CHAP. V.] LAST WAR WITH ALGIERS-ASHANTEE WAR. Turkey had the same claim to the possession of Greece that any other state has to its conquered dependencies; and however the sympathy of the enlightened world might be with the insurgent Greeks, no government had a right to interfere with the possessions of Turkey. Every assistance but political aid was, however, freely offered throughout Europe. Kings and people subscribed money for the redemption of Greek captives, and the support of Greek outcasts; and, in spite of all prohibitions 153 was declared; and a squadron under Sir H. Neale's command appeared before the town on the 24th of July. While waiting for a wind, the British commander received a message from the Dey, requesting negotiation. The negotiations gave little trouble, for the Dey was submissive. He engaged that no more European prisoners of war should be made slaves of, but that they should be treated with all humanity, and regarded as prisoners of war are in Europe. Here Great Britain closed accounts with state. A dispute arising between the Algerine government and the French in 1827, France sent forth a power which conquered Algiers, and in 1830 made it a French colony. of governments, many volunteers from France, Eng-Algiers, as it presently ceased to exist as an African land, Italy, and Germany, went to fight under the Greek leaders. Our own Byron perished in the cause-laid low by fatigue and fever before Missolonghi. The accomplished and beloved Santa Rosa, who had failed in the struggle to free his own Piedmont from Austrian rule, gave his efforts, and presently his life, to the Greek cause. At that time, the cause appeared desperate; and its misfortunes were cruelly aggravated by the disappointment of hopes held out from England of supplies of money and steam-boats. Perhaps the less said the better, of the Greek loan negotiated in London in 1825, except that such incidents ought to yield their full lesson to future times, when similar occasions may occur. We are disposed to believe that the business was originally undertaken with a true heartiness in the Greek cause-with an enthusiasm which carried some parties beyond their calculations, and a due consideration of their means; and this kind of inconsiderateness is too likely to induce a reaction of selfish care, under which the pretension of benevolence and a love of liberty becomes a mockery. Thus it was in the matter of the Greek loan in London, which yielded even less of credit to the managing parties in England, than of money to the Greeks. Amidst the flow and ebb of sentiment and action among private partics in England, the government steadily held its position of neutrality, giving its endeavours in aid of humanity, and its undisguised good wishes to the Greek insurgents. While Algiers was thus called to account, a little war was proceeding on another part of the African coast, which brought nothing but disaster and shame to the British engaged in it. Since the beginning of the century, the Ashantee nation had been rising in importance by conquest. The successive British governors of Cape Coast Castle had not preserved a steady course of policy with the Ashantees and Fantees they had changed sides, and broken faith; and now the settlement was to receive the natural retribution. These governors had been appointed by the African Company, whose settlements were all assumed by the British government in 1821. In 1822, Sir Charles M'Carthy was sent out as governorin-chief of all the settlements which had belonged to the Company; and he presently found that he had the Company's Ashantee war upon his hands. He seems to have been wholly unskilled in African warfare. The narrative of the events of 1824 is a dismal story of mistakes and misadventures; of reliance on native auxiliaries, who failed in every possible way on all occasions; of inability to cross rivers, and entanglements in the bush; of messengers not knowing their way; deluges of rain being encountered; and of ammunition falling short, far from home. Sir Charles M'Carthy, after receiving It has been told how complete was the humiliation a warning that his skin-or his skull, for both are of Algiers in 1816, and how a thousand and eighty reported should adorn the great war-drum of Christian slaves rushed from the interior to the Ashantee, actually divided his troops into four shore, and from the shore into the boats, escaping portions, and permitted the small force which he had from what they called 'a second hell,' to the British conducted into the interior to be surrounded by ten ships which were to carry them home. The victory thousand Ashantecs. He was wounded in the breast appeared complete: but victors never know when by a musket-shot, and three of his officers laid him they have done with such an enemy as the piratical under a tree, where the enemy rushed, knife in hand, state of Algiers then was. Another quarrel arose on the little party. By the intervention of a chief, in January 1824. Captain Spencer was sent with one of the Englishmen, named Williams, was saved, two British vessels to arrange a dispute between after being wounded in the neck; and on turning the Dey of Algiers and the English consul, Mr round, the first thing he saw was the headless bodies Macdonald. On his arrival, Captain