(Signed) STRATFORD CANNING.
No. 7.
_The Earl of Aberdeen to Sir Stratford Canning_.
(Extract.) _Foreign Office, November_ 4, 1843.
I have received your despatch of the 11th of October, reporting that
the French and Prussian Ministers had received instructions from
their respective Governments on the subject of the execution of the
Armenian referred to in your despatch of the 27th of August.
I calculate that your Excellency will have received on the 24th
ultimo my despatch of the 4th, by which your Excellency will have
been enabled to acquaint the Porte with the feelings with which Her
Majesty's Government had received the intelligence of that
melancholy transaction. I have nothing to add to that instruction.
No. 8.
_Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received
November_ 23.)
My Lord, _Buyukdéré, October_ 31, 1843.
The instruction which I have received from your Lordship respecting
the Armenian decapitated for returning to the Christian faith,
cannot fail of making a deep and, I hope, a salutary impression upon
the Ottoman Ministers.
I have had it carefully translated into Turkish, and placed in M.
Pisani's hands for communication to the Porte, accompanied with an
instruction of which I have the honour to inclose a copy herewith.
Monsieur de Bourqueney having been directed to present an official
note upon the same subject, I thought it advisable to give a certain
degree of formality to the communication of your Lordship's
despatch, and particularly to leave it with the Minister for Foreign
Affairs in writing. A copy of the French Minister's note is herewith
inclosed.
The presentation of this remonstrance has strongly excited the
public attention, and occasioned no small embarrassment at the
Porte. It was proposed in Council to return it, but the suggestion
was overruled, and I hear that nothing will be added to the verbal
reply already given.
The substance of that reply, which M. de Bourqueney read to me from
the report of his first interpreter, is by no means unfavourable.
The language employed by Rifaat Pasha in speaking of the French
Minister's note to M. Pisani, admitted, in substance, that much
might be said with reason against the manner and circumstances of
the execution, but as to the act itself, he said that nothing could
be alleged against a judgment founded upon the express will of God.
His answer to the communication of your Lordship's instruction has
not yet reached me. It will have the greater interest as two more
cases of religion involving capital punishment have recently
occurred. The offender in each instance is a native Mussulman; and
nothing, I conceive, but the late expression of indignation has
prevented the Porte from executing the sentence of the law.
I am informed that Rifaat Pasha, on consulting the Grand Mufti as to
one of these cases, was advised not to bring it under His Holiness'
notice as he had no choice but to declare the law; and a charitable
intimation was added, that where a State necessity existed, the
Porte would herself be found the most competent judge.
The Russian Minister informs me that he is still in expectation of
instructions from St. Petersburgh. The Internuncio refers to the
remarks addressed by Prince Metternich himself to the Turkish
Ambassador at Vienna. M. de Le Coq reserves the communication of his
instruction, in the hope of being able to act simultaneously with M.
de Titow. The silence of any one of the leading Courts on such an
occasion would be a cause of just regret.