There is an idea that Mehemet Ali suffers from what one calls _un charbon_, a sort of dangerous ulcer which, with old people, is never without some danger.

If this is true, it only shows how little one can say that the Pashalik of Aleppo is to decide who is to be the master of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia, the Sultan or Mehemet?
It is highly probable that if the old gentleman dies, his concern will go to pieces; a division will be attempted by the children, but that in the East hardly ever succeeds.

There everything is personal, except the sort of Caliphate which the Sultan possesses, and when the man is gone, his empire _also goes_.

Runjeet Singh[41] is a proof of this; his formidable power will certainly go to the dogs, though the Sikhs have a social link which does not exist in the Egyptian concern.

If we now were to set everything in Europe on a blaze, have a war which may change totally all that now exists, and in the midst of it we should hear that Mehemet is no more, and his whole _boutique_ broken up, would it not be _really laughable_, if it was not _melancholy_?
And still the war _once raging_, it would no longer put a stop to it, but go on for _other reasons_.
I cannot understand what has rendered Palmerston so _extremely hostile to the King_ and Government of France.