56 Egypt
ambitions as it was fortunate for the development of
Egypt as a nation, that British foreign policy in this crisis
was the spirited but spasmodic plunging peculiar to
Palmerston, Our traditional aim being the maintenance
of the Ottoman Empire against Russian ambition by
alliance with France, it would have seemed an obvious
solution to allow Mehemet Ali to reach Constantinople
and reconstruct the Empire. But this would have involved
a change in the attitude of disapproval adopted towards
Mehemet Ali by Palmerston that would have been as
displeasing to his personality as damaging to his prestige.
He believed, moreover, that Mehemet Ali's economic
system was on the point of collapse. Dr. Bowring, one
of those special agents responsible for so much in our
foreign relations, had written : "The Pasha's power is
a sham, and he is incapable of serious resistance" ("Re-
port on Egypt and Candia,J' Parliamentary Papers, 1840).
The consular reports of the day, reflecting possibly
official opinion at home, persistently stressed the evils and
ignored the ends of his economic experiments. More-
over, Palmerston was the first of the imperialists, and
he was ready to force a realignment or even a rupture of
international relations with the risk of European war, on
a point of imperial prestige. Whether it was sound policy,
even in the imperial interest, to join with the militarist
Tzar in humiliating the friendly and peaceable govern-
ment of Louis Philippe and in hectoring the only pro-
gressive Oriental State is a point that does not concern
us. Palmerston, anyhow, addressed the British Ambassa-
dor in Paris as follows (June 5, 1838) : (( We ought to
support the Sultan vigorously with France, if France will
act with us ; without her if she declines/' Later (June 8,
1838) he added : " The Cabinet agreed it would not do
to let Mehemet Ali declare his independence and separate