The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-15 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY

were not fairly conducted, or resulted in no redress, he should
hold Austria bound to give reparation. That is the true
way to state the case—treating both Governments as re-
sponsible. Mr. Mather, in the first instance placed the ques-
tion in the hands of Earl Granville and his successor. He
had an objection against taking the course of going before the
Turcan Court, but he says—
" We are, however, entirely in the hands of your Lordship
and the British Legation here. If it be deemed best, for
reasons of State, which I do not understand, to take such a
coarse, or any other, by our receiving official authority and
instructions how to act, as far as we are concerned, they shall
be promptly and willingly obeyed, What may be fitting for
the honour and satisfaction of our country, of which your
Lordship, in such a case, is the guardian and judge, cannot
but be so for us."

Nothing could be more fitting or becoming than the tone
taken by Mr. Mather on the occasion. His son had suf-
fered a great injury; he had gone out to Italy in great
anxiety, and found his son still weak from the effects of the
injury ; and he says to the Foreign Minister, " You will pre-
scribe the course to be pursued, and though it may not be
according to my judgment, it will be the judgment of my
own Government, and a decision to which I shall bow."
W ell, Sir, Lord Malmesbury has so contrived that Mr.
Mather, who was the object of the injury, and Mr. Scarlett,
who was the person endeavouring to obtain reparation,
should be the only persons insulted, and that the officer who
inflicted the injury should be the only person to get off with
applause—( Hear, hear)—for Mr. Mather's character is in.
lured, and Mr. Scarlett has a very cruel censure passed upon
him by his Government. Mr. Mather is invited to a con-
ference with Lord Malmesbury, and is told that the Noble
Lord has demanded pecuniary reparation. Mr. Mather
states—

" Lord Malmesbury having been pleased to indicate that
he thought personal reparation should be obtained for Mr.
Erskine Mather,and to desire Mr. Mather's opinion on this
point, he begs to state that it is with the utmost pain that
he addresses bimselt to it, and that nothing but the official
commands of his Lordship should have made him deviate
from the uniform course which he and his unfortunate son
have invariably taken in this matter, of refusing to make it
a personal question, but one of a higher and more important
nature.

" Mr. Mather, taking into consideration the grievous in-
jury inflicted; the risk of his son's life; his sufferings; the
continued injury to his health; the eventual uncertainty of
future results ; the party that inflicted being the officer
of a Government which has been implicated in his act;
and the probability that an appeal for reparation to an im-
partial court, and on the principles universally recognised,
would have produced a large amount of reparation in such a
case; Mr. Mather names to his Lordship 5,0001. as what
seems to him, under all these circumstances, just and proper,
and is not overvaluing the injury and its probable consequences
to his son.

