Novel Wearable Antennas for

Communication and Medical Systems

1st Edition Albert Sabban
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/novel-wearable-antennas-for-communication-and-me
dical-systems-1st-edition-albert-sabban/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Wearable Computing From Modeling to Implementation of

Wearable Systems based on Body Sensor Networks 1st
Edition Giancarlo Fortino

https://textbookfull.com/product/wearable-computing-from-
modeling-to-implementation-of-wearable-systems-based-on-body-
sensor-networks-1st-edition-giancarlo-fortino/

Antennas and Radar for Environmental Scientists and

Engineers 1st Edition David Hysell

https://textbookfull.com/product/antennas-and-radar-for-
environmental-scientists-and-engineers-1st-edition-david-hysell/

Handbook of Antennas for EMC Thereza Macnamara

https://textbookfull.com/product/handbook-of-antennas-for-emc-
thereza-macnamara/

Internet of Medical Things: Paradigm of Wearable

Devices (Internet of Everything (IoE)) 1st Edition
Manuel Cardona (Editor)

https://textbookfull.com/product/internet-of-medical-things-
paradigm-of-wearable-devices-internet-of-everything-ioe-1st-
edition-manuel-cardona-editor/
Wearable Technology for Robotic Manipulation and
Learning Bin Fang

https://textbookfull.com/product/wearable-technology-for-robotic-
manipulation-and-learning-bin-fang/

Quantum Antennas Harish Parthasarathy

https://textbookfull.com/product/quantum-antennas-harish-
parthasarathy/

Nano Dielectric Resonator Antennas for 5G Applications

1st Edition Rajveer S. Yaduvanshi (Author)

https://textbookfull.com/product/nano-dielectric-resonator-
antennas-for-5g-applications-1st-edition-rajveer-s-yaduvanshi-
author/

Deep Learning for Medical Decision Support Systems Utku

Kose

https://textbookfull.com/product/deep-learning-for-medical-
decision-support-systems-utku-kose/

Compact Slot Array Antennas for Wireless Communications

Alan J. Sangster

https://textbookfull.com/product/compact-slot-array-antennas-for-
wireless-communications-alan-j-sangster/
Novel Wearable Antennas
for Communication and
Medical Systems
Novel Wearable Antennas
for Communication and
Medical Systems

By
Albert Sabban
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-04790-7 (Hardback)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts
have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume
responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers
have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize
to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material
has not been acknowledged, please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright.
com (http://www.copyright.com) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood
Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and
registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC,
a separate system of payment has been arranged.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sabban, Albert, author.

Title: Novel wearable antennas for communication and medical systems / Albert
Sabban.
Description: Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2017. | “A CRC title, part of the
Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group, the
academic division of T&F Informa plc.” | Includes bibliographical
references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017014864 | ISBN 9781138047907 (harback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Biomedical engineering--Instruments. | Smart materials.
Classification: LCC R856 .S23 2017 | DDC 610.28--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014864

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

and the CRC Press Web site at

http://www.crcpress.com
 Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of my

father, mother and sister. David Sabban,
Dolly Sabban and Aliza Sabban
Table of Contents
Preface....................................................................................................................xvii
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................xix
About the Author ....................................................................................................xxi

Chapter 1 Wearable Communication and Medical Systems................................. 1

1.1 Wearable Technology ................................................................1
1.2 Wearable Medical Systems........................................................2
1.2.1 Applications of Wearable Medical Systems .................2
1.3 Wearable Medical Systems........................................................2
1.3.1 Measurement of Human Body Temperature ................ 2
1.3.2 Measurement of Blood Pressure ..................................2
1.3.3 Measurement of Heart Rate .........................................3
1.3.4 Measurement of Respiration Rate ................................ 3
1.3.5 Measurement of Sweat Rate .........................................3
1.3.6 Measurement of Human Gait .......................................3
1.3.7 Wearable Devices Tracking and Monitoring
Doctors and Patients inside Hospitals ............................4
1.4 Wireless Body Area Networks ..................................................4
1.5 Wearable Wireless Body Area Network (WWBAN)................ 7
1.6 Conclusion .................................................................................8
References ............................................................................................8

Chapter 2 Electromagnetic Waves and Transmission Lines for Wearable

Communication Systems Designers ................................................... 13
2.1 Electromagnetic Spectrum ...................................................... 13
2.2 Basic Electromagnetic Wave Definitions ................................ 15
2.3 Electromagnetic Wave Theory ................................................ 17
2.3.1 Maxwell’s Equations .................................................. 17
2.3.2 Gauss’s Law for Electric Fields .................................. 17
2.3.3 Gauss’s Law for Magnetic Fields ............................... 18
2.3.4 Ampère’s Law ............................................................ 19
2.3.5 Faraday’s Law............................................................. 19
2.3.6 Wave Equations ..........................................................20
2.3.7 General Boundary Conditions.................................... 21
2.3.8 Boundary Conditions for Dielectric Medium ............ 21
2.3.9 Boundary Conditions for Conductor .......................... 21
2.4 Wave Propagation through Human Body ................................ 22
2.5 Materials .................................................................................. 23
2.6 Transmission Lines Theory ..................................................... 23
2.7 Matching Techniques .............................................................. 30

vii
viii Table of Contents

2.7.1 Smith Chart Guidelines .............................................. 32

2.7.2 Quarter-Wave Transformers ....................................... 32
2.7.3 Wideband Matching—Multi-Section Transformers ..34
2.7.4 Single Stub Matching .................................................34
2.8 Coaxial Transmission Line...................................................... 35
2.8.1 Cutoff Frequency and Wavelength of Coax Cables ... 37
2.9 Microstrip Line ........................................................................ 37
2.9.1 Effective Dielectric Constant ..................................... 37
2.9.2 Characteristic Impedance........................................... 38
2.9.3 Higher-Order Transmission Modes in Microstrip
Line............................................................................. 39
2.9.4 Conductor Loss...........................................................40
2.9.5 Dielectric Loss ...........................................................40
2.10 Waveguides .............................................................................. 41
2.10.1 TE Waves.................................................................... 43
2.10.2 TM Waves .................................................................. 45
2.11 Circular Waveguide ................................................................. 47
2.11.1 TE Waves in a Circular Waveguide............................ 49
2.11.2 TM Waves in a Circular Waveguide .......................... 51
References .......................................................................................... 53

Chapter 3 Introduction to Basic Theory for Wireless Wearable

Communication System Designers .................................................... 55
3.1 Wireless Wearable Communication System
Frequency Range ..............................................................................55
3.2 Free Space Propagation ........................................................... 57
3.3 Friis Transmission Formula..................................................... 58
3.3.1 Logarithmic Relations ................................................60
3.4 Link Budget Examples ............................................................ 61
3.5 Noise ........................................................................................ 62
3.6 Communication Systems Link Budget ....................................64
3.7 Path Loss ................................................................................. 65
3.8 Receiver Sensitivity .................................................................66
3.9 Receiver Definitions and Features ........................................... 67
3.9.1 Receiver Definitions ................................................... 67
3.10 Types of Radars ....................................................................... 69
3.11 Transmitter Definitions and Features ...................................... 69
3.11.1 Amplifiers ................................................................... 69
3.11.2 Amplifier Temperature Considerations ...................... 70
3.11.3 Power Amplifiers ........................................................ 70
3.12 Satellite Communication Transceiver ..................................... 71
3.12.1 Introduction ................................................................ 71
3.12.2 Description of the Receiving Channel ....................... 71
3.12.3 Receiving Channel design and Fabrication ................ 72
Table of Contents ix

3.12.4 Description of the Transmitting Channel ................... 72

3.12.4.1 Transmitting Channel Specifications.......... 74
3.12.4.2 Diplexer Specifications ............................... 74
3.12.5 Transmitting Channel Fabrication.............................. 74
3.12.6 RF Controller ............................................................. 76
3.12.7 Concluding Remarks .................................................. 77
References .......................................................................................... 77

Chapter 4 Basic Antennas for Wearable Communication Systems .................... 79

4.1 Introduction to Antennas ......................................................... 79
4.2 Antenna Definitions................................................................. 79
4.2.1 Types of Antenna ....................................................... 81
4.2.1.1 Wire-Type Antennas ................................... 81
4.2.1.2 Aperture-Type Antennas ............................ 81
4.2.1.3 Steerable Antennas ..................................... 82
4.3 Dipole Antenna........................................................................ 82
4.3.1 Radiation from Small Dipole ..................................... 83
4.3.1.1 Dipole Radiation Pattern ............................84
4.3.1.2 Dipole E Plane Radiation Pattern ...............84
4.3.1.3 Dipole H Plane Radiation Pattern............... 85
4.3.1.4 Antenna Radiation Pattern ......................... 86
4.3.1.5 Dipole Directivity ....................................... 86
4.3.1.6 Antenna Impedance .................................... 88
4.3.1.7 Impedance of a Folded Dipole.................... 88
4.4 Monopole Antenna for Wearable Communication Systems ... 88
4.5 Loop Antennas for Wireless Communication Systems........... 89
4.5.1 Duality Relationship between Dipole and Loop
Antennas..................................................................... 89
4.5.2 Applications of Loop Antennas ................................. 91
4.6 Conclusions..............................................................................92
References ..........................................................................................92

Chapter 5 Wearable Printed Antennas for Wireless Communication Systems .. 95

5.1 Wearable Printed Antennas ..................................................... 95
5.1.1 Wearable Microstrip Antennas .................................. 95
5.1.2 Transmission Line Model of Microstrip Antennas .... 98
5.1.3 Higher-Order Transmission Modes in Microstrip
Antennas.....................................................................99
5.1.4 Effective Dielectric Constant .....................................99
5.1.5 Losses in Microstrip Antennas ..................................99
5.1.6 Patch Radiation Pattern ............................................ 100
5.2 Two-Layer Wearable Stacked Microstrip Antennas.............. 101
5.3 Stacked Mono-pulse Ku Band Patch Antenna ...................... 102
5.4 Wearable Loop Antennas ...................................................... 105
x Table of Contents

