and interest will finally determine the Porte to permit their departure from her dominions without further delay. It cannot be denied that there is no longer any obligation whatever to protract their detention in Turkey. The only conceivable motive for waiting to make a fresh reference to Vienna, is one of courtesy and international compliment. The Turkish Council could not for a moment entertain the idea except as a demonstration of punctilious regard for a neighbouring empire. But how is an act of mere formal civility, alike unnecessary and unprofitable, to be justified, when so many powerful objections stand in array against it? Is the Porte, it may be asked, at liberty to overlook the positive obligations of justice, in order to gratify a feeling of neighbourly politeness? Has not the Cabinet of Vienna already received ample testimonies of the Porte's deference on this subject? Is it not time for the Porte to consider the claims of its own dignity and of its credit in other countries together with the recommendations of those friendly Powers, which have never ceased to counsel a wise, humane, and honourable course of conduct with respect to the refugees ? The Porte, it would seem, has thought itself bound by the ties of good neighbourhood, to fulfil with scrupulous exactness an incomplete engagement which was never formally contracted. She has fulfilled it with much cost and inconvenience to herself, at the expence of individuals recommended by their misfortunes and con. fiding in her humanity. How much more strongly then is she constrained to redeem in turn that other pledge which was virtually received from her hands by those who, at an alarming juncture, gave her the warmest proof of their sympathy and support? These cogent reasons, which in truth admit of no solid answer, are further enforced by the manifest inutility of referring again to Vienna, and by the additional embarrassment which may easily result from an act of such needless supererogation. It cannot, moreover, be supposed that the Porte would volunteer without necessity to lay itself open in the sight of all Europe to a charge of wanton injustice? The sentiments which prevail on this subject from one end of England to the other are well known, and you will not fail to recom mend them to his Excellency's serious reflections, explaining to him the purport of the present instruction, and leaving a copy of it in his hands. M. Pisani. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 174.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. Mar 26.) He is going to France, and will not I think be allowed to stay in this country beyond the end of the month. The Austrian Legation has complained vehemently of his being allowed to visit Constantinople at all. He came with the hope of making some arrangement for being constantly employed in the service of the Porte. Some prospect of the kind may possibly be held out to him; but the influence of Austria continues no doubt to be exerted against him, and amongst the symptoms of its being exerted with some degree of effect is the reluctance of the Turkish Ministers to receive him as a visitor. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 175.—Sir Stratford Canning to Visc'. Palmerston.—(Rec. April 1.) THE Council has taken a decision respecting the refugees at Kutahia. Of 3 propositions submitted to the Ministry, they have adopted one which resolves on the liberation of all the refugees, with an immediate declaration of that tenor to the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires, and a delay of 30 days at most for the conveyance of a last notification to the Court of Vienna. I have done everything in my power to obtain the liberation of the refugees, even without this formality, and I am still endeavouring, though with no great prospect of success, to obtain an immediate execution of the Porte's definitive resolution in their favour. Inclosed herewith is a copy of my last instruction to M. Pisani on this subject, and you will perceive on perusing it, that I have made full use of your Lordship's correspondence and the memorials which accompanied it. I have, &c. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. (Inclosure.)—Sir Stratford Canning to M. F. Pisani. Péra, March 15, 1851. INCLOSED herewith is an extract of that instruction respecting the refugees at Kutahia which I lately received from Viscount Palmerston, and of which you have already communicated the substance to Aali Pasha. SIR, In placing the extract in his Excellency's hands, you will observe that the terms of the memorials addressed to his Lordship on this subject from many of the towns of England, Scotland, and Wales, would have authorized the use of much stronger language. It is not to be concealed from the Porte, that public opinion in England is deeply affected by the weakness which has been shown by the Turkish Government in consenting to continue so long to be the gaolers for another Power of those unfortunate individuals who in the first instance were protected so nobly by the Sultan, and whose rescue from death and reception in this country on principles no less sound than generous, procured for His Majesty the universal applause and admiration of the British people. I cannot too strongly recommend a serious attention to the important political interests concerned in a change of opinion pregnant with the gravest consequences, and to repeat my earnest hope and expectation that the Porte will no longer delay to complete its work of justice and humanity by the liberation of all the refugees detained without the least necessity at Kutahia. You will read this instruction to Aali Pasha, and leave a copy of it with his Excellency. M. F. Pisani. I am, &c. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 176.-Viscount Palmerston to Sir Stratford Canning. SIR, I HAVE to acquaint your Excellency that Her Majesty's Government approve of your Excellency's continued endeavours, as reported in your despatch of the 18th ultimo, to hasten the liberation of the Hungarian refugees still detained at Kutahia. I am, &c. H.E. Sir Stratford Canning. No. 177.