APPENDIX, N°-TI. 
472 
filling important foreign missions with novices ; 
while Ministers, regularly brought up in the 
diplomatic school, are laid upon the shelf, like 
Yellow Admirals. With the two exceptions of 
the gentlemen first named, Mr. Smith, and 
Mr. Stratton, both of whom completed their 
servitude in the subaltern ranks of the foreign 
line, (the former as Secretary under Mr. Liston, 
when Ambassador at Constantinople in 179 3 > 
and the latter under Sir R. M. Keith, at Vienna, 
in 1788,) the other representatives of His 
Majesty at the Porte, during the interval under 
review, cannot be considered as qualified, either 
by professional education, by official experience, 
or by local residence, to manage our concerns 
in the Levant . Even down to the very last 
appointment to a special mission thither, 
destined to treat with a country convulsed by 
internal commotions, can it be said that per- 
sonal knowledge of the Orientals was in the 
slightest degree attended to ? It is not the aim 
of this discussion to detract from the possible 
merit of any candidate, nor to withhold appro- 
bation from the useful employment of abilities : 
although something might be said upon the pal- 
pable combination of the Turkish negotiation 
with the change of system, in one, at least, of 
the Imperial Courts : otherwise the preservation 
of amity, with a Power so critically situated. 
