The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-31 00:00:00

tion apprised Sir Stratford Canning, on the hof
October, that her Majesty's Government unhesita-
tingly complied with this request of the Sublime
Porte ; that tiey will immediately enter into 0,111:
municatiou with the French Government, in ()roe;
to concert a common course of proceeding; and
with a view to guard against possible accidee._
instructions will at once be sent to Admiral Sl'
William Parker tc go with his squadron to the Dar'
danells, to be ready to go up to Constantinople upon
the application of the Sultan, to assist in defending
the Turkish capital or territory from attack. I 0
Lord
fact, orders for these instructions were sent by Lor
Palmerston the same day to the Lords Conainisa-
sioners of the Admiralty. At the same timeor
L
Palmerston conveyed the sentiments and wishes of
her Majesty's Government on the subject, throng'
Lord Bloomfield, to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg',
and through Viscount Ponsonby to the Cabinet 01
Vienna, in a despatch, from which I :iterallY
extract the following :
"If there is one rule which more than an other
has been observed in modern times by- all indePen,
dent States, both great and small, of the civilisea,
world, it is the rule not to deliver up political
refugees. The laws of hospitality, the dictates of
humanity, the general feelings of mankind forbid
such surrenders; and any independent govern'
ment which by its own free will were to make
such a surrender would be deservedly and univer
sally stigmatised as degraded and dishonoured."
These measures and instructions were comnini"
cated. to the French Government, which entirelY,
concurred in them, and, already on the 11th a
October, the Marquis of Normanby reported to
Lord Palmerston that instructions wore sent to the.
French squadron, which was then at the islands er
Hyeres, to proceed towards Smryna, and to 1311
itself in communication with Sir William Parker'
The English and French Governments having thus
energetically supported the Sublime Porte in resist-
ing the not less inhuman than insolent demand of
Austria and Russia, the result was that these two
Governments desisted from their demand. of extra-
dition.
With this precedent thus established, the
ciples of international law regarding the subject of
extradition of political refugees, thus clearly and
emphatically asserted, and thus energetically main'
tained, both by the English and French Govern'
ments, it is to be legitimately expected that, true
to their own antecedents, these Governments will,
with equal determination and energy, maintain
the principles of international law and the rights
of humanity, so outrageously violated in the per"
son of Count Ladislaus Teleki, both by the Aus•
trian Government, in demanding his extradition,
and by the Saxon Government in acceding to it.
In fact, Lord Palmerston having himself declared
that any Government which were to make such
surrender " would be deservedly and universally
stigmatised as degraded and dishonoured ;" I can'
not see how, consistently with her honour and dig"
nity, England could continue to remain in friendly
diplomatic intercourse with any Government
branded with the stigma of that degradation and
dishonour.
True it is Lord Palmerston, in declaring the non'
extradition of political refugees to be a rule mills
vernally acknowledged throughout the civilised
world, added the pnaviso, " unless a State is bound
Ito extradition by the positive obligations of
treaty." But well did his lordship remark, in
addition, that such treaty engagements are fee',
if indeed any sach exist." (Despatches to Lords
Bloomfield and Ponsonby, Oct. 6. 1849.)
In fact, whet stipulations may from time to time
be concocted in secret between Hapsburgs, Boor'
bons, and others like them, of course nobody call
toll. But secret stipulations contrary to the general
feelings of mankind, to the dictates of humanity',
and to the acknowledged principles of international
law, can have no public value whatever ; neither
dare any of such conspirators against the rights of
humanity appeal publicly to such secret stipulations
in support of the extradition of political refugees,
while as to public treaties stipulating for such
extraditions, I dare assert, without fear of contra'
diction, that no such treaty exists in modern time°
—not one.
Hence it is that Wheaton, having with diligence
inquired into all the existing treaties respecting the
subject of extradition, lays down the following al
an incontested principle in his "Elements of Inter'
national Law" (Part 11., chap. 2, sixth edition,
1855) :—" In the negotiation of treaties stipulating
for the extradition of persons accused or convicted
of specified crimes, certain rules are generally fol-
