CHAPTER VI.

LETTERS-GENERAL HAYNAU AT BARCLAY'S BREWERY-ECCLESIAS-
TICAL TITLES BILL-NATIONAL DEFENCES MR. GLADSTONE'S
LETTERS ABOUT NEAPOLITAN PRISONS IONIAN ISLANDS-DE-
FENCE IN PARLIAMENT QUESTION OF HOLY PLACES.'

WHILE still detained in town by the arrears of the session of 1850, he sends to his brother a report of his own position and of the state of parties. His estimate of Lord Aberdeen's capacity for the Premiership was destined to be tested within two years.

C. G. September 1, 1850.

I have been more entirely swamped by business during the whole of this last session of Parliament than I ever was at any former time, and I have not even yet been able to work up the arrear of various matters which has accumulated by the regular overflowing of almost every day. But I have no reason to find fault with the session, for it has left me at its close in a very satisfactory and gratifying position. I have beaten and put down and silenced, at least for a time, one of the most widespread and malignant and active confederacies that ever conspired against one man without crushing him. But I was in the right, and I was able to fight my battle; and John Russell and my colleagues behaved most handsomely and honourably, and my triumph has been in proportion to the magnitude of the struggle. The death of Louis Philippe delivers me from my most artful and inveterate enemy, whose position gave him in many ways the power to injure me; and though I am very sorry for the death of Peel, from personal regard, and because it is no doubt a great loss to the country, yet as far as my own political position is concerned, I do not think that he was ever disposed to do me any good turn. It is difficult to say what effect his death will have on the state of parties in Parliament. He had not much of a following latterly, though the men who

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still stuck to him, such as Goulbourn, Robert Clive, Cardwell and Banks, and the like, were the most respectable of the party. Perhaps Sidney Herbert, or Aberdeen, or Gladstone may set up for leader of the Conservative Free Traders, or the Free Trade Conservatives; and perhaps Stanley may invite a junction with him by some compromise about putting off Protection. I have been told by a person who had it from Stanley himself, that during the time when a change of Government was expected, Aberdeen said to Stanley that in that case he, Aberdeen, would be commissioned by the Queen to form a Government! This would have been a curious dish to set before a Queen! On the whole, I rather am inclined to think that the Government is made stronger by the events of last session, and that we may look forward to getting successfully through the session of next year.

I made acquaintance lately with a Sicilian PrincessMontevoyo, I think, she calls herself-a widow, and one of the ladies of the Queen of Naples. She spoke highly of you; but then I must add she spoke also highly of the King of Naples, which makes her praise of less value.

What Lord Palmerston, a wise friend to Turkey, thought and said about it, is still of so much interest that I here quote three or four letters on its affairs written about this time. They at any rate show that she has not continued to sink for want of warning. She was at the time contemplating her first loan, and Lord Palmerston's prognostications addressed to Sir Stratford Canning proved very correct.

C. G. August 7, 1850.

My dear Canning, I am sorry to hear so indifferent an account of progress' in Turkey as that which your letter of July 19 contains. I will exhort through the ambassador here. But how is it supposed that a foreign loan would help the Porte? Would not such a loan add, by the amount of its interest and sinking fund, to the burthens of the State and would there not be a danger that a large part of it would somehow or other find its way into the pockets of private individuals? As to Douad Pasha, or Douad Effendi, he has, I think, lost all power of doing mischief here, and perhaps that may be the reason why he tarries in the East; or maybe he thinks that, as the wise men are said to have come from thence, he may pick up there some of that wisdom which he so much

lacks. But the Arabs have a proverb which says you may send a jackass to Mecca, and he will come back a jackass still.

Lord Palmerston's 'exhortation' was as follows:-

Broadlands: September 24, 1850.

Mon cher Ambassadeur,-Permettez que je vous renouvelle par écrit la prière que je vous ai faite verbalement pour vous engager à tirer l'attention la plus sérieuse de votre Gouvernement au mémorandum que Sir S. Canning a présenté au Sultan ; je voudrais y ajouter la demande que votre Gouvernement veuille bien prendre en considération des observations que le Colonel Rose a faites au sujet de votre armée, et que Sir S. Canning aura déjà soumises au grand vizier.

Pardonnez-moi si j'ai l'air de m'ingérer dans des affaires qui ne me regardent pas, et croyez bien que ce que je dis, je le dis uniquement dans l'intérêt du Sultan et de son Empire. L'Empire Ottoman n'est pas encore en état de maintenir son indépendance, et de défendre son vaste territoire contre les ennemis qui le menacent sans l'aide et l'appui de temps en temps de la Grande-Bretagne. Le Gouvernement Anglais a le sincère désir et la ferme intention de vous donner toujours dans des momens de difficulté l'appui dont vous aurez besoin. Mais le Gouvernement anglais le peut agir qu'en autant qu'il est soutenu par le Parlement et par l'opinion publique; et ces soutiens nous manqueraient si nous ne pouvions pas démontrer que le Gouvernement Ottoman a fait tous les efforts en son pouvoir pour mettre toutes les branches de l'administration de la Turquie dans le meilleur état possible, et n'a rien omis qui pourrait contribuer à mettre la Turquie en état de se défendre en développant toutes les grandes ressources naturelles dont la Providence l'a douée.

