The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-14 00:00:00

VENT G ~_trig. TrOW.
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foto, dot -end the serinus attentiOe of Lord Palmerston,
because they go to comproiiiise in. tile most direct man-
ner the accuracy of some of his most distinct statements,
and nearly the whole of his most pungent imputations
against the consistency of France. Lord Palmersten'e
memorandum asserts, that in the year 1839 air. French
Minister, M. Sebastiani, acknowledged unequivocally
that the tcheme of demarcation proposed by the British
Secretary would be " the best." The Noble Lord
fug her affirms, that. France for some time after site bad
ebjc :.ted to the British scheme of coercion against. Me-
hemet Ali, " had no schema of her own to prepoee ;"
and then, in a curious and . remarkable paragraph, his
Lordship pursues his subject thus—" However, in Sep-
tember, 1839, Count Sebastiani, then Minister at the
Court of London, proposed to divide Syria by a line
east and west from the neighbourhood of Bcyrout to the
Desert near Damascus ; ad to the south of that line to
he adininistered by Mehemet Ali, all to the north by
the Sultan ; and if such a plan should tie aereed upon
by tae Five Powers, M. Sebastiati: gave the Qaehn's
Government
,to understand the Fr.rrrte dwould join
in coercing Mehemet Ali to sulend to it.
This, we say, is a most serious and most
essential filature in the despatch of the British
Foreign Secretary, because be makes almost all
the susequent stages of the negotiation turn, as it were,
upon this proposal as a pivot. He says that he him-
self olijected to it ; that Count Sebastiani excused his
own admission of coercive measures in favour of that
arrangement, although he had rejected them fiir the en.
forcemeat of the propositions tendered by Great Bri
tain by reason of " domestic emteiderations," connected
with. the state of popular feeling in France, &c. Then
follow two or thr:e modified projects submitted by Lord
Palmerston, to one or more of which he makes Baron
Neuman a party, and of which he makes the French
Mieistry.itself cognizant, though disapproving of- them.
Now, all this is of extreme importance, and in: the
highest degree eircuntstantial. But what if it should
prove wholly incorrect ? Such ea thing is scarcely
credible, yet does M. Thiers deny it—every word.
He asserts that the utmost concession ever made by
France was the surrender to the Porte of Candia,
the fortress of Acre, an4e Matta : but the " here-
tlitnry possession of Egypt, and the hereditary. pos-
session of Syria," aka " never, at any epoch of the !lege-
tietion, has France proposed anything else," except a
short time ago, when she'` advised the Viceroy to con-
tent himself with Syria for his life." Why, this is alto-
gether astounding—it fiat contradicton, not merely upon
a matter of fact, but a matter on which so many other
facts of such vast moment depended ! Could official
papers have disappeared from the French archives?
Gould Lord Palmerston, with his long and manifold
experience, have trusted to parole communiestiods and
to verbal evidences of theta ? The thing is so extraor-
dinary that we pause for an explanation from the
Foreign Minister of England. There is one point
more which we can barely glance at, front the great
length to which this article has been already carried.
Although M. Tillers, on the part of France, announces
a desire to make "all sacrifices that can conduce to peace,
and that arc consistent Ishii honour," there is, we are
afraid, symptoms that such a principle wiil not lead her
far en the way towards accommodation with the Allied
Powers. M. Thiess, indeed, hints pretty clearly, that
the cessions of usurped territory approved by France
will be confined to Candia and Adana, but that
with regard to the several Pachalics of Syein,
Mehemet must. keep them, if he be so disposed. What
prospect this affords of peace, !et others calculate.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
We have copied from a contemporary the reply of
M. Thiers to the memerandum of Lord Palmerston of
August 30. The •reply is dated the 31 of October,
but a postscript of the Bth of October is added, which
perhaps will obtain more attrition than the reply itself.
