(Signed) ABERDEEN.
No. 19.
_The Earl of Aberdeen to Lord Stuart de Rothsay_*.
My Lord, _Foreign Office, January_ 16, 1844.
I inclose for your Excellency's information, a copy of a despatch
from Sir Stratford Canning reporting that a Greek has been executed
near Brussa as an apostate from Islamism; and a copy of an
instruction which I have in consequence addressed to that
Ambassador. Your Excellency will communicate this instruction to
Count Nesselrode for the information of the Russian Government; but
although Her Majesty's Government would doubtless see with pleasure
that the other Powers of Europe should declare their abhorrence of
so revolting a system as that which the Porte has twice acted upon
within the last few months, they do not think it necessary formally
to solicit their co-operation in a matter in which they all may be
supposed to take a common interest, and to be prepared to act
without previous concert with each other.
Your Excellency will therefore merely put Count Nesselrode in
possession of the instructions given to Sir Stratford Canning, and
leave to the Russian Government to determine for itself whether it
shall instruct M. de Titow to the same effect.