IV
Memorandum addressed by Lord Palmerston to the French Government and handed to M. Thiers by Mr. Bulwer at the beginning of September 1840.
Foreign Office, August 31, 1840.
Sir,
Various reasons have prevented me from sending you earlier and transmitting through you to the French Government certain observations which Her Majesty's Government desire to make upon the Memorandum which was handed to me on July 24 by the French Ambassador to this Court, in reply to the Memorandum which I had handed to His Excellency on the 17th of that month; but I am now able to fulfil this task.
Her Majesty's Government observes with great satisfaction the friendly tone of the French Memorandum and its assurances of keen desire to maintain peace and the balance of power in Europe. The Memorandum of July 17 was conceived in a spirit no less friendly towards France, and Her Majesty's Government is equally anxious that France should be able to keep peace in Europe and prevent the smallest disturbance of that equilibrium which now exists between the Powers.
Her Majesty's Government has been equally delighted to see the declarations contained in the French Memorandum stating that France wishes to act in concert with the other four Powers with reference to the affairs in the Levant.
On this point the sentiments of Her Majesty's Government correspond in every respect with those of the French Government: for, in the first place, throughout the negotiations which have proceeded upon this question for more than twelve months, the British Government has constantly been anxious that a concert of the five Powers should be established, and that all five should agree to a common line of action; Her Majesty's Government though not bound to defer, as proof of this desire, to the other proposals which have been made from time to time to the French Government, and to which reference has been made in the French Memorandum, can unhesitatingly declare that no European Power can be less influenced than Great Britain by private views or by any desire and hope of exclusive advantage which might arise in her favour from the conclusion of the questions in the Levant. On the contrary, in these matters the interests of Great Britain are identical with those of Europe in general, and are based upon the maintenance of the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire as a guarantee for the preservation of peace and as essential to the maintenance of the balance of power in general.
To these principles the French Government has promised its full adherence, and offered it in more than one instance, especially in a despatch from Marshal Soult, under date July 17, 1839. This despatch was officially communicated to the four Powers. It has also offered support in a collective note, dated July 27, 1839, and in the speech of the King of the French to the Chambers in December 1839.
In these documents the French Government declares its determination to maintain the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire under the reigning dynasty as essential to the balance of power and as a guarantee for the preservation of peace; in a despatch from Marshal Soult the French Government has shown its resolution to oppose by action and influence any combination which might be hostile to the maintenance of this integrity and this independence.