Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/225

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RÈGLEMENTS OF 1861 AND 1864.
209

out that the Sublime Porte has employed and continues to employ its efforts in the sense of the wish expressed above.

Conventions of 1860 and 1861. The former of these Protocols was converted verbatim into a Convention, on 5th September[1], and the period of occupation allowed by it was prolonged by another Convention, of 19th March, 1861, to 5th June, 1861[2].

In pursuance of these Conventions, a French army landed in Syria on 16th August, 1860, and, having pacified the country, re-embarked in June, 1861. In the meantime a Commission of the Five Powers, on which Lord Dufferin represented Great Britain, had been sitting at Beyrout (26th September, 1860, to 4th May, 1861) and had proposed two alternative schemes for the government of the Lebanon[3]. The Règlement of 1861. These were considered at Constantinople by the Ambassadors of the Powers and by Aali Pasha, who, on 9th June, adopted a Règlement for the re-organization of the country under a single Christian governor; thus reversing the policy of the settlement of 1842[4]. By a Protocol signed at the same time it was agreed that the Christian Governor should hold office for three years, and that the Porte should consult the Powers as to the appointment of a successor[5].

Daoud Pasha, an Armenian Catholic, was appointed Governor, and was re-appointed for five years more, from 9th June, 1864, The Règlement of 1864. in which year a Conference was held at Constantinople, which adopted, on 6th September, a new Règlement, superseding that of 1861, from which it however differed only in a few particulars[6].

In May, 1868, Daoud resigned, and was succeeded by Franco-Nasri Pasha. A Protocol signed on 27th July, on behalf of the Porte and Five Powers, with the addition of Italy, agrees that he shall hold office for not less than ten

  1. Parl. Papers, 1861; N.R.G. xviii, 224.
  2. Parl. Papers, 1861; N.R.G. xvii, 2 P., 52-100.
  3. Parl. Papers, 1861, Syria, Pt. 2, p. 112.
  4. Ibid. p. 127; N.R.G. xvii, Pt. 2, 101.
  5. Ibid.; infra Texts, No. I.
  6. N.R.G. xviii, 227; Texts, No. II..