreign Power to enjoy, shall equally be granted, 
 exercised, and enjoyed by the subjects and the shipi of Great 
 Britain.' 
 
 If that is not securing to British subjects and ships all the 
 advantages enjoyed by the most favoured nation, I do not 
 know how the grant of those advantages could have been ex- 
 pressed in words more clear or more comprehensive. It is not 
 only so in the plain meaning of the words, But it has been so 
 acknowledged since hij both jjcwiles. JFe have acted upon that 
 interpretation. Indeed, there could have been no inter- 
 pretation required in the matter, because the words are 0.3 
 clear and as plain as words can be, and from them it is clear 
 that British subjects and ships are upon the footing of the 
 most favoured nation.'* 
 
 This statement was received with loud cheers. Good God ! 
 why print volumes of correspondence ! Varro did not despair 
 after Cannae ; who can hope after this ? 
 
 The British officials put up their prayers for one, one only, 
 boon, — that Russia may join ; then would be covered all their 
 sin and hidden all their shame. Little did they see, and less 
 did they care, that her adhesion would withdraw one immunity 
 from British trade, for Russian subjects trafficked in our goods, 
 and lent their names to our merchants. When a favourable 
 reception was to be managed for the Czar in London, the 
 Russian Cabinet promised to gratify their wishes. Lord 
 Aberdeen solemnly announced the event to Parliament, 
 assuring it that " Her Majesty's government had not been 
 
193 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 idle in this matter." The temporary end obtained, she 
 continued to adhere to her ^^base^ positive et intariahley* 
 through a fire of Blue Books, until in the midst of the din of 
 the Spanish marriages, and the annexation of Cracow, she 
 quietly, without the observation of a single soid, or the 
 comment of a single journal — ^joined the Treaty. 
 
 English Diplomacy now entered the haven of repose : the 
 English Merchants were contented : in what age do we live 
 when such a fact could not awaken even curiosity ? Could 
 stultification be more perfect, or demonstration complete ? 
 
 But already, in 1838, the Eussian Cabinet was preparing 
 the occasion to shift its ground. An elaborate exposee of 
 its ideas was transmitted to its ambassador at Constantinople 
 and communicated to the consuls. In this document the 
 same basis was assumed as that of the English Treaty, but 
 doubts were entertained in consequences of its " loose 
 wording," through which the Turkish Government might 
 slip : the " isolation " of Eussia is represented as a pause 
 until she has seen " what results shall manifest themselves.'* 
   In 1846 the desired results had consequently been mani- 
 fested — were they favourable or unfavourable ? If the first, 
 why impose on her trade a gi'atuitous burden of 12 per cent, 
 and sacrifice all her exclusive advantages ? In that year she 
 had usurped Cracow, while England and France were pro- 
 testing against each other about a Treaty (Utrecht) which had 
 ceased for fifty years to exist. If the second^-if, in tlie 
 words of one of her consuls " worse than the abuses were 
 now reappearing, which had fallen into desuetude even 
 before the Treaty was signed;" why give up the stringent 
 clauses of the Treaty of Adrianople ? If she who has pro- 
 claimed that clause the chief reward of her cami>aign of 
 1829, abandons the faculty it confers to interfere in the 
 internal administration of the Porte, it must be for something 
 even better still. 
 
 Against Eussia England will never strike a blow. Tlie 
 contest of the strong mind and the weak is not determined 
 by the relative power of their bodies or by their bodies at all. 
 
COMMEllCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 899 
 
 Therefore did paramount importance attach to a mjeasure 
 -which would have altered the relative bases of the power of 
 !Russia and Turkey. 
 
 Every remarkable man for the last fifty years has prog- 
 nosticated the extinction of the Western States and the 
 triumph over them of Kussia. Several of tliese were them- 
 selves Sovereigns and Ministers, and had practical means of 
 working out their thoughts. Not one of them has succeeded 
 — not one of them has even approached towards the way to 
 success. Eussia owes infinitely more to the energy with 
 which she has been opposed by men of first-rate genius 
 and highest station, than to the devotedness with which 
 she has been served either by her own officials or by the 
 traitors whom she has at aU times had at her disposal in 
 foreign Cabinets. It is not the difficulty of the enterprise 
 that has caused these failures. I take an illustration from 
 the other hemisphere : 
 
 Fourteen years ago, the plains watered by the Parana and 
 the Plata, fertile as they are vast, where herds might multiply 
 like the sands of the sea, towards which a tide of emigration 
 had set in from Europe, gave promise of an enormous 
 supply of hides and tallow. Internal dissensions arose, and 
 England and France commenced thereupon a series of the 
 strangest freaks that have ever been seen. One of the 
 leading merchants was sent over in 1847 to see what could 
 be done. He came to me with liis case. After he had 
 concluded his naiTative, he asked me if I could explain the 
 Bource of the malignity of which they were the object. I 
 asked him in turn what were the articles of export — tp 
 what amount — what the probable increase without the in- 
 terference, Stc. ? He replied, that a million and a quarter 
 eterling worth of hides, tallow, &c., were exported, and had 
 they been let alone, or the matter once for aU settled, they 
 would be now exporting to the value of six, eight or ten 
 millions. I then asked him the amount and nature of 
 the exports from the Baltic. He commenced to reply, when 
 suddenly, he stopped, and after a pause, exclaimed, " Sir ! 
 
400 THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 
 
 you have caused the scales to fall from my eyes." He 
 then informed me of a variety of circumstances which 
 had never struck him before, all indicating the connection 
 of Russia with those countries, and it even appeared that 
 the brig of war which had been captured by the blockading 
 squadron was a present from the Czar to Eosas. If a 
 merchant did not understand the diplomatic value of the 
 disturbance of the Plata, how should statesmen ? 
 
 Thus have Pitt, Napoleon, Talleyrand, Gustavus III, failed. 
 They knew nothing of commerce, and could not counteract a 
 system of which commerce fonned the basis. The proposed 
 Treaty met her on this ground. 
 
 i Let it not be supposed that any wrong was here intended 
 to Russia: there was no purpose to injure tlie legitimate 
 Baltic trade, and all that was proposed was, to allow the 
 English merchant to buy on the same terms as in Russia. 
 The project might have its political side : it had also its 
 commercial. It opened to England a new and a vast supply 
 derived from a country where om* export trade is only 
 hampered by our inability to obtain returns. From Syria, 
 we take one and sell forty. Russia, for her raw materials, 
 requires gold, and affords no market, far less a prospective 
 field for our wares. With Turkey the whole transport woidd 
 be effected in British bottoms. 
 
 Had the British Minister been constrained, in 1838, to 
 admit these high duties, he would subsequently have made 
 some endeavours to reduce them". Prance and Austria had 
 yielded nnwillingly : he was sure of their backing : Russia 
 assumed to be on the same line ; not only she professed to 
 desire unlimited freedom of trade, but she exacted it. How, 
 then, is it that England could never obtain a single reduc- 
 tion ? The little king of Greece was not so helpless.* 
 
 * The Britisli consul of Jauina (12th July, 1843) arguing that it 
 is easy to obtain reductions by taking advantage of concessions viadg 
 hy other States, mentions " a secret understanding come to with a 
 Hellenic merchant in 1841, for an abatement of duty on a cargo of 
 ■wool}" another reduction of the duty on wool iu favour of the in- 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 401 
 
 The Governments of Europe have lost the tithes, so that it 
 is with the greatest difficulty that they can impose direct 
 taxes, and they are driven to tax trade. The Turkish 
 Treasury receives the tithes : what then would be its profit 
 ^vere grain free ? Ten per cent, is paid in eveiy case on 
 .exportation, independently of any Customs' duty. The in- 
 terest of the Turkish Government is therefore that of pro- 
 prietor not of tax-gatherer ; the tax-gatherer stops demand, 
 renders unsaleable its goods and unrealisable its revenue. 
 
 The English Minister then could have no scniples in seeking 
 for a reduction which would have encountered no obstacle. 
 Eiery province of the Ottoman Empire has become by this 
 Treaty a foreign state for its neighbour, every change in the 
 namre of an article subjects it to a new duty, and every 
 change eflected in a foreign article subjects it to the duty of 
 a rative produce. The Customers roam throughout the land 
 levying Black Mail upon the villages, for to no other form 
 of taxation can this imposition be compared.* 
 
 Whether Turkey could supply grain to Europe or not, 
 Tfould have remained a problem had it not been for the 
 dearth of 1846. 
 
 The price of grain in Roumelia, on the threshing-floor, 
 averages seven piastres the kilo, or one shilling and three- 
 pence the English bushel. At the end of 1840, it began to 
 rise, and soon attained twenty piastres ; and the outpouring 
 commenced. From the walls of Vienna might be traced, 
 along the plain, as far as eye could reach, double lines of 
 waggons, tlie one arriving full, tlie other retuniing empty ; 
 night and day, week after week, month after month, this 
 stream contihued to flow, and when the price no longer 
 
 habitants from 24 piastres 24 paras to 21-10, " which privilege was 
 also shared by Hellenic mcrcliants," and that " tlie same rule was 
 followed in a reduction of the duty on valonia to 40 piastres from 68 
 piastres as established by our tariff:" and he says tliat he Jiad, in 
 consequence, claimed and obtained the same concessions for Britiah 
 merchants. 
 
 * In a table of the forms belonging to the Grand Vizier, drawn up 
 by Jonesco, Gtcmbntic is a regular entry. 
 
