BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 95 The next day the Emperor again sent for Sir chap. Hamilton Seymour, and after combating the de- L termination of the English Government to persist in regarding Turkey as a Power which might, and which probably would, remain as she was, he at length spoke out his long- reserved words of temp- tation. He thought, he said, that in the event of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, it might be less difficult to arrive at a satisfactory terri- torial arrangement than was commonly believed, and then he proceeded : ' The Principalities are, in ' fact, an independent State under my protection : ' this might so continue. Servia might receive the ' same form of government. So again with Bul- ' garia : there seems to be no reason why this pro- ' viuce should not form an independent State. As ' to Egypt, I quite understand the importance to ' England of that territory. I can then only say, ' that if, in the event of a distribution of the Otto- ' man succession upon the fall of the Empire, you ' should take possession of Egypt, I shall have no ' objection to offer. I Avould say the same thing ' of Candia : that island might suit you, and I do ' not know why it should not become an English possession.' ' As I did not wish,' writes Sir Hamilton Sey- mour, 'that the Emperor should imagine that an ' English public servant was caught by this sort ' of overture, I simply answered that 1 had always ' understood that the English views upon Egypt ' did not go beyond the point of securing a safe 4 and ready communication between British India
