The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-25 00:00:00

of their amusement; they did not wish to lose their
holiday. They felt themselves, I suppose, somewhat
in the situation of English boys, who would become dis-
pleased if they were prevented from burning Guy
Fawkes. But, according to the peculiar degree
of civiliz'aion in the two countries, the English
boys would only vent their spleen by setting
IIP a shout, whereas these people, in the broad light
of day (while the Christians of Athens are at
church)—these Greeks, headed by certain young no-
blemen, one of whom was the eldest son of the Minister
of War, attack the house of an English subject, frighten
and beat his family, destroy his whole property, throw
everything they can out of the windows, and, in the
effervescence of their spite and malice, pour out oil upon
all the rich furniture that remained.—(Hear.) Now the
letters of M. Pacifico detailing these outrages are all
published in the volume before me. I have read them,
and I must say that these letters, if written by M. Pa-
cifico, prove him to be a man of education, and I should
say of honour able feelings. Ido not know him—l only
interpret him to be, from these letters which he has
Written, a man of education.—(Hear, hear.) But I care
not what he ie.—(Hoar, hear.) If he were pour and
degraded as the poorest Jew that walks and bays and
reins old clothes in London, he was born a British sub-
ject, and he had a right to demand protection from the
English power.—(Cheers.) He was assailed in that which
was his home, as dea: to him as that of the richest and
the noblest man is the land, his family dreadfully
alarmed, his children frightened almost to a state of
madness, his married daughter made seriously ill, she
having but a short time before lain in. After hearing
all these facts, am I then to be told, " Oh, they are
Jews?" Why, Sir, I think that such an expression is
a disgrace to this country.—(Cheers.) M. Pacifico asked
the Greek Government for reparation of the injury, and
li
no answer was returned. He is attacked a second time,
and then with piteous wailing he implores the power of
England to protect him. And who is this M. Pacifico?
He is a man who has been trained up after the manner
taught him by his father, and he is as much and as
honestly a Jew as we are Christians.—(Hear, hear.) I
ask you, is there not something in the position of this
man that dignifies the appeal which he made upon us?
--(Hear, hear.) If the powerful M. Rothschild were so
assailed, you not think that Europe would have arisen
in his defence? Do you not think that the indebted
depots of Europe would exclaim, " Good God! M.
Rothschild to be so treated ? "—(Laughter.) You
would then, indeed, have had well-rounded periods
and fine grammatical phrases written by the Am-
bassadors of all the great powers of Europe.
But because this man happens to be a poor Jew, who
has no money to lead, then, forsooth, he is to be treated
with insult, and all his demands for simple justice to be
turned aside. " Oh," but it is said, "he has asked too
Much." Now, the objection to his claim, you must re-
member, is not made as to its amount, but as to its prin
ciple.—(Hear, bear.) And do not let us run off with
objections as to its amount either. We have had bad
jokes, in French words, uttered in respect to one portion
of his claim. It has been called le lit conjugal. Now,
for the life of me, I cannot understand where the excel-
lence of this joke lies. In my opinion, the joke is as
pointless in its form as it is vulgar in its sentiment.--
(Hear, hear.) But, in respect to the charges made in
M. Pacifico's demand, I deny that there is any exagge-
ration in them. I took the pains of inquiring at an up-
holsterer's in London upon the subject, and I asked him
—not as to the value of the property destroyed, because
it was impossible he could tell—but I asked him whether
there was anything in the prices charged that appeared
to him to be extravagant or extraordinary; and if any
person were to say, turning round to a number of Noble
Lords, " Have any of you anything so valuable as the
furniture here described?" did he think that it would be
answered in the negative? The tradesman to whom I ad-
dressed myself immediately counted upon his fingers seve-
ral Noble Lords who had purchased property at his own
shop far more expensive; and he added, "If you
should like to go with me to see a certain drawing-room
you will see furniture of the description set down in this
account quadruple that demanded.' The House should
also recollect that this furniture that was thus destroyed
was not for M. Pacifico's own use. The fact is, that
this gentleman had bought the property for sale, and he
expected to sell it to that very Minister who afterwards
denied him redress. He bought the property; it was
destroyed by Greek assailants. I care not what the ex-
aggeration in the demands might be. The principal ob-
jection urged against his claim was, that he ought to go
to the courts—he had no right to come to this country
for redress. Now, what was the fact ? The very day
upon which the outrage took place a complaint was
made to the Greek Government. In Greece they have
a public prosecutor. It was, therefore, their business to
investigate the whole matter; and though the occurrence
took place in the broad day, upon an Easter Sunday,
and that those who were concerned in it were well
known to the the authorities byname, they declared that
they could not find out the criminal. Now what is that
but a denial of justice ? And was not this man, there-
fore, fully justified in appealing, though even he was a
Jew, to his natural protectors, the Government
of England ?—(Hear, hear.) I hope, Sir, that the
Government of England will be supported in rendering
that protection which every English subject is entitled
to demand. But lam told that there is a rule of inter-
national law which forbids such an appeal, inasmuch as
no one can expect to be placed in a better situation than
the subjects of the country in which he happens to be
residing. Sir, I deny this assertion altogether if it is
stopped here, but it was guarded by this strong condi-
tion, "under a constitutional Government." Now what
is a constitutional Government? Russia would call its
Government a most constitutional Government ; and
'what would be the consequences if an Englishman weat
to Russia? The Emperor of Russia's rule of law is that
' which pleases him. He may take one of his subjects,
and without giving any account or explanation of his ac-
tions,he might put him in a sledge, tie him neck and heels,
and send him at once to Siberia. Now, I appeal to Hon.
