, impelled by motives of humanity, made an earnest effort to
procure his release, and the Grand Vizier promised that the young
man should not be beheaded. On learning that he had been, the
ambassador declared it to be an insult to the Established Religion
of England, as well as to all Europe, and insisted that no similar
act of fanaticism should ever again occur. In this he was said to be
warmly seconded both by the French and Prussian ministers. The Grand
Vizier, as before, was ready to give a verbal pledge; but soon a
second act of treachery was discovered. A Greek, in the interior of
Asia Minor, had declared himself it Mohammedan, and afterwards
refused to perform the rites of that religion, and the Turkish
minister was preparing the death-warrant for him, at the very time
when he was making these promises to the ambassador. Sir Stratford
now very peremptorily demanded, that a written pledge be given by
the Sultan himself (as his ministers could no longer be trusted),
that no person embracing the Moslem religion and afterwards
returning to Christianity, should on that account be put to death;
and the Earl of Aberdeen, on the part of the home government,
instructed him in a noble letter not to recede from the demand. The
Prussian and French governments were equally decided; and after some
hesitancy, even Russia threw the weight of her influence into the
scale. After a struggle of some weeks the required pledge was given,
signed by the Sultan himself, that henceforth NO PERSON SHOULD BE
PERSECUTED FOR HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS IN TURKEY. The British
ambassador distinctly acknowledged the finger of God in this
transaction, which he said seemed little less than a miracle.

It will hereafter appear, that the pledge had a wider range, than
was thought of at the time by the governments of Europe, by their
representatives, or even by the Turks. God was setting up a
spiritual kingdom, and his people must have freedom to worship Him
in his appointed way. The battle for religious freedom in Turkey was
fought over the mutilated remains of the Armenian renegade, and the
Sultan's pledge secured to the Protestant native Christians the full
enjoyment of their civil rites, while openly practicing their own
religion.1

1 This brief statement is compiled from the _Correspondence relating
to Executions in Turkey for Apostasy from Islamism_, published by
the British Parliament in 1844, occupying forty folio pages. The
correspondence is h