[ 788.] present emergency of fresh admissions into the Cabinet, and all will be right and your honour safe. But at all events don't blame one who in this, as in every other case in which you have been concerned, has fairly and zealously done everything to secure for you an object which, I must say, you could not wish for more than he wished to obtain it for you. Believe me ever yours most sincerely, WELLINGTON. To Lord Bexley. 18th January, 1828. MY DEAR LORD, The alteration produced by the events of the last nine months, and the loss which his Majesty has sustained of the two eminent men who were a' the head of his councils at the time I had the happiness of being employed in those councils with you, have rendered absolutely necessary to endeavour to collect in his Majesty's service as many persons as I may be able who have been in the habit and possess the talent of speaking in Parliament. In this state of things, I have had to consider your situation, and have now to perform the very painful duty of communi'cating to you the result. Recollection of my intercourse with you as a colleague; of the usefulness of your advice and experience in his Majesty's councils; of your great exertions in the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer during the war and in the eventful times-with relation to finance and currency-in which we have lived since the peace; and, indeed, generally of the great services which you rendered to the public, and of the debt of gratitude due to you for those services by all, but particularly by me, would have induced me to seek and ask for your assistance upon this occasion; and to this I must add that the King feels and has warmly expressed his sense of those claims upon him, as well as other claims of recent date, which entitle you in the strongest manner to his Majesty's most gracious favour and protection. I must, however, ask you to resign your office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; and the King has desired me to inform you that it is his intention to grant you a pension of the first class; to which your services entitle you, and in manifestation of his good-will. I will conclude as I commenced, by assuring you that nothing could have induced me to take this step excepting the exigency of the King's service at this moment, for which it has fallen to my lot to endeavour to make provision. Believe me, &c., WELLINGTON. Foots Cray Place, 18th January, 1828. Lord Bexley to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. MY DEAR DUKE, Ever since I quitted the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, I have considered myself as holding the Seal of the Duchy of Lancaster as a testimony of his Majesty's gracious approbation of my past services, and as subject at any time to such arrangements as might best promote the strength and advantage of his Majesty's government. In resigning it into his Majesty's hands, I have therefore only further to request your Grace to express my humble and dutiful acknowledgments to his Majesty for the repeated proofs of his gracious favour towards me, and especially for the provision he has been pleased to make for my retire ment. I will not deny that, having had the honour to be associated with your Grace in the Cabinet, and of having assisted, however humbly, in those exertions by which the deliverance of Europe was effected in the glorious period of your Grace's command, it would have been a gratification to me to sit again as your colleague; but I am fully sensible of the difficulties of your situation, and of the importance of obtaining the greatest practicable force of parliamentary support; and I have only to add my most sincere wishes for the success and prosperity of your Grace's administration. Believe me ever, my dear Duke, yours most faithfully, BEXLEY. I shall expect to hear from your Grace when it may be his Majesty's pleasure that I should deliver up the Seal of my office. Lord Ellenborough to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. MY DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Connaught Place, 18th January, 1828. I return the papers relative to the Treaty, and have made out a statement for your convenience of what seem to be the main points. I have added no observations, as the subject requires much consideration, and there must be later papers in the Foreign Office essential to the maturing of the measures now to be adopted. I have likewise taken the liberty of transmitting to you the sketch I made for my own amusement of that part of the King's Speech which must refer to the Treaty. I supposed the case of a government not approving of the Treaty, but bound by it. The sketch, having been written on the 15th, is not exactly what I should have written after my interview with you this morning. Believe me, my dear Duke of Wellington, very faithfully yours, [ENCLOSURES.] ELLENBOROUGH. I. PRESENT STATE OF THE GREEK QUESTION, as far as it appears from the printed Papers, which are not of a date, in London, subsequent to the 12th December, 1827. By despatches from Constantinople of the 11th November it appears that the Porte, on the 7th, refused passports to couriers and vessels, on the ground that the battle of Navarino had put an end to the treaties on which the right to ask passports was founded. On the 8th the Porte desired answers to the following questions, before it would grant passports: 1. Veut-on se désister de la cause grecque ? 2. Veut-on payer des indemnités pour les dommages causés à la flotte Ottomane? 3. Veut-on donner satisfaction à la Sublime Porte? On the 10th a note is delivered to the Reis-Effendi by the three ambassadors, declaring, as to the 1st question, that the Allies will persevere in the measures adopted for carrying into effect the Treaty. As to the 2nd question, No; because the aggression was on the side of the Porte. As to the 3rd question, the answer is vague. Mr. Canning says it was in the negative. The words used might lead the Porte to understand it in the affirmative. In his despatch of the 11th November M. de Guilleminot says, in reference to the whole of the note: Votre Excellence y remarquera sûrement le soin que, tout en repoussant les étranges prétensions de la Porte, nous avons mis à la rassurer sur des craintes qu'autorise depuis longtemps, aux yeux des Turcs, sans qu'il soit facile de les en guérir, le vague extrême du Traité de Londres." The most remarkable expressions in this note are those which declare the proposed plan of pacification to be “loin de porter atteinte à l'intégrité de l'empire," and which state one of the objects of the Allies to be "conserver la Grèce à Constantinople.” On the 10th the Austrian Internuncio declared to the French ambassador "qu'il venait de déclarer à la Porte, que, ne pouvant rien ajouter à tout ce qu'il avait fait pour l'éclairer, il se mettait désormais hors de cause." On the receipt of this despatch a conference was held in London, on the 12th December, 1827. In the Protocol it is said "il paraît que le moment est arrivé où les trois puissances alliées peuvent se voir enveloppées dans une guerre avec la Porte Ottomane," and therefore the plenipotentiaries think it right to declare that if the measures adopted by the Porte should take a character of direct hostility. the whole object of the war into which they should then be drawn would be the same that they had originally endeavoured to accomplish by negotiation. They then renew the "renonciation de toute vue intéressée," and particularly 66 agrandissement de territoire." "Enfin, qu'en tout état de cause, elles se promettent mutuellement une active et réelle co-opération." INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ADMIRALS. 