The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 27, 1853.

THE DUKE OF TUSCANY AGAIN!

broadcast out of carriage windows ! And such contro-
versy ! To complete her crown of martyrdom, Miss
Cunninghame is in prison for circulating the "Pilgrim's
Progress." We doubt whether it were possible, even in
a religious romance published by Mr. Nisbet, to hit
more British prejudices, or to hit them harder. We
cannot refrain from repeating this conglomeration of
offences. A young Scottish lady of gentle birth, a
Presbyterian, a descendant of John Knox, &c., in an
Italian dungeon, damp and dirty, and on mouldy bread
and putrid water—all for the sake of Bunyan's immortal,
and, to our minds, most tedious, allegory.
Then follows the insulted dignity of the British lion.
The embassy is in a perfect frenzy—Mr. Scarlett is sent
to—Sir H. Bulwer is sent for, and Florence is in a fever.
The electric telegraph cracks its strings with its un-
wonted work. The Christian Times is in an unchristian
state of ebullition ; and most likely the Illustrated
London News will soon publish a portrait of the lady,
seated on a straw pallet before a grated window reading
a tract. Miss Margaret Cunninghame is the heroine of
the hour. Nevertheless she is, in our judgment, a very
wrong-headed young lady, who would have been much
better employed in verifying her "Murray," or looking
to her knitting needles. It is not, let us remind Miss
Margaret, the duty of any Christian to break the law of
the country in which he sr she resides. To make tract-
distributing a criminal offence is very wrong, very
bigoted, and, above all, very ridiculous. But where it
is illegal to distribute tracts, it is Miss Cunninghame's
duty to abstain from distributing. them. If the young
lady could not bear the abominations of the land of
darkness, she should not have entered. Poor Thomas
Hood reasoned well with her by anticipation
Why leave a serious, moral, pious home—
Scotland, renowned for sanctity of old—
Far distant Tuscany to rate and scold
For doing as the Romans do at Rome?

vivors have not yet been mustered. It is, however,
thought that a great number lost their lives. The ship
Joseph Walker, for New York, also went ashore off
the Huskisson Dock, thumped heavily, and sus•
tained considerable damage. She still remains ashore.
The brig Maria, from Prince Edward's Island, got
ashore off Nelson Dock, and lost masts and bow-
sprit. The captain, fearing the vessel was in immi-
nent danger, jumped ashore, and the crew and a woman
and five children, passengers, were shortly afterwards
rescued through the exertions of Captain Hoxie, of
the Joseph Walker, and Mr. Harker, a gentleman
connected with a tugboat company. The brig remained
ashore until high water, when she drifted off and up the
river, and got ashore on Pluckington Bank, where she
remains. A large vessel, name unknown, and said to
be waterlogged, is at anchor in Bootle Bay, with all her
masts cut away. The ship American, Captain Gover,
which sailed for San Francisco on Wednesday last, in
attempting to put back to this port, got ashore near
Southport, and at one time it was feared she would go
to pieces. Since the gale has moderated, however, a
better result is anticipated. The lifeboat went out to
her, and remained alongside all night. The clipper ship
Shooting Star, lying in the North Docks, lost all her
topmasts during the gale. A fiat sunk in the Huskisson
Basin ; crew saved.

( From the Times.)

