Lord Lyons (Vol. 1&2). Thomas Wodehouse Legh Newton
of trouble for the present seems to be in the Principalities. If Mr. Green6 is right, the overthrow of Couza by an internal revolution is imminent. As he is unable to suggest any means of saving Couza or of making any improvement in the administration of the Principalities, I don't know that he is wrong in thinking it best to leave things for the present to the chapter of accidents. At any rate I think I shall do well to try and keep the question as quiet as possible here until I have instructions from you about it.
As you will see by my despatches I do all the important business myself with Aali Pasha. Of course, I do not take a Dragoman with me when I go to him. I shall do away with the Dragoman system, as far as it is possible and compatible with the public service to do so. By degrees it may be done away with altogether—but it will be some time before it will be possible to get ordinary matters done at the Turkish office without having some one perpetually nagging at them who can speak to them in their own language.
A letter from the veteran Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to Lord Lyons is not without interest as showing the views he held towards the close of his life with regard to the Turkish Empire.
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Dec. 13, 1865.
It gave me much pleasure to hear from you. I hope, and indeed I doubt not, that as time moves on you will be more and more pleased with the situation. You are lucky I think, to have no great questions to begin with. Sooner or later some will arise, and meanwhile you have time to sound the depths and shallows around you and to lay a good foundation for future action. Be assured that my good wishes will go with you, and if you surpass me in my own line, so much the better. I am now too old to be jealous.
It does not surprise me that the Principalities continue to give trouble. They stand in a false position towards Turkey. The allies have not been happy in their manner of dealing with them. Prince Couza's government is an anomaly. Austria would be a safer neighbour to the Porte, even the whole length of the Danube, than either Russia or an independent Union.
The finances of Turkey are, no doubt, a great and growing difficulty. They need not be so with Russia in abeyance, the Empire guaranteed, an increasing trade, a Sultan who professes economy and no interruption of peace. But they are naturally so in right of ministerial ignorance, of an inveterate habit of abuses, of too much facility for borrowing, and of the little personal prudence at the Porte. I tremble at hearing of another large loan from France. It might be better if, acting in concert with our neighbour, we made the Turkish Ministers feel more deeply the responsibility of their extravagance and unwillingness to reform. I was glad to learn some little time ago that our Government presses the Porte for statements of its financial condition which may be relied on, and that the Ottoman Bank maintains its independence, as opposed to the rash requirements launched from Constantinople.
I sincerely hope that you will be able by and by to see your way to some progress in other matters of essential reform.
The financial outlook became so alarming that at the beginning of 1866 the Turks contemplated engaging a British Controller; but—and this throws an instructive light upon the intrigues which prevail at Constantinople—they were afraid to apply for one because they knew that if they did so, the French would insist upon a Frenchman being engaged as well. Aali and Fuad Pasha used to appear and make long speeches which 'would have done credit to a Chancellor of the Exchequer,' but their eloquence produced no practical result, and Sultan Abdul Aziz, who, according to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, was pledged to economy, possessed singularly extravagant tastes, foremost amongst his extravagances being a mania for buying ironclads and endeavouring to create an imposing Turkish fleet. As there was no necessity to build up a big navy and little probability of the Turks ever being able to make any effective use of it if ever created, the only thing to be said in favour of Abdul Aziz's hobby was that the ironclads were always ordered in England.
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Lord Lyons to Earl of Clarendon.
Constantinople, February 14, 1866.
There is rather a delicate matter for us which bears materially upon the Ottoman finances. The Sultan has a passion for ironclad frigates and insists upon ordering them. His Ministers (except, I believe, the Capitan Pasha) make some feeble opposition. We have, I believe, rather encouraged the thing than otherwise. The orders are executed in England to the advantage of our shipbuilders, and I think Sir Henry Bulwer had an idea that though they would not be much use in the hands of the Turks, they might be manned and used to advantage by allies of the Turks in case of war.
I think it would be undesirable, on many accounts, that we should now take the initiative in remonstrating against this particular expense. If however the question of Turkish finance comes up in Europe we shall hear a great deal of these ironclads and we may be asked to join France in a representation against them. We may possibly have to propose to France to join us. If we do anything it would be well to consult Musurus confidentially, as he has a great deal to do with ordering them in England.
There are, I think, three mailed frigates here, one nearly ready in England and one laid down there. It is also said that the Sultan insists upon one still larger and more powerful being ordered, but I do not know whether the order is actually given. The expense is of course immense in proportion to the revenue of the country and considering the rate at which the Porte borrows money.
What the result of consulting Musurus Pasha was, does not appear; but, in view of the determined obstinacy of Sultan Abdul Aziz, it is not likely that remonstrances from any quarter would have had much effect.
In February, the difficulties with regard to the Principalities came to a head. Prince Couza, who had been elected Hospodar in 1859 (and who incidentally had given a great deal of trouble) was deposed by successful conspirators and expelled from the country, Mr. Green, the British Minister at Bucharest, having thus proved himself a true prophet. The inhabitants of the Principalities appeared to be unanimous in desiring the continuation of the Union, and, at the same time, a foreign prince as their ruler, to the consternation of the Porte, which had a well-grounded foreboding that a similar phenomenon would shortly manifest itself in other outlying provinces of the Empire, and that disintegration would follow. As for the other Powers concerned, the Russians were strongly in favour of a separation of Moldavia and Wallachia. The Austrians were credited with the same views, while it was feared by the Turks that the French would put forward a candidate of their own in the shape of a foreign prince. Eventually it was agreed to refer the whole question to a conference at Paris, into which the British Government entered unshackled by any pledges or previous announcement of its views.
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Lord Lyons to Earl of Clarendon.
Constantinople, March 14, 1866.
The Grand Vizier and Aali Pasha seem to be in very low spirits about the Paris Conference. M. de Moustier seems to be constantly frightening them. I am willing to comfort them, but I am determined not to say anything which may be interpreted by them as a pledge, either from my Government or myself. They are horribly afraid of France and they would like to lean upon us, but they think that we care more for France than for them, and believe that we are apt to blame them for weakness without being willing to protect them against the consequences of their resistance. I think they are wrong in thinking that it would have been better for them to have had the Conference here. The French Government itself seems to me to be always more reasonable than its agents abroad.
I have not been able to get any fresh information about the Finances. The Syndicate to receive the revenues set apart for the payment of the Foreign Loans is not yet established, though it is a month since Fuad Pasha assured me that the decree was 'all but printed.' The Commission which is examining the actual state of the Finances seems to have great difficulty in getting at the truth. None of its proceedings have yet been made public. I preach economy and retrenchment, but I have not mentioned the ironclads particularly to the Ottoman authorities as General Ignatieff appears to suppose. I have certainly not attempted to defend the expenditure incurred for these vessels when I have heard it attacked by my colleagues and other people.
I have certainly got on very well with my colleagues hitherto,