402 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 permitted exportation, the granaries were still full. By the 
 Black Sea alone* twenty millions of kilos were exported, 
 and Turkey received between two or three millions sterling. 
 Had this supply not been forthcoming, this money would 
 have gone to Eussia, while she might have increased tie 
 price, and thereby, the severity of the famine in Europe 
 This exportation was not the result of a particularly favourable 
 season — the hi^h price had tided traffic over the bar of the 
 Tariff. It was on this that Eussia hastened to renounce the 
 suggestive privileges which she had hitherto maintained. 
 
 England has now put herself in Eussia's shoes. It is England 
 that has to exert her influence to obstruct the development 
 of the territorial resources of Turkey. Every attemp: to 
 facilitate trade is now broken by the interposition of the 
 English embassy. *' You have," said M. Thiers, on a me- 
 morable occasion, *'^ adopted the interests of Eussia for your 
 own. You have nothing more to do.'* Say rather you have 
 much to do. 
 
 I trust that the foregoing pages will justify my declaration 
 in the House of Commons the 23d of Eebniary, 1848. 
 
 " I am prepared to prove, and I stake my character upon it, 
 and the house will be justified in applying any censure to me 
 if I fail, that in one negotiation which has been referred to 
 to-night, viz., that of the Treaty of Turkey, there have been 
 changes made in the stipulations, with the view and with the 
 effect of securing the interests of Eussia. Sir, I am 
 possessed of documents so numerous and minute, and of 
 
 * During tlie year 1847, 1224 vessel were despatched with cargoes 
 from the former, and 1638 from the latter, — a gre^t part of which 
 were British bottoms. The exports of grain from Ibraila, wliich, in 
 1837, amounted to only 220,000 quarters, and in 1840, to 325,000 
 quarters, attained in 1846, 750,000 quarters, and in 1847, 1,338,138 
 quarters ; to which if we add about two-thu*ds for Gralatz, and about 
 the same quantity for the Turkish ports, we have a total of nearly 
 three millions of quarters exported to Constantinople and different 
 ports in Europe in the course of one year. — (Eeport of a Cornfactor 
 of Constantinople.) This statement is exclusive of Varna and 
 Eoumelia. 
 
COMMEBCIAL TREATY OF 1851. 40S 
 
 testimony so consecutive, that no body of men, sitting down 
 with the pui-pose of ascertaining the facts, can arrive at any 
 otlier conclusion, save that of intentional falsification to serve 
 the interests of a Foreign Power." 
 
 It was in the course of the foregoing transaction that wag 
 brought home to me the idea of treachery in the bosom 
 of the British State and Cabinet. In this volume it is used 
 as the Key of all transactions. It therefore appears to me 
 that this is the place where I may be justified in approaching 
 it directly, explaining the position in which I have been 
 placed — the motives under which I have acted, and the 
 steps which I have taken. I owe this as a duty to the 
 leader, and I conceive that an impartial consideration of my 
 statement is a duty which he owes to me. 
 
 In the course I have pursued I had no option. I had the 
 misfortune to know what it would have been guilty to conceal. 
 I was fidly convinced that by discharging my duty I must 
 incur obloquy; whilst by closing my lips I could have 
 secured the highest objects of personal ambition. I was as 
 one who by accident found himself in the midst of a con- 
 spiracy, or witness to the preparation of a murder. A portion 
 of the circumstances to which I refer is before the reader. 
 I may have been mistaken in my conclusions, but I acted 
 upon them so as to bring to evidence their truth or my 
 mistake. I laid them before my Sovereign. 
 
 The Minister, the object of the charge, immediately changed 
 his coui*se, and adopted the very measures which he had 
 repudiated. It was my misfortune to believe this change to 
 be real, within two years he had frustrated every measure he 
 had adopted and had reverted to the course he had abandoned. 
 It was then that I publicly proclaimed to the Nation what 
 I had before privately presented to its Sovereign. 
 
 I now repaired a neglect of which I had been guilty — that 
 of examining this Minister's previous conduct. It was not 
 
404 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 till the inoutli of June, 1838, that I read his speech delivered 
 on the 1st of June, 1829, and which if it had fallen into my 
 hands two years before would have entirely altered the 
 Eoreign Policy of tliis country ; that speech was delivered 
 when there was no suspicion abroad, yet that and similar 
 speeches were of so striking a nature as to create suspicion 
 even in the mind of Sir Robert Peel, who went so far as to 
 insinuate that Lord Palmerston was then the Representalive 
 of Russia in the British Parliament. I next turned to his 
 conduct on other fields; for this inquiiy materials were 
 supplied by the documents which then began to be pom-ed 
 forth, in consequence of the sudden expansion of England's 
 diplomatic action. In every one I found the same result. 
 Of these I published elaborate expositions which were 
 re-echoed in the columns of the Leading Journals. No 
 refutation in any case was attempted. I endeavoured by 
 every means to bring the matter to adjudication. I appealed 
 to Lord Melbourne, as head of the Government, and as 
 member of the Privy Council : I did so to Sir It. Peel. The 
 charge was inade not figuratively, or in the spirit of invective; 
 but practically, with a view to forcing an inquiry. Einally, 
 after long endeavours, I succeeded in bringing it into the 
 House. 
 
 These circumstances are at least evidence that my con- 
 viction was complete, and such a conviction had it regarded 
 only the life or property of an individual, no conscientious 
 man could despise. 
 
 The reception which the charge met with in the House 
 affects neither my conduct nor the merits of the case ; that 
 belongs to the character of the body. " It is impossible to 
 deny," says Mr. Macaulay, " that impeachment, though it is a 
 fine ceremony, and though it may have been useful in the 
 seventeenth century, is not a proceeding from which much 
 good can now be expected. Wliatever confidence may be 
 placed in the decision of the Peers on an appeal arising out 
 of ordinaiy litigation, it is certain that no man has the least 
 confidence in their irapai-tiality, when a great public func- 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 405 
 
 lionary, charged with a great state crime, is brought to their 
 bar. They are all politicians. There is hardly one among 
 them whose vote on an impeachment may not be confidently 
 predicted before a witness has been examined : and, even 
 if it were possible to rely on their justice, they would still be 
 quite unfit to try such a cause." The authority of this 
 writer will not be questioned as regards his knowledge of 
 his time ; and according to him the men who for all moral 
 or political purposes control, or rather constitute England, 
 are without character, and when not frivolous, dishonest. 
 This is his judgment, not mine ; for less than this he cannot 
 imply when he denies the capacity of Parliament to entertain 
 the gravest of charges and to perform the most solemn of 
 duties. 
 
 The matter, however, was not dismissed as frivolous or 
 vexatious, far less were proceedings taken against the two 
 members by whom it was brought forward : public morality 
 had not sunk to the pitch of pretending to inquire where 
 they had resolved not to examine. The subject was simply 
 drq3ped, and committed to the charge of the future his- 
 torian. 
 
 Towards that historj% however, a valuable contribution is 
 furnished in Lord Palmerston's five hours' reply. It was 
 continued during two sittings of the 28th of Febmary and 
 the 1st of March, and in it preeminently shine the ela- 
 borate memory and consummate tact of the speaker. But 
 there is not a single assertion of his accuser refuted, or even 
 met. It is composed of three portions — Silence, mystification, 
 and superfluity : Silence where the charge was of a nature 
 intelligible to the audience, such as, for instance, the note to 
 Prince Talleyrand rejecting the proposed intei-vention on the 
 part of France and Austria for the support of Poland, on the 
 betrayal to the Russian Embassy of the Turkish commu- 
 nication of the draft of the Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi; 
 Mystification in respect to matters of which his audience 
 knew nothing, a specimen of which we have just seen in 
 reference to the Turkish Commercial Treaty ; Superfluity, in 
 
406 THE LEVANT AKD EED SEA. 
 
 defending hiiviself against a variety of charges not made, eiglil 
 or nine in number. 
 
 By a process, " Parliamentary, but perhaps not the less 
 discreditable," I was forced into speaking before him, and 
 it was only after I was thus deprived of the faculty of reply, 
 that he commenced his speech, in full security against any 
 possibility of exposure. 
 
 A circumstance most significant is, that the accused 
 Minister sought the member by whom the charge was made, 
 and was content to accept his public co-operation and 
 private friendship without the forms of recantation or 
 apologj\ This is a fact to have weight, even in times when 
 law is without force and public character a marketable 
 commodity. 
 
 The member in question (Mr. Anstey) did not derive from 
 me his judgment of the Minister : he to me expressed that 
 judgment before he was aware of mine. In respect to matters 
 which he derived from me, nothing could exceed the labour 
 which he devoted to their examination, nor the close sera- 
 tiny which he applied to their details. Other legal gentlemen 
 assisted in preparing the case. My entire correspondence, 
 without the reservation of a single letter was placed con- 
 jointly in their hands, and whatever the motives which may 
 now be attributed to Mr. Anstey, it is evident that his first 
 object must have been to assure himself of the truth : his 
 recent legal appointment by the present Government speaks 
 for itself. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this matter without bearing my testimony 
 to the admirable manner in which the case was haiidled. As 
 an effort of memory it was stated by a veteran and most in- 
 fluential politician, to have exceeded any he had ever listened 
 to in that House. It was no doubt called "a failure" by those 
 who if they had capacity to comprehend had not courage to 
 listen ; but it will remain for aftertimes a landmark to guide 
 the future historian through the mazes of their selfish dexterity 
 and the quagmires of their ephemeral success. 
 
