The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-25 00:00:00

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John of Berwick

M. KOSSUTH.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE SUN.
SIR,—M. Kossuth has addressed to me a letter, full of
startling facts and puzzling questions. As an English-
man I confess with shame that I can neither contradict
the former nor reply satisfactorily to the latter. As
both are of deep interest, not to me alone, but to you,
sir, and to every man in England, I make use of the
privilege granted me, and send you the letter for publi-
cation.
I shall make no comment upon it. Let England
answer it for herself. But this I will dare to affirm ;
that, if the statements' of Mr. Dunford be facts, and
Englishmen will submit tamely under a knowledge of
them, then, indeed, have we reached a crisis of shame,
and the further downhill of disgrace will be short, rapid,
and facile.
Political espionage is cuneiform. Give the vile sys-
tem but the smallest insertion, and, wedge-like, it will
help itself, until it has cleft the columns of our glory,
and sapped the foundations of our dear liberty. If our
own sense of national honour move us not now, there is
but little hope that we will be aroused by the scornful
cheer that will soon greet us from the other side of the
Atlantic.
These ideas may be lightly treated by the over-wise
and the too secure. To you, Sir, they will be thoughts
of pain and sorrow, as they are to your obedient servant,
MAYNE REID,
14, Alpha-road, Regent's-park, April 24.

