A
STEAM VOYAGE
DOWN
THE DANUBE.
WITH SKETCHES OF
HUNGARY, WALLACHIA, SERVIA, AND
TURKEY, &c.
BY MICHAEL J. QUIN,
AUTHOR OF “A VISIT TO SPAIN.”
SECOND EDITION.
REVISED AND CORRECTED.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1835.
[Illustration:
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._
TOWING BOATS ON THE DANUBE.
_London, Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1835._]
COX AND SONS, 75, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S-INN FIELDS.
CONTENTS TO VOL. II.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Therapia--Caiques--Precautions--Old England--Ambassador’s
residence--Lord Ponsonby--Mr. Urquhart--Diplomatic profession--
British interests--News dispatches--Dragomanship--Storm--
Sources of Plague--Proposed improvements--Russian designs--The
Dardanelles--Ibrahim Pacha 1
CHAPTER II.
Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi--Its substance--Third Article--
Remaining patent articles--Audiences of the Sultan--Count
Orloff--Secret article--Its effect--Law of the Dardanelles--
Outrage on international law--Treaty of Petersburg--Boundaries--
The provinces--Firman--Russian ascendancy 22
CHAPTER III.
Dictation--Signal of war--Civilization--Barbarism--Russian
Court--Turkish civilization--Duties of England--Extent of her
empire--Africa--Asia--India--Australia--English influence--
Northern powers--Free institutions--Turkish aspirations--
Commercial views--Mediterranean trade--Steam-boats--Dardanelles--
Nullification--Government measures--Nesselrode’s answer--Russian
magnanimity--Treaty of 1809--Strait of the Euxine--Russian
advantages--Key of Turkey 40
CHAPTER IV.
Measures suggested--Turkish regeneration--Decline of Fanaticism--
Equality of civil rights--The Ottoman Moniteur--Publicity--
Judicial institutions--Pressure from without--Payment of
indemnity--War--Resistance--Naval armament--Protection 65
CHAPTER V.
St. Sophia--Armenian religion--Mustapha--Departure from
Constantinople--The Hellespont--Change of climate--Tomb of
Patroclus--Greek quadrille--Throwing the ball--Vintage
dance--Greek seas--Sirocco--Mytilene--Pocket winds--Gulph of
Smyrna--City of Smyrna--Madame Maracinis--“Of course”--Hinde
Cutter 79
CHAPTER VI.
Voyage to Vourla--The British fleet--The _Portland_--Captain
Price--My hammock--Bocca Silota--Cape Colonna--Greece enslaved--
Greece free--Greek climate--Reign of mind--Thracian poetry--The
great Heaven--Olympus--The gods--Fatalism--Death--Predictions--
Inspiration--Tokens of woe--Immortality--Superstitions--Homer--
Christianity 100
CHAPTER VII.
Gun-room--Mountains of Morea--Minister of the Interior--
Quarantine--Deck companions--Holystone--Mr. Dawkins--Russian
policy--Captain Lyons--Hospitality--Bay of Napoli--Bustle of
the streets--Public walks--Count Armansperg--Modern Greeks--
Their advantages--Democracy--Aristocracy--The Senate--The
Laws--The Sovereign--Judicial office 126
CHAPTER VIII.
Administration of justice--Popular assemblies--Free
constitution--Bavarian code--Reforms--Agriculture--
Aristocracy--Argos--King Otho--Russian intrigues--Greek
church--Synod--Russian church--Religious feeling--New coinage 150
CHAPTER IX.
Travelling in Greece--Hieron--Mysterious companion--Dangers of
the glen--Speculations--Inclination to Brigandage--Alarm--A
virtuoso--Epidaurus--Greek servant--Fresh arrivals--On the
look-out--Mosaics--A sail--Ruins--Arcadian scene--Pastoral
happiness--Diorama--Household operations--Banquet hall--Domestic
industry--Benevolence--Marriage preparations--Scene at the
cisterns 166
CHAPTER X.
Bargaining--Departure for Athens--Voyage--The Piræus--Athens--
Vandalism--The Parthenon--Its entablatures--Mysterious fire--
Curiosities--Athenian improvements--Road to Corinth--Megara--
Thunder storm--Isthmus of Corinth--Cutting the isthmus--
Difficulties of the enterprize--Levels of the seas--Corinth--
Change of climate--Vostizza 190
CHAPTER XI.
