The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-18 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 18, 1850.

the neighbourhood. In consequence the police
interfered with these lonians, and commenced
taking down the flags. The lonians resisted,
and they were therefore marched to the police-office, for
violating the orders of the police. On arriving at the
police-othce it was found that it was a mere violation of
police law, and they were dismissed. The Noble Mar-
quis had talked about this as a case of torture, and of
the employment of thumbscrew:,. The two lonians were
walked through the streets, handcuffed together, the
wrist of one bound to the wrist of the other, the thumb
of one to the thumb of the other—(Hear, hear)—and
when they arrived at the office they were released.—
(Hear, hear.) Then comes this long complaint about
the insult to the British flag. It was said the British
flag had been torn down; but that turns out not to have
bean the case. The Consul wrote to the Ambassador,
and he to the Minister, and talked of the insult to the
British flag, and torture of British subjects!—(Hear.)
Just let your Lordships notice the class of persons who
are concerned. This is mentioned as a great grievance
and proof of the despotic tyranny and oppression ezer•
cised by the police against the lonian subjects of her Ma-

jest
y:--
" I have to observe t' you, that o❑ Sunday last seve-
ral lonians presented themselves to me, complaining of
the Gendarmerie soldiers, who, while going the rounds
at night, give them continual offence, as they (the
lonians) are obliged, on account of the heat and fleas,
to sleep in the streets, and the Gendarmes parade with
their arms and compel them to sleep in their houses,
otherwise they are taken up to prison, besides other
menaces "

—(Laughter). lore is a serious case of oppressionl—
(Hear). British subjects, forsooth, are exposed to the
grossest oppression because they are not permitted to sleep
like pigs in front of their doors.—(Laughter). Two of
these highly respectable persons, accord►ng to their own
statement, are found in the market place, and they are
marched by soldiers off to to the authorities, who flog
them and turn them out, It is suggested, " Would it
not be as well to examine them; they may have the
marks upon their persons." But these lonians have dis-
appeared; they are not to be found.—(Hear, hear).
They are not to appear to give evidence as to the fact of
the flogging, or the reason of it.—(llear, hear). But the
Consul, without waiting for the explanation of the
Greek authorities, considers that Lord Palmerston
should be written to.—(Hear, hear). What says Lord
Palmerston ?