 Hallam has elaborately shown how the secrecy involved in 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 407 
 
 the Cabinet Council, renders judicial proof of malversation, 
 or of treason next to an impossibility ; but there is^ a still 
 greater obstacle to moral evidence in the present admitted 
 practice of carrying on public business by private letters, and 
 giving, when they are given, public docimients in extract ; so 
 that it is only in exceptional cases that in carrying out a 
 purpose, the intention would require to be manifested, or 
 that a trace of the proceeding need be left, after it has been 
 effected. 
 
 Those exceptional cases, hoWever, are sufficiently numerous 
 and important to furnish all the proof that would be required 
 were it not that the self-love of colleagues and opponents, and 
 indeed of all the statesmen of this country and of the other 
 countries of Em*ope is enlisted against the charge. The 
 parties among the public cannot endure a reference of events 
 to causes independent of those maxims by which each would 
 rule the world ; and the morality of the day reveals itself not 
 in susceptibility for the honour of an accused Statesman, but 
 in'candour that denies the possibility of guilt. 
 
 The charge that is considered too heinous to be possible, 
 is that of being " Russian," but certainly it has no claim to 
 originality. It has for years been ringing through Europe, 
 and turn by turn applied to Emperors, Editors, Sultans, 
 Chartists, Viziers, Arch- Chancellors, Ministers, Ambassadors, 
 Regents, Palatines, Primates, Bishops, Kings, and Dragomans. 
 On no lips has it been found more often, or with more deadly 
 effect, than on those of Lord Palmerston ; he was, in fact, 
 the first to give to it its odious character : by it he upset a 
 dynasty in Prance ; expelled a Regency from Greece ; de- 
 stroyed, or attempted to destroy, a ministry in Turkey, 
 and always using it for Russia's ends. He has brought it 
 against my%elf, but there is this difl^erence between the two 
 allegations, his was made in a whisper — mine openly pro- 
 claimed.^' 
 
 Nor do I stand alone in this. There {\re several mem- 
 bers of the public seiTice who have come to this conclusion, 
 feverally on their own grounds. If not universal it is a 
 
408 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 very common opinion amongst European residents in tlie 
 East. It was for a time at last entertained by Prince 
 Metternich ; a document published during the troubles 
 of Vienna, show that it is entertained by M. Prokesch; 
 it has been unhesitatingly asserted in the German Ency- 
 clopaedia (Conversatzions Lexicon) and finally the present 
 Government in England, constrained to admit him into the 
 Cabinet, dare not confide to him the Foreign Department. 
 What Minister has ever before been exposed to the like 
 suspicions, and how could an English Minister be suspected 
 without grounds ? 
 
 The question is not one of condemnation but of inquiry — 
 whether or not there be a prima facie case. 
 
 Note I. 
 
 DIEFETIENCE OP THE TWO TREATIES ACCOED- 
 ING TO LOUD PALMERSTON, Makch 1, 1843. 
 
 (See p. 392.) 
 
 " This I will say, that the Treaty as condv..ded does not differ 
 in any material resjject from the draft of the Treaty as settled by 
 the Board of Trade and by the Foreign Office, and as sent to 
 Mr. Urquhart to be proposed to the Turkish Government," 
 
 *' I can state to the house the diff"erences between the draft 
 of the Treaty sent out in consequence of communications be- 
 tween Mr. Urquhart, the Board of Trade, and the Foreign 
 Office, and the treaty concluded by Lord Ponsonby, The 
 draft provided that Britisli goods should pay only the import 
 duty of 3 per cent, after which they might be transported to, 
 and sold in, any part of the Ottoman dominions, without 
 any further payments. The Treaty in addition to the 3 per 
 cent, import duty, laid on a further duty of 2 per cent, upon 
 the transport and sale of goods ; and beyond that no other 
 duty is to be paid in any part of the Ottoman dominions. 
 This 2cas one of the things to ichich in ner/otiatiou we icer$ 
 obliged to suhnut. Nobody can suppose, especially in arrang 
 ing commercial transactions between two countries, that you 
 can go with a draft treaty in one hand, and a pen in the 
 
NOTES. 409 
 
 other, and say to a Foreign Minister, * There, Sir, sign that 
 treaty, or jump out of the window.' You wmnot do that, 
 therefore, you must negotiate. The draft makes no prooisious 
 ic'iih regard to foreign goods purcJimed in Turkey t3y British 
 subjects with the view of tlieir being again sold in Turkey. 
 This icas an omissio?i in the draft (!) but the Treaty pro- 
 vides tliat foreign goods so purchased may be resokl upon 
 the same conditions as Turkish goods (!). The draft allows 
 tlie Porte to levy upon goods exported a duty not exceeding 
 the rate of 3 per cent. (!) ; and in return it allows Britisli 
 subjects to purcluise all kinds of goods in tlic Ottoman 
 dominions either for resale or exportation, subject only to tli6 
 payment of the transport duty on such goods, and to the tolls 
 demanded for the maintenance of the roads along which 
 the goods are conveyed : the Treaty limits the export duty to 
 3 per cent. (!), and admits of duties being levied upon goods 
 purchased by British subjects for resale in Turkey to the 
 same amount as those levied upon sv.hjects of the most favoured 
 nations (!). It further stipulates with regard to goods re- 
 exported, and which may not have paid interior duties, that 
 British subjects shall pay in lieu of such interior duties, one 
 fixed duty of 9 per cent. (!). It was a great object with us to 
 abolish these interior duties (!), which were a great obstacle to 
 the progress of British manufactured goods in Turleg, and 
 which, being made arbitrarily at the caprice of the Governors 
 of the provinces, were uncertain in their amount, and 
 excessively vexatious in their mode of being levied. The 
 draft provides that no 'duties shall be levied on goods in 
 transitu : the Treaty limits the duties on goods in transitu 
 to the 3 per cent, impost (I). The draft does not allude 
 to tlie point I am now about to state. The Treaty specifies 
 in detail the various ports of the Ottoman Empire at which 
 it is applicable (!), and records the consent of the Forte to 
 other powers settling their commercial matters upon the 
 same basis (!). Of course it was intended to bring all other 
 Powers within the same regulations ; and this is the memo- 
 randum I have upon the draft (!). The above seems to be the 
 essential points to be discussed. I think I have now stated 
 eiiough with regard to the commercial Treaty." 
 
410 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 Note II. 
 
 TURKISH COMMERCE. 
 
 The Prussian statistician, Hubner, makes the total exports 
 of Tnrkey, for the year 1850, 13 millions, and its imports 
 lOi millions sterling. 
 
 Imports from Tiirkey. Exports to Turkey. 
 
 England 29,903,772 26,895,160 
 
 Austria 22,058,666 22,515,333 
 
 France 17,027,420 11,256,000 
 
 Russia 5,434,418 7,479,484 
 
 Belgium 293,330 1,036,533 
 
 Netherlands 571,360 458,000 
 
 Greece 1,312,500 333,000 
 
 United States 1,351,854 341,599 
 
 Hamburg 694,940 57,105i 
 
 Bremen 70,601 5,635 
 
 Portugal 9,946 — 
 
 Prussian thalers 78,728,807 70,377,849 
 
 The exports from England have increased from 1830 to 
 1850 sixfold, the declared value being in the last year 
 JB3,100,000. 
 
 Since the opening of our ports for foreign grain our trade 
 with Russia has diminished 50 per cent., that with Tui-key 
 has increased 50 per cent.; but no grain comes from those 
 provinces of Turkey where the English Treaty has taken 
 effect. We imported dii'ectly and indirectly, in 1850, from 
 the Danube, above two millions of quarters, and sent to 
 brail and Galatz iE998,000 value of goods. 
 
411 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 TJie Red Sea — Egypt. 
 
 * Every great man who has looked at the map of the world has 
 thought of Egj'iDt." — THiEiiS. 
 
 Egypt was of old a broken reed, piercing the hand that 
 leant upon it : the Scriptural proverb has proved itself true 
 in our times. The extreme of insignificance to which this 
 country has attained in contrast to its ancient pre-eminence 
 of splendour, is not however harmless : its wonderful geo- 
 graphical position gives to it an extrinsic value, which, though 
 existing in all times, acquires a new importance from the 
 gradually interlocking around it of the great Empires ; 
 England has a dominion in India, France a settlement in 
 Africa, and Russia looks to subverting Turkey. 
 
 It is now twenty-three years since Europe was all but 
 plunged in a war, not because a new Napoleon had made it 
 the stepping-stone to India, but merely because of a quarrel 
 between its Pasha and the Sultan. By that event the tenure 
 of Egypt was practically altered, its dependence on the Porte 
 shaken, and the chances increased of its becoming a bone of 
 contention. The Powers then intei-posed to force the Sultan 
 to concede to its ruler a hereditary title in violation of the 
 maxims of that empire, and in opposition to the principles of 
 its restoration. This change was merely nominal: so long as 
 Mehemet Ali lived and ruled, the power of Egypt was, so 
 to say, a personal matter; it disappeared with him. On 
 his demise Egypt would have merged into its anterior con- 
 dition, but that under this arrangement the new Pasha, 
 neither being appointed by the Sultan, nor having strength 
 in himself to stand against him, has to lean for support 
 
412 THE LEVANT AJN^D RED SEA. 
 
 on Foreign Governments, and ttIU receive it only from 
 those who are inimical to his Sovereign * 
 
 All that is said of danger to that Empire from disaffection 
 of its Christian subjects is idle breath ; its danger is from a 
 Mussulman Schism and in such a Schism Egypt disaffected 
 must play the first part ; it is a Mussulman Province ; it 
 stands between Turkey and the Holy Places, the possession 
 of which is a vital matter ; its Ruler may control Syria, and 
 dispose of the predatory Arabs of the Desert, and although 
 regiments of Fellahs may not again traverse Asia Minor, the 
 impression of past events remains, and Egypt in the hands 
 of a Foreign Power may shake the throne of the Sultans to 
 its foundation. 
 