5.4.1 Small Loop Antenna ................................................ 105

5.4.2 Wearable Printed Loop Antenna .............................. 106
5.4.3 Wearable RFID Loop Antennas............................... 108
5.4.4 Wearable Loop Antenna with Ground Plane ........... 110
5.5 Wired Loop Antenna ............................................................. 113
5.6 Radiation Pattern of a Loop Antenna near a Metal Sheet..... 115
5.7 Wearable Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA) ........................ 117
5.7.1 Grounded Quarter-Wavelength Patch Antenna ........ 118
5.7.2 A Wearable Double-Layer PIFA Antenna................ 119
References ........................................................................................ 122

Chapter 6 Wideband Wearable Antennas for Communication and Medical

Applications...................................................................................... 123
6.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 123
6.2 Wideband Wearable Printed Dipole Antennas...................... 124
6.3 Wearable Loop Antenna with Ground Plane ........................ 127
6.4 Wearable Antennas in Vicinity of Human Body................... 131
6.5 Wearable Antenna Arrays ..................................................... 135
6.6 Compact Dual Polarized Printed Antenna ............................ 138
6.7 Helix Antenna Performance on Human Body ...................... 141
6.8 Compact Wearable RFID Antennas ...................................... 142
6.8.1 Dual Polarized 13.5 MHz Compact Printed
Antenna ................................................................. 142
6.8.2 Varying the Antenna Feed Network......................... 145
6.8.3 RFID Wearable Loop Antennas............................... 146
6.9 Conclusions............................................................................ 149
References ........................................................................................ 150

Chapter 7 Base Station Aperture Antennas for Communication Systems ....... 153
7.1 Parabolic Reflector Antenna Configuration .......................... 153
7.2 Reflector Directivity .............................................................. 154
7.3 Cassegrain Reflector .............................................................. 156
7.4 Horn Antennas....................................................................... 157
7.4.1 E-Plane Sectoral Horn.............................................. 157
7.4.2 H-Plane Sectoral Horn ............................................. 162
7.4.3 Pyramidal Horn Antenna ......................................... 165
7.5 Antenna Arrays for Wireless Communication Systems ..... 167
7.5.1 Introduction .............................................................. 167
7.5.2 Array Radiation Pattern ........................................... 167
7.5.3 Broadside Array ....................................................... 169
7.5.4 End-Fire Array ......................................................... 170
7.5.5 Printed Arrays .......................................................... 170
7.5.6 Stacked Microstrip Antenna Arrays......................... 171
7.5.7 Ka Band Microstrip Antenna Arrays ....................... 174
Table of Contents xi

7.6 Integrated Outdoor Unit for MM Wave Satellite

Communication Applications .................................................176
7.6.1 Description of the Outdoor Unit, ODU .................... 176
7.6.2 The Low Noise Unit, LNB ....................................... 177
7.6.3 Solid State Power Amplifier, SSPA, Output
Power Requirements................................................. 181
7.6.4 Isolation between Receiving, Rx, and
Transmitting, Tx, Channels ...................................... 181
7.7 Solid State Power Amplifier, SSPA ....................................... 181
7.7.1 Specifications ........................................................... 181
7.7.2 SSPA General Description ....................................... 182
7.7.3 SSPA Electrical Design ............................................ 183
7.7.4 The ODU Mechanical Package ................................ 184
7.8 Solid State High Power Amplifiers, SSPA, for MM Wave
Communication System..........................................................184
7.8.1 Introduction .............................................................. 184
7.8.2 Power Amplifier Specifications ................................ 185
7.8.3 Description of the 0.5 W and 1.5 W Power Amplifiers. 185
7.8.4 Gain and Power Budget for the 0.5 W and 1.5 W
Amplifires................................................................. 187
7.8.5 Description of the 3.2 W Power Amplifier ............... 187
7.8.6 Measured Test Results .............................................. 187
7.9 Integrated Ku Band Automatic Tracking System.................. 191
7.9.1 Automatic Tracking System Link Budget
Calculations .............................................................. 192
7.9.2 Ku Band Tracking System Antennas ....................... 196
7.9.2.1 Mono-Pulse Parabolic Reflector Antenna. 196
7.9.2.2 Horn Antenna ........................................... 199
7.9.2.3 Omnidirectional Antenna ......................... 201
7.9.3 Mono-Pulse Processor..............................................202
7.9.4 High Power Amplifier ..............................................202
7.9.4.1 HPA Design Based on a 6.5 W Ku
Band Power Amplifier .............................. 203
7.9.4.2 HPA Design with 41.5 dBm Power
Modules ....................................................204
7.9.5 Tracking System Down- and Upconverters .............209
7.9.5.1 Tracking System Upconverter Design ......209
7.9.5.2 Tracking System Downconverter Design ... 210
7.9.6 Tracking System Interface........................................ 213
References ........................................................................................ 214

Chapter 8 Novel Wearable Antennas for Wireless Communication Systems

8.1 Wideband Wearable Metamaterial Antennas for
Communication Applications ................................................ 217
xii Table of Contents

8.1.1 Introduction .............................................................. 217

8.1.2 Printed Antennas with Split Ring Resonators.......... 218
8.1.3 Folded Dipole Metamaterial Antenna with SRR ..... 222
8.2 Stacked Patch Antenna Loaded with SRR ............................224
8.3 Patch Antenna Loaded with Split Ring Resonators .............. 227
8.4 Meta-Material Antenna Characteristics in Vicinity to the
Human Body.......................................................................... 230
8.5 Metamaterial Wearable Antennas ......................................... 233
8.6 Wideband Stacked Patch with SRR ...................................... 236
8.7 Fractal Printed Antennas ....................................................... 237
8.7.1 Introduction .............................................................. 237
8.7.2 Fractal Structures ..................................................... 238
8.7.3 Fractal Antennas ...................................................... 239
8.8 Anti-Radar Fractals and/or Multilevel Chaff Dispersers ...... 241
8.8.1 Definition of Chaff ................................................... 241
8.9 Definition of Multilevel Fractal Structure ............................. 242
8.10 Advanced Antenna System.................................................... 243
8.10.1 Comparison between Euclidean Antennas and
Fractal Antennas ......................................................244
8.10.2 Multilevel and Space-Filling Ground Planes for
Miniature and Multiband Antennas ......................... 245
8.11 Applications of Fractal Printed Antennas ............................. 247
8.11.1 New 2.5 GHz Fractal Antenna with Space-
Filling Perimeter on the Radiator............................. 247
8.11.2 New Stacked Patch 2.5 GHz Fractal Printed
Antennas...................................................................254
8.11.3 New 8 GHz Fractal Printed Antennas with Space-
Filling Perimeter of the Conducting Sheet .. .............257
8.11.4 New Stacked Patch 7.4 GHz Fractal Printed
Antennas................................................................... 261
8.12 Conclusion .............................................................................266
References ........................................................................................266

Chapter 9 Active Wearable Printed Antennas for Medical Applications

9.1 Tunable Printed Antennas........................................................ 269
9.2 Varactor Theory ....................................................................... 269
9.2.1 Varactor Diode Basics.................................................. 270
9.2.2 Types of Varactors........................................................ 271
9.3 Dually Polarized Tunable Printed Antenna ............................. 271
9.4 Wearable Tunable Antennas .................................................... 272
9.5 Varactors .................................................................................. 275
9.6 Measurements of Tunable Antennas........................................ 275
9.7 Folded Dual Polarized Tunable Antenna ................................. 275
9.8 Medical Applications for Tunable Antennas ........................... 277
Table of Contents xiii

9.9 Active Wearable Antennas .................................................... 279

9.9.1 Basic Concept of Active Antennas ........................... 279
9.9.2 Active Wearable Receiving Loop Antenna .............. 281
9.9.3 Compact Dual Polarized Receiving Active
Antenna ................................................................. 282
9.10 Active Transmitting Antenna ................................................ 285
9.10.1 Compact Dual Polarized Active Transmitting
Antenna .................................................................... 286
9.10.2 Active Transmitting Loop Antenna ......................... 291
9.11 Conclusions............................................................................ 293
References ........................................................................................ 293

Chapter 10 New Wideband Passive and Active Wearable Slot and Notch
Antennas for Wireless and Medical Communication Systems ........ 297
10.1 Slot Antennas......................................................................... 297
10.2 Slot Radiation Pattern ............................................................ 299
10.2.1 Slot E-Plane Radiation Pattern ................................ 299
10.2.2 Slot H-Plane Radiation Pattern ................................300
10.3 Slot Antenna Impedance .......................................................300
10.4 A WideBand Wearable Printed Slot Antenna ....................... 301
10.5 A WideBand T-Shape Wearable Printed Slot Antenna ......... 303
10.6 Wideband Wearable Notch Antenna for Wireless
Communication Systems .......................................................306
10.6.1 Wideband Notch Antenna 2.1 GHz–7.8 GHz ..........306
10.7 Wearable Tunable Slot Antennas for Wireless
Communication Systems .......................................................307
10.8 A WideBand T-Shape Tunable Wearable Printed Slot
Antenna ................................................................................. 311
10.9 Wearable Active Slot Antennas for Wireless
Communication Systems ....................................................... 311
10.10 Wearable Active T-Shape Slot Antennas for Wireless
Communication Systems ....................................................... 314
10.11 New Fractal Compact Ultra-Wideband Notch Antenna,
1 GHz–6 GHz ........................................................................ 317
10.12 New Compact Ultra-Wideband Notch Antenna,
1.3 GHz–3.9 GHz .................................................................. 321
10.13 New Compact Ultra-Wideband Notch Antenna,
5.8 GHz–18 GHz ................................................................... 321
10.14 New Fractal Active Compact Ultra-Wideband Notch
Antenna, 0.5 GHz–3 GHz ..................................................... 323
10.15 New Compact Ultra-Wideband Active Notch Antenna,
0.4 GHz–3 GHz ..................................................................... 325
10.16 Conclusions............................................................................ 327
References ........................................................................................ 328
xiv Table of Contents

