The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—There may be countries in the world
which have as many and as complicated relations
with other States as England, but assuredly 'there
is no one which knows so little about them. We are
perpetually making the discovery that we have been
pursuing a course of policy of which we have never
heard, and that we have changed it in the most un-
accountable manner, without being in the least
aware that we have changed it at all. We are con-
tinually at war with all sorts of petty potentates,
we are allies of Sovereigns whose names we do not
know, and exercise a tremendous influence over the
destinies of States which we cannot find in the map.
At last, and in some very disagreeable manner, we
awake to the consciousness of our own doings and
responsibilities. We find ourselves involved in a
quarrel • we ask what it is all about ; papers are
moved for, and a luminous explanation is made by
the representatives of the Foreign-office in Parlia-
ment. We are content, and suppose we have got
to the bottom of the whole affair, when some one,
with no interest " to make things pleasant," steps
forward and enlightens the English nation as to
what it has been doing in some remote region for
the last 20 years. We are astonished at our own
activity, and very often not a little at our own folly.
We find that we have been meddling with all sorts
of things with which we have no business, and are
deeply involved in interests which nobody, with the
utmost stretch of ingenuity, can indentify with our
own. It is but 10 years since there fell out a great
dispute between two sects of Christians as to the
right to possess the key of a certain church at Beth-
lehem. The result was the terrible war of the Crimea,
the loss probably, in one way or another, of the
lives of some half million of human beings, the de-
struction of the whole live stock of Southern Rus-
sia, and the almost entire desolation which seems
to have fallen upon the Crimea herself. Of our-
selves, who had to bear in purse or in person the
burden of this war, how many had ever heard of
the church at Bethlehem, of its key, or of its sex-
ton ? And of those who had heard, how many cared
whether the key was in the possession of the Latins
or the Greeks? We have lately had a somewwhat
similar incident. We find, to our astonishment, that
the English Consul in Abyssinia, where not one of
us in a thousand knew we had any Consul at all,
has been thrown into prison by the Emperor, and
detained under circumstances of the utmost hard-
ship and indignity. The Foreign-office is asked
what it all means, and we are told that it is the
Consul's own fault---that he disobeyed his instruc-
tions, and mixed himself up in the politics of a coan-
try with which he had no concern, and that he is
therefore only expiating in imprisonment his own
indiscretion. Abyssinia has no frontier to the sea ;
it is entirely beyond our reach by land, and what-
ever insults King Theodore may choose to put upon
our Consul we have no means of avenging. It was,
therefore, very comfortable to know that it was all
his own fault and not ours, and we have reconciled
ourselves to the infliction with that sort of equani-
mity with which people usually support the inevit-
able misfortunes that may fall upon their neighbours.
We send an emissary to try and redeem Mr. Cameron
from activity, and await the event in tranquillity,
with no very strong conviction of the wisdom of
sending a British Consul to a country where, what-
ever he the treatment he may sustain, it is impos-
sible for us to protect him. We have, however, the
satisfaction of thinking that his misfortunes are of
his own seeking. Unhappily, Dr. Beke did not
allow us to continue in this tranquil and self-satis-
fied state of mind. In a letter, the facts of which
may, we believe, be implicitly relied on, he tells us
that the arrest of Consul Cameron was not in any
degree his own fault, but arose from the change in
the policy of the British Government with regard to
Abyssinia. As nobody knew what the policy of
the British Government with regard to Abyssinia
was, it was not very likely that we should know
what the change in that policy has been, and the
revelation of Dr. Beke, therefore, comes upon us
with double piquancy. It appears, then, that our
policy towards Abyssinia has been to countenance
her in her struggle to maintain her independence
against the Turks, who, though, nominally at least,
the conquerors of Egypt and Arabia, have never
been able to conquer this remote province inha-
bited by a people hostile to Islamism, possessing
a degraded form of Christianity. In 1849 we appear
to have executed a treaty with the then Sovereign
of Abyssinia, and by this means to have recognised
him as an independent potentate, and to have nega-
tived the claim of Turkey, thus supporting Abyssinia
against Turkey much in the same way as a few years
later we supported Turkey herself against Russia.
