Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Musurus Pacha, Constantine
MUSURUS PACHA, Constantine, diplomatist, was born at Constantinople, Feb. 18, 1807, his father, Paul Musurus, having been a native of Retimo, in Crete, and a descendant of an ancient patrician family. He received, at Constantinople, a very careful education, comprising the classical literature of Greece and Rome, the sciences, and several European languages. In 1832 he was appointed Secretary to the prince of Samos (Stephen Vogorides), and in 1833 accompanied the commissioners of France, England, and Russia, sent to exhort the Samians to make their submission to the Porte. The commissioners having failed, M. Musurus, in 1834, undertook the pacification of Samos, which he accomplished without using coercion; and having organized the internal administration upon a liberal constitutional basis, he governed the island for four years to the satisfaction of the people. On his return to Constantinople, in 1839, he married the Princess Anne, second daughter of Prince Vogorides, born in 1819. She was seized with an attack of disease of the heart, at the ball given to the Sultan at the Foreign Office, London, July 19, 1867, and died the same night. In 1840 he was sent to Athens as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, a difficult mission for an Ottoman diplomatist. It was signalized by a rupture of diplomatic relations between the two courts, by the triumph of Ottoman policy, and by an attempted assassination of M. Musurus. At the end of 1848 he was recalled from Athens to represent Turkey at the Austrian court, where his able management of the delicate matters connected with the demand for the surrender of the Hungarian refugees increased his well-earned reputation. He was rewarded for the ability displayed by him in these delicate negotiations by being appointed, in April, 1851, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at London; received the rank of Ambassador, Jan. 30, 1856, and the rank of Muchir, with the title of Pacha, on the Sultan's visit to London, in July, 1867. He is decorated with the Order of the Osmanié of the first class, and the Order of the Medjidie of the first class, besides many other foreign Orders.