The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-25 00:00:00

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Zite errpreoo.

TO COERESPONDENTIL
Advertisement+ intended for "The Koreas," London Evening
, meat be et the Moe, 10, Bouveriedreet, by Two
Paper k
c onthe day of publication.

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25,

Lass summer the case of the Abyssinian cap-
tives had almost become a party question in the
House of Lords. Consul CA-11NaOH, from excess
of zeal, bad exceeded his instructions, and, after
reading that correspondence between the Foreign-
office and his predecessor, which repeatedly in-
sisted on the absolute neutrality of the British
Government in Abyssinian affairs, had promised
the Emperor THEODORE more than he could
perform. It may be that Consul CAMERON'S in-
structions were somewhat too " general " in
sense, too elastic and expansive for the strict
restraint of a brave and energetic public servant,
anxious to please a Sovereign who had treated
him with marked distinction, and professionally
ardent in the pursuit of that diplomatic phantom
—British " influence." Instructed to remember
the fate of Consul PLOWDEN, who had achieved
such "influence " at the court of the Abyssinian
Emperor that he subsequently lost his life in the
service of that Sovereign, Consul CAMERON ap-
pears to have been encouraged by the EMPEROR'S
lively sense of gratitude to read the recommenda-
tions of the Foreign-office by the light of that mo-
narch's countenance, and to hold out hopes which
he could not fulfil, since their fulfilment depended
not on his own good will, but on the will
of the British Government. He brought, it is
true, a royal letter and presents to the
EMPEROR, and received in exchange for them
a more than gracious welcome. The Emperor
THEODORE, who, like SUMS Emperors of the West
in these latter days, has risen to the throne by
that force of character and of circumstances which
is called good fortune when it succeeds, and who
is as sensitive as other illustrious parvenus to the
compliments of the legitimate monarchies, was
doubly solicitous to conciliate the majesty of Eng-
land, as a power inspiring his imagination with all
the terrorsof the distantand unknown, and at the same
time very present to his perceptions as an active
and enterprising maritime neighbour, and as the
conqueror and ruler of the East. But he was
unforttmately possessed with an obstinate delu-
sion ; he looked for aid from England against—of
all people in the world—his enemies the Turks !
Accordingly, he proposed to Consul CAMERON to
send an embassy to the Court of England, accom-
panied by the Consul, and he actually wrote a letter
of thanks to her MAJESTY to that effect. The
letter was forwarded, of course, to its destination ;
but it was not answered ; and the only recognition
the Consul received of the document was a
formal reprimand for interfering against his in-
structions in Abyssinian affairs.
After waiting in vain for an answer to a per-
fectly courteous letter, the Emperor THEODORE
got angry ; and the anger of an Abyssinian
Emperor is of a more torrid temperament, and
less capable of dissimulation, of patience, and of
reserve, than the brooding grudges of men of
the same rank and title who live and reign in
cooler climes. " Perplexed in the extreme," at
length he laid hands upon the representative of
the British Govenunent, with all the bitterness of
disappointed hopes, barren expectations, rejected
advances, and insulted dignity, and threw Consul
CAMERON into prison as a hostage, together with
some British, French, and German missionaries. And
in prison they remained for months and months,
forgotten apparently by the British Government
and the British public. Consul CAMERON simply
" was not ;" nothing was heard of him and his

unfortunate companions in chains, in Parliament
or in the press. Suddenly, in the spring of last
year, " the Abyssinian captives " were brought to
life by a young and vigorous contemporary ; in-
quiries were raised in both Houses, and it resulted
that the Foreign-office was anxiously con-
sidering the means and opportunities of ob-
taining their release. In the House of Lords,
where there is always abundant leisure to
improve these eccentric difficulties into party
attacks, Lord CHELMSFORD distinguished himself
by his generous appeals on behalf of the captives,
and managed to create a vague impression upon
the public mind that the Government had some-
how been guilty of a moat aggravated neglect of
duty and hardness of heart. There was no diffi-
culty in asserting, with patriotic emphasis, that a
British Consul ought not to be allowed to perish
in an Abyssinian prison ; and as it was not incum-
bent upon any speaker or writer to show how Con-
sul CAMERON could be reached by " the arm of
" England," or to advise hostile operations against
the Emperor THEODORE, it must be owned that
the assailants of the Foreign-office had the best of
it, while Lord RUSSELL was calmly and quietly
taking the only steps that could possibly
lead to the result now happily attained
by the tact and discretion, the mingled
firmness and forbearance, of Mr. RAM AN. No
one, indeed, actually proposed to go to war
with Abyssinia, though nothing less than war was
the impossible alternative which impatient critics,
with a prudent reservation, allowed the public
ignorance silently to entertain.