Great plane tree--Natural curiosity--Road to Patras--Police--
Travelling companions--Motives of travel--Differences of
opinion--Discussions--Settlement of accounts--Patras--Delay--
The Europa--A Caffiné--Parnassus--Storm--Greek marriage--
Luxurious dog--Temple of Ceres--Bay of Patras--Ants 214
CHAPTER XII.
Austrian Packet--Living on-board--Ionian Isles--Corfu--Situation
of Corfu--A day late--Complaints--Commerce--Monopoly--
Improvements--Lord Nugent--Garrison Library--Newspapers--A
character--A mission--Voyage--Atmospheric delusion--Ragusa--
Contrary winds--Water-spout 236
CHAPTER XIII.
The deacon--A lost shirt--Grossa island--The Quarnero--
Pola-Istrian coast--Trieste--Venetian Steamer--Venice--Russian
artist--Il Fanatico--Rome--St. Peter’s--High mass--Don Miguel--
Congregation--Roman monarchy--Gregory XVI.--The Vatican hill--
Gardens of Nero--The Elevation--Christian triumph 258
CHAPTER XIV.
Papal revenues--Public opinion--Discontents--Cold of Rome--St.
John Lateran--St. Peter’s--St. Peter’s chair--Windows--Cardinal
Weld--English diplomacy--Neapolitan Constitution--Austrian
ascendancy--British minister at Rome--The Sistine chapel--
Spanish Monk--Vespers--the Roman hills 284
CHAPTER XV.
Naples--A pious piper--The chestnut man--The segretario--The
money changer--The small commission--The fish-broiler--The
porters--Maccaroni--The Toledo--Lotteries--The Sicilians--
Neapolitan reforms--Resistance--The Museum--Return home--
Expenses of my journey 304
CHAPTER I.
Therapia--Caiques--Precautions--Old England--Ambassador’s
residence--Lord Ponsonby--Mr. Urquhart--Diplomatic profession--
British interests--News dispatches--Dragomanship--Storm--Sources
of plague--Proposed improvements--Russian designs--The
Dardanelles--Ibrahim Pacha.
♦ THERAPIA ♦
Having letters for Lord Ponsonby, I proceeded (18th Oct.) the day
after my arrival, to Therapia, where the British embassy has been most
inconveniently established, since the magnificent palace belonging to
it at Pera was burnt down during that extensive conflagration which
occurred a few years ago. What the distance of Therapia may be from
Constantinople by land, I cannot conjecture: by the Bosphorus, the
more usual route, I should suppose it may be about nine or ten English
miles, which are sometimes doubled by the tacks rendered necessary to
catch the baffling winds of that channel. The weather may encourage you
to go to the embassy; but a change of wind may detain you there for a
week, as the only steam-boat yet upon the Bosphorus is reserved for the
exclusive service of the Sultan. Certainly no man can have any right to
complain of being imprisoned under Lord Ponsonby’s roof for a week or
a month: for a more enlightened companion, a more kind-hearted host,
or a more worthy representative of his country in every respect, is no
where to be found. But it is hardly fair to impose upon any ambassador
the necessity, not only of receiving his countrymen in an agreeable
manner, but also of keeping a sort of caravanserai for them, in order
to provide against the vicissitudes of every wind that chooses to blow
from the Black Sea, or the sea of Marmora. This inconvenience, however,
is, I understand, about to be remedied, as measures are in progress for
the erection, at Scutari, of a residence suitable to the dignity of a
British Legation.
♦ CAIQUES ♦
The caiques that ply on the Bosphorus are somewhat larger and
considerably deeper than the wherries of the Thames. But they are built
so round that the passengers and rowers must balance themselves to a
nicety before they can depart; otherwise they run the chance of being
very speedily upset. For this reason the passengers are obliged to
convert themselves during their voyage into ballast, by sitting down on
the bottom of the vessel, where a mat or a carpet is usually spread for
that purpose. If the wind be favourable, the sail is spread, and then
the changes of place which become necessary from time to time, in order
to preserve the due distribution of the said balance in accordance
with each tack, when the boat cannot run right before the breeze, are
very troublesome. The annoyance is still more sensibly felt when there
is only one passenger in the boat, for he is obliged to shift here
and there according to invisible lines of demarcation, as if he were
weighing out his body to a customer in scruples.