Members on both sides of the House, if an Englishman
were treated thus, would you permit it?—(llear, hear.)
Well, if you would not, where is your rule of law?
It is good for nothing. The truth is, the law is really,
in the proper sense of the word„ not law. Each
particular case must be governed by its circum-
stances and exigencies, and by the discretion of the
" particular authorities of the country in which it
arises. This is the rule of law that is adopted by Ame-
rica as well as England. I know of no American citizen
who would consider himself to be unprotected, even in
Russia, though he were taken as I have described by the
neck and heels and sent to Siberia. What, then, is the
rule of law? Why, according to that which has been
read the other day in total ignorance of the subject, the
rule is suppose I to be this—that the persons situated
like M. Pacifico must, of necessity, go through the courts
in pursuit of justice. Now, I say that that is not at all
necessary. If you have reason to believe that what you
deem justice cannot be obtained by following the rules
of what is called international law, you have a perfect
right to make an appeal to the Government of that
country of which you are a subject. And in the cases
which I have read to the House there are many instances,
both as regard France and the United States, in which
such appeals have been made directly contrary to the
determination of the courts of the country. Therefore,
I say that the rule laid &own in another place upon this
subject is not the rule of international law. As re-
gards, then, M. Pacifico's claim, justice has been
altogether denied him by the Greek Government. Now
what is the next argument urged in respect to this
matter ? They say, " Why, this is but one isolated
case." Are not all the cases referred to isolated
ones? Was there not an accumulation of them one over
the other, including that of the poor Jew at Athens, and
the canny Scot. Then as to the case of the Fantome; a
young gentleman twelve years of age, son of a general
officer, was on board this English vessel. He went on
labor() accompanied by the coxswain, when they were im-
mediately set upon by a gang of Greeks, who were
armed, and who wounded severely the coxswain, while
the young gentleman escaped. " Oh!" but it has been
said, "this allegation is false, from the well-known gal-
lantry of British seamen." Now what hail occurred?
Why, upon an investigation being demanded, they said
that this young gentleman was an officer belonging to
the Spitfire and not to the Fantome, thereby denying the
honourable word of an honourable young man, and de-
nying altogether their right to give any explanation or
make tiny apology in the matter. They further said
that these were two English vessels that had entered
the Grecian harbour with the intent to create an insur-
rection, and to overturn the Government, and that
several persons had been put on board these vessels
that were running away from one of the neighbouring
islands. They said that the English party had in-
vented falsehoods for the purpose of hiding the
truth. Why, if an English gentleman, representing the
English nation, did not, under such circumstances, in-
sist upon an immediate apology, he would be wholly
Unworthy to represent this countryagain.—(Hear, hear.)
I tell this House and the Government, that if we once
relax the rules by which our people are guarded in their
rights and privileges there would be no safety for Eng-
lish commerce.—( Hear. hear.) But I am told that me-
diation was offered, and now I suppose I shall be met by
favourite phrases borrowed from the Peace Society; but
if anybody hopes to preserve peace by making all the
World believe that nothing shall induce us to go to war,
these are facts which, I think, will induce them to
alter such opinion. I shall never forget the lesson read
me by the Hon. Member for the West Riding of York-
shire (Mr. Cobden) on a very particular occasion—
namely, at a peace meeting,. when he allowed his feel-
ings to get so much the better of him that he begged
Pardon of the people he was addressing, and said to them,
" though I wish you to become members of the Peace
Society, I wish to say a few words in favour of the war
in Hungary."—(Laughter.) I well understood the ge-
neral impressions of the Hon. Member. He became a
*war advocate, in spite of the Peace Society, and if he
had been a Hungarian he would assuredly have been
found amongst the band of rebels.—(ltenewed laughter.)
We are told what the mediation was that was offered.
Now, I have already quoted an instance in which France
Wes offered our mediation in 1831, and declined it. And
we very properly sent directly to make our demands
through our Minister and to get redress. Being urgei
on at lust by the necessity of the case we adopt strong
measures. The Minister who had done so was acting
under instructions, and he had no power to accept of any
mediation ; but the Noble Lord at the head of foreign
stairs havingthe power in his hands did adopt the me-
diation that was offered. He accepted of what was un-
derstood in diplomatic affairs to be the good offices of
the French Minister. Now what did that mean ? And
Zhat did Baron Gros understand by them when he
rst accepted the office of mediator ? It was perfectly
evident that he understood he was to endeavour to make
the Greek x Government yield to our demands. The
Justice or injustice as regards the principle of the claim
rag not the question. Of that we alone should be the
Judges. And hero occurred the circumstance that is
made the foundation of all those charges against
the
Noble Lord. There were many things we
complained of at this time. The loan was one
of and the question iu reference to the islands
„
Sapienza and Cervi was another. One of those