Chapter 11 Microwave Technologies for Wearable Communication

Systems ............................................................................................ 329
11.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 329
11.2 Microwave Integrated Circuits (MICs).................................. 329
11.3 Low Noise K-Band Compact Receiving Channel for
Satellite Communication Ground Terminal......................... .....331
11.3.1 Introduction .............................................................. 331
11.3.2 Receiving Channel Design ....................................... 331
11.3.3 Description of the Receiving Channel ..................... 332
11.3.4 Development of the Receiving Channel ................... 332
11.3.5 Measured Test Results of the Receiving Channel .... 332
11.4 Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits ........................... 332
11.4.1 MMIC Technology Features .................................... 334
11.4.2 MMIC Components.................................................. 335
11.4.3 Advantages of GaAs versus Silicon ......................... 337
11.4.4 Semiconductor Technology ...................................... 338
11.4.5 MMIC Fabrication Process ...................................... 339
11.4.6 Generation of Microwave Signals in Microwave
and MM Wave .......................................................... 341
11.4.7 MMIC Circuit Examples and Applications.............. 342
11.5 18 to 40 GHz Front End.........................................................344
11.5.1 18 to 40 GHz Front End Requirements ....................344
11.5.2 Front End Design......................................................344
11.5.3 High Gain Front End Module .................................. 345
11.5.4 High Gain Front End Design.................................... 349
11.6 MEMS Technology ............................................................... 350
11.6.1 MEMS Technology Advantages............................... 351
11.6.2 MEMS Technology Process ..................................... 352
11.6.3 MEMS Components ................................................. 354
11.7 W Band MEMS Detection Array .......................................... 355
11.7.1 Detection Array Concept ......................................... 355
11.7.2 The Array Principle of Operation ............................ 355
11.7.3 W Band Antenna Design .......................................... 356
11.7.4 Resistor Design......................................................... 358
11.7.5 Array Fabrication and Measurement........................ 358
11.7.6 Mutual Coupling Effects between Pixels ................. 361
11.8 MEMS BOWTIE Dipole with Bolometer ............................. 361
11.9 LTCC and HTCC Technology ............................................... 362
11.9.1 LTCC and HTCC Technology Process ....................364
11.9.2 Design of High-Pass LTCC Filters........................... 365
11.9.3 Comparison of Single-Layer and Multilayer
Microstrip Circuits ................................................... 369
11.10 Conclusions............................................................................ 371
References ........................................................................................ 371
Table of Contents xv

Chapter 12 Body Area Networks (BANs)........................................................... 373

12.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 373
12.2 Cloud Storage and Computing Services ................................ 373
12.3 Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) ............................. 376
12.4 Wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WWBANs) ......... 377
12.5 434 MHz Receiving Channel for Communication and
Medical Systems .....................................................................379
12.6 Conclusions............................................................................ 383
References ........................................................................................ 383

Chapter 13 Measurements of Wearable Systems and Antennas ......................... 387

13.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 387
13.2 Wearable Antenna Measurements in the Vicinity of the
Human Body .......................................................................... 387
13.3 Phantom Configuration.......................................................... 388
13.4 Measurements of Wearable Antennas Using a Phantom....... 389
13.4.1 Test Procedure and Process ...................................... 389
13.4.1.1 Test Procedure .......................................... 389
13.4.1.2 Measured Antennas .................................. 389
13.4.1.3 Test Process .............................................. 389
13.4.1.4 Immunity to Noise: ................................... 390
13.5 Measurement Results of Wearable Antennas ........................ 390
13.5.1 Measurements of Antenna Array 1 .......................... 390
13.5.2 Measurements of Antenna Array 2 .......................... 390
13.5.3 Measurements of Antenna Array 3 .......................... 390
13.5.4 Measurements of Antenna Array 4 in a Thinner Belt. 391
13.5.5 Measurements of Antenna Array 5 .......................... 392
13.6 Representation of Wearable Systems with N ports................ 393
13.7 Scattering Matrix................................................................... 396
13.8 S Parameter Measurements ................................................... 398
13.8.1 Types of S Parameter Measurements .......................400
13.9 Transmission Measurements .................................................400
13.10 Output Power and Linearity Measurements .......................... 401
13.11 Power Input Protection Measurement ...................................402
13.12 Non-Harmonic Spurious Measurements ...............................402
13.13 Switching Time Measurements .............................................402
13.14 IP2 Measurements .................................................................403
13.15 IP3 Measurements .................................................................405
13.16 Noise Figure Measurements ..................................................406
13.17 Antenna Measurements .........................................................407
13.17.1 Radiation Pattern Measurements .............................407
13.17.2 Directivity and Antenna Effective Area ..................408
13.17.3 Radiation Efficiency (α ) ...........................................409
xvi Table of Contents

13.17.4 Typical Antenna Radiation Pattern .......................... 410

13.17.5 Gain Measurements.................................................. 410
13.18 Antenna Range Setup ............................................................ 411
13.19 Conclusions............................................................................ 412
References ........................................................................................ 413

Index ...................................................................................................................... 415

Preface
The main objective of this book is to present new compact wearable antennas for
communication and medical systems. Chapter 1 presents the fundamental concepts
and applications of wearable communication and medical systems. Chapter 2 pres-
ents wearable communication and medical systems electromagnetics and the basic
theory and fundamentals of antennas. Chapter 3 presents an introduction to the basic
theory for wireless wearable communication system designers. Chapter 4 presents
basic antennas for wearable communication systems. Chapter 5 presents wearable
printed antennas for wireless communication systems. These chapters are written to
assist electrical engineers and students in the study of basic electromagnetic, com-
munication and antenna theory and fundamentals. There are many books on elec-
tromagnetic theory and antennas for the electromagnetic scientist. However, there
are few books that help electrical engineers and undergraduate students to study and
understand basic electromagnetic, communication and antenna theory and funda-
mentals with few integral and differential equations.
There are several 3D full-wave electromagnetics software products, such as
HFSS, ADS, and CST, used to design and analyze communication systems and
antennas. Communication systems and antennas developed and analyzed in this
book were designed using HFSS and ADS software. For almost all antennas and
devices described in this book there was good agreement between computed and
measured results. Only one design and fabrication iteration was needed in the devel-
opment process of the devices and antennas presented in this book.
Wideband wearable antennas for communication and medical applications are
presented in Chapter 6. Several wearable antennas are presented in this chapter.
Antenna electrical parameters as a function of distance from the human body is
discussed in this chapter. Compact wearable radio frequency identification (RFID)
antennas are presented in Section 6.8. Chapter 7 presents base station aperture
antennas for communication systems. Antenna arrays for wireless communication
systems are presented in Section 7.5. An integrated outdoor unit for MM wave sat-
ellite communication applications is presented in Section 7.6. A solid state power
amplifier (SSPA) is presented in Section 7.7. An integrated Ku band automatic track-
ing system is presented in Section 7.9.
Novel wearable antennas for wireless communication systems are presented in
Chapter 8. New wideband wearable meta-material antennas for communication
applications are presented in Section 8.1 through 8.3. Meta-material antenna char-
acteristics in the vicinity of the human body are discussed in Section 8.4. Wearable
fractal printed antennas are presented in Sections 8.7 through 8.11. Active wearable
printed antennas for medical applications are presented in Chapter 9. Wearable tun-
able printed antennas for medical applications are presented in Sections 9.1 through
9.8. Active wearable receiving antennas are presented in Section 9.9. An active trans-
mitting antenna is presented in Section 9.10. New wide band passive and active wear-
able slot and notch antennas for wireless and medical communication systems are
presented in Chapter 10.

xvii
xviii Preface

Microwave and MM wave technologies are presented in Chapter 11.

Microwave integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circuits,
microelectro-mechanical systems, and low temperature co-fired ceramic
technologies are presented in Chapter 11. The main goal of wireless body
area networks (BANs) is to continuously provide medical data to physicians.
Design considerations, computational results and measured results of wearable
compact transceivers, BANs, are presented in Chapter 12. Wearable systems and
antenna measurements are presented in Chapter 13.
Each chapter of the book covers sufficient details to enable students, scientists
from all areas, and electrical and biomedical engineers to follow and understand
the topics presented in the book. The book begins with the elementary commu-
nication, electromagnetics, and antenna topics needed for students and engineers
with no background in communication, electromagnetic and antenna theory to
study and understand the basic design principles and features of antennas, wearable
antennas, printed antennas, and compact antennas for communication and medical
applications.
Several topics and designs are presented in this book for the first time. This book
may serve students and design engineers as a reference work. It presents new designs
in the area of wearable antennas, meta-material antennas, fractal antennas, and
active receiving and transmitting antennas. The text contains sufficient mathemati-
cal detail and explanations to enable electrical engineering and physics students to
understand all topics presented in this book.
Several new wearable antennas are introduced in this book. Design considerations
and computed and measured results for the new wearable systems and antennas are
presented.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgements to my family.

My wife Mazal Sabban

My daughters Dolly and Lilach
My son David Sabban
My grandchildren Nooa, Avigail, Ido, Shira, Efrat, Yael Hodaia

Acknowledgments to my engineering colleagues who helped me through the 39 years

of my engineering and research career.

xix
About the Author
Dr. Albert Sabban received B.Sc and M.Sc degrees Magna
Cum Laude in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University,
Israel, in 1976 and 1986, respectively. He received a Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from University of Colorado
at Boulder, USA, in 1991. He also received an MBA degree
from Haifa University. His reasearch interests are microwave,
antenna engineering, communication systems, biomedical and
wearable systems, electromagnetics and system engineering.
From 2010 to date he has been a senior lecturer and
researcher at Ort Braude College in Israel in the electrical engineering department.
He also leads the communication program at Ort Braude College. Dr. Sabban was an
RF and antenna specialist and project leader at hi-tech and biomedical companies.
He is an expert in BAN and WBAN systems. He has designed and developed wear-
able medical systems and antennas for wireless communication systems.
In 1976 he joined the armament development authority, RAFAEL, in Israel. In
RAFAEL he worked as a senior researcher, group leader and project leader in the
electromagnetic department until 2007. He successfully passed a system engineering
course in RAFAEL. During his work at RAFAEL and at other institutes and com-
panies Dr. Sabban gained experience in project management, microwave and system
engineering, sales, marketing and training. In 2007 he retired from RAFAEL. From
2008 to 2010 he worked as an RF specialist and project leader at high tech compa-
nies. At present he is a senior lecturer and researcher in academic institutes in Israel.
He has published over 65 research papers and holds several patents in the antenna
area. He has written three books and two chapters in books on microwave and anten-
nas engineering.

xxi
 1 Wearable
Communication and
Medical Systems
Wearable technology has several applications in personal wireless communication
and medical devices as presented in [1–8]. The biomedical industry has been in con-
tinuous growth in the last few years. Several medical devices and systems have been
developed to monitor patient health as presented in several books and papers [1–44].
Wearable technology provides a powerful new tool to medical and surgical rehabili-
tation services. Wearable body area networks (WBANs) can record electrocardio-
grams and measure body temperature, blood pressure, heartbeat rate, electro-dermal
activity, and other healthcare parameters.

