WITH A PASHA
Joseph Atlee had a very busy morning of it on a certain November day at
Pera, when the post brought him tidings that Lord Danesbury had resigned
the Irish viceroyalty, and had been once more named to his old post as
ambassador at Constantinople.
‘My uncle desires me,’ wrote Lady Maude, ‘to impress you with the now
all-important necessity of obtaining the papers you know of, and, so far
as you are able, to secure that no authorised copies of them are extant.
Kulbash Pasha will, my lord says, be very tractable when once assured
that our return to Turkey is a certainty; but should you detect signs of
hesitation or distrust in the Grand-Vizier’s conduct, you will hint that
the investigation as to the issue of the Galatz shares--“preference
shares”--may be reopened at any moment, and that the Ottoman Bank agent,
Schaffer, has drawn up a memoir which my uncle now holds. I copy my lord’s
words for all this, and sincerely hope you will understand it, which, I
confess,_ I_ do not at all. My lord cautioned me not to occupy your time or
attention by any reference to Irish questions, but leave you perfectly free
to deal with those larger interests of the East that should now engage you.
I forbear, therefore, to do more than mark with a pencil the part in the
debates which might interest you especially, and merely add the fact,
otherwise, perhaps, not very credible, that Mr. Walpole _did_ write the
famous letter imputed to him--_did_ promise the amnesty, or whatever be the
name of it, and _did_ pledge the honour of the Government to a transaction
with these Fenian leaders. With what success to his own prospects, the
_Gazette_ will speak that announces his appointment to Guatemala.
‘I am myself very far from sorry at our change of destination. I prefer the
Bosporus to the Bay of Dublin, and like Pera better than the Phoenix. It
is not alone that the interests are greater, the questions larger, and the
consequences more important to the world at large, but that, as my uncle
has just said, you are spared the peddling impertinence of Parliament
interfering at every moment, and questioning your conduct, from an
invitation to Cardinal Cullen to the dismissal of a chief constable.
Happily, the gentlemen at Westminster know nothing about Turkey, and have
the prudence not to ventilate their ignorance, except in secret committee.
I am sorry to have to tell you that my lord sees great difficulty in what
you propose as to yourself. F. O., he says, would not easily consent to
your being named even a third secretary without your going through the
established grade of attaché. All the unquestionable merits he knows you to
possess would count for nothing against an official regulation. The course
my lord would suggest is this: To enter now as mere attaché, to continue
in this position some three or four months, come over here for the general
election in February, get into “the House,” and after some few sessions,
one or two, rejoin diplomacy, to which you might be appointed as a
secretary of legation. My uncle named to me three, if not four cases
of this kind--one, indeed, stepped at once into a mission and became a
minister; and though of course the Opposition made a fuss, they failed in
their attempt to break the appointment, and the man will probably be soon
an ambassador. I accept the little yataghan, but sincerely wish the present
had been of less value. There is one enormous emerald in the handle which I
am much tempted to transfer to a ring. Perhaps I ought, in decency, to have
your permission for the change. The burnous is very beautiful, but I could
not accept it--an article of dress is in the category of things impossible.
Have you no Irish sisters, or even cousins? Pray give me a destination to
address it to in your next.
‘My uncle desires me to say that, all invaluable as your services have
become where you are, he needs you greatly here, and would hear with
pleasure that you were about to return. He is curious to know who wrote
“L’Orient et Lord D.” in the last _Revue des Deux Mondes_. The savagery of
the attack implies a personal rancour. Find out the author, and reply to
him in the _Edinburgh_. My lord suspects he may have had access to the
papers he has already alluded to, and is the more eager to repossess them.’
A telegraphic despatch in cipher was put into his hands as he was reading.
It was from Lord Danesbury, and said: ‘Come back as soon as you can, but
not before making K. Pasha know his fate is in my hands.’
As the Grand-Vizier had already learned from the Ottoman ambassador at
London the news that Lord Danesbury was about to resume his former post
at Constantinople, his Turkish impassiveness was in no way imperilled by
Atlee’s abrupt announcement. It is true he would have been pleased had the
English Government sent out some one new to the East and a stranger to all
Oriental questions. He would have liked one of those veterans of diplomacy
versed in the old-fashioned ways and knaveries of German courts, and whose
shrewdest ideas of a subtle policy are centred in a few social spies and a
‘Cabinet Noir.’ The Pasha had no desire to see there a man who knew all the
secret machinery of a Turkish administration, what corruption could do, and
where to look for the men who could employ it.
The thing was done, however, and with that philosophy of resignation to
a fact in which no nation can rival his own, he muttered his polite
congratulations on the event, and declared that the dearest wish of his
heart was now accomplished.
‘We had half begun to believe you had abandoned us, Mr. Atlee,’ said he.
‘When England commits her interests to inferior men, she usually means to
imply that they are worth nothing better. I am rejoiced to see that we are,
at last, awakened from this delusion. With his Excellency Lord Danesbury
here, we shall be soon once more where we have been.’
‘Your fleet is in effective condition, well armed, and well disciplined?’
‘All, all,’ smiled the Pasha.
‘The army reformed, the artillery supplied with the most efficient guns,
and officers of European services encouraged to join your staff?’
‘All.’
‘Wise economies in your financial matters, close supervision in the
collection of the revenue, and searching inquiries where abuses exist?’
‘All.’
‘Especial care that the administration of justice should be beyond even
the malevolence of distrust, that men of station and influence should be
clear-handed and honourable, not a taint of unfairness to attach to them?’
‘Be it all so,’ ejaculated the Pasha blandly.
‘By the way, I am reminded by a line I have just received from his
Excellency with reference to Sulina, or was it Galatz?’
The Pasha could not decide, and he went on--
‘I remember, it is Galatz. There is some curious question there of a
concession for a line of railroad, which a Servian commissioner had the
skill to obtain from the Cabinet here, by a sort of influence which our
Stock Exchange people in London scarcely regard as regular.’
The Pasha nodded to imply attention, and smoked on as before.
‘But I weary your Excellency,’ said Atlee, rising, ‘and my real business
here is accomplished.’
‘Tell my lord that I await his arrival with impatience, that of all pending
questions none shall receive solution till he comes, that I am the very
least of his servants.’ And with an air of most dignified sincerity, he
bowed him out, and Atlee hastened away to tell his chief that he had
‘squared the Turk,’ and would sail on the morrow.