" Mr. Mather again begs to repeat to his Lordship that
this is the most painful part of the duty imposed upon him
in all the trying circumstances with which this unfortunate
affair has been attended, and that respect for the views and
wishes of Lord Malmesbvry have alone induced him to ex-
press an opinion upon this point of the question."
Nothing could be clearer than that Mr. Mather did not desire
it to be made a question of pecuniary reparation, but showed
a due deference to the opinion of Lord Malmesbury, and
was induced to name a sum to be demanded. He named
5,000/.—(Laughter)—at the same time stating that this was
the sum he deemed due, not only to himself for his anxiety
and his son for the injury, but to the honour of his country
for the breach of international law.— (An ironical Hear, hear.)
But, whether the sum he named were right or not, Mr.
Mather had no business to fix the sum due for the breach of
international law— (Hear, hear)—that was a question en-
tirely for the Noble Lord.— (Hear, hear.) Hemmed 5,0001.;
he might have named 5001. All he meant was, that the sum
to be demanded for such an injury should be considerable,
but it was for the Noble Lord to fix the sum.—(Hear,
hear.) The Noble Lord might have directed the Queen's
Advocate to state the proper sum to be demanded.
I remember the case of a South American merchant who
had been imprisoned, in which the Noble Lord the Member
fiir Tiverton called on the Queen's Advocate to state the
amount of compensation which was due. The Queen's Ad-
vocate said that 201. a day was the sum which ought to be
ached, and the Noble Lord immediately wrote and demanded
it. I believe that the merchant was not satisfied, and
thought that his reparation should have been greater; but
the Noble Lord, who understood the business of his depart-
men:—(Hear. hear, and cheers)—never thought of listening
to the complaints of a private merchant.—(Hear, hear.)
Lord Malmesbury having committed this, what I think a
very great mistake, had it in hispower to repair it, and if he
had said to Mr. Mather, " I think that 5001. is the money
due by way of reparation," Mr. Mather would have said
that he would have been satisfied with anything that the
Government of his own country approved of. Bat what does
Lord Malmesbury do? He does not fix the sum—he does
not tell Mr. Mather what he thinks it ought to be, but he
writes a general direction to Mr. Scarlett to obtain a
sum of money, and he says that Mr. Mather has asked a sum
of 5 0001., which he considers to be exorbitant. Now look
at the injury which is thus done to Mr. Mather. Mr. Ma-
ther stands in the position of a man who says, " My son has
suffered a cruel injury; I have suffered a cruel injury; I put
my case in the hands of my country and in the Government
of my country, to do what. they think fit." But the Secre-
tary of State for Foreign Affairs has no better means of ob-
taining that redress thah by asking him what reparation he
ought to obtain, and then proclaiming to the Goiernment at
Florence that Mr. Mather is a man who asks an exorbitant
sum.--(Hear, hear.) Accordingly we have scon afterwards
a dispatch from Mr. Scarlett, saying that the Tuscan Go-
vernment thinks that sum is exorbitant; it becomes well
known that an exorbitant sum has been asked for, and con-
sequently the sympathy which had been felt for Mr. Mather
is very much diminished.—(Hear, hear.) And this is the
way in which a Secretary of State obtains redress for a man
who is evidently and undoubtedly an injured man, by put-
ting him in the light of a person who is greedy for money
and anxious to obtain an excessive sum from the Tuscan
Government. Thus the character of Mr. Mather is very
much injured, and injured, too, by that very person
who ought to have undertaken his defence. One would
have thought that on hearing this, at least, Lord Malmes-
bury would have written to Florence to state that no blame
was due to Mr. Mather, and that he had never asked for
money until he had been desired to do so; but no such
course is taken.—(Hear, hear.) Well, then, what directions
are given to Mr. Scarlett as 'to the sum which ho should
demand, since it had been determined that moral reparation,
which would have been far better, was not to be given?
Lord Malmesbury does not lay down any sum whatever.
Now, supposing 5001. to have been a fair sum, the
only clear course was to say, "We have estimated the
injury at 500/. and that sum we will take, and no less."
However, nothing specific is asked, but Lord Malmesbury
expresses an expectation that a sum proportioned to
the injury received by Mr. Mather should be paid by
way of compensation, and according Mr. Scarlett
made a demand to that effect on the Tuscan Go-
vernment. In one of his dispatches Lord Malmesbury
directs that a sum of money should be demanded, and
he says, "If the principle be admitted, we shall not be
very long in agreeing about the amount." Again, on the
9th of April, Lord Malmesbury writes : "You must get Mr.
Mather 500/., or such a sum as would purchase him an an-
nuity." Well, Mr. Scarlett finds that he cannot get NO/ ,
but he at length comes to an agreement with the Tuscan
Government, which, I must say, is not a very satisfactory
agreement, and which, it appears to me, he ought never to
have cnnsented to without referring home for instructions
from the Government. Bnt be it observed that up to that
moment Lord Malmesbury had never told Mr. Scarlett
what it was precisely that he was to ask for, and his words
to Mr. Scarlett, which I have just quotdd, gave a discre-
