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Home Great Britain and Europe, 1815-78 A Period of Comparative Peace, 1815-54 A Period of Comparative Peace, 1815-54; Part 3 |
A Period of Comparative Peace, 1815-54; Part 3The earliest opportunity for the display of Palmerston's statesmanship arose in regard to affairs in the Netherlands. Belgium had been joined to Holland by the treaty of 1815, but in 1830 the Belgians rose for their independence and demanded separation. The danger lay in the fact that the Belgians could rely on the sympathy or France, and that Belgium might become, though in theory independent, in practice a French province; and hence Great Britain might be again exposed to the danger against which she had struggled so persistently in the eighteenth century, Palmerston, seeing the impossibility of preserving the union of Belgium and Holland, frankly acknowledged the independence of Belgium, and finally, in conjunction with France, forced the Dutch to cease from resisting it; but he took care that Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and not a member of the house of Bourbon, should be made king, and that France herself should obtain no territorial extension, not even, in his own words, "a cabbage garden or a vineyard". The choice of Leopold proved a notable success. He was a person of great sagacity and governed well; whilst, as son-in-law of Louis Philippe and uncle of Queen Victoria, he was able to play a considerable part in European politics.The affairs of Portugal and Spain next occupied Palmerston's attention; in each of these countries a young queen, supported by a party of moderate reform, was opposed to an absolutist uncle, Dom Miguel in the one case and Don Carlos in the other, supported by the reactionary parties. Palmerston supported the cause of the queens, He lent to the Queen of Portugal's party a seaman, Admiral Napier, who won in 1833, off Cape St. Vincent, a brilliant victory that secured the retirement of Dom Miguel; and he allowed a British legion of volunteers to go to Spain, where, however, the struggle was more protracted, and not till 1840 was Don Carlos finally evicted. In regard to Belgium and Portugal, Palmerston had acted in alliance with France. But the combination was, in the Duke of Wellington's words, “cardboard alliance", and fresh difficulties which arose over the Eastern question brought the two countries to the verge of war. Mehemet Ali an Albanian, who had made himself master of Egypt, had taken up arms against his suzerain, the Sultan of Turkey, and occupied Syria in 1833. Some years later, in 1839, the sultan tried to recover Syria, but his army was defeated, and Mehemet Ali was in a position to march upon Constantinople. Palmerston, true to his policy of maintaining the Turkish Empire, supported the sultan, but Louis Philippe, anxious to win the favour of Mehemet Ali and to extend and develop the influence of France in Egypt, refused to co-operate with Great Britain. Consequently Palmerston turned to Russia, and Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia formed an alliance to prevent the further progress of Mehemet Ali. Acre was bombarded and taken; Mehemet Ali was driven back, and had to agree to an arrangement by which he was deprived of Syria (1840). Hut the French people were furious at the matter being settled without their country being consulted. Louis Philippe talked of "unmuzzling the tiger of war", and surrounded Paris with Torts, and war was narrowly averted. Just at this time, however, Lord Melbourne's government was defeated, and Peel came into power (1841). Lord Palmerston accordingly retired from the Foreign Office. Lord Aberdeen, his successor, and Guizot, who became foreign secretary in France, were both pacifically inclined, and good feeling between the two countries was gradually restored during the next five years. To Lord Aberdeen's credit must also be put an agreement with the United States which settled a difficult and thorny boundary question on the west coast of America, though the agreement was very distasteful to Canada. |
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