The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-07 00:00:00

REFUGEE TEA MEETING.

Oa Monday evening last a social tea meeting took
place in the Mechanics'-hall at Nottingham, on behalf
of and to do honour to the Hungarian and Polish refu-
gees now in Nottingham. There was a very numerous
attendance, and the proceedings of the evening were cer-
tainly characterised by right hearty enthusiasm. Mr.
A. Darby, the chairman and treasurer of the refugee
committee, presided ; the speeches were diversified and
enlivened by the performance of several glees and songs
by the Misses Miller, Mrs. Marriott officiating at the
pianoforte. After the removal of the tea equipage, the
chairman made some introductory observations as to
the object of the meeting, remarked upon the overflow-
ing response made on the occasion by the people of Not-
tingham to the appeal made on behalf of the foreign
exiles, to whose uniform good conduct in this town he
bore ample testimony. He then read over the cash
statement, by which it appeared that the balance in
hand after last year's public meeting was 531. 4s. ; the
amount received as donations, and in repayments from
refugees, who had got situations, 181. 15s. ; making,
with 81. due to the treasurer, a total of 71/. 95., which
was the amount expended. He read the answer of M.
Kossuth to the ladies' committee, who had invited his
attendance, and this document, though regretting the
impossibi2ity of his attending, elicited the most deafening
applause. .He also read other letters of apology for non-
attendance, amongst others from Mr. Biggs, and Mr.
J. B. Hollins, of Leicester. Mr. G. A. Syme, Baptist
preacher, was the next speaker. He asserted, in the
first place, that the present meeting had assembled to
discharge not merely the duties of benevolence, but also
those of justice. He descanted upon the bearing of the
Eastern question upon Europe at large, and upon the
more immediate object of that gathering ; moreover, he
affirmed that it was a theme of thrilling interest, not
only to the statesman and politician, but to the philoso-
pher, the philanthropist, the Christian, to the man—to
all, in fact, who desired the welfare and progress of
humanity. In allusion to a previous meeting, and to
this and other gatherings, he observed that he could not
endorse all the sentiments uttered by different speakers,
but was responsible only for his own. He then insisted
that to struggle for liberty was as sacred a thing as
prayer (cries of ' Question"), and declared that he would
ask for it on the platform and in secret, with every
breath of his body and all the powers of his mind.
(Cheers.) The speaker then graphically sketched the
rise and progress of the Ottoman empire, commencing
with the period, 400 years ago, when the Turks took
Constantinople, quoting the prophecy which prevailed in
the East, that at the full expiration of that term the city
would be retaken, and alluding to the causes which had
led to its decline in a long series of years, and which in
some measure supported the probability of its extinction
being near at hand. He then entered at some length
into an account of the liberal reforms effected by Mali-
moad—the father of the present Sultan—who began his
reign thirty years ago, and who, despite the opposition
of the independent chiefs, officers of state, jannisaries,
and even of the people, whose condition he wished to
improve, persevered in his plans of civilisation, at the
same time that his finances were exhausted by the wars
into which he was plunged by other nations of Europe.
At the end of thirty years struggle he died, and the pre-
sent Sultan, following in the same steps, they had the
singular spectacle of a chief and his government pushing
the people on to reform—of the impulse proceeding from
the throne to carry into effect wisely-adopted measures
toimprove the condition of the people. Among the re-
forms thus effected he enumerated the security of human
life, the passing of measures corresponding with the
Magna Charta and Reform Bill in England, the efficient
and fair administration of justice, the unfettered trans-
mission of property, the wise administration of finances,
the establishment of schools— of which there were 395
in Constantinople—for the education of boys and girls,
as well as institutions of a higher kind for tuition in
medicine, agriculture, and other subjects of a similar
kind. The reign of the present sovereign had never been

