England and the Orléans Monarchy

by John Hall

Before the news of this disaster could reach Constantinople Mahmud was dead, and when, shortly afterwards, the intelligence of the complete defeat of Hafiz Pasha was brought to the Turkish ministers, they kept the matter strictly secret. Abd-ul-Mejid, the sixteen-year-old son of the deceased Mahmud, was proclaimed Sultan, and the ambassadors of the Powers were invited to a conference on July 3. On this occasion Nourri-Effendi, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, announced that the Porte had no reason to suppose that any engagement had yet taken place between the two armies. Nevertheless, the Sultan purposed to send “one of the eminent men of his Court” to offer Mehemet Ali a full pardon for the past and to assure him of his favour in the future. Furthermore, he was prepared to confer upon him the hereditary government of Egypt, provided he would abandon Syria and the other territories over which he now exercised his dominion. Pending the result of this negotiation orders had been sent to Hafiz Pasha to suspend hostilities.[484]

It was not until July 8 that the true facts were generally known in Constantinople, and, on the evening of that day, Lord Ponsonby was informed by the French ambassador of a fresh disaster. Admiral Lalande, who with a small French squadron was lying at the entrance to the Dardanelles, reported that the Capudan Pasha had sailed away with, he believed, the intention of delivering up his fleet to Mehemet Ali. Osman Bey, the second in command of the Turkish squadron, had had an interview with the French admiral,[485] and had declared that the Sultan had been murdered by Halil and Hosrew Pasha, both of whom were in league with the Russians. Under these circumstances the Capudan Pasha determined to place his ships in safety. On this pretext he proceeded with all speed to Alexandria, where he delivered up to the Pasha his whole fleet, consisting of twenty-one sail, of which eight were of the line.

The indifference with which Admiral Lalande had heard of the treacherous intentions of the Capudan Pasha, and the apathy which had characterized his proceedings, could not fail to attract attention. Marshal Boult himself, in discussing the surrender of the Turkish fleet with Lord Granville, was forced to admit that Lalande’s conduct appeared to him inexplicable.[486] In the course of the next few months, however, further light was thrown upon the matter. An Armenian, a certain Avedick, the confidential dragoman of the Capudan Pasha, was smuggled out of Alexandria on board a British ship. This man, when he arrived at Constantinople, agreed to disclose all he knew to Reshid Pasha. According to his statement, Admiral Lalande, accompanied by the Prince de Joinville, came on board the Turkish flagship, and held a consultation with Osman, the Reala Bey,[487] who seems to have been the evil genius of the Capudan Pasha. On learning of his intention to proceed to Alexandria, the French officers, far from attempting to detain him, applauded his resolution, bidding him only to be careful to avoid H.M.S. Vanguard, which was in Besika Bay. Ponsonby, in forwarding the papers connected with this affair, emitted the opinion that, although many circumstances appeared to confirm the truth of the dragoman’s story, “he could not feel it to be true of an honourable man like Admiral Lalande.”[488] Palmerston either adopted this view, or more probably, deemed it impossible to base a formal representation to the French government upon Avedick’s unsupported statement. But after the abdication and death of his father, the Prince de Joinville saw fit to publish, under an assumed name in the Revue des Deux Mondes;[489] an account of these transactions which confirmed the dragoman’s allegations in every particular. Throughout the French fleet there was, says His Royal Highness, a bitter hatred of England and an intense desire to avenge former defeats. The Pasha of Egypt was regarded as the ally of France in a struggle, which every man hoped and believed, would take place in the near future. Admiral Lalande was, therefore, clearly justified in encouraging the Capudan Pasha to surrender his fleet to Mehemet Ali. Although thirteen years had elapsed since the events referred to in this article had taken place, the Prince evidently experienced the greatest satisfaction in remembering that Captain Walker, and the other British naval instructors of the Ottoman fleet, had been carried off to Alexandria on ships which were to be handed over to England’s enemy, the Pasha of Egypt.

These successive disasters, Lord Palmerston maintained, should make no difference in the policy of the Powers. On the contrary, the battle of Nezib had made it the more imperative that steps should be taken to check the progress of the victorious Ibrahim.[490] Metternich held the same opinion. Russia, however, appeared disposed to adopt a different view of the situation. In 1838, when Mehemet Ali was threatening to proclaim his independence, she had refused to acquiesce in Palmerston’s proposal that the Turco-Egyptian question should be submitted to a conference of the Powers.[491] But in the following spring, when it was plain that the Sultan was resolved to embark upon war, she had not appeared disinclined to entertain Metternich’s suggestion that the seat of the negotiations should be established at Vienna. “Each Cabinet,” Metternich proposed, “might send its opinion to its representatives at Vienna, leaving a certain latitude for discussion, and from a comparison of the five opinions, one should be sought in which all might coincide.”[492] By this arrangement much delay would be obviated, and the same advantages could be obtained as by the summoning of the conference, to which Nicholas had objected. But at the news that, as a consequence of the death of Mahmud and of the defeat sustained by the Turkish arms at Nezib, the Porte purposed to open a direct negotiation with the Pasha, the Cabinet of St. Petersburg once more evinced a strong disinclination to assent to the plan of establishing a European concert for the settlement of the eastern question.[493] The disposition which Nicholas thus manifested to diverge from the policy advocated by Great Britain and Austria, was hastily seized by France as an opportunity for isolating Russia. The Soult Cabinet, accordingly, insisted upon the necessity of counselling the Porte to avoid any precipitate action, and only to treat with Mehemet Ali through the intermediary of the Powers.[494] Palmerston, as may be supposed, lost no time in expressing to the Marshal the satisfaction which he derived from seeing that he was animated by sentiments coinciding so completely with his own.[495]