Jusqu'à présent il faut l'avouer ceci ne peut pas se dire. Votre Gouvernement a eu sans doute à lutter contre maints obstacles; mais pour accomplir de grands résultats il faut de grands efforts, et de la détermination, et de la persévérance.

A Constantinople on chancelle, on hésite, on s'arrête. Mais le moment actuel est favorable pour faire des réformes et des améliorations. Le proverbe anglais dit qu'il faut faire le foine pendant que le soleil luit. Il faut réparer sa maison pendant qu'il fait calme, afin d'être en mesure contre l'ouragan.

Les points principaux que je voudrais signaler comme demandant l'attention pratique de votre Gouvernement sont :

Now Lord Strathnairn.

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Une perception plus exacte du revenu, sans exiger de qui que ce soit plus qu'il ne doit payer; et cessation du système par lequel on afferme la collection des impôts.

Economie dans les dépenses, choisissant d'abord les dépenses nécessaires et remettant ce qui ne l'est pas.

Par conséquent ne perdant pas de temps à construire des Routes de Commerce, des fortifications pour le Bosphore, à réparer les forteresses sur la frontière, à établir des ouvrages pour la défense de la capitale.

L'administration de la justice devrait être sans reproche; on prétend que maintenant cet état de choses n'existe pas, et les preuves en sont nombreuses.

Toute distinction politique et civile entre les différentes classes des sujets du Sultan par raison de différence de religion devrait être abolie, afin que le Sultan puisse devenir également le Souverain de toutes les populations qui habitent son Empire.

Quant à l'armée il paraît que l'artillerie est excellente, les hôpitaux admirables; mais que l'infanterie est susceptible d'améliorations, et que la cavalerie en a grand besoin. Que les cavaliers ne sont pas bien armés, ayant quitté une excellente épée qu'ils avaient autrefois pour en prendre une assez mauvaise, et qu'en général ils ne sont pas fort adroits dans le maniement ni de l'épée ni de la lance.

Bon voyage. Je vous souhaite personellement tout le bonheur possible, et je fais des vœux pour que votre pays attienne une prospérité rapide et avec cela solide. Mille complimens,

S. E. Mehemet Pasha.

PALMERSTON.

Broadlands: September 24, 1850.

My dear Canning, I have just taken leave of the Turkish ambassador, who starts on Thursday for Constantinople. I took the opportunity of requesting him to impress upon his Government the necessity of improvement and reforms, and of putting an end to the prevalent system of corruption and injustice; and I begged him to recommend strongly to the attention of his Government the Memorandum which you had given to the Sultan. There is obviously a great deal wanting to be done in every way and in every branch of administration to bring Turkey into line with other Powers, and to put her into a condition to defend herself. But much has already been accomplished, perhaps more than ever yet was done in the same space of time in any country in which there was so much

room for improvement; and I am not discouraged, therefore, by the apparent slowness of progress, but only encouraged to urge them on to further advance. It may be true that much of what has hitherto been done exists more in regulations and orders than in actual execution; but one ought not to undervalue the worth of rules, and laws, and institutions, even when they are not practically acted upon to the extent of their letter and spirit. As long as forms remain they are a fixed point to refer to; and as men improve and opinion grows more powerful, those forms become more and more the guide for conduct and events, and that which at first is only theory in course of time is converted into practice.

As to foreign officers in the Turkish service, such men would necessarily impart to the Turkish officers notions and knowledge that would be very useful; and the mere fact of Christians serving in this way in the Turkish army would have its effect in breaking down that exclusive and fanatical feeling which is represented as a bar to the admission of Christian subjects of the Porte to situations of military command.

Why does the Turkish Government not get some Prussian instructors for their cavalry? The Prussian cavalry is excellent, and, indeed, the Turkish infantry could not be drilled and organised upon a better model than that of the Prussian service.

I remember at the reviews in 1817 or 1818 of the armies of occupation in France, the Duke of Wellington being asked which he thought the best army, the Austrian, the Russian, or the Prussian. His reply was: To say which are the best troops is to say a great deal more than I will take on myself to affirm; but I will tell you which of the three I should like best to command in action. I should decidedly prefer the Prussians; they are the handiest, the best organised, and the most intelligent.'

Lord Palmerston was always especially emphatie in his declarations that it was necessary for the prosperity of Turkey that her Christian population should be placed and treated on a footing of absolute equality with the Mussulman. He urges it in the foregoing communication to Mehemet Pasha, and a year later he repeats it to M. Musurus, in reply to a note expressing the ambassador's regret at the events which caused Lord Palmerston's retirement from the Government. The letter is dated December 30, 1851, and runs as follows: