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' PROCEEDINGS OF PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 
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COMMITTEE FOR MANAGING THE SUB- 
SCRIPTION FOR THE RELIEF OF THE 
SUFFERERS BY THE EARTHQUAKES 
"IN SYRIA. 
HE distressing accounts trans- 
mitted to the Levant Company by 
Mr. Barker, British consul at Aleppo, 
of the effects of the earthquakes, which, 
in the months of August and September 
1822, desclated the cities of Aleppo 
and Antioch, with many other places in 
Syria, having awakened among the 
members of that Company the most 
lively feelings of sympathy for the 
wretched survivors, it was resolved, at 
a general court of that body, that a sam 
of 5007. should be forthwith applied to 
alleviate their distress, and that a public 
mectivg should be convened in London 
1o consider of the most advisable me- 
thod of preceeding, in order to afford 
still furtizer relief. 
A meeting was accordingly held at 
the City of London Tavern, on the 16th 
of January, 1823, at which the Right 
Honourable the Lord Mayor of the 
City of London presided. It was then 
resolved, that ‘“‘ Decply feeling the dis- 
tressed situation in which these awful 
Visilations had invelved great part of 
the province of Syria, the meeting 
should commence a subscription for the 
relief of the distressed surviving inha- 
bitants generally ; that an appeal should 
also be made to the public, in order to 
render the relicf extensive;:and that 
such relief should be administered with- 
out distinction. of religious persuasion.” 
In pursuance of these -resolutions, 
details of these calamitous evenis were 
submitted to the public; and, in conse- 
quence of a liberal subscription, the 
treasurer was enabled to transmit 3200/. 
to the care of John Cartwright, esq. 
British Consul-General at Constanti- 
nople, with directions to forward the 
same to Mr. Barker, at Aleppo, who 
was thus furnished, as early as possible, 
with the means of succouring those 
unfortunate, objects, and immediately 
proceeded to take the necessary steps 
for accomplishing the benevolent inten- 
tions of the subscribers. The Turkish 
government rightly appreciated the con- 
dact of the British nation; and Lord 
Strangford, his Majesty's ambassador 
to the Ottoman government, assured 
the Levant Company, that, when the 
subject was anounced by his lordship 
to the Porte, *‘ The Turkish ministers 
MonTHLY Mae. No, 399. 
testified a just sense of the munificence 
and liberality of the Turkey Company, 
and of the other subscribers, and a 
grateful willingness to accept of their 
bounty.” 
A similar feeling was likewise ma- 
nifested by the authorities at Aleppo; 
and Mr. Barker, being convinced of 
the advantage of proceeding with the 
greatest delicacy towards the govern- 
ment, requested that the Consul- 
General at Constantinople should pro- 
cure an official firman from the Turkish 
government, to declare its permission, 
and thereby to give him the greater 
sanction in the distribution of the funds. 
In the mean time information of the 
proceedings of the Greek committec in 
London, with details of the speeches 
and various resolutions which passed at 
the meetings of that committee, reached 
Constantinople, and naturally awakened 
the keenest jealousy of the Ottoman 
government. ‘This created a demur in 
the grant of the firman which had heen 
applied for, and resnited in a decisive 
refusal, and in a prohibition to distribute 
any moneys for any purposes whatso- 
ever among the subjects of the Porte in 
Syria. 
An official communication to this 
effect was made to Lord Strangford, 
and his excellency thought proper to 
request an explanation of conduct so 
much at variance with the feeling pre- 
viously expressed on this subject. 
The Turkish government stated in 
reply, that ‘ The Sultan could not com- 
prehend the double natore of the pro- 
ceedings termed stbscriptions, which 
were instituted in England for the pur- 
pose of distributing money amongst his 
subjects; nor could he reconcile the im- 
plied contradiction of one of these sub- 
scriptions being instituted with the 
charitable aud innocent design of re- 
licving a portion of his subjects, while 
another had for its avowed object the 
purchase of arms for the Greek in- 
surgents.”’ 
Thus this subscription, entered into 
solely from motives of benevolence and 
philanthropy, has been partially frus- 
trated in its object. An amount, how- 
ever, of about 800/. was applied, before 
the objection of the Turkish government 
was known in Syria, to the relief of 
some bundreds of the most prominent 
cases of distress, an account of which 
is detailed by Mr. Barker, and has been 
H submitted 
