CHAPTER XVIII
THE PRICE OF PARCHMENT
Whenever Sir John thought of his miscarriage over the Soffah—and hardly a day passed without his thinking of that melancholy event—he comforted himself with the reflection that he was the last of all the European Ministers to submit.[245] By holding out longer than the others, he believed that he had gained the respect of the Turks, including that of Kara Mustafa.[246] Hence his comparative quiet amidst the general turmoil. This, however, was but a fancy—one of those pleasing fancies with which we all try to minimise in our own eyes the importance of a thing we are sorry or ashamed to have done. It cannot be questioned that, last or first, by submitting to the Grand Vizir’s caprice Sir John had lost caste among the Turks. An ambassador who once endured an affront at their hands patiently could not expect the Turks to respect him ever afterwards. He could only expect them to trespass further on his patience; “for certainly,” as our sensible Rycaut remarks, “Turks of all Nations in the World are most apt to crush and trample on those that lie under their feet.”[247]
Moreover, there were certain little foibles about Sir John that did not tend to enhance his prestige in Stambul. Such was his habit of speaking too much. His interminable discourses, with their frequent repetitions, were calculated to inspire a very poor opinion of his understanding in a people which held more obstinately than any other the superstition that silence is golden. Such also was his habit of going about in a sedan chair. He had brought out with him two of these ornamental boxes, one for himself and one for Sir Thomas Baines; and he used to be carried to and fro, instead of riding on horseback. This he did, according to Baines,[248] partly because his country-house was not above half-a-mile from his town residence, partly because his friend was, by reason of his stone, unable to ride, and Finch would not stir a yard without him; but chiefly, if the truth must be told, because he was no horseman. To ordinary Turks our Ambassador’s mode of locomotion appeared a vile effeminacy unbecoming a man: a man, they said, should ride a horse and not be carried in a cradle like a baby.[249] To Kara Mustafa it not only appeared unbecoming, which would have simply excited the Grand Vizir’s derision, but it also savoured of presumption, which aroused the Grand Vizir’s wrath. Once he spoke of ordering his chaoushes “to break that cage on his [Sir John’s] head.”[250]
In the circumstances, it is rather a wonder that our Ambassador had managed to “maintain all the Capitulations inviolable” so long. But it was not in the nature of things that he should maintain them much longer. All that Kara Mustafa waited for to let loose the forces of his “tempestuous Goverment” fully upon him was an occasion. It presented itself in the summer of 1680, and from that date on there was no more peace for our hapless pilot: nothing but the roar of rushing winds, the awful sight of foam-crested billows. We see him tossed about at the mercy of the elements, now defiant, now despairing, always anxious to do his very utmost for the ship confided to him, with or without hope, till the very end.
The trouble once again originated at Smyrna. A local Jew had pawned to a member of the English Factory some goods—part merchandise and part wearing apparel and jewels—which, as he was unable to redeem them, were in time eaten up by interest. By and by the Englishman went home, leaving his affairs in the hands of two other merchants, his Assigns; and the Jew, who in the interval had been reduced to the verge of starvation, thinking that if he made noise enough and put in a claim large enough, he would be sure to get something, lodged with the Cadi of Smyrna a complaint against them. An ill-founded complaint perhaps; but we, at this distance of time, have no means of judging. With whatever mental reservations, we must needs tell the story as it has come down to us.[251] Unsuccessful at Smyrna, the Jew carried his grievance up to Constantinople and threw himself at the Grand Vizir’s feet with horrid cries, praying to be rescued from the claws of those English harpies. Kara Mustafa was only too ready to believe any charge brought against a Frank, and never denied his sympathy to the oppressed if he saw a chance of turning compassion into current coin. So the two Englishmen were promptly summoned to appear before the Divan.
Sir John, who had consistently protested against these frequent summonings of English factors from their business,[252] could do no less than lend them such protection as the Capitulations afforded. The defendants, knowing that the Jew relied entirely upon witnesses, thought to cut the ground from under him by appealing to an Article in the Capitulations which provided that no evidence should be valid against a Frank unless supported by a Hoggiet, or written statement made in the presence of a Dragoman. This Article had on many occasions proved useful in inferior courts and even, several times, in the Grand Vizir’s tribunal itself, when the Grand Vizir happened to be favourably inclined to the defendants. But at other times even the best Vizirs had declared that the Article was intended only for inferior courts and that the Vizir looked upon himself as being above the Capitulations, were they never so precise.
To understand the position we must clear our minds of the suggestion which the word “treaty” naturally produces: it implies a totally false conception of the relations between the parties. The Capitulations were not “treaties” in the ordinary meaning of the word. They were mere concessions made by the Grand Signor, for the sake of his revenues, to wretched Giaours in need of trade. As such they depended for their duration on his pleasure, and for their interpretation on the ingenuity or candour of his Ministers. For that reason ambassadors who knew their business—who knew, that is, the spirit of their environment—urged the Capitulations as seldom as possible, never entered into litigation on their basis, if they could avoid it, and suffered a small injury to pass unnoticed rather than bring it before the supreme tribunal. The English, perfectly aware of these conditions, never cited the Capitulations except when they were assured beforehand that the citation would be received favourably.
Sir John could not plead ignorance of these conditions. Some four years before he had had an object lesson on this very point. In 1676 the Genoese Resident Spinola had tried to swindle a Greek out of a sum of money, and on the matter being brought up to the Divan, had tried to screen himself behind that Article. Ahmed Kuprili was so angry to see a privilege granted to foreigners for their protection used by them for the spoliation of the Grand Signor’s subjects that he not only forced Spinola to an adjustment with the plaintiff, but shortly afterwards condemned the Dutch Cancellier also to pay a debt on the bare testimony of witnesses. Finch, considering this procedure “a thing of pernicious consequence” to all Franks, had done all he could to get the sentence against the Dutchman reversed, but with little success.[253] If such was the attitude of Ahmed Kuprili, what might be expected from a Vizir who, in Finch’s own words, declared Capitulations to be “like a peice of wett parchment that may be stretchd’ any way”? Yet, in the present case, forgetting his experience, Sir John did a most reckless thing.