dor, who should proceed first to
Constantinople for the sanction of the Porte, and thence to England to
treat on Lord Exmouth's proposal. It may be supposed that the Admiral
would not have endured this evasion, had he been authorised to act; but
he had pressed the demand without instructions, and felt that he would
not be justified in resorting to force, if it could be creditably
avoided. He was not even certain that his conduct in thus pressing the
abolition of slavery would be favourably received; for it was a common
remark, that the obstructions to the navigation of the Mediterranean,
created by the Barbary corsairs, were advantageous to British commerce.
He expressed this doubt in a letter which he sent on shore on the 23rd
of June, when the fleet had arrived in the channel:--"It is with great
delight I again bring myself nearer to you and the rest of my family,
after a longer absence than I had any reason to expect when I left
England, and which has at last ended without realizing that for which it
was said we were kept so long abroad after peace was signed. I had
anxiously hoped I should have been directed to enforce the abandonment
of their cruel system of retaining Christians who fell into their hands
(in what they term war) in slavery. I hope I have made the path easy for
the Government, having obtained by my own exertions the relinquishment
from two States, and a promise to treat on that point from the most
violent, Algiers, after discussions which did not promise sometimes
amicable terminations. But I intreat you to observe the utmost silence
on this point, as it may lead me into an awkward situation; for I have
acted solely on my own responsibility, and without orders; the causes
and reasoning on which, upon general principles, may be defensible, but
as applying to our own country, may not be borne out, the old mercantile
interest being against it."

Four days previous to the date of this letter, Mr. Brougham had moved in
the House of Commons for copies of Lord Exmouth's treaties with Algiers
for Naples and Sardinia, and for all the correspondence connected with
them. He condemned the principle upon which the treaties had been
conducted, because, by ransoming the slaves, we had virtually
acknowledged the right of these parties to commit their depredations. He
understood that the Algerines, dissatisfied with the Dey for having
limited their sphere of plunder, had been pacified only by the
assurance, that thou