408 
ОТЧЕТЪ О ТРИДЦАТЬ СЕДЬМОМЪ ПРЙСУЖДЕНШ 
того particularly marked tlie conduct of bis Ministers. However willing 
I miglit at one time liave been to attribute my ill success in a great measnre 
to tlie abrnptness, witli which your instructions were unavoidedly executed, 
I am now satisfied, tliat tlie obstacles I had to encounter were te deeply 
roated to admit of their being removed by any ordinary process of manage- 
ment or persuasion. In truth the Turkish Governement is dead to every 
considération but tliat of force. Whether it be tlie religious idea of yielding 
only wben there is a necessity of yielding, or dread of populär opinion, or 
unwillingness to reflect on their weak and embarrassed situation, or a mere 
Turkish obstinacy, it is altogether impossible to bring them to any reasonable 
détermination by means of argument. It does not appear, tliat even Austria, 
though all but the Ally of the Sultan in bis contest witli tlie Greeks bas 
obtained by her obsequiousness any substantial influence over bis Counsels, 
or tliat her Minister enjoys any greater advantages even in current affairs, 
than tliat of a certain air of confidential intimacy witli the Reis-Efendi. I am 
persuaded, tliat the appréhension of force itself, to hâve any décisive effect 
upon the Turkish Government, must not be remote or uncertain. The System 
of menace lias been so often employed by the leading powcrs of Europe in 
negotiating witli tliem, tliat they are become by habit callous to all admonition, 
not accompanied witli evident proofs of a détermination to act. The members 
of the Divan will sometimes boast in private of their thorough acquaintance 
witli tlie arts of European diplomacy, through all it’s various shades from 
friendly persuasion to downright intimation. Nor are they less disposed than 
in former times to reckon upon tlie jealousies and dissentions of Christendom, 
as a never failing source of security to their Empire. 
It is out of the question to expect, tliat tlie Turkish Government, so long 
as it retains the faintest sliadow of power, sliould ever repose a full and 
unreserved confidence in any Christian State. Tliat suspicious mistrust of 
tlie enemies of their faitli and of tlie ancient opponents of their establishment 
in Europe, which has coexisted witli them for âges, is at tliis moment par- 
ticularly active. The question, on which it shows itself witli the greatest 
acrimony, is tliat of Greece. The Sultan’s bosom is tlie special depository 
of tliis sentiment; and bis Ministers, who of all bis subjects alone dare to 
mingle in public affairs, are not only the official instruments of bis authority, 
but are so intimidated by their ideas of bis severity, and means of observing 
their conduct, as scarcely to acknowledge their natural capacity for enter- 
taining an opinion of their own. 
It is useless to dwell longer on tliis picture of the Ottoman Court. In 
offering it to you at all I liave it less in view to supply the deficiency of my 
last hurried dispatch by explaining the resuit of transactions, now gone by, 
