[CHAPTER VII]
SULTAN AND PASHA
It will be remembered that, in the autumn of 1833, both France and Great Britain ineffectually protested against the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi. But so long as Russia and Austria were closely united, neither Palmerston nor Broglie were prepared to enforce their demands by actual measures of hostility. Both, however, were resolved vigilantly to watch the course of events at Constantinople, and to interpose should the Russian fleet return to the Bosphorus. Being thus anxious to avoid a collision with Russia, it became their policy to prevent a fresh outbreak of hostilities between the Sultan and Mehemet Ali, in order that the Tsar should be furnished with no excuse for intervention. It was soon apparent, however, that the preservation of peace between Mahmud and his powerful vassal would prove a difficult matter. Already, in the summer of 1834, only a little more than a year after the conclusion of the Convention of Kiutayeh, there was once more grave danger of an armed conflict between the Sultan and the Pasha of Egypt.
In 1832, the Syrians had welcomed Ibrahim as their deliverer from Turkish misrule. But no sooner had they become the subjects of the Pasha, than their disenchantment began. The introduction of the conscription into Syria was fiercely resented. In the spring of 1834, the whole country was in a state of rebellion, and it required sixteen months of arduous operations, attended with much bloodshed, before Ibrahim could disarm the tribes, and restore the authority of his father over the revolted districts.[424] But in the eyes of the Sultan, the insurrection was an opportunity for attacking Ibrahim under favourable conditions, and for wiping out the humiliations of the former campaign. Accordingly, he prepared to renew the struggle, and it was only in deference to the protests of the Powers that he refrained from carrying out his intention.[425] At the same time the consuls at Alexandria insisted that Mehemet Ali must strictly comply with the conditions of the Convention of Kiutayeh, and afford Mahmud no pretext for beginning hostilities. Nevertheless, on September 4, 1834, the Pasha officially informed the agents of the Powers that he was resolved to proclaim his complete independence.[426] He soon, however, perceived the necessity of postponing the execution of this design, in face of the unanimous declaration of the different Cabinets that he must abandon “a project which the policy of Europe could not allow him to realize.”[427]
But, although the five Powers thus combined to check the ambitious schemes of Mehemet Ali, the suspicion with which the policy of Russia towards Turkey was regarded by France and England was in no way diminished. So strained were the relations of Great Britain and Russia, at the beginning of 1834, that Nicholas, notwithstanding his inveterate dislike of Louis Philippe, allowed Nesselrode to make certain discreet advances towards France. These half-hearted overtures, however, led to no results. Although Broglie indulged in less provocative language than the British minister, and deprecated the idea of another naval demonstration in Levantine waters, he was in complete agreement with Palmerston in the eastern question.[428] A personal dispute served to increase the tension which existed between the Imperial Cabinet and the English government. Notwithstanding Prince Lieven’s intimation that the Tsar would greatly dislike the appointment,[429] Palmerston had allowed Sir Stratford Canning to be gazetted as ambassador to the Russian Court. Nesselrode, thereupon, informed Mr. Bligh, the British chargé d’affaires, that Sir Stratford would not be received. His “suspicious, overbearing and irritable disposition” appears to have been the reason assigned for the objections which were made to his appointment. Palmerston, however, absolutely refused to send any one else in his place. “The whole thing,” he believed or affected to believe, “was a mere remnant of the Apostolical and Holy Alliance abomination of the name of Canning.”[430] But Nesselrode was equally unyielding and no British ambassador was, in consequence, accredited to the Russian Court. Matters continued upon this footing until Nicholas, in the spring of 1834, decided to recall Prince Lieven from London and merely to appoint a chargé d’affaires to replace him. The departure of the Lievens created a great sensation, and was by many people regarded as a prelude to a complete rupture between Russia and Great Britain. The ambassador was a commonplace person, but his wife[431] was a conspicuous figure in the fashionable and political world. Besides being well acquainted with most of the prominent diplomatists in Europe, she had, during her long stay in England, enjoyed the confidence of Grey, Aberdeen and other statesmen. It may be imagined how bitterly she deplored the necessity of exchanging a life, replete with political interest in London, for an existence at the Court of St. Petersburg, bereft of all the excitement in which she delighted. It was to her influence, she considered, that Palmerston owed his appointment as Foreign Secretary, and she never forgave him for his share in the events which led up to her husband’s recall.[432]