 Amongst us the sinew of war is money : in the East, as 
 the reader of the 'Arabian Nights' well knows, it is rice. 
 It affords the largest amount of nutriment in the smallest 
 space, is of all grains that which is least liable to dete- 
 rioration ; it is the accustomed food of the people, not like 
 wheat constituting a portion of the diet, but the whole of 
 it. Rice comes from Egypt : cutting oft' Egypt is stopping 
 the supplies, and this is its moral as well as its physical effect. 
 
 In a war with Russia, Egypt being the province furthest ' 
 removed, is that from which supplies may be most readily 
 drawn ; it is therefore of the utmost importance to detach 
 it from its allegiance. It was by experience of its vahie 
 that Catherine called Egj^pt one of the horns of the 
 Crescent (the other was Greece), of both of which that 
 Luminary had to be shorn before, according to her opinion, 
 it could lapse into her amorous embrace. In fact she pre- 
 
 * I wrote the following words a year before the Treaty of 1840 
 was signed. 
 
 " The power of Mehemet Ali must fall with himself. The intro- 
 duction of hereditary succession, a principle at variance with the 
 laws and administration of the empu'e, can only be proposed for the 
 purpose of perpetuating diiferences between Egypt and Constanti- 
 nople, and allowing the Powers of Eiu'ope to interfere under colour 
 of rights conceded to their interyentiou." 
 
THE RED SEA— EGYPT. 4ia 
 
 ludcd to her great war with Turkey by a traitorous intelli- 
 gence with the Beys of Cairo ; in consequence of its discovery 
 that war was declared against her by the Turks. ''The 
 use which she made of her first successes was to olTer Egypt 
 to France, if she would join in dismembering the Ottoinaa 
 Empire." * 
 
 A footing in Egypt thus appears to have a value beyond 
 the weakening ot the power of Turkey. It may serve to 
 raise up other enemies to that Empire, to convert its pro- 
 tectors into spoilers, and to place those protectors theraselv cs. 
 at variance. The proposition of Catherine to Louis XYI 
 i^alls to mind Poland her proposition to Frederick tlie 
 Great and Joseph II: we have thete seen how, by 
 tempting neighbours with territory, she can convert them 
 into dependents. Egypt was far oft' and could only be 
 reached by sea ; but as Poland furnished her the occasion for 
 occupying the military Powers of the North, so did Egypt 
 for the maritime Powers of the West. Egypt could not be 
 divided, there is but one Nile : if it could be possessed by 
 one only, it could be offered to two. At the time that the 
 French Government was thus tempted, England was alarmed 
 at the designs of Catherine on Turkey, and preparing to 
 oppose them ; had the French Government yielded to the 
 temptation, England must have immediately sent an expe- 
 dition to Egypt, as she did a few years later on a similar 
 occasion, and England and France being engaged in war, she 
 woidd have disembarrassed herself of the opposition of tlie 
 one, and acquired in the other a partitioning ally against 
 the Ottoman Empire. It must not be supposed that she 
 risked even the ultimate possession of Egypt, for that pro- 
 vince must remain dependent on Constantinople, whether 
 possessed by Turkey or by herself . besides neither England 
 nor France could endure its possession by the other ; wlien 
 they will have exhausted themselves in a war respecting it, 
 they will be ready enough to submit to its occupation by 
 
 * " Progress of Eiissia in the East." 
 
414 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 her : they are the clients, Turkey the oyster, and she the 
 lawyer. 
 
 In the often quoted Testament of Peter, the inspiring of 
 rivalry is impressively laid down as the rule for his successors. 
 Its effects are thus tersely described : " Inspire France and 
 Austria with the ambition of universal dominion, such hatred 
 will then arise between them, that they will destroy each 
 other." Since that period the relative positions of these and 
 the other States of Europe have been materially altered, and 
 the method holds under a new distribution of the parts. It is 
 not two predominant States to which the maxim has now to be 
 applied ; the passion of ambition has subsided, but jealousy, 
 which has taken its place, is no less available for setting 
 nations by the ears. Wherever there is affinity of dispositions 
 and equality of power, such as, for instance, in Denmark and 
 Sweden, Russia and Austria, Turkey and Persia, England and 
 Erance, she finds ample field for the perfecting of this art. 
 Since the peace England and Erance have been five times 
 brought to the verge of war merely by jealousy : twice in 
 reference to Spain, once to Tahiti, once to Morocco, and 
 once to Egypt. It can only be by some most unexpected 
 combination that any of the other countries can afford again 
 the like chance; but Egypt is in every respect prepared 
 for it. 
 
 There is no other portion of the Ottoman Empire in designs 
 on which it would be possible to involve any two Powers. It 
 is not only the only portion of the Ottoman Empire, but the 
 only district in the globe, for the possession of which tico 
 Eoreign Powers can be brought into competition. The 
 United States may covet Cuba from Spain, or Canada from 
 England ; France may seek to take the Rhenish frontier from 
 Pmssia; Russia may be desirous of wresting India from 
 England, or the Danubian Principalities from Turkey \ but 
 of Egj^pt alone can it be said that it is equally coveted by 
 Russia, by France, and by England. Has not France already 
 occupied it, has not England driven her out — was not this the 
 occasion of the last war that desolated Europe ? Now, too. 
 
THE BED SEA-^EGYFT. 415 
 
 the authority of the Porte has been shaken in that province by 
 an international compact, in virtue of which you have J)ound 
 yourselves to interfere in its internal administration: that 
 compact was signed in London^ to the exclusion of France. 
 
 It is a singular fact that the differences between Philip 
 Augustus and Eichard the First arose out of the desire of 
 the French to direct the efforts of the Crusaders upon Egypt. 
 Innocent III adopted with fervour the idea, and it was car- 
 ried into execution by Louis IX, though the expedition failed 
 from his yielding to an inferior temptation. At another period 
 the plan was revived by Cardinal Ximenes, who engaged 
 his sovereign, and Emmanuel of Portugal, in a coalition 
 for carrying it into eft'ect. That expedition in like manner 
 was directed to another object. So soon as the Portuguese 
 had established themselves in India, Albuquerque, judging 
 that the Nile and the Red Sea might despoil his country of 
 his conquests and frustrate his magnificent schemes, conceived 
 the bold design of turning the course of the Nile from the 
 Mediterranean into the Eed Sea, and so render Egypt a desert. 
 
 The next European name of celebrity connected with 
 Egypt was that of Leibnitz. When Louis XIV was about to 
 engage in the disastrous wars with Holland, Leibnitz ad- 
 dressed to him his celebrated Memoir, proposing the occu- 
 pation of Egypt as a more effectual means of crushing Hol- 
 land. His argument equally applies to England, except that 
 the Dutch had commerce only in India or Colonies, but not 
 dominion : — 
 
 ** I maintain," says he, " that Holland wiQ be more easily 
 conquered in Egypt than in her own breast, for she will be 
 robbed with ease of that which renders her flourishing — the 
 treasures of the East. The difference of the two methods of 
 attack has this of remarkable, that she will not feel the 
 blow du-ected at her on this side, until it is struck ,home ; 
 and if she does foresee it she will be powerless to parry it. 
 * * * If the means of execution are kept secret as w^ell as the 
 real end towards which they tend, all will have been done to 
 secure the success of an enterprise in which is involved the 
 
416 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 possession of India, the commerce of Asia, and the dominioii 
 of the tmiverse." 
 
 Napoleon's expedition has been supposed to be based 
 upon the same views and directed to the same end : he has; 
 however, himself avowed that these were struck out as after- 
 thoughts. 
 
 *' I had raised myself by the sword alone ; to restore it to 
 the scabbard was to deprive myself of the means of rising 
 higher .; I had bestridden too brilliant a charger to allow him 
 to return quietly to his stall ; I apprehended the dangers of 
 a prolonged inaction, and exhausted my ingenuity to cause 
 it to cease. Europe offered me nothing ; I planned an expe- 
 dition to Egypt. This was to me at first but an expedient ; 
 burying myself, however, in idea, in the consequences which 
 might be drawn from such an enterprise, if carried to a fortu- 
 nate issue, 1 was agreeably surprised to discover that France 
 might derive from it incalculable advantages ; England con- 
 curred with me in the same opinion, and posterity will say 
 that she was right." • 
 
 The far-reaching mind of Kleber had, however, not reqidred 
 that he should cross the Mediterranean to apprehend the 
 full consequences of the step. He writes to the Directory : — 
 ** I know all the importance of the possession of Egypt ; 
 while yet in Europe I used to say that it was for France, 
 the fulcrum by means of which she might shake the system 
 of Commerce in the four quarters of the globe." 
 
 England had the good fortune to expel the French, and the 
 good sense not to put herself in their place. With these 
 events Ilussia had nothing to do ; but as we have already- 
 seen, eight years before the expedition of Napoleon, she had 
 proposed one to the French Government of the old regime: 
 if that of the Restoration reverted to the project, and pre- 
 pared for it by the occupation of Algiers, it is not to be sup- 
 posed that she was a mere indifferent spectator. There is a 
 mass of evidence which I have collected elsewhere which 
 establishes the interest that she took in the quaiTcl, and the 
 helping hand she lent to the denouement : she must hay^ 
 
THE RED SEA— EGYPT. 417 
 
 been blind if she had not seen, and insane if she had not 
 advanced, a project fraught with such vast consequences, in 
 the distracting of the internal condition of France and in com- 
 promising the external position of Turkey. 
 
