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Her Majesty's Government confidently trust that no repetition of so unjustifiable an act as that against which your Excellency so properly remonstrated will ever be suffered, and still less authorized by the Turkish Government; and they earnestly counsel that Government to take immediate measures for effectually preventing the future commission of such atrocities.

Under the full conviction that the Sultan will have the humanity and wisdom to listen to this counsel, which is given with the most friendly feeling, and which will, I doubt not, be equally impressed on His Highness by other Christian Governments, I do not think it necessary to enter further at present into the other points set forth in your Excellency's despatch above referred to.

You will not fall to communicate this despatch to Rifaat Pasha.

I am, &c.,

ABERDEEN.

No. 5.

I have communicated to Baron B?low your Lordship's despatch of the 4th instant to Sir Stratford Canning relative to the late execution of an Armenian at Constantinople, and his Excellency has requested me to express the interest with which he had learnt your Lordship's views on that subject.

I have, &c.,

WESTMORLAND.

No. 6.

The Prussian Minister has communicated to me an instruction addressed to him by Baron B?low in reply to his representations on the subject of the Armenian youth, whose execution and its natural consequences were brought under your Lordship's notice in my despatch of August the 27th.

The French Minister has also communicated to me a note, transmitted to him from Paris for presentation to the Porte, with reference to the same deplorable act of the Turkish Government.

Copies of these two papers have not been given to me; but I understand that the Prussian instruction has been sent to your Lordship, and it is probable that the same degree of confidence has been shewn to your Lordship by M. Guizot. I have only to remark that the terms in which these documents are respectively expressed, appear to me highly creditable to the Cabinets from which they have issued, and, should your Lordship see fit to instruct me in a similar sense, it would afford me great satisfaction to repeat to the Turkish Minister, with the immediate authority of Her Majesty's Government, what I ventured at the time to intimate by anticipation on my own suggestion. Baron B?low and M. Guizot appear to be equally impressed with the dangerous character of that policy to which the Armenian execution is traceable, and their reprobation of the act itself is proportionally strong. Baron de Bourqueney is prepared to give in his note without waiting for the concurrence of his colleagues. M. Le Coq is instructed to act simultaneously with the other Representatives of the Five Powers.

With respect to the Austrian and Russian Ministers, I am informed by M. de Titow that the Emperor of Russia's absence from St. Petersburgh has prevented his receiving an immediate answer to his despatches; and I hear that the Internuncio refers to a communication made by Prince Metternich to the Turkish Ambassador at Vienna as sufficiently expressive of the sentiments of his Court and superseding the necessity of any step on his part without further instructions.

I would venture humbly to submit that a concurrent expression of the sentiments of the Five Courts on such an occasion would hardly fail of producing a most beneficial effect upon the counsels of the Porte.

I have, &c.,

STRATFORD CANNING.

No. 7.

I have received your despatch of the 11th of October, reporting that the French and Prussian Ministers had received instructions from their respective Governments on the subject of the execution of the Armenian referred to in your despatch of the 27th of August.

I calculate that your Excellency will have received on the 24th ultimo my despatch of the 4th, by which your Excellency will have been enabled to acquaint the Porte with the feelings with which Her Majesty's Government had received the intelligence of that melancholy transaction. I have nothing to add to that instruction.

No. 8.

The instruction which I have received from your Lordship respecting the Armenian decapitated for returning to the Christian faith, cannot fail of making a deep and, I hope, a salutary impression upon the Ottoman Ministers.

I have had it carefully translated into Turkish, and placed in M. Pisani's hands for communication to the Porte, accompanied with an instruction of which I have the honour to inclose a copy herewith.

Monsieur de Bourqueney having been directed to present an official note upon the same subject, I thought it advisable to give a certain degree of formality to the communication of your Lordship's despatch, and particularly to leave it with the Minister for Foreign Affairs in writing. A copy of the French Minister's note is herewith inclosed.

The presentation of this remonstrance has strongly excited the public attention, and occasioned no small embarrassment at the Porte. It was proposed in Council to return it, but the suggestion was overruled, and I hear that nothing will be added to the verbal reply already given.

The substance of that reply, which M. de Bourqueney read to me from the report of his first interpreter, is by no means unfavourable. The language employed by Rifaat Pasha in speaking of the French Minister's note to M. Pisani, admitted, in substance, that much might be said with reason against the manner and circumstances of the execution, but as to the act itself, he said that nothing could be alleged against a judgment founded upon the express will of God. His answer to the communication of your Lordship's instruction has not yet reached me. It will have the greater interest as two more cases of religion involving capital punishment have recently occurred. The offender in each instance is a native Mussulman; and nothing, I conceive, but the late expression of indignation has prevented the Porte from executing the sentence of the law.

I am informed that Rifaat Pasha, on consulting the Grand Mufti as to one of these cases, was advised not to bring it under His Holiness' notice as he had no choice but to declare the law; and a charitable intimation was added, that where a State necessity existed, the Porte would herself be found the most competent judge.