Intelligence has reached this country of yet another
act of fanaticism, folly, and cruelty on the part of the
Tuscan Government. The Grand Duke has, no doubt,
calculated the measure of his own weakness before ven-
turing upon such a step, for it is only on his own per-
fect defencelessness that he can rest his hopes of im-
punity. Had the authorities of any country which
counted for something in the counsels of Europe ven-
tured upon such a course, the intelligence of the outrage
would no sooner have reached England than immediate
steps would have been taken to call the perpetrators to
account. The more beggarly and miserable a State, the
greater would seem to be its readiness to outrage and
insult those greater Powers which need only put forth
the slightest portion of their strength utterly to crush the
offender, and to dictate to him whatever terms they may
choose to impose. England stands alone in her forbear.
ance. It was but the other day the diplomatic agents of
the French Government extorted what concessions they
chose from the Turkish Ministers. It was but the other
day that the Emperor of Austria followed in the same
course, when he thought that the just right of his sub-
jects were violated. At the present moment the Russian
troops are in actual occupation of two provinces simply
because the Czar chose to consider that the members of
his church, not being his own subjects, did not partici-
pate in all the advantages which he desired to obtain for
them. France, Austria, Russia—three of the Great
Powers—understand no trifling when their subjects are
outraged and oppressed on account of their religion.
England alone stands aloof. It is enough that any per-
son should be an English subject and a Protestant, and
it is competent to any little trumpery Potentates who
are dotted about the Continent of Europe to incarcerate
and torture them at their pleasure. It may well become
a question with our Executive Government how long
these mockery-Sovereigns shall be allowed to treat
the English name and the English flag with such dis-
dain. There are limits, we take it, even to the ex-
ercise of sovereign rights. The Tuscan Government
forces us to remember that if only a single line-of-battle
ship were dispatched with hostile intention to the port of
Leghorn, their Grand Duke might reckon the duration
of his power by days, even if he were left to the tender
mercies of his own subjects. We know what the strength
of England is --we know what the condition of the Italian
Peninsular is—we know right well how complete is
the weakness of the petty Sovereigns among whom it is
divided ; and yet this is the moment—with the French
in Rome and the Russians in the Danubian Provinces
—that the Grand Duke has chosen for incarcerating a
young English lady upon so frivolous a pretext that we
may well wonder how he could procure the assent of
even a Tuscan Minister to so preposterous and mon-
strous a proceeding.
The facts of the case we will here recapitulate, lest
they may have escaped the notice of our readers. There
was a Scotch lady—a Mrs. Cunninghame--staying,
with her two daughters, at the Baths of Lucca. When
they were about to take their departure, Mrs. Cunning-
hame, accompanied by one of her daughters, went
to the usual office to have their passports vised, as their
personal appearance had been required. The local po-
lice agent inquired why Miss Margaret Cunninghame
had not presented herself. The answer was, that she
was unwell and confined to her bed. This, however,
would not suffice,—the police agent had a communica-
tion to make to the young lady of the highest im-
portance, and she must. There .was, of course, no
remedy. Miss Cunninghame attended in due time at
the police-office, and no sooner had she arrived than the
police agent informed her that she was a prisoner. Her
crime was, that she had given to some Tuscan peasants
an Italian Bible and an Italian translation of the Pil-
grim's Progress. Witnesses had been summoned to
Lucca, to prove the crime, and, in obedience to "higher
orders," the police agent had no option but to remove
her from the Baths under armed escort to that town.
The gendarmes were called out in great force—no doubt
lest the young lady should engage in hostilities with
Tuscany ; and, in company with Sir William Millar,
she was removed to the Penitentiary at Lucca. As the
report runs, the young lady took the matter coolly
enough, fortified, no doubt, by that feeling of intense
contempt for the canaille who had her in their
power, which any rational being would have felt
under the like circumstances. The mother, however,
was half distracted. The spectacle of oppression is
harder of endurance than oppression itself. While all
this was going on Sir William Millar had given himself
the unnecessary pains of going to the half-witted fanatic
by whose order the outrage was committed, judging, as
any reasonable man might, that the whole affair was a
mistake--a mere blunder of the most impure and cor-
rupt of his police agents. Not a bit of it. There was
his Royal Highness at one end of the business, and a
young English lady in a prison-van at the other, the
link of connexion between them being an Italian trans-
lation of the Bible. Of course, information of all this
infamy was given to Mr. Scarlett the English Charge
d'Affaires at Florence, and, as it is stated, this gentle-
man has exerted himself with the utmost possible acti-
vity in Miss Cunninghame's behalf. The result of his
application at head-quarters is briefly given in the re-
port, --"his Royal Highness is inexorable !" Tremend-
ous fact ! The Grand Duchess, too, was applied to, in
the hope that her womanly instincts would be sugges-
tive of something like decency and propriety. But, no !
she had been taught her lesson, and there was nothing
in her own heart or head which moved her to tenderness
or justice. "The Grand Duchess expresses regret for
the situation of Miss Cunninghame, but refuses to in-
terfere." The Ministers of this precious throne seem to
have a little more sense in their heads ; at least, it is
said—with how much truth we know not—that " the
dispositions of the individual Ministers are more favour-
able." The expedient that has suggested itself to their
ingenuity is to hurry on the trial as fast as may be, allow
Miss Cunninghame, of course, to receive an adverse sen-
tence, and then throw her upon the "Royal" clemency.
And it is in the middle of the nineteenth century that
such an outrage has taken place, and the perpetrator of
it is among the most trumpery Potentates in Europe ;
while the nation which has been so grievously insulted—
we may say it without vanity—stands at least among the
powerful in the world. If the question were one of reason,
the Grand Duke would be much more likely to find himself
on an English treadmill than Miss Cunninghame in a Tus-
can Penitentiary. If it be taken as one of force, we should
be well content to leave it to the Ayrshire militia to
decide the question between their fair countrywoman
and the standing army of Tuscany, with the Grand
Duke at its head.

