This produced the civil war of 1841
in Lebanon, which so perplexed and scandalised England, and which
was triumphantly appealed to by France as indubitable evidence of the
weakness and unpopularity of the Turks, and the fruitlessness of our
previous interference. The Turks had as little to do with it as M.
Guizot or Lord Palmerston; but so limited is our knowledge upon these
subjects that the cry was successful, and many who had warmly supported
the English minister during the previous year, and probably in equal
ignorance of the real merits of the question, began now to shake their
heads and fear that we had perhaps been too precipitate.
The Porte adroitly took advantage of the general anarchy to enforce
the expediency of its original proposition, to which the Great Powers,
however, would not assent. Kassim was deposed, after a reign of a few
months, amid burning villages and their slaughtered inhabitants; and, as
the Porte was resolved not to try another Shehaab, and the Great Powers
were resolved not to trust the Porte, diplomacy was obliged again to
interfere, and undertake to provide Lebanon with a government.
It was the interest of two parties, whose cooperation was highly
essential to the settlement of this question, to prevent the desired
adjustment, and these were the Turkish government and the family of
Shehaab and their numerous adherents.
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