... Everything is pretty quiet, and the _grâce accordée à Barbès_[49] has put down the rage against the King personally, at least for some little time. The affairs of the Orient interest a good deal. I think that it is better the Porte should be on a favourable footing with Mehemet Ali than if that gentleman had pushed on in arms, as it will put the _casus foederis_ out of the question, and the Turks will not call in the assistance of the Russians. Whoever pushed the late Sultan into this war has done an act of great folly, as it could only bring the Porte into jeopardy. [Footnote 49: Armand Barbès, the leader of a fatal riot in Paris, was sentenced to death, a sentence afterwards remitted.] _Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._ _3rd August 1839._ Lord Melbourne will wait upon your Majesty at a quarter before five, if possible, but there is much to discuss at the Cabinet. The Caspian Pasha has taken the Turkish fleet to Alexandria,[50] and Mehemet Ali says that he will not give it up to the Sultan until he dismisses the Grand Vizier, and acknowledges the hereditary right of the Pasha to the countries which he at present governs. This is to make the Sultan his subject and his vassal. The accounts from Birmingham are by no means good.[51] There has been no disturbance of the peace, but the general disposition is both violent and determined. [Footnote 50: The Viceroy of Egypt had revolted against the Porte, and on 8th June the Sultan purported to deprive him and Ibrahim, his son, of their dignities. War was declared, and the Turkish fleet despatched to Syria. But the Admiral treacherously sailed to Alexandria, and the Ottoman troops, under Hafiz, who had succeeded Mehemet Ali in the Government of Egypt, were utterly routed. With the traitorous conduct of the Turkish admiral, Disraeli, a few years later, compared Peel's conversion to Free Trade.] [Footnote 51: Chartist riots were very frequent at the time. _See_ Introductory Note, _ante_, p. 141. (to Ch. VIII)] [Pageheading: THE OPERA] _Queen Victoria to Viscount Melbourne._ BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _4th August 1839._ The Queen hopes Lord Melbourne is quite well this morning, and did not sit up working very late last night; the Queen met him twice yesterday in the Park, and really wondered how anybody _could_ ride, for she came home much hotter than she went out, and thought the air quite like as if it came out of an oven; to-day we can breathe again. It was intensely hot at the Opera; the Queen-Dowager visited the Queen in her box, as did also the young Grand Duke of Weimar, who is just returned from Scotland, and whom the Queen has asked to come after dinner to-morrow. The Queen has not asked the Duke of Sussex to come after dinner to-morrow, as she thought he would be bored by such a sort of party; does not Lord Melbourne think so? and she means to ask him to dinner soon.