r system that our agents were allowed to trade.
Mercantile interests, especially in a Corsair state, are likely to
clash with the duties of a consul. Some consuls, moreover, were
clearly unfitted for their posts. Of one it is recorded that he drank
to excess; another is described as "a litigious limb of the law, who
values himself upon having practised his talents in that happy
occupation with success, against every man that business or occasion
gave him dealings with;" a third is represented as "sitting on his
bed, with his sword and a brace of pistols at his side, calling for a
clergyman to give him the Sacraments that he may die contented."
Still, in the long list of consuls, the majority were honourable,
upright men, devoted to their country, and anxious to uphold her
interests and rights. How were they rewarded? If their own government
resented a single act of the ferocious monster they called the
Dey--who was any common Janissary chosen by his comrades[82]--the
consul went in fear of his life, nay, sometimes was positively
murdered. If he was a strong-minded, courageous man, and refused to
stoop to the degradation which was expected of him at the Dey's
palace, he could not reckon on support at home; he might be recalled,
or his judgment reversed, or he might even pull down the consular flag
only to see it run up again by a more temporising successor, appointed
by a government which had already endorsed his own resistance. He
might generously become surety for thousands of pounds of ransoms for
English captives, and never receive back a penny from home. Whatever
happened, the consul was held responsible by the Algerines, and on the
arrival of adverse news a threatening crowd would surround his house.
Sometimes the consul and every Englishman in Algiers would be seized
and thrown into prison, and their effects ransacked, and never a
chance of restitution. Many were utterly ruined by the extortions of
the Dey and governors. Heavy bribes--called "the customary
presents"--had to be distributed on the arrival of each fresh consul;
and it is easy to understand that the Dey took care that they did not
hold the office too long. The government presents were never rich
enough, and the unlucky consul had to make up the deficit out of his
own pocket. The Dey would contemptuously hand over a magnificently
jewelled watch to his head cook in the presence of the donor; and no
consul was received at the Palace until the "customary p