GENERAL IGNATIEFF.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5384, 29 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

GENERAL IGNATIEFF.

(From an Exchange.)

General Nicholas Ignatieff, who has played so prominent a part in Eastern affairs, and on whose diplomatic skill so much of the future is believed to depend, may bo rated as a very able man or a very unwise one, according to the view one may take of the qualities that constitute the perfect diplomatist. If it be the supreme art of diplomacy to practise Talleyrand’s maxim, that speech was given to man for the purpose of disguising thought, then General Ignatieff is a great artist; but it may be observed that men who habitually use speech as a veil can seldom disguise their thoughts long, for they cease to be believed. Talleyrand probably forgot that. General Ignatieff has had many opportunities of recognisiog the truth of Lavochefoucauld’s axiom: “On pent ctre plus fin qu’un autre, maia non plus fin quo tousles autres and again of this one: “Porsonne n’a de I’esprit comme tout 1c monde.” He has played i upon the credulity of individuals, but has been found out iu quarters where he least suspected that he was being watched. He has a surprising gift of tongues ; ho speaks ■ Turkish, and knows the Turk by heart. But the Turk knows him equally well, to say the least. When after ten year’s residence at Constantinople he had acquired so great an'ascendancy over Abdul-Aziz as to be nicknamed “ the King of Pcra,” the deposition of the Sultan took him wholly by surprise. The conspirators had nob thought it worth while to inform him of their plan*, and he had not guessed them. The Eastern crisis was precipitated before he was ready. He thought, however, that Turkey was weak enough to be swallowed up at a mouthful; and here again Lo was wrong. The defeat of Osman cost five times more in men and money than he had contemplated; and there was a time, after the first battle of Plevna, when heavy reproaches were heaped upon him for having allowed himself to be so deceived as to the strength of Turkish armaments. He felt very ill and uncomfortable then, but lias since revived. He has tried his persuasive powers on Count Andrassy, and much of the Treaty of Sau Stefauo is his work. It is not necessary to speculate as to what may bo his present opinions respect! ug the dilemma in which he has placed his country; but certainly if the Czar hearkens to his counsels he will be following a guide who has been often blinded. No man is so easy to deceive as the one who mistrusts everybody except himself. Nicholas Ignatieff was born in 1829, and had tho Czar Nicholas for his godfather. It was an unusual honor, and came about in this way. In 1825, when Nicholas ascended the throne to the exclusion of his brother Con - stantine, who was more popular, a military conspiracy was formed, in which hundreds of officers and students joined. Among Ane officers was a captain of infantry named Ignatieff, a person of no family or means ; but it happened that when the conspiracy was ripe the success of it depended on the fidelity of this man, who was to give the signal of insurrection by “pronouncing” with his company. He pronounced on the Czar’s side instead, and by this timely defection drew away many other companies, and baffled the insurrection. Nicholas never forgot this service ; and while the conspirators were sent off to Siberia in gangs, Captain Ignatieff was loaded with favors. He received the title of Count, with an estate, and in a very short time became general. As for his sou Nicholas, brought up at tho Czar’s expense and under his special protection, he passed through the cadet school of St. Petersburg, received a commission in a regiment that was campaigning on the shores of the Caspian, and, after a little fighting, returned with the rank of staff lieutenant colonel, and was attached as secretary to the Oriental section of the Foreign Office. There he set to work studying Oriental language with the fixed purpose of making himself useful in Eastern affair*, and after a few years was proficient enough in' Turkish to converse fluently with the Ambassadors of the Porte, and to excite their admiration even by a knowledge of the vernacular of their tongue. In 1800 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Pekin, this post being only intended as a stepping-stone to that of Ambassadors at Constantinople, which was bestowed on him iu 1865. His arrival at the Turkish capital was a diplomatic event, for his reputation as a brilliant talker had precccded him. He at once won the heart of Abdul-Aziz. That indolent, good-natured Sultan, whose dry conversations with tho other Ambassadors were always conducted through interpreter*, was delighted to hud a foreigner who was willing to chat with him on other than official topics, and who could keep him amused by the hour with droll anecdotes. What seemed droll to a Sultan might seem less so to an ordinary man ; but it must be remembered that Sultana used not to be trained to an extensive acquaintance with the jocular literature of foreign countries. General Ignatiev's position soon became that of chief confidant'to Abdul-Aziz. No subject of the Sultan’s was admitted to such familiarity, or would have dared to put it to such frank uses had ho been admitted to it ; and for obvious reasons no foreigner had such opportunities of gaining tho Sultan’s ear. Ignatieff made and unmade viziers. Ho told AbdulAziz of petty plots brewing around him ; he dipped in the intrigues of the Seraglios, and seemed to know more of what went on among the lower orders of Stamboul than any Turk with whom the Sultan had over spoken. Naturally, ho imbued Abdul’s mind with notions of his own as to foreign countries ; and, making it his business to sap the influence of England, he ended by persuading the Sultan that no country was so rich and powerful and so disposed to become the good friend of Turkey as Russia, Meanwhile lie applied himself to disorganising the Turkish Government system iu many ways both patient and clever. lie was the providence of every Christian subject who had a grievance. IE some Levantine swindler was punished at Smyrna for some knavish transaction about figs he had only to state his case to Ignatieff to obtain immediate redress. It was the same with Bulgarians who refused to pay their taxes, and with Thessalians who wanted to do a little quiet brigandage under pretence of patriotic insurrections : a word from Ignatieff sufficed. The administration of tho country went slowly to pieces under this system of denunciations iu the dark and punishments without rhyme or reason, Respectable men grew wary of accepting the office of pasha, and many of the most important pashaTiles foil into the hands of adventurers, who plundered th 6 people wholesale, knowing that they might do so with impunity, provided they shut their eyes to Russian intrigues, and behaved civilly to such Christians as the Russian Ambassador thought good to favor. While General Ignatieff ruled at Constantinople, the worst oppressed subjects in Turkey were the Mussulmans, who had no Christian Ambassador to urge .their grievances when they were ground down under tho hands of adventurers as above said. The palace revolution which deposed Abdul-Aziz was levelled as much against General Ignatieff* as against the Sultan. .Honest, pac»iotio Turks were sick to death of the plausible Russian’s subtle tyranny; and to. this day there is but cue opinion among them as to the part which Ignatieff played for years ■iu Pera on the strength of his influence at the palace of Dolma-Batclid. They do not call it diplomacy. • 1