The Paget Papers.
Letter from Mr. B. Garlike to the Hon. Arthur Paget (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Austria).
Source: Paget, Right Hon. Sir Augustus B. Paget, G.C.B. The Paget Papers, Diplomatic and other Correspondence of the Right Hon Sir A. Paget. G.C.B., 1794-1807, 2 Vols. Longmans, Green and Co. New York 1896. Vol 2. Pages 78 -79.
From Mr. B. Garlike* to the Hon. A. Paget.
St. Petersburg, 5 May 1803.
My
Dear Sir,- . . . This Court does not appear unwilling to interpose its
good-offices between our Government, and that of France, in order to prevent
a rupture ; and requires from both of them such a full statement of the ground
of their differences, as may enable the Emperor to devise the means of
reconciling us ; as far as a willingness may be shewn to admit His
interference.
There
can be little doubt that the Russian Government is already well acquainted
with the nature of our apprehensions, as to the views .of France :-and that
they are aware too of the difficulty of effectually interfering, otherwise
than by countenancing the measures we may be obliged to adopt in order to
secure some further check against French encroachment. . . .
Bonaparte
does not revoke one jot of His pretensions on Turkey, and the vanity of the
F. nation is such that they conceive those pretensions to be founded in justice.
If Malta is our security in that quarter,† we can consent to no halving
or quartering of that possession ; and as we have armed, I hope and pray
that we may soon declare our resolution never to abandon that; island. .
. .
I am, &c.
(Signed) B. Garlike.
[A
despatch from Mr. William Hamilton to Lord Hawkesbury, dated Yannina, May
6, conveys a message from Ali Pacha, Governor of Albania and Beglerbey of
Roumelia, "one of the most powerful and energetic Pachas in European
Turkey."‡ In case of a rupture between England and France, he desired
to confirm his friendship with England, and asserted his hostility to Russia
and France ; he offered the port of Palormo for the use of troops ; in a
few days he could raise 30,000 troops, and would quickly be joined by as
many more. He was perfectly independent of the Turkish Government, and he
asked for an English resident at Yannina.]
* Secretary of Legation at St. Petersburg.
† The decision to keep Malta was only made in the spring of 1803, in
consequence of Sebastiani's reports on the French projects in Egypt and the
European provinces of Turkey.
‡ Bonaparte had opened intrigues with him in 1798. At this time there
was a proposal that France should help the Sultan "to reduce him to that
state of subjection which the general welfare of the Turkish Empire
required."