As it was against the law of health that I should touch any woollen
substance, or any other luxury capable of communicating the plague, I
was obliged to sit down on the naked plank, and be cautious even of
suffering a cord to come in contact with my clothes. I thus consigned
myself to the care of two brawny Turks, whose oars were tied by
leathern thongs to a peg inserted in the edge of the vessel, and we
departed from Pera. The day was brilliant.
♦ BOSPHORUS ♦
Much as I had heard of the beauties of the Asiatic as well as of
the European banks of the Bosphorus, I must say that they very much
exceeded any description I had ever read, or any panorama I had ever
seen of them. The ever-changing character of the hills, that rise
on each side; the magic variations of colour cast upon them by the
travelling sun, and by their own shadows; the pendant groves and
gardens; the castles and fortifications of the middle ages; the old
Moorish architecture of the houses and palaces, which extend for five
or six miles under the hills, beside the blue waters; the splendid
new residences, built on either shore, by the present Sultan or his
ministers, with their light oriental fronts, their latticed windows,
their bronze doors, and snow-white marble steps; the towering Turkish
ships of war, anchored off the arsenal; the merchant brigs of all
nations, sailing up or down the waves; the innumerable boats bent on
business or pleasure, urged by the oar or wafted by the wind in every
direction; the costume of the Frank mingling with that of the Turk, the
Albanian, the Greek, the Tartar, the wild mountaineer from Caucasus,
the slave from Circassia, the horse-dealer from Arabia, the silk and
carpet-merchant from Persia, the Dervish from India, and the veiled
form of woman wherever she appeared,--spread out a picture of human
life and industry, and of natural grandeur before me, such as no other
part of the world could disclose.
♦ OLD ENGLAND ♦
In about two hours and a half I arrived at Therapia, where, upon
presenting my letters, which were fumigated, and having undergone
the same sort of purification myself, I was desired to feel as if
I were at home in Old England. Every thing, indeed, looked truly
English about me--the sofas, the rose-wood tables, the screens, the
comfortable carpets, the cushioned chairs, the richly curtained
windows, the mirrors, the books on side tables, the newspapers and
reviews and magazines, the bronze ink and pen tray, the blue gilt-edged
dispatch paper from the Stationary Office: it was delightful to tread,
as it were, upon a portion of the sacred soil of my country, under
the protection of her laws, and hearing only her language at such a
distance from her shores!
♦ AMBASSADOR’S RESIDENCE ♦
Lord Ponsonby was so good as to keep me to dinner, and to direct a
chamber to be prepared for me, which I was to consider as my own
during my sojourn in the capital. I had to wind my way to it through
several flights of stone stairs, a court-yard, and then up another
set of stairs, where I was surrounded by bath-rooms fitted up with
marble basins for the hands and feet, in the Turkish style. Indeed, the
mansion, taken as a whole, before it was civilized by the taste and
perseverance of Lady Ponsonby, must have presented a most cheerless
aspect. It must have looked more like a huge granary, than any thing
convertible into a fit residence for a nobleman. Such was its state of
repair when occupied by Mr. Mandeville, who, as _chargé d’affaires_,
immediately preceded Lord Ponsonby, that when the inclemency of the
weather precluded that gentleman from taking his usual ride, he put
on his boots, wrapped his cloak around him, and walked up and down
his dining room--a tremendously large saloon--for exercise. On some
occasions, it is said, while thus employed, he was even compelled to
place himself under the protection of an umbrella!
♦ LORD PONSONBY ♦
The society of Therapia is necessarily very limited,--indeed usually
confined to the circles of the English and French legations, which
are established near each other. Lady Ponsonby has indeed an ample
compensation for her absence from the gay crowds of home, in an
intellect refined by great natural delicacy of thought, and enriched
by the treasures of almost every living language worth attention. Lord
Ponsonby is an ardent pupil of the Fox school, of which, and of the
individuals who moved in it in his younger days, he has preserved many
anecdotes, which he tells with great effect.
♦ MR. URQUHART ♦
Among the guests of the day were Mr. David Urquhart, the well-known
author of “Turkey and its Resources,” who had lately returned to
Constantinople from a tour through the European provinces of the
Ottoman empire. This gentleman seems to have attached himself
strongly to the Turkish people, amongst whom he has already acquired
considerable influence. He is the first European, I believe, who has
been admitted to Mahommetan society in the turban, without having
changed, or intended or even affected to change his religion, which is
that of the Protestant church. His residence was at Scutari, where he
lived altogether after the Turkish fashion, dispensing however with the
harem, and was known by the title of the “English Bey!” He was full of
the Russian question--that is to say, of the numberless inroads lately
made upon the independence of the Sultan by the open aggressions and
the more dangerous secret manœuvres of the imperial government, and was
so obliging as to give me much useful information on that subject.
