Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1836-1840
passive spectator of events; that after a year or eighteen months of
useless efforts we should recognise that we had been mistaken, and
that we should then apply to France; that this Power would then
co-operate to settle these matters upon a friendly basis with as much
friendliness after our failure as she would have shown before our
attempt, and that she would then probably persuade us to agree to
conditions to which we refused our consent at the moment.
Similar indications were given to M. Guizot with regard to the line
which would probably be taken by the four Powers if they were
unsuccessful in coming to an arrangement with France. The French
Government has therefore refused the ultimatum of the four Powers, and
by the act of refusal has enounced afresh a principle of action which
it knew could not be adopted by the four Powers: a principle which
consisted in the idea that no settlement of the difficulties between
the Sultan and his subject could take place except under conditions
which the subject could accept voluntarily, or, in other terms, could
dictate; hence, the French Government must have been prepared to see
the four Powers determined to act apart from France; and when the four
Powers had come to this determination, they could not be represented
as breaking with France, or as excluding France from the arrangement
of a war to be carried on by Europe. On the contrary, it was France
who broke with the four Powers, for it was France who laid down for
herself a principle of action which made co-operation with the other
Powers impossible.
At this point, without attempting further controversial observations
with reference to the past, I feel obliged to point out that the
voluntary retirement on the part of France was not entirely due to the
course of negotiations at London, but that, unless Her Majesty's
Government has been strangely misled, it was decided even more
definitely in the course of negotiations at Constantinople. The five
Powers declared to the Sultan by a Collective Note, which was handed
to the Porte on July 27, 1839, by their representatives at
Constantinople, that their unanimity was complete, and these
representatives requested the Porte to refrain from any direct
negotiations with Mehemet Ali, and to make no arrangement with the
Pasha without the concurrence of the five Powers. However, Her
Majesty's Government has good reason to believe that during the last
few months the French representative at Constantinople has decisively
isolated France from the other four Powers, and has energetically and
repeatedly pressed the Porte to negotiate directly with Mehemet Ali,
and to conclude an arrangement with the Pasha, not only without the
concurrence of the four great Powers, but under the mediation of
France alone, and in accordance with the special views of the French
Government.
As regards the line of conduct followed by Great Britain, the French
Government must recognise that the views and opinions of Her Majesty's
Government have never varied, from the outset of these negotiations,
except in so far as Her Majesty's Government has offered to modify its
views with the object of securing the co-operation of France. These
views have been from time to time frankly expressed to the French
Government, and have been continually supported in the most urgent
manner by arguments which seemed conclusive to Her Majesty's
Government. From the very outset of the negotiations, the declarations
of principle made by the French Government induced Her Majesty's
Government to believe that the two Governments had only to agree upon
the means of carrying out their common principles. If the intentions
of the French Government concerning these means differed from the
views of England even at the outset of the negotiations, France has
certainly not the right to refer to the difference between France and
England as unexpected, seeing that the French Government recognised
its existence a long time previously. If the intentions of the French
Government with regard to the measures to be taken have undergone a
change since the opening of negotiations, France certainly has not
the right to impute to Great Britain a change of political intention
which proceeds from France, and not from England.
But in any case, when four out of five Powers have agreed upon a
definite line of conduct, and when the fifth has resolved to pursue an
entirely different policy, it would be unreasonable to require the
four to abandon, in deference to the fifth, opinions to which they are
daily more resolved to adhere and which refer to a question of vital
importance for the chief and future interests of Europe.
But as France continues to maintain the general principles which she
laid down at the outset and continues to consider the maintenance of
the integrity and independence of the Turkish Empire as necessary to
preserve the balance of power; as again France has never refused to
admit that the arrangement which the four Powers wished to introduce
between the Sultan and the Pasha would be the best solution if it
could be secured, and as again the objections of France referred not
to the object proposed but to the means by which it is to be gained,
her opinion being that the end is good, but that the means are
inadequate and dangerous; Her Majesty's Government is confident that
the isolation of France, which no one regrets more than Her Majesty's
Government, will not be of long duration.
When the four Powers, in concert with the Sultan, have succeeded in
introducing an arrangement of this nature between the Porte and his
subjects, there will then be no further point of disagreement between
France and her allies, nor will there be any obstacle to prevent
France from undertaking with the other Powers such engagements for the
future as may seem necessary to secure the good results of an
intervention by the four Powers in favour of the Sultan, and to
preserve the Ottoman Empire from any recurrence of the dangers to
which it is exposed.
