In the year 1838 Mehemet Ali first began to talk of independence, and announced to the Consuls his intention, at no distant period, of declaring himself. Shortly after this he set out on an expedition to the mines of Sennaar, and was absent some considerable time. The Sultan, as might have been expected, had never ceased to form plans for the recovery of Syria to his rule, and as early as the year 1834 he had committed the charge of several of the pachalics of the eastern part of Asia Minor to a Circassian soldier, named Hafiz Pacha, in order that he might there raise an army for that purpose. Hafiz laboured with great zeal in the cause, and from the remoteness of the districts, his progress was unnoticed by the European Powers. At length, in the beginning of 1839 the Porte more openly made preparations for war; and on the 12th of February of that year, Count Molé for the first time brought the affairs of the East under the consideration of Lord Granville, the British Ambassador[3]; and Lord Palmerston repeatedly wrote to Lord Ponsonby to discourage, by every possible means, the Porte from again embroiling themselves in war with Mehemet Ali; declaring, at the same time, that if the Porte was attacked, assistance would be given; but, if on the other hand they became the aggressors, it might change the whole face of affairs. Footnote 3: See _Levant Papers_, Part I., p. 1. Notwithstanding the advice given to the Porte by the Allied Ministers at Constantinople, the Sultan, relying on the reports of the efficiency of his army in Asia Minor, communicated to him by his General, gave directions for the advance of the Turkish army, and they actually marched beyond Bir, which is only sixty miles distant from Aleppo. Mehemet Ali determined, however, not to be the aggressor, and directed Ibrahim to refrain from making any movement in advance. Russia and Austria becoming alarmed lest the peace of Europe should be disturbed, instructed their Consuls at Alexandria to request that Mehemet Ali would desire Ibrahim to withdraw his troops towards Damascus, assuming that Ibrahim was the first to put his army in motion, which certainly was not the case. France seeing the possibility also of a rupture between the Porte and Mehemet Ali, expressed a strong desire that Great Britain would act in concert with her, and proposed to send a fleet of eight or nine sail of the line to the Levant, to co-operate with the British fleet, which she supposed would consist of ten sail of the line.