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Preparations for civil war in Tripoli in the 1820s: Ali Karamanli, Hassuna D'Ghies and Jeremy Bentham*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

L. J. Hume
L. J. Hume
Affiliation:
The Australian National University
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Extract

Karamanli rule over Tripoli collapsed in 1835. But opposition to Yusef Pasha had been building up for over twenty years. Hassuna D'Ghies, the chief conspirator, visited England in the early 1820s and met the seventy-four year old Jeremy Bentham, then busily concerned in drawing up codes of law for Spain, Portugal, Greece and other newly independent states. He readily produced a code for Tripoli, to be introduced with the Pasha's consent or (should he refuse) by armed insurrection. Nothing came of their immediate project, but when D'Ghies returned to Tripoli he tried, during his brief period as Chief Minister, to govern according to Bentham's principles.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , July 1980 , pp. 311 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Dearden, S., A Nest of Corsairs: The Fighting Karamanlis of Tripoli (London, 1976)Google Scholar, especially ch. 4; Folayan, K., Tripoli During the Reign of Yusuf Pasha Qaramanli (London University, Ph.D. Thesis, 1970), especially ch. 5.Google Scholar

2 Bentham MSS, University College, London. Most of the relevant papers are in Box xxiv of the Collection.

3 See Folayan, op. cit. 84, 207–9. Hassuna supplied information about himself and his family in his submission concerning the Laing Affair (described in the text immediately below) in P[ublic] R[ecord] O[ffice], F.O. 76/33 especially at fos. 326–7. Mohammed's name crops up repeatedly in travellers' memoirs and studies of the Mediterranean diplomacy of the period; for example, Paullin, C. O., Diplomatic Negotiations of American Naval Officers (Baltimore, 1912), 64, 73Google Scholar; Vadala, R., ‘Essai sur l'histoire des Karamanlis, Pachas de Tripolitaine de 1714 à 1835’, Revue de l'Histoire des Colonies Françcaises, VII (1919), part 1, 217–19Google Scholar, 222; and Denham, Dixon, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, vol. i (London, 1826), pp. xlv and lxxxivGoogle Scholar. This D'Ghies, Mohammed needs to be distinguished from his younger son Mohammed who became Ali Pasha's Chief Minister in 1832.Google Scholar

4 Bentham MSS, U[niversity] C[ollege] L[ondon], Box xxiv, fo. 474Google Scholar (D'Ghies to J. Q. Adams).

5 See Dearden, op. cit. 275–91; Bovill, E. W., Missions to the Niger (Cambridge, 1954), vol. 1, pp. 308–41Google Scholar; Boahen, A. A., Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan 1788–1861(Oxford, 1964), 85–92.Google Scholar

6 Folayan, op. cit. 215. A copy of the documents issued to D'Ghies by the Pasha is in Bentham MSS, UCL, Box xxiv, fo. 519.Google Scholar

7 P.R.O., F.O. 76/33, fo. 327.Google Scholar

8 A Letter, Addressed to James Scarlett Esq. M.P., and Member of the African Institution on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (London, 1822)Google Scholar. A copy of the pamphlet, and the French MS dated 12. 5. 1822Google Scholar, are in the Bentham MSS, UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 539–40Google Scholar. The title-page states that it was translated by Patrick Kelly the mathematician and astronomer. It is possible that Bentham financed the publication.

9 Ibid. 10–11.

10 Ibid. 13. For evidence that D'Ghies was willing, as the Pasha's Minister, to act against the slave trade, see Boahen, , Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan, 133.Google Scholar

11 Bentham MSS, UCL, Box xxiv, fo. 476.Google Scholar

12 See the correspondence between the Foreign Office and the Scarletts in F.O. 76/33, fos. 230–66.Google Scholar

13 For his negotiations, see the ‘Testimonials’ appended to the Codification Proposal, Bowring's, edition of The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Edinburgh, 1843), iv, 564–94.Google Scholar

14 London, 1813.Google Scholar

15 The results of Bentham's interrogations are in the Bentham MSS, UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 28–39. Aug.–Sept. 1822.Google Scholar

16 Kew Gardens MSS, Autobiography of George Bentham, fo. 389. The passage is based on a letter written in January 1827Google Scholar. George, had just returned to England from France, where his family had lived since 1814Google Scholar, so he was in a good position to judge his uncle's facility in French (quoted with permission of the Bentham-Moxon Trustees).