Spencer found of his three companions. All the English officers two Spanish vessels in the mole, recently captured, who accompanied Sir C. M'Carthy were killed or whose crews were made slaves of. Of course, the captured, except two. This happened on the 21st liberty of these Spaniards was demanded, under the of January 1824. It was not till May that the treaty made with Lord Exmouth. No answer arriv- British found themselves strong enough to brave ing in four days, Captain Spencer began to fear for the enemy in the field. The forts being garrisoned the safety of the Europeans on shore; and, under a by seamen and marines, just arrived with the new pretext of giving them an entertainment, he got governor, Colonel Sutherland, and the garrisons them all on board one of his ships, while the other turned out to take the field, Colonel Chisholm engaged the piratical vessel which had captured the attacked the Ashantees on the 21st, and drove them Spaniards, took it, and set free seventeen Spaniards before him, after five hours' hard fighting. The who were found on board. War against Algiers | advantage could not be followed up, for want of resources, and because the native allies deserted. Much fighting occurred between this time and the 11th of July, when the Ashantees were again defeated in the field, near Cape Coast Castle. They hovered about till the 20th, after which they were not seen again. Mutiny and desertion in his own army disabled the Ashantee king from harassing the British, as he might still have done by his very numerous forces. He retired, leaving behind him bare and bloody fields, where he had advanced among rich crops of maize, bananas, yams, and plantains. At this time, beef was sixteen guineas a tierce at Cape Coast; and it was scarcely possible to obtain flour or bread at any price. The poor natives had, of course, no prospect but of dying by hunger. On The Ashantee king did not give up his object of possessing himself of all the country which lay between his northern boundary and the sea. During the two succeeding years, he made vast preparations in great quietness. The natives in alliance with England were much alarmed, and applied for assistance to Colonel Purdon, commanding at Cape Coast. They solemnly promised not to run away again, if they were assisted and led by the British; and this time one king and his forces were firm, and fought well. The final engagement took place on the 7th of August 1826, when the Ashantees lost, it was believed, not less than five thousand men. the British side, the loss was eight hundred; and two thousand were wounded. The Ashantee king lost the golden umbrella of state, the golden stool of state, and much wealth of gold-dust, ivory, &c. The great talisman of the Ashantees was taken also, and examined. Under the external covering of leopard skin appeared a silk handkerchief; and within the handkerchief were two folds of paper, covered with Arabic characters; and within the paper was the head of Sir C. M'Carthy. One of the native kings was the captor of the talisman; and he refused to give it up.-Humbling as it is to be worsted in these barbaric wars, and, indeed, to be engaged in them at all, their occurrence and incidents cannot be passed over in the history of the time. They are not only facts of the time; but they yield their lesson. Such wars occur in most cases, as in the present, from the lack of steadiness, ability, or knowledge, in the agents sent from home; and we shall be liable to such wars and such humiliations as long as due care is not taken to send fit and properly prepared agents to our meanest settlements in the most remote nooks of the world, as anxiously as to the most brilliant court in Europe. The bad faith of Governor Smith in 1819 led to the slaughter of Sir C. M'Carthy in 1824; and the incapacity of Sir C. M'Carthy in 1824 caused the protraction of the war for two years, the difficulty of putting down the Ashantees at the end of that time, and all the horrors of famine which afflicted the territory during the intermediate period. For nearly four years prior to 1826, there had been war between the British in India and the King of Ava, who ruled over the Burmese empire. The Burmese territory is above a thousand miles long, by six hundred broad; and it lies between Bengal and The king was China, filling up the whole space. as proud and as vain as barbaric sovereigns usually are when they know little or nothing beyond the bounds of their own territory; and he ventured to annoy his western neighbour, unaware of the chastisement that he must submit to in consequence. The Burmese pushed across the frontier, and committed thefts and violence, from time to time, for some years before the war; but these aggressions need not be supposed to be countenanced by the government, and they were not therefore made a subject of formal complaint. In 1823, however, the government picked a quarrel, slew some soldiers in the British service, imprisoned some British subjects; and, on being called to account, talked of invading Bengal. The Burmese actually entered the British territory, and set up forts, secured with strong palisades, from one of which a British officer and his force were driven back, with considerable loss, in the month of February. After this, war followed of