Her Majesty's Government impatiently awaits the moment when France
will be able to resume her position in the concert of the Powers and
trusts that that moment will be accelerated in the interests of the
full development of the moral influence of France. Although the French
Government, for reasons of its own, has refused to participate in the
coercive measures to be employed against Mehemet Ali, this Government
certainly cannot object to the employment of such measures with the
object of inducing the Pasha to submit to the arrangements which are
to be placed before him, and it is obvious that more than one argument
might be adduced and that more than one prudential consideration might
be urged upon the Pasha with more efficacy by France as a neutral
Power and a non-participant in this affair, than by the four Powers
which are actively engaged in the prosecution of coercive measures.
In any case Her Majesty's Government is confident that Europe will
recognise the justice of the proposal which has been put forward by
the four Powers, for their purpose is just and disinterested. They are
not seeking to gather any advantage for themselves or to establish any
exclusive sphere of influence, or to acquire any territory, and the
object which they have in view should be as profitable to France as to
themselves, because France, like themselves, is interested in the
maintenance of the balance of power and in the preservation of the
general peace.
You will send officially to M. Thiers a copy of this despatch.
I am, &c.,
(Signed) PALMERSTON.
(From the _Journal des Débats_ of October 2.)
V
_Manifesto to the Spanish Nation._
SPANIARDS,
As I left the soil of Spain in a day of grief and bitterness for me,
my streaming eyes were turned to heaven in prayer that the God of
mercy would shed His grace and His blessing upon us.
When I reached a foreign land, the first need of my soul and the first
thought of my heart was to raise my voice in friendship, the voice
with which I have ever spoken to you with a sense of unspeakable
tenderness, both in good and bad fortune.
Alone, abandoned, and a prey to the deepest grief, my only consolation
in this great misfortune is to open my heart to God and to you, to my
father and to my children.
Think not that I shall be satisfied with lamentations and barren
recriminations, or that, to explain my conduct as Queen-Regent of the
realm, I shall attempt to excite your passions; on the contrary, I
have done everything to calm them and would gladly see them at rest.
The language of self-restraint alone is consonant with my affection,
my dignity, and my glory.
When I left my country to seek another home in Spanish hearts, rumour
had informed me of your great exploits and your high qualities. I knew
that in every age you had leaped forward to the combat with the
noblest and most generous ardour to defend the throne of your
Sovereigns; that you had defended it at the price of your blood, and
that in days of glorious memory you had deserved well of your country
and of Europe. I then swore to devote myself to the happiness of a
nation which had shed its blood to break the captivity of its Kings.
The Almighty heard my oath, your manifestations of joy showed me that
you were conscious of it, and my conscience tells me that I have kept
it.
When your King, upon the brink of the tomb, dropped the reins of State
from his failing grasp and placed them in my hands, my gaze fell
alternately upon my husband, my daughter's cradle, and the Spanish
nation, thus uniting the three objects of my love in order to
recommend them to the protection of heaven in one prayer. My painful
experiences as mother and wife while my husband's life and my
daughter's throne were endangered could not distract me from my duties
as Queen: at my voice universities were opened; at my voice
long-standing abuses disappeared and useful reforms, wisely
considered, were brought forward; at my voice those who had sought in
vain a home as exiles and wanderers in foreign lands, returned to
their hearths and homes. Your joyous enthusiasm at these solemn acts
of justice and mercy could only be compared to the extent of the grief
and the depth of bitterness to which I was abandoned; for myself I
reserved all sadness, and for you, Spaniards, all joy.
At a later date, when God had called my august husband to Himself, who
left the government of the whole realm in my hands, I strove to guide
the State as a merciful Queen-Regent (_justiciera_). During the short
period which elapsed since my elevation to power until the convocation
of the first Cortes, my power was unique, but it was not despotic, or
absolute, or arbitrary, for it was limited by my will. The most
dignified people in the realm and the Council of Government, which I
was bound to consult by the last wishes of my august husband upon all
matters of grave import, pointed out to me that public opinion
demanded other guarantees from me as the repository of the sovereign
power. I gave those guarantees, and freely and spontaneously convoked
the chiefs of the nation and the procuradores of the realm.
I granted the royal statute and I have not infringed it. If others
have trampled it under foot, they must be responsible for their
actions before God, who holds laws sacred.
The Constitution of 1837 was accepted by me, and I took the oath to
it; to avoid infringement of it, I then made the last and greatest of
sacrifices--I laid down the sceptre and I was forced to abandon my
daughters.
In referring to the events which have brought these cruel tribulations
upon me, I shall speak to you as my dignity demands, with
self-restraint and in words well weighed.
I was served by responsible Ministers, who were supported by the