Note 17 — Chapter IV · OTTOMAN PROMISES AND THEIR FULFILMENT.
Reading edition
At the time of the Crimean War Lord Aberdeen said:
“Notwithstanding the favorable opinion entertained by many, it is difficult to believe in the improvement of the Turks. It is true that, under the pressure of the moment, benevolent decrees may be issued; but these, except under the eye of some Foreign Minister, are entirely neglected. Their whole system is radically vicious and inhuman. I do not refer to fables which may be invented at St. Petersburg or Vienna, but to numerous dispatches of Lord Stratford (de Redcliffe) himself, and of our own consuls, who describe a frightful picture of lawless oppression and cruelty.” (Sir Theodore Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort, vol. ii., p. 528.) Quoted by Canon MacColl, The Contemporary Review, January, 1895.