 France now standing to Turkey as a partitioning power, 
 the latter must apprehend that Egypt will next fall :* that 
 her new African neighbour looks to Syria, she has ample 
 reasons for suspecting. Can England whose intercourse with 
 India is now carried on through the Bed Sea, remain 
 indifferent, and will not her jealousy act as an additional spur 
 to the ambition of France ? A new Napoleon whom Eussia has 
 helped to a throne at Paris, immediately assumes for his title 
 that of *' Defender of the Holy Places," which Europe soon 
 learns to be of such vast importance, that the holding of the 
 keys by this or that sexton involves war between two great 
 Empires. 
 
 The restoration was upset by the African expedition, the 
 dynasty which replaced it was upset by the Algerine army and 
 system — so deeply is France implicated in these projects, 
 the aim and end of which is Egypt ; for Algiers on the one 
 side and Syria on the other, are connected with the affairs of 
 Europe only in so far as they are connected with Egypt : 
 the importance of Egypt is with reference to the traffic 
 of the Eed Sea, and the means of communication with 
 India; the solution is therefore to be found in the open- 
 ing of the canal of Suez, and the establishing of its neu- 
 trality by common consent. This is what Eussia has to 
 prevent. 
 
 But the dynasty that was upset in 1830, and that which 
 again fell in 1848, had both been placed upon the throne by 
 Eussia ; she 'has then an equal motive in knocking down as 
 in setting up ; whom she sets up assuredly she will knock 
 down. It would be well for himself and for Europe if the 
 
 • During the French occupation the fortifications of Alexandria 
 were commenced under the celebrated Cretin : since the occupation 
 of Algiers, tlie French Government has seized every opportunity to 
 urge the strengthening of those works. 
 
 14 
 
418 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 present ruler of France would consider before it is too~ late 
 the fate of his predecessors. His own experience has shown 
 with what ease anything can be done with the French. 
 
 The Ottoman Empire presents two salient geographical 
 features, the Dardanelles and the Isthmus of Suez ; the one 
 opening', the other obstructing, the cdmmunication of the 
 central portion of the globe. Since the invention of gun- 
 powder, which has placed a padlock upon the Dardanelles, 
 that strait has been in the hands of a power which did not 
 seek to use it against other nations. Possessing it, Russia 
 would have in her hands the seas and continents, the passages 
 of the north and south, and the bread of Europe, and could at 
 any moment paralyse the east of Europe and the west of Asia. 
 The importance of the Isthmus of Suez is in like manner 
 veiled by being closed. By keeping it so until it falls into 
 her possession, she retains the overland traffic to the east 
 and her check over India. When it is in her possession, she 
 may indeed open it, but it will be for herself. 
 
 The effectual control which England possesses over Eussia 
 is commercial. Russia's power being exclusively military 
 cannot be brought to bear directly on England, so that she 
 is without any possible countei*pose (diplomatic considerations 
 apart) until she shall have advanced sufficiently towards 
 India to establish a countercheck. "From the moment,'* 
 says Sir J. M'Neill, " that she occupies this position, it will 
 become necessary so to augment our army in India, especially 
 the European part of it, as to be prepared for the con- 
 tingencies that may arise out of her proximity. This will 
 be a large addition to our national expenditure, which will 
 become permanent; because, if Russia were at Herat, we 
 could no longer smd out our troops by sea as quickly a^ she 
 could march them by land.^* The calculation of relative 
 distance is here based upon the passage round the Cape. 
 With a canal opened to the Red Sea, and that route be- 
 coming the ordinary course of communication, the troops 
 would be forwarded by steam, and India brought two months 
 closer to England : by the same blow the schemes of opening 
 
THE EED SEA— EGYPT. 419 
 
 ihe Overland Trade by tlie Danube and the Euxine would 
 be laid prostrate. 
 
 The Ottoman Empire to convulse, England and France to 
 be set at variance, the dii-ect communication between England 
 and India to stop, and ultimately the dominion of the Indian 
 Ocean secured — such are the ends which Krussia may advance 
 through Egypt, 
 
 The objects of England are, first, to prevent Eussia's inter- 
 ference ; secondly, to prevent the authority of the Porte from 
 being shaken ; thirdly, to prevent any difference arising 
 between herself and France upon the subject ; fourthly, to 
 obtain the opening of the canal by a common understanding 
 with Turkey and with France, the first of which would gladly 
 Bee the enterprise imdertaken, the second of which has already 
 exerted herself to bring it about. 
 
420 . 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Canal of Suez. 
 
 "Necho commenced the digging of a Canal, but was frightened 
 by some oracular words of the priests." 
 
 The opening up of the passage from the Eed Sea to the 
 Mediterranean, a work associated with the glories of the 
 Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Caliphs, was a task which 
 ought to have been vindicated to herself, by the ruler of the 
 ocean and the mistress of India. The Pharaohs did not 
 supply China with woollens, nor the Ptolemies, Hindostan 
 with cottons ; the Caliphs were not rulers of the Deccan : 
 none of them claimed superiority in the world by mechani- 
 cal enterprise, or commercial ambition. England, with the 
 dominion and the commerce of the East, with the dominion 
 and the command of the seas, with wealth in one hand, and 
 steam in the other, has had no thought of bringing India and 
 the Eastern hemisphere to her doors. If we had been igno- 
 rant of history, geography might have invited us to the 
 attempt ; and without surveys past events might have sug- 
 gested the enterprise. 
 
 The physical difficulties are* nothing : the dangers of the 
 navigation of the Eed Sea have disappeared ; we have now 
 the aid of locks and steam; we have illimitable capital 
 and endless inventions. If, therefore, a canal had even 
 proved impracticable in ancient times, that would be no 
 argument now ; what then are we to say of those who, 
 despite the evidence of its former existence, pronounce it an 
 impossibility ?* 
 
 * Mr. G-aUowaywas the first,^! beUeve, to speak of " impossibility,** 
 but he qualifies it as "financial.'^ Mr. Stephenson makes the matwr 
 
THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 421 
 
 The canal is mentioned by all the old writers, Herodotus, 
 Pliny, Diodorus Siculus, &e. It was in the Roman period 
 restored under Adrian. Again closed up by the shifting 
 sands, it was opened as soon as the Arabs had got possession 
 and established themselves on the Nile. The conqueror of 
 that country, Amru, completed the work,* and it remained 
 open for 120 years, until it again fell amidst the schisms of 
 Abassides and Ommiades. 
 
 Scarcely had Napoleon a sun-rise free, when he rode forth to 
 the desert, in search of the traces of the ancient work, and 
 was the first to discover it ; he then ordered the well-known 
 survey. When it was brought to him, he asked whether the 
 reopening was a project feasible, and being answered that it 
 was easy, and even offered greater facilities than it had pre- 
 sented before, he said, — " Well, it is a great undertaking ; 
 publish a report, and force the Turkish Government to find 
 in its execution, profit and glory." If it presented greater 
 facilities in the time of Napoleon than in those of Necho and 
 Amru, how much greater are those it offers to-day ? Then 
 there was no steam : it was not for France, as it is for 
 England, a domestic matter. 
 
 The total distance, by the French report, from Suez to 
 Tyneh, on the Mediterranean, is 180,852 metres, or less than 
 ninety miles. The cost is estimated at 30,000,000 francs, or 
 £1,250,000 sterling (not more than a railroad from Varna 
 to Silistria, or from Alexandria to Cairo), they further estimate 
 at some hundred millions of acres the irrigable land that would 
 
 / 
 
 very difficult, by reason of an asserted want of scour, and calculates 
 the cost at £8,000,000. Both these gentlemen were railwayinen and 
 liad counter-projects ; and, besides they were both under the in- 
 fluence of the British consul at Alexandria, if not of the Foreign 
 Office in Downing Street. 
 
 * The Egyptians, alarmed at the threatened drain of provisions^ 
 succeeded in persuading Amru that tlie difficulties he would have 
 to encounter were insurmountable ; probably from the reverse of 
 " the want oi scour." The Cahph, however, saw more clearly into 
 thjd motives of the Egyptians than hia heutenant. ^ 
 
4^2 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA, 
 
 be recovered. I have not had the opportunity of examfnir?g 
 the surveys of M. Linan, but they are understood to be even 
 more favourable and at a lower estimate than that of th« 
 French scientific commission. 
 
 The French calculated the Eed Sea about thirty feet higher 
 in level than the Mediterranean : this the English railway 
 engineers have taken upon themselves to deny; I son net 
 aware upon what data : the aqueous and atmospheric currents 
 would suggest the inference, even if the fact had not been 
 established by positive smTcy, of a higher level at the western 
 extremity of the Eed Sea, than at the eastern of the Mediter- 
 ranean.* 
 
 There is a competition between two lines : the one from 
 Suez to the Nile, at the ancient city of Bubastis ; the other 
 from Suez direct to the Mediterranean, at the Pelusiac or 
 Eastern mouth of the Nile. But it is immaterial to discuss 
 their relative merits, as the most cumbersome and expensive 
 would yet be sufficiently remunerative and practical. la 
 ancient times the line to Bubastis was no doubt preferable 
 because they were destitute of our means for shortening 
 labour, and a passage was not required for vessels of the 
 dimensions of those which how navigate the Indian Ocean : 
 still the ancient canal was of depth sufficient (SO feet) to float 
 line-of-battle ships, and the canal of Omar was finished in six. 
 months, so that on the seventh vessels floated through it, 
 
 • » it rpiie surface of all the seas that commtmicate one with another 
 must be regarded as generally perfectly equal in respect of mean 
 elevation. Preyailing, winds and currents, however, in extensive 
 land-locked seas, the Eed Sea, for example, produce permanent, 
 though still inconsiderable, differences of level. At the Isthmus 
 of Suez, the level of the Eed Sea is from 24 to 36 feet above 
 that of the Mediterranean at different hours of the day. The 
 form of the canal (the Straits of Babelmanded), by which the Indian 
 Ocean communicates with the Eed Sea being such, that the waters 
 find a readier access than outlet, appears to assist in producing this 
 remarkable, permanent, superior elevation of the surface of the Red 
 Sea, which was abeady known to the ancients." — Eumboldt'i Cosmos^ 
 vol. i. p. 329. 
 
THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 423 
 
 cari-ymg the grain of Egypt to Mecca. An English engineer 
 officer, Captain Vetch, who has snrveyed both lines decides in 
 favour of the direct one ; he points out a consideration not 
 to be neglected, the greater specific gravity of the waters of 
 the Red Sea, which, in the discharge at the Pelusiac mouth, 
 would clear out the deposit from the Nile, which the current 
 from the Mediterranean always carries eastward. His esti- 
 mate, including the works at both entrances, slightly exceeds 
 two millions sterling. TJiere lies dormant a mm of moiiey siiffir 
 cientfor the enterprise y and tchich tlie Court of Directors, with 
 Hie consent of the Government woidd dispose of for this purpose. 
 Independently of India, and its 150 millions of inliabitants, 
 this canal would shorten by six weeks the trade of Eilgland 
 with nearly 420 millions of souls,* and diminish the charges 
 on the doubk voyage of the large vessels by at least £2000. 
 Amongst these populations there are none who are our rivals ; 
 *hey are all, or would be, our customers. The opening of this 
 :>assage would be equivalent to the acquisition of a second 
 tndia. 
 
 POPULATION, 
 
 Abyssinia 2,500,000 
 
 Africa (eastern) say 10,000,000 
 
 Arabia, say 2,500,000 
 
 Australia and New Zealand .... 500,000 
 
 Ava 3,500,000 
 
 Borneo 1,500,000 
 
 Ceylon 1,500,000 
 
 Cliina 350,000,000 
 
 Cocliin China, and Cambodia . . . 4,000,000 
 
 Java 10,000,000 
 
 Madagascar and Zangibar, Mauritius and Bourbon 2,500,000 
 
 Malacca 500,000 
 
 Persia 9,000,000 
 
 The Philippines 3,000,000 
 
 Siam 2,500,000 
 
 Sumatra 3,000:000 
 
 TonquiQ ...;,.,. 12,000,000 
 
 418,500,000 
 
424 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 If it lias not been so, it is tacitly referred to indisposition 
 upon the part of the Turkish Government — a supposition 
 which receives weight from the resistance which it has opposed 
 to the Cairo Railway, and to the Euphrates Expedition. 
 That resistance is, however, attributable to other causes. The 
 following incident will assist in judging of the dispositions of 
 the Porte, and of the nature of the obstructions likely to be 
 thrown in the way. 
 
 Colonel Chesney, at the close of 1834, having by unwearied 
 exertions succeeded m forcing on the Foreign Office the plan 
 for the navigation of the Euphrates, it was announced to the 
 Embassy at Constantinople, that a demand was to be for- 
 warded by the next messenger for a firman. Being on the 
 point of starting for England I told Lord Ponsonby that the 
 firmran would be refused, and proposed to leave with him a 
 sealed note to be used in that case. It turned out as I had 
 expected, and a messenger was despatched home announcing 
 the refusal; my note having, however, been sent to its 
 destination, on the following day the firman came, and a 
 second messenger was despatched with it. The matter pre- 
 sented this difficulty only, that it was proposed through a 
 Dragoman. The Turk through whom it was subsequently 
 obtained was no other than Achmet Pasha — against whom, 
 from that hour the inveterate hostility of England was 
 directed, on the score of his being "Russian.'^ These 
 facts were brought to light in the trial of the TimeSy 
 for a libel on the Dragoman system, at the instance of 
 M. Pisani, the Dragoman in question, who was forced by 
 Lord Ponsonby to attempt his vindication against the state- 
 ments made in that journal by Dr. MiUingen, its then cor- 
 respondent. 
 
 On a recent visit to Constantinople, I leamt this 
 furtiier incident. One of the Foreign Ministers visiting 
 the Chief of the Dancing Dervishes, a favourite of Sultan 
 Mahmoud, observed a snufi'box of exquisite workmanship, 
 with a butterfly, the emblem of their order, in diamonds and 
 enamel J it was a present from the Russian Ambassador. 
 
THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 425 
 
 The Dervish then brought out a large atlas, in which 
 Mesopotamia, was marked to illustrate the proposed sta- 
 tions for the English expedition, and began to expatiate on 
 the deep and perfidious purposes of England in her pre- 
 tended desire of navigating the Euphrates. On inquiry, 
 my friend discovered that these visits of the Russian Ambas- 
 sador, which were made by night, and the presentation of 
 these gifts, had coincided with the demand for the firman. 
 Had the firman been refused, it would have been by the 
 8nufn)ox : henceforward the principle would have been intro- 
 duced into the policy of the Porte of setting its face against 
 all schemes for communication with India through its terri- 
 tory. 
 
 If before the event any one had Said " England with all her 
 power will be shipwrecked in her attempt to obtain a firman 
 for the Euphrates by an enamelled Butterfly, and after it has 
 been refused, a traveller will obtain it by a billet of a couple 
 of lines," would he not have been considered insane? 
 
 As to the Cairo Railway, the obstruction arose from the 
 pretensions of the Pasha of Egypt ; so soon as these were 
 withdrawn, the firman was granted ; but had the meeting in 
 London occurred a month earlier, it would have been equal 
 to a snuffbox ; the language there held would have ex- 
 asperated the Porte and encouraged the Pasha.* Russia 
 had, however, an interest in that railway which I shall pre- 
 sently explain. 
 
 The Government of Turkey has not been slow to appre- 
 ciate the value of steam and the advantage of opening up 
 channels of commerce ; this one is especially of value, 
 and affects her in regard to Arabia precisely as it does 
 England in regard to India. She •has at heart the incor- 
 poration of Arabia, by which she would confirm her tenure of 
 Egypt ; the matter is of importance not only in a military 
 and political but, also in a religious point of view, for the 
 pilgrimage to the Holy Cities would be brought within reach 
 of every inhabitant of the Empire. There is, however, one 
 indispensable condition, that is, that it shall be proposed and 
 
426 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 effected in a manner which shall not infringe upon the rights 
 of the Porte or endanger its sovereignty. 
 
 How it may be asked could a man so bold and practical 
 as Mehemet Ali, so long in possession of Egypt, so anxious 
 to make it the seat and passage of commerce, neglect 
 this work? It was incessantly pressed on his attention, 
 not only by his engineer, M. Linan, but by other scientific 
 men, and merchants, the Consuls of France and the United 
 States, the present director of the Austrian railways, 
 &c. ; there was no want of scientific data, and no lack 
 of offers of capital. But whenever the canal was urgea 
 he objected that there was another project which might 
 be preferable, namely, a railway^ and when that was 
 pressed he had a hankering for the canal. Thus both were 
 staved oft", the one by the other, and this was explained as 
 a balancing of the influence of England and France ! the 
 Canal was a French project* the Eailway was the English 
 one; in fact it was the story of the Canal of the Danube 
 over again. 
 
 * " Having been generally misinformed on matters of that kind 
 in Egypt, I paid Httle or no attention to what I heard respecting them. 
 It was commonly said there, that the French, Austrians, and Ameri- 
 cans desired the canal, and that the EngUsh opposed them, on the 
 ground that it would facilitate the intercourse of other nations with 
 India," — Letter of a Resident in Cairo. 
 
 " He (the Pasha) was particularly careful to guard against the 
 impression in the first instance that he wished the railway made to 
 Suez : as I afterwards learned, the reason of that was, that the 
 French interests are very much opposed to the estabhshment of a 
 railway across the Isthmus, believing^ rightly or wrongly I do not 
 Jcnoio, that it is much letter for France and all the countries lying on 
 ihe Mediterranean to have a canal instead of a railway, in order to 
 make the Mediterranean the high road to India both for passengers 
 and for commercial purposes ; therefore they have for a long time 
 been endeavouring to establish the feasibihty of making b canal 
 across the Isthir.us. 
 
 " Q. I think you said the French interest was hostile to a hue 
 between Alexandria and Suez. Is it equally so to one between Alex- 
 andria and Cairo ? A. Quite so" — Evidence of Mr. Stephenson 
 before the select Committee for Steam Communication with iTidia, 
 
THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 427 
 
 The Railway, which for live and twenty years has served 
 to stave off the Canal, is now at length being carried into 
 execution ; what is gained by it for the Indian Trade ? 
 A powerful body with local interests deterrainately hostile to 
 the Canal, and in a position to render that hostility effective. 
 The local traffic no doubt may support the Railway, and 
 some of the lighter and more valuable goods may be con- 
 veyed by it as far as Cairo, but is that the opening up of 
 the Indian and Atlantic Oceans through the Mediterranean 
 and Red Seas ? If the line be hereafter carried on from Cairo 
 to Suez you will only have a Railway, ships will not pass. 
 The distance will be 250 miles, and even at the rate of an 
 English Railway the charge will be lOs. a ton in addition to 
 the expenses of unlading and relading ; amounting on the 
 full freight out and in of a vessel of 1200 tons to £2500, 
 — say that the " French project " is impracticable, at least 
 the English one is absurd. Amru, the Lieutenant of the 
 Caliph Omar, made in his day objections to the canal : 
 but he had a master who knew better, and who said to him, 
 ** The Egyptians have persuaded thee, but I will punish thee 
 if thou dost not dig the canal so that ships may sail ttpon 
 it,'* and in the seventh month from that time they did sail 
 upon it. 
 
