any
opinion of their own on the subject, (hear;) and determined to act with
Austria, thereby risking the sacrifice of our own interests for a remote
Austrian interest in which we had no concern. Austria at first
determined to support Servia; but there came an _urgent appeal_ from
Russia; and Austria recommended Servia to yield." The nature of this
"urgent appeal" will be well understood by those who are aware of the
morbid fear entertained by Austria of Russian extension among the Slavic
populations in Hungary; and of which Russia availing herself, (as
remarked by Mr Paget,) "by exerting the influence which similarity of
language, and, in some parts, of religion, gives her over them, has
hitherto frightened Austria into doing almost any thing she likes." "The
Sultan" (continued Lord Palmerston) "was now forced to submit. He
annulled the election of Prince Georgevich; he consented to a popular
election; he recalled the two popular leaders, Wucicz and Petronevich,
to Constantinople; and even appointed a Russian general, Baron Lieven,
his commissioner, in conjunction with a Turkish officer, to go into
Servia to see his orders carried into execution."

So far Lord Palmerston; and the accuracy of the information possessed by
the British Cabinet to combat these strong facts, may be estimated, from
Sir Robert Peel's calling Prince Alexander, a man of thirty-five, and
the worthy inheritor of his father's great qualities, "an infatuated
youth"--on the authority (it is said) of a letter from Mr Fonblanque!
But we must return from the English debates to the progress of the drama
in Servia, where the commissioners found the Servians, in defiance of
the great powers, and in spite of the hopelessness of aid from
Constantinople, preparing for national resistance. The Prince refused to
abdicate, alleging that the firman by which he had been appointed had
never been revoked, and that universal anarchy would result from his
resigning the reins of government, since no _kaimakams_, or regents _pro
tempore_, had been named by the Porte--an omission which is supposed not
to have been altogether unintentional; and the whole nation rose in
commotion at the bare mention of the recall of Wucicz and Petronevich;
the crowd exclaiming, when Wucicz told them that 'the Servian forests
would not be less green were two old trees cut down, "No! a thousand
times no!" and rushing with arms in their hands to the presence of
Hafiz-Pasha, (who had been appo