14 NOVEMBER 1846, Page 1

If the report which we copy from a contemporary is

true, the British Minister for Foreign Affairs has revived an extraordinary demand formerly made upon the Porte, to abolish slavery through- out the Ottoman empire! The statement is almost incredible. If it is not a fabrication, the proceeding happens most singularly out of time, when even zealous protesters against slavery have learned to doubt whether our whole system of compulsory pro- selytism in that behalf is not utterly mistaken and self-defeating. It happens most inopportunely, too, at a juncture when England

a is becoming suspected of a revived propensity to meddle in the affairs of foreign nations.

But to Turkey this particular mode of meddling is equally offensive and alarming. Slavery is a basis of the social—of the household arrangements in the country. However desirable it may be to extiipate such an institution from the world, the at- tempt is equally distasteful and impossible to the Turk. Suppose

the Turkish Ambassador—Turkey being still an infidel country, but more powerful than England—were to teceive from Constan- tinople a despatch requiring Lord Palmerbireti- to 'abolish female labour throughout the United Kingdom, or the subjection of the wife to the husband : would any practical benefit be conferred on English society by the- alien reformer ? or would any British Minister be patiently silent under such an impertinent and im- possible requisition ? Yet neither demand would be so absolutely impracticable of compliance as that made to the Porte. Suppose even something still more incumbent upon the country, still more in accordance with its moral and religious principles, were de- manded, such as the abolishing of prostitution : would not the Englishman chafe the more at the coolness of the foreigner in driving him to confess the national delinquency, and the incom- petency of the nation to enforce its own moral code ? If we are to convert friendly states into enemies by reproaching 'them with social vices, we had better at once prepare for war with all the world, since there is not a country that would not furnish such a pretext—not excepting our own. Indeed, it would be better to try, such a policy at home first, before venturing on it abroad : let Ministers write round to the local authorities, re- quiring them to abolish female degradation, cheating in trade, or any other of our objectionable social customs ; and let them test the expediency of that enterprise by the result of the next general election. Such an experiment would be all the safer, because our 'own country would not go to war with itself, nor would it be driven by such an outrage into an alliance with its own enemies.