XXXII. 52. pacific views the new July 27. dagger is at their throats; but when it is there, it is sur- CHAP. prising how tractable they become. The Divan, upon the accession of the new Sultan, despatched envoys to 1839. Alexandria to make proposals for peace in lieu of the Revival of former ones of Sultan Mahmoud, which had been re- with the acjected. The five Powers shortly after presented a note cession of to the Divan, in which they stated that the accord Sultan. between them was entire, and that they invited the sublime Porte to suspend any final determination without their concurrence, which might shortly be expected. A hatti-scheriff soon after appeared, the terms of which sufficiently indicated the Western influence, which had become all-powerful in the councils of the Divan. It was solemnly read in the plain of Gulhani, near Constantinople, in presence of the Sultan, and promulgated principles of government hitherto unknown in Turkey, and the very meaning of the words conveying which was unknown to the crowd of true believers who listened to it. It announced the termination of arbitrary exactions in the collection of the taxes, equality of taxation in proportion to fortune, and of liability to the military service, publicity of criminal justice, and the termination of confiscation of heirs for the crimes of their predecessors ;noble and just principles, eminently calculated to regenerate an empire, if it were as easy to reform the agents of1Ann. Hist. government as to announce just principles for their regu- 342. lation.1 xxii. 341, 53. forms of the Aug. 15. The young Sultan proceeded actively in the career of reform, and at the same time judiciously relaxed several Farther reregulations made by Mahmoud, which, without being of new Sultan. any real utility, were extremely grating to the feelings of the Orientals. An ordinance permitted the resumption of the turban instead of the red cap, which in the mania for European customs had been enjoined by the late Sultan after the model of the bonnet rouge of republican France. By another ordinance the profession of a baker was declared free; and what was of great im 1839. CHAP, portance, the monopoly of the purchase of bread by the XXXII. Zahire-Naziri, or Surveyor-General of Provisions, was abolished, and from that moment all the abuses which had so long existed in that department disappeared. The bakers purchased grain wherever they chose, and the supply of the market proved abundant. Nor were public institutions neglected; on the contrary, much was done to penetrate the murky darkness of the Ottoman Empire. Seven academies were established in Constantinople, Adrianople, Salonica, Broussa, Smyrna, Bagdad, and Trebizond, in conformity with the plan adopted by the late Sultan, where literature and the sciences were to be 1 Ann. Hist. taught on the European method, and a military school founded in the capital, a naval one at Pera, and at Galata one for the Franks.1 xxii. 343, 344. 54. in Servia. These changes, so great a revolution in an Eastern Revolution monarchy, sufficiently bespoke the influence which, by May 1839. means of their maritime superiority, the Western Powers had now acquired in Constantinople. Another revolution, which occurred in the course of this year, tended still farther to demonstrate the increasing weakness and rapid decline of the Turkish Empire. SERVIA, which had ever since 1806 owed only a nominal allegiance to the Porte, had in 1835 accepted an aristocratic constitution, which had been forced upon Prince Milosch, the chief of the State, by the influence of Russia. Being distasteful, however, to the majority of the inhabitants, who longed passionately for the freedom which they heard was enjoyed by the Christians of Western Europe, it was not long of being overturned. The troops raised by the Government revolted in May of this year, and, marching on the capital, compelled Prince Milosch to resign in favour of his eldest son Milav. He soon died, and was succeeded by the second son, Prince Michel; and after long hesitation on the part of Prince Milosch, he was permitted to assume the command. He protested, however, against his dethronement, and appealed both to Thus XXXII. 1839. Russia and the Porte. Neither, however, were in a con- CHAP. dition to afford him any assistance, for the Egyptian Question fully occupied the attention of both. Prince Michel was allowed to remain on the throne, and Servia for the first time enjoyed a chief of her own choice, independent either of Muscovite or Ottoman influence;another symptom among the many which appeared at this time of the rapid decline of the Turkish Empire, from which province after province was torn away, not 1Ann. Hist. so much from their own strength, as from the weakness of 345. the sovereign power which had so long ruled over them.1 1 xxii. 344, the Euro Powers at But this very weakness, which had now become ap- 55. parent to all the world, only increased the anxiety of the Views of European Powers to terminate the Eastern Question pean without an intervention, which was more to be dreaded this junc than anything that could possibly occur. The danger ture. was imminent, that Russia, seeing the weakness and peril of the Grand Seignior, should again take upon itself the alarming office of protector, and occupy Constantinople in a military manner, under colour of defending it from the Egyptians. All Europe, and Austria in particular, was deeply interested in averting such a consummation as this, which would at once subvert the balance of power, and, by putting the keys of the Dardanelles in the hands of the Czar, render him absolute master of eastern and southern Germany. The difficulty was fearfully increased by the policy of France, which leaned every day more strongly to a separate treaty with Mehemet Ali, and to an entire divergence from the views of the Allies on the Eastern Question. M. Thiers, who had recently become Prime Minister of Louis Philippe, was known to incline strongly to this policy, from a desire of following out the views of Napoleon regarding Egypt, and providing on the shores of Africa a counterpoise to the influence of England in the Mediterranean.2 Thus the danger was equal on both 455. sides, and it was hard to say which was most formidable; 2 Cap. x. Ann. Hist. 193, 196; xxiii. 