The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-09 00:00:00

a consular establishment of the most costly kind.
We had three Consuls-General, twelve Consuls of the
first class, and eighteen salaried Assistant-Consuls, at
a cost of 12,000/. per annum. Now, at no time were
what were called the commercial duties of the Levantine
Consuls at all heavy. The commercial system of
the Ottoman Empire had always been characterised by
the simplicity which must be the result of direct taxation;
but no one could say that the duty of the Turkish Con-
sul had been a sinecure. He need only refer to the three
volumes of correspondence, which was the last official
tribute of the late Secretary of State. The House would
find in those volumes a vast mass of correspondence, a great
portion of which was furnished by Consuls. They would
find communications with the Consul-General of Egypt,
from Consul Hodges, Consul Waring, and Consul More.
They were communications directed to the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. They contained speculations
on the fortunes of war, and he believed on all those
matters which hitherto had been considered
as unimportant, but which were now believed
to be matters of the highest importance.—(llear.)
He might remind the Noble Viscount who was the author
of the expedition, and he might remind the House, of an
individual who visited Africa on a secret expedition, who
issued a proclamation, formed treaties of the highest
character which no Plenipotentiary could do, and
lie did what no Plenipotentiary dared to do, broke
treaties. The gentleman to whom he referred, bore
the name of Wood, an English name, but not
an English subject. This Gentleman appeared as
Vice-Consul of her Majesty at Beyroa t. 11 e
was/ only referring to the case of Mr. WOO.l,
to prove that a Vice-Consular agent was entrusted
with diplomatic duties of the highest character.
If they looked at the other side of the globe--if they
directed their attention to the republics of South Ame-
rica, they would find the state of affairs of a totally
different kind. The House would recollect that
when Mr. Canning called the • New World into
existence, his preliminary operation was to fit
out consular establishments on a great scale. In
all the capitals of the South American Republics, Con-
suls-General and Vice-Consuls were established, with
salaries of a large amount. At all the principal ports
Con u!s of the first class were established. Shortly after
the final recognition of these States had taken place
there followed a diplomatic establishment on the- same
large scale. In every capital of South America
they found a Minister Plenipotentiary and a Secretary
of Legation established in addition to the Consul.-
General and She Vice-Consul already established.
Now as our diplomatic relations with those
States, were never very complicated, these diplo-
matic agents assumed, with one or two exceptions,
very soon a character altogether commercial, as
there was really not public business sufficient
for the two bodies. The result was, that the diplomatic
body in each capital, aware that if it were discovered
that they were doing nothing, their services might
be dispensed with, monopolised to themselves
all the commercial business of that country, so that the
Consuls-General and the Vice-Consuls held in
fact sinecures, while the Minister Plenipotentiary
and the Secretaries of Legation, occupied themselves in
fulfilling Ate duties which ought to have de-
volved •on the Consular bodies. He would
refer,.- :as an instance, •to what had • occurred
during one of those transatlantic blockades, which a
few years since had been but too numerous. The Real del
• Monte Mining Company during the blockade of Vera Cruz
Were anxious to land a cargo of machinery for the use of
their mines. As machinery did not pay a duty, the land•
ing of it would not be adding to the resources of the State,
and, therefore, the Company had hoped that the French
Admiral Baudin and the Mexican Government might have
agreed in permitting the machinery to be landed.
The Company directed their commissioner or agent
in Mexico to enter into negotiations on the sub-
ject ; he immediately applied to Mr. Pakenham, the
Minister Plenipotentiary at Mexico, and that application
led to a correspondence, which the Noble Viscount (Pal-
merston) had laid on the table of the House.
The w hole transaction was attended to by the diplomatic
and not by the consular body. In Mexico there was no
diplomatic questions regarding border or boundaries, and
there was nothing which could produce diplomatic ar-
rangements. But when commerce increased, the Mexican
merchants thought it better to apply to the
diplomatic body and not the consular body, because
commercial affairs were better attended to by the
diplomatic body. He might also refer to the pamphlet
published by Mr. Henderson, the Consul at Caraccas,
in Spanish America, who said that the double establish-
ment was ridiculous, and of no benefit to the country.
The NobleViseount opposite was himself the best evidence
on the subject, who, in the year 1232, • pointed out
the impropriety of the double arrangement, and
that one of them was of very little use.
He called the attention of the House to what the Noble
Viscount did on that occasion, because it afforded
all illustration with regard to the conduct of the
Noble Lord on the same occasion. The Noble
Lord exposed the impropriety of the double arrange-
ments in Mexico, and the appointments of the
Consul-General and the Vice-Consul-General were
done away with ; and it was not, perhaps,
necessary the Consul should be left. He now came to
the State of Colombia and the arrangements in
Bogota, a town in the bosom of the Andes,
and which had no communication with the sea.
Nothing could be more
.ridiculous than to appoint a
Consul-General at a town Like. Bogota, as had been for
merly thie case, and to•give that Consul a large salary,.
as well, as to give him. • the - assistance of a
.Vice-Consul, who was also inithe receipt of a consider-
able salary. He (Mr. D'lsraeli) had never read anything
,more • ridiculous than that in the writings of Rabelais.
