ning 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_, Sec. 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 CA