ld be persecuted in Turkey for
his religious opinions, were described in the first volume.[1] This
was in 1843 and 1844. Ten or eleven years later, there was another
beheading at Adrianople for a like cause, and another at Aleppo; and
the same high-minded statesman was again aroused to effort, not only
for a more effectual abrogation of the death penalty itself, but to
obtain for the Protestant Christians freedom from persecution, and
for the Christians generally the privileges that were enjoyed by
their fellow-subjects of the Moslem religion. The eighty folio pages
of documents on the subject, which were presented to both Houses of
Parliament in 1856, form an important and interesting chapter in the
history of those times. The principal writers, in addition to Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe and the Earl of Clarendon, were the Earl of
Shaftesbury, Lord Cowley, Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, President of
the Turkish Missions Aid Society, the Rev. Cuthbert G. Young, its
Secretary, and Mehemet Fuad.

[1] Vol. i. p. 135.

As the result of all, a Hatti Humaioun, or Imperial Firman, was
issued by the Sultan in February, 1856. When read in public, the
Sheik el Islam, the highest Moslem ecclesiastic, invoked the divine
blessing on the Imperial Edict; but probably without an
apprehension, either by himself or by his government, of the full
significance of the instrument. By many of the Mohammedans it was
regarded us opening the door for them to become Christians. Not a
few of the Armenians and Greeks were displeased with it as favoring
Protestantism; and this fact did not escape the sagacity of
Mohammedans.

The Imperial Rescript, as translated from the French, is as
follows:--

"Let it be done as herein set forth.

"To you, my Grand Vizier, Mehemed Emin Aali Pasha, decorated with my
Imperial Order of the Medjidiye of the first class, and with the
Order of Personal Merit; may God grant to you greatness, and
increase your power!

"It has always been my most earnest desire to insure the happiness
of all classes of the subjects whom divine Providence has placed
under my imperial sceptre; and since my accession to the throne I
have not ceased to direct all my efforts to the attainment of that
end.

"Thanks to the Almighty, these unceasing efforts have already been
productive of numerous useful results. From day to day the happiness
of the nation and the wealth of my dominions go on augmenting.

"It being now my desire to ren