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

was offered to the British navy, by the treatment to which
the crew of the Fantome was subjected, They were told,
lorsopth that they should pass all those cases by. It did
seem!rehr:l; tliat tlioie who china to that conclusion must
have had rather a singular notion of what was tine to ,the
honour and dignity Of England. The Learned Gentleman
then went into the • details of Mr. Finlay's cars,
commentingt on the manifest injustice of refusing
convensat ion for the portions of his property
which the Greek Government hid appropriated to
their own purposes, and showing that in 1A42 Lord Aber-
deen considered he had a just claim for remuneration. The
Greek Government, after various applications on the part
of Mr. Finlay, told that gentleman to take his re-
medy, but the law of Greece did not permit of any recovery
against the King. At length they consented to have the
matter arbitrated, appointing as an arbitrator the president
of the tribunal, jest as it justice in such a reference could be
expected from a party so interested, but they held back all
the papers connected with the matter in dispute until the
legal period of the reference bad expired. In Pacitico's case
it was asked why he had not applied to the authorities for
redress. He did try the authorities. He went before the
police, pointed out certain individuals, including the sons of
the Minister of War, as having been implicated in the out-
rage, but no redress was rendered him. M. Pacifi2o coin-
plained to the King's advocate of the outrage committed
upon him, that a riotous mob broke into his house, headed by
the two sons of General Zavellos, one of the King's own
Ministers, and President of the Council ; he pointed out
the houses where his plundered property was concealed,
but they refused to search, and he was unaole to assert
for himself the rights of a Greek citizen, because he was
a Jew. The Honourable and Learned Member for Abing-

don asked, whether during the riots of Lord Geore
Gordon in 1780, if a house of a foreign Minister were attacked,
beca use he happened to be a Roman Catholic, would it be a
case for the Government of that Minister to demand redress?
Undoubtedly it would, and the case would be renSered irre-
sistible if the leader of the mob who committed the outrage
was the son of one of the Ministers of then day— (Loud cries
of " Hear. hear")—and the foreigner robbed and plundered
because he was a Roman Catholic, a circumstance as likely
to happen in those miserable times as that of the outrage on
the Jew at Athens. That undoubtedly would be a case for
foreign intervention, and that was precisely the case of M.
Pacitico.—(Cheers.) The Greek Minister, however, when
informed of the transaction, said it was a mere frolic of a
parcel of idle schoolboys, and unquestionably in his (Mr. P.
Wood's) view of the entire transaction, that House and the
country ought to feel grateful' to the Noble Lord at the head
of the. Foreign-office for taking such care of the interests
of British subjects abroad, and securing them from
a repetition of such horrible and flagrant outrages
as were committed in the present case. But then
it was said that the money taken from him was
not his own ; and how did that affect the case? The money,
no doubt, was trust money—two hundred and thirty pounds
of it were given him to build a synagogue, and 801. of his
own money. It was also alleged that he had no jewels in his
house, but witnesses deposed to their having seen them, as
well as to the costly character of the furniture destroyed, and
the Hon. Gentleman the Member for Buckinghamshire, who
delighted them in other respects by graphic descriptions, as
well as in his speeches in that House, knew well that it was
the custom of the Jews in the East to have their riches and
most valuable property secluded altogether from the public
gaze. As to the statement made that his claim on the Por-
tuguese Government was a mere pretence, he (Mr. Wood)
knew that he made his demand for that claim so early as
1845, and Sir Edmund Lyons, their former Minister at Athens,
distinctly states, in one of his dispatches, that he remem-
bered well speaking to him on the subject, and it could not
therefore be trumped up for the occasion. If they looked at
Baron Gros's statement, and, without wishing to say anything
offensive to that gentleman, he should say M. Pacifico fell
into bad hands, they would find it the most extraordinary
for one in his position that could be imagined. Ile
was sent out as a mediator, and the first thing he did in
tnat capacity was to refuse the Portuguese claim on the
evidence of the debtor.—(Loud cheers.) The most extra-
ordinary circumstance in that extraordinary case was, that
there was a gentleman sent out by the French Government
to act impartially. He refused to admit the claim on the
Portuguese Government, because he received two dispatches
from that Government denying the claim.— (Cheers and
laughter.) Next came the case which was not discussed at
all—namely, that of a poor man named Zumaika, an lonian
subject. He was at Patras, working as a blacksmith, and