tionary power to the latter. Well, Mr. Scarlett, being in
great uncertainty and anxiety, makes, I think, a very un-
becoming agreement, and agrees to take 2201., and very
strangely says he will be satisfied with that sum, provided
the Messrs. Stratfords are released from custody.—(Hear,
hear, and laughter.) No doubt Mr. Scarlett was to blame
for making such an agreement, but it is a great palliation
of Mr. Scarlett's conduct that he had never received any
specific instructions as to what he was to ask.—(Hear,
hear.) Well, when this agreement is made, Lord Malmes-
bury turns round on Mr. Scarlett and writes to him in these
terms:—" Her Majesty's Government are ready to admit
that in this last transaction Mr. Scarlett has acted to the
best of his judgment, but I should not be strictly ex-
pressing my feelings if I did not state that the Govern-
ment regret that Mr. Scarlett should have taken a view of
what was expedient as much at variance with his in-
structions as with sound reason."—(Hear, hear and a
laugh.) Now the result of all this is, I think, a very
disagreeable one for this country, namely, that when the
object is to obtain a sum in reparation for Mr. Mather, the
only persons who are found to suffer in the end are Mr.
Mather and the agent to whom you entrusted your nego-
tiations.--(Hear, hear.) And do not tell me that Mr.
Scarlett was not capable of carrying out his instructions.
Mr. Scarlett has had considerable experience; and, if pro-
perly instructed, I have no doubt would have efficiently
obeyed those instructions.—(Hear, hear.) And be it ob-
served that all this time the Austrian Government, which
professes the most conciliatory disposition, which shows
every wish to gratify her Majesty's Government in every
reasonable demand, are not asked to take any steps on the
subject, and this after the communication made by the Tus-
can Government to the Government of this country.—
(Hear, hear.) I have said already that I think that the
Tuscan Government, being an independent Government, the
first demand for reparation should have been made to them ;
but when they said, " This is an Austrian army; and, by
the convention we have signed, no Austrian officer can be
brought to trial by us, or punished for offences com-
mitted against civilians, and it is beyond our power to
arrest "or to punish an Austrian officer;" I think, in
that case the Austrian Government became responsible for
the conduct of its officers, and that a proper demand should
have been made for reparation, if with no other object
than this—that the Austrian military should not any more
indulge in the wanton habit of cutting down men merely
because they conceived that some insult was offered.— (Hear,
hear.) That would be some satisfaction and security ; but as
it is, every Englishman who goes into Italy, where, unfor-
tunately, Austrian troops are stationed in countries which
ought to be independent—l mean the States of the.Choh
ry,
and the Tuscan States—every Englishman, I. say, Is liable
to suffer anything which an Austrian officer may tami
proper to inflict upon him, and there is no chance of redne_sas-
-al*, hear.) Nor is Mr. Mather's the only case of
kind. I understand that a non-commissioned officer of
Marines has been lately severely punished according to the
Austrian code.—(Hear, hear.) Then I say again, that al-
though this case was in itself simple enough, and although
neither the Austrian Government and the Tuscan Govern-
ment_ seem to have been ready to resist any reasonable de-
mand, yet such was the mode in which Lord Malmesbury
has conducted this transaction, that it can but lead to ridi-
cule and contempt on the part of the foreign Governments.
I shall only say a few words on the last part of the trans!
,
action, as far as we know it. On the 24th of May, Lord
Malmesbury said, that though her Majesty's Government
did not approve of this settlement, yet that, under the cir-
cumstances, they could not refuse to recognise it. The
dispatch containing that decision was signed and sent off on
the 24th of May; but it appears that on the 22d of MAY
there arrived at the Foreign-office a dispatch from Florence,
which totally changed Lord Malmesbury's views of the trans-
action ; but that dispatch was not read by Lord Malmes-
bury
till after the other dispatch had been sent off on the
24th. It does seem extraordinary, considering the regu-
larity with which business is transacted in the Foreign-offiao:
especially considering the regularity with which Mr. Ad-
dington, the Under-Secretary of State, iasure to transmit all
dispatches of importance—it does seem strange that Lord
Malmesbury should not have read that dispatch of the 2.2 t
till after the 24th. But as he did not see it till after the 24th
it would have been better that he should have remained sa-
tisfied with what had been done, and not have disturbed the
decision. But after having stated to Mr. Mather, and ll'ua
claimed to the Tuscan Government that her Majesty's (Go-
vernment would not refuse to recognise the settlement, there
comes another dispatch opening up the whole question, and
desiring Sir Henry Bulwer to leave Florence—to break off
all diplomatic intercourse with the Tuscan Government
.un-
less they should consent to make some farther reparation.
What may be the consequence of this last dispatch I know
not. All I shall say is, that if Sir henry Bulwer be ordered
to leave Florence, I do not see how the character ofthe transac-
tion will be.at all improved. The onlyeconsequence will be that
British glhJeCt.B residing there will not hays the amietanse of