course; and, of course, it was a disastrous war enough to the ignorant sovereign who had provoked it. The principal seaport of the Burmese, Rangoon, was attacked on the 11th of May, and immediately submitted. The members of the government fled at the first shot; and the whole population of Rangoon, except one hundred persons, ran away into the jungle before the British could take possession of the town. After this, however, the conduct of the war became much more difficult, from the security afforded to the enemy by the jungle, and by the stockades which the Burmese threw up before every advantageous spot where they rested. It was a weary and dreary war; as war with a barbaric people must ever be. It was no comfort that the Burmese lost, many times over, more men than the British; that they were always leaving their ammunition behind them, and laying waste their fields, that their enemy might not be supported by their soil. There was no comfort in all this; for it did not appear to hasten the arrival of peace. The climate and the country-the heavy rains, burning suns, jungles, and swamps, were unfavourable to the invaders; and at the end of 1824, though they had advanced deep into the country, they did not seem much nearer to peace. The year 1825, too, was filled up with successes which went for nothing-though the British commander, Sir Archibald Campbell, did his duty well. One-eighth of the British troops were sick amidst the swamps and rains; and they were fired upon from the jungle, where they could not follow their assailants. In the autumn, there was an armistice, with abundance of fine speeches and compliments, ceremonious dinings, and pretences of ardent friendship; but probably every one knew that the whole was a device for obtaining time-to recover the sick of the one party, and replenish the means of defence of the other. Then followed the defeat of the great Burmese army by little more than a tenth part of their number; and then a treaty of peace which, after being duly signed, was found actually never to have been forwarded to the king. The alleged difficulty about this treaty, on the part of the Burmese, was that they could not pay the money CHAP. V.] BURMESE WAR-OREGON. demanded for the expenses of the war. They begged Sir A. Campbell to take rice instead, or to cut down and carry away the fine trees he might take a fancy to; but he insisted on the money, and the treaty was signed. When, after the next victory, the British took possession of Melloone, they found there the treaty, which had never been forwarded to Ava. And they found also, in the Prince Memiaboo's house, the sum of 30,000 rupees (£3000). The treaty was forwarded to the commissioner, with a note saying that he had probably left it behind him in the hurry of his departure. The commissioner replied that in the same hurry he had left behind him a large sum of money, which he was confident the British general was only waiting a favourable opportunity to restore to him. There is something extremely painful in such stories as these; in contemplating wars whose horrors are as great as those which are conducted by foes under an equality of civilisation, but which are yet made ludicrous by the childishness of one of the parties. Such wars do not appear, as far as our eastern possessions are concerned, to have been the fault of the more civilised party, any time within our century. There is no wish for war in a case like this, where the cost of money can hardly be repaid by any fruits of conquest; where the troops are cut off by climate and disease; where the survivors gain little glory by much hardship; and where the sufferings of the conquered country are such as must give concern to the hardest heart. In the present instance, all means of conciliation and negotiation seem to have been tried before war was resorted to. The necessity was one to which future generations are subjected by those who first establish a footing by force in a barbaric quarter of the globe. Such men little know what they do-to what an interminable series of future wars they pledge their country; what an embarrassment of territory, and burden of responsibility, and crowds of quarrelsome and irrational neighbours, they bring upon her; and how they implicate her in the obligation to superintend the fortunes of half a continent-or perhaps half the globe, till civilisation shall have so spread and penetrated as that the nations can take care of themselves, and co-operate with each other. It is thus with the British in Asia now. After the close of this Burmese war, a wise and benevolent statesman was wont to say in London, with a grave countenance, that we should be compelled to conquer China; and those who did not see as far as he did into our responsibilities on the field of Asia, and who knew how far he was from desiring conquest as a good, used to jest about him as the conqueror of China. Before the day of the Chinese war arrived, the far-seeing statesman was in his grave; but his words remained in the ears of his friends, as a direction into the yet remoter future where our national responsibilities will still be acting when we are in our graves. Ours is, probably, not the only generation which will pass away before England's wars with barbaric states are ended. Peace was concluded