David Urquhart (politician)

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David Urquhart

David Urquhart (* 1805 in Braelangwell , Cromarty , Scotland , † May 16, 1877 in Naples ) was a Scottish diplomat, politician and writer.

Life

David Urquhart studied at Oxford and went to Greece with Lord Cochrane in 1827 . There he saw the attack on Salona and returned to England via Constantinople in 1829 . In his travel book, Observations on European Turkey , he tried to show that Russia's aggressive oriental expansion policy endangered the interests of Great Britain.

After further travels in the Orient, he wrote his work Turkey and Its Resources (1833) and several smaller brochures. In them he wanted to prove that the preservation of the Ottoman Empire was in the interests of the Western powers and especially of British trade relations. In 1835 he was appointed Secretary of the Embassy in Constantinople by Lord Palmerston .

In Portfolio , which he founded in 1835, Urquhart continued to agitate against Russian influence in the Ottoman Empire. He did not shy away from adding his own forgeries of allegedly official Russian documents to his publications.

As early as 1836 he returned to Great Britain, where he presented writings against Palmerston's political system, including Exposition of the Affairs of Central Asia (1840), Exposition of the Boundary Differences between Great Britain and the United States (1840) and La crise, ou la France devant les quatre puissances (1840, written in Paris). His most important work, however, was The Spirit of the East (1838), which was also translated into German.

From 1847 to 1852 Urquhart was a member of the House of Commons. However, in 1852 he was not re-elected, and his candidacy for the parliamentary elections of 1854 was unsuccessful. Since then he has restricted his public appearances and his writing activities. He died in Naples on May 16, 1877.

Fonts

  • 1829: Observations on European Turkey
  • 1833: Turkey and Its Resources: Its Municipal Organization and Free Trade; the State and Prospects of English Commerce in the East, the New Administration of Greece, its Revenue and National Possessions. Saunders and Otley, London ( Google )
    • French edition in two volumes 1836: La Turquie; ses ressources, son organization municipale, son commerce, suivis de considérations sur l'état du commerce anglais dans le Levant. Traduit de l'anglais by Xav. Raymond (...). Arthus-Bertrand, Paris (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
  • 1835 (anonymous): The Sultan Mahmoud, and Mehemet Ali Pasha. Third edition . James Ridgway & Sons, London ( Google )
    • French edition 1839: Le sultan et le pacha d'Égypte. Traduit de l'anglais . P. Dufart, Paris ( Google )
  • 1835: England & Russia. Being a Fifth Edition of England, France, Russia, & Turkey. Revised and Enlarged . James Ridgway & Sons, London ( Text Archive - Internet Archive )
  • 1838: The Spirit of the East, Illustrated in a Journal of Travels through Roumeli during an Eventful Period . 2 volumes. Henry Colburn, London (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
    • Second Edition ( Second Edition ) 1839. London: Henry Colburn (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
    • American edition in 2 volumes 1839. Philadelphia: EL Carey & A. Hart (Google: Volume I - Volume II)
    • German edition in 2 volumes 1839: The Spirit of the Orient explains in a diary about traveling through Rumili during an eventful time. Translated from English by F. Georg Buck . JG Cotta, Stuttgart / Tübingen (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
    • Modern German edition of the second volume: In the Wild Balkans: From Mount Olympus to the Albanian Adriatic coast . Erdmann, Wiesbaden 2000
  • 1850: The Pillars of Hercules; or, A Narrative of Travels in Spain and Morocco in 1848 . 2 volumes. Richard Bentley, London (Volume I: Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Volume III: Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
  • 1851: The Mystery of the Danube. Showing how through Secret Diplomacy, that River has been closed, Exportation from Turkey arrested, and the re-opening of the Isthmus of Suez prevented . Bradbury & Evans, London ( Text Archive - Internet Archive )
  • 1853: Progress of Russia in the West, North and South, by Opening the Sources of Opinion and Appropriating the Channels of Wealth and Power. Second edition . Trübner & Co., London ( Google ) [The book, first published in 1853, had five editions in the same year]
  • 1854: Recent Events in the East. Being a Reprint of Mr. Urquhart's Contributions to the Morning Advertiser, during the Autumn of 1853 . Trübner & Co., London ( Google )
  • 1856: The Turkish Bath; with a View to its Introduction into the British Dominions. David Bryce, London / George Purcell, Patrick & Co, Cork
    • New edition 1865: Manual of the Turkish Bath. Heat a Mode of Cure and a Source of Strength for Men and Animals. From Writings of Mr. Urquhart, Edited by Sir John Fife, Senior Surgeon to the Newcastle Infantry . John Churchill and Sons, London ( Google )
  • 1860: The Lebanon: (Mount Souria.) A History and a Diary . 2 volumes. Thomas Cautley, London (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
  • 1863 (anonymous): The Secret of Russia in the Caspian & Euxine: The Circassian War as Affecting the Insurrection in Poland (…). Robert Hardwicke, London ( Google )
  • 1869: The Military Strength of Turkey. From Mss. Entitled “The Ottoman Empire under Abdul Medjid”, Written in 1852 . Effingham Wilson, London ( Google )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Orlando Figes: Crimean War. Berlin 2014, pp. 130-131
  2. ↑ See also: Victorian Turkish Baths: Their origin, development, & gradual decline. Retrieved November 14, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Urquhart, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish diplomat, politician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Braelangwell , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1877
Place of death Naples