Another of the ambassador’s guests was Dr. M’Neil, an intelligent and
enterprizing Scotchman, who went out some years ago as physician,
and afterwards became secretary to the British embassy in Persia. He
was on his way home with dispatches. His account of that interesting
country was by no means encouraging, so far as British interests
were concerned. The whole empire was in a state of disorganization,
of which, as usual, a swarm of Russian agents were eagerly availing
themselves in order to prepare the way for their own dominion.
♦ DIPLOMATIC PROFESSION ♦
It is an unfortunate defect in our constitution, that its machinery
is expressly calculated to prevent us from having a body of gentlemen
regularly brought up to diplomacy as a profession, altogether
independent of politics. The etiquette of foreign courts will, for the
most part, generally require the higher appointments in that department
of the state to be filled by noblemen; and as these individuals owe
their promotion chiefly to political connexion, I fear they must
always remain liable to be changed with the fluctuations which so
frequently take place in our government. But it is quite practicable,
if the system were once established, that all the minor legations, the
secretaryships, and other offices connected with the foreign interests
of the country, should be committed exclusively to the hands of
individuals properly educated for the purpose. The duties of consuls
and vice-consuls are essentially diplomatic, and ought to be entrusted
only to gentlemen capable of serving the country in that capacity.
If some system of this kind be not speedily established, we may as well
give up at once the latent contest which we are at this moment carrying
on with Russia in Persia, Turkey, and Greece, and with all the northern
powers in Germany and Italy. All the consuls of these powers are
diplomatic agents, besides whom they have “agents of correspondence,”
distributed through every country where their interests are in the
slightest degree liable to be affected by political circumstances.
It is a national silliness on our part to say that these men are
“spies,” and because _espionage_ is in itself a mean and objectionable
occupation, therefore we ought not to follow the example of our
rivals. It is eminently absurd to designate an individual as a “spy,”
in the offensive sense of that term, whose office it is to watch the
progress of events, to mark the character of the men engaged in them,
to speculate rationally upon their consequences, and to furnish his
government with all the information concerning them which he has been
enabled to collect on the spot by his sagacity and industry. Such an
agent may frequently render to his country most material services; and
in consequence of the want of public officers of this description, I
am convinced that the influence of England is all but destroyed in
Germany, Italy, and the whole of the western districts of Asia.
♦ BRITISH INTERESTS ♦
♦ NEWS DISPATCHES ♦
Another vice of our diplomatic system, if indeed we can be said to have
any such system at all, is this, that when a dispatch is prepared by
any of our ministers abroad, he is strictly enjoined by the regulations
of the Foreign Office to restrict his statements to one general
subject. Thus, for instance, suppose the negotiations on the Boundary
question to be going on at Washington, and that the British envoy has
occasion to narrate to his government the progress he has made, he
must touch in his dispatch upon that subject, no other topic whatever.
The consequence of this regulation is, that, although on some rare
occasions separate dispatches are written on other subjects,--generally
speaking, no more than a single communication upon the principal
topic is sent home, unaccompanied by a solitary remark on the living
history of the men and of the transactions, of whom the writer is only
one, and of which his composition forms no more than an episode. From
this practice it results that our representatives at foreign stations
are seldom good observers of character; that their dispatches are
remarkable dry, and altogether destitute of general information. I
have been told, that in the legations and consular offices of Russia,
Austria, and Prussia, and even of some of the minor states, individuals
are specially instructed to write home what are called “news
dispatches,” as often as possible. I know of no reason why a similar
course should not be adopted by our legations, many of which are well
paid for doing little, and that little very indifferently.
♦ DRAGOMANSHIP ♦
But perhaps the defect of our diplomacy in Turkey which most strongly
demands immediate alteration, is that arising from the old fashion of
dragomanship,--not indeed peculiar to the English embassy, since it
prevails also amongst the other European missions at Constantinople. An
intelligent tribe of men, half Greek, half Italian, has been settled
for centuries at Pera, whose business it has been to cultivate the
Turkish, French, and Italian languages; hence they are enabled to
furnish each of the embassies with an interpreter, who is retained
in its service at a high salary. He attends the minister at all his
interviews with the Sultan, the members of government, and of the
divan, in order to interpret between both parties; he translates
the notes and other communications transmitted by one party to the
other, and thus becomes intimately acquainted with state secrets on
both sides. Does he never reveal them? If this question can be truly
answered in the negative, then the whole race is much calumniated at
Constantinople. Indeed, it is said that Russian gold, which is never
absent from the scene of negotiations when an important disclosure can
be purchased, has irresistible charms for the dragomen.
It may be asked, why a professional secretary is not attached to
our Turkish embassy, selected from amongst our own countrymen, and
qualified for his office by a familiar acquaintance with the Turkish
language? It is not more difficult than the dialects of Persia and
India, where we have seldom occasion for the assistance of interpreters
in our diplomatic missions, because care is taken to attach to them one
gentleman at least of British origin, who is master of the language
of the country where the mission is established. The same rule should
apply to Constantinople, where the members of government, with few
exceptions, are ignorant of every language but their own.
♦ STORM ♦
I was detained at Therapia the whole of the ensuing day (19th October)
by heavy rains, and a violent tempest which prevailed, without a
moment’s intermission, until evening, when we all met again round
Lord Ponsonby’s table. During the night there were tremendous storms
of thunder and lightning, accompanied by a strong wind, blowing down
from the Black Sea through the hills on each side of the Bosphorus as
through a funnel, in the very neck of which his lordship’s residence
was placed. The waters were still (20th October) much disturbed when I
returned to Pera; but the wind being right down the channel, I was only
an hour on the voyage, and spent that day, as well as several of the
following days, in exploring the curiosities of Constantinople, with
an account of which, as they have been already fully and graphically
described in a hundred other works, I shall not burthen these pages.
♦ SOURCES OF PLAGUE ♦
One or two general reflections, however, upon the actual state of that
metropolis, may not be deemed superfluous. It is built on a series of
hills, which afford every requisite facility for purifying the streets,
and for conducting to the Sea of Marmora, through properly constructed
sewers, all the impurities which necessarily attend a large population.
Unfortunately, whatever sewers exist are choked up, or lead only into
the Golden Horn, the inner harbour, where numerous merchant ships are
anchored at all seasons of the year. The consequence is, that the
harbour, which is but little affected by the current of the Bosphorus,
is little better than a stagnant pool, in which not only the drainage
from the most crowded part of the city is collected, but also that of
the ships waiting for winds, or to deliver or receive their cargoes. I
entertain no doubt at all that the Golden Horn, so called as the emblem
of commercial abundance, is the real source of the pestilence which so
often, I may say so permanently, wastes that metropolis, and renders it
a most disagreeable place of residence.
There is not, indeed there cannot be, any thing like society in a
capital, where every circle is obliged to observe a quarantine against
its neighbour. “Have you touched any body to-day?” is the first
question put to a visitor, who is supposed not to be experienced in the
arts of avoiding contact. The whole year passes without any evening
amusements. Theatres, musical or dancing assemblies, are of course out
of the question in such a state of things. Indeed, nobody attempts
to go out at night, as the bazaars are all closed at sunset, and the
streets are destitute of lamps.
♦ PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS ♦
It is impossible, therefore, that Constantinople can ever be rendered a
healthy, a social, or civilized residence, in the European sense of the
terms, until the inner harbour shall be entirely filled up, and the sea
excluded to that line of demarcation where the current of the Bosphorus
acts upon the mass of the waters. New sewers must be constructed
leading chiefly into the Sea of Marmora. The bazaars, which are in fact
but the principal streets _roofed in_, should be unroofed, and left
perfectly open to the air. The gates which exist in different parts of
the city, with the view of cutting off communication during a period of
insurrection, should be removed. The old battlements and walls, which
have no value as defences against artillery, should be levelled with
the earth. The same fate should visit the cumbrous and lofty walls
by which the official habitations of the governor of Constantinople,
and other public servants, are surrounded. For the wooden houses, of
which the capital is chiefly composed, streets in the Moorish style of
architecture, of stone or brick materials, should be substituted. If
these and other alterations which good taste, attention to air, and
provisions for an efficient police would suggest, were carried into
execution, Constantinople would be without a rival for the beauty and
commercial advantages of its situation.
♦ RUSSIAN DESIGNS ♦
I believe that nobody has thought more frequently or more deeply upon
this subject, than the late and the present sovereigns of Russia.