12th July, 1827. In the event of the Porte not consenting to an armistice, the squadrons are to be united, "à l'effet d'empêcher tout secours turc ou égyptien, en hommes, armes, vaisseaux, et munitions de guerre, d'arriver en Grèce, ou dans les îles de l'Archipel." The Greeks are to be treated as friends; but no part is to be taken in the hostilities between Greeks and Turks. "Vous sentez que vous devez apporter un soin extrême à ce que les mesures que vous prendrez envers la marine ottomane ne dégenèrent pas en hostilités." Force is only to be used if the Turks " s'obstinent à forcer les passages qui seront interceptés." However, as these "instructions ne sauraient prévoir tous les cas possibles, et qu'une certaine latitude vous est nécessaire, le Roi vous l'accorde pleinement." If the Turks should accept, and the Greeks refuse, the armistice, the squadrons are instructed to "veiller au maintien de l'armistice," without taking any part in hostilities. Under these instructions the Admirals acted. It seems doubts arose as to the application of some part of these instructions; but in the more detailed instructions, dated the 15th October, it is said "that the government observe with satisfaction that the construction the Ambassadors and Admirals appear to put upon these passages is agreeable to the spirit of the instructions themselves, and to the intention of those by whom they were framed." In the first secret article of the Treaty it is said that the cessation of war, &c., in the Levant, "par les moyens à la disposition de la Sublime Porte, paraît encore éloignée," and therefore the Treaty. July 6th. On the 10th of September Prince Lieven states that the successes of the Turks have been such as to expose the Greeks, who have neither money, arms, nor provisions, "chaque jour à la chance d'une destruction totale," and therefore he demands the blockade of Constantinople, both on the side of the Archipelago and the Black Sea, for the purpose of starving the capital, and thus forcing the Sultan to agree to the terms proposed. This demand was made before the answer of the Divan was known to the first note presented. On this ground Lord Dudley obtains the postponement of the discussion to the 17th, and on the 17th, on the same ground, declines adopting it; but on the 15th October, still not adopting the proposition, proposes clearer instructions to the Admirals, which are accordingly drawn out and sent. These instructions are in the spirit of the first, but rather more in detail :"The Admiral is directed to concert with the Commanders of the Allied Powers the most effectual mode of preventing any movements by sea on the part of the Turkish and Egyptian forces." He will concert with the Greek authorities that the whole of their naval force shall be exclusively appropriated to the blockade of the ports of Greece now occupied by the Turkish or Egyptian forces," and the Greeks are to have the usual rights of blockade by belligerents. II. SKETCH OF THAT PART OF THE KING'S SPEECH WHICH MUST REFER TO THE TREATY. I have ordered to be laid before you a copy of a Treaty contracted by me with his Majesty the King of France and Navarre and his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, with the view of putting an end to piracy in the Levant, and to the effusion of blood in Greece, by an arrangement which appeared to be as much called for by humanity as by the interests of the repose of Europe. It is with much regret that I inform you that no progress has hitherto been made towards the accomplishment of the objects of this Treaty; and that in the attempt to execute its provisions a sanguinary conflict has taken place between the fleets of the contracting Powers and that of the Ottoman Porte. I have thought fit to reward the brilliant valour and ability displayed by my naval forces in the battle of Navarino; but it will ever be a subject of deep concern to me that any circumstances should have brought my arms into hostile collision with those of a Power with which it must always be my desire to maintain the relations of amity. You may be assured that no exertions will be wanting on my part to effect the benevolent objects of the Treaty, and to preserve everywhere a peace necessary to the interests and happiness of all the nations of Europe. Viscount Goderich to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. MY DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Downing Street, 19th January, 1828. I should be very much obliged to you if you would be so good as to let me know when you have kissed hands; as it would be proper that whenever that event takes place I should write to the King, to express to his Majesty my grateful sense of the kindness which I have, at all times, experienced from him. Believe me, my dear Duke, very sincerely yours, GODERICH. Viscount Sandon* to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. MY DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Torquay, 19th January, 1828. I feel myself placed in rather an awkward situation by my half-completed appointment to the Board of Admiralty, and I wish to explain myself clearly to your Grace to avoid any misunderstanding. I should have written earlier but that considerable domestic anxiety has really precluded me from the possibility of quiet consideration. My appointment was entirely of Lord Goderich's free offer to me, and his ministry being at an end, I consider mine as equally so. I should wish your Grace to consider my seat at the Board as completely at your disposal; perhaps you might have considered it so already, but in my ignorance of the usual methods of proceeding, and distant as I am from any advice from more experienced persons, I have thought it fairer to state at once what my views upon the subject are. In the present confusion of political parties, I must say that I should be unwilling to find myself engaged to any par *The Earl of Harrowby, K.G. |