Legitimate commerce, then principally in British hands, was ever on the decrease, while contraband traffic was largely increasing.
Mr. Hay urged that, to counterbalance French military influence, a more authoritative tone must be adopted by Great Britain in her dealings with the Sultan, and that certain commercial concessions and reforms should be demanded. He also advised that more frequent visits should be paid by British men-of-war to Moorish ports, from which some vessel of the French navy was seldom absent, while British ships were rarely seen. A year later he pointed out that his rank, as Consul-General and Agent only, militated against his efforts to increase British influence, since both the French and Spanish Governments had Ministers accredited to the Moorish Court, and the Moors, who neither had newspapers of their own nor read those of other countries, who had no postal system, and no native society in which Europeans could mingle, estimated the comparative importance of different nations by the status of their respective employés.
Mr. Hay’s efforts were not unrecognised by the Foreign Office. Encouraging letters reached him from the Chief Clerk signifying Lord Palmerston’s satisfaction, and at the close of 1847 he was promoted to the rank of Chargé d’Affaires.
It was also owing to Mr. Hay’s persistent representations that duties on imported goods were, in September, 1848, reduced ten per cent. The reduction gave fresh impetus to British trade and prevented its diversion into Franco-Algerian channels which seemed at one time imminent.
In the meantime the feelings of the people of Morocco were growing still more in favour of Great Britain and antagonistic to the policy of the Sultan. This potentate evinced great ill-will to Mr. Hay, and even threatened at various times to insist on his recall, should he persist, as hitherto, in enforcing the claims of British subjects.
This ill-will on the part of the Sultan arose, no doubt, in great measure from his having been erroneously led to believe by evil advisers in 1844 that Great Britain would employ armed force on behalf of the Moors, and from his conviction that she had broken faith in failing to do so.
A better feeling towards Great Britain was brought about, however, by an act of kindly courtesy on the part of Her Majesty’s Government. In July, 1849, a British vessel of war was sent to conduct H.S.M.’s two sons to Alexandria, whence they were to journey to Mecca, the same vessel afterwards bringing them back. This act of kindness was received with great gratitude by the Sultan, and in acknowledgement he shortly after sent to the Queen a present of wild animals, horses and specimens of Moorish manufactures. Several Moors accompanied the Sultan’s gift to the Queen and, on their return, in May, 1850, Mr. Hay wrote to Mr. Addington, then Chief Clerk at the Foreign Office, telling him of their delight at their reception:—
The Moors have returned, delighted with their visit to the land of the Nazarenes. Around my house, groups of respectable men may be seen listening to the wondrous tales of Kaid Abd-el-Kerim or of my groom. The old chief hunter, Hadj Abdallah, sits in his village—amidst a motley crowd of Arabs and Rifians—telling them of the magnificence and wonders of London, and the kindness the poor Moors received, from the Queen down to the servants that assisted them. He proclaims loudly to the astonished fanatics that power, wealth, honesty, and charity are to be found in the land of the Infidel and not in the land of the Moslem.
The Hadj tells me that at one time he had almost lost his reason in thinking over what he had seen. His stories have amused me as much as they do the Moors, and I have been almost inclined to publish the ‘Travels of the Hadj,’ or get my brother to do so, as I am rather lazy about writing when it is not a duty.
All the Moors talk much of the Queen and Prince Albert, who they declare sent for them more than once. So England and the English are in the mouth of every Moor since the return of the travellers.