17 Bentham, MSS, UCL, Box xxiv, fo. 40, ‘Facienda by Government’ 14 Aug. 1822Google Scholar. This document, and the immediately succeeding ‘Tripoli Reconnaissance de droit’ (fos. 50–3, 18. 8. 1822)Google Scholar, represent Bentham's first attempt to explain to D'Ghies what he would be trying to achieve in this joint venture, and the course of study and other activities that would enable D'Ghies to contribute to it.

18 This emerges from the scope of his questioning of D'Ghies. The best short account of his own understanding of laws and their functions is his General View of a Complete Code of Laws in Bowring's edition of the Works, iii, 155–210.Google Scholar

19 UCL, Box xxiv, fo. 43Google Scholar. He proposed to prepare for the use of Tripoli a shorter version of the Constitutional Code on which he had just started to work, but he intended to shorten it by leaving out the ‘reason-giving’ part, not by reducing its coverage (Ibid.). He adopted the same course in 1823–4 for the Greeks, to whom he supplied only the Enactive part of the code, leaving out the Expositive, Instructional and Rationale parts which he intended at that time to include in the final document. It is possible that his first drafts of the Enactive (many of which he wrote early in 1823) were intended for Tripoli's use.

20 Securities against Misrule, adapted to a Mahommedan State and prepared with particular reference to Tripoli in BarbaryGoogle Scholar, in The Works (ed. Bowring), viii, 555–600Google Scholar. See UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 96–377.Google Scholar

21 Ibid. fos. 62–95, 3–4 Oct. and 10 Nov. 1822. This document is closely related to fo. 37 (18.9.1822).

22 Lyon, G. F., A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa (London, 1821)Google Scholar; Letters Written During a Ten Years' Residence at the Court of Tripoli. Published from the Originals in the Possession of the Family of the Late Richard Tully Esq. (London, 1816Google Scholar; new edition, edited by Dearden, Seton, London, 1957).Google Scholar

23 The address and the speeches are discussed further below. The documents addressed to Quincy Adams are a letter to be signed by D'Ghies, (UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 472–502, especially 479–81)Google Scholar, and a covering letter to be signed by Bentham (Ibid. fo. 391, marginal summary dated 23 Jan. 1823).

24 Ibid. fos. 19–39 and 546 (Aug.–Sept. 1822).

25 Ibid. fo. 381, Bentham to Adams.

26 Ibid. fo. 474, D'Ghies to Adams.

27 Ibid. fo. 556, memorandum ‘Instances of the cruelty of Mahomet Caramalli…’, 4 Feb. 1823Google Scholar. The passages were drawn from the English translation of the Italian original, translated by Aufrere, A. and published in London by Arch in 1822.Google Scholar

28 UCL, Box xxiv, fo. 479Google Scholar, D'Ghies to Adams.

29 Ibid. fos. 479–81. The mountaineers were said to inhabit an area ‘commencing at about 60 miles from the capital’ (Ibid. fo. 479) or ‘say from 60 to 80 miles from the capital’ (fo. 383). Those descriptions fit roughly the location of the Jebel Nafusa and its less accessible parts.

30 Bentham, met Khoja on about 20 November 1822Google Scholar. Some of the subjects discussed are noted briefly in the entry for that day (as ‘Dicenda to D'Ghies and Khoja’) in Bentham's memorandum book, Bentham MSS, UCL, Box clxxiii, fo. 87Google Scholar. But earlier memoranda (Ibid. fo. 86) reveal that the Algerian aspects of the scheme were being discussed from the end of September onwards.