Dr. Gobat, the bishop of that see of Jerusalem,
which in an hour of singular unwisdom we founded
in the dominions of another sovereign, with the
assistance of our good friend and dear ally, the
King of Prussia, went, it appears, on a missionary
tour into Abyssinia before he was made bishop, in
1846, and the Abyssinian pilgrims to Jerusalem,
who appeared to be very enthusiastic, and actuated
by the grossest superstition, were placed under the
spiritual care of this Prusso-Anglican prelate. Of
course, like most bishops of the English Church in
foreign parts, Dr. Gobat soon found his way back
to London, and induced the then Government—we
know not whether that of Lord Derby or of Lord
Russell, for the affair took place in 1852—t0 send
instructions to our Consul at Jerusalem to use his
good offices on behalf of the Abyssinian inhabitants
in that city, so as to protect them against the Turks
or any one else, and this protectorate lasted for ten
years. The Copts and Armenians in Jerusalem kept
up a constant annoyance of the Abyssinians, and,
finally, taking an unhandsome advantage of the
fact that all the Abyssinian monks had died of the
plague, destroyed their title-deeds, took possession
of their convent, and sold it to the Russians for
60,000 roubles, as it would seem, with the approval
of the Turkish authorities. The Emperor Theodore
retaliated for these injuries by illtreating the Coptic
Patriarch. The Abyssinians were expelled from
Jerusalem, the British Consul declining to interfere
on their 'behalf, on the ground that they were
Turkish subjects, and arrived in a state of destitution
and misery at their native country, much to the in-
dignation of the Emperor. It appears, also, that we
agreed in the treaty of 1849 to keep open the avenues
of approach betwixt the sea coast and Abyssinia,
whereas we have consented to the acquisition by
Egypt from Turkey of the territory of Massowah,
which is the only access from Abyssinia to the sea.
We are informed that the Emperor Theodore held
Consul Cameron as a hostage for our recognition of
the indeAndence of Abyssinia in accordance with
our treaty of 1849, for the repression of Egyptian
outrage along the frontier, for the restitution of the
Abyssinian church and convent at Jerusalem, and
probably for the re-opening of the communication
with the sea by Massowah. It thus seems that
this savage potentate, whom we appear to have no
means whatever of coercing, but to whom we have
intrusted the safety of one of our diplomatic repre-
sentatives, and so far, therefore, the honour of the
country, held our consul in durance as a hostage for
the execution of a number of duties not one of
which legitimately belongs to us, but which we have,
in a spirit of meddling and mischief-making which
we lack words strong enough to condemn, either
actually undertaken, or led him to suppose we had
undertaken, without the slightest hope of any return
for these numerous and burdensome obligations.
What is Abyssinia to us, or we to Abyssinia ?
What does it signify to England whether it be in-
dependent or not ? What does it matter whether
its access to the sea be in the hands of the Turks
or the Egyptians ? What is it to us whether the
Emperor of Abyssinia plunders and imprisons the
Coptic Patriarch when he is foolish enough to. put
himself into his power, or whether the Copti and
Armenians unite to plunder the Abyssinian con-
vent and the Abyssinian people resident in the
Turkish town of Jerusalem ? What have we to do
with the border quarrels of Egypt and Abyssinia?
And, last, though certainly not least, what business
have we to found Anglican or Prussian bishoprics,
with territorial jurisdiction, within the Turkish
Empire, to involve us in the miserable quarrels
of barbarous and ferocious sectaries ? It was at
Bethlehem that the seeds of the Crimean War
were sown ; it is in Jerusalem that we must
look, and not in Gondah, for the causes of
the misfortunes which have overtaken Consul
Cameron, and the gross insult that has been offered
to ourselves. Oh, that we could only learn to mind
our own business !—that some power would arise
strong enough to keep our Foreign-office from in-
volving us without our knowledge in all kinds of
burdensome duties and obligations, and, after having
got us into trouble with one class of persons by
making these promises, from getting us into trouble
with another class of persons by violating them 1
We are overladen with dominions in all quarters of
the world, which drain our resources without con-
tributing to our strength, and, as if this were not
enough, we thrust ourselves into the quarrels of
semi-barbarous states, and make for ourselves new
difficulties, in addition to those that our forefathers
have bequeathed to us. We demand that the policy
of England shall be for the interest of England, and
that neither our lives, our honour, nor our money
shall be expended in quarrels in which there is
doubtless a right and a wrong, a just and an unjust,
but in which as regards England there is not the
slightest semblance of expediency.