 The projects of Louis Philippe ran in the line of Mines et 
 Forets; those of Louis Napoleon in that of Canals. His grand 
 scheme was the opening of the Isthmus of Panama, and at 
 one time he was prepared to sacrifice to its execution his 
 European life and his Imperial prospects. When he came 
 into power, his attention was naturally directed to Suez; 
 being the nephew of that Napoleon who, in modern times, 
 had revived the project. The matter was forced upon him 
 by the rivalry of the engineers of the two countries in Egypt, 
 and he naturally imagined that there must be some mis- 
 take: consequently he directed his Minister in London, 
 M. Walweski, to open the matter with Lord Palmerston, 
 and to suggest concert between the two Governments to 
 carry this magnificent work. Imagine the bewilderment of 
 
428 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 that diplomatist when he was met with menace and indigna- 
 tion, and told, " this a project of yours — England will never 
 suffer it." The English Minister had discovered that Louis 
 Napoleon wished to send through men-of-war to drive the 
 English out of India ! 
 
 Did it want a canal to bring Napoleon to Egypt on his 
 intended way to India ? With Malta in your hands, you are 
 nearer than France to Egypt, if it signified one iota whether 
 France was far or near. It is not France who menaces 
 India ; she once held extensive sway there, and lost it by 
 England's maritime superiority. Whatever brings India 
 nearer to Europe renders that superiority more complete ; 
 and if any measure could thwart the project of making the 
 Mediterranean a "French Lake," it is one which should 
 carry through it the full current of British trade. 
 
 The idea is one which can scarcely be announced with a 
 grave countenance, and how the Franks of Cairo had been 
 led to accept it as they have done is intelligible only through 
 the power of inuendo and whisper. When reasons have been 
 sought for it, people have contented themselves with referring 
 to Napoleon's expedition, when he at once aimed at India 
 and proposed the Canal. His projects against India were 
 based upon the possession of Egypt ; he proposed the Canal 
 in the interest of Turkey after these plans were abandoned. 
 The schemes on India are thus referred to by Thiers : — 
 
 " Egypt was the true intermediary position between 
 Europe and India. To ruin England it sufficed for France to 
 establish herself there. Thence she could dominate for ever 
 the Mediterranean, and convert it, according to one of the 
 expressions of Napoleon, into a French lake; thence she would 
 be in a position either to ensure the existence of the Turkish 
 Empire or to seize the best portion of the spoils. (The erro- 
 neousness of this position Napoleon afterwards understood 
 and acted upon at the conference of Erfurt.) Once established 
 in Egypt two courses were open — the first to create a marine 
 in the Red Sea, and by means of it to destroy the British 
 establishments in India, or to make of it a colony, and an 
 
THE CANAL OE SUEZ. 429 
 
 entrepot by means of which Trade would abandon the route 
 of the Cape of Good Hope."* 
 
 The statement I have made will appear incredible. It will 
 pass belief that an English minister should have opposed 
 8uch a work ; but what can I urge more than I have done ? — 
 I have shown the interest of Kussia, the dependence in every 
 case of the minister ; I have referred to facts, I have given 
 names, — if what I say is not the truth it must be con- 
 tradicted; if not contradicted, it is that contradiction is 
 impossible : these details have been published before and 
 have not been contradicted. Unless it was an object to 
 prevent the canal, must it not have been made ? It is a case 
 in which there is no possibility of hesitation, or of a middle 
 course. The lay reader may indeed object that Govern- 
 ments have nothing to do with promoting private enterprises ; 
 that it is enough for them to afford protection when they 
 are formed, and that it would be an improper interference if 
 they lent their authority to private schemes, or influenced 
 capitalists in the placing of their funds. What then shall 
 we say if we find the Government influence not only of this, 
 but of other countries exerted to call into existence a counter 
 projecty for which favour is bespoken because realising the 
 very ends proposed by the plan it is devised to frustrate ? 
 
 It will be perceived that I refer to Panama, and the Isth- 
 mus of Darien, and doubtless it will occasion surprise that I 
 should speak in such terms of that vast and incomparable 
 enterprise : that surprise will be increased though diverted 
 to another quarter, if the reader will take the trouble to 
 examine a globe, compasses in hand : he will then make the 
 discovery that by Panama the distance not only from London 
 but also from New Yqi*k, to the Indian Ocean is greater not 
 only than by Suez, but also than by the Cape of Good Hope ! 
 
 The local traffic of the back of America and that of tlie 
 United States with China no doubt would be greatly bene- 
 fited by this passage, but is it upon this basis that the 
 
 • Histoire de la Revolution, vi, 428. 
 
430 THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 
 
 scheme is constructed, or from this source that the returns 
 are to come ? It is the connection of the East and the West, 
 that is proposed. Consequently all those who enter into the 
 scheme, whether speculatively or practically, must be opposed 
 to the Suez project : from the moment that the other is sub- 
 scribed for, being of vast dimensions, a powerful organisation 
 will be created, possessing the subject, controlling all the 
 organs of publicity, counteracting in secret and scouting in 
 public the counter scheme, if it ever comes into public 
 notice, a circumstance scarcely to be expected seeing that 
 the press of Europe is in the hands of Russia. This is her 
 interest in the matter; she does not want to trade in Califor- 
 nia, but she " will not fail to take advantage of every means 
 presented by her position to oppose the shorter and safer 
 way to the Indian Sea, through the Euphrates or the Isthmus 
 of Suez." * What avails it then that the Suez canal be the 
 canal for the whole world. She is against it. 
 
 The Isthmus which unites North and South America 
 differs from that which unites Africa and Asia, no less in the 
 difficulties it presents than in the advantages which it affords. 
 The Realejo was the line selected by Louis Napoleon: he cal- 
 culated the cost at ^64, 000, 000 (the distance 278 miles), and 
 expected that 900,000 tons of shipping would pass, that 
 from Europe paying 10.9. a ton, that from America 20^. 
 That is to say, a vessel of 1200 tons leaving London or New 
 York for Calcutta was to take a circuit of some thousand miles 
 for the privilege of paying some thousand pounds. 
 
 The scheme of the French Emperor is, however, a trifle 
 compared to the one now in vogue, estimated at the sum of 
 £12,000,000; not the estimate of those who oppose it, but 
 of those who are engaged in promoting it.f This indeed is 
 an "American project," to facilitate the trade and the am- 
 bition of the United States on the Pacific, but the watchful 
 English minister is fortunately at hand. We will see how he 
 settles this matter. 
 
 * Nebenius. 
 
 t Consult Dr. Cullen's • Ship Canal of Darien.* 
 
THE CANAL OP SUEZ. 431 
 
 By Panama compared with Suez, the voyage from London 
 to Calcutta would be lengthened 9,300 miles ; from London 
 to Hong Kong, 4,600 ; from New York to Hong Kong, 
 1,200; and from New York to Calcutta, 4,500* The 
 expenditure would be greater by three-fourths, f and the traffic 
 less by three-fourths. Nevertheless, the English Govern- 
 ment oversteps all form and all discretion to promote, to 
 suggest, to call into existence the Panama Progect, even 
 seducing capitalists to investing in it : it positively enters into 
 a treaty with the United States for this end. 
 
 When this treaty was signed, it was accepted as an 
 evidence of the praiseworthy anxiety of those governments 
 to huiTy on the march of intellect and the progress of 
 civilisation. No one was struck with the extraordinary 
 nature and provisions of the act; no one looked at the 
 map ; as in the case of the Austrian Treaty for the Danube, 
 they took from it their notions of Geography, and all the world 
 imagined that this canal was to put in direct communication 
 the East and the West. The Atlantic and Pacific were now 
 to be joined — who cared for a communication between the 
 Mediteri'anean and the Eed Sea, by a cut across the Isthmus, 
 the actual road from London to Calcutta, and which would 
 join the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and also to the 
 Pacific ? If heard of at all, it was- smiled at as a cunning 
 but defeated scheme of the envious French. 
 
 The Treaty with the United States is of so strange a na- 
 ture that I cannot avoid inserting an abstract of its articles. 
 It was signed on the 19th of April 1850, and contains the 
 eight following stipulations. 
 • Art, 1. — Neither Court to obtain or maintain exclusive 
 
 
 Vld Suez. 
 
 Via Panama, 
 
 London to Calcutta , 
 
 7,920 
 
 — 17,280 
 
 New York „ 
 
 9,800 
 
 — 14,340 
 
 London to Hong Kong . 
 
 9,660 
 
 — 14,340 
 
 New York „ 
 
 . 11,460 
 
 — 12,640 
 
 t If we take the extreme calculations tlie Suez Canftl would ouly 
 coit one twelfth. 
 
183 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 
 
 c»ntrol, or occupy or erect fortifications, or form local alli- 
 ances, &c. 
 
 Art. a.-'-Not to be liable to blockade in case of war. 
 
 Art. 3. — To encourage and protect all enterprises for tli« 
 opening of the canal. 
 