In the meanwhile Akiff-Effendi, the Turkish envoy, sent to treat with Mehemet Ali, had returned to Constantinople, after a fruitless mission to Cairo. The Pasha had protested his loyalty to the young Sultan, but he had none the less received the Capudan Pasha and his officers with open arms and clearly meant to retain the Ottoman fleet. Moreover, he had declared emphatically that he must be invested with the hereditary government of both Syria and Egypt, and had expressed indignation that his old enemy Hosrew Pasha, the Grand Vizier, had not been dismissed. He had, however, undertaken that, for the present, Ibrahim should not advance into Asia Minor.[496] It was clear to the ambassadors at Constantinople that the Porte, if left to itself, would consent to all the Pasha’s demands. “I consider the Ottoman Empire to be delivered over to Mehemet Ali,” wrote Ponsonby on July 26.[497] But, on the following day, Baron Stürmer received despatches from Vienna.[498] Metternich had either foreseen, or had obtained early information, that the Turkish ministers would make further concessions, and he, accordingly, informed the Internuncio that the five Powers were determined to resist the pretensions of Mehemet Ali, and directed him to urge his colleagues to unite with him in representing to the Porte the necessity of allowing the conditions of peace to be settled by the Powers. Lord Beauvale[499] and M. de Sainte-Aulaire had, it is said, at Metternich’s request, written in the same strain to Ponsonby and to Roussin.[500] A meeting of the representatives of the five Powers was immediately convened and a note was drawn up, informing the Porte “that agreement among the five Great Powers, on the question of the East, was secured,” and inviting it to suspend any definitive resolution without their concurrence. M. de Boutenieff, the Russian minister, appears to have made no difficulty about affixing his signature to this document, which was to be known as the collective note of July 27, 1839. When it was presented to them, the Turkish ministers expressed the utmost gratitude, and promised to suspend all negotiations and to inform Mehemet Ali that the affair was now in the hands of the five Powers.[501]

The news that the collective note had been delivered, and that it had been accepted by the Porte in the desired spirit, afforded the keenest satisfaction at Vienna and in London. Palmerston, agreeing with Ponsonby, perceived that it had destroyed the Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi, and that the days of Russia’s exclusive protectorship over Turkey were at an end. One of the chief objects of his eastern policy had thus been attained, and he could devote his whole attention to the other—the curtailment of the power of Mehemet Ali. In Paris, on the other hand, the situation created by the collective note awoke serious misgivings. Since the battle of Nezib, French enthusiasm for Mehemet Ali had increased alarmingly. “Men,” wrote Véron,[502] “defended the claims of the Pasha with the same fervour as, in 1828, they had espoused the cause of Greek independence.” Ministers, under these circumstances, could only reflect ruefully that, now that France was a party to the collective note, they must join with the Powers in devising measures for depriving Mehemet Ali of the fruits of his victories. Nor could they escape from the dilemma by disavowing Admiral Roussin, seeing that he had only acted in strict accordance with the policy which Soult himself had advocated, in the secret hope of isolating Russia. But it was evident that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg was reconciled to the necessity of allowing the eastern question to be settled by the Powers, and it was to be apprehended that both Russia and Austria would adopt the hostile attitude towards Mehemet Ali which Palmerston had already assumed.

Palmerston had invariably proclaimed the opinion that the whole of Syria must be restored to the Sultan, before a permanent peace could be established in the East. The Egyptian desert, he had always insisted, must be interposed between the Pasha and the territories under the direct rule of the Porte.[503] Soult had hitherto contrived to elude a discussion upon this point by declaring that France and England must, in the first place, concert measures for checkmating the designs of Russia upon the integrity of Turkey.[504] Palmerston, so long as he was doubtful about the Tsar’s intentions, had been content to leave in abeyance the question of the future position of Mehemet Ali. But his tone changed from the moment that he became aware that Russia had adhered to the collective note. The French government on various pleas had declined to entertain his proposal that the French and English squadrons should combine for the purpose of obtaining from Mehemet Ali the surrender of the Turkish fleet.[505] On August 20, however, in a dispatch which Mr. Bulwer, the British chargé d’affaires was directed to communicate to Marshal Soult, he insisted that the restitution of the Turkish ships must be regarded as an indispensable preliminary to any negotiations between the five Powers and the Pasha. Furthermore, he declared that the decision as to the measures, which should be taken to obtain this result, “should emanate from Vienna, which was to be the central point of the negotiations instead of London or Paris,” and that Sir Robert Stopford would be instructed to comply with whatever directions he might receive from Lord Beauvale, “either with or without the co-operation of anyone of the other squadrons.”[506]