1.1 WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY

Accessories that can comfortably be worn on the body are called wearable devices.
Wearable technology is a developing multidisciplinary field. Knowledge in bioengi-
neering, electrical engineering, software engineering, and mechanical engineering is
needed to design and develop wearable communication and medical system. Wear-
able medical systems and sensors are used to measure and monitor physiological
parameters of the human body. Biomedical systems in the vicinity of human body
may be wired or wireless. Many physiological parameters may be analyzed using
wearable medical systems and sensors. Wearable medical systems and sensors can
measure body temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure, sweat rate, and other physio-
logical parameters of the person wearing the medical device. Wearable technology
may provide scanning and sensing features that are not offered by mobile phones or
laptop computers. It usually has communication capabilities and users may have
access to information in real time. Several wireless technologies are used to handle
data collection and processing by medical systems. The collected data may be stored
or transmitted to a medical center to analyze the collected data. Wearable devices
gather raw data that is fed to a database or to a software application for analysis. This
analysis typically may result in a response that might alert a physician to contact a
patient who is experiencing abnormal symptoms. However, a similar message may
be sent to a person who achieves a fitness goal.
Examples of wearable devices include headbands, smart wristbands, belts, watches,
glasses, contact lenses, e-textiles and smart fabrics, jewelry, bracelets, and hearing
aid devices.
Usually wearable communication systems consist of a transmitting unit, a receiv-
ing unit, a data processing unit, and wearable antennas.

1
2 Novel Wearable Antennas for Communication and Medical Systems

Wearable technology may influence the fields of transportation, health and medicine,
fitness, aging, disabilities, education, finance, gaming, entertainment, and music.
Wearable devices will be in the next decade an important part of individuals’ daily
lives.

1.2 WEARABLE MEDICAL SYSTEMS

One of the main goals of wearable medical systems is to increase disease prevention.
By using more wearable medical devices a person can handle and be aware of his
private health. Sophisticated analysis of continuously measured medical data of a
large number of medical centers’ patients may result in improved low-cost medical
treatment.

1.2.1 APPLICATIONS OF WEARABLE MEDICAL SYSTEMS

Wearable medical devices may

• Help to monitor hospital activities

• Assist diabetes patients
• Assist asthma patients
• Help solve sleep disorders
• Help solve obesity problems
• Help solve cardiovascular diseases
• Assist epilepsy patients
• Help in treatment of Alzheimer’s disease patients
• Help gather data for clinical research trials and academic research studies

1.3 WEARABLE MEDICAL SYSTEMS

Several physiological parameters can be measured using wearable medical systems
and sensors. Some of this physiological data is presented in this chapter.

1.3.1 MEASUREMENT OF HUMAN BODY TEMPERATURE

The temperature of a healthy person ranges between 35°C to 38°C. Temperatures
below or above this range may indicate that the person is sick. Temperatures above
40°C may cause death. A person’s body temperature may be transmitted to a medical
center and if needed the doctor may contact the patient for further assistance.

1.3.2 MEASUREMENT OF BLOOD PRESSURE

A blood pressure measurement indicates the arterial pressure of the blood circulating
in the human body.
Some of the causes of changes in blood pressure may be stress and being over-
weight. The blood pressure of a healthy person is around 80 by 120, where the systole
is 120 and the diastole is 80.
Wearable Communication and Medical Systems 3

Changes of ten percent above or below these values are a matter of concern and
should be examined. Usually blood pressure and heartbeat are measured in the same
set of measurements. The blood pressure and heartbeat may be transmitted to a med-
ical center and if needed the doctor may contact the patient for further assistance.

1.3.3 MEASUREMENT OF HEART RATE

Measurement of the heart rate is one of the most important tests when examining the
health of a patient. A change in heart rate will change the blood pressure and the
amount of blood delivered to all parts of the body. The heart rate of a healthy person
in 72 beats per minute. Changes in heartbeat may cause several kinds of cardiovas-
cular disease. Traditionally heart rate is measured using a stethoscope. However, this
is a manual test and is not so accurate. To measure and analyze the heartbeat a wear-
able medical device may be connected to a patient’s chest. Medical devices that
measure heartbeat can be wired or wireless.

1.3.4 MEASUREMENT OF RESPIRATION RATE

Measurement of respiration rate indicates if a person is breathing normally and if the
patient is healthy. Elderly and overweight people have difficulty breathing normally.
Wearable medical devices are used to measure a person’s respiration rate. A wired
medical device used to measure respiration rate may cause uneasiness to the patient
and cause an error in measurements of respiration rate. It is better to use a wireless
medical device to measure respiration rate. The measured respiration rate may be
transmitted to a medical center and if needed the doctor may contact the patient for
further assistance.

1.3.5 MEASUREMENT OF SWEAT RATE

Glucose is the primary energy source of human beings. Glucose is supplied to the
human body usually as a monosaccharide sugar that provides energy to the human
body. When a person does extensive physical activity, glucose comes out of the skin
as sweat. A wearable medical device can be used to monitor and measure the sweat
rate of a person during extensive physical activity. A wearable medical device can be
attached to the person’s clothes in proximity to the skin to monitor and measure the
sweat rate. This device can also be used to measure the sweat Ph, which is important
in diagnosis of diseases. Water vapor evaporated from the skin is absorbed in the
medical device to determine the sweat Ph. If the amount of sweat coming out of the
body is too high, the body may dehydrate. Dehydration causes tiredness and fatigue.
Measurements of sweat rate and Ph may be used to monitor the physical activity of a
person.

1.3.6 MEASUREMENT OF HUMAN GAIT

The movement of human limbs is called the human gait. Human gaits are the
various ways in which a human can move. Different gait patterns are character-
4 Novel Wearable Antennas for Communication and Medical Systems

ized by differences in limb movement patterns, overall velocity, forces, kinetic

and potential energy cycles, and changes in contact with the ground. Walking,
jogging, skipping, and sprinting are defined as natural human gaits. Gait analysis
is a helpful and fundamental research tool to characterize human locomotion.
Wearable devices may be attached to different parts of the body to measure and
analyze human gait. The movement signal recorded by these devices can be used
to analyze human gait. Temporal characteristics of gait are collected and
estimated from wearable accelerometers and pressure sensors inside footwear.
In sports, gait analysis based on wearable sensors can be used for sports training
and analysis and for the improvement of athletic performance. The ambulatory gait
analysis results may determine whether or not a particular treatment is appropriate
for a patient. Motion analysis of human limbs during gait is applied in preoperative
planning for patients with cerebral palsy and can alter medical treatment decisions.
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by motor difficulties such as gait difficulty,
slowing of movement, and limb rigidity. Gait analysis has been verified as one of the
most reliable diagnostic signs of this disease. For patients with neurological prob-
lems, such as Parkinson’s disease and stroke, ambulatory gait analysis is an impor-
tant tool in their recovery process and can provide low-cost and convenient
rehabilitation monitoring.
Gait analysis based on wearable devices can be applied in healthcare monitoring,
such as in the detection of gait abnormalities, the assessment of recovery, fall risk
estimation, and in sports training. In healthcare centers, gait information is used to
detect walking behavior abnormalities that may predict health problems or the pro-
gression of neurodegenerative diseases. Falling is the most common type of home
accident among elderly persons. It is a major threat to the health and independence
among elderly people. Gait analysis using wearable devices has been used to analyze
and predict falls among elderly patients.

1.3.7 WEARABLE DEVICES TRACKING AND MONITORING DOCTORS AND PATIENTS

HOSPITALS
INSIDE

Each patient can have a wearable device attached to the body. The wearable device
is connected to several sensors. Each sensor has its own specific task to perform. For
example, one sensor node may detect heart rate and body temperature while another
detects blood pressure. Doctors can also carry a wearable device, which allows other
hospital personnel to locate them within the hospital (Figure 1.1).

1.4 WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORKS

The main goal of WBANs is to provide continuous biofeedback data. WBANs can
record electrocardiograms, and measure body temperature, blood pressure, heart-
beat rate, electro-dermal activity, and other healthcare parameters in an efficient
way. For example, accelerometers can be used to sense heartbeat rate, movement, or
even muscular activity. Body area networks (BANs) include applications and com-
Wearable Communication and Medical Systems 5

Data Receiving and

recorder and transmitting
control unit unit

Data analysis
and control
unit

Wearable devices Wearable devices

FIGURE 1.1 Wearable devices for various medical applications.

munication devices using wearable and implantable wireless networks. A sensor net-
work that senses health parameters is called a body sensor network (BSN). A WBAN
is a special-purpose wireless-sensor network that incorporates different networks
and wireless devices to enable remote monitoring in various environments.
One application of WBANs is in medical centers where the condition of a large
number of patients is constantly being monitored. Wireless monitoring of physi-
ological signals of a large number of patients is needed in order to deploy a com-
plete WSN in healthcare centers. Human health monitoring is emerging as a
significant application of embedded sensor networks. A WBAN can monitor vital
signs, providing real-time feedback to allow many patient diagnostic procedures
using continuous monitoring of chronic conditions or progress of recovery from
an illness. Recent technological advances in wireless networking promise a new
generation of wireless sensor networks suitable for human body wearable network
systems.
Data acquisition in WBAN devices can be point-to-point or multipoint-to-point,
depending on specific applications. Detection of an athlete’s health condition would
require point-to-point data sharing across various on-body sensors. Human body
monitoring of vital signs will require routing data from several wearable sensors,
multipoint-to-point, to a sink node, which in turn can relay the information wire-
lessly to an out-of-body computer. Data may be transferred in real-time mode or
non-real-time. Human body monitoring applications require real-time data transfer.
An athlete’s physiological data can be collected offline for processing and analysis
purposes.
6 Novel Wearable Antennas for Communication and Medical Systems

A typical wireless body area network consists of a number of compact low-

power sensing devices, a control unit, and wireless transceivers. The power supply
for these components should be compact, lightweight, and long lasting as well.
WBANs consist of small devices with fewer opportunities for redundancy. To
improve the efficiency of a WBAN it is important to minimize the number of
nodes in the network. Adding more devices and path redundancy for solving node
failure and network problems is not a practical option in WBAN systems. WBANs
receive and transmit a large amount of data constantly. Data processing must be
hierarchical and efficient to deal with the asymmetry of several resources, to main-
tain system efficiency, and to ensure the availability of data. WBANs in a medical
area consist of wearable and implantable sensor nodes that can sense biological
information from the human body and transmit it over a short distance wirelessly
to a control device worn on the body or placed in an accessible location. The sensor
electronics must be miniaturized, low-power, and able to detect medical signals
such as electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, pulse rate, blood pressure,
and temperature. The aggregate data from the control devices is then transmitted
to remote destinations in a wireless body-area network for diagnostic and thera-
peutic purposes by including other wireless networks for long-range transmission
(Figure 1.2).
A wireless control unit is used to collect information from sensors through wires
and transmits it to a remote station for monitoring (Figure 1.3).