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. May 3.) (Extract.) Constantinople, April 17, 1851. Ir is still out of my power to announce the liberation of the Hungarian refugees detained at Kutahia. No further communication has been made to me from the Porte. General Aupick, who called here yesterday, informed me that he had exhausted all his means of persuasion to obtain the release of the refugees, and that he had written to apprize his Government of the resolution apparently taken to continue their detention till the approach of winter. The information which he has conveyed to his Government appears to be rather an inference from the language of the Turkish Ministers than the result of a distinct official communication. He attributed our want of success principally to a note given in by the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires, who, according to his account, had stated that the liberation of Kossuth under present circumstances would be taken at Vienna as a personal insult to the Emperor. Whether such a note has or has not been presented, there can be no doubt that all the energies of the Austrian Legation are exerted to defeat our representations in the cause of honour, justice, and humanity. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. [1850-51.] PALMERSTON. K No. 178.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. May 3.) (Extract.) Constantinople, April 17, 1851. THE American Chargé d'Affaires has informed me that he is instructed by the President of the United States to offer the Hungarian refugees a passage to America in one of the sailing-vessels belonging to their Mediterranean squadron. He has communicated this offer, as he informs me, to Aali Pasha, but he does not appear to know whether M. Kossuth and his companions would be inclined to avail themselves of it, if they were at liberty to do so. Accepted by them and understood to mean a bonâ fide voyage to The United States, this offer ought to diminish very considerably the objections to their immediate liberation. Unfortunately, the difficulty of removing these objections, however misplaced they may be, is increased by an occasional want of discretion on the part of M. Kossuth and his more immediate adherents. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 179.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. May 19.) (Extract.) Constantinople, April 25, 1851. ON referring to the Porte I have learnt that the Sultan has determined to release the whole of the refugees on the 1st day of September next, and that his decision to that effect would be forthwith communicated by means of an official note to the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires. It would undoubtedly have been more satisfactory to my feelings, and more creditable to the Turkish Government, if an earlier period had been assigned for the liberation of M. Kossuth and his companions in misfortune; but I trust nevertheless that your Lordship and Her Majesty's Government will take into consideration the Sultan's delicate position with respect to the Court of Vienna, and find in the express engagement now contracted by His Majesty a sufficient compensation for the 4 summer months during which the detention of the refugees is still to be continued. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 180.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. May 19.) (Extract.) Constantinople, April 30, 1851. THE Porte's official note in answer to that presented in February by the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires, requiring a further indefinite detention of the most distinguished of the Hungarian refugees at Kutahia, was at length sent in to M. de Klezl a few days ago. Knowing the humane interest which the people and Government of the United Kingdom never cease to take in the fate of these unfortunate exiles, and feeling how deeply the Sultan's honour and the prospects of his empire are connected with the Porte's conduct towards them, I cannot but anticipate your Lordship's disappointment on learning that they are still to be detained to the 1st of September, out of mere deference to the Cabinet of Vienna. The just dissatisfaction occasioned by this unnecessary act of rigour must, I fear, be aggravated by a sense of the little effect which my repeated and urgent representations appear to have produced on the Turkish Government, notwithstanding their knowledge of your Lordship's sentiments, the co-operation of the French Minister, and the seasonable offer made to them by the American Chargé d'Affaires. It is matter of lasting regret that the circumstances of the case did not authorize me to demand as a right that measure of justice and humanity which I solicited vainly on grounds even stronger, in a moral and political point of view than those of right. My only consolations are that the 4 remaining months of the term of detention belong to a season which mitigates the privations of Kutahia, and that the Porte has now expressly and formally pledged itself to the liberation of all the refugees on a fixed day, irrespective of intervening contingencies or the consent of any other party; that day at the very latest being the 1st of September next (N.S.). Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. SIE, No. 181.-Viscount Palmerston to Sir Stratford Canning. Foreign Office, May 24, 1851. I HAVE to state to your Excellency that if the engagement of the Porte for the release of the remainder of the Hungarians on the 1st of September next, reported in your despatch of the 25th ultimo, shall be faithfully kept, although it falls short of what is due to the dignity and independence of the Sultan, and does not answer to the just expectations of the British Government and nation, yet nevertheless it may be accepted as a compromise. It seems that the Government of The United States has offered to the Sultan an American ship of war to convey these exiles to The United States, but it is understood that they are unwilling to go to America. But if the execution of the Sultan's announced intention of setting these exiles free would be rendered more easy by the offer of a British steamer to convey the Hungarians from their place of embarkation in Turkey to Malta, there to meet the regular packet by which they would go on elsewhere, your Excellency is authorized to make that offer to the Porte. H.E. Sir Stratford Canning. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. |