XLVI. 1846. years on the Greek Loan, advanced by Great Britain to CHAP. the Hellenic Government on the first establishment of their independence. The Russian and German cabinets, to avoid the consequences of so serious a division, strongly advised the Cabinet of Athens to pay up the arrears, and thus avoid the pretext for an open rupture, expressing, at the same time, their conviction that it was "not the money which Lord Palmerston wished, but the removal of M. Colletti." * So serious did matters become, that a large number of British vessels of war unex- 1 M. Piscapectedly made their appearance in the Greek waters; tory à M. and M. Colletti, who was an able and patriotic minister, Sept. 10, exhausted by the fatigues of the contest, breathed his last, D'Haussonand "his great soul went," to use the expression of M. 112, 114. Guizot, "to rejoin the battalion of Plutarch."1† 1847; ville, ii. The death of Colletti was a great misfortune to Greece, 58. division France and England Greece. and tended still farther to increase the division on Hellenic Increased affairs between France and England. The King of between Bavaria, anxious to act the part of a mediator between End them, proposed a coalition ministry, in which Metaxas regarding and Tricoupi should bear a part; but to this Lord Palmerston refused to accede, alleging that the state of affairs in Greece was essentially vicious, and that he could agree to no cabinet of which Mavrocordato was not the head, and which was not preceded by a dissolution of the Chambers. To these conditions King Otho refused to accede, and the consequence was that a civil war broke out. Patras was several days in the * "Si on nous demande un conseil nous donnerons celui de payer, parcequ'il est conforme mes instructions: mais nous sommes convaincus qu'en payant la somme demandée, on ne gagnera rien. Ce n'est pas évidemment au Trésor Grec qu'en veut Lord Palmerston-c'est à M. Colletti.”—M. PISCATORY à M. GUIZOT, Août 1847; D'HAUSSONVILLE, ii. iii. "Parlez de + His last moments were thus described by an eyewitness : moi à mes amis en France. Faites mes adieux à M. Guizot, à M. de Bresson, à M. Eynard. Jusqu'au dernier moment, tant que j'ai pu, j'ai suivi leurs conseils. Ils doivent être contents de moi. Je laisse mon pays bien malade. Mon œuvre n'est pas achevée. Pourquoi le Roi n'a-t-il pas voulu me connaître il y a deux ans ? Aujourd'hui je mourrais tranquille. Je ne puis plus parler, recouchez-moi; je voudrais m'endormir." - M. PISCATORY à M. GUIZOT, September 1847; Ibid. ii. 113. XLVI. 1847. CHAP. hands of the insurgents; and nearly the whole hill districts of continental Greece, where the chief strength of the adherents of Mavrocordato lay, were won by their At length, by the efforts of the foreign ambas114, 117; sadors, peace was restored, and a ministry was established Regnault, iii. 169,172. which carried out the system of Colletti, and was in the interest of France.1 1 D'Haus- arms. sonville, ii. 59. The evil effects of this division appeared in every Differences quarter where the French and English diplomatists were regarding brought into collision. Portugal, ever the chosen and long and La Plata. Aug. 20, 1847. established seat of British influence, became the theatre of discord. The Queen Donna Maria having thrown herself into the arms of the Conservative party, naturally inclined to France, the acknowledged head of that party in Europe; and Lord Palmerston as naturally inclined to support the provincial juntas, which contended for the more democratic regime. At length, by the mediation of the other powers, a sort of compromise was established between them; a change of ministry took place; the decrees adverse to the constitutional party were recalled, an amnesty accorded, and a Cortes convoked. This compromise for a time stilled the waves of discord in Portugal, by re-establishing the English influence and the ascendant of the democratic party; but being adverse to the secret wishes of France, it tended only to augment the alienation of the two Cabinets. An incident occurred soon after, which at first had a serious aspect, and threatened to produce a direct collision between the two Governments, in consequence of the raising of the blockade of Monte Video by the British naval forces, which had been commenced by them, conjointly with the French, on occasion of a rupture between the government of that town on the one hand, and Rosas and Oribe, revolutionary chiefs, on the other.2 This delicate matter, however, was D'Haus- adjusted by Lord John Russell, in the absence of Lord Palmerston, who was out of town, disavowing the act; to which the latter, on his return, acceded, so that the 2 M. de Broglie à sonville, ii. complaints of the French Cabinet, which in reality were CHAP. well-founded, were appeased. XLVI. 1847. 60. A more serious cause of discord was likely to have arisen at Madrid in consequence of a coldness which had Affairs at supervened between the King and Queen within less than a alienation year after their ill-assorted union. Like other marriages, and Queen. Madrid, and of the King contracted from considerations of policy or convenience, not inclination, this marriage had proved extremely unfortunate; and the partiality of the Queen for a personal favourite, General Serrano, was scarcely disguised, and excited no little attention and scandal in the court. The British ambassador was no stranger to these intrigues; and such was the condition of the court, and so insecure the foundations of government, that no less than three ministries, all of them in the French or Conservative interest, had been overturned within a year after the Queen's marriage. Nothing," said the French. minister at Madrid, "is so easy as for the English embassy to overturn a Moderate ministry; we have seen three