Part 78

The Minister (Addington) thinks the King and Queen are so popular, and the public interest is so much directed to the Queen's approaching accouchement, that no revolutionary movement of importance is likely to take place. He deprecates, however, the commencement of any such movement, because he thinks it would enable the Apostolical Party [Footnote: The name given in Spain and Portugal to the Absolutist and Clerical Party.] to induce the King to dismiss his present quiet Ministers, and have recourse to measures of rigour, which would infallibly ruin the dynasty. Spain, and indeed all the Powers, seem to look for instruction to England, and there can be no doubt that all will recognise and all be quiet. Salmon, when he communicated to the King the events in France, said, 'Your Majesty sees how dangerous over-zeal is in a Minister. No one could be more devoted to the Royal Family than Prince Polignac.'

The King said, 'I see it.'

However, notwithstanding this, they say he is so weak that he may adopt a violent course.

Nothing can be more correct than the conduct of M. Molé, the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He is most anxious to preserve peace in Europe, the new King's Government in France, and himself in office. He is much alarmed by the events in Belgium, and wished our Minister to join the French Minister at Brussels in recommending some concession to the King of the Netherlands. The Duke has, as Rosslyn told me, written a memorandum to serve as the basis of Aberdeen's dispatch, very civil indeed to Molé, very much satisfied with the disposition evinced by the French Government, but, in our ignorance of the real state of things, declining to advise the King of the Netherlands.

It is very amusing to see the French Government most liberally permitting the Bonaparte family to return to France, and most prudently sending circulars to all the Ministers of the Powers which signed the protocols of 1815, urging them in the name of that treaty not to allow the members of the Bonaparte family to leave their present residences.

It seems this is very necessary; for although their partisans can do little without their presence, they might do much with it.

Martignac has got together sixty members of the Chamber of Deputies who will act en masse for royalty.

There is no military force to keep people in order, and the National Guard does not like doing so. In fact the Revolution is not over. Things may go on as they are, but we have as yet no security. The French seem heartily sick of Algiers. It costs a great deal of money. Tropical products will not grow there. The climate does not suit the French troops, who have besides a most extraordinary maladie de pays. They must send 15,000 men more there to maintain it, as now they have no more than the town. They are willing to give it up to the Sultan if he will renounce tribute, &c.

I never considered the acquisition of importance to France. I always felt we might vex the French to death by the use of a little money which would at any time have brought forward all the Arabs from the desert. The port will only hold a few vessels.

The Emperor of Russia proposes to cut the Greek question short by proposing the crown at once, without the intervention of France, to Prince Frederick of Orange, and if he should refuse, then to Prince Charles of Bavaria, who we know will accept.

I should say from all I have read to-day that if France should make an aggressive movement all Europe would be united against her as in 1813; but if she remain quiet within her own frontier no Power will wish to molest her.

It is satisfactory to observe the increased prudence and reasonableness of the great States; their general union, and the deference which in the hour of danger they all show to the opinion of England.

There are some apprehensions, I hear, of riots at Manchester. There is no cause for them. All men can get work. I would put them down with a strong hand.

September 6.

Saw at the office Colonel Monteith.

The King of Persia has about six millions sterling left in his treasury in gold and silver, besides jewels unsaleable on account of their high price, but which might be estimated at four millions more.

There will be a civil war on the death of the Shah.

Abbas Mirza might succeed if he had energy, but he is the weakest man on earth. Probably all the Rajahs will be put down and some new dynasty established.

The chiefs are not likely to serve the Russians at any time. The Persians are fine men and make excellent soldiers, bearing heat and cold, but not wet and damp. Officers there are none.

The Russians lose 10,000 men a year in Georgia and Caucasus, and it costs them about 500,000£ a year. They have never conquered the country.

The cession lately obtained from Turkey has enabled the Russians to put down the robbers who lived in Abkasia; [Footnote: The country at the western end of the Caucasus.] but it is of no value for purposes of offensive war--of some for defence.

It is cheaper in the proportion of 100 to 220 to send goods to Tabriz by Trebizond than by the Persian Gulf.

The Imaum of Muscat carries on a large trade in opium between the Red Sea and China. He carries British manufactures to the Indus, and trades extensively with Cochin China, where sugar is half the price it is in India.

The officers of the Crown Prince's army all speak Turkish. It is more important to have at the head of it a man of energy than one conversant with Persian.

His rank should be increased, as now he is made to rank below the last member of the Mission.

The disturbed state of Persia has driven much trade to the Indus which was carried on by the Euphrates.

Persia may now be considered not as a monarchy, but a Federative State, all the King's sons being independent Princes.

Colonel Monteith was at Algiers--the only Englishman in the army. There may have been twenty foreigners in all. He had letters of introduction and got there in a transport, taking his chance of being sent back. He was with the intendant of the army, and at the siege was attached to a division. Bourmont offered to receive him in his family. Bourmont was hated and despised. He seemed to take very little trouble about the army, and to leave everything to the generals of division. On the 19th, the day of the battle, he lost 600 men by not advancing sooner. The moment he advanced the enemy fled. The loss was 2,200 men in all, yet fifty were never to be seen dead and wounded together. The loss was by skirmishing at long shots along the whole of the line. This sometimes lasted all day, and the troops, being young, were too foolhardy. The Arabs are a miserable race, half naked. Everything beyond Algiers seems a desert. For eight miles round Algiers the cultivation is beautiful, and the villas more numerous than near any town he ever saw. A profusion of water. The town, miserable in the extreme, inhabited by Moors and the descendants of Turks, about 50,000. The port is formed by one pier which hardly protects two or three frigates. There is no safety in the bay.