Oh! I shall be so glad to be at rest next year, if I live. I am sick of this Government and its stupid, blind policy. As I said to Torras[63], ‘What is the use of a fair lady saying she loves you better than any one in the world, and yet, while refusing to allow you to embrace her, she showers kisses on the man whom she declares she detests?’ Moor shut up by the sillygism.
His letters become at this time to an increasing degree full of expressions showing that he was weary of the hopelessness of his task. Thus he writes:—
Every day as the time draws nearer I sing, ‘Oh be joyful!’ I am sick of the bother, and the dirty work of British subjects that I have to attend to. I am tired also of writing and talking to this fossil Government, who cannot, or will not, understand their true interests.
The same note is struck in a letter written from Ravensrock on July 3, and September 7, 1885:—
We are well. Air here delightful, only 78° up till now, in the shade. Cholera striding fast in a deadly march on the other continent.
Weber[64] just left. This time next year I shall have gone also, and go without a pang, except to leave this lovely spot and the kindly peasantry who always welcome me with bright faces and affectionate words. Civilised men are getting too independent to be demonstrative of good-will and gratitude.
Sept. 7.
The Sultan has sent orders for the settlement of various long-pending affairs, but nothing about the Convention of Commerce. Their last mot on this is, ‘How is it possible that the Sultan’s treasury can be benefited by a reduction of duties on exports?’ and, ‘If we export all that the English Minister suggests, in the revised Tariff, the price of food will rise and the Moslem will be starved!’ These Moors are a parcel of children; but we can hardly be surprised at their holding these absurd views when a restrictive policy is pursued in commerce by the greatest nation in the world.
As to the cable between this and Gibraltar, the Sultan’s advisers tell him that, once it is laid, ‘Every day some Representative will telegraph for a ship of war!’ One does not know whether to laugh or to cry at such tomfoolery. I think, however, jealous folk drop poison in the ear of the Sultan, and din in His Sherifian Majesty’s ears that England has fallen from her high estate, and that she barks but can no longer bite. The French papers in Arabic from Algeria sing this loudly.
The existence of slavery in Morocco called forth now and again articles or letters which appeared in British journals, and in this and the previous year the subject was much discussed in the newspapers. At Sir John’s suggestion, all natives,—who as employés of the officials attached to the Legation or Consulates enjoyed British protection,—were required to liberate their slaves. He believed, however, the form of slavery in that country to be lenient, and though always urging on the Moorish Government the desirability of abolishing an institution so obnoxious to modern ideas, he foresaw difficulties that might, and did, prove insuperable in his day. The following extracts from his letters on this topic, written at different times, will show the attitude which he adopted towards the question:—