People who hold such absolute opinions
Should stay at home in Protestant dominions."
But Miss Margaret probably thought that she might
earn a Calvinistic beatification at a cheap rate. The affair
can hardly have a serious issue ; and the lady has done
enough to secure notoriety at an easy figure. She will
rank with the Agneses and Cecilias of another creed, at
the moderate price of a mock process, and a collusive
prosecution. We have small pity for her sufferings.
Suffering for righteousness' 'sake is one thing, but a wil-
ful defiance of the laws of a foreign country by strangers
whohospitality, is another. Those who en-
dure imprisonment rather than deny the faith
receivebeude its
and
are entitled to a sympathy which ought not to be ex-
tended to those who wander about tampering with the
faith of other Christians, to whom they have no mission.
Miss Cunninghame knew well what she was about, for
her friends judiciously warned her against her folly.
But her female craving after -tracts was irresistible—
the hysteria of controversy was too strong. In ex-
tremely fanatical quarters only will the foolish young
woman receive any other commiseration than that which
a great act of silly vanity generally secures.
So much for the law-breaker. With respect to the law
itself, and to the mode of enforcing it, the subject as-
sumes another and more serious aspect. Policy would
dictate the treatment of Miss Cunninghame with con-
temptuous indifference. "Go spin' you jade, go spin,"
as, on a parallel occasion, was the politic treatment of
female missionaries. The Duke of Tuscany is unfortu-
nate in his officials, who could not understand the expe-
diency of shutting their eyes to the absurdity of attempt-
ing to seduce the faith of a whole communion by the
ridiculous agency of a young apostolese dropping penny-
worths of nonsense in bad Italian out of a carriage win-
dow. The Tuscan authorities, however, have again
summoned the attention of Protestantism to the exist-
ence of a bad law, for which they had already smarted
more than enough.
The law is doubly bad—first, because it is persecuting
and bigoted, and next, because it is short-sighted as
well as useless. The faith which reposes on such
petty persecution, must have very little dependence
in its own strength ; and if—as is notorious—the
enactment is only retained in the Tuscan code
at the instance of ecclesiastical influence, it proves the
hopeless decadence of the religious system which it is
meant to uphold. The learning and religion of Italy had
better resort to other arms against proselytism than the
infliction of ten years' imprisonment in the ergastolo.
Romanism has not, in truth, much to fear from the
Cunninghame tactics. Giant Despair and Mr. Great-
heart may suit the Gothic mind, but it will be long
before Bunyan's frigid allegory, or scraps of Calvinism
thick as the leaves of Vallombrosa, tell on the suscep-
tible Italian mind. This Rome cannot see. The Italian
Church has always been weak enough to make martyrs
of blockheads. Miss Cunninghame's imprisonment will
do more to shake Romanism than her pocketful of
tracts. The lady will take rank with the choicest hero-
ines of Presbyterianism ; even with her of stool-throwing
notoriety. The State of Tuscany will have to bear the
odium of bigotry, and the Italian Church, careless of
warnings, and blind to its own interests, will reap the
discreditable advantage of having imprisoned a fanatical
young woman for nothing.