 Art. 4. — To exercise their influence with the local Govern- 
 ment, to facilitate the enterprise, and obtain at each extremity 
 a free port. 
 
 Art. 5. — When completed, to protect it against hostile 
 attack. 
 
 Art. 6. — To invite all other Governments to join in this 
 convention. 
 
 Art. 7. — To hasten by all means the execution of the 
 work, by encouragement held out to parties proposing to 
 undertake it. 
 
 Art. 8. — Contracting parties wish not only to effect a 
 " particular object," but also to establish a " genei-al princi- 
 ple," but a general principle limited to inter-communication 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific. 
 
 There were other considerations besides those of mere 
 statistics which one would have supposed likely to influence 
 the British Cabinet — the relative exposure of the two chan- 
 nels in case of war to a coup de main. Any European or 
 Transatlantic enemy of England might send an expe- 
 dition, to the Isthmus of Darien with the greatest facility 
 and secrecy ; by entrenching themselves upon any one point 
 they could stop the passage ; they would have a long line 
 to operate upon, strong positions to get possession of, no 
 local power to impede them, extensive coasts to land upon, 
 and the Pacific on the one side, and the Atlantic on the 
 other, to approach or retire by : our whole navy, locked up 
 at the two extremities, instead of affording protection, would 
 only invite attack. 
 
 Egypt presents the exact counterpart. In case of war your 
 Indian traffic would no longer by having to double the 
 
THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 433 
 
 Cape, be exposed either to France, or the United States. As 
 regards the latter, the protection you would have to afford 
 would then have to extend no further than the gut of Gibraltar. 
 In the Mediterranean you would be exposed to France, but 
 you have always had the supremacy in that sea, and unless 
 you have it, you cannot carry on war with her. Hitherto 
 you have had for warlike purposes to maintain your supre- 
 macy in the Mediterranean and simultaneously to employ 
 a large portion of your navy to protect your Indian 
 traffic in its course of 10,000 miles. From the latter drain 
 you would be relieved by the passage through Egypt. The 
 two seas which give access to Egypt on either side are 
 themselves confined by a gut, both of which are in your 
 hands, and close to which you have naval stations, so that 
 no armament can be within reach, without at least your 
 knowledge. But being superior at sea in the Mediter- 
 ranean, Egypt is entirely in your hands ; you are equally 
 superior in the Eed Sea ; there is no one there to contest it 
 with you. No attempt could be made by any foreign power on 
 the canal, unless by an expedition of sufficient force to conquer 
 Egypt itself. England's power of coercion over the govern- 
 ment of Egypt is absolute : in the height of the naval 
 strength of Mehemet Ali, a single line of battle ship with a 
 frigate sealed up Alexandria. 
 
 In the first speech he ever made — the Deraosthenian oration, 
 which, in a short hour, brought his fame from germ to 
 maturity, Canning exclaimed, " Secrecy is Treason ! " The 
 secrecy which he denounced bore on the motives of the Eng- 
 lish Government in respect to its dealing with other States : 
 England, in his opinion, had no legitimate object which would 
 not have been advanced by publicity. On the other hand, 
 Russia has no object which publicity would not frustrate. 
 Secrecy is, therv^fore, as essential a portion of her system as 
 it is essentially opposed to England's interest and character ; 
 we may rest as' ured that wherever there is concealment there 
 is a Russian baud at work, and a Russian object in vi(3w. 
 
 15 
 
434 THE J.EVANT AND EED SEA. 
 
 That secrecy is now no longer confined to the reciprocal 
 operations of governments, but grasps also the most im- 
 portant of material enterprises. It must be evident to 
 any one, that if the objection secretly made by Lord 
 Palmerston to M. Walweski had been publicly stated, whether 
 in Parliament, or in a document, instead of attaining its 
 end, it would have produced th^ very contrary effect; 
 the capital of England would then have effected that 
 which the diplomacy of England prevented Erance from 
 attempting. 
 
 I cannot conclude with a more striking fact. If any 
 thing could bring home to us the nature and consequences of 
 that indirect and un-English process,-by which we are repre- 
 sented abroad, it would be a practical application such as 
 this. If Englishmen could but apprehend it, they could 
 not fail to put an end to it. It is endured only because so 
 unlike the ordinary dealing of Englishmen, that, despite all 
 evidence, its existence cannot be believed. 
 
 Here is a case in which the nation may rectify as well as 
 judge. We are seeking for means of investment for super- 
 fluous capital : here is a field better than any loan or rail- 
 way at home or abroad. The present traflic by the Cape 
 amounts to 1,500,000 of tons, we may estimate it by canal 
 at 2,000,000 which would soon be largely increased. Esti- 
 mating the dues at the half of that sum proposed by Louis 
 Napoleon, for Panama (the quarter upon American ves- 
 sels), the yearly returns would amount to half a million, 
 or 20 per cent, upon the original investment. There is no 
 difficulty whatever in the enterprise, if those who conduct 
 it steer clear of Downing Street in England, and the British 
 Embassy at Constantinople. 
 
 But if English merchants are unfit to walk by themselves, 
 is there no capital available in France? 
 
 We have heard much of the spirit of enterprise of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race; we have heard much of what its energy was 
 capable when planted in the New World, and freed from tht 
 
THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 435 
 
 governing trammels which oppress it in the Old : if so let 
 it appear. Here is something worthier than buccaneering 
 expeditions against Cuba, or civilising armaments for Japan. 
 The United States have pretensions to justify and character 
 to regain, no less than interests to advance and fortune to 
 pursue. The parental stock in these Islands pleases itself 
 sometimes in the anticipation of their future greatness, 
 strange if it should have to look to them for its own present 
 extrication. 
 
 Note. 
 
 HUIVIBOLDT ON THE SUEZ CANAL. 
 
 ** The History of the Survey of the Earth includes the 
 narration of all the means by which nations have been drawn 
 closer together, by which greater portions of the globe have 
 become accessible, and the sphere of man's knowledge has 
 been widened. One of the noblest of these means was the 
 actual formation of a navigable route from the Eed Sea to 
 the Mediterranean by the Nile. At the point where the two 
 Continents, which are scarcely connected together, admit the 
 waters of the sea to the farthest extent between them, Sesostris 
 (Ramses Miamim) according to the representations of Aristotle 
 and Strabo, or at any rate Necho (Neku) commenced the 
 digging of a canal^ but was frightened by some oracular words 
 of the priests, and again gave it up. Herodotus saw and 
 described one which had been completed, opening with the 
 Nile a little above Bubastus ; it was the work of Darius 
 Hystaspis, of the family of the Achsemenides. This canal 
 having fallen into disuse, was afterwards so completely 
 re-constructed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, that it kept alive 
 the trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, and India until the time of the 
 Koman Empire, until Marcus, Aurelius, and probably as late 
 as Septimius Severus ; and this for more than four centuries 
 and a half, even though it was not navigable at ever}' season 
 
436 THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 
 
 of the year, in consequence of its artificial contrivances for 
 enclosing the water. For the similar object of promoting 
 commerce in the Red Sea, the houses at Myos Hormos and 
 Berenice were carefully built, and connected with Coptus by 
 means of a splendid artificial road.'* — Cosmos, vol. ii, p. 200. 
 
-137 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The author of the " Progress of Russia in the East " has 
 selected for the period illustrated in his map that between 
 the accession of Peter and the accession of Nicholas. Since 
 the accession of the present Emperor, her advance has been 
 greater than in the previous period : the victims are Poland, 
 HuNGAny, and Denmark, — the work of dismemberment 
 being completed for the first, and commenced for the latter 
 two. 
 
 During the first period, there stood against her in the 
 West an array of substantive power, which she might over- 
 reach but could not coerce. In the course of the second, all 
 power and purpose of resistance has been swept away. 
 
 The East presents a different picture. It was on that side 
 that the power of Peter first developed itself : he planned the 
 expulsion of the Turks from Europe, he commanded the 
 Caspian by a fleet ; his influence and alliances extended to 
 tke banks of the Indus ; and he had secured by Treaty more 
 than one half of Persia. Nadir Shah arose, and Russia was 
 driven back behind the Caucasus : the Turks signally 
 defeated her in the West and drove her back behind 
 the Dnieper. The accession of Nicholas was followed 
 by a Persian and a Turkish war, which re-advanced the 
 position of Russia to the point which she had occupied 
 ninety-two years before, and even beyond it: Persia, un- 
 der her dictation, was expending its last resources in an 
 invasion of Herat as the means of reaching India : the 
 Ottoman empire, tottering to its fall, was signing, 
 with the Russians encamped in the Bosphorus, a Treaty 
 
438 CONCLUSION. 
 
 to exclude its Protectors from the Black Sea. Without the 
 appearance of a conqueror, she has again been driven, back : 
 she has incurred no defeat such as that of the Pruth ; there has 
 been no new adjustment of frontiers, no revision of Treaties. 
 Her position has been reversed by the restoration of a 
 People. It has been restored by adversity ; by the blows 
 she struck, and the humiliations she inflicted. But disasters 
 might have crushed not tempered the Ottomans, had it 
 not been for the protection aff'orded by the Caucasus, the 
 example held out by its defenders, and the shame of their 
 success. Here is the shield under cover of which Persia 
 has regained courage, and Turkey resumed strength. A 
 small population, without the learning of the nations of the 
 West, and unaided by the wise counsels of their Governments, 
 has rendered this service to humanity. A new struggle 
 indeed is opening, but it commences at this point. 
 
 TucKEE, Printer, Pen-y's Place, Oxford Street 
 
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