The Russian Minister informs me that he is still in expectation of instructions from St. Petersburgh. The Internuncio refers to the remarks addressed by Prince Metternich himself to the Turkish Ambassador at Vienna. M. de Le Coq reserves the communication of his instruction, in the hope of being able to act simultaneously with M. de Titow. The silence of any one of the leading Courts on such an occasion would be a cause of just regret.

I have, &c.,

STRATFORD CANNING.

Inclosure l in No 8.

Le Soussign?, Ministre Pl?nipotentiaire de Sa Majest? le Roi des Fran?ais pr?s la Porte Ottomane, a re?u de son Gouvernement l'ordre de faire ? son Excellence le Ministre des Affaires Etrang?res la communication suivante.

C'est avec un douloureux ?tonnement que le Gouvernement du Roi a appris la r?cente ex?cution d'un Arm?nien qui, apr?s avoir embrass? la religion Musulmane, ?tait revenu ? la foi de ses p?res, et que pour ce seul fait on a frapp? de la peine capitale, parcequ'il refusait ? racheter sa vie par une nouvelle abjuration.

En vain pour expliquer un acte aussi d?plorable voudrait-on se pr?valoir des dispositions imp?rieuses de la l?gislation. On devait croire que la l?gislation faite pour d'autres temps ?tait tomb?e en d?su?tude; et en tout cas il ?tait trop facile de fermer les yeux sur un pareil fait pour qu'on puisse consid?rer ce qui vient d'arriver comme une de ces d?plorables n?cessit?s dans lesquelles la politique trouve quelquefois non pas une justification mais une excuse.

Lors m?me que l'humanit?, dont le nom n'a jamais ?t? invoqu? en vain en France, n'aurait pas ?t? aussi cruellement bless?e par le supplice de cet Arm?nien, lors m?me que le Gouvernement du Roi, qui a toujours prot?g?, et prot?gera toujours la religion Chr?tienne en Orient, pourrait oublier que c'est le Christianisme qui a re?u ce sanglant outrage, l'int?r?t qu'il prend ? l'Empire Ottoman et ? son ind?pendance, lui ferait encore voir avec une profonde douleur ce qui vient de se passer.

Cette ind?pendance ne peut aujourd'hui trouver une garantie efficace que dans l'appui de l'opinion Europ?enne. Les efforts du Gouvernement du Roi ont constamment tendu ? lui m?nager cet appui. Cette t?che lui deviendra bien plus difficile en pr?sence d'un acte qui soulevera dans l'Europe enti?re une indignation universelle.

Le Gouvernement du Roi croit accomplir un devoir imp?rieux en faisant conna?tre ? la Porte l'impression qu'il a re?ue d'un fait malheureusement irr?parable, mais qui, s'il pouvait se renouveler, serait de nature ? appeler des dangers r?els sur le Gouvernement assez faible pour faire de telles concessions ? un odieux et d?plorable fanatisme.

Le Soussign?, &c.,

The Undersigned, Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of the French at the Ottoman Porte, has received orders from his Government to make the following communication to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

It has been with a painful astonishment that the King's Government has learnt the late execution of an Armenian who, after embracing the Musulman religion, returned to the faith of his fathers, and who, for this act alone, has been capitally punished, because he refused to redeem his life by a fresh recantation.

In vain can the imperious terms of the law be appealed to for an explanation of so lamentable an act. It might have been supposed that a system of law formed for other times had fallen into desuetude; and at all events it was too easy to overlook such a circumstance to admit of that which has happened being considered as one of those lamentable cases of necessity, in which policy sometimes finds not so much a justification as an excuse.

Even had not humanity, whose name has never been vainly invoked in France, been so cruelly hurt by the punishment of this Armenian,--even could the King's Government, which has always protected, and ever will protect, the Christian religion in the East, forget that it is Christianity which has been thus cruelly outraged,--the interest which it takes in the Ottoman Empire and in its independence would still cause it to behold what has occurred with profound regret.

That independence can in these times find a real security only in the support of the public opinion of Europe. The efforts of the King's Government have been constantly directed towards obtaining for it that support. This task will become much more difficult after an act which will excite universal indignation throughout the whole of Europe.

The King's Government considers that it discharges an imperious duty in making known to the Porte the impression which has been made upon it by an event unfortunately irreparable, and which, were it to occur again, would be likely to cause real danger to a Government weak enough to make such concessions to a hateful and lamentable fanaticism.

The Undersigned, &c.,

Inclosure 2 in No. 8.

In presenting to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the accompanying translation of an instruction addressed to me by the Earl of Aberdeen, with reference to the Armenian who was lately executed at Constantinople, you will be careful to impress his Excellency with a conviction of the deep and painful sentiments excited throughout Great Britain by that deplorable act.

You will require that the instruction be forthwith submitted not only to his Highness the Grand Vizier, but also to His Imperial Majesty the Sultan.

A copy of this letter, with a translation in Turkish, is to be left with Rifaat Pasha.

STRATFORD CANNING.

No. 9.

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