with the King of Ava, in February, on terms which were triumphant to the British. Their expenses were paid by the Burmese, 155 and there was such a cession of border territory as would secure Bengal from incursions from the east. There was difficulty and delay about the restoration of the prisoners and the payment of the tribute; but every condition was enforced by Sir A. Campbell, and, on the 5th of March, the British troops turned their faces towards Rangoon, on their way back to Bengal. While these eastern conflicts were taking place, Mr Canning was earnestly occupied at home in preventing a war in the western world. Till our globe is better known, and newly discovered portions more accurately surveyed and defined than has been possible in the early days of geographical science, there will be danger of disputes about possession and boundaries between countries which have contributed to the discovery of new regions, and which may have been concerned in cessions of territory obscurely described. This has been the case with regard to the territory pertaining to one of the most important rivers in the New Worldthe Columbia; the possession of which has been repeatedly and vehemently disputed by the English government and that of the United States. When Mr Canning came into office in 1822, the condition of the question was such that, as Lord Castlereagh told Mr Rush, the American minister in London, war could be produced by holding up a finger. The matter was really a very important one. The Columbia is the largest river which flows into the Pacific; its course from the Rocky Mountains being nearly nine hundred miles. Its entrance is somewhat difficult; but just within is a spacious and secure bay. The harbours along the west coast of North America are very few; not more than two or three outside the disputed territory; and far-seeing men are aware that every secure anchorage will be of inestimable value when the trade of the Pacific becomes what it is certainly destined to be. Again, the Columbia is now the only large river amidst the habitable regions of the globe which remains to be colonised; and of all possible considerations, none is so important to Great Britain as her field of colonisation. Embayed in the coast of the disputed territory is an island-Vancouver's Island-two hundred and fifty miles long by fifty broad, which is fertile, has a climate like that of England, and abounds in coal of an excellent quality. In Mr Canning's time, the importance of this island was not so clear as it is now that we have obtained settlements in China, and extended our steam-navigation into the Pacific. The prospect was not then so distinct as now, of the activity of commerce which must arise in those regions, where our agents are already looking for coal and good harbours. At that time, the Oregon was a remote region beyond the Rocky Mountains, which it seemed scarcely possible for emigrants to reach, and whence there could hardly be any communication between them and the mother-country. Now that it is accessible from the other side, being only eighteen days' sail from our Chinese settlements, while commerce and navigation are quickening along the whole American coast, the aspect of the question is much altered. But even then, the Oregon territory was seen to be no trifle, to be lightly given up by an insular nation, whose future welfare must depend incalculably on its means of colonisation; and the question of the right to Oregon was disputed with a proportionate warmth and pertinacity. The claim of the United States was for a boundary which should give them not only the Columbia River but Vancouver's Island; bringing their coast so nearly to a junction with the Russian territory, as that British vessels could pass in and out only among islands belonging to the one or the other power. In 1818, the British commissioners, Mr Robinson and Mr Goulburn, would not concede this; and the American government would not modify the claim; and the parties, therefore, made an arrangement which could not but increase the difficulty of a future settlement. They agreed to leave the territory open to occupation by Americans and British for ten years; after which the subject should be resumed. As time drew on to the close of the term, Mr Rush, the American minister, was directed to open the subject again with Mr Canning; the United States government having, meantime, sent a frigate to the mouth of the Columbia, to explore the river, and establish a post at its mouth, on what congress declared to be within the acknowledged limits of the American territory. Mr Rush waited on Mr Canning, who was in bed with an attack of gout. Mr Rush was admitted; they spread out maps upon the bed; and Mr Canning was astonished to discover how great was the extent of the American claim. The next time they conferred, the American minister yielded two degrees of latitude, which would have left Vancouver's Island to Britain, but not the Columbia River. This offer was rejected by Mr Canning, whose proposal of a modified settlement was in turn rejected by Mr Rush. The more the affair was discussed, the more hopeless did any conclusion appear; and so angry did the people of both countries become, that the slightest irritability on the part of the negotiators would have instantly