Turkey refused the offer. She was in fact busily engaged in restoring order in her own way. In February, 1825, an Egyptian army was landed in the Morea, and met with rapid successes of such a nature as to arouse a suspicion that it was the fixed policy of its commander, Ibrahim, the adopted son of Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, to depopulate the Morea. His advance upon Nauplia was checked by an order of the British commodore, Hamilton, and he retired towards Tripolitza and Navarino. The Turkish successes induced Canning to make proposals to Russia through Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador at St. Petersburg, for a joint intervention of the powers on condition that there should be no coercion of Turkey. The tsar refused to accept the condition and made preparations for war. Canning meanwhile declined an offer of the Greek government to place itself under British protection, and on August 18 Alexander declared that he would solve the Eastern question by himself. He then set out for the south of Russia, where his army had collected. Canning now dropped his scheme of an united intervention and opened negotiations for a separate intervention on the part of Great Britain and Russia alone. Meanwhile he informed the Greek government that he would allow no power to effect a settlement without British co-operation, and that if Russia invaded Turkey he would land troops in Greece. The negotiations with Russia were proceeding favourably when they were interrupted by the death of Alexander on December 1. One event of the year 1825 which attracted little attention at the time was destined to be a cause of friction at a much later date. In 1824 the boundary between British America and the United States had been partially delimited, and this was followed early in the following year by a treaty, which attempted to settle the boundary between British and Russian America. Unfortunately the words used in this treaty were somewhat indefinite, and, although no difficulty was experienced for two generations, the discovery of gold in the north-west of America subsequently led to a bitter dispute between Canada on the one side and the United States, which had acquired the rights of Russia, on the other. FOOTNOTES: [75] Metternich, _Memoirs_, § 484, English translation, iii., 446. [76] Wellington, _Despatches, etc._, i., 343-48. [77] Wellington, _Despatches, etc._, i., 518-23. For a French account of the congress see Duvergier de Hauranne, _Gouvernement Parlementaire en France_, vii., 130-229. [78] Wellington, _Despatches, etc._, i., 650. Compare pp. 638, 653-57. [79] Stapleton, _Life of Canning_, ii., 18, 19. [80] Stapleton, _Life of Canning_, ii., chapters x., xi. [81] Stapleton, _Life of Canning_, ii., 26-33. [82] See J. W. Foster, _A Century of American Diplomacy_, pp. 442-50; Stapleton, _George Canning and his Times_, p. 375. CHAPTER XI. TORY DISSENSION AND CATHOLIC RELIEF.