The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-10 00:00:00

GREECE.

Mr. JAMES MACGREGOR said that he wished to
call the attention of the house to the state of Greece.
The noble lord stated a few days ago that the state of
Greece was such that a person was safe in no part of it
for 24 hours, except on the road between Athens and the
Piraeus. So far as his private information went, the
statement of the noble lord was assented to by the whole
population of Greece, except in one particular, where he
►mentioned that the distance between Athens and the
Piraeus was three miles, it being in reality five miles.
The state of Greece had been brought before the Pleni-
potentiaries at Paris, for he found in the protocol of the
22d of April the following important reference to it :--
" Count Walewski says that it is desirable that the pleni-
potentiaries, before they separate, should interchange their
ideas o❑ different subjects which require to be settled, and
which it might be advantageous to take up in order to pre-
vent fresh complications. Although specially assembled
for settling the Eastern question, the congress, according
to the first plenipotentiary of France, might reproach it-
self for not having taken advantage of the circumstance
which brings together the representatives of tho principal
powers of Europe, to clear up certain questions, to lay
down certain principles, to express intentions—in fine, to
make certain declarations, always and solely with the view
of insuring the future tranquillity of the world, by dispel-
ling the clouds which are still looming on the political
horizon before they become menacing.
" It cannot be denied,he says, that Greece is in an abnor-
mal state. The anarchy to which that country was a prey
has compelled France and England to send troops to the
Piraeus at a time when their armies, nevertheless, did not
want ovupation. The congress knows in what state Greece
was ; neither is it ignorant that that in which it now is is
far from being satisfactory. Would it not therefore be
advantageous that the powers represented in the congress
should manifest the wish to see the three protecting courts
take into serious consideration the deplorable situation of
the kingdom which they had created, and devise means to
make provision for it ?
" Count Walewski does not doubt that the Earl of Cla-
rendon will join with him in declaring that the two Ge.
vernments await with impatience the time when they
shall b 3 at liberty to terminate an occupation to which
nevertheless they are unable without the most serious in-
convenience to put an end, so long as real modifications
shall not be introduced into the state of things in Greece."
It should be remembered that the protecting Powers had
created the kingdom of Greece, they had guaranteed
its independence, and they had also guaranteed a
loan of money, on account of which there was now
a large annual charge on the Consolidated Fund.
The monarch whom these powers bad placed on the
throne expended on his civil list one-twelfth of the whole
revenue of the kingdom, and the state of the country
was such as to call on the protesting powers to come to
some decision as to the mode in which it was to be go-
verned. He (Mr. J. M'Gregor) admitted the principle
laid down by Sir R. Peel, that we ought not to interfere
with a friendly power ; but could Greece be called
friendly when England and France bad been obliged to
send their troops to the Piraeus, and when she was openly
raising men to act against their ally ? The country was
in a most disorderly state; in a short space of time there
had been 18 executions for murder in Athens alone, and
he thought he was entitled to ask the noble lord whether
it Wai intended to take advantage of present circum-
stances to bring about a more satisfactory state of things
in Greece ?
After the hon. member for Sandwich had resumed his
seat,

Mr. N'AIAHON rose, and said he wished to know
from the noble lord whether the recent amnesty would
extend to those gentlemen who had fled to Ameriea with-
out trial, and to the poor men who had been transported
to Bermuda for an attack on the police barrack at Port-
land ?

Mr. GLADSTONE said he wished to call the atten-
tion of the house to the position in which they were
likely to be placed by this licentious use of the privileges
of members. (Hear.) Between a question whether a
certain judge of the court of requests had gone away
about his practice and left the jury waiting, and a ques-
tion as to the extent cf a❑ act of amnesty, his hon. friend
the member for sandwich interposed one of the gravest
and most important questions of European politics. His
hon. friend bad read a passage from a protocol, and said
it would appear that the conferences had met to decide
on the government of the world ; but it did not seem to
strike the hon. gentleman that he might very justly be
said to seem to consider that the motion for the adjourn-
ment was made to enable him to get up a discussion
on the government of the world. (" Hear, bear,"
and laughter.) The condition and the prosperity
of the Aingdom of Greece involved grave questions,
which ought not to be introduced in such a hap-
hazard and rambling way, and he hoped that it was not
the intention of his noble friend to give any answer to
the question on this occasion. He (Mr. Gladstone) was
one of those who took a great interest in the fortunes of
Vie kingdom of Greece, and on a proper opportunity he
could state facts which would considerably modify the
views of his hon. friend. At present he only wished to
recall attention to what common sense and a regard for
order demanded.

