The intrigues of the French ambassador, and Buonaparte’s progressive encroachments in Europe, had made on the minds of the Sultan and his ministers such an impression, that no remonstrance, no threat could now induce them to perform what they themselves had shown so much wish for before.
On the other hand, the British embassy could not remain indifferent to the recall of the Hospodars, and to the manner in which the foreign protections had been suppressed.
From an impulse of official regard to the complaints and interests of those individuals who were patentees under the English protection, and in consequence of the Russian envoy’s solicitations that their efforts might be joined for the purpose of resisting the violent measures pursued by the Turkish government, the British ambassador made many representations to the Porte against its proceedings, and although impartial in principle as to the practice of granting protection to natives of the country, he, at all events, recommended moderation, and a less offensive mode of carrying the new system into execution. But having soon discovered and ascertained beyond a doubt, that all interference was of no avail, that the resolution of the Turkish cabinet was such as to hazard all, sooner than withdraw from the adopted plan, he deemed it expedient to advise the British patentees to proceed, as if from their own accord, and give up their titles to the Porte, and in the mean time recommended in a private manner, the property and personal safety of such individuals, who, by this means, not only avoided the resentment of the Turkish government, but were all well treated, and some taken into favour.
The British ambassador, however, showed less disposition to compliance with regard to the other proceedings of the Porte, and having insisted with Russia on the immediate reinstatement of the Hospodars Ipsilanti and Mourousi, the subject was discussed at the divan, where the general opinion inclined to a firm resistance of those pretensions; but the Sultan finally declared, that however humiliating might be the alternative of ceding to them, he was resolved to recur to it rather than break with England.
This decision was at the time carried into execution, to the extreme disappointment of the French ambassador, Sebastiani, whose great object was to kindle the fire he had raised. But very soon after, advices being received that the Russian troops had already entered the Moldavian territory, affairs underwent a total change; the Russian envoy was dismissed, and the Grand Vezier took the field.
To represent these events in a more proper point of view, it is necessary to observe, that it was neither the intention of England, nor the wish of Russia, to engage in a serious war with Turkey. Their object was to bring the Porte to a sense of its true interests, in diverting it from a line of conduct which bore every appearance of a change in its political system, and was every way calculated to confirm the suspicion that the Sultan was contracting an alliance with Buonaparte.
In order to separate the Porte from the French party, and induce it to return to the connexions which had formerly existed with the allies of Turkey, a plan of coercive measures had been found necessary; and, to give them a greater weight, it had been determined that Russia should send an army from the north, and England a fleet from the south.
When the English fleet appeared before Constantinople, it naturally occasioned the greatest confusion and alarm. The Sultan lost no time in sending on board to offer terms of peace, and negotiations were commenced with Mr. Arbuthnot, who was in the flag-ship, the Royal Sovereign. But they were carried on with much less vigour than it was necessary to give them, and left time to the French intrigues to gain the advantage. Buonaparte’s active agents, General Sebastiani and Franchini[[32]], were the more anxious to counteract the operations of the English plenipotentiary, as they were aware that the first result of his success would have been the expulsion of the French embassy from Constantinople. They employed for that purpose every means in their power, and they succeeded by the following stratagem.
The chief of the Janissaries, Pehlivan-Aga, had formerly been colonel of a regiment, which had acted once as guard of honour, given to a French embassy at the Porte. Having remained some time in that station, he had contracted a lasting connexion with the French, to whose party, since that period, he devoted himself. When General Sebastiani saw that peace with England was on the point of being concluded, he sent Franchini to him to suggest a plan which the Turkish officer carried into immediate execution. He went to the seraglio[[33]], as if in great haste, and having obtained audience of the Sultan, he thus addressed his imperial chief:—
“May God preserve your sacred person and the Ottoman empire from every possible evil. A pure sense of duty brings me before your Royal Person, to represent that so strong and general a fermentation has arisen amongst my Janissaries since the appearance of the infidel’s fleet before your royal palace: they express so great a discontent at the measures pursued by your ministers in negotiating with the English, from a shameful fear that the appearance of that fleet has thrown them into; that a general insurrection is on the point of breaking out, unless the negotiations be laid aside, and all offers of peace be rejected with scorn. They declare that it is beneath the dignity and fame of the Ottoman empire, to submit to such an act of humiliation, as to sign a treaty, because a few ships have come to bully its capital, and dictate their own terms to the Ottoman sovereign. Your brave Janissaries will not suffer so disgraceful a stain to tarnish the splendour of the Ottoman arms. They are all ready to sacrifice themselves in defence of your residence, and in vindication of the honour and faith of the Ottoman nation. But they can never consent to stand tacit witnesses of a submission so ignominious to the Turkish name.”