Whilst the Duke of Wellington was at the Foreign Office, during Sir Robert Peel’s “Hundred Days,”Anglo-Russian relations perceptibly improved. The Duke’s views upon the question of the Dardanelles differed from those which Broglie and Palmerston had hitherto entertained. In his opinion England and France should endeavour to effect the closure of the straits to the warships of all nations. The evil arising from the passage of Russian ships from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean would not, he maintained, be diminished by the opening of the Dardanelles to the fleets of the Powers. Accordingly, he cancelled Palmerston’s secret instructions of March 10, 1834,[433] authorizing Ponsonby, should the Porte ask for assistance against Russia, to call upon the Mediterranean squadron to enter the Dardanelles. Moreover, apart from this particular question, it was not fitting, in the eyes of the Duke, that “the King’s ambassador should have the power of placing the country in a state of war with another Power.”[434] Wellington also proposed to restore the diplomatic relations of the two countries to their normal condition by the despatch of an ambassador to St. Petersburg. But his selection of Lord Londonderry for this post was disapproved of by the House of Commons. Londonderry was an ultra-Tory who was supposed to have used unsympathetic language about the Polish insurrection, and, had he not voluntarily declined the mission, the government would certainly have suffered a defeat upon the question of his appointment.[435]
Palmerston, upon his return to the Foreign Office in the spring of 1835, was struck by the soundness of the Duke’s opinion upon the subject of the Dardanelles.[436] Ponsonby was, in consequence, given no further authority over the movements of the Mediterranean squadron. No man at this time was more absolutely persuaded of the Machiavellian character of Russian policy than Lord Ponsonby. Neither words nor deeds could shake his opinion upon that point. Although the Russian envoy at Constantinople had co-operated with his colleagues in preventing a renewal of the struggle between the Sultan and the Pasha, the British ambassador was none the less convinced that Nicholas was secretly scheming to create a pretext for intervention. Again, when M. de Boutenieff assisted him in obtaining redress for the ill-treatment of a British subject at the hands of the Turkish police, he explained his conduct by suggesting that “the Russian minister was perhaps taken by surprise, and that those honourable feelings, which are natural to him, operated upon him.”[437] Nor would he allow that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg was actuated either by disinterested or generous motives when, in 1836, it consented to remit some of the indemnity due from Turkey and to evacuate Silistria. That fortress, he declared, was of no value to Russia, and, by relinquishing it, she “would obtain the advantage of making the world believe in her moderation.”[438] Being thus convinced that the Tsar and his advisers entertained the most sinister designs against the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, he concluded that a secret understanding must exist between Russia and Mehemet Ali, the powerful and disaffected vassal of the Sultan.
The effect of Lord Ponsonby’s alarmist despatches was to some extent counteracted by the more statesmanlike reports of Lord Durham, his nephew by marriage. The Duke of Wellington’s intention to send an ambassador of St. Petersburg had enabled the Whigs, upon their return to power, to despatch Lord Durham in that capacity to the Russian capital. Durham, during the two years he was in Russia, travelled through the southern provinces and made an exhaustive study of the resources of the country. The result of his observations and enquiries convinced him that Russia’s power for offensive war had been greatly exaggerated. Furthermore, he was persuaded that the Tsar Nicholas and almost all intelligent Russians were sincerely desirous of establishing a good understanding with England, and had altogether abandoned the idea of acquiring Constantinople. In short, he saw no reason why “a rival and an enemy should not be converted into a friend and an ally.”[439]