The Noble Lord, therefore, had acted very properly in
putting an end to such an establishment. But
there • -were circumstances connected with the
state of Colombia, which rendered it necessary that
a political agent should be retained there, and
such an agent was therefore left in that coun-
try. The Noble Lord (Lord Palmerston) converted,
therefore, the Consul-General into a Charge d'Affilires,
and recognised the principle that one of the two services
was inexpedient and unnecessary for the public ser-
vice. That was a sketch of what the Noble Viscount
had done in 1832. It might, however, be said that
these illustrations from ours establishments in Turkey
and South America were drawn, the one from an
ancient empire, which was in a state of decay,
and the other from a new country ; and that
in each instance our relations with those countries
were placed in a novel and extraordinary state.
But he found that in one of the most ancient and
civilized societies in Europe—he alluded to the
Hanse Towns. we had a Consul-General who was at
the same time an accredited diplomatic agent.
We had pursued a similar system in Africa ;
and in Tunis and Algiers our Consuls-General
were also Charge d'Affaires. Again, in Servia and Wal-
lachia the same principle was adopted. It was mani-
fest that the principle for which he contended was ap-
proved of by Mr. Bidwell, the Superintendent
of the Consular Department at the Foreign-office. That
Gentleman hail defended the appointment of a Consul-
General in Lombardy on the ground that the Consul
had also important political duties to discharge,.
.
The same principle was alleged by Mr. Bidwell with r-
gard to the Consul at Warsaw, which appointment W:l3
defended on the ground that the duties wore
political and diplomatic. The name of Warsaw would
recal the name of a city where they had no
Consul, but .he had no wish to enter into, a
discussion of the merits or defeats of the Noble Lord's
policy in that respect, nor to criticise the
conduct of the Great Powers. Bat he must say
this, that no one could have rend the debate on tho
subject without feeling that there was a gene-
ral neglect both on the part of' the people of
Cracow, of the great powers of the Government
at home, and of both Houses of Parliament ;
the individual who was sent there, had the
title of Consul, while he really was invested with
a political character. The language of the Noble Lord
on that occasion was, that the violation of treaties
had been great and flagrant, and therefore he
was determined to vindicate the political dig-
nity of his country by sending a Consul. He though
this was a curious mode to adopt. He could produce a
variety of proofs in favour of this position, but he
was afraid they would accuse him of proving too much
When they were convinced that a public establishment was
founded on a vicious principle, they should not be pre-
vented from condemning it by any partial instance
of its. beneficial operation, which might have oc-
curred from a violation of the principle itself.
This - brought him to the heart of the question,
• because he could show to the House, not by ar-
guments, but by facts, that the system thus es-
tablished had occasioned great inconvenience
and injury in a political point of view, while in a com-
mercial respect, the adopting the division of
duties had proved mischievous to the public service.
He mustiarevert for a moment to that region of the
world which had of late occupied so much
of their cousideration, and exercised so vast
an influence over the affairs of Europe. He begged
the House to recollect the position of Egypt at the time
when the Noble Viseount (Palmerston) took office. In 1830
our only public functionary in Egypt was a Consul-
General, and this individual might be taken
as a very fair specimen of the Levantine
Consuls of that time. The House was, perhaps, aware
of the mode by which in the good old days gen-
srtlehmen were appointed Consuls-General of Egypt.
e Consul- General of that period had generally
been the- trahviesllirnegturntuttoor of a nobleman. A
nobleman on
influence on behalf of his travelling this country exercised his
tutor ; the result was
he became Consul-General,
and enjoyed the opportunity
of sending to his patron some veryspecimensnecessary
of
Egyptian antiquities. These weyre thectelec
wished
shed
conse-
quences of a system, the fullness of which he
point out to the House. In 1831 the situation of Fgtro
was a most delicate and critical one. The rulec:i!
Egypt was at that time negotiating at Constantinople
011 behalf of the Porte ; bat, at the same time, a vast
force was assembling at Alexandria, until it
became the largest army that had appeared in
the East in modern times.— (Hear, hear.) The
paella, whilst negotiating for the Porte at Con-
while threatening the inclepen-
stantinople was all the
thrice of Syria. Now, he had reason to believe that upon the
influence possessed at that time in Eg,pt, the invasion of Syria
particularly depended ; it was impo,sible for him to say what
the Noble Viscount had communicated to the Consul-Gene: al,
or what the Consul-General had communicated to the Noble
Viscount ; all he (Mr. Disraeli) could state was, that no re-
presentation reprobating the conduct of these Egyptian officers
hid been made to the British Government upon that subject.
If such a representation had been made, and made by proper
authority, the invasion of Syria would rever have occurred.
The commercial interests of the country were superintended
by clerks, but the political interests were more patrician, and
were superintended by Viscounts. He asked the House
to consider the effects of the invasion of Syria. That they
-• were very perilous all would admit, the; they had dis-
tarbed those relations which all statesmen must be
•-•• anxious toancourage none could deny. The evil effects of that
Invasion every ins knew. He would give an instance of con-