The French government, however, displayed a marked reluctance to enter into any general discussion of the Egyptian question. Notwithstanding that Soult had himself suggested Vienna as the seat of the negotiation, when he was under the impression that Russia would object to confer with the Powers on the affairs of the East, he now deprecated the selection of that capital.[507] The French government, reported Bulwer, on August 30, will refuse to consent to any measures of coercion against the Pasha, “until the whole question—that portion of it relative to the Dardanelles and Russia as well as that relating to Egypt and Mehemet Ali—is decided.”[508] About a fortnight later, Bulwer was enabled to ascertain Louis Philippe’s opinions upon the situation. It was advisable, the King considered, to discover what would satisfy the Pasha, and then to insist upon the Porte making the required concessions. When Bulwer objected that such a course was hardly consistent with the collective note of July 27, His Majesty gave him to understand that “in affairs of this kind, all notions of honour and dignity among States need not be greatly considered. I want peace,” said he, “nothing but peace, and I see no way of preserving it but by soldering up this affair as soon as possible.” The discussion then turned upon the military means which were available for the coercion of the Pasha. “Naval measures,” Louis Philippe declared, “would prove insufficient; bayonets were needed, and we (England?) had no bayonets to employ.”[509]

The very high estimate which had been formed in France of the power of Mehemet Ali was the chief reason of the attitude which her government now proceeded to adopt. Palmerston, on the other hand, had no share in the illusions which were very generally entertained as to the strength of the Pasha. Nor had the battle of Nezib caused him to alter his views. Yet neither Sir Robert Stopford,[510] the admiral of the Mediterranean squadron, nor Colonel Campbell, the British consul-general at Alexandria, agreed with him. Both were convinced that the expulsion of Ibrahim from Syria would prove a most difficult undertaking, and Campbell was to owe his recall to his strongly expressed opinion upon this point.[511] Palmerston appears to have placed the greatest faith in General Chrzanowski, the Pole, who for the past three years had been attached to the British embassy at Constantinople. This officer had made a careful study of the brief campaign which had terminated at Nezib, and was not prepared to admit that Ibrahim’s victory was due to the superiority of the Egyptian army over that of the Turks.[512] The result, he considered, would have been very different had Hafiz Pasha elected to follow the advice of Moltke, instead of listening to the foolish talk of the Mullahs, who ranked as lieutenant-generals, and were present in large numbers at his headquarters.[513] On the morning of June 24, when the battle had only lasted an hour, no less than twelve Egyptian battalions fled from the field, whilst three others deserted in a body to the Turks. The panic, which set in shortly afterwards among the troops of Hafiz Pasha, was caused by a change of position on the part of a brigade of their own cavalry. It was significant that, although the battle had consisted only of an artillery duel, and although the Egyptian infantry had never been really engaged, Ibrahim had not ventured to pursue. The report of General Jochmus,[514] a Hanoverian who had served upon the staff of the British legion in Spain, and who was now in the pay of the Foreign Office, pointed to the same conclusions. Chrzanowski, moreover, was convinced that Ibrahim would be unable to keep up his communications with Egypt, were he to be deprived of the command of the sea. A corps of 15,000 Turkish troops acting in combination with the disaffected tribes, and supported by the British fleet, would, he believed, suffice to compel him to evacuate Syria.[515]

Whilst symptoms of disagreement between the French and English governments were beginning to appear, Russia made an unexpected move. Shortly after the arrival at St. Petersburg of a despatch from Count Medem, in which he reported that Marshal Soult had declared to him that France would never consent to apply coercion to the Pasha, Baron Brunnow, the Russian minister at Stuttgart, was sent upon a special mission to London. “It would not be possible,” Nesselrode informed Clanricarde, “for the Emperor to have chosen any person more thoroughly acquainted with the foreign affairs and policy of Russia than the Baron.”[516] The proposals, which upon his arrival in London, on September 15, Brunnow was empowered to make, filled Lord Palmerston with astonishment. The Imperial Cabinet, he was instructed to declare, agreed with the English government in thinking that alone the hereditary pashalic of Egypt should be conferred upon Mehemet Ali, who must be made to restore to the Sultan Arabia, Syria and Crete. The Emperor was ready to enter into a treaty to enforce these measures upon the Pasha, and he, therefore, suggested that such military operations as might be necessary in Syria or in Egypt should be undertaken by Great Britain, France and Austria, whilst, in the event of Ibrahim advancing to the Bosphorus, the defence of Constantinople should devolve upon Russia. It was, however, to be clearly understood that any assistance which Russia might afford would be given, not by reason of the Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi, but in virtue of engagements about to be contracted between the Powers of Europe and the Sultan. Furthermore, the Emperor was ready to adopt the view of the British government and to consider “as a permanent principle and standing rule,” that the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles should be closed to the war ships of all nations. Lastly, Baron Brunnow was authorized to promise that, if Russia and England should come to an understanding on these matters, the Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi would not be renewed.[517]