Indeed, when we consider the vast strides which their dominion has
made from time to time towards the Dardanelles, we cannot avoid coming
to the conclusion, that the design has been, and still is seriously
entertained, of eventually rendering Constantinople the seat of
government for the Russian empire. This is not only, in my judgment,
a very natural object of ambition on the part of the Czar; but one
apparently forced upon him by the defective position which the southern
provinces of his vast possessions enjoy.
By having extended their authority from the old kingdom of Moscovy,
to the Lesser Tartary and the Crimea, thence on the eastern shore of
the Euxine to Anapa, and to the delta of the Danube, on the west, the
Russians have become masters of the Black Sea, which has no outlet
except through the Bosphorus and the Hellespont. The current which
flows through those canals, and through the intervening Sea of Marmora,
points out the natural course which that authority must further take
before it can be established on a solid basis.
♦ THE DARDANELLES ♦
The phrase which escaped Alexander, when he called the Dardanelles
“the key of my house,” is pregnant with a truth which becomes every
day more apparent. It is unquestionably necessary to the further
aggrandizement of the dominions of the Czar, assuming that to be his
object, to have the right of free egress and ingress through the gates
of the Dardanelles, which are the gates also of the Black Sea; and it
is incompatible with the notion which every man must entertain, of the
relations actually subsisting between his Imperial Majesty and the
Sultan, to suppose that the former would ever again suffer the shutting
or the opening of the Dardanelles to be dependent on the fiat of the
Divan.
♦ RUSSIAN AGGRANDIZEMENT ♦
All the recent history of Russia has been one uniform series of
transactions, tending cunningly, and indeed without disguise,
towards the transference of the imperial throne from Petersburgh
to Constantinople. The treaty of Bucharest, which was signed in
1812, placed Wallachia and Moldavia under the _quasi_ protection
of the emperor. By virtue of the treaty of Adrianople (1829), and
of Petersburgh (1834), as we shall presently see, those provinces
have become substantially Russian; and Servia has acquired a nominal
government of her own, which is calculated only to prepare the way to a
similar result in that quarter. This was a remarkable stride across the
Danube, and in order that no re-action should render it ineffectual,
possession was subsequently secured to the Russian troops of Silistria,
which opens the way to Constantinople, for a period of eight years
certain, liable to be prolonged _ad infinitum_!
This period of eight years forms a remarkable epoch in these
transactions; it discloses the predominant thought of the Russian
cabinet in originating the treaty of Adrianople, as well as the two
still more important treaties of 1833 and 1834, by which the advantages
acquired on the side of the emperor under the former compact, were not
only confirmed but seriously augmented. Eight years from April 1830,
(when the convention for the payment of the indemnity was signed at
Petersburg) would seem to be the space of time within which the Czar
at first calculated upon replenishing his treasury, and collecting
sufficient means to enable him to surprise or defy the power of Great
Britain, by seizing the Dardanelles. We shall accordingly observe
that when a portion of the indemnity (ten millions of Dutch ducats)
which the Sultan agreed by the treaty of 1829 to pay to Russia, was
subsequently remitted, no diminution took place in the term of years
over which the payments had been originally extended; on the contrary,
that term was _enlarged_!
♦ IBRAHIM PACHA ♦
Every body recollects how England and France were engaged in 1832
and 1833 in settling the affairs of Belgium; that French troops were
obliged to dislodge by force the Dutch garrison from Antwerp, while
British ships of war were occupied in blockading the ports of Holland.
In the mean time, Ibrahim Pacha, the able and enterprizing son of
Mahomet Ali, actual ruler of Egypt, had overrun all Syria, had encamped
on the mountainous ranges of the Taurus, and threatened a descent
upon Constantinople itself. Under these circumstances, the Sultan
applied for assistance to England and France; but whether it was that
sufficient importance had not been then attached to the conquests of
Ibrahim, or to the apprehension that his ultimate views were directed
upon Constantinople; or that the engagements of both the powers with
reference to the pacification of Belgium, prevented them from paying
due attention to the solicitations of the Porte, it is at all events
certain, that the interposition required on that occasion in behalf of
the Turkish empire was refused by the two governments. I cannot but
consider that refusal as a most unfortunate event, from whatever causes
it may have arisen; it left the field of the East open to the autocrat,
who lost not a moment in making it his own.