the Earl of Elgin’s Collection of Marbles, tc. 269 
an eye-witness, expresses it, so far from exciting any unpleasant 
sensation, the people seemed to feel it as the means of bringing 
foreigners into their country, and of having money spent among 
them. The Turks showed a total indifference and apathy as te 
the preservation of these remains, except when in a fit of wan- 
ton destruction they sometimes carried their disregard so far as 
to do mischief by firing at them. The numerous travellers and 
admirers of the arts committed greater waste, from a very dif- 
ferent motive; for many of those who visited the Acropolis 
tempted the soldiers and other people about the fortress to bring 
them down heads, legs, or arms, or whatever other pieces they 
could carry off. 
A translation of the fermaun itself tee since been forwarded 
by Dr. Hunt, which is printed in the Appendix. 
If. Upon the second division, it must be premised, that an- 
tecedently to Lord Elgin’s departure for Constantinople, he com- 
municated bis intentions of bringing home casts and drawings 
from Athens, for the benefit and advancement of the fine arts in 
this country, to Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, and Mr, Dundas, sug- 
gesting to them the propriety of considering itasa national ob- 
ject, fit to be undertaken and carried into effect at the public 
expense; but that this recommendatiun was in no degree en- 
couraged, either at that time or afterwards, 
It is evident, from a letter of Lord Eigin to the secretary of 
state, 13 January, 1803, that he edusidened himself as having 
no sort of claim for his disbursements: in the prosecution of these 
pursuits, though he stated, in the same dispatch, the heavy ex- 
penses in whieh they had iiyplved him, so as to make it ex- 
tremely inconvenient for him to forgo auy of the usual allow- 
ances to which ambassadors at other courts were entitled, It 
cannot, therefore, be doubted, that |e looked upon himself in 
this respect as acting in a character entire ely distinct from his 
official situation. But whether the government from whom he 
obtained permission did, or could so consider him, is a question 
which can be solved only by conjecture and reasoning, in the 
absence and deficiency of all positive testimony. The Turkish 
ministers of that day are, in fact, the only persons in the world 
capable (if they are still alive) of deciding the doubt; and it is 
probable that even they, if it were possible to consult them, might 
be unable to form any very distinct discrimination as to the cha- 
racter in consideration of which they acceded to Lord Elgin’s 
request. The occasion made them, beyond all precedent, pro- 
pitious to whatever was desired in behalf of the English nation ; 
they readily, therefore, complied with all that was asked by Lord 
Elgin. He was an Englishman of high rank ; he was also am- 
-bassador from our court: they granted the same permission to 
no 
