The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-03 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROUSE OF COMMONS, Mach 2.
Mr. P. S. BUTLER and Colonel R. FERousoN took
the oaths and their seats, the former for Kilkenny,
and the latter for Kirkaldy.
Mr. MUNTZ presented a petition from the marl
and corporation of Birmingham against the window'
tax.

Mr. BRAMSTON presented a petition from °
place i❑ Essex, praying for an increase in the arrnY
and navy.

GREECE.
Mr. B. COCHRANE then rose to move, pursuant
to notice, for copies of certain dispatches which bad
passed between Sir Edmund Lyons and the Noble
Lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, re-
lative to Greece. He considered that the time at which
he brought forward this motion was most apposite fors
the purpose. It was a time when every country vIS,
asserting its rights to constitutional liberty, and it woule,
well become this nation—the first to teach the lesson"
of constitutional freedom—to demand on behalf of Greece
—which it had taken under its special protection—that
the tyranny and oppression under which the Greeks sro
now suffering should cease, so far as the remonstrances
of England could effect that object. There were Peeu•
liar circumstances which gave them the right to interfere
in the affairs of Greece, and he would briefly state tbs
position in which they stood in relation to that kingdom'
The treaty of London was signed in 1827, and it was 0°
that treaty that all the subsequent policy of the Three
Great Powers—England, France, and Russia -- "1111/
based. The treaty of London was followed by the battle
of Navarino, and it was subsequently arranged the;
an independent monarchy should be established 1°
Greece on the following conditions :—First, that a free
constitution should be granted to Greece ; and, neatthe Three Powers were to advance a sum of 2,400,000 e
to Greece as a loan; the first revenue of the Greek state
was to go for payment of interest, and a sinking fun:
was to be created. Those promises were never fulfilled,
the interest was very rarely paid, and a free constitution
was not given to that country. In the year 1844 a de-
mend was made for a constitution by the Greek nation,
and a constitution was obtained, and the Noble Viscount
at the head of Foreign Affairs could bear him (11!.'
Cochrane) out when he referred to the admirable
manner in which the Greek nation behaved on that
occasion. He could also refer to a letter addressed,
after the event had taken place, by the Earl of Aber-
deen (then Secretary for Foreign Affairs) to Sir Ed-
mund Lyons, in which he expressed the feeling of RP'
probation with which the English Government viewed
the conduct of the Greek nation. He stated that--
" Her Majesty's Government have learnt with the greatest
satisfaction, by our dispatches of the 30th ultimo, the
termination of the labours of the Constituent assembly,
and the final and solemn acceptance by the King of th°
ratification of the constitution. They have viewed with
no less satisfaction the admirable temper which appears
to have generally prevailed in the Constituent assembly
thoughout the whole of their deliberations on the deeply
interesting and important act on which they hare been
engaged. Such selt-command in a popular assembly,
convoked under very exciting and critical circumstances
is highly creditable to the Greek nation. Nor is the re-
sult of their labours, as a whole, less entitled to credit
for the general soundness of the constitutional principles
therein established." Since the constitution was gee'
ranteed he could bring the testimony of many parsecs
to prove what a miserable state that country had
been in. It appeared that outrage and torture,
had been practised there under the authority 01
the Government, and the revenue was diminishing
while the expenses were increasing. He would nose
proceed to show that this state of the country was in
perfect violation of the guarantees entered into, and that
it was the bounden duty of England to interfere—es
indeed the Noble Viscount had most nobly interfered
to do all they could do in the way of representation to
put down this infamous system.—(Hear, hear.) A paper
had been laid on the table of the House the other day,
setting forth the sums of money they had paid for that
country, and from which it appeared that in the year
1843 they paid 33,5831. 17s. Id., as the interest of the
loan; in the year 1844, 46,7841. 4s. Bd.; in 1845,
46,497/. 45.; in 1846, the same sum; and in 1847,
47,1881. 9s. 7d ; and there was repaid in 1847 by the
Greek Government, with the aid of a gentleman (f.
Eynard), who was a great lover of Greece, 23,8441.
13s. sd. He would now call attention to a communica-
tion addressed by that gentleman, who took such an
interest in that country, to M. Coletti. He says—" Now
let us come to that which is most important to Greece.
Your financial administration must absolutely be or-
ganized with greater regularity. I myself, who am so
sincerely attached to your country, cannot avow that
your public revenue should diminish every year whilst
the country has made a positive progress, and whilst
your agriculture and home and foreign commerce have
been prosperous in every way. It is therefore evident
that there have been abuses and disorders of all kinds,
which you ought absolutely to put a stop to. If you
restore order is your finances, you may easily make
your payments without injury to the prosperity of the
country." The following communicatien was from M.
