This is a detail of Robert Liston's diplomatic cipher, from the early 19th century. [Library shelfmark: MS.5720, f.33].
The cipher was used by Robert Liston and his secretaries at the British Embassy in Constantinople to encode sensitive news and secret information.
Robert served as ambassador first during the French Revolutionary Wars and then during the Napoleonic Wars. He worked to protect British trading interests, build good relations between Turkey and Russia, and prevent an alliance between Turkey and France.
Robert often used a cipher for his official dispatches to the British Government, particularly to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh.
With codes for 'Ali Pasha', 'Buonaparte', 'Prince Regent', 'Sultan', and 'Russia', this cipher gives insight to the political and military concerns of the time and into the diplomatic contexts — and potential dangers — in which Robert and Henrietta Liston worked.