I have, &c.,
(Signed) STRATFORD CANNING.
No. 12.
Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen.—(Received December 24.)
(Extract.) Constantinople, December l, 1843.
Having sounded Rifaat Pasha as to his intention of answering the representations of the Five Powers concerning the late religious execution, I was told by his Excellency that, although the Porte wished to avoid any recurrence of that atrocity, yet, as such executions, divested of the objectionable forms which accompanied the Armenian's death, were obligatory under the law considered by Mahomedans divine, and might be forced incidentally upon the Government, it would be embarrassing to give an official declaration to that effect. Some ostensible record of the Porte's intention to avoid religious exeutions [sic] in future would, I humbly conceive, be satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government, and it would not perhaps be impossible to frame a reply, which might convey the required security without coming into collision with the Mussulman faith. There is reason otherwise to apprehend that the advantage now obtained will be of very short duration.
P.S.—There is reason to fear that another religious execution has recently taken place in the Pashalic of Brussa.
No. 13.
Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen.—(Received January 5, 1844.)
(Extract.) Buyukderé, December 17, 1843.