ritish nation by Mr. Harebone, the ambassador of
England at the Sublime Porte. The records of the long succession of
consuls, and agents, and consuls-general, that followed him are a
title-roll of shame. The state of things at almost any point in this
span of two hundred and thirty years may be described in few words. A
consul striving to propitiate a sullen, ignorant, common soldier,
called a Dey; a Christian king, or government, submitting to every
affront put upon his representative, recalling him after mortal
insult, and sending a more obsequious substitute with presents and
fraternal messages; and now and then a King's ship, carrying an
officer of the King's navy, or an ambassador of the King's Council,
irresolutely loitering about the Bay of Algiers trying to mollify a
surly despot, or perhaps to experiment in a little meaningless
bluster, at which the Dey laughs in his sleeve, or even openly, for he
knows he has only to persevere in his demands and every government in
Europe will give in. Consuls may pull down their flags and threaten
war; admirals may come and look stern, and even make a show of a
broadside or two; but the Dey's Christian Brother of St. James's or
the Tuileries--or their ministers for them--have settled that Algiers
cannot be attacked: so loud may he laugh at consul and man-of-war.

To attempt to trace in detail the relations of the Pashas, Deys, and
Beys of the three Barbary States, and the Sher[=i]fs of Morocco, with
the various European Powers, would be a task at once difficult and
wearisome. Those with England will be quite sufficient for the
purpose, and here, in regard to Algiers, we have the advantage of
following the researches of the Agent and Consul-General there, Sir R.
Lambert Playfair, who in his _Scourge of Christendom_,[81] has set
forth the principal incidents of British relations with the Dey in
great detail, and has authenticated his statements by references to
official documents of unimpeachable veracity. The facts which he
brings to light in a volume of over three hundred pages can here of
course be but slightly touched upon, but the reader may turn to his
interesting narrative for such more particular information as space
excludes from these pages.

The general results arrived at from a study of Sir Lambert Playfair's
researches are painful to English self-respect. It is possible that
our consuls were not always wisely chosen, and it was a vital defect
in our early consula