The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-27 00:00:00

THE CASE OF THE BRITISrt SUFFERERS
AT GREYTO WE.

The foPowing temperate statement respecting
the bombardment of Greytown, signed by all the
British subjects now resident at Greytown, sufferers
in consequence of the lx)mb,rdment of that town
by the Government of the United Stites, has just
reached this country, having been forwarded to
Lord Clarendon by Captain Erskine, the officer
there in command of- the British I et. It will he
read with much interest, and, we trust, also with
universal s3mpathy :
"Greyto.n, Mosqnit,,, Mb February, 1857.
" TO. THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF CLARENDON, HER
DIAJr:STY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR
FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

" slay it pl, as your Lordship,—We, the sub-cribers,
British subjects, presently reel& nt in Greytown, take
the liberty of addressing your lordship in reference
to that disastrous and well-known catastrophe of
the 13th July, 1854, when, in a time of pro-
found t,eace, and without any provocation whatever on
our part, C-iptain Hollins, of the 'Matted Stat s corvette
Cyaue, atter making unavailingly a fictitious claim and
utterly tif,ju-t demand upon the community of this city
to an amount in money also, which, at the time, it
would have been utterly impossible for it to have fur-
iished, proceeded to bombard our homesteads, our ware-
houses, and shops ; and then, not satisfied with the mis-
chief thus wrought us, gave orders to his men to proceed
systematically fro., house to house, from one end of the
town to the other, setting them on fire, to the utter
destruction of our shelter, our clothing, our furniture, our
mtrchairdise, and everything moveable we possessed
and this, too, in the middle of the most inclement month
of this climate, when the forest that closely environs

this town has become an impassaLle marsh. Toe mere
statement of so sudden and awful a ctlantity bef.lling,
under such cirbumstance4, an entire community ; the
knowledge that toe aged, the women, the children,
the sick, were, within a portion of an hour, driven

forth shelterless, amid the tropical torrents which cha-
racerise that month, appears to us to render entirely
superfluous and misplaced any attempt to describe, not
only the sufferings thus occasioned to the inhalntants,
but the atrocity also of those who caused them. We
are aware, moreover, that this frightful act has become
known throughout Christendom; and that on every
occasion on which reterencs has been made to it in
public prints or public addresses, in America as well as
in Europe, such reference has unanimously been made
in terms of the severest reprobation and the strongest
disgust. We should be at a loss, therefore, to conceive
why the representations we have formerly been con-
strained, by the ~eplorable straits to which most of us bave
been reduced, to address to your lordship have hitherto
remained fruitless, were it not that we are well aware,
not only of the gigantic efforts our country and the allies
had to exert to bring the late war to a successful con-
clusion, but that since that fortflnate event affairs bath in
Europe and America have been so situated ; international
questions of such deep import have arisen for discussion
as to have called for the exercise of the mental energies
of your lordship, and all other statesmen in distinguished
position, in a degree almost unprecedented. But now
that peace again prevails in Europe, and a solution of
those international questions bas happily been attained,
the time appears propitious for our again venturing to
recall to your lordship's consideration the afflicting pre-
dicament to which we were reduced—from no fault of ours

—by he atrocious act of an officer of the United States,
and in which, during the last two years and a-half and
more, we and our families hava remained struggling and
elmost despairing. It is in this view, your lordship,
that we once wore entreat you to take into considera-
tion the great and long-endured hardships of our case,
and to procure us such relief and redress as to your lord.
ship may appear most Euitable."
Together with the above, there has also reached.
our hands a copy of the following extraordinary
lett,r, which, indeed, furnisht s a key to the whole
of this mysterious and biutal affair. Mr. J. L.
White was the agent at New York of the Nicara-
gua Transit Line. The tenor of the le-Ler shows
the intimate terms on wh•ch he was placed with
Mr. Marcy, or with Mr. Dobbin, the Secretary at
War. Fur unless such intimacy existed, how could.
he have known tie secret instructions given to Cap-
tam Hollins, of the Cyane. Tile le ter is ad-
dreseed to Mr. Fab-ns, now under trial in New
York for being a fi ibustt r—but then the repreienta-
tive, at Grey own, of the Unitr_dSta es. The letter
also shows .11- intimacy home en 'hese two worthies;
out the most shocking deduc ion to he drawn from
the letter is the conclusion that the destruction of
the town was deliberately planned by the Govern-
!! cut at Washingt n, and that Captain Hollins,
being "all right," was cent, not to demand either
red, ess or apology, but to destroy the town, for cer-
tain political purpoSes, which have since developed
themselves in the filibustering expedition of Wal-
ker. The italics are Mr. White's own introduc-
tion

" Office of the New York and California
Steamship Line via Nicaragua,
No. 5, Bowling-green, New York, June 16, 1854.
"Dear Sir,— Coptkidu if lius leaves here next Mon-
day. You will see Crum his initructicns that much dis-
cretion is given to you, and it is to be hoped that it will
tie so .xercised as not to show any mercy to the town
or people. If the scounortli are si.undly punished,
we can take posscs4on and build it up as a business
place, put in our own ewers, transfer the jurisdiction,
and you know the rest. It is of the last importance that
the peuple of the t )wn should be taught to tear us.
Punishment will teach then ; after which you must
agree with them as to the oranisntion of a new Govern-
ment, and the officers of it Everything now depends on
you and 11.,11n5. The latter is all right. He fully un-
derstands the outrage, and will not hesitate in enforcing
,-paration. I hope to hear from you that all is right.—
Yours, &c. "J. L. WHITE.
"J. W. Fabens,

It is generally believed that if our Government
were to pr,s,, in a proper spirit, for redress to the
British sufferers t y th!s outrage, the demand would
be supported by all the respectable classes in
America, who a, e deep!y sensible of the disgrace
thus cast upon them.—Liverpool