The imbecility of these diplomats and their pettiness never showed in a worse light than at the present conjuncture, the hour of extremest danger for all of them. As our Ambassador played a prominent part in this suicidal squabble he may be allowed to give his own account of it:
“I read in Our printed Gazettes, That the Resident of Holland here, complaining to His Masters that the Ambassadours of France and Venice would not return his visits, they thought fitt to change His Title from Resident into that of Ambassadour. Though my name is left out in the Print, yet there was more reason perhaps to have inserted It then that of the others.” He proceeds to demonstrate that he amply deserved the fame which the newspapers had so unaccountably refused him. “During the Warr between France and the States, the Dutch Resident made me constantly two visits for one, as He did likewise to my Predecessours; and is the style of all Residents towards Ambassadours in this place: But no sooner was the Peace made with France, but that the Dutch Resident gave me to understand that He expected Visit for Visit. My answer was, That the King my Master’s Ambassadour was never a jot the lesse for the Peace, nor the States Resident the greater: And so wee passd’ without visiting each other.” There followed a similar estrangement between the Dutchman and the representatives of France and Venice, so that, when Collyer announced to them his promotion to Ambassadorial rank, all three refused to acknowledge him, alleging that it was neither honourable nor safe for them to do so till the Porte had received him as such; and some of them (Finch says it was not he) had the meanness to inform the Porte of the intrigue. Nothing could be more pleasing to Kara Mustafa than discord among his victims. He hastened to foment it by forbidding them to recognise the Dutchman as Ambassador, and to turn it to account in his characteristic fashion. When Collyer spoke to him about his new Commission, the Vizir said, “Where are then the Letters of Credence to me, and the accustomed presents?” Collyer replied that they were both on the way. “Well,” said the Vizir, “when they arrive, we will talk further of the matter,” and cut the audience short. The visitor gone, he sent for the Register to find out what presents he was supposed to be entitled to. He found that Cornelius Haghen, who had originally made the Dutch Capitulations, gave presents to the value of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars; and to fix this claim more firmly, the very same night he despatched his Dragoman, Dr. Mavrocordato, to take possession of Collyer’s Commission.[258]
Meanwhile the party in England which called for closer relations with Holland had temporarily gained the ascendant, and, in obedience to instructions from home, Sir John would fain support her representative now. But it was too late. The utmost he could do was to send Collyer his compliments privately, and to explain to him the reasons why he dared not do more: by this time himself stood in a “Ticklish condition” (such is his expression) with the Porte again.
“Ticklish,” indeed, was hardly the word for it. Had Finch foreseen all that lay in front of him, he would probably have described his condition as “Tragick.”
FOOTNOTES:
[245] “To my dayly comfort I was the last of all the Christian Ministers that submitted.”—Finch to Coventry, March 1-11, 1679-80.
[246] “I am fully perswaded that in the Turkes’ judgment, nay, that of the Visir himselfe, I am a gainer every way.”—The Same to the Same, Sept 2-12, 1678.
[247] Present State, p. 168.
[248] Baines to Conway, June 1-11, 1677, S.P. Turkey, 19.
[249] Life of Dudley North, pp. 124-5. Oddly enough, Sir John himself tells a similar anecdote at the expense of the Polish Ambassador: Finch to Coventry, Nov. 29, S.V. 1677. If we could but see ourselves as we see others!