kindled a war. Mr Canning's part was patience, and the recommendation of patience. He lost no opportunity of testifying his good-will towards the government and people of the United States, and of restraining the jealousy between the two nations. The question was not settled in his time; but he did much in preventing a war, and in keeping open a way for an ultimate amicable settlement of a question whose importance to his country was greater than even he could be aware of. Whenever the periods arrived-once in two years -for the renewal of the Alien Act, the question was asked in parliament by the opponents of the bill, whether it was proposed for the benefit of our own country or for that of foreign sovereigns. The subject is sufficiently connected with our foreign policy to find its place here; and especially because it was the prevalence of discontent and insurrection abroad, during this period, which made the seasons of the renewal of the Alien Act interesting and important occasions of discussion. Every one who has travelled on the continent is ready to join in complaint and condemnation of the passport system there, by which every traveller is compelled to carry about with him a description of himself-his personal appearance, age, station, and Occupation-and to have the statement certified afresh for every new country he enters. The trouble and expense, the vexation and delay, the mistakes and inconveniences suffered by travellers under this system, are such as to make it hateful to everybody. No such system existing in England, it is clear that, during troubled times, every man who had reason to wish to escape notice, in any continental country, would rush to England, if he could, and there feel himself in safe hiding, if no method of registration of foreigners were adopted. Among these, the great majority might be such as, from their worth or their misfortunes, England would be proud and eager to receive and console; and such could have no reasonable objection to register their names and description on their arrival. Others, however, whether many or few, might be criminals or mischief-makers, of whose presence in the country it is absolutely necessary to the public security and good faith that the government should be aware. This much appears to have been undisputed, while the successive Alien Acts of 1820, 1822, and 1824, were under discussion in parliament. The provisions by which foreigners arriving in England were required to declare who and what they were, and to sign their names in the presence of an authority always on the spot, were not objected to by those who strenuously opposed other parts of the bills. By this registration it appears that, in 1820, the number of foreigners in England was no less than 25,000, very few of whom were engaged in commercial or other settled pursuits -a fact which seems to indicate the recent arrival of a large proportion of them. There was a constant increase of arrivals over departures, from an average of 266 to 1300 in a year, from 1819 to 1822, both inclusive. This extraordinary influx was, of course, owing to the revolutions and revolts on the continent; and the class of immigrants was exactly that which a Castlereagh and Sidmouth would watch with jealousy and dislike, and which would appeal strongly to the sympathies of the liberal leaders in parliament, and of the hospitable English people throughout the land. The objections made to the successive Alien Acts, and urged with force and ardour by some of the best men in parliament, regarded the power accorded to government of sending away obnoxious strangers, and its possible retrospective operation. The acts secured to the suspected alien a power of appeal to the privy-council; and he was to be dismissed openly, by proclamation, or by an order in council. The opponents of the bills required some security that the obnoxious foreigner should not be delivered up to his special enemies abroad, nor subjected on the spot to threats from subordinate officers; and they demanded that all foreigners resident in Great Britain before 1814 should be exempted from the operation of the acts. Their speeches were directed against the power of dismissal at all; though the necessity of some such power was not expressly denied. The replies shewed that the government was under some effectual responsibility, and that the existence of the power of deportation was the surest way of rendering the exercise of that power CHAP. VI.] ALIEN ACT-CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY. unnecessary. The actual case seems to be that the power was unacceptable to the holders, even more than to the givers, who could not control its operation; that it was used as sparingly, and surrendered as early as possible; and that it is most improbable that it should ever be conferred again. The bills passed by decided majorities on each occasion; and on each occasion, the minister had to report that there had been no abuse of the powers of the act, and that the number of aliens sent away was so small as to appear to testify to the efficacy of the legislation. In ten years, as Mr Peel declared in 1824, only five or six persons had been sent out of the country, except a little band of agitators connected with Napoleon; and with regard to these cases, there