Lord Stanley to Colonel Stanton
Sir: I have received your letter of the 9th instant, on the subject of the reforms which the Viceroy of Egypt desires to introduce into the judicial system in that country.
I had previously received from Mr. Fane a copy of the memorandum on the subject which Nubar Pasha had laid before the Viceroy, and Nubar Pasha, during his stay in this country, had entered upon it with me.
Her Majesty’s government cannot doubt that the system which now prevails in Egypt in regard to suits in which foreigners on the one hand, and the government and people of Egypt on the other, are concerned, is as injurious to the interests of all parties as it is certainly without warrant of any treaty engagement. Her Majesty’s government are perfectly willing, therefore, to lend their aid to the Egyptian government in an attempt to establish a better system, and if the Egyptian government succeed in obtaining the concurrence of other powers for the same purpose, you may assure Nubar Pasha that the cordial co-operation of Great Britain will not be withheld from so salutary a work.
You will say, however, that her Majesty’s government consider that practical results, even though they may fall short of theoretical perfection, are principally to be aimed at, and that accordingly it might be advantageous, at all events in the beginning, not to attempt to frame a new code of law or proceedure, but to apply, as far as altered circumstances may admit, an improved system of procedure to the law as it at present stands, amended in any necessary particulars by the legislation of foreign governments in similar matters; and I do not hesitate to say that in the application of this principle her Majesty’s government would not be disposed to insist on the embodiment in the new arrangement of the maxims of British law in contradistinction to those of the law of any foreign country; they would look rather to the requirements of natural justice, and to the means, from whatever source derived, by which those requirements could best be provided for.
It appears to her Majesty’s government that the basis on which proceedings should be initiated might with the greater safety, and with the view to more early results, be the adaptation to altered circumstances of the principles laid down in the ancient capitulations, the departure from which has led in a great measure to the evils so justly felt.
Those capitulations, indeed, were established under a very different state of things from that which now exists, and their object was to secure foreigners from arbitrary violence and exactions on the part of the local authorities. But still, although reserving for extra-territorial tribunals exclusively the settlement of questions, whether of a civil or criminal nature, in which foreigners were alone concerned, the capitulations did not pretend to deprive the local government of jurisdiction over foreigners in matters, whether criminal or civil, in which they were brought into collision with the laws of the territorial sovereign. They reserved, however, as a protection to foreigners against the arbitrary local will of tribunals, a certain right of concurrence or supervision, which might act as a check against abuse.
In process of time this check, especially in Egypt, has become the great abuse, and by degrees the authority of the local tribunals has been usurped or set aside by the encroachments of an extra-territorial jurisdiction.
This is the state of things which the Egyptian government desire to remedy, and they cannot be more disposed to make the attempt than are her Majesty’s government to second them in it.
[Page 318]Her Majesty’s government have no fondness for an extra-territorial jurisdiction, even if limited by the strict letter of the capitulations. They would hail with the utmost satisfaction such an improvement in the judicial system of the Ottoman empire, and specifically of Egypt, which is so important a part of it, as would justify them in altogether renouncing any judicial action in that country, and leaving the disputes of their subjects, and the crimes which they may commit, to the exclusive jurisdiction of the local government, as is the case in other countries.
With such feelings, her Majesty’s government are certainly not inclined to hold out for a jurisdiction to which they have no treaty right, which they admit to be a usurpation, though brought about by force of circumstances, and which is as injurious to British interests as it is derogatory to the character and well-being of the Egyptian administration.
But her Majesty’s government consider—and they are glad to perceive that such is the ground on which the application of the Egyptian government is founded—that foreign powers have a right to expect that any new system which may be inaugurated in Egypt should afford ample security to the foreigner that in pleading before an Egyptian tribunal he will have nothing to apprehend from the venality, the ignorance, or the fanaticism of his judges; that the law to be applied to his case, whether as plaintiff or defendant, shall be clear and patent to all; and that the forms of procedure, and more especially in matters of testimony, shall be well defined, and not admit of being in any point arbitrarily departed from on any ground whatever.
Her Majesty’s government consider that the course which the Egyptian government propose to adopt for arriving at the end in view is that most likely to lead to a good result, if, as I said before, the inquiry is to be directed to what is really practicable rather than what may be desirable in the abstract.
Her Majesty’s government will readily take part in any inquiry which may be set on foot for this purpose; and when the Egyptian government shall have made known to them that they have secured the consent of the other principal powers to be represented by commissioners in a preliminary inquiry designed to result in an improved judicial system in Egypt, her Majesty’s government will at once name one or more commissioners to assist on their part in the business. If, as will naturally be the case, the commission is to sit in Egypt, her Majesty’s government are disposed to think that instead of limiting the character of the commissioners to that of persons possessing legal knowledge, it would be desirable that the chief political representative of each nation should also take part in the commission, inasmuch as political considerations are to a certain extent involved in the inquiry, and so, by such an intermixture of character among the commissioners, predilections in favor of technicalities which might be expected to prevail in an assembly of purely legal commissioners would in a great measure be neutralized.
You may furnish Nubar Pasha with a copy of this dispatch, as containing the answer of her Majesty’s government to the proposal which he has laid before them on behalf of the Viceroy; and you will inform his excellency, at the same time, that her Majesty’s ambassador at Constantinople will, as a mark of respect due to the Sultan, be instructed to communicate it to the Porte; while her Majesty’s representatives at other courts will in like manner be authorized to communicate it to the governments to which they are accredited, as an exposition of the manner in which the proposal of the Egyptian government has been received by that of her Majesty.
I am, &c,