POST.—The long expected proclamation of the
Emperor of Austria, convoking the Transylvanian
Diet for the 19th of November, has appeared. It
may be taken for a greater concession in realitythan
it stands for in terms. The Emperor here announces
his intention to re-establish the constitutional insti-
tutions of the eastern half of his empire as far as is
consistent with the Imperial diploma of the 20th of
October, 1860. Technically, therefore, in order to

ascertain the scope of jurisdiction which the Emperor
proposes to assign to the constitutional bodies of
Hungary and Transylvania, it is necessary to observe
what the limitations of the diploma of 1860 amount
to. This state paper forms an extension of a decree
of the sth of March in the same year, which origi-
nally constituted the Reichsrath as a Parliament for
the whole empire. The diploma of the 20th of Oc-
tober was issued to define the relitive powers of the
Diets and Provincial Councils on the one hand and
of the Reichsrath on the other. The terms of the ar-
rangement amounted pretty much to this, that the
Reichsrath was to assume the whole authority in
matters of Imperial magnitude, or in such as gene-
rally affected the whole empire ; and that the Diets
were to legislate only in purely internal, and in many
cases in merely local affairs. By the diploma of the
20th of October, 1860, therefore, the maintenance
and pre-eminence of the Reichsrath were distinctly
provided for. Now it happens that this is, after all,
the main point of controversy between the Hunga-
rians and the Austrians. The former are sure of
having their Diet in some shape ; and the question
of their union with Transylvania is very secondary
in their eyes to that of maintaining the supremacy
of their own Parliament as the only Legislature for
their country. The present declaration of the Em-
peror of Austria, therefore, strictly goes only to the
length of restraining the Sclavonic and Magyar na-
tions from the one principal boon for which they
have all along been contending. Whether Hungary
and Transylvania are henceforth to be united, or to
be divided, their paramount claim is that their Diets
shall be supreme, and not merely electoral Cham-
bers tributary and contributory of the Reichsrath.
But it is the latter condition which the Imperial
diploma of 1860 assigns to them; and it is this
diploma which is put forth in the present proclama-
tion of the Emperor of Austria as a basis of the con-
vocation of the Transylvanian Diet. There can be
no denying that if this position is to be rigorously
insisted upon, it will be found to provokevery grave
difficulties. But we may reasonably entertain some
doubt whether such a course will be taken by the
Austrian Government. Their declaration reads very
much like a compromise between pride and policy.
T o come to a direct capitulation as between equals
is evidently not the wish of the House of Hapsburg.
It is very likely that they desire to concede, without
conceding in actual terms, in dealing as between
sovereign and subject. There has been a general
impression throughout the Austrian Empire that
the Government had resolved at all events to con-
strue the diploma of 1860 with great laxity. Very
possibly they may wish to allow it quietly to die
out without formally pronouncing it defunct. After
nearly five years of warring with both their eastern
and Italian provinces on this very point, it would be
hardly conceivable that, under colour of a compro-
mise, they should be again making strenuous efforts
to establish it. Moreover, the Emperor has just
summoned Hungarian statesmen to the administra-
tion of -Hungarian affairs. The present proclama-
tion bears the memorable signature of Teleki, a name
that was foremost among that powerful family in
the revolutionary movement of 1848. We may,
thereforefore, take it for granted that the children
who would not be schooled are about to be indulged,
and that the Hungarian and Transylvanian Diet of
Diets will before long be re-established in much of
their original authority. The Transylvanian Diet
is, however, now summoned for a special object. It
is to be called upon to determine upon the law of
1848 relative to the union of Hungary with itself.
The elections are to . take place at once, the Diet
being fixed to assemble in two months' time. The
statement in the Emperor's proclamation, that the
elections are to take place according to the old law
of 1791, in reality refers only to the method of poll-
ing and conducting the elections on the part of the
bureaucracy of the Transylvanian principality,. On
the all-important question of the suffrage an immense
change has been effected by the present decree. It
is one, perhaps, which some of our constitution-
mongers may look at with some curiosity, although
it would be strange indeed if English reformers were
to take their ideas from the Chateau of Laxenburg.
The present decree, however, assigns the qualifica-
tion for the franchise to every taxpayer direct to the
extent of eight florins (Austrian), or 16s. a year.
It does not distinctly appear from the wording of
the decree, which is in other respects somewhat
obscure, whether this is the only qualification to be
observed for the future or not. But the regu-
lation will in itself secure a tolerably free Diet,
and will insure the representation of nearly all
classes, under the present taxation adopted in the
Austrian empire, who have any appreciable stake in
the principality. In regard to what is really for
the interest of Transylvania, as to union with or
separation from Hungary for the future, there is
much to be said on both sides ; though it must be
acknowledged that the arguments are, on the whole,
in favour of union. In an extremely remote corner
of Europe, with Southern Russia, Moldp-W al-
lachia, and Gallicia around her on the east, Tran-
sylvania stands in urgent need of all communication
she can have with Western Europe. This she can
only acquire to any extent by means of a complete
legislative and social fusion with Hungary. On the
other -hand, there is no doubt that many of her
laws and traditions are so peculiar, and her habit of
distinct government so long formed, that it is not
doing any great violence to the daily life of the
people if they continue under a separate Diet and
Administration. However, this is a question which
the Transylvanians have been summoned to decide
for themselves ; and we may leave them to be the
best judges of their own interests.