"Her Majesty's Government have had under their
consideration your dispatch of the 18th ult., containing
an account of two cases in which lonian subjects have
been maltreated by the:authorities at Patras and Pyrgos,
and I have to inform you that the conduct of the Greek
authorities towards these individuals, as set forth in
your dispatch, appears to her Majesty's Government to
have been cruel and oppressive. I have therefore to in•
struct you to demand from the Greek Government, for
each of the lonians who have been maltreated;the sum
of 201., as some compensation for the unmerited ill-treat-
ment which they have undergone."
—(Laughter.) It is difficult to argue these as questions
upon which the peace of Europe is to turn.—(Cheers.)
Were these cases upon which we were to go to war, and
for which a fleet is to go to threaten a friendly Sove-
reign, end demand a certain compensation, just or un•
just?—(Hear, hear.) But these are not all. There is
the case of a highly respectable gentleman, a canny Scot
—(A laugh)—one Mr. Finlay, a gentleman who likes
to make a good bargain, and knows when he has made
it—(A laugh)—a gentleman strongly imbued with the
wisdom of the sentiment of " buying in the cheapest
and selling in the dearest market."—(Laughter.)
This gentleman at the time of the revolution thought
it would be no bad speculation to buy the pro-
perty of some Turkish gentlemen who might
find their position not very agreeable in Athens.
His speculations were not very extensive, for,
though we read of thousands of pies, a pit is some-
thing less than a square yard, and the whole subject in
dispute in his case is the price of about two-thirds of an
acre, for which he gave either 300 drachmas, or 600
drachmas; that is, either 101. or 201. The land was
taken by the Government to be enclosed in the royal
garden, and no doubt he was enitied to compensation.
His was the case of a great number of other persons,
and an ordinance was passed fixing the value of the
property at half a drachma per pit—about 4)0. per
square yard. Some parties were dissatisfied with this,
and demanded more; and some obtained more—some,
a drachma; and, at a drachms, this gentleman would
have been entitled to about 100 i. for land for which he
had given either 101. or 201.—(Hear, hear.) The demand
made by Mr. Finlay for laud which cost him 300 or 600
drachmas, I forget which, was 45,000 drachmas, or about
1,500/. for a piece of ground which cost him IW. or 20/.
That was the state of things when these proceedings
took place at Athens and the British fleet appeared to
demand reparation. In a letter addressed by Mr. Wyse
to Lord Palmerston, dated August 20, 1849, and pub-
lished in the papers presented to Parliament in Feb-
ruary last, Mr. Wyse says—" I am still without any
answer from the Greek Government to my note of the
24 of July, respecting the unsatisfied claims of Messrs.
Pacifico and Finlay, and others of her Majesty's subjects."
Not only at the period when these dispatches were laid
upon the table, but at the period when the demand was
made upon the Greek Government for reparation to
British subjects, this question of Mr. Finlay was abso-
lutely and entirely and conclusively settled by a re-
ference, according to Mr. Finlay's own desire, to two
referees, one of whom had been named by himself, the
other having been named by the Greek Government,
who were jointly to select an umpire, and by
whose decision it was agreed that the claims of
Mr. Finlay were to be settled ? What would their
Lord ships say further when he told them that at Mr. Fin-
lay's express desire the case was withdrawn from the
mediation and interference of Mr. Wyse and Baron
Gros, and that the arbiters came to an agreement with-
out the necessity of calling in an umpire, and awarded
30,000 drachmas to Mr. Finlay as compensation for his
claim? What would their Lordships say, also, when he
told them that when these papers were laid upon the
table in February the Foreign-office was in posse3sion of
that information, and withheld or suppressed it?—(Hear,
hear.) In the monta of February the Government re-
presented that the last information they bad on the sub-
ject of Mr. Finlay was that no answer bad been made
by the Greek Government respecting the claims of
Messrs. Pacifico and Finlay, while they were at the time
in possession of the letter of Mr. Finlay to Mr. Wyse
(as we understood), dated Oct. 16, and which was re-
ceived at the Foreign-office at the end of October? 7. (The
Noble Lord read a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. Fin-
lay to Mr. Wyse, stating that he had informed the Greek
Government that he had appointed a gentleman, an ad-
vocate, to act as his arbitrator in conjunction with a gen-
tleman who was to act as arbitrator for the Greek Go-
vernment, and that by the decision of these persons he
(Mr. Finlay) was willing to abide.) The effect of the
last paragraph of the correspondence upon Mr. Finlay's
claim is that subsequently to the 20th of August no
communication had taken place with the Greek Govern-
ment relative to that claim, although communications
had taken place two months later. This was tamper-
ing with the question and was a breach of faith towards
their Lordships and the country. In 1817 the master of
an English vessel called the Berwick Packet was com-
pelled by stress of weather and the damage the ship had
sustained to put into the port of Villa Nova de Portimao.
In order to defray the cost, of repairs. the vessel was
still, end the sale produced oboe!: 6001. more than Was
suffieient to cover the expenditure. The master, not
being ditposed to bring that amount in hard dollars
with him to thiscountry, thought himself exceedingly for-
tunate in being paid by a bill upon the Navy Board. The
bill, which he obtained from an accommodating gentle-
man of the Hebrew persuasion, was brought to this coun-
try, when the unfortunate captain, upon presenting it, was
immediately arrested as a forger, the acceptace turning
out to be a forgery. The law officers of the Crown
were, however, of opinion that under the circumstances
legal proceedings could not be taken here. The captain
returned to Portugal, and after a very considerable lapse
of time, he was fortunate enough to meet in Lisbon with
the individual from whom he received the forged bill.
The captain brought this person before a Portuguese
court of law, and the consequence was that, in order to
escape further judicial proceedings, he repaid the captain
the whole :meant of the bill, end thereby escaped pu-
nishment. Now, it was a singular coincidence that this
forger happened to he identical in point of name, of na-
tionality, and of religion, with Mr. David Pacifico, who
has subsequently preferred a claim upon the Greek Go-
vernment.—(Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Then, what are
the circumstances under which Mr. Pacifico made his j
claim upon the Greek Government ? It seems that the '
Athenian mob take great delight on Easter Sunday in
burning a representation of Judas Iscariot; but on Easter
Sunday, 1847, in consequence of the presence in
Athens of the Baron C. M. do Rothschild, the
Government, out of compliment to that individual, took
measures to prevent the assembling of the people. It is
clear, then, that the loss M. Pacifico sustained is trace-
able to the presence of Baron Rothschild at Athens.—
(A laugh.) If the Baron had not been at Athens, the
figure of Judas would have been burnt, and, possibly,
M, Pacifico's house would not have been plundered. An
opinion arose, however, that M. Pacifico had obtained
the discontinuance of this annual celebration, and a mob
assembled, and most indefensibly made an attack upon
M. Pacifico's house, and destroyed what furniture there
was in it, and, indeed, according to his statement, every.
thing else. The rapidity with which the mob effected
this destruction appears to have been wonderful—(A
laugh)—but no doubt they did great injury to the house,
and caused considerable alarm to M. Pacifico and his
the papers
family. It does not appear that there was any great
aotivity manifested by the Greet 'police, either in put-
ting a stop to the riot itself or in endeavouring to iden-
tifythat
thethe rioters.police
werelt seemed,deterre d indeed,
from
kfri
no from
such steps
in consequence of persons who had high connexiona
in the state being concerned in these outrages; and
that circumstance gave to M. Pacifico a fair and
reasonable claim to compensation for those injuries
which he sustained in property or person, and which
the Greek Government were unable or unwilling to pre-
vent. But M. Pacifico's bill of costs is really one which
passes credibility. M. Pacifico, who had been born of
Portuguese parents, had been consul for Portugal, and
preferred certain claims against the Government of that
country; and he complains, in one of the papers, that
the Portuguese Government not having acceded to his
reasonable demands, he was left its poverty and indi-
gence; he was unable to redeem a small amount of plate
which he had lodged with the Bank of Athens, the whole
value of that plate being only about 30/. That plate, it
seems, was deposited for the purpose of obtaining from
the bank an advance of a sum of money at a low rate of
interest, which M. Pacifico was in the habit of lending
at an usurious rate of interest to the indigent population
of Athens, and so making a profit upon borrowed capi-
tal. Now, with this view of M. Pacifico's circumstances,
your Lordships would bo prepared duly to estimate the
demand he makes for compensation to the amount of more
than 31,000/. His demand for the destruction of his furniture
and property amounts to about 4,5201., and his claims
on Portugal to 26,6181. It appears that the mob not
only destroyed all his wines, china, and glass, but they