(Copy.)
21, Alpha-road, Regent's-park, April 23, 1853.
My dear Sir, - Recent occurrences have thrown such
uncertainty upon the legal position of politicid refugees
residing in England, that our honour as well as the in-
stinct of self-preservation render it indispensable that the
exact nature of the right of asylum should be cleared up,
which we have been induced to believe that the organic
institutions of England afford to political exiles in equal
degree, be they dethroned kings or inconspicuous mar-
tyrs of the cause of liberty.
We are told, in and out of Parliament, that we live
under the protection of the common laws of England.
Now, sir, I apprehend it is no easy matter, even for
Englishmen, to know exactly what is English law.
Long forgotten statutes exhumated for some special oc-
currence from under the rubbish of bygone times, render
the access to the sanctuary of your common law ex-
tremely sinuous. Foreigners can't be reproached for
being unable to know the way of their duties and their
rights in that labyrinth.
You having been always amongst the foremost to de-
fend us spontaneously when we have been wronged, you
Will excuse me, I hope, for venturing to bring some facts
to your notice, and for asking you some questions re-
sulting therefrom.
Sir, I sincerely believe that Englishmen mean to be
hospitable to political exiles, but few of them know what
sort of hospitality England affords to us. Hospitality,
in my view, means the admitting a guest to be atfleast
on the same terms as the members of the family ; but
forgive my saying, I feel that I, for one, am not thus
treated.
Englishmen are punishable if they break the law, but
they are not dogged by spies, surrounded by political
espionage, and the names of all who visit them kept in
a black book ; they are not always trembling for the
safety of their letters and the lives of their correspond-
ents, or of the innocent men whose names may be men-
tioned in their private memorandums.
I avow my responsibility to the laws of Englishmen,
and have not dreamed to ask more than English free-
dom while on your shores. But under the pretence of
prevention (an especially despotic plea) it appears I am
beset by agencies which all true-hearted Englishmen
hate, and which, if applied to any of you, would, I be-
lieve, rouse your indignation.
Of course I correspond with my friends, many of
whom are suffering under lawless oppression, but such
correspondence is no breach of your laws. Nevertheless,
I live in daily terror lest, in waking some morning I
find that my writing desk has been torn open, and my
private memorandums rifled by virtue of a search war-
rant, obtained by I know not what one-sided deposition,
from a secret irresponsible tribunal like that of the In-
quisition, obtained by anonymous accusation, the charge
and the judge being unknown to me. I say I live in
daily terror lest by such seizure of my private papers
my innocent friends be betrayed to Austrian vengeance.
Englishmen would not endure such a state of law as
applicable to themselves ; but it seems you have excep-
tional laws against foreigners, which turn your hospi-
tality to exiles (possibly) into a cruel trap.
Do you say, "not possibly"? Do you assure me that
this power though committed to your ministry certainly
will not be used I
Excuse some anxiety in me, who has read how the
brothers Bandiera were betrayed, and has recently seen,
in the case of an Englishman, how, without any process
of law, where accuser and accused meet face to face—
any plea of searching for gunpowder may be used in
order to rifle my desk, and carry off my trunks and
papers. What is to hinder some masked accuser from
whispering something, which by virtue of " reasons of
state ' justifies a burglary on my house, and puts the
lives of my correspondents into hazard for no imaginable
breach of your laws, men who have never come within
the sphere of English law at all ?
These fears are not unfounded on fact. Listen yet a
little, Sir. Mr. Dunford, printer and stationer, resid-
ing at Notting-hill, gives me the following informa-
tion :
While Lord Derby was still Prime Minister, men from
the detective police, in plain clothes, were appointed to
watch my house at Notting-hill, and take the number of
every cab which came to the door. The late Ministry
having left office they were withdrawn. -But a short
time after the debate in the House of Lords about the
refugees, previous to which your Home Secretary de-
clared in the House of Commons with loud applause,
that "it is no part of the duty of an English Govern-
ment to provide for the safety of Foreign Governments"
—according to Mr. Dunford's positive knowledge, the
detective police not only made their appearance again
about my house, but he has full reason to believe,
that there was almost one policeman for every person
who visited my house, and ke asserts to know, that they
had orders to mark every such person, and even to take
a cabriolet, if necessary, to follow the visitor wherever
he went.
Further, Mr. Dunford informs me that, upon the oc-
casion of my removing from my late residence, at Not-
ting-hill, to that which lat present occupy, in Alpha-
road, Regent's-park, one of the detective police, in the
disguise of a labourer, and upon the plea that he was out
of work, insinuated himself into the service of the carman
employed to remove my furniture, and in this character
assisted at its removal, having thus free access to my
house, and adopting what I, and I am certain you, sir,
would pronounce a base means of getting acquainted
with my private affairs.
The carman himself, having too late learnt the matter
has felt so ashamed and revolted in his plain honest
English heart at being made a tool in so base a plot,
that he never called for payment of his bill ; so that
having waited for a considerable time in vain, I was
under the necessity of sending to search him out and pay
him his money. The people's moral sense is au honour-
able test of institutions.
Mr. Dunford I have reason to believe a respectable
and honourable man. His letter lies before me, of which
he gave me permission to make public use, and autho-
rised me to say, that he is ready to come forward and
make oath to the facts here stated.
So much of political espionage for the present. But
you will say—what of intercepted letters ? I, indeed,
can only answer you that one most important letter I
have never received, which was directed to me under
enclosure to a friend. It never reached my friend, and
all knowledge of it is denied at St. Martin's-le-Grand.
Judge then whether I am unreasonable, or unchari-
table, in feeling frequent alarm for good and brave men,
whose names are found in my private letters. When I
review the past, and compare the most recent and still
pending transactions of your extrajudicial activity, truly
I have little ground for congratulating myself on security
from proceedings which I used to think Austrian but not
English.
Pass laws if you please, which forbid exiles on Eng-
lish soil to use pen and paper, or to talk face to face, we
shall then know on what terms we accept your proffered
refuge. But if you induce us to believe that England is
a free country, you must excuse us for believing that
political espionage is incompatible with liberty ; if you
like to boast of the proud personal security of English-
men, don't blame us for thinking that preventive political
police measures can have no legal footing in England ;
and if in that belief I take it for granted that I am
allowed to correspond with my friends and to enjoy their
you then give me 'no security that, in
using this common privilege, I shall not become the
means of betraying my beloved compatriotH to the Aus-
ctsorairnclairnpneudagisineeaninlg,
wghtwmhotia:l.ln read?
that an Englishman's house was his
sc;:stle, and, according to my Hungarian notions, the
is received i veerdh
aamong
m youshouldwrong.
Thoseh v e eaqrueaol yd
fashioned principles perhaps
cornsmon law' exploded by many
a petty '°coup d'etat." Englishmen are contented to be
liable to search warrants themselves upon "informa-
tion," and therefore I must be contented. Is it so ? or
are refugees placed under exceptional law, in order to
pleaseTiie
sforeignl etyrantsquestions
?stions which agitate my mind, I
hope you will help me to have them answered, and 1
have the hopour to remain,

Dear. sir, yours faihfully,
L. KossuTH•
Captain Mayne Reid, 14, Alpha-road, Regent's-park