British interpreter again waited on the reis effendi,
and expressed to him the surprise Lord Ponsonby had experienced on
witnessing so direct and intentional an infringement of the treaties
existing between the king of England and the sultan; committed, too, by
the very individual appointed by the Porte to preside over their strict
and scrupulous observance. The reis effendi now desired one of his
officers to proceed with the English interpreter to the Bagnio, and
cause the detained merchant to be given up; but the governor of the
Bagnio refused to comply with the request, pretending that since the
prisoner had been placed under his care in virtue of a firman, he could
not release him without a written order from the Porte. Lord Ponsonby
now addressed an official note, stating that, as the minister of foreign
affairs had violated one of the most important stipulations of the
treaties existing between Great Britain and Turkey, he was obliged to
declare to the government that he would not any longer hold official
communication with his excellency, and to submit to the Sublime Porte,
and emphatically to declare to the sultan himself, his just complaint
against a minister who had dared to violate the laws of his own
sovereign, and insult the British nation. This step procured the
liberation of Mr. Churchill; but Lord Ponsonby refused to consider
this alone as any reparation of the breach of the treaties securing to
British subjects the right of being tried and punished only through the
agency of their own official representatives. His lordship insisted that
the reis effendi should be dismissed from his office. He insisted upon
this the more strenuously on account of the predominating influence of
Russia; for if the injured party had been a Russian subject, the Turkish
government would have hastened to make humble apologies, and would have
consented to give any satisfaction which the offended dignity of the
czar might have required. The Porte endeavoured to mitigate the demand
lay negociation; but Lord Ponsonby refused to accept of any satisfaction
which did not include the dismissal of the minister. As the Porte seemed
to think it below its dignity to grant such a request when merely made
by an ambassador, he said he would refer the matter to his government
at home. The British merchants, likewise, resident at Constantinople,
transmitted an address to Viscount Palmerston, representing the
necessity of supporting the demand ma