The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-19 00:00:00

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, DEC. 8.
As long as the question whether the dispute
about Botgrad and the Serpents Island should be
referred to the Conferences or not was pending
the undivided attention of the Grand Vizier
had to be given to the subject. It was not alone
the importance of the questions involved in
the dispute which rendered Redschid Pasha
so anxious about the settlemeut of this
matter, there was likewise another and not less
urgent reason in the circumstances which led to his
accepting office. The reckless manner in which
his predecessors had given contradictory assu-
rances to the different European Governments
placed him in a most awkward posiiion. Although
he could scarcely have been expected to take the
responsibility of the folly of the late Ministry upon
himself, yet he could not prevent those to whom
such contradictory promises had been made look-
ing to him for their fulfilment, especially as their
nonfulfilment would be easily made a pretext for
new demands.
Now this question of conference or no con.
ference being settled, one would have thought that
this difficulty would-have been removed; but such
seems not to be the case, and every day brings new
proof that nearly en every subject the late Ministry
had followed the same time-serving policy as on the
question of the conferences, and had given syste-
matically contradictory assurances to the European
Powers. By this short sighted policy all the most
important questions are in such a confusion that
the persons alone who caused it can give the key
to it.
It was this consideration above all which induced
the Grand Vizier to keep as long as possible all the
members of the former Ministry around him, and
when this became impossible to name Aali and
Fuad Pashas, as the persons most concerned in
producing the confusion, members of the Cabinet
without a portefeuille.
As it became necessary to ask them continually
for explanations, it would have been no doubt
easiest to summon them before the Ministerial
Council whenever explanations were wanted which
one had so much more the right to do as both Ali
and Fuad Pashas draw a pension of about £6OOO a
year for their past services. But as they were his
political adversaries, and at the same time proteges
of France and Austria, Redtohid Pasha was
anxious to avoid anything which would have been
construed into personal animosity, either towards
the persons themselves or towards their protectors,
and preferred having them attached to his Cabinet
as ministers without a portfolio.
All one must wish and hope is that he may not
have reason to regret his generosity by introducing
his enemies into the Ministry, which is so much
the more dangerous as the Ministry has not yet
been cleared of the men who are compromised in
the acts of the late Cabinet. He may find himself
thus one day left in a minority in his own Council,
just at a moment when he would most require the
unanimous support of the whole Cabinet. Ho
could, indeed, in such a case use his prerogative as
Grand Vizer, and take the responsibility of a con-
trary decision upon himself ; but even fora man
with Redschid Pasha's personal influence it will be
up-hill work to act under such trammels. I give
you these details in order to place before your
readers the difficulties with which Redschid Pasha
is surrounded, and thus to prevent rash conclusions
if he should not immediately succeed in satisfying
the expectations which are connected with his
advent to power. He must first clear the ground
before him, and prepare by degrees the materials
1 with which he has to work, and he has to do
this under the most delicate circumstances:
He is looked upon as a devoted partisan of Eng-
land. Now there can be no doubt that he knows
the importance, nay the necessity, of an intimate
alliance between England and Turkey. He fully
understands the value of the daily increasing
commercial relations between these two countries,
and he perfectly appreciates the disinterested
advice of England, proceeding as it does from the
desire of seeing a strong Power established on the
Bosphorus, which, by its own vitality, should be
canable of resisting all foreign encroachments; but
by his adversaries this leaning towards England as
the Power with which Turkey has in nearly every
question the same interest, is construed into a
blind servility to every whim that may cross the
head of the British Ambassador. He is thus
placed between two fires : he must moderate
the over-zealousness of his friends, and at the
same time avoid giving umbrage to those who
are not his friends. This is so much the more
difficult as it has become a habit to convert every