Hope was entertained of preferving the Relations of Amity between the Two Powers, whilft a Minifter, whofe Influence had already been fo prejudicial to the Friendship fubfifting between them, was fuffered to remain at Conftantinople. On the other Subject, that of the Hofpodars I mean, it will be neceffary to re-ftate to you as accurately as I am able, what I mentioned Yesterday. It is true that you did reftore them; but may I not ask, as I have done before, whether the Unwillingness manifefted to repair the Injury you had committed, and whether the Time which was allowed to elapfe before you could be perfuaded to give new Effect to violated Engagements, were not fufficient Grounds for Sufpicion, and fufficiently ftrong Motives for demanding fome more folid Security? May I not afk, whether this Sufpicion has not fince been fully juftified, and whether in your Notes and Manifeftoes, you have not avowed the Reluctancy you felt in fulfilling your most folemn Treaties? Our Governments were not to be deceived. The Confidence I had placed in the Affurances of your Excellency, and your unqualified Difapprobation of that Conduct towards Ruffia, which is now reprefented as perfectly juftifiable, had led me to give the praise of Sincerity to this Government, which I find to have been ill deferved. But our Sovereigns did not partake of the Delufion which, I must fairly own, had blinded their Ministers. They had not heard the strong and repeated Professions of your Excellency; they had only to calculate the Time which had paffed in Negotiation, and to obferve the Difficulties which we had every Inftant to encounter, and they had already obtained too convincing Proofs, that the Influence inimical to the Friendship between the Sultan and his Allies fill prevailed. They refolved therefore on fuch Measures as would remove all Doubt as to the real Defigns of the Porte; and thefe Measures were to be accompanied with fuch Declarations as cannot but prove that, notwithstanding all that has happened, Friendship, and not Enmity, is their real Object. General Michelfon marched into Moldavia, and, in the Proclamation which he then iffued, you will have found the Terms on which the Emperor has offered the Renewal of his Friendship. You would have heard the fame from his late Minifter at this Court, if you had not hurried him from your Country; and if, in Contradiction to the folemn. Affurances given to me, you had not rafhly com mitted an Act of Hoftility by the Seizure of the Ruffian Brig, which had been the Bearer of explanatory Dispatches. Of what is expected from you by my Sovereign, I had the Honour of informing you Yesterday. You know the Reasons why His Majefty feels himfelf justified in requiring the Removal of M. Sebaftiani. He is convinced, as I have already told you, you, that the Prefence of that Minifter is incompatible with the Existence of Friendfhip between the Porte and the Allies; and he thinks with the Emperor, that a falfe and hollow Peace would be worse than open War. It is therefore for the Porte to make her Choice between France and the Allies. Should the Boaftings of France continue to be credited; fhould Faith be placed in her Profeffions of Friendship, and fhould the Menaces which accompany thofe Profeffions excite no Alarm; then, most probably, His Majesty's Offer will be rejected, and General Sebaftiani will remain. Should there, however, be fome Recollection of what Ruffian Armies have atchieved, and of what British Fleets have been known to execute, it may occur to the Porte that her late Conduct has not been wife. She may, as I faid Yesterday, then wish to place herself in that Situation in which I found her when I first arrived, She has still the Means of doing it. She has only to comply with the just Demands of His Majesty and the Emperor; and both these Sovereigns will, with greater Joy, concert Meafures for her Defence, than they have now concerted thofe which they found effential to their Interests. I might now conclude, for I have retraced to your Excellency nearly the Whole of what I stated in my Conference, and I feel that I have fully executed all my Inftructions. But I cannot clofe the laft Letter which perhaps I may ever write to your Excellency, without exhorting you to exert that Influence which belongs to your high and diftinguished Situation. Make thofe feel whofe Errors have caused the Evil which is now impending, that, whatever Changes may have taken place in Europe, there are none which ought to affect the ancient Syftem of this Empire. Make them understand, that the Armies of Ruffia being concentrated are become more powerful, and that Great Britain has not loft the Means of protecting her Allies, and of injuring her Enemies. Your Excellency, by enforcing these Truths, may be the Saviour of your Country. You may renew the Friendship which had existed between the Sultan and his Allies; and you may thus render even to my Sovereign a most grateful Service. His Majefty's Regard for the Sul tan remains unaltered. It has been with Grief that he has been forced to Meafures fo little confonant to His perfonal Feelings; but He was aware, that it was the Duty of a Sovereign to make every Sacrifice to the Honour of His Crown, and the Interefts of His People. He would rejoice if His private Wishes could be made to accord with His public Sentiments; and it may, I truft, be your Excellency's work to destroy the Effects of evil Councils, and to renew thofe happy Days, when Great Britain and Russia were were united in fuccefsfully endeavouring to promote the Interests of this Empire. 1 have the Honour to be, &c. THE No. 10. EXTRACT of a Dispatch from the Right HE Dispatch which I wrote on the 27th of laft Month will have informed your Lordship of my having received your Inftructions of the 14th of November, and of the Conference which immediately after their Arrival I had with several of the Ottoman Minifters. : It is now neceffary that I fhould ftate my Reasons for having joined His Majefty's Squadron, instead of remaining at my Poft until I had been ordered to quit it by your Lordship; and I feel perfectly confident that my Conduct on this Occation will not fubject me to any Cenfure. |