THE

CHAPTER II.

WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR. THE EAST.

HE queen's marriage with Prince Albert was celebrated in February, 1840, and in June of the same year the first of those attempts upon her life was made, which from time to time have alarmed and exasperated England. The assassin was one Oxford, a boy of seventeen, half crazy, and treated as such. No political motive was assigned for this attack, the act of a disordered mind and an insane thirst for notoriety. Five times more, at very irregular intervals, the queen was destined to be the object of similar attacks. No one of the assassins paid with his life for the criminal attempt; no one even underwent a long imprisonment. A law, made expressly, fixed the punishment for such attempts at transportation for seven years, or imprisonment for not more than three years, "the culprit to be publicly or privately whipped as often and in such manner as the court shall direct, not exceeding thrice." Neither the queen nor the nation desired a vindictive punishment of these insane acts, which appear never to have been inspired by fanatical passions or instigated by secret societies, as were the attacks made upon Louis Philippe in France.

More serious anxieties at this time occupied the statesmen of both England and France. The recent difficulties between the Sultan of Turkey and his great vassal, Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, threatened to kindle a war between the great Powers of Europe, protectors of one or the other of the belligerents. Sultan Mahmoud died (July 1, 1839) at the moment when his

troops sent to recapture Syria from the pasha had been defeated by the army of the latter. The new sultan, Abdul Medjid, was but sixteen years of age; the audacity of the Pasha of Egypt was increased by this fact, and such was his influence over the very officers of the Porte, that the Capitan Pasha, or HighAdmiral of the Turkish fleet, took his vessels to Alexandria and delivered them up to the viceroy. The courts of Europe offered their mediation, which was accepted by Turkey, and the difficulties of the situation increased daily. King Louis Philippe sent M. Guizot to London as ambassador.

"My situation in entering upon negotiations in London upon the Turkish question was singularly hampered and difficult," writes M. Guizot in his Mémoires. 66 By our note to the Porte of the 27th of July, 1839, we had agreed to act. upon that question in concert with Austria, Prussia, and Russia, as well as with England, and we had deterred the sultan from making any direct arrangement with the Pasha of Egypt, assuring him that the united action of the five great Powers was certain. Since that time, however, we had encouraged the pretensions of the pasha to the hereditary possession not merely of Egypt but also of Syria, and at the time that I was accredited to London, notwithstanding the obstacles we had encountered, we still persevered in this resolution. The king's government,' wrote Marshal Soult, in his instructions to me, dated February 19, 1840, ‘has believed and believes still that, in the present position of Mohammed Ali, to offer him less than the hereditary throne of Egypt and Syria would be to expose ourselves to a certain refusal, which he would support, if need were, by desperate resistance, of which the result would be a severe shock, and perhaps total overthrow, to the Ottoman Empire.' Thus pledged on the one hand to a concert with the other great Powers, and on the other, to a support of the pasha's claims, we had against us in the negotiations: England, she refused absolutely to the

pasha the hereditary possession of Syria; Russia, who wished to preserve her exclusive protectorate over Constantinople, or would sacrifice it only in involving us in a quarrel with England; and even Austria and Prussia, indifferent as to the territorial question between the sultan and the pasha, but determined to side, according to the occasion, now with England and now with Russia, rather than to unite with us in moderating the claims of either of those Powers.

"The whole policy of the French Cabinet rested upon three convictions, which were not lessened upon the accession to power of M. Thiers and M. de Rémusat (29th of February, 1840): the utmost reliance was felt at Paris upon the persistency of Mohammed Ali in his claims upon Egypt and Syria, and upon his energy in supporting them by arms if he should be attacked; the means of coercion which could be employed against him were regarded either as absolutely inefficient and futile, or as gravely compromising the safety of the Ottoman Empire and the peace of Europe; finally, it was firmly believed that Russia would never abandon her exclusive or at least preponderating protectorate at Constantinople. Firmly intrenched behind these convictions, the French Cabinet yielded willingly to the strong pressure of public opinion in favor of the Pasha of Egypt, and felt no urgent necessity to oppose it. It was my mission in London to obtain from the English government important concessions for the benefit of the pasha, and my weapons were to be the three conjectures which I have just mentioned in respect to the probabilities in case of war, and the necessity of a permanent union between France and England to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and the peace of Europe."

The confidence of the French Cabinet was unfounded, as M. Guizot very soon perceived. The policy of the English ministry, under the influence of Lord Palmerston, threatened to