rot, while Thiers was made
president of the Chambers. Guizot employed his leisure time to write his
famous "Life of Washington." About the same time Daguerre published his new
invention of making the sun prints which were called daguerreotypes after
him. A life pension of 6,000 francs was awarded to him by the government of
Louis Philippe. The interest in the family of Bonaparte and its dreaded
pretensions in France was revived by the death of Letizia Buonaparte, the
mother of Napoleon, in her eighty-ninth year. The first problem confronting
the new administration of France was the fresh trouble that had broken out
in the Orient.

[Sidenote: Turkish-Egyptian War]

[Sidenote: Battle of Nissiv]

[Sidenote: Abdul Medjid, Sultan]

The long-brewing war between Sultan Mahmoud of Turkey and his vassal,
Mehemet Ali of Egypt, broke out in May. In the face of new assurances of
peace, the Sultan ordered his commander-in-chief of the Euphrates to
commence hostilities. The Turkish troops crossed the Euphrates on May 23.
In spite of the good counsels of Moltke and other European officers at the
Turkish headquarters, the Turks were outmanoeuvred by the Egyptian forces
under Ibrahim. June 24, Ibrahim Pasha inflicted a crushing defeat on the
Turkish army at Nissiv. All the artillery and stores fell into his hands.
The Turkish army dispersed in another rout. Mahmoud II. did not live to
hear of the disaster. One week after the battle of Nissiv, before news from
the front had reached him, he died. The throne was left to his son, Abdul
Medjid, a youth of sixteen.

[Sidenote: Turkish fleet betrayed]

[Sidenote: Anglo-French intervention]

[Sidenote: French diplomacy offset]

Scarcely had the new Sultan been proclaimed when the Turkish admiral,
Achmet Fevzi, who had been sent out to attack the coast of Syria, sailed
into Alexandria and delivered his fleet over to Mehemet Ali. Turkey, now
practically rulerless, was left without defence, on land and on water.
Mehemet Ali not only declared Egypt independent of the Porte, but,
encouraged by France, prepared to move on Constantinople. In this extremity
the foreign Ambassadors at Constantinople addressed a collective note to
the Divan, announcing European intervention. Shortly afterward a squadron
of British and French warships sailed into the Dardanelles for the
ostensible purpose of protecting Constantinople against Mehemet Ali, in
reality to prevent Russia from profiting by the terms of