STATE OF THE CONTINENT.
This year witnessed the virtual conclusion of the war in Spain. The principal event which contributed to this consummation was the rupture between the chief Maroto and Don Carlos. Maroto, indeed, with the battalions of Castile, made their submission, and his defection was followed by twenty-one more Carlist battalions. The terms of this pacification were effected by Espartero; and having concluded them, he led his army towards Don Carlos at Lecumberri. Not daring to await his arrival, Don Carlos withdrew into the defiles of the Bastan; and from the Bastan he fell back to Elisonda; and, finally, on the 14th of September, with six Alavese and two Navarrese battalions, he took refuge in France. The French government assigned to him the city of Bourges for his temporary residence, and he was escorted thither by Marshal Soult. The Carlist chief, Cabrera, continued for some months to maintain his ground in the central provinces; but the struggle finally became hopeless, and at the commencement of the succeeding year, he, with 20,000 men, followed the example of his master, and took refuge in France. In Portugal the arrival of the bill which had been passed for the suppression of the slave-trade, gave rise to much dissatisfaction. The author of the measure, Lord Palmerston, was loudly charged with hostility to Portugal, and a great estrangement prevailed for some time between the two governments. The breach was widened by the demand made by the British upon the Portuguese government for the payment of the long pending civil and military claims due to the subjects of Great Britain. The requisition was, it is said, accompanied by a menace, that, in the event of a non-compliance, the British government would resort to coercive measures. During this year the territorial differences between Belgium and Holland were settled. The terms which the five powers resolved should be agreed upon between the two parties have been seen in a previous article; and it may be sufficient to state that Belgium, at least accepted them with great reluctance. In Turkey events occurred which attracted the notice of European powers. In 1838 the pacha of Egypt had refused to pay any further tribute to the Porte; and this announcement, together with the usurpation on the part of Meliemet Ali of attributes peculiar to the commander of the faithful alone, determined the sultan to make another effort for the reduction of his vassal. He assembled a large army on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, which menaced the Syrian dominions of the pacha; while Ibrahim, on the other hand, proceeded to concentrate his forces around Aleppo. The governments of France and England were apprehensive lest the discomfiture of the Turkish army should be followed by the arrival of a Russian force in the Bosphorus, in accordance with the stipulations of the treaty signed on an analogous juncture at Unkiar Skelessi. Under this apprehension the representatives of their respective courts at Constantinople and Alexandria were directed to make every effort to prevent war. Large concessions were made by Ibrahim through their mediation; but the interpreters of the law at Constantinople assured the sultan that it was the duty of every true believer to take up arms against an impious usurper, and a solemn declaration of war was accordingly read in all the mosques. In the month of June a great battle took place between the contending armies near Nezib, in which the Turks, under Hafiz Pacha, were utterly discomfited; six thousand of them were left dead on the field, and ten thousand were left in the hands of Ibrahim Pacha, together with fifteen thousand muskets, and more than one hundred pieces of artillery. The sultan did not live to hear of this disaster; he died on the 1st of July, and Abdul Mcdjio, a youth of seventeen, assumed the reins of empire. The death of Sultan Mahmoud the Second gave rise to negociation. The first act of the new sultan was to forward to the viceroy of Egypt an offer of pardon, together with the hereditary possession of the province of Egypt, on the condition that he conformed to his duties of obedience and submission. Mehemet Ali appears to have been willing to submit to these terms; but about the same time that he received them, Achmet, the capitan pacha, had revolted from the sultan, and had arrived at Alexandria. The Ottoman monarchy was tottering to its fall; but at this critical juncture England, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia resolved to uphold the independence of Turkey, as an essential element of the balance of power. The year, however, closed before the negociations commenced were perfected.