FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
WILLIAM IV. 1832-1833
During this year a prospect of the close of the dreadful calamities which had so long weighed down the people of Portugal dawned upon them. At its commencement Oporto still continued to be the scene of operations; the regent occupying that city, and Don Miguel maintaining his positions and his battery on the left bank of the river and to the north of the city itself. The operations continued to consist of partial bombardments across the river, or engagements of detachments, occasionally varied by more regular attacks and sallies to destroy works already erected, or prevent new ones from being raised. There was not much blood shed, and the results of the operations made no decisive or permanent change in the relation of the armies to each other. At the beginning of March, indeed, a battle was fought, in which it was stated that the Miguelites lost fifteen thousand men, and their adversary only one hundred; but still it left matters where it found them—Oporto was still besieged. At length, however, a decisive blow was struck at the power of Don Miguel on the seas. While the operations on land were going forward, Don Pedro was involved in a dangerous quarrel with his admiral, Sartorius, which resulted in his giving up the command of the fleet, and with his being replaced by another British officer, Captain Napier. Under his command an expedition sailed to the Algarves, the most southern province of the kingdom, having on board two thousand five hundred men, commanded by the Duke of Terceira, for the purpose of invading that part of the country. The cities of Tavira, Faro, and Lagos were soon captured, and in the course of a week the whole province of Algarves was in possession of Don Pedro. But a still heavier blow awaited Don Miguel. Admiral Napier, having disembarked the troops and witnessed their success, set sail to return to the mouth of the Tagus to watch the squadron of Don Miguel, or bring it to battle. He fell in with it on the 2nd of July, off Cape St. Vincent, and a battle ensued, in which the squadron of Don Miguel was annihilated. He had now only the land to trust to, and there he was soon defeated. Having regained the province of Algarves, the Duke of Terceira marched towards Lisbon, and having reached the left bank of the Tagus he was encountered by an army said to have consisted of five thousand men, under the command of Talles Jordao. The battle was brief, and the victory complete: Jordao was routed, his army scattered, and he himself killed. The effect of the battle was to put Don Pedro’s troops in possession of Lisbon: they entered unmolested on the 24th of July, and Donna Maria was immediately proclaimed Queen of Portugal. As soon as Don Pedro received intelligence of what had taken place at Lisbon, he sailed from Oporto to assume the government. The war was now transferred to Lisbon; and a series of battles took place between the troops of Don Pedro and those of Miguel, and the year closed before the contest was decided. Donna Maria, however, ruled in Portugal, and a British minister again presented himself at the court of the rightful sovereign of the country. The English government at the same time strictly adhered to the neutrality which it had imposed on itself; but, taught by experience, it did not trust to assurances of the same line of conduct from other powers, and especially from the court of Madrid. It prepared itself, indeed, for all events, by sending a powerful squadron under Admiral Parker to the Tagus, with orders to take an active part for Don Pedro the moment a Spanish force should appear in Portugal to assist Don Miguel.
Early in this year Greece received her youthful monarch. Otho was welcomed by the various chiefs and populace with all due marks of respect and obedience; and awakening from the torpor of ages, Greece took her place among the civilized nations of Europe. The kingdom was divided into ten departments:—1. Argolis and Corinth; 2. Achaia and Elis; 3. Messene; 4. Arcadia; 5. Laconia; 6. Acarnania and Ætolia; 7. Locris and Phocis; 8. Attica and Beotia; 9. Eubcea; 10. the Cyclades. The local government of each department was assisted by a council; and at the head of each circle or district into which they were subdivided, was placed an eparch, with a distinct board. The first acts of the government were to disband the irregular troops, to organise a new and regular army, and to endeavour to provide something like an administration of justice. The disbanding of the irregular troops, however, did not contribute to the internal tranquillity of the country; on the contrary, it threw large numbers of savage men out of employment, and many of them formed themselves into bands for the purposes of plunder. One of these bands sacked the Turkish town of Arta, in Epirus slaughtering the inhabitants, and setting their houses on fire. The massacre lasted three days; after which the marauders, laden with booty, took refuge in the mountains.
