ne, and it consisted of
two frigates, three corvettes, three armed brigs, and four schooners,
besides transports, and a number of gun-boats to cover the landing. The
army on board, including British and French recruits, did not amount to
ten thousand men, and it was scantily provided, both with cavalry and
artillery. The invaders landed off Oporto on the 9th of July, without
any opposition; and in the course of the day they took undisturbed
possession of the city, the enemy having retired to the left bank of
the Douro, and destroyed the bridge. The possession of this city was
doubtless of great importance to Don Pedro; but it was far removed from
the capital. He had hopes that the country would rise in his favour,
and that the military would abandon his opponent. In these expectations,
however, he was doomed to be disappointed. Don Miguel was enabled to
concentrate his forces, and to organise the means of resistance; and at
the close of the year, after some slight successes in engagements with
the enemy, he was shut up in Oporto by the Miguelites, who bombarded the
town, blockaded the Douro, and placed him in a very critical situation.

In the East a quarrel took place between the Sultan and Mehemet Ali,
Pasha of Egypt, which threatened serious consequences to the Turkish
empire, and occasioned such interference on the part of Russia as
awakened the jealousy, and aroused the watchfulness of the other
European powers. Ibrahim wrested Syria from the Porte, and the Ottoman
empire was tottering to its fall, unless the European states should
interfere to prevent it, or Russia should realize her long-cherished
schemes of aggrandizement by taking the shores of the Bosphorus, which
the Sultan was not able to defend, under her own protection. It was
feared by the European powers that Russia would thus act; and toward
the end of June, ministers dispatched the son-in-law of the premier on
a special mission to Russia. Much confidence was placed by the public
in the integrity and talents of Lord Durham, and an attempt was made to
induce the ministers to embrace this opportunity of mitigating the
cruel fate which hung over the unhappy Poles. Poland, however, was still
doomed to be unbefriended. Russia was left to seek the annihilation of
its existence as a separate nation at her pleasure. By an ukase
this year, indeed, the emperor declared that Poland, with a separate
administration, should become an integral part of the empire, "and