Canning's intention was this: he said we must remain with Russia, and by this means _prevent_ mischief.

The Duke of Wellington, who came to me shooting at Claremont in 1828, really did cry, though he is not of a crying disposition, and said "_by this Convention the Russians will have the power of doing all they never would have dared to do single-handed_, and shielded by this infernal Convention, it will not be in our power _to stop them_." Russia is again in this very snug and comfortable position, that _the special protection of the Porte_ is confided to its tender mercies--_la chevre gardant le chou_, the wolf the sheep, as I suppose I must not compare the Turcs to lambs.

The Power which ruined the Ottoman Empire, which since a hundred and forty years nearly _pared_ it all round nearly in every direction, is to be the protector and guardian of that same empire; and we are told that it is the most scandalous calumny to suspect the Russians to have any other than the most humane and disinterested views! "_ainsi soit-il_," as the French say at the end of their sermons.

This part of the Convention of the 15th of July 1840 strikes impartial people as strange, the more so as nothing lowers the Porte so much in the eyes of the few patriotic Turks who remain than the protection of the arch-enemy of the concern, Russia.

I beg you to read this part of my letter to my good and dear friend, Lord Melbourne, to whom I beg to be kindly remembered.
[Footnote 29: Princess Augusta, second daughter of George III.
_See_ p.230.