31 D'Ghies, to Adams, , UCL, Box xxiv, fo. 480.Google Scholar

32 Ibid. fos. 1–3, ‘Bey of Tripoli, Proclamation, Address 1’, 4 Aug. 1822Google Scholar. It seems that ‘Bey’ was Bentham's mistake, and that he really intended the draft for the Pasha's use.

33 D'Ghies to Adams, Ibid. fo. 481.

34 Ibid. fos. 12–14, ‘Tripoli, Acknowledgement of Right, Address 2’, 18. Aug. 1822.Google Scholar

35 Ibid. fo. 546 (brouillon, 8. 8. 1822).

36 Ibid. fos. 527–8, D'Ghies, to Bentham, , received 23. 12. 1822.Google Scholar

37 Ibid. fo. 60 (marginal summary, Dec. 1822).

38 Ibid. fo. 528, D'Ghies, to Bentham, , 23. 12. 1822Google Scholar; the original in French. ‘M.B.’ was not Bentham himself; he appears in this letter as ‘notre père’. Bentham was also consulting another ‘Mr B.’ about Tripoli – John Black, the editor of the Morning Chronicle – but Black was unlikely to act or to be asked to act as a financial adviser or agent.

39 The event was recorded by Bentham's current amanuensis, Colls, John, in his diary for 20. 12. 1822:Google Scholar ‘Col. Torrens to dinner. D'Ghies to coffee–introduced to one another.’(British Library, Add. MSS 33563, fo. 115.)Google Scholar

40 In B.L. Add. MSS 33551, fo. 309 (5 Dec. 1822)Google Scholar there is a memorandum headed ‘Torrens (Col.) Information as to Bayonet Exercise for Barbary, Greece or Spain’, probably intended for the use of D'Ghies. It includes other information about Torrens, his career and his qualifications.

41 Bentham's Memorandum-book UCL, Box clxxiii, fos. 83Google Scholar (entry for 16. 8. 1822) and 84 (entry for 23. 8. 1822).

42 UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 44–9Google Scholar (‘Plan d'opération pour le bien de la Nation Tripolitaine’) and fo. 546 (‘Travellers' Agenda’).

43 Bentham MSS, UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 28–30Google Scholar, ‘Hassuna to J.B.’, 27. 8. 1822. The document is in Bentham's hand, but is written as though from D'Ghies, and is clearly based on information supplied by him. It includes a suggestion that the expedition might want to go on from Timbuktu to Walata (or Oualata), described by him as south but in fact about 250 miles west of Timbuktu (Ibid. fo. 29 – the place is identified as Walata at fo. 538).

44 Ibid. fos. 54–9, ‘Tripoli-Enterprise’ (23. 12. 1822).

45 Ibid. fo. 378, 10 Jan. 1823.

46 Ibid. fos. 475–6, where he names Khoja and an Alexandrian contact Ibrahim Pasha, who was nominally the Resident from Tripoli in Egypt.

47 See Folayan, , Tripoli During the Reign of Yusef Pasha Qaramanli, 222–4Google Scholar

48 In February and March 1823 he drafted for the use of D'Ghies a set of ’Conseils Paternals‘, a fair copy of which was delivered on 27 March (UCL, Box xxiv, fos. 511–16).Google Scholar

49 B.L., Add. MSS 33551, fos. 231–8Google Scholar, 8. 8. 1831: ‘Course recommended by me Jeremy Bentham, to be taken by the Sherif Hassuna D'Ghies, for his vindication from the aspersions alleged to have been cast upon his reputation by Mr Warrington, English Consul at Tripoli.’ I think it likely that Bentham, or someone in his circle, helped D'Ghies to draft the document which he finally submitted to the Government.

50 Cf. Folayan, op. cit. 112, 225–9 and 268–74, where the motives of these various groups are discussed.

51 Ibid. 207–13.

52 Ibid. 214–16.

53 PRO, F.O. 76/33, fo. 295Google Scholar (Warrington to Hay).

54 Dearden, , A Nest of Corsairs, 36.Google Scholar