Mr. SPOONER thought that the right hon, gentle-
man had dealt rather hardly with his hon. friend, al-
though he quite agreed with him that a practice was
growing up which ought to be checked. (Elear, hear.)
His hon. friend had peculiar sources of information as to
the condition of Greece, and his anxiety was shared by
many connected with that kingdom ; and the only ob-
ject of the question was to ascertain whether the atten-
tion of the noble lord had been directed to its present
state.

THE PENSION TO LORD DALHOUSIE.

Sir E. PERRY would not have trespassed on the
house after what had fallen from the right lion. member
for Oxford University, but that the matter to which he
was about to refer would be decided next week. He
wished to know whether the attention of the right hon.
the President of the Board of Control had been called to
the resolution of the Court of Directors granting a pen-
sion of 5,0001. a year to the Marquis of Dalhousie, and
to the legality of the grant. It appeared to him that the
East India Company had no power to make such a grant.
Under the provision of Mr. Pitt's act, passed in the last
century, they could not grant any pension to a servant ex-
ceeding 3001. a year without the consent of the Board of
Control, and he apprehended there was no subsequent act
which would empower them to grant a pension of 5,0001
to one not a servant of the company. By the act of 1833
their revenues and territorial possassions were vested in
the Crown, and they clearly had no right to make a grant
from those revenues without the consent of the Crown.
The act of 33 Geo. 111. enabled the company in its trading
capacity to make certain grants, but as it had lost its cha-
racter of a trading company that act no longer applied. Ten
years ago, when the Court of Directors granted an an-
nuity of 5,000/. to Lord Hardinge, it was sanctioned by
an act of Parliament ; but even that was no precedent
for the present case, as his lordship was then a servant
of the company. Laying aside the question of legality,
he wished to call the attention of the house to the consti-
tutional propriety of granting such pensions. Parliament
had fixed the salary of the Governor-General at 240,000
rupees —about 26,000/. a year. If that was not enough,
let it be increased. Lord Dalhousie might have been a
most excellent Governor-General, but be protested against
a course which might in a few years fill the Cabinet with
pensioners of the Court of Directors. It was very possible
that in a year or two some cabinet might have to decide
on the powers of the Court of Directors, and the people
of India could have no confidence in the decision of a
cabinet which counted among its members four or five
of their pensioners. He begged to ask the President of
the Board of Control whether his attention had been
called to the legality of the power claimed by the
East India Company to confer annuities out of the re-
venues of India o❑ persons not in the service of the
East India Company ; and whether, under the present
constitution of the home government of India, such an-
nuities, in the opinion of the President, ought to be
granted without the sanction of Parliament?

Mr. V. SMITH said his hon. and learned friend bad
claimed exemption from the general rule against such
desultory motions, on the ground that something final
was to be done next week, but he would soon cut that
ground from under his feet • it was true, the Court of
Directors had passed a resolution granting a pension to
Lord Dalhousie, but that resolution should by law be
submitted to two Courts of proprietors—the second of
whom would not be held until Wednesday week, after
the house bad met again, and the grant must then be
submitted to Parliament • so that the hon. and learned
gentleman's excuse for bringing on the subject at such
an inconvenient time entirely failed. (Hear.) The hon.
and learned gentleman had raised a legal question ; of
course, if he (Mr. V. Smith) felt any doubt he would
refer the subject to the law officers of the Crown, but at
that moment he must decline to enter into the grounds