We think we are but expressing the opinion of this
country when we say that it is high time some order
should be taken in this matter. If a man believes in
the Emperor Nicholas, or Mahomet, or the Pope of
Rome, or Buddha, he will find somebody to take up his
cause if he gets into trouble about his religion. An
English Protestant is an exception to the rule, and we
do not see why he should continue the exception.
Again we should say, if a question of this sort should
arise between ourselves and any of the great European
Powers, we should resent it in a different spirit. 'We
might think them barbarians, fanatics, madmen, what
you will ; but the fact of their power, and the respect
due to their power, would induce a more serious,
though not less indignant, tone. The mastiff is half-
ashamed at being roused by the lap-dog. In the present
instance contempt mingles with the indignation which
all rational beings must feel at such stupid ruffianism,
for the Tuscan Government is a mere twelfth-cake
business at best, and has no more right to be treated as
a European Power than Messrs. Fortnum and Mason,
who import the Lucca oil which it is the highest privi-
lege of the Tuscan Government to educe from a kindly
soil. One thing is clear enough,—that a stop must be
put to this sort of thing. We hear much about Turkish
fanaticism, and Russian fanaticism, and Roman fanati-
cism—we may be driven at last to try a little English
fanaticism, as Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell tried it
before us, and it answered in their hands.

( From the Morning Chronicle.)
Specimens of judicial blindness are not rare in his-
tory. Popes and Emperors—the old French noblesse,
and the Anglican bishops—King James 11., and the
late Protectionist party, all have, in turn, afforded ex-
amples of the incapacity of profiting by a hint. At the
present moment, the Duke of Tuscany is the most strik-
ing illustration in Europe of that infirmity. Allowance
is certainly to be made for him • for when a great
man sees only courtiers, or cardinals, or chaplains, he
does not see the world. Many well-meaning princes
commit grave errors only because in palaces and great
houses the rough natural air of heaven never blows.
They see their fellowmen as the blind man in Scripture
saw them—" as trees walking." They cannot be brought
to believe that public opinion exists or that it is a power.
They do not see that their conduct produces conse-
quences, and that they are responsible for those conse-
quences. Their vision is confined within the narrowest

limits, and they do not attempt to extend it beyond
them.

Now, this Duke of Tuscany may be a very well-dis-
posed person, but unquestionably the world in which he
lives is not the great actual European world. He no
more belongs to it, or moves with it, than if he dwelt in
Uranus. Hardly has he tided over the Madiais mischief,
when he, or the simpletons about him, contrive to tumble
into a mess just twice as awkward. The Madiais were,
as far as we could learn, an amiable dull couple, who
were elevated to the rank of second-rate martyrs by the
incredible folly of their Sovereign and his advisers. The
blind bigotry of the Church which could elevate Holy
Maids of Kent, and Anne Askews, and nine-tenths of
old Foxe's heroes into martyrs, we can understand in
the days of Tudors ; but that this sort of thing should
be possible in the Italy of the d'Azeglios, and Mais, and
Mezzofautes surpasses human comprehension. Tho
Madiais' imprisonment was a mistake huge enough for
one generation of Italian bigots and blockheads. But
Rosa and her husband were Tuscan subjects, and their
sufferings were, after all, no concern of ours. England
might, and did, remonstrate upon the subject ; and we,
among others, defended in this journal the English claim
to offer a friendly, if an intrusive, hint to the Grand
Duke upon the impolicy of religious persecution. But
now the Tuscan authorities have repeated their blunder,
and with a difference—and such a difference ! They
have, as Bishop Burnet would have said, "clapped up"
a Miss Margaret Cunningham° for distrib'uting Pro-
testant tracts !

It would have exceeded the ingenuity of any but a
Tuscan official to commit such a combination of unpro-
fitable outrages on our most cherished prejudices. To
imprison a British subject, and that British subject a
lady, and that lady one of the "perferred race of Scots,"
and that Scottish gentlewoman a true blue Presbyterian
—one, as her friends phrase it, of "the stern breed," a
scion of the old Covenanters' stock—and, to complete
the wickedness, a descendant—yes, a lineal descendant,
we are assured—of John Knox, is surely too much. A
lineal descendant of John Knox in a Tuscan ergastolo,
causa s.eligionis, and for the dearest privilege of religious
ladies that of scattering tracts, and sowing controyeray
,