(Signed) WESTMORLAND.
No. 22.
_Sir Robert Gordon to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received February_
24.)
(Extract.) _Vienna, February_ 16, 1844.
In compliance with your Lordship's instructions, I have communicated
to Prince Metternich, for the information of the Austrian
Government, your despatch to Sir Stratford Canning relating to the
execution of the Greek renegade by the Turkish authorities at Brussa
on the ground of his apostacy from Islamism.
Whilst I stated to his Highness that my Government did not think it
necessary formally to solicit the co-operation of the Internuncio in
a matter which could only be viewed by every Government in Europe
with the greatest abhorrence, I have been anxious to ascertain in
how far the instructions which are forwarded from hence would be
made to coincide with your Lordship's; and I have now to state that,
although agreeing in the principle upon which have been founded the
remonstrances of Her Majesty's Government, and seeking to arrive at
the same result, the Austrian Minister has nevertheless a decided
objection to the wording of your Lordship's instructions, and the
peremptory terms in which it is endeavoured by them to enforce the
Sultan's compliance.
No. 23.
_Lord Stuart de Rothsay to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received
February_ 24.)
(Extract.) _St. Petersburgh, February_ 6, 1844.
In obedience to the orders contained in your Lordship's despatch of
the 16th January, I have communicated to Count Nesselrode a copy of
your instructions to Sir Stratford Canning upon the subject of a
Greek who had been executed near Brussa as an apostate from
Islamism.
I did so without alluding to the wish of Her Majesty's Government
that the Russian Minister at Constantinople might be furnished with
instructions on the subject. The Vice-Chancellor, nevertheless, said
that he should consider attentively the communication I had made,
and see how far it might be useful to adopt a similar course,
adding, that although he quite participated in the feelings which
actuated Her Majesty's Government, he thought that other means might
be tried which would be more efficacious in attaining our common
object. He afterwards remarked that through the instrumentality of
some of the Russian Consular Agents Pashas had not unfrequently been
persuaded, in an unofficial manner, to facilitate the removal from
their Government of Greeks and others who had rendered themselves
liable to capital punishment for apostacy; and he gave me to
understand that he was of opinion that greater security to
Christians would be obtained by the exercise of the individual
influence of foreign agents, than by seeking an alteration in the
fundamental laws of the Turkish Empire, such as appeared to be the
object of Her Majesty's Government.
Count Nesselrode appears disposed to instruct M. Titow to give his
general support to Her Majesty's Ambassador.
No. 24.
_Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received March_
8.)
(Extract.) _Constantinople, February_ 10, 1844.
On the 5th instant I received your Lordship's instructions of the
16th ultimo, relating to the execution of a Greek near Brussa for
relapsing from Islamism, and directing me to require of the Porte an
unequivocal renunciation of the principle involved in that barbarous
act. I received at the same time, from Her Majesty's Ambassador at
Paris a despatch informing me that he had communicated those
instructions to M. Guizot, and was authorized by him to express that
Minister's approbation of their contents, and his intention of
ordering M. de Bourqueney to concur with me for the attainment of
the object to which they were directed.
I proceeded at once to execute the commands of Her Majesty's
Government. To the French Minister I read your Lordship's first
instruction, and also Lord Cowley's despatch. He returned my
confidence by putting me in possession of M. Guizot's instructions
to him of the 13th ultimo, and by expressing his readiness to act in
concert with me for the accomplishment of our common purpose. To
Rifaat Pasha I communicated a copy, together with an exact
translation, of your Lordship's first instruction. I waited upon his
Excellency by appointment for this object on the 9th instant, having
apprized the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian Ministers of my
intention the day before.
The Ottoman Minister for Foreign Affairs read, in my presence, the
whole of your Lordship's instruction translated into Turkish. Having
finished it, he rose from his seat rather abruptly, without saying a
word, and left the room for a few minutes. On his return, he told me
that the subject was too important for him to give me an answer
without referring to the Council; but, if I were inclined to listen,
he would at once impart to me such observations as occurred to his
mind. I assured him that I was willing to receive with becoming
consideration whatever he thought proper to state; and he then
proceeded to draw a strong line of distinction between custom and
divine law, intimating that a practice derived from the former
source might be abandoned to meet the wishes of Europe, or even of
Great Britain alone, but that a law, prescribed by God himself, was
not to be set aside by any human power; and that the Sultan in
attempting it might be exposed to a heavy, perhaps even to a
dangerous, responsibility. He sought to learn from me whether your
Lordship had been fully aware of this view of the case in writing
the instruction communicated to him; and it seemed to be his object
both to prepare me for an unsatisfactory answer, and to obtain from
me some admission which might give him an advantage in shaping the
decision of the Council.
I had already, in presenting the instruction, endeavoured to make it
clearly understood, that Her Majesty's Government had no object in
view but the one so distinctly and powerfully stated therein; and
also to show how imperiously the welfare of the Porte itself
requires that a practice and principle which operate as moral
barriers between Turkey and Christendom, should now be once for all
renounced and utterly abandoned. I had every reason to believe that
your Lordship had instructed me with a full knowledge of the
question in all its bearings and eventual consequences; that the
course deliberately adopted by Her Majesty's Government, and
announced to the principal Courts of Europe previously united in
reprobation of the late impolitic and atrocious executions, was not
to be receded from; and that any opening to a compromise on so vital
a point could only encourage resistance and endanger the most
important interests. I, therefore, rested entirely on the terms of
your Lordship's instruction, to which, in truth, there was nothing
for me to add.
Although I replied to some of Rifaat Pasha's remarks in a
considerate and conciliatory manner, I referred him steadily to your
Lordship's instructions, and left no reason to hope that any evasive
or temporizing assurance would be accepted as satisfactory by Her
Majesty's Government.
No. 25.
_Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received March_
8.)
My Lord, _Constantinople, February_ 12, 1844.
The interview which I had on the 9th instant with Rifaat Pasha was
followed yesterday by one of a similar character between that
Minister and the French Representative. M. de Bourqueney obligingly
called upon me as soon as he returned from the Pasha's house; and
his report of the conference presented in substance a counterpart of
what had before passed between his Excellency and myself. He stated
that he had given in a paper composed of the strongest passages from
M. Guizot's instruction to him of the 13th ultimo; that he had found
in Rifaat Pasha's remarks the same indication of resistance on the
ground of religion which I had experienced; that in reprobating the
executions complained of, and urging the abandonment of so barbarous
a law for the future, he had placed himself as nearly as possible on
the same ground with me, and that he had carefully avoided any
premature discussion of the form of declaration by which the Porte
would probably, in the end, attempt to satisfy the remonstrating
Governments without a surrender of the principle, or more than a
virtual suspension of the practice.
Notwithstanding the want of any instruction from M. Guizot,
subsequent to Lord Cowley's communication to that Minister, Baron de
Bourqueney found himself sufficiently authorized by the instruction
of the 13th to give me his cordial and unqualified support.
Agreeably to M. Guizot's suggestion, as conveyed to me in Lord
Cowley's despatch, we have acted separately in form, though
concurrently in substance.