The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-16 00:00:00

THE CHARGE _AGAINST M. KGSSUT H.

: . (Prom the Daily News. • •
The answer ' given by Lord Palmerston last night to
the questions put to him by the hon. member for Leice!--
ter, will be read with no' little interest by the public
g'3nerally, and with corisiderable surprise by those who
perased the • -extraordinary statement relative to M.
eistrth, which appeared in the Times yesterday morn-
ing. In substance, the statement amounted to nothing
less than that the Secretary for the Home Department
had issued a warrant, under the authority of which the
police had proceeded to search 'a house belonging to M.
Kossuth, and had found therein a large amount of arms
and ammunition, such as amply to verify the suspicions
previously entertained of the possessor's intention to
levy war upon our humane and enlightened ally the Em-
peror of Austria. How the information which had led
to such a proceedinghr.d been obtained our contemporary
did not say ; and its readers were consequently left in
doubt whether it was derived from sources of foreign
espionage or from the revelations of domestic spies
—from treachery in the Austrian Post-office, or vio-
lation of confidence in that of St. Martin's-le-Grand.
Unpleasant recollections associated with the names
of the Bandieri might naturally suggest discretion
as to such disclosures to the organ of Lord Aber-
deen. Be that as it may, however, no pains were
spared to invest the announcement with the cha-
racter of circumstantiality ; glorify the prophetic
wisdom of those who had unscrupulously vilified the
Hungarian chief, and foretold his evertual detection as
a pirate and impostor ' • above all, to heap upon Lord
Palmerston reproachful praises for his discovery, though
late, of the duty which he owes to foreign sovereigns as
a Minister of the Queen of England.
Lord Palmerston, to do him, justice, seems to have
been not at all ambitious to remain longer than was un-
avoidable under the fatal load of 'such laudations. In
hi-s ,place in the House of Commons last night he did not
hesitate to deny the accuracy of the tale of which he had
been made the suppositious hero. With remorseless
ingratitude he not only explained that the military stores
which the police had, placed under detention had not
been found at the residence of M. Kossuth, but at a dis-
tance of some miles from it, and that he was in posses-
sion of no information which would justify him in assert-
ing that they had. been purchased or. placed where
they were found 'with the culpable cognisance of
that gentleman. But Lord Palmerston 'Melia stop
there. ' In answer to a second question, his Lord-
ship declared he was net aware of any under-
taking having been given by her 'Majesty's Govern-
ment that they would perform the duties of sur-
veillance over the political -refugees resident in this
country. The Noble Viscount has too long played the
distinguished part of Foreign . Minister to a free peopt_e
to sit easy under the imputation of turning head police-
man in his old age, or principal spy to the despots on
whoSe cruelty he w..s once the check, and in whose ears,
his name is still a sound of terror. Lord Palmerston 's
position as member of the Cabinet, constituted as the
present is,must be as intolerable to him' individually as
disreputable to the character of our fellow-men, if it im-
plied Mach self-abandonment as that on which, with
sinister emphasis, his implacable enemy the Times
affects to congratulate him. For the honour of British
statesmanship, we rejoice to
,think that, true to the
principles of 1850, Lord Palmerston disdains to be " the
Minister of Austria." Lower and more degraded still
he would be if, upon any suggestion conveyed through
the foreign office, from Vienna, or upon any information
furnished by spies and informers, or supplied by equally
infamous means, the Home Secretary were to violate
the sanctity of political hospitality, or to harass an un-
fortunate exile who had sought the shelter of our shore,
by instituting against him proceedings in the nature of
a State prosecution, as the Times eagerly recommends,
unless he were really guilty of an offence against the
laws of the country which affords.him a secure asylum.
The duty of a Secretary of State in regard to foreign
governments with whom we are at peace is simple and
plain. Whenever authentic and legitimate information
shall be given him of warlike preparations being made
within our confines of a nature calculated to excite just
suspicion as to their object, he is manifestly bound to
interpose, in order to prevent any infraction of interna-
tional rights being committed under the tacit sanction of
our name. If arms or ammunition be found secreted,
or in such quantities as cannot be reasonably or satisfac-
torily accounted for, it is the duty of Government to
seize and detain such stores, and to hold all persons,
whether natives or foreigners, in whose possession they
may have been found, responsible when legally called
upon for their peaceful conduct and intentions. But
there the duty of a British Minister ends. Whatever
may be said or, insinuated to the contrary, it is no part
of his business to act as one of a foreign gendarmerie, to
play the part of a letter opener, a detective, or a spy,
or to prostitute the power and authority which belong to
the executive of a free nation in political prosecutions,
to appease the baffled fury of despotic Governments
abroad.

( From the Morning Advertiser.)