lowed. The principles of these rules are that e
state should never authorise the extradition of
persons accused or convicted of political crimes-
Treaties of extradition do not apply to political
offences."
In reality the gross outrage on the rights of,
humanity of which the governments of Austria anu,
Saxony stand convicted by the universal opinion 01-
the civilised world—the first for demanding the
extradition of Count Ladislaus Teleki, and the
second for basely submitting to the lawless inhumen
demand—l say this gross outrage on the rights 01
humanity, instead of being extenuated, reoeives
only an additional aggravation from the futility of
the plea which in defiance of facts and of common
sense, they dare to put up.
It is said in the official organs of Austrian bra'
tality and of Saxon dishonour that the Saxon Go'
vernment was bound to surrender Count Ladislaus
Teleki to Austria,-Ist, in consequence of ito
federal obligations established by the Federal Diet
of Germany; 2d, because a special treaty exist%
between Austria and Saxony stipulating for the
extradition of criminals, concluded on the 28th No-
vember, 1854, and published by a ministerial decree
January 10, 1855,
Now, that strange antiquated compound of human
nonsense called the Federal Diet of Germany mat
have passed, and may pass, most astounding regu-
lations with regard to their own subjects, but Count
Ladislaus Teleki is not a subject of the Germanic
Confederation : he is a Hungarian,and every school-
boy throughout Europe knows that Hungary nei-
ther does nor ever did form part of the Germanic
Confederation. And as to the treaty of extradition
of 1854, it is a base absolute falsehood to pretend
that there is a single word in that treaty which by
any strained interpretation could—l will not say
justify—but in the slightest degree extenuate, the
base offence of either demanding or accomplishing
the extradition of Count Ladislaus Teleki.
In the case of 1849 above cited, there was at
least an ambiguous expression in an ancient treaty',
the treaty of Belgrade of 1739, which, exhumed
from amongst the dust of the past, Austria could
set up as a pretext to serve her truculent purposee.
The eighteenth article of that treaty contains the
stipulation that " henceforward it shall be unlit's.
ful to afford asylum to rebellious and discontented
subjects." Nevertheless, Lord Palmerston, true to
the humane principles of modern international lavr,
"it would be a strained interpretation of
categorically rejected that plea, with the declara-
tion that
that article to construe it to apply to the officers and
soldiers of the Hungarian armies who have been
for the constitutional rights of Hungary
against
the armies of Austria and Russia." But in
fighting
the case of Count Ladislaus Teleki, not one word
of any treaty, whether ancient or modern, can be
invoked to serve as a pretext.
Saxony, to use the very words of the English
Government, is " deservedly and universally stig-
matised as degraded and dishonoured ;" but what
shall we say of Austria, which not only accepted but
demanded, nay ordered,that extradition—demanded
and ordered it after 11 years had passed over the
graves of the noblest and best patriots of Hungary
whom she had basely and cowardly murdered,
and over the heads of thousands whom she drove
into exile, or left to languish in her loathsome
dungeons, for defending the rights of their coun-
try ; after 11 years she still recurs to her ven-
geance, and that too at the very moment when
trembling on the very verge of the abyss of just
retribution she would fain make the world believe
that, repentant of her past crimes, she means to
restore to Hungary those same constitutional
rights.

-But we may trust that she will not be allowed to
trample with impunity on the rights of humanity;
that she will not be allowed to disregard the
indignation of the civilised world, to which her
existence is both a nuisance and a disgrace.
I have reason to believe that the Emperor of the
French has already caused an earnest remon-
strance to be addressed to the Austrian Government
on the subject; and I trust that the English
Government, true to its own antecedents, will not
be found behindhand in asserting the force of those
principles which, eleven years ago, England wag
the first to declare and foremost to maintain.
LOUIS KOSSUTH.

THE POPULARITY OF THE NAVY.—A corres-
pondent informs us that the eastern division of the Channel
fleet shows the following list of desertions :—Trafalgar
169 ; Edgar, 146; Algiers, 89 : Diadem, 110 ;—a Boyers
reckoning, which shows that there are causes for desertion
more tempting than the inducements to remain, or that the
deserters were irrational blackguards, who to their offence
superadded ignorance their or'n, interests.--. 4170 and
Arat'y aagfttC,