sullied with an act of cruelty ; and as one result of this
liberal and enlightened policy, they saw that instead of
being in a state of decline, Turkey was able to cope with
the Russian forces. Mr. Syme then passing on to Rus-
sia, drew a very different picture, declaring on the onset
that throughout the whole of the Russian empire there
was not a single individual who answered to the defini-
tion of a man—one whose mind and heart and will could
bear the responsibilities laid upon him by God ! Let
them say what they might about the slaves in America,
he pointed to the far more degrading spectacle of 22
millions of white slaves in Europe, partly belonging to
the crown and partly to the nobles --whose lives were
only tolerable when they happened to be possessed by a
humane proprietor. What did they think of a country
where there was no free press, no public meetings, and
in which, as he heard, when the censor was asked to
allow the printing of the Lord's Prayer, he said he
should consider of it—the petition for daily bread im-
plying a desire for socialism, and the words "Thy king-
dom come" expressing dissatisfaction with the Czar's
good government--and in which the words "freely"
and " limits" were expunged from a book in which a
mathematician was describing some machinery ? Refer-
ring to the frighful expense and sacrifice of human
life involved in the erection of St. Petersburgh,
the city of palaces, which was to be the metropolis of
the world, by Peter the Great, he said it was the
project of a savage, of a barbarian after all ; and ob-
served that they could not forget the thousands who pe-
rished in Siberia, by the knout, the dungeon, and the
scaffold. It was asserted that Peter left a document,
laying down the plan how Turkey first, then Austria,
Prussia, France, and finally England and the whole of
Europe were to be subjugated ; and whether true or not,
it certainly seemed as if such a testament was regarded
as sacred. Discontent, however, prevailed in every
province of the empire, among every class from the serf
to the noble, yet the ever restless tide of Russia's ambi-
tion must roll on and on and on, till checked by the
waves swelling and recoiling upon herself. (Loud
cheers.) What was now the duty of England ? Not to
go to war ; but to reverse the disgraceful policy of her
Government with regard to Italy in 1848, and Hungary
at a later period ;—not to fight for houses, as they did
in the reign of George 111., for those of the Bourbons,
the Hapsburgs, and the Romillies, overlooking the little
nationalities entirely, but to insist, in all these disputes,
that constitutions shall be preserved, statutes shall be
kept, and oaths rigidly observed ; and just cease to play
into the hands of those who so unscrupulously trampled
upon the liberties and rights of their fellow-men.
(Cheers.) Though disagreeing with his exiled friends as
to the measures to be pursued, he respected the motives
of those who thought that the only path to freedom was
war, and he only hoped, in adopting this means, God
would bless them. (Cheers.)—Mr. W. R. Stevenson,

another Baptist minister, taking as his text the Greek
Church and the Mosque, gavo an interesting account of
the history of the branch of the Christian Church known
by the former appellation, and of the Mahommedan
faith, describing the tenets held by and the ceremonies
peculiar to each ; showed its bearings on the question
now so much agitated through Europe ' • and insisted
that if the two were to be judged by their fruits, and not
by the mere names, lie should prefer that exemplification
of Christianity which had been given by the followers of
Moslemism. He concluded by expressing his confidence
that as there was a God in heaven, truth and the right
must ultimately prevail. (Cheers.)—Captain Mayne
Reid, in the course of a short address, strongly ex-
pressed his sympathy with the exiled patriots, clas-ified
the Clarendon and Aberdeens among those who would
consider them rebels, and severely animadverted upon
Lord Palmerston for showing the cold shoulder to Kos-
suth when he put his foot on our shores, pointing to the
contrast between his conduct and the noble manner in
which he was received by the municipalities of the prin-
cipal towns in England.—A vote of thanks being passed
to the chairman, the ladies, and the vocalists, and a do-
nation of 51. from Captain Reid being announced, the
meeting terminated.

PROM THE LONDON GAZETTE of Y ESTERDA Y.

FOREIGN-OFFICE, Nov. 22.

The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint the
Honourable George Sulyarde Stafford Jerningham, now
Secretary to her Majesty's Embassy at Paris, to be her
Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten-
tiary to the King of Sweden and Norway.