Data Receiving and

recorder and transmitting
control unit unit

Data analysis
and control
unit

Hospital
antenna

Doctor A Doctor B

Doctor C

Medical center
Wearable devices Wearable devices

FIGURE 1.2 Wearable body area network (WBAN) for various medical applications.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
larger than that of Bradford, and yet all of them are to have three
members; whereas the Tower Hamlets with 25,366, Marylebone with
20,377, and Lambeth with 18,522 electors, are but to have two each as
heretofore. Even the sage of the Edinburgh Review has borne testimony
to the impropriety and injustice of adding to the number of
representatives returned for large towns. In his article of October 1852, he
says:—

“It would appear that the large towns have their full share of the representation; since,
if we add the small boroughs to the counties, on the supposition of their returning a
somewhat similar class of members, and containing a somewhat similar constituency, the
comparison would stand thus:—

Population. Members.
Counties and small boroughs, 10,250,000 259
Large towns and cities, 6,660,000 206

—whereas the proper arithmetical proportion for the cities would be 169, instead of 206.”

The fact is, that Lord John Russell has assigned an additional number
to each of these towns, not because they require one, but in order to make
the extraordinary experiment, to which we have already alluded, of the
representation of minorities in Parliament. For that reason, also, he
proposes to give thirty-six additional members to so many counties and
their divisions, making each up to the number of three, so that minorities
may be represented on rather an extensive scale. We shall have occasion
presently to say a word or two on that subject. The notion seems to us not
only impracticable, but positively silly; and such as no man of ordinary
sense could entertain for a moment. Even were it more feasible than it
appears, that would not justify an unnecessary disfranchisement of the
boroughs. We can see no reason for parting with them so abruptly—many
for retaining them; because, undoubtedly, they keep the balance even
between town and country, and so perform a very valuable function in the
Legislature. We do not dispute the propriety of their remodelment or
curtailment. Our views, in that respect, are, we submit, sufficiently liberal;
for we think it just that from them, as small constituencies, any palpable
defect or positive need in the national representation should be supplied.
But we will not consent to their sacrifice merely for theoretical
experiment; or in order to give colour to the proposal for assimilating the
town and county franchise—in other words, for swamping the latter
representation. We are greatly surprised that Lord John Russell should, in
his mature years, have thus been led astray. In the popular ferment of
1831–2—the particulars of which are better known to his lordship than to
us—almost any proposal might have gone down; but now reason instead
of passion must be appealed to and satisfied, before any one can be
allowed to make a material inroad on the Constitution. Lord John is
singularly unfortunate. Mr Bright is quite as much opposed to the notion
of the representation of minorities as we are; and we venture to say that
the collective voice of the counties, to which he proposes to give an
additional member, will be raised against him. We need not press the
point that the borough electors will be especially unwilling to lose their
existing privileges. And if it should so happen—as we know, and as every
man who knows the political feeling of the country, must be the case—that
both the disfranchised parties, and those whose franchise is thereby
nominally increased, hold the scheme in detestation and contempt, how is
it possible that he can hope to carry it even through the House of
Commons? He has no enthusiasm to back him. He is not attempting to
give voice to the opinion of any large section of the public—he is simply
repeating, parrot-like and without examination, in opposition to all he has
heretofore said, the opinions enunciated by another. He is theorising,
contrary to his own experience; and sacrificing, for a mere crotchet, his
own arrangements, which, for twenty years, and until 1852, he deemed to
be mathematically correct.
We now come to the question of qualification. This is a very serious one,
and cannot be properly treated without reference to our existing fiscal
arrangements. Indirect taxation has been reduced to the lowest possible
limit; and, in order to make up the deficiency in the revenue occasioned by
numerous relaxations, we are forced to submit to an income-tax which
amounted last year to more than five and a half millions, levied from those
persons only who are in receipt of more than £100 yearly. From Mr
Gladstone’s financial statement, it appears that the Government does not
intend to increase the amount of the national debt by contracting fresh
loans, but that the inevitable expenses of the war, however large, are to be
defrayed by additional yearly taxation. Further, we are told that it is not
proposed to raise any portion of this by again resorting to indirect
taxation, but that the whole of it is to be charged upon those persons who
are already rated to the income-tax. We subscribe in theory to the opinion,
that it is not advisable for the interests of posterity to increase the amount
of the national debt; which might, however, have been cleared off during
the years of peace but for the insane system pursued by successive
Ministries, of abandoning indirect taxation for the sake of immediate
popularity. In practice, it may be found impossible to avoid the
contraction of fresh loans. It is not likely, for some time at least, that any
Ministry will be bold enough to resort to the customs and excise duties for
the supply of the yearly deficiency, so that there really seems no other
available course than that of taxing property and income still farther. The
effect of this is, that a certain limited class is made to pay for the others,
and that the great bulk of the population are exempted. How long this can
be endured we shall not venture to predict. We have demonstrated over
and over again, in the pages of the Magazine, the extreme impolicy and
ultimate danger of continuing a war tax in time of peace, and the result
shows the soundness of our warning. The day will arrive when this burden
will become so great as to be intolerable; and then, perhaps, it may be
discovered that, in abandoning easy and evident sources of revenue, our
commercial legislators have committed a most grievous error. At present,
however, we can only look to the fiscal arrangements which have been
proposed. It is obvious, at least to us, that it would be highly inexpedient,
and even dangerous, to lodge political power in the hands of those who are
not called upon to contribute directly to the necessities of the State. If you
are to select a certain class as peculiar rate-payers, and to compel them,
year after year, to make up the deficiency of the national income, whatever
that may be, you are bound also to give them peculiar privileges. We care
not how low you make the assessment. Indeed, we are of opinion that it
should be brought down to the lowest possible limit, which, probably,
would be fixed, as regards income, at £60 per annum. But whatever that
limit may be, this principle ought to be established, that no man, not rated
to the property and income tax, shall hereafter be capable of voting, or of
being enrolled. This is the only good security we can have against
confiscation. It is said that the idea of a war is peculiarly popular in the
country. No wonder that it should be so. The artisan is informed that no
additional tax will be laid in consequence upon any article of his
consumpt; that the price of his beer, spirits, tea, coffee, sugar, and
tobacco, will not be raised; and that others will defray the cost of
equipping those fine fleets, and maintaining those splendid troops, which
he cheers as they leave our shores. Very different are the feelings of the
unfortunate individual who, by dint of industry, has worked his way to an
income of £150 a-year, and has a wife and family to support. Last year he
had to pay £4, 7s. 6d., directly to the Exchequer, and was consoling
himself with the vision that, after April 1855, his contribution would be
lowered to £3, 15s. Down upon him, like a vulture, swoops the tax-
gatherer, with a demand for £7, 11s. 3d., to be increased if the war goes on.
You cannot expect that man to be quite as enthusiastic as the artisan,
whose voice, like that of Sempronius, is still for war, so long as he escapes
untaxed. It is easy to be patriotic when there is nothing whatever to pay.
What we advocate, therefore, is, an extension of the property and income
tax to the lowest available limit, and an exclusion from the franchise of all
those who do not contribute to it. It is a proposition not only fair and
reasonable, but imperatively necessary under the circumstances in which
we are placed; and no one can complain of injustice in being excluded
from a privilege for which he does not pay, either from want of means, or
because he fraudulently evades the tax.
Of course, this is tantamount to a rejection of Lord John Russell’s
proposal, that persons having £50 for a certain period of time deposited in
a savings’ bank, shall be entitled to the franchise. This is a proposal which
really will not bear examination. In the first place, it would lead to a
prodigious deal of fictitious registration and wholesale manufacture of
votes; in the second place, it is a most invidious and senseless preference
given to one species of property beyond another. Why a savings’ bank? Are
chartered, joint-stock, or private banks not as good? And why give a vote
for £50 in the shape of a deposit only? Money is only equivalent to
money’s worth. The man who expends £50 in the furnishing of his house,
or in purchasing a share in some small business, or in fifty other ways of
investment, is as good or better than his neighbour, who lets his money lie
in the savings’ bank. It is utterly absurd to select one only kind of deposit
for the franchise, practically excluding hundreds of thousands, who have
more money invested in a different way. Then, again, what means are to
be devised for ascertaining the right of parties so registered to continue on
the roll? The tenure is obviously of the most precarious kind. An election
takes place to-day, and a depositor votes in virtue of his £50; to-morrow
he withdraws it from the bank. How is that to be ascertained? We
presume it is not contemplated that the savings’-bank books shall be open
