The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-24 00:00:00

fttning

LONDON, FRIDAY MAY 24, 1850.

A more triumphant vindication of the foreign
policy of her MAJESTY'S Government in reference to
the Greek Question and the French mediation could
not by any possibility have been given than that
which was yesterday afforded in the masterly speech
addressed to the House of Commons by Viscount
PALMERSTON. Our expectations have been more than
realised ; for the candour and explicitness with
which the Foreign Secretary last evening explained
the whole of his conduct throughout those misrepre-
sented transactions conquered the hostile sentiments
instilled into a large proportion of his auditors
by the most slanderous personalities and
most rancorous vituperations. Insomuch, that on the
close of his remarks the Noble Lord was greeted from
all sides of a crowded House with prolonged accla-
mations. Even the Hon. Member for Canterbury,
one of the most inveterate, but, at the same time, one
of the most gifted of his opponents, was compelled to
acknowledge that the statement of the Foreign Mi-
nister was deserving of all eulogium. This he did,
moreover, while bantering Lord PALMERSTON on
having, " with the aid of a leviathan fleet, harpooned
his miserable minnow, the infinitesimal monarchy of
Greece." Another circumstance in the discussion which
ensued upon the Foreign Secretary's explanation is
especially deserving of notice before taking into ac-
count the purport of his arguments ; and this was a
circumstance which, while calling to mind the days
when Lord JOHN was conspicuous for the
moral audacity of his temperament, reflects the
highest honour upon him as the head of a Liberal
Government. We refer to the bold avowal of the
Prime Minister that he not only assumed to himself a
share of the responsibility incurred by these trans-
actions, but that he desired that in all fu-
ture debates upon the subject he might be
looked upon as " mainly responsible," as the chief of
the Administration. A gallant and spontaneous avowal
like this is assuredly the most significant denial of
those miserable insinuations by which the assailants
of the Foreign Secretary have endeavoured to inti-
mate the existence, or, at any rate, the possible ap-
proach of an estrangement between himself and his
Ministerial colleagues. The other members of the
Cabinet, from the Premier downwards, are too sa-
gacious not to recognise that the principal share of
their popularity is attributable to their association
with Viscount PALMERSTON.
Nothing we maintain could be more lucid or more
logical than the explanatory statement made last
evening in the Commons House of Parliament by the
Foreign Secretary. At its outset be condescended
to vindicate himself from the charge of having on
Thursday last uttered assertions at variance with
truth. "I stated, as far as I recollect" (these are
the words uttered by him yesterday) " that the
French Ambassador bad left London the day before
—that he had been charged by her MAJESTY'S Qo-
vernment with explanations to be given to the Go-
vernment of France—that one of the objects of his
return was, that he might give those explanations
himself; and I stated, also, that I hoped, as he went
armed with our views and feelings on the subject,
that nothing would arise to disturb the friendly rela-
tions which now existed." Nothing, he insisted more-
over, could authorise him then at all to
anticipate any such extraordinary proceeding
as the one which was then simultaneously
transpiring—the perusal by General LAIIITTE to
the Legislative Assembly of the letter in which he
had ordered the return of M. DROUYN DE LIHUYS,
the Ambassador. Calculating most rationally that
the conciliatory and explanatory response with which
that diplomatist had returned to Paris would prove
effectual in dissipating all the differences which had
arisen between the two countries, the Noble Lord
persisted that it would have been most mischievous,
most rash, most culpable on his part to have given
any other answer than the one he did to the inquiries
addressed to him on Thursday—any answer which
must " have nailed and fastened" upon the
French Ministry the feeling of dissatisfaction. As to
the more formidable accusation levelled against him
by the Republican Government, and reiterated with
such eager spitefulness by his personal enemies in
this country, the explanations of Lord PALMERSTON
were precisely what might have been anticipated--
clear, ready, and conclusive. We are proud to think
that we are fully justified in asserting that our argu-
ments upon this point coincide precisely with the ex-
planations of Lord PALMERSTON. He insists, for
example, upon the fact upon which we ourselves
have all along insisted, that " the functions of Baron
GROS were not suspended by any act of Mr. WYSE,
but by the act of Baron Gxos himself." He in-
sists, as we have already insisted, that the mission of the
French Plenipotentiary was dependent upon the
conduct of his good offices of mediator upon the
several claims,'ithe recognition of which had all along
been undisputed, and the maintenance of which con-
stituted the very basis of the negotiation. He insists,
as we have already insisted, that exceptions having
been suddenly made by M. Gaos to, one of the most
important of those claims, the claim of Don
PACIFICO for compensation on the destruction
of documents proving him a creditor upon
the Portuguese Government, and M. Gaos hav-
ing thereby on his own responsibility altered the
original basis of the negotiation, his mission had ipso
facto terminated, his functions were ipso facto sus-
pended. Here are the six articles constituting the
basis of our demands upon Greece; and it will be ob.
served that among them is expressly enumerated the
claim suddenly objected to by the French Plenipo-
tentiary :

tour
tom. Thl fixed amount of compensation for the
" The apology for the conduct in the-case of the Phan-
lonians who bad been maltreated at Patras and Pyrgos.
The fixed amount of compensation for the lonian boat-
men plundered in the Custom house at Salcina. The
claim for the value of Mr. Finlay's land. Compensation
for M. Pacifico's losses at Athens, and compensation for
any losses he may have sustained by the destruction of
his documents."
Seeing that M. Gaos had perversely interfered
with the last-mentioned stipulation* and recognizing
in that circumstance the fact that the offices of French
mediation had not by his own act, but by the act of
the French Plenipotentiary himself, been brought
to an abrupt termination, the Bridal Am-
bassador, after making every reasonable sug-
gestion and every possible delay, so as
to prevent,if practicable, the recurrence to such
extremities,
h reluctantly but decisively
resume
had at length
d coercive measures against the Greek
Government. In proceeding thus, Mr. Wyss

had only acted (according to the express
declaration made by Lord PALMICRSTON
last evening in the House of Commons) in obedience
to the instructions addressed to him on the 25th of
March from the Foreign-office of the British Go-
vernment. Hence, after this explicit and conclusive
vindication of his policy, it is anything
but matter of surprise to find Lord PAL-.
MERSTON protesting that the French Ministry in
this affair has arrived at most erroneous conclusions,

and has altogether mistaken the feeling and the con-
duct of Great Britain in these trausActions. In testi-