If M. Tillers has evinced no remarkable eagerness to
answer the memprandum of Lord Palmerston, he is not
certainly chargeable with undue delay in laying it before
the public. In the evening of Monday it was commu-
nicated-to our Minister for Foreign Affairs—in a few
hours afterwards it was in type, in a English dress; and
circulated next morning over the kingdom. An ab-
stract of the reply appears in Galignani, but it was
known in Paris on Sunday that it would appear in the
Papers of Tuesday. It is familiarly observed of the
letters of ladies, that their real sentiments are to be
sought for in the postscripts. Of M. Thiers' reply it
may be observed, without meaning any offence to that
gentleman, that his postscript is of more importance
than either his statements or his arguments. The fol-
lowing passage cannot fail to produce a ecrichs impres-
sion on all who reflect that the writer is' the repre-
sentative of a Government, of which the determinu-
tion must always be of the greatest importance to
Europe :—" The Porte, yielding to evil counsels," says
M. 'fliers, " has pronounced his (Mehemet Ali's) de-
position. It is not sought alone to restrain the power
of 'Mehemet Ali ; they seek to make it •disacpear from
the face of the political world. lf such were the serious
intentions of the Powers united in the Treaty (f the
hith hiJaly—if we are to see in what has just happened
anything.:heyond the entrainment, almost involuntary,
of a false situation, of which the consequences could not
be foreseen, we might despair of the re-estab!ishment ib+-*
harmony between Me great Powers." "I.'e politeness
of the phraseology does cot render the meaning of the
passage one whit tire less clear. re. Thiers tells a long
story, but he tells only what seas his purpose, and the
feels which he omits to state have an important bear-
ing on the question. We have tome observations to
make on his narrative, but we must request the patience
of our readers for a day. But if the facts of M. niers
are not to be relied on, h:s conclusions are not even
justified by his premises. He points to much that has
taken place in times past, by which the Turkish - em-
pire has been weakened, anti argues that the integrity
of that empire is to be maintained by sveakeninee
it still more. Much of the policy of European potvera
towards Turkey of Into years has been questionable, if
not positively injudicious ; but because they have not
always shown themselves possessed of absolute wiedona
M. 'Ciders would hold them precluded irony ever return-
ing to more just and enlarged views. Because Walla-
chia and 'Moldavia have been changed into nominal de-
pendencies, and Greece completely separated from the
Porte, and the domination of the Suiten over Egypt has
been lug more nominal than real, it follows as a ne-
cessary coesequenee, according to M. Thiers, that
Syria ought also to be wrested from Turkey.. And be-
cause the " Pour Courts, in granting to the fortunate
vassal who has managed to govern Egypt, the heredi-
tary possession of that province, grant, moreover, the
Pachalic of Acre," they ore bound to grant him also
the other three Pachalics of Syria---the Pachalies of
Damascus, Aleppo, and Tripoli ; for how can the in-
tegrity of the Ottoman empire be saved when Egypt
and the Pachalic of Acre have been detached front it,
but destroyed it Tripoli, Damascus, and Aleppo,
are detached from it? It is true that the three
Pachalics contain these paces of Syria which obtain
for that country the title of the key of
Asiatic Turkey ; but then the greater part of Asiatic
Turkey may be added to Syria, for if integrity be but a
name, when we are about making a powerful vassal, tho
thing may be as well done handsomely. " The Viceroy
of Egypt has founded an empire. with genius and con-
stancy—he has learned to govern Egypt and even Syria,
which the Sultans could never govern." Yes ; and
how does he govern them? But he has employed the
resources which nature has so lavishly bestowed on
Egypt, to forging chains for the Syrians—and that is
the government which Frenchmen admire. It is nothing
that the people would a thousand times prefer to return
under Turkey. No matter—it is nothing that his op-
pression has been so tyrannical that the people have
sought all occasions to free themselves from it, and now
rush from their mountain valleys to the coast teolstain
arms to enable them to throw oh' his yoke. Imam°.
tion against the tyrant, Whom the French wish to create
a powerful Sovereign at the expense of Turkey, in order
to preserve the integrity of that empire, is a means which
cannot be too loudly reprobated. Insurrection is a. sacred
duty when it suits the French to commission their prop*.
ganda to excite the people of Europe to tiseintbroacyig.eoparwrinc
their governments ; but it is quite different when art
e
tr°,lePlsa3Ptteol" etrssheosseicitahiotil
sttptelerigeyori:Atbl:lyuorlsfri sshueail
catnihgi aeat,Anit nslirs.t, :I;i:cc, :
iiitsehrsb sentimenteetn glorioustdsi,aentv
uo:
rutPeiridsrei
dimi-
nishing it, and that the wresting of Syria from the Sul-
tan ought to inspire the latter with confidence in wit-
nin s
esstog the key cf the remainder of his Asiatic empire
thesulitousasiel:siori
beholdof this fortunate vassal, n whom the
i\iu
"`agloriousi
Prince, who restores to
them die sentiment of their force," can only prevail with
these who are determined to shut their eyes to all dis-
tinction between right and wrong. But if even to dis-
approve of the endeavour to rescue Turkey from this
danger be not very creditable to any European Govern-
meet, what are we to think of a war agroust the Four
European Powers, and against Turkey also, in order to
maintaiu the integrity of the latter ? The fear of
Russian occupation of Constantinople no louver serving
the the purpose, Mehemet Ali is to be supportleid,4liincyl
of
sake of proving, to the world how much
an r empire
another
cduaryes
ai integritytswore l
serious Beuxtamw oitnili:netiuo's:
or et setrhvies
strange document.
. 'o:,_,.,which he has.
which
pus
was first laid he-
The state
the French Government, hut siir:tktie.?ianated freers
Public T tioa to every onto of Lord
(fromeutn the
ent , Morning
yesterdays Ikrald, gives
c turn to ins
lulled this empire in
by which he calmed the public_
their utiohset Bcormitipslhete coatrat re
statements
carrying out lea
alarm, and obtained Ps;:encielarisntotni'ise sataote;shee;nottsh—Leissentalsceacnasritoy:
‘l, .
..,,
schemes, „ea we find that be asserted France to lota
been made perfectly acquainted with all the transit-
tions connected with the Treaty of the 15th of Jul,l
and that, although she had refused to accede to it,
sirs would in no way oppose it, and that there was me
ground for apprehension of war.
in t'orti: igntoateran'icheowol
us that France had been kept
the intention of signing such a that
treaty ; ner at-
tention was called away by IL,
asting. her to believe
that propositions were about to he made to her:
before it was
skliettsoh aistai;tinaaentlider,re
signature,
a moreover,tll optiontis attw go
1 monthsvn her
col afp l' thatac-
ceding
t e t
emmounicated to