Born an aristocrat (for this assurance I received from your father, whom it appeared to annoy as much as it delighted me), with these genuine feelings it will not be necessary for me to make any excuses for bringing so abruptly before you a subject, which relates to this cause as well as that of justice.
I will not bore you with long details; for it will be sufficient for you to know that after my arrival in the East I was not regarded by any class of persons with the same eyes of suspicion as strangers generally are. I have had it in my power, without making use of intrigue or subterfuge on my part, or hurting the religious or political feeling of others in any way, to hear and investigate things which had never yet been investigated. This fortunate circumstance does not relate to those who profess Islamism alone, but to all the curious religions (not sects) which are to be found in the different parts of the East. Not that I have learned the secrets of one religion to betray them to another—on the contrary, I have observed an inviolable silence with all; but it has served to enlighten, as well as consolidate my own ideas, and given me an opportunity of seeking corroboratory evidence of many wonderfully important and abstract things, which has been hitherto very satisfactory.
The revolutions and public calamities, which often take place in what is called a semi-barbarous country, call for great presence of mind and energy, and a degree of humanity and liberality unknown in Europe. To have unfortunate sufferers starving at your gate until you have had an opportunity of inquiring into their private life and character, and of investigating how far it is likely to endanger your own life, or risk your property, in receiving them—these reflections are not made in the East. One takes one’s chance; and if one wishes to keep up the character of either an Eastern monarch or an Eastern peasant, you must treat even an enemy in misfortune avec les mêmes égards that you would do a friend. Starting upon this principle (which is, indeed, a natural one, and was always mine), there were times in which I have been obliged to spend more money than I could well afford, and this has been the cause of my incurring debts; not that I owe a farthing to a poor peasant or a tradesman, but all to usurers and rascals, that have lent their money out at an exorbitant interest. You may judge of their conscience. In the last levy of troops, made about two months ago by Ibrahim Pasha, some rich peasants gave 100 per cent. for six months for money to buy off their sons who were conscripts.
I often abuse the English; and for why? because they have nearly lost their national character. The aristocracy is a proud, morose, inactive class of men, having no great fundamental principles to guide them, and not half the power that they give to themselves—very little more worthy of being trusted by their Sovereign than by the people—full of ideas, all egotistical, and full of their own importance and weight in a country, which may differ from an ounce to a pound in twenty-four hours by the wavering political line of conduct that they may observe during that time, and which neither secures the confidence of the people, nor the friendship of their Sovereign. And these columns of state may be reckoned a sort of ministers without responsibility, but who ought to be willing at all times to make every possible sacrifice for the honour of the crown and for the good of the people in cases of emergency and misfortune.
Had I been an English peer, do you suppose I would have allowed the Duke of York’s debts to remain unpaid? I should have laid down a large sum, and have engaged my brethren to have done the same. If I had not succeeded, I should have broken my coronet, and have considered myself of neither greater nor smaller importance than the sign of a duke’s head in front of a public-house. But, ever willing to come forward with my life and property, I should expect that the Sovereign would treat me with respect, * * * * * *
I have been written to by the Consul-General for Egypt and Syria, Colonel Campbell, that, if I do not pay one of my numerous creditors, I shall be deprived of my pension. I should like to see that person come forward who dares to threaten a Pitt! Having given themselves a supposed right over the pension, they may take it all. In the early part of my life, there was nothing I feared so much as plague, shipwreck, and debt; it has been my fate to suffer from them all. Respecting my debts, of course I had expectations of their being settled; but if I was deceived in these expectations, I kept in view the sale of my pension, as well as of an annuity of £1500 a-year, left me by my brother, if the worst came to the worst. The importance of the plan I was pursuing must, as you can easily imagine, have appeared most arbitrary, from my coolly deliberating that the moment might arrive when I should make myself a beggar; but I should have done my duty. What sort of right, then, had the Queen to meddle with my affairs, and to give orders, in total ignorance of the subject, upon the strength of an appeal from a man whose claims might be half fabulous, and to offer me the indignity of forbidding a foreign consul to sign the certificate that I was among the number of the living, in order to get my pension into her hands? * * I have written a few lines on the subject, and there is my final determination:—“I shall give up my pension, and with it the name of an English subject, and the slavery that is entailed upon it.” I have too much confidence in the great Disposer of all things, and in the magnificent star that has hitherto borne me above the heads of my enemies, to feel that I have done a rash act. I can be anything but ignoble, or belie the origin from which I sprang.
I have been assured by those not likely to deceive me, that a large property has been left me in Ireland, which has been concealed from me by my relations. I have put this business into the hands of Sir Francis Burdett; but should I in future require a law opinion upon the subject, the little aristocratical rascal (whose acquaintance I was about to make when a child, had not a democratical quirk of my father’s been the reason of shutting up his family for some time in the country, and preventing the execution of your father’s intention of presenting you to me) will not, I hope, take it ill that I should apply to his superior talents for advice.
There is a horrible jealousy respecting the friendship that exists between me and Mr. Henry Guys, the French Consul at Beyrout. His grandfather, a learned old gentleman, was in constant correspondence with the great Lord Chesterfield. It is natural, therefore, that his son, the present Mr. Guys’ father, should feel interested about me when I first came into the country, and Mr. Henry Guys has always put into execution his father’s friendly intentions towards me. He is a very respectable man, and stands very high in the estimation of all classes of persons: and, as at one time there was no English consul or agent at Sayda, the French agent sent a certificate of my life four times a-year to England. At the death of this man, Mr. Guys sent it himself. If you honour me with a reply, I request you to address your letter to him (aux soins de M. le Chevalier Henri Guys, Consul de France à Beyrout), notwithstanding he has been named for Aleppo; as it is the only way I am likely to receive my letters unopened, or perhaps at all.
Believe me, with esteem and regard, yours,
H. L. Stanhope.