The metropolitan public were yesterday startled by
the announcement in the Times, that a house belonging
to Kossuth had been searched on the previous day by
the police, and that a large store of arms, ammunition,
and materials of war had been discovered and seized. It
will be remembered that a few weeks ago we stated that
information had reached us from a reliable source, to the
effect that the British Government had responded to the
wishes of Austria to play the part of spy on the move-
ments of the refugees resident in London. We added,
however, that, excellent as was the source whence the
information came, we could not bring ourselves to be-
lieve in its accuracy. We thought, and said, that there
must be some mistake in the matter. We felt that the
national honour would be compromised by such a pro-
ceeding, and could not therefore give credence to the
representations made to us.
Unhappily events have since shown that we had
thought too favourably of our Government. If the
Times may be believed, the Home Secretary has become
the servile tool of the Court of Vienna. Assuming that
our contemporary is correct, we can only say, that if
the discreditable work was to be done at all, we wish it
had been done by some one else than Lord Palmerston.
The country will be pained, as well as,surprised, to learn
that he, who was formerly the terror of all the des-
potic courts of Europe, and whose name was held in
execration by every royal tyrant in Christendom, should
now have descended so low in the political scale as to
becoroe the submissive servant of the very Court by which
he was most hated and abhorred. We may well be
supposed to feel especially grieved and, mortified at: this,
because no journal took his lordship's part so zealously
and so perseveringly as ours, when he was ignominiously
ejected from the Russell Ministry beeause of his unpo-
pularity with, continental courts. While we eulogised
the noble lord on that occasion, the Times loadee, him
With its coarsest and most virulent abuse. Now "le is
the god Of that journal's idolatry.
Nye, see in the fact we have recorded an apt and edify-
ing commentary on the speech of, the Earl of Aberdeen,
in the House of Lords, a few weeks ago, animadverted
on with such surpassing poxers of language, by 1‘ An
Englishman." Lord Palmerston has also become the
instrument of carrying out the Austrian predilections of
"the good Aberdeen." Again, we must express our
regret at the sad change which has taken place in the
noble lord's position. We wish, for his own sake, that
he had not joined the Coalition Cabinet. We wish he
bad better consulted his own high character than to sub-
mit to serve under a man with whom he had been for
years at variance. Had he kept aloof from the mongrel
Ministry, he would have lived and. died one of the most
popular statesmen of the day.
The Times, as might be expected, is in the third.hea-
yen of happiness, that something has, as it fancies, been
a,; last found which will compromise the illustrious
Magyar. There are no bounds to its exultation, It
cannot restrain itself. What if, after all, it be doomed
to the, mortification of discovering that its fiendish re-
joicings are, groundless ? Before it raises its shout of
joy, it would be well to wait until it see the issue of the
trial, which it is to be presumed awaits Kossuth. What
distinguished- man is not convicted yet. No British
jury liar; yet' returned its verdict of guilty against him.
Whether such a contingency is in the womb og the
future, is not for us to say. We have, however, our
opinions on the subject. At all events the Magyar
chief is no convict yet.

Assuming that the report of the Times is correct, not
only regarding the fact that arms and ammunition have
been found in a house belonging to Kossuth, but that a
large quantity has been discovered,—what then ? What
purpose did the Hungarian patriot intend to achieve by
these arms and ammunition ? Let the Times answer
that question. Despotism is unhappily not confined to
the geographical,limits of Hungary. It pervades nearly
the entire Continent. Where is the evidence that the
warlike articles found in the house referred to, were to
be applied to the overthrow of any existing Governnient
at all ? These are questions which must, we presume,
be answered before the ex-Governor of Hungary can be

convicted. •
And then will come another queStion—Why, assuming
that Kossuth meant to attempt the emancipation o' his
country by the arms and ammunition said to belog to
him,—why have other persons notoriously conspiring
against foreign Governments, been allowed to escape ?
Why,were not the houses of persons who, it was well
known, had been systematically plotting, for months
and years; the subversion of foreign dynasties why
werehrn,s not their houses searched for papers, if not for
the. and ammunition llt was in 1832 clear to as
noon-day 811 Tl that a regularly organised conspiracy
was formed and carried on in this country against the
Government of Don Miguel in Portugal, and in favour
of Don Pedro. An expedition was openly got up in
England with that view. Yet Government did not in-
terfere. • The expedition started, and the objects which
it, contemplated were aceompr h
pen that all this was done in is
open ed.
How did it hap-
day, and tthhaet
ptrhee.
then Government look no notice of it,r,
sent Government can actually so far degrade whileade itself as to
conspiracies
of its detective police in motion to discover
of the existence of which the public had no idenasfiracies
Then, again, look at the forbearance shown to the pre-
sent ruler of France when he was in this country,
is an historical fact that he planned two expeditiO;ls in
t
England for the overthrow .431,:e Orleans dynasty in
France—the one known by the name of the Boulogne
expedition, and the other t:y that of Strasburg. Yet,
after the escape of Louis Napoleon from his prison at
Ham, and his return to this country, he received no
molestation whatever from the police. He was not sus-
pected. though after the antecedents to which we have
referred, he very naturally might have been so.
And so, with regard to the ex-royal family of France.
Had the British Government thought proper to keep a
watch on tlie proceedings it Claremont during the time
of Louis Phillippe, there can be no question that they
would have found evidence enough of continuous con-
spiracies against the French Republic in that abode o.f
royal exileiL But thejthreshOld of Claremont was never