to the inspection of the public; and if not, where are the means of
ascertaining the continued qualification of parties? In like manner, we
object to the qualification of £10 of yearly dividend from the Funds, or
from bank stock. It is reasonable enough, perhaps, on account of their
educational attainments, that graduates of universities should be admitted
to vote either in town or county, provided that they are assessed to the
property and income tax, but not otherwise; and the receipt of £100 a-
year of salary, as it implies direct rating, may be taken as a sufficient
qualification for borough or town voting.
But we are not at all prepared to agree to the proposed assimilation of
the town and county franchise. It is a direct and dangerous innovation on
the principle of the British constitution, which is, that the county
representation shall be kept apart from that of the towns and boroughs.
The Act of 1832 admitted the proprietor of a £10 house, not situated
within the boundaries of a borough, to a county vote; and the result of
that, in some localities, has been, that the voters in villages and small
towns which were not boroughs, have been numerous enough to swamp
and overpower the proper county constituency. That was bad enough; but
it is now proposed that occupiers shall have the franchise; and, as we
remarked last month, it is not by any means necessary that the house
which the voter occupies should be of the yearly value of £10. We must
again quote the words of Lord John Russell: “We propose, with respect to
the county right of voting, that—with the exception of a dwelling-house,
which may be of any value, provided the voter lives in it—in all other
cases the building must be of the value of £5 a-year. Supposing there is a
house and land, the house may be rated at £1 or £2 a-year, provided the
voter resides in it; but if the qualification is made out by any other
building—a cattle-shed, or any other building of that kind—then we
propose this check, that such building shall be of the value of £5 a-year.
This, then, is the franchise we propose to give in counties for the future.”
Thus the English counties are to be inundated, 1st, By £10 occupiers, not
resident within borough boundaries; and, 2dly, By the voters of sixty-six
disfranchised boroughs, who are to be thrown loose upon them! We are
confident that, in any case, such a proposal as this will be rejected. The
counties do not want additional members at the expense of the boroughs;
and we think it is, on principle, most important that the two kinds of
representation should be preserved distinct. Indeed, but for the crotchet
of giving representation to minorities, by assigning to as many
constituencies as possible three members each, we should probably have
heard nothing of this transfer of borough representation. That the county
franchise may be advantageously lowered as regards tenants, we are ready
to admit. Let them be enrolled from £20 upwards, provided they pay
property and income tax, which, according to our view, ought to be made
an indispensable condition to the franchise.
But we shall be asked, what is to become of £10 occupants residing
beyond borough boundaries, who are really rated to the income-tax? Are
they to remain unrepresented? Our reply is, that they ought to be
represented, and can be represented, without sending them to the county-
roll. The true, sound, and equitable method is to enlarge the
parliamentary boundaries of boroughs, so that persons of this class may
be enrolled in the nearest borough to their residence. Such enlargement
may be made irrespective of other persons who are entitled to the county
franchise, and who would still claim to be placed upon that roll. In this
way, no one really entitled to vote would be excluded: both counties and
boroughs would be preserved; and the latter would receive a very
considerable augmentation of numbers from a class of men who at present
do not enjoy the franchise.
There is but one point more to which we shall specially refer, and that is
the proposed representation of minorities. We have shown, in a former
article, that this is perfectly unworkable, and moreover greatly to be
deprecated, as entirely changing the relations of the electors and their
representatives. It can only, according to Lord John Russell’s admission,
be attempted in constituencies which are to be allowed three
representatives; and the simple fact of its being the exception, and not the
rule, seems to us sufficient to condemn it. We have already put the case of
the death or resignation of one of these minority members, and we cannot
see how his place can be supplied, unless it is enacted that the candidate
lowest on the poll is to be returned. It is neither sensible nor equitable to
challenge the authority of majorities. If you leave a question, whether it
relate to men or measures, to be decided by a certain number of people,
you must perforce adopt and acquiesce in the verdict of the majority. But
it is within our power to render the majorities less oppressive, by
multiplying as much as possible the number of the tribunals of appeal.
This brings us to the consideration of a topic which we broached in the
last number of the Magazine, and which, we venture to say, is well worthy
of the attention of our statesmen. It cannot be denied that in many places,
especially large towns, there is an immense degree of apathy on the part of
those who are entitled to the franchise. Men who are in the possession or
occupation of property far more than sufficient to entitle them to vote, do
not even take the pains to place themselves on the roll; and many of those
who are on the roll will not give themselves the trouble to vote. It is
remarkable also that these are generally men of wealth, station, and
intelligence—belonging, in short, to the class most likely to use the
franchise with discretion and independence. The reason of this apparent
apathy is, that they know quite well that they will be outvoted. In urban
constituencies of four thousand or upwards, returning two members each,
every one knows beforehand how the election will go, and consequently no
effort is made by a desponding minority. We grant that such ought not to
be the case; because an elector, though he may not be able to find a
candidate of his own way of thinking, can always exercise a wholesome
control, by voting for the man who, in his judgment, is the best in the field
—but there can be no doubt that the case is as we represent it. For
example, at last election, there voted, in round numbers, at London, only
7,500 out of 20,000 electors—at Finsbury, 9,000 out of 20,000—at
Lambeth, 8,000 out of 18,000—at Manchester, 9,000 out of 13,000—at
Westminster, 800 out of 14,800—at Sheffield, 3,500 out of 5,300—at
York, 2,500 out of 4,100—at Edinburgh, 3,500 out of 6,900—at Glasgow,
5,000 out of 16,500. These represent the actual numbers on the register,
but not the number of those entitled to be enrolled, but who have not
lodged claims. In short, the activity in voting and enrolling seems to
decline in proportion to the size of the constituency.
There is but one way of remedying this, and that is by recurring to the
simple principle that no man shall be entitled, in one place, to vote for
more than a single member. We do not mean by this that large
populations should be restricted to a single member—that would be
unfair, and even preposterous. We mean that each county, division of a
county, city, town, or borough, which has more than one member allotted
to it, should be subdivided into parishes, districts, or wards, each to return
a member, according to the votes of the majority of the qualified electors
within it. Thus London would be divided into four electoral districts;
Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, and others into two; and the counties
would, in the same way, be partitioned into so many districts as there
were members to be returned. This system is at present in partial
operation in the counties of England, which are split into divisions, and
there undoubtedly the system has worked well and satisfactorily. No man
in his senses would propose that each county elector of Yorkshire should
have six votes; and we really cannot see why one man, because he happens
to live in a large town, should have double the personal political influence
of another who resides in a small borough. It does not necessarily follow,
by any means, that the members to be returned under the operation of the
system which we propose should be antagonistic to one another. It would,
we are convinced, materially tend to improve the representation, by
infusing fresh energy into the constituencies; it is already recognised, and
partially in effect; and it is not liable to any of the objections which it
requires no ingenuity to rear against Lord John Russell’s absurd scheme
for giving members to minorities.
We might say a great deal more on the subject of the present bill, but we
think that further comment is needless. We have shown, by absolute
demonstration, that it is not the result of Lord John Russell’s own
Parliamentary experience—that, for twenty years of his public life, dating
from 1832, he had failed to see the proper method of amending the
representation of the people—and that he was at last enlightened by a
series of articles, which display as little consistency as wisdom. We have
shown also that he has not probed the great question of the relative
proportional representation of the three united kingdoms—that he
proposes to demolish borough representation, without any necessity for
doing so—and that he wishes entirely to change, or rather to abrogate, the
ancient distinction between town and county franchise. We have shown
that he has not taken at all into consideration the recent fiscal changes,
and that he proposes to place those who are heavily and directly taxed on
the same footing with those who are allowed to escape that burden. We
have shown that other parts of his scheme are either merely fantastical, or
dictated by party motives; and having said so much, we are content to
abide by the decision of the country.
If this bill is again brought forward on the 27th of April, or a later day in
the session, we do not believe that it will ever pass into the statute-book. If
it is withdrawn, on the score of inconvenience or otherwise, we are
perfectly certain that it will not again appear in its present shape; for,
many as are the legislative proposals which we have had occasion to
consider, this is, beyond comparison, the worst digested, most incoherent
and most rambling measure of them all.
 THE BLUE BOOKS AND THE EASTERN
QUESTION.