Poniropoulos, Minister of Finance, in Feb., 1847 :--" I
cannot conceal from you any longer the truth. The rob-
bery of the public treasury has surpassed all measure.
and is carried on with an insane imprudence ; but is
this the fault of the Minister ? I hardly know any of
the employes out of the thousands who belong to my
department. If each steals a small portion of the re•
venue the diminution must naturally become consider
able. Things have arrived at such a pitch that it is im-
possible for the Minister of Finance to put a check to the
abuses." This same Minister boasted in the Chamber of
Deputies that he had falsified the public accounts, in
order to cheat the Three Powers out of the inte-
rest of the money advanced by them. A Com-
mission was appointed last year to inquire into the
matter, and the following was their report:—,‘ The
Commission appointed by the Chamber to examine into
the frauds committed in the corn averages, decided by a.
majority of 9 to 1 that the Minister of Finance had been
guilty of gross frauds in making out the returns; as also
of the embezzlement of vast sums of the public money
in various and specified ways, for which nets the Com-
mission recommends his impeachment before the
Senate." On another occasion three of the Ministers
were accused of drawing out much more than their pay.
When one of them was questioned in the Chamber about
the matter, all he said was, that if the extra pay drawn
was not approved of, he and his colleagues would
refund the difference. He (Mr. Cochrane) proposed
in the next place to show the tyranny and torture
that were practised in Greece, and it was almost
incredible that such a state of things could
exist. A man in Greece, named Zeno, for a long
time had been in the employment of the Government.
He had 300 light troops under his command, and amused
himself by going about the country and torturing the de-
fenceless people. A petition presented from Patras, and
authenticated by all the leading inhabitants, states :
" The members of the family Dimeoi, arrested by the
Mirarque (the Government Aker), were subjected to
the torture for three days, and all their effects sold.
Dimetri Nicalocopnlo, accused of an insignificant rob-
bery three years ago, was put to the torture, and expired
soon after. This unhappy man was denounced to the
Mirarque as having stolen a cow three years since; the
Mirarque ordered an ordeal by torture, the gene-d'armes
bound him hand and foot, threw him down and placed
enormous stones en his breast and stomach, and then
jumped upon them. In the last extremity, and in
the hope of seving his life, he pleaded guilty
but it was too late ; when the atones were
removed he died ; his young wife, who was on the
eve of her confinement, was carried to the grave a few
days afterwards." In a petition from Messenia to the
King, the following statements were contained:—" et
citizens dragged without excuse from the bosem of their
familes, and thrown into a damp and loathsome dungeon,
deploring their loss of liberty, that last worldly bless-
ing, cast themselves on your mercy. Sire, the tortures
we have undergone are unheard of and horrible; some
of us suspended by the feet, others with their legs and
arms bound are laid upon the ground, and blocks of
stone placed on their chests, their flesh torn and limbic
mutilated. . . A robbery had been committed in our
village in the month of October. On the 22d of Novetn•
ber, D. Soulis, lieutenant des garde frontieres, at the
head of a detachment of soldiers, and without any in-
struction from the magistrates, desired them to seize
eighty of us, and throw us into the cellar of a howl° of a
priest named ?apajanopulos. Not obtaining any infor-
mation, notwithstanding all the violence, some were
released, and the others conducted to their re-
spective houses, where the moat horrible tortures
were inflicted upon us during the nights of she
22d and 23d; then, not having succeeded in
making us admit ourselves guilty, we were
taken to a lonely spot named Divan, thrown down,
bound and gagged, with enormous atones heaped upon
us. When we lay at the point of death the atones were
removed, and we were set at liberty." He would trouble
the House with one instance to show what a gross vio-
lation of the constitution had taken place. The Senate
having presented an address to his Majesty, in whiosa
they expressed their horror at the state of the coueAry,
and implored him to take measures to put a stop, to it,
his Majesty refused to receive the address. Ttie King
subsequently appointed nine senators, and on this being
objected to, the Government insisted that the Chamber
of Deputies should pass a law empowering the King to
increase the number of senators to an unlimited extent.
He (Mr. Cochrane) would next call the attention of the
House to a letter addressed by the Earl of Aberdeen to
Sir E. Lyons at the period of the constitutional movement
in Greece, in which he laid down a lino of policy which he
(Mr. Cochrane) believed had been adopted and admirably
carried out by the Noble Lord at present Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. He says:—" It will of course
be of high importance that the three guaranteeing
Powers, who have hitherto acted in such perfect unison
in their proceedings with regard to Greece, should con-
tinue to preserve the same unanimity of counsel and
action is the changed circumstances which have arisen.
You will y exert
yourself to maintain that union which hasconstantl
hitherto so
happily prevailed between your colleagues and yourself ;
and you will especially impress upon them the necessity
of persevering in the honourable and correct principle
which ought to guide the Three Powers in their relations
towards Greece, and by which Great Britain, at least, is
fully resolved that her conduct shall be invariably
governed ; that is, to set aside all views of separate or
individual interest, to discourage all party distinctions,
and to look to the national welfare and prosperity of
Greece alone, as the object of our united care." lie
(Mr. Cochrane) imagined that it was scarcely necessary
for him to call for the interference of this country. He
submitted that the Noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs was justified in writing as he had done to the
Greek Government, and he did not think his dispatch
was too strong for the occasion. It was said that al-
though the Noble Lord had addressed that dispatch to a
weak Government, he would not dare write suckl
dispatch to a great power ; but the dispatch whilst, the