While Turkey was thus shorn of one of her European provinces, she was doomed to see a rebellious, but victorious vassal make himself master of her Asiatic territories. Ibrahim Pacha, who had during the last year opened a way across Mount Taurus, lost no time in descending into the plains of Caramania. Here he fought a great battle with the Turkish troops, under the command of the grand vizier, Redschid Pacha, whom he utterly defeated and took prisoner. Constantinople was almost at his mercy; there was no obstacle between Ibrahim and the shores of the Bosphorus; and he seemed to be only waiting for the arrival of fresh troops, which were on their march through Syria to join him, to traverse Anatolia and assail the capital. The danger, however, was averted by the exertions of the British government, assisted by that of France. The Egyptian army retired from Asia Minor; and the Russians, whom the Sultan had called in for its defence, and from whom he was in no less danger than from the sword of Ibrahim, left Constantinople. By a treaty which was concluded between the Sultan and Mehemet Ali, the former gave up the whole of Syria, granting at the same time an amnesty to all its inhabitants for the conduct which they might have followed during the expedition of Ibrahim. The Pasha of Egypt became by this treaty more powerful than the master from whom he had revolted; his rule extended from the limits of Asia Minor to the mouth of the Nile. A treaty was subsequently concluded between the Porte and Russia, in which the preponderating power of the latter was fully established. Russia was to aid the sultan in repressing all disturbances, and the sultan was to shut the Dardanelles, in particular circumstances, against all other nations. Both England and France complained that such a treaty had been concluded without their concurrence, and each of them had a fleet near the Sea of Marmora; but their remonstrances were unheeded, and their fleets returned. The popular and prophetic belief of the Byzantines, namely, that “the Russians in the last days should become masters of Constantinople,” seemed to be rapidly approaching its fulfilment.
The Belgian question had its origin in events antecedent to the formation of the present British cabinet, so that ministers were compelled to follow a course which had been adopted by their predecessors. When the revolution first broke forth in the Netherlands, the king called on his allies for troops. These were refused by the English government; but his next request, for the assembling of a conference, was granted. By subsequent acts of that assembly, the principle of separation between the two countries was established; and the task imposed on the present government was to settle the terms on which a separation should take place, so as to provide for the interest and security of all parties. The difficulties encountered in performing this task arose from the obstinacy of the Dutch monarch. By the armistice which his majesty had invoked in November, 1830, the citadel of Antwerp was to be evacuated in fifteen days; but the possession of that fortress enabled him to harass the Belgians, and to intercept their trade on the Scheldt, and therefore he refused to give it up. England and France, failing to obtain the co-operation of the other three powers, were obliged to have recourse to force: Antwerp was besieged by the French troops, and an embargo was laid on Dutch vessels by Great Britain. These vigorous measures disconcerted all the calculations of the Dutch monarch and of his partizans. At the beginning of this year Antwerp, supposed to have been impregnable, surrendered to Marshal Gerard. This event, together with the embargo laid on Dutch vessels, produced the convention of the 21st of May, by which the Belgian question was settled. This convention provided, “That immediately on the ratifications being exchanged, the embargoes laid on by Great Britain and France should be removed, and the vessels and cargoes restored, and that the Dutch garrison which had defended the citadel of Antwerp should return to Holland with all their arms and baggage: That Holland should not recommence hostilities against Belgium so long as a definite treaty had not settled their mutual relations; that the navigation of the Scheldt should be free, which was explained in a supplementary article to mean, that it was to be placed on the same footing as it had been prior to the 1st of November, 1812: That the navigation of the Meuse should be opened, subject to the provisions of the convention of Mayence of the 31st of March, 1831, relative to the navigation of the Rhine: That the communications between the frontier of North Brabant and Maestricht, and between that fortress and Germany, should be unimpeded: That the contracting parties should occupy themselves immediately with the definitive treaty, to which Austria, Prussia, and Russia should be invited to become parties.” The King of Holland having agreed to these articles, the principal point of discussion remaining was that of compensation: in the meantime Europe was secured against the danger of a general war, arising from the differences which had existed between Holland and Belgium.