Notwithstanding the imposing aspect of these azure tomes,

technically termed Blue Books, we confess we do not look upon them
without a feeling of suspicion or incredulity. No doubt the usages of
Parliament and the will of the Crown require the production of
documents relating to every important transaction connected with
our foreign policy, and they are intended to furnish ample and
accurate details of our international acts, and to unfold to the public
the intricacies of complicated and tedious negotiations. Such is the
object of those expensive publications; but, for the attainment of that
object, they should be not merely authentic, but complete. And when
we say that we do not regard the Blue Books with all the respect that
full confidence inspires, it is because we know that the papers they
contain are well sifted and culled: those parts which would prove the
weakness, the ignorance, and the imprudence of a Minister, are so
carefully kept out of sight, and so curtailed, and those in his favour
so prominently brought forward, that we have, after all, a very
partial, and consequently a very imperfect, view of the manner in
which a negotiation has been conducted. Truth, they say, lies at the
bottom of a well: the Foreign Office may be that well, but the eye of
the public is not always enabled to pierce its depth. Moreover, we
have heard it related that some Ministers indulge a vicious habit of
communicating instructions to their diplomatic agents in notes or
letters marked private, or evidently meant to be so from their
familiar style and tone; and that some letters contain hints or
instructions sometimes contrary to the official despatches. This is
unjust to the public, and unfair to the diplomatic agent himself, who,
in case his conduct should become subject of inquiry or censure in
Parliament, is thus debarred from defending himself, because the
real instructions on which he acted bear the stamp of privacy, which
delicacy forbids him to violate; and it is quite certain that the Blue
Books contain no trace of those confidential missives. There is one
personage in particular whose name has been more connected than
any other with our foreign policy, who is said to carry this habit to
such a point as to force complaints from his own subordinates.
We are not exempt from human weakness: we confess that we
have more than once cast a curious and a longing glance on those
plethoric Jacks which daily issue from Downing Street, and the safe
conveyance of which to their distant destination costs the country
annually a handsome sum of money. We have often desired to dive to
the very bottom of these round white leathern envelopes, which are
so tenderly handled and so scrupulously guarded. What profound
thoughts, what foresight, what eloquence, and what wisdom, must be
contained, we have often thought, within that mysterious covering of
calf, of more than aldermanic rotundity, tightly closed at the neck
with whipcord, and the genius of England protecting the orifice in
the form and fashion of a huge red seal. It is true that idle or
blabbing clerks, and supercilious or rollicking messengers—the
external “gentlemen” of the Foreign Office—are said to indulge
occasionally in a laugh, whilst lounging in their waiting-room, at the
reverential awe with which the vulgar are wont to look upon the
“despatch bags.” Strange stories, too, are said to be current of the
miscellanies which sometimes fill them, the curious olla podrida, the
several parts of which are so well adapted to the tastes of the
youthful employés of our foreign embassies. Packages of pomatum,
bottles of hair-dye, pots of varnish, patent-leather boots, and dress-
coats, are occasionally conveyed to the capital where we are blessed
with a representative who unites in his own person the conflicting
tastes of dandyism and parsimony. Gossipping tongues speak of even
more important cargoes—not, of course, in the bag, but outside it—
that were sometimes conveyed, at her Majesty’s expense, to her
“Honourable” or “Right Honourable” representative, under the care
of some bustling “gentleman,” whose official character is indicated
by the Windsor uniform, and a minute badge with the royal arms,
and the effigy (a harmless irony) of a greyhound—the latter
symbolical of the speed at which he is presumed to travel.
 Taking the present Blue Books at the value set upon them by the
Government, we believe that every impartial man who has glanced
over their contents, and who has read the debates in Parliament, will
be convinced of the blindness, the weakness—we will not say the
criminality—of the Cabinet, in all that relates to the Eastern
question. It is in vain that we attempt to defend their conduct on the
ground of ignorance, for there are abundant proofs in the documents
before us, however imperfect they may be, that they were not
ignorant, and were not unwarned of what was going on. The evidence
is too clear even for audacity to deny, or hypocrisy to diminish. They
themselves have been forced to admit that they were outwitted and
duped as no men were ever duped before; and however a generous
and forgiving people may pardon the fault for the frankness of the
confession, such imbecility in the past is but poor encouragement for
the future. The noble lord who holds the post of Prime Minister is
indeed unfortunate in his general estimate of men and things. When
the Revolution of February was on the point of bursting forth, he is
said to have declared his conviction that King Louis Philippe and his
dynasty were firmer than ever on the throne of France. After a long,
and, we presume, conscientious study of the President of the new
French republic, the same acute intellect pronounced Louis
Napoleon to be little better than an idiot, and in contemptuous terms
described him as incapable in thought and action. When the votes of
millions approved and confirmed the daring illegality of the act of
December 1851, he believed that his rule could not last three months:
and in the latest exercise of his discrimination and knowledge of the
world, our great statesman laughed to scorn the fear that the
Emperor Nicholas ever contemplated any attack against the integrity
of the Ottoman Empire, and this at the moment when every post was
bringing home news of the hostile attitude of Russia; when the
newspapers teemed with accounts of the movements of armies in the
south of Russia; when that force was placed on a war footing, and
provisioned as if on the eve of a campaign; when a fleet was at
Sebastopol ready to weigh anchor; when wood was cut down for the
construction of pontoons and bridges for the Pruth and Danube; and
when Constantinople itself was menaced with a coup de main;[8]
when the magazines of Odessa were gorged with military stores for
the complete equipment of 150,000 men; when troops had already
marched to the Turkish frontier; when Prince Menschikoff was
outraging the Sultan in his own capital, and dictating who should, or
who should not, be his minister. And with the reports of our own
diplomatic and consular agents confirming all those facts, the noble
Lord at the head of her Majesty’s Government was smiling
complacently at the compliments lavished on him by that great
master of irony, Count Nesselrode, who chuckled with his imperial
master at the simplicity of the statesman refusing to believe the
evidence of his senses. We have seldom witnessed so much
prevarication, so much barefaced misstatement, as have been
exhibited on this question. It was denied in the most positive manner
in the House of Lords that Russia had ever required from the Sultan
the dismissal of his minister Fuad Effendi; or that the resignation of
that minister was voluntary. The repeated warnings in the public
press, the official communications of his own agents in Turkey and
Russia, went for nothing. The intentions of the Emperor of Russia
were in his eyes moderate and pacific, even so late as the end of
April. The arrogant language of the Russian Envoy at
Constantinople, the menaced occupation of the Principalities, were,
because Count Nesselrode pronounced them to be so, not merely
exaggerated, but “destitute of any foundation whatever.” The “beau
rôle” which the wily chancellor of the Russian Empire congratulated
Lord Aberdeen for having preferred, was in point of fact the meanest
subservience; and we are satisfied that it was to the conviction that
this “beau rôle”[9] was to be played out to the end, that we owe all
that has since taken place. The same truckling spirit characterised
even those acts of the Government which had the appearance of
energy. When our ships entered the Dardanelles, and anchored
before Constantinople, the country was made to believe that their
presence in the Bosphorus had no reference to the acts of Russia, but
to the protection of British subjects and property, and to the defence
of the Sultan from the violence of his own subjects at a moment
when it was known that not the slightest danger menaced either the
one or the other. Abdul Medjid must have felt indignant at the
imputation thus cast by his friends on the loyalty of his subjects, and
even Lord Aberdeen’s own ambassador declined to accept such an
explanation of movement of the fleet without a pretext. Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe, while expressing his thanks for the interest
taken by the British Government in the preservation of British life
and property at Constantinople, said, at the same time, that he
applied his gratitude also to that part of the instructions which
authorised him to consider the presence of her Majesty’s squadron, if
he thought proper to require it, as intended to embrace the
protection of the Sultan in case of need: from whom the Sultan most
needed protection, no man knew better than the English
ambassador. The defence set up for the delays, the hesitations, and
the inaction of the Aberdeen Cabinet, was, it seems, the doubt
entertained of the co-operation of France. Now, nothing is more
clearly shown, even in the Blue Books, that the contrary was the fact.
It is proved by the despatches of the French Ambassador in London,
and of the English Ambassador in Paris. They show, beyond the
possibility of doubt, not only that such was not the case, but that
every proposition of active measures, from the very beginning when
the squadrons appeared in the Bay of Salamis to their entering the
Black Sea, originated exclusively with the French Government. The
despatch of Lord Cowley of the 28th January confirmed the
intelligence published in the London papers, that it was the French
Government who had invited the English to join the French fleet in
the expedition to the Greek waters, and the fact is corroborated in
the despatch of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to his
ambassador in London, dated the 5th June. Again, on the 13th July
the French Ambassador proposed to Lord Clarendon that, in the
event of Russia not accepting the Vienna note, or showing a
disposition to persist in a violent policy, the French and English
fleets should forthwith enter the Dardanelles. That proposition was
repeated in the beginning of September by the French Government;
and once more, on the 23d of the same month, Count Walewski
urged the presence of the fleets in the Black Sea as indispensable. On
this important point there was not the slightest divergence of opinion
between the head of the French Government and his Minister of
Foreign Affairs; their views were the same, their opinions identical;
and the Blue Books prove no fact to be more indisputable, more
certain, than that their conduct throughout the whole of the affair
was frank and straightforward. It is not alone in the French
despatches that we find this proof. We see it in the correspondence of
Lord Aberdeen and Lord Cowley. The latter noble lord, who had the
best opportunity of ascertaining the truth, and who is not a person to
be easily deceived, repeatedly informs his Government that he
invariably received from the Emperor, or from his minister, the same
assurances of a desire to act in concert and in cordial alliance with
England, and that he never could discover, though he was evidently
on the watch, the slightest difference between them. It is all very well
to say that the time which has been spent in, as it now appears,
useless negotiation, has not been lost, and that the Government has
been enabled to prepare the means of resisting the encroachments of
Russia, and of wresting from her the territory she has seized. It is a
poor defence to allege that fortune has, after all, favoured us, and
that we are not in so bad a condition as we might have been. A
blunder is not the less a blunder because its results are not so
mischievous as they might be. But if we are prepared at this moment,
as there can be little doubt, the credit is not due to Ministers, who
have exhibited throughout a credulity and a simplicity we believe to
be unexampled. We have no reason to believe that if, in the very
commencement, a firm and imposing attitude had been assumed by
our Government, the Emperor of Russia would not have recoiled
before he had yet placed himself in a position, to retire from which,
without striking a blow, is shame and dishonour. Had it been
announced that the squadrons would enter the Black Sea the
moment the Russians crossed the Pruth, we believe that that passage
would not have taken place, and in that menace we are confident that
France would have joined us.
On perusing the despatches published by the French Government
in its official organ, we have been particularly struck by the clearness
of views and the intrepidity, mingled with good sense, which pervade
them. From the moment that the question assumed a more general
character; when it ceased to refer exclusively to French interests, we
remark the masterly view which the Emperor’s minister of foreign
affairs took of the whole question as it then stood; of the accuracy
with which he judged of the future conduct of the Czar, and the
marked line of conduct which he proposed to follow. Yet the
difficulties in the way of the French Government were great. With
the cunning which distinguishes the policy of Russia, this power had
the tact to present the Eastern question, from the outset, in a light
most disadvantageous to France; and the excessive zeal and
indiscretion of M. de Lavalette indisposed the other powers, and
afforded a pretext to our own Government to stand aloof. In this
country the policy and person of the French Emperor had been
unpopular. With the prejudice, mistrust, and ill-feeling which his
name inspired, it is not to be wondered at that all his acts were
viewed with suspicion; and the question of the holy places was at
once, and as this result has shown, unfairly interpreted as the
forerunner of new and more important pretensions,—as the
continuation, in fact, of the plans of his uncle, whose hostility to
England he was supposed to have inherited with his crown. It was at
