(Signed) STRATFORD CANNING.
No. 14.
_M. Guizot to Count Ste. Aulaire_.--(_Communicated by Count Ste.
Aulaire to the Earl of Aberdeen, January_ 13.)
(Extract.) _Paris, le_ 9 _Janvier_, 1844.
Malgré les promesses formelles de la Porte, et les mesures qu'elle
disait avoir prises pour empêcher le renouvellement du douloureux
scandale auquel avait donné lieu, il y a quelques mois, l'exécution
d'un Arménien supplicié pour être revenu à la religion Chrétienne
après avoir embrassé l'Islamisme, un Grec des environs de Brousse
vient encore d'être mis à mort dans des circonstances absolument
semblables. Interpellé à ce sujet par M. de Bourqueney, la Porte n'a
su alléguer pour se justifier que des malentendus et des méprises
dont les allégations même sont contradictoires. Un tel fait n'est
plus seulement un outrage à l'humanité, c'est une insulte jetée à
l'Europe civilisée par le fanatisme d'un parti que le Gouvernement
Ottoman n'a pas le courage de contenir et de réprimer, à supposer
qu'il n'en soit pas lui-même le complice dans une certaine mesure.
Ce courage, il faut le lui donner en lui faisant craindre d'encourir
le sérieux mécontentement des Puissances dont l'appui bienveillant
lui est si nécessaire.
Je vais charger M. de Bourqueney de faire à cet effet une démarche
énergique auprès de la Porte, et je ne doute pas que Lord Aberdeen
ne donne à Sir Stratford Canning des instructions analogues. Le
Gouvernement Britannique croira certainement aussi devoir se joindre
à nous pour demander le concours des autres Grandes Puissances.
(Translation.)
_Paris, January_ 9, 1844.
Notwithstanding the formal promises of the Porte, and the measures
which it had declared that it had taken to prevent the repetition of
the mournful scandal to which a few months ago the execution of an
Armenian who was punished for having returned to Christianity after
having embraced Islamism, gave rise, a Greek of the neighbourhood of
Brussa, has now been put to death, under circumstances precisely
similar. On being questioned on this subject by M. de Bourqueney,
the Porte could only allege in its justification misunderstandings
and mistakes the very allegations with regard to which are
contradictory. Such a transaction is no longer only an outrage to
humanity, it is an insult cast upon civilized Europe, by the
fanaticism of a party which the Ottoman Government has not the
courage to keep within bounds and repress, supposing that it is not
itself to a certain degree an accomplice in the measure. This
courage must be given to it by causing it to apprehend that it will
incur the serious displeasure of the Powers whose benevolent support
is so necessary to it.
I am about to instruct M. de Bourqueney to take an energetic step
for this purpose towards the Porte, and I doubt not that Lord
Aberdeen will furnish Sir Stratford Canning with corresponding
instructions. The British Government will likewise assuredly think
fit to unite with us in demanding the concurrence of the other Great
Powers.
No. 15.
_The Earl of Aberdeen to Sir Stratford Canning_.
Sir, _Foreign Office, January_ 16, 1844.
I have received your Excellency's despatch of the 17th of December,
reporting that a Greek had been executed near Brussa as an apostate
from Islamism, and inclosing a copy of the communication which you
had directed Mr. Dragoman Frederick Pisani to make to the Porte in
consequence of that transaction.
I have to state to your Excellency that Her Majesty's Government
entirely approve the promptitude with which you acted on this
occasion. But the repetition of a scene of this revolting kind so
soon after that which had, in the course of last summer, excited the
horror and indignation of Europe, evinces such total disregard, on
the part of the Porte, for the feelings and remonstrances of the
Christian Powers, that it is incumbent upon Her Majesty's Government
without loss of time to convey their sentiments on the matter still
more explicitly to the knowledge of the Porte. They take this course
singly, and without waiting for the co-operation of the other
Christian Powers, because they desire to announce to the Porte a
determination which, though it doubtless will be concurred in by
all, Great Britain is prepared to act upon alone. Her Majesty's
Government feel too that they have an especial right to require to
be listened to by the Porte on a matter of this nature, for they can
appeal to the justice and to the favour with which the vast body of
Mahomedans subject to the British rule are treated in India, in
support of their demand that all persons, subjects of the Porte and
professing Christianity, shall be exempt from cruel and arbitrary
persecution on account of their religion, and shall not be made the
victims of a barbarous law, which it may be sought to enforce for
their destruction.
Whatever may have been tolerated in former times by the weakness or
indifference of Christian Powers, those Powers will now require from
the Porte due consideration for their feelings as members of a
religious community, and interested as such in the fate of all who,
notwithstanding shades of difference, unite in a common belief in
the essential doctrines of Christianity; and they will not endure
that the Porte should insult and trample on their faith by treating
as a criminal any person who embraces it.
Her Majesty's Government require the Porte to abandon, once for all,
so revolting a principle. They have no wish to humble the Porte by
imposing upon it an unreasonable obligation; but as a Christian
Government, the protection of those who profess a common belief with
themselves, from persecution and oppression, on that account alone,
by their Mahomedan rulers, is a paramount duty with them, and one
from which they cannot recede.
Your Excellency will therefore press upon the Turkish Government
that, if the Porte has any regard for the friendship of England,--if
it has any hope that, in the hour of peril or of adversity, that
protection which has more than once saved it from destruction, will
be extended to it again, it must renounce absolutely, and without
equivocation, the barbarous practice which has called forth the
remonstrance now addressed to it. Your Excellency will require an
early answer; and you will let the Turkish Ministers understand that
if that answer does not fully correspond with the expectations which
Her Majesty's Government entertain, your Excellency is instructed to
seek an audience of the Sultan, and to explain to His Highness, in
the most forcible terms, the feelings of the British Government, and
the consequences, so injurious to Turkey, which a disregard for
those feelings will involve. Her Majesty's Government are so anxious
for the continuance of a good understanding with Turkey, and that
the Porte should entitle itself to their good offices in the hour of
need, that they wish to leave no expedient untried before they shall
be compelled to admit the conviction that all their interest and
friendship is misplaced, and that nothing remains for them but to
look forward to, if not promote the arrival of, the day when the
force of circumstances shall bring about a change which they will
have vainly hoped to procure from the prudence and humanity of the
Porte itself.
Your Excellency will seek an interview with the Reis Effendi, and,
having read to him this despatch, leave a copy of it, with an
accurate translation in his hands.