Lord Palmerston having gone through the form, expected by his
Anti-Slavery friends, of directing the British Ambassador at Constantinople to interpose with the Turkish Government some representation on the subject of slavery, received from his subordinate in office the following characteristic epistle.
VISCOUNT PONSONBY TO VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.
" Therapia, 27th December 1840.
"My Lord—I have paid the greatest attention to your Lordship's several instructions on the subject of slavery in Turkey, with the hopes of arriving at some result that would afford a chance of obtaining in any degree the object your Lordship so earnestly desire, to accomplish. I have mentioned the subject; and I have been heard with extreme astonishment, accompanied with a smile, at a proposition for destroying an institution closely interwoven with the frame of society in this country, and intimately connected with the law and with the habits, and even the religion, of all classes of the people, from the Sultan himself down to the lowest peasant. "The Sultans for some centuries past have never married, and the Imperial race is perpetuated by mothers who are slaves. "In all other families slaves may be, and often are, the mothers of legitimatized children, who are in all respects as much esteemed as those of legal wives.
"The Admirals, the Generals, the Ministers of state, in great part, have been originally slaves. In most families, a slave enjoys the highest degree of confidence and influence with the head of the house.
"To carry what your Lordship desires into execution it will be necessary to limit the law of succession to the crown and alter the policy that has so long guided the Sultans in that respect, and also to change fundamentally the _political and civil institutions and laws and the domestic arrangements of the people. Universal confusion would perhaps be the consequence of such violent changes, and probably those persons intended to be most benefited by them would be the greatest sufferers. "The slaves are generally well protected against ill-treatment by custom and the habits of the Turks, and by the interests of masters and their religious duty ; and perhaps slaves in Turkey are not to be considered worse off than men everywhere else who are placed by circumstances in a dependent situation, whilst, on the other hand, they may attain, and constantly do enjoy, the highest dignities, the greatest power, and largest share of wealth of any persons in the empire. "I think that all attempts.to effect your Lordship's purpose will fail, and I fear they might give offence if urged forward with importunity. I was asked, What would the English Government think of the Sublime F'orte if it was to prapon the Sovereign of England and the people of England to alter the fundamental liw of their country, and change its domestic habits and customs in order to please the taste of the Turks?' "I could perceive, in spite of the good-humoured politeness with which this question was asked, that there was something like wounded feeling in the speaker
" The Turks may believe us to be their superiors in the sciences, in arts, and in arms; but they are very far from thinking our wisdom or our morality greater than their own.
"I have, &c. PONSONEY. "The Right Honourable Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B., &c."
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