fall, one after another, within a year. Nothing would be easier than for the French legation to overturn a Progresista ministry, if it chose to set about it. But what would all that serve but to advance the cause of our enemies; and what is so likely to render the throne vacant, as to show that all government at Madrid has become impossible?" So serious became the discord between the Queen and her husband, that a divorce was openly talked of, and anxiously discussed at the French and English embassies; and to render the breach more irreparable, and the scandal greater, it was hinted that the principal ground of divorce would be, not any supervening 1 L'Ambasfault on the part of either of the spouses, but an original sadeur de incapacity on the part of the duke, which, according to M. Guizot, the civil though not the canon law, had rendered the Sept. 16, marriage null ab initio. 1 This report tended only still D'Haussonfarther to widen the breach between the English and 296. French parties; and it was commonly asserted by the France à 1847; ville, ii. XLVI. 1846. CHAP. former, that it was the knowledge of this circumstance which had occasioned the sudden conversion of Louis Philippe to the Montpensier marriage. Incredible as such a story is, there are passages in the private correspondence of the French ambassador at London with M. Guizot, which give some countenance to part, at least, of such an idea.* 61. Italy. Death and acces sion of Pius IX. While the clouds were in this manner lowering on so Affairs of many sides in the diplomatic horizon, a still more threatof the Pope, ening storm was arising in a quarter even nearer to France than the Spanish peninsula. In ITALY the symptoms the unmistakable symptoms of a coming convulsion, were beginning to become apparent. The crisis was brought on by the death of Pope Gregory XVI., which took place on 1st June 1846. His long reign, which began on 3d February 1831, had been a continual struggle with difficulty and danger. The day after his election the revolution broke out at Modena ; in a few days the whole of Romagna had been in insurrection; Bologna, Ancona, Perugia, had opened their gates to the insurgents, and from the heights of Otricoli their victorious columns beheld the dome of St Peter's, and bade defiance to the Papal Government in the plenitude of its power. The deceased Pope never got over the * "Sur la question du divorce j'ai deux choses à vous dire; la première est que toute idée de divorce est un rêve et une folie. Si la Reine d'Espagne veut divorcer, elle n'a qu'un parti à prendre, c'est de faire comme Henri VIII., de se faire Protestante, et de faire son royaume Protestant. Aucun Pape, aucun Prêtre Catholique non excommunié, n'admettra un seul instant l'idée d'un divorce; et pour que le mariage soit déclaré nul ab initio, il faudrait qu'il fût contracté en violation des lois de l'Eglise, ce qui n'est pas. .. Il importe essentiellement que l'Angleterre se tienne pour satisfaite de l'ordre des choses établies en Espagne : dans le cas contraire, je prévois tout, et ne réponds de rien. Si vous vous aperceviez que nous travallions à détruire cet ordre de choses à notre profit, à håter, je le répète, d'un seul jour, d'une seule heure, les droits si éloignés de Madame la Duchesse de Montpensier, vous auriez toute raison d'y regarder de très-près; vous auriez tout droit de vous y opposer. Ce que vous feriez en pareil cas, je ne vous le demande pas; peut-être ne le savez vous pas vous-même; mais je reconnais toute l'étendue de vos droits." -L'AMBASSADEUR DE FRANCE à Londres à M. GUIZOT, 16 September 1847; D'HAUSSONVILLE, ii. 296, 297. XLVI. 1846. impression produced by these threatening events in the CHAP. very outset of his career. His reign was a long and often arduous struggle with the revolutionary Liberals, against whom he was sometimes, at the instigation of the victorious Austrians, obliged to adopt measures of rigour little in unison with the native humanity of his disposition. Fearful of letting in the point of the revolutionary wedge, he saw no safety but in sturdy resistance to all measures of reform, which he regarded as the first letting in of the inundation. The pent-up waters only acquired 1 D'Hausadditional strength by being so long compressed; but as sonville, . the age of the Pontiff promised a change ere long in the Regnault, Papal Government, the Liberals remained quiet in the Aun. Hist. mean time, and placed all their hopes in a change policy on the part of his successor.' 186, 187; iii. 309; ii. xxix. 437, of 439. 62. and charac IX. Great in consequence were the anxieties and hopes of the whole Liberal party in Italy when the death of the Election reigning Pontiff occurred. The cardinals assembled on ter of Pius the 14th June to elect a successor, and such was the anxiety of the crowds which thronged the doors, that it was painted on their very visages, and in the waving to and fro which always takes place when a multitude are strongly agitated. At length, on the morning of the 17th, the doors were thrown open, and from the balco- June 17. nies of the Quirinal the name of Cardinal Mastai was proclaimed as the new Pope, under the title of Pius IX. Joy was painted on every visage; mutual felicitations were universal among the assembled multitude. character of the new Pontiff, which was known to be deeply tinged with Liberalism, inspired the most ardent hopes among that party, numerous especially in the great towns and among the highly educated classes, who were deeply impressed with the innumerable social evils of their country, and looked forward to a course of liberal measures, conducing to the bewitching dream of Italiau unity, as the only possible means of terminating them. The first act of the new Pontiff sufficiently evinced the VOL. VII. 2 R The |