the moment of the invasion panic—which was so far useful that it
roused us to strengthen our defences, and organise a naval and
military force which we then little thought would be employed
against Russia—that the French minister at Constantinople
succeeded in obtaining immunities in favour of the Latin church, of
which France assumed to be the protector. We will not now examine
whether these privileges were of the exorbitant and unjust character
ascribed to them. It is sufficient that they were so considered by
Russia, and that the advantages extorted from the Porte for the
monks of the holy cities were understood as placing the Greek
communion in a condition of relative inferiority, and as realising a
triumph over Russia in those places where she had long reigned
supreme, and where she would brook no rival, much less a superior.
From such a quarrel between rival churches, with the dogmas of
which we had nothing in common, England properly kept apart, and
France was left to find her own way, unaided, out of the unpleasant
position in which her agents had placed her. No moment could be
more propitious to Russia, ever watchful as she has always been of
dissension between the Western powers, and ever ready to take
advantage of it. The French Government soon saw and met the
danger. Its ambassador was recalled and disavowed. Explanations
were promptly and frankly given, and readily received; and M. de
Nesselrode himself, however disappointed or checked, was forced to
admit that these explanations were perfectly satisfactory, and that
the redress obtained in favour of the Latins was not of a nature to
trench upon the immunities of the Greeks. That admission
completely closed the question of the Holy Places, in which France
was exclusively interested. But scarcely had it terminated when the
mission of Prince Menschikoff assumed all at once a strange and
startling aspect. It was soon seen that the holy places were but the
mask which covered pretensions of far greater moment. The French
Government, struck by the haughty and menacing tone of the
Russian envoy, quickly understood the true cause of the vast military
preparations of Russia, and became aware that they were the prelude
to a state of things which would endanger the independence of the
Sultan and the security of his states. It considered that France was
bound by the Treaties of 1841, to which she was a party, as well as by
her position in Europe, not to regard with indifference the
proceedings of Russia; and, as a precautionary measure, it ordered
the Mediterranean fleet to proceed on the 20th March to the Greek
waters, and to remain there until further events rendered a nearer
approach to the Sultan’s capital necessary. When that order was
issued, France alone declared its belief in the grave and threatening
character of the pretensions of the Czar. Austria affected to give
credit to the repeated assurances of Russian moderation, and
continued to keep aloof; and Lord Aberdeen, whose attention had
been drawn by the public press, and, no doubt, by his own agents, to
the coming storm, could perceive no cloud, no angry speck in the
political horizon. The French Government, as is proved by the
despatches in the Moniteur, persisted in its conviction that the most
serious dangers were at hand; and that Russia believed that the long-
expected moment had arrived for realising her traditional policy in
the East—the annihilation of the Ottoman Empire, or its absorption,
by the process of previous degradation. France considered that,
under such circumstances, complete obstruction was impossible, and
that, so far as England was concerned, the necessity of maintaining
her maritime superiority ought to be a sufficient motive for her
participation in a more active policy. The instructions to M. de
Lacour, dated the 22d March, presupposed the adherence of the
British Government to that policy; the co-operation of the English
squadron was anticipated for months previously; and, in his
despatch of the 3d June, M. Drouyn de Lhuys presumed that the
policy of the French Cabinet would soon become that of the Powers
who were equally if not more interested than France in the
maintenance of the Treaties of 1841. This energetic conduct, and the
conviction which began to creep over the slow mind of Lord
Aberdeen, produced some effect. On the 3d June the English
squadron received orders similar to those of the French, and at
length it sailed for Besica Bay. In the course of the same month,
Austria and Prussia, roused to a sense of the impending danger,
mustered courage enough to show symptoms of resistance to the
pretensions of Russia, and in the month of July these two Powers
united with England and France in the Vienna note, with the avowed
object of maintaining peace. We are bound to admit that throughout
this operation the French Government acted in a manner that
redounds to its honour, and that subsequent events have fully
justified its original apprehensions and precautions. The Vienna note
was very properly regarded by the Divan as leaving a door open to
the encroachments of Russia. The instinct of impending danger
rendered the Porte more acute than usual, and its fears, which had
been termed puerile, were completely justified by the commentary of
M. de Nesselrode, who accepted the note for the same reasons that
made the Sultan reject it. The plenipotentiaries were confounded (or
at least affected to be so) on learning that the elaborate state paper,
which had been so carefully worded, and which had stood the
scrutinising glance and the keen criticism of the collective
statesmanship of the Four Cabinets, was, in point of fact, nothing
less than the Menschikoff ultimatum, which had been indignantly
rejected by the same conference that adopted the Vienna note.
Matters now became more complicated and alarming. The war which
began to rage on the banks of the Danube, with every prospect of a
long duration, produced its fatal effects on the commerce of western
Europe; and as the hope of preserving peace became weaker each
day, the union of the four great Powers was found to be more
necessary. The consequence of this resolution was a new conference,
which opened on the 5th December 1853. The note of the 13th
January was the result. It was, no doubt, intended as the bond by
which the Powers pledged themselves to act together for the peace of
Europe; for, notwithstanding the suspicious conduct of Austria, it
was clear that she, even more than any other, was interested in
resisting any attempt to violate international law. The French
Government acted throughout this affair with much prudence,
foresight, and loyalty. We have it on record that Louis Napoleon and
his Government saw from the commencement the aim of Russia, and
fully appreciated the grave and alarming character of the events
which were preparing in the East. The Emperor of the French had, as
we have said, been exposed to a great deal of obloquy in this country.
He had encountered the sullenness or hostility of our Government;
he had to contend with the intrigues of political parties in France, the
most selfish and unprincipled of all, the Fusionists; and he exhibited
throughout the sagacity which foresaw, and the judgment which
estimated, the full importance of the situation—as well as the
courage to face it. He who had been suspected of a design to trample
all obligations under foot, to disregard faith and honour, stood forth
boldly, first, and alone, to defend the inviolability of treaties; and he
summoned the nations of Europe to co-operate with him. Insulted by
suspicions of his good faith, and baffled in his attempts to conciliate
his enemies, he yet did not abandon the task he had undertaken. He
at length succeeded in bringing over England. Austria and Prussia,
ever timorous, hesitating, and slow, inclined to the manly policy of
which France had set the example, and the question of the Holy
Places, which had been confined to Russia and France, soon lost its
original character, and assumed another, which now interests and
agitates the whole of the European continent. We live in strange
times! One of the strangest events to which the Eastern question has
given rise is, that Napoleon III.—the “idiot,” as a noble lord in the
present Cabinet was wont to call him—the penniless adventurer, the
man regardless of all ties, of all faith, should be the person to remind
the Conservative Governments of Europe of the treaties they
themselves had framed, and to summon them to execute them
faithfully. Louis Napoleon is no longer an outcast; nor is France
isolated. His alliance, on the contrary, is courted; and among his
former foes are some who find no terms too extravagant to celebrate
his disinterestedness and his loyalty. The French despatches do
honour to the sovereign who inspired, and the minister who drew
them up; and they are in every respect worthy of the great nation
whose title to our friendship is, that she has been the most
formidable and honourable of our enemies.
Foresight, moderation, and firmness are, as we have observed, the
characteristics of French policy in the Eastern question. In these
despatches we see the French minister anticipate the moment when
negotiation would become fruitless, and when all honourable mode
of arrangement would be rejected by Russia. In its earlier stages we
find the French ambassador in London, earnestly and repeatedly
urged to come to an understanding with the English Cabinet on the
conduct which, in such an emergency, it would be necessary to
adopt. It is to the repeated instances of M. Drouyn de Lhuys we owe
it, that identical instructions were given to M. de Lacour and Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe, which directed that the fleets should enter the
Dardanelles if the Russians did not evacuate the Principalities which
they had invaded. Yet the fatal hesitation of Lord Aberdeen may be
traced even in the resolves of the French minister. In the decided
measure adopted by M. Drouyn de Lhuys, there appeared an
unwillingness to break off rudely with Russia. In his despatch of the
1st September, that minister informs Count Walewski, that the
presence of the fleets at the entrance of the Dardanelles—outside the
castles—if demanded by the Porte—was rather a measure of
precaution against the weather, than an encouragement to the Porte
in its refusal to the reasonable demands of Russia. It may be that
such a declaration was with a view to allay any alarm which might be
felt by the German states at the onward movement of the fleet. We
find additional evidence of the unwillingness to occasion fresh
embarrassment in the cause assigned for the first appearance of a
detachment of the squadron before Constantinople. That pretext was
the apprehension of insurrection against the Sultan by the Ulemas,
and the massacre of the Christian population. We have no doubt that
there was considerable dissatisfaction manifested by the Turks at the
delays of their soi-disant allies; and that there existed much
irritation at the conduct of the western Courts, who had advised the
Porte to resist the demands of Russia; excited it to use all the means
at its disposal to maintain that resistance; and who, when Turkey
was left exposed to the wrath of her formidable enemy, still lingered
at the mouth of the Dardanelles. But we look in vain for satisfactory
proofs of the plots of insurrection and massacre attributed to the
Mussulman population, and assigned as the cause of the presence of
the fleets at Constantinople. We regard the whole thing as one of
those paltry subterfuges, of which we find so many instances
throughout this proceeding. Nothing was, however, gained by it; and
neither the Emperor of Russia nor the public was deceived. The
Christian population of Stamboul showed no sign of apprehension,
and we have reason to believe that they disclaimed, so far as they
were concerned, any such motive. The Turks were offended at being
accused of a crime which they had not contemplated, and outraged
by being falsely accused by Christians of treason to their own
sovereign. With the arrival of the fleets before Constantinople
vanished the danger of the Christians, of which, however, they were
perfectly unconscious; as also of the Sultan, who, though informed
that the vengeance of his subjects had placed his crown and life in
danger, yet, in all the consciousness of security, had not ceased for a
single day to appear in public, in the streets and public places where
the population is in greatest number;—that population which our
Ministers pretended to believe was watching the first favourable
occasion to depose or assassinate him. He never failed to pray at the
stated hours in the mosque, where the plotting Ulemas and the
fanatical Softas explained or studied the Koran. Not only no insult
was offered to him in word, act, or perhaps thought; but his
Highness was on all occasions received with the same respect,
reverence, and affection which Abdul-Medjid, ever since his
accession to the throne, has proved himself deserving of.
The fleets having gone up for a special service, which they were not
called upon to perform, the next question was, what was to be done
with them, and where they should go next? An extract from the
despatch of M. Drouyn de Lhuys to Count Walewski, of 4th
September, shows the anxiety of the French Government to get as
quickly as possible out of the awkward position in which their assent
to that contemptible policy placed them. The French minister took
up the matter with courage, and like a man of business:—“The
question now is to determine as to the employment of our naval
forces. The Emperor is of opinion that our fleet is destined to play an
important part in the defence of the Ottoman empire. It might serve
to cover Constantinople, and to operate, if necessary, on the western
coast of the Black Sea, as far up as Varna,” &c. This plan was not,
however, executed. Some difficulty arose on the part of Austria and
Prussia, and these powers did not think, notwithstanding the
intended massacre of the Christians and the deposition of the Sultan,
that the appearance of the combined forces in the Bosphorus, much
less their entry into the Black Sea, was sufficiently called for.
Whether right or wrong, their influence arrested the further
proceedings, which, if we are to credit M. Drouyn de Lhuys, had been
already contemplated by the Emperor of the French. The fleets of
France and England remained, therefore, in a state of inactivity near
the Golden Horn, and negotiations again commenced. New collective
notes were drawn up, and the idea of another quadruple
intervention, with, of course, a view to a pacific solution, was again
revived. The prospect grew brighter. The inexorable Czar appeared to
take pity on our Cabinet; to smile graciously on the minister of the
“beau rôle,” the gentle and confiding friend of Nesselrode. The
Emperor of Russia, whose preparations were not as yet complete,