The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

THE ARREST OF COLONEL TURR.

(From the Daily News of this day.)
If an article in the Morning Post of yesterday,
on the arrest of Colonel Turr by the Austrians, is
a true exposition of the view taken of that case by
Ministers, the British Government are about to
plunge into a very quagmire of infamy. A " strong
remonstrance," we are told, has been sent to
Vienna ; " some satisfactory explanation" is de-
manded ; "the French Government has backed"
the English remonstrance. To talk of a " satisfac-
tory explanation" is tamely to submit to the out-
rage and insult offered to the English Government
and nation by Count Coronini. Apology and re-
paration are the least that can be demanded. The
immediate extradition of Colonel Turr, and the re-
call of Count Coronini from Wallachia, will be
compensation slender enough for the gross and
wanton insult to which England has been sub-
jected. Until such compensation is made the dip-
lomatic intercourse between England and Austria
ought to be suspended ; Sir Hamilton Seymour's
departure for Vienna ought to be postponed.
It is a matter of not the slightest consequence
whether Colonel Turr was a deserter or not. In
justice to an honourable, amiable, and accomplished
man, we repudiate the dishonouring epithet ; but
even if he were a deserter, his claims upon the
protection of the English Government would not
be one iota weakened by that circumstance. He
was received into the service of England ; he was
sent by an English military authority into Wal-
lachia upon an important mission for the English
army in the East. He has been brought within
the range of danger by English authorities, and it
is the duty of English authorities to take care that
ho sustains no injury that they can ward off from
him. Any private individual who should send one
of his agents on a perilous journey, and callously
abandon him to his fate when made captive
by inveterate and bloodthirsty enemies, would
be branded as a dishonest man and mean-spirited
poltroon. If the British Government act as we
have supposed a private individual to do, they
must incur yet deeper reprobation, and the national
character must suffer from their poltroonery.
The Morning Post blames the Austrians, not for
what they have done, but for the manner in which
they have done it. The obvious intention of the
Austrians to insult England adds indeed to the
offence, but it is merely an aggravation, not the
essence of their crime. It is alleged that "by ca-
pitulations between the various Great Powers of
Europe and the Sultan, the Sultan concedes to
them jurisdiction and power over their own sub-
jectsin his dominions." These capitulations were
entered into to enable the Great Powers to protect
their subjects, not to oppress them. The right of
jurisdiction over their own subjects in Turkey was
conceded to the Great Powers, in order that those of
their subjects who might be accused of committing
delicts in Turkey, might be assured of a more fair
trial than they could have looked for before the cor-
rupt and lawless tribunals of old Turkey. They do
not Invest the consular authorities of European

_'ewers in Turkey with power to arrest for offences
alleged to have been committed out of the Turkish
dominions. They are not even equivalent to a
treaty for the extradition of fugitive criminals. And
even if they were, political refugees (offenders if you
will) have always been placed by civilised nations in
an entirely different category from ordinary crimi-
nals. Again, it is alleged that " by the special provi-
sions of the treaty, in virtue of which Austria holds
military occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia, full
authority and jurisdiction are given to Austria in
Wallachia and Moldavia over all Austrian subjects,
military and civil." But the Austrian authorities
are not empowered by that convention to seize upon
every individual they may please to call their subject.
They must first prove that ho is such, awl then
claim his extradition, leaving him at perfect liberty
until the Porte shall have decided whether their
claim is well founded. It may reasonably be
doubted whether Colonel Turr can with any pro-
priety be called an Austrian subject. Unheard,
and without a trial, the Austrians have condemned
him to death and hung his name upon the gallows.
Ile is an outlaw—he is civilly dead in Austria.
Can a Government claim fealty from a man
whom it has stripped of the protection of its
laws ? Can it exercise jurisdiction over a man
who in the eye of its law has ceased to exist ?
By the act of the Austrian Government Colonel
Turr has ceased to be an Austrian citizen ;
and by the act of the British Government he
has been adopted as a citizen of Great Bri-
tain. Even though the Austrians possessed civil
jurisdiction in the Danubian Principalities over
their own subjects (which we deny), they have no
title to exercise jurisdiction there over an adopted
subject of England.
If Austria was entitled, as the Morning _Post
maintains it was, to insist upon the extradition of
Colonel Turr by the Wallachian authorities, it was.
equally entitled to demand the extradition of
Kossuth ; it is equally entitled t ) demand the
extradition of Omer Paella, and almost all his
best officers. The English Government took great
credit to themselves for supporting the Sultan in
his generous refusal to deliver up Kossuth and
the exiles in his train. Yet Kossuth had no
claim upon them beyond what every great man
suffering in a noble cause has upon all L. ene ous
nations. Colonel Turr has this claim upon
them, that he was their servent, and that it was
in obedience to their orders he entered a country
which we are now asl-ed to believe was no asyltam
for him. If the English Government do not insist
upon the immediate liberation of Colonel Tarr,
and if they remain on cordial terms with Austria,
how can they expect to escape tha suspicion of
having sent him to Wallachia in order that the
Austrians might be enabled to catch him ?
The German Powers complain loudly that Eng-
land has enrolled deserters from their armies in
her Foreign Legion ; and that consular and other
accredited agents of England have been cognisant
of such proceedings. Can we expect that, under
such circumstances, the soldiers of the Legion will
consent to be despatched to a theatre of war where
they may be called upon to act in the proximity of
German armies, if Colonel Turr is abandoned to
his fate by the English Government ?
The King of Sardinia is at this moment among
us on a friendly visit. He has boldly and cordially
taken part with the Allies in the war ; and as-
suredly he has not by that step diminished the
hostile feelings with which Austria regards him
and his people. If the English Government aban-
don Colonel Turr to his fate, the Sardinian Mo-
narch will read his own doom in that disgraceful
truckling to Austria. We quoted yesterday from
the Moniteur a story of an interview between Vic-
tor Emma.nel and a Sardinian deserter at the
Inva-
lides, touching in the highest degree, notwithstand-
ing ing te inflated verbiage in which the talel
d the
clothed by the official journal. "hatassertedvi"Victor
Emperor of the French have said
Emmanuel, like Count Coronini,
wherever he
right "to seize upon his deserters his
found them ? "
reaping The country is already
i has endured the
the fruits of the
comparative apathy by which
a the people of Eug-
Jersey outrage. wartnhat
it was not the Jersey
land from th beginning
d at ; that their persecu.
refugees that were
expaermeent upon the temper of the
ere
tion was but an e y to
English people,
to try whether they w Yk
tolerate the withdrawalnot of English p
exiles of more refection from
of whom continental despotism
entertains a deeper dread. The feelers thrown
out, to see whether the English people will endure
a base and cowardly desertion of Colonel Turr, is
only another step inthe same dirty path. If the
instant liberation ofColonel Turr is not insisted
by the British Government, they will uponbecome
a laughing-stock, a hissing and, a scorn for all the
nations. And the English people must share .in
their degradation. Darwin, speaking of conscience,
has but too truly said :
near him, ye nations ! hear this truth sublime--
He who allows oppression shares the crime.

MAGNIFICENT PHENOMENON.—Last evening, about
seven o'clock, an extraordinary phenomenon was ob-
served in the heavens. A ball of fire suddenly
appeared
in mid air, and darted along in a straight line over abut
a third of the sphere, leaving behind it a trail of vapour,
like the tail of a comet. It then burst like a rocket,
but without noise, falling in a shower of sparks, n which,
however, instantly disappeared. The Ph. enaoin ou
wholly different from ordinary meteoric pe
eara
awawful. and formed a spectacle At once sublime and nces,