APPENDIX XV

In 1687 James II. extorted from the embarrassments of the Porte what Charles II. and his predecessors had failed to obtain from its sense of justice. The occasion was curiously similar to the present one. An Italian corsair, operating under a commission from the King of Poland, robbed an English ship, the Jerusalem, of some passengers and goods belonging to the Pasha of Tripoli and carried them off to Malta. On the petition of the Levant Company, King James instructed his new Ambassador Sir William Trumbull, who was on the point of sailing for Turkey, to call in at Malta, expostulate with the Grand Master on the protection he gave to pirates preying upon English vessels, obtain liberation of the captives and restitution of the stolen goods, take both to Tripoli and hand them over to their rightful owner. This was done, and King James, in a letter to the Grand Vizir, after describing the service rendered, proceeded “to declare our positive resolution pursuant to the Capitulations in that behalfe that neither We nor any of our subjects shall at any time answer for the persons or estates of such subjects of your Imperial Master as shall of their own accord embark themselves upon any of our Merchants ships. But that all such persons as shall intrust either themselves or their goods upon any English ship shall bear their own hazard of corsairs and pyrats of what nature soever and sustain all other accidents whereunto the sea is lyable and from which they can only be protected by the one omnipotent God. And to this which is in itself so highly reasonable and agreeable to the rules of common justice, We cannot doubt of your assent.”

As at the moment the Ottoman Empire was assailed by four Powers from without and was convulsed by rebellions from within, the Grand Vizir readily gave his assent: “In conformity to the good accord of peace established with the happy Port of the Empire who is the refuge of the world, it is necessary and fit that the subjects on both parts should be in safety one with the other; and if the subjects of these Imperial Dominions shall enter voluntarily into the ships of your Merchants and your Merchants shall give them a writing any ways obliging themselves as security for said loss, or damage, according to that writing which shall be given it shall be obeyed and observed as to the security given for the loss or damage. And if your Merchants are not in this manner obliged nor give a writing of such import, the subjects of this Empire entering voluntarily into the ships of the Merchants, any loss or damage happening so to them, there shall be nothing pretended from your Merchants nor your subjects on any such pretexts. This rule ... We shall keep it an established Rule....”[320]

But alas for promises given under compulsion! Notwithstanding this solemn engagement, the Porte clung to its favourite principle, and every English Ambassador had to repeat, age after age, his nation’s disclaimer of corporate responsibility. [See, for instance, the Credentials of Abraham Stanyan (1717) and of James Porter (1746) in S.P. Turkey, 56.] As to the Levant Company, it did what it could to avoid trouble by instructing the Ambassadors either to forbid English ships to carry Turks and their goods, under severe penalties (such as making them pay double Consulage), or at least to see that the necessary precaution was taken by a writing given at the port of embarkation to secure the Company from any damage, in accordance with the Grand Vizir’s letter. [See the Company’s Instructions to Sir William Hussey (1690), to Lord Pagett (1693), to Sir Robert Sutton (1701), in the Register already cited.]