454, XXXII. 1839. CHAP. for, on the one hand, the Turks in alliance with England were threatened by the united forces of France and Egypt, and, on the other, Russia eagerly watched for the opportunity of throwing her ægis over the Sultan, and extending to the declining Ottomans the withering shadow of her protection.* 56. demands of The ultimatum of the Sultan was, that the Pacha should Ultimate obtain the hereditary government of Egypt, and the govboth parties, ernment, for life, of that part of Syria which extended from the Red Sea to the Sea of Tiberius, with the fortress of St Jean d'Acre. The Pacha, on the other hand, contended for the possession of all these territories in absolute sovereignty, and in hereditary right. "The real point at issue," said the Sultan in his last proclamation, "is the territorial division. If, as Mehemet Ali contends, such vast countries should be conceded to him and his heirs in hereditary right, the dominions of the Porte will be split into two parts, and the relations between the subject and sovereign will exist only in name. Never will it be permitted that a governor, in arrogating to himself the sacred rights of sovereignty, should occupy a territory so great, and power so considerable. If the intentions of the Pacha are only to provide for the future fate of his descendants, certainly the hereditary government of Egypt should suffice for him." The Divan was encouraged to hold out for these terms in consequence of an importxxiii. 454, ant event which took place in spring 1840.1 This was no x. 201, 203. less than an insurrection in Syria among the Druses and Maronites, who, driven to desperation by the systematic 1 Ann. Hist. 455; Cap. "L'opinion personelle de M. Thiers n'était pas de s'accorder avec les Puissances, mais de préparer un arrangement particulier entre la Porte et Méhémet Ali. L'Europe était informée des instructions secrètes données à M. de Pontois à Constantinople. M. de Metternich avait également instruit Lord Palmerston du projet qu'avait la France, et qu'elle lui avait communiquée comme une espérance, d'obtenir un traité séparé entre le Pacha d'Egypte et le Sultan: traité qui devait sortir des conditions proposées par les quatre Puissances. De là résultait la conviction que la France se séparait des Puissances, qu'elle avait pris une politique à part, et Lord Palmerston en concluait que ces mêmes Puissances pouvaient traiter séparément et faire elles-mêmes des conditions."-CAPEFIGUE, Europe depuis 1830, x. 194, 195. XXXII. and organised exactions of Mehemet Ali, levied with CHAP. European exactitude, and supported by European force, sighed for the comparative security and freedom from imposts of Oriental decrepitude. 1840. 57. the settle East. July Keenly alive to the perils which environed Turkey on all sides, and desirous to make the pacification of the East and Treaty of July 15, the protection of the Ottoman empire the joint work of the 1840, for whole States, not that of Russia or France in particular, ment of the the diplomatists of the four Powers, under the able guid-18, ance of Lord Palmerston and Prince Metternich, at length 1840. brought the long-protracted negotiations on the Eastern Question to a termination. By treaty, signed between Turkey, England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, but without France, the whole conditions on which the contest was to be terminated were accurately defined, and the means of enforcing them fixed and regulated. By it the Sultan agreed to give to the Pacha, and his descendants in the direct order of succession, the administration of the whole of Egypt, and in addition, during his life, the pachalic of Acre, with the fortress of St Jean d'Acre, with the administration of the southern part of Syria, the limits of which were to be afterwards fixed. These offers, however, were made on the express condition that the Pacha should, within ten days after receiving intimation of this treaty, deposit his acceptance of it in the hands of the agent of the Sultan at Constantinople, and at the same time deposit in the hands of that agent the necessary orders to his commanders by sea and land to withdraw his highness's forces immediately from Arabia and all its holy cities, from the isle of Candia, and from all the parts of the Ottoman Empire which are not comprised within the limits of Egypt and of the pachalic of Acre. If, in the space of ten days more, the Pacha should not signify his acquiescence in the treaty, the Sultan withdraws his offer of the life-pachalic of Acre, and limits his offer to the hereditary pachalic of Egypt, but this only on condition that these terms should be acceded to in the VOL. V. 2 M |