was no dangerous or tyrannical concealment. In short, the acts, though in a certain measure questionable, worked well in an extraordinary time; and in 1824, Mr Peel proposed a considerable amelioration in the provisions of the renewed act. At this time, the number of aliens in the country was 26,500; and some had been detected in devising plots for revolt in their respective countries, amidst the facilities afforded by a residence in London. The government had, however, sent away only one person (Count Bettera) within two years, preferring to stop the plots of agitators by warning and remonstrance; and they now felt able to recommend that the Alien Act should henceforth apply to no persons who had resided in England for seven years. On the next occasion, in 1826, a much greater relaxation was made-the power of deportation was withdrawn from among the provisions, a fuller process of registration being substituted for it. Great satisfaction was occasioned by this change. No one objected to the reasonableness of the demand that government should know where the foreigners who sought an abode in the country would be found; all agreed that the power of deportation had been carefully used, and guarded from abuse; and all were heartily glad when it could be given up, never, it was hoped, to be asked for again. During this course of years, these thousands of foreigners largely influenced the mind of the English nation. It was a good thing to have among us men of great and various knowledge, art, and accomplishment. It was a good thing to have our minds, too long and too closely shut up in our own island and our own affairs, opened to take in new ideas, and awakened to a fresh curiosity. It was a good thing to have our sympathies appealed to, and our hospitable impulses strengthened, by the claims of so many perplexed and distressed strangers, who looked to us as their only refuge from despair. It was a better thing still to have the subject of government and constitutional liberties discussed at so many English firesides; so many careless minds fixed-so many timid inspired-so many ardent informed; and all, perhaps, made more aware than they could have been by any other means of the privileges of their own political position, and their duty in the preservation and improvement of it. If, in the next generation, England makes progress in constitutional freedom and social amelioration, it may be surmised that among the reformers and guardians of the national 157 welfare are some whose eyes flashed, and whose hearts beat, when they sat on parents' knees, listening to the foreign speech, and sympathising in the fortunes of the exiled noble, and the indomitable patriot, of whom his own country was not worthy. Among the blessings of the peace may be reckoned such fraternisation as this. CHAPTER VI. N looking back to the time of Mr Canning's entrance upon office, in the autumn of 1822, it is clear-made clear by the light of subsequent events-that a new period in the domestic history of the country was opening. Many persons must have been aware of this at the time, if we may judge by the satisfaction expressed in various ways at the appointment of Mr Robinson as chancellor of the exchequer, in the place of Mr Vansittart, who left office with the title of Lord Bexley; and at Mr Huskisson's becoming president of the Board of Trade, in January 1823. Enough of the old elements was left to keep the timid and unobservant quict, in the hope that things would go on pretty much as before, while Lord Liverpool was the head of the administration, and Lord Eldon was a fixture; and the Duke of Wellington represented England abroad, and the king was surrounded by so many of his favourite class of statesmen; and the Duke of York took a solemn oath occasionally against countenancing any attempt to relax the disabilities of the Catholics. It was a misfortune, to be sure, that the government of the country could not go on without Canning; without a man who was irretrievably pledged to the cause of Catholic emancipation; and that Mr Huskisson was admitted into the cabinet, with his troublesome and dangerous notions about impairing the protection to native industry; but it was hoped that native industry was safe in the fostering bosom of the English nation; and some expressions of Mr Canning's were laid hold ofexpressions about the apparent impossibility of carrying Catholic emancipation under any government that could be devised-as affording an assurance that, though the new minister was obliged to talk about the matter, he would never be able to do anything in it; and thus the tedium and loss of time in talking would be the extent of the evil. Besides, the two obnoxious men were 'political adventurers,' low-born, and therefore vulgar; and their influence would be kept down accordingly by their more aristocratic political connections. Such appears to have been the view of the ministerial party, at this time, throughout the country, from the king himself to the little country shopkeeper of Tory politics. The light of subsequent events shews us, however, that the case did not stand exactly thus. The king was growing morbid in temper and spirits-more addicted to a selfish and inglorious seclusion, and less interested about public affairs from year to year. The Duke |