being charged with committing burglary, on mere suspicions,
he was, on denying the offence, pat to the torture. They put
a heavy stone on his chest, on which two men sat, and then
the unfortunate creature had to undergo another process of
suffering of too horrible and indecent a description to
detail to the House. He made a complaint the
day after, and a mock investigation was ordered by the
Government, and a parson with the pompous name
of Chricento Fulue, a doctor, was the person who
conducted it. He inspected the man, and what was his
report? That he had suffered no external injury—that no
organic change had taken place in him, and that his injuries
were the result of an attack of rheumatism - (A laugh) —or
of his trade as a tinker. —(Laughter.) He contended that
the case, up to the present moment, had been treated of, and
discussed like a nisi pries case, and not on broad or general
principles. The case of that man underwent a secret exami-
nation, and when the British Vice-Consul remonstrated with
the physician for sending in such a report, his answer was
that he could net help it, for that the police compelled him
to do so. (Cheers.) Sir Edward Lyons stated the same
thing in one cf his dispatches, and asserted that the physi-
cian told him so. That was the state of things described
elsewhere with so much levity; and when the words
" brutal treatment" was so much cavilled at, could any
man doubt but that he was " brutally treated ?" (Hear,
hear, and cheers.) And in addition to the outrages to
which he had already called the attention of the House,
he was kept three months in prison, without any charge
ivhatever being sustained, or brought against him.
And after the refusal to do justice on the part of the Greek
Government, was it not the bounden duty of the Foreign Mi-
nister to see that these things should not be repeated? But
that was not all ; for continued insults had been offered.
lonians were imprisoned without cause—flogged at the plea-
sure of those in power— and a poor man for putting up a few
flag's was brought through the streets as a malefactor.—
(Hear, hear.) Indeed, so great were the sufferings they en-
dured, that a memorial was presented to the Consul (signed
by forty lonians in Patras) praying for redress and proiec-
tion, or they would be compelled to leave the country alto-
gether. „Then came the plunder of the lonian boats, valued
at 1,2001., and which were enticed into the Greek custom-
hrinse. fly ' brigands; and the last, the most flagrant of
all, committed on one of their owe boats belonging to
the Fantome ship, commanded by Captain Le Hardy.
The whole of these outrages were set forth in De-
cember, 1818, and the Greek Government urged not to
mistake the forbearance of England, for ample , satisfac-
tion
should be given in the end. Mr. Wyse's letter
again recapitulated them, and used almost the same language
in his letter to Mr. Londos. What could be done under
such circumstances, but to demand reparation.—(Cheers.)
Should they have gone to Russia and France and say,
that if they were in their unhappy position, they would
demand reparation. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then
read the celebrated letter of Count Nesselrode, the Russian
Minister, complaining of what the Government, in pro-
ceeding with hostilities against Greece, a kingdom indebted
to Russia and France for large sums of money advanced to
her, and proceeded. They might talk of dignity, and assert
that this letter humbled England, but it only amonnted in
his mind to this, ithat if England insisted on having the
claims of her subjects compensated, there would not be
enough left to pay their demand. We had broken that
delusion, he trusted, for ever, and shown that England
could be at once just and firm. The course adopted towards
Greece—that of stopping her trade for a short time—was
the only ono open, looking at the relative strength of the
two countries. Surely Hon. Members did not wish
that we should have a " little war" with Greece. But,
after having waited for so many years, after
having so repeatedly remonstrated with the Government, it
was n-cessary to show that there was a limit to forbearance,
and he thought the step taken at last by the Noble Lord
was the only one that could maintain the interests, the
honour, and the dignity of England, and also at the same
time maintain an honourable general peace. He had felt it
to be his duty to present this view of the case, because he
believed the public were not acquainted with it.—(Hear,
hear.) Few, indeed, could submit to the drudge' yof going
through the mass of papers in which the facts were cotla,
tained. But if any one would do so, they would find eve
statement he had made borne out by these documents. It
was one thing to make a statement having reference to a
few small details, for the purpose of making out a case of
hardship, and another to look through papers extending over
the long period of eight years, during the whole of which
period every species of evasion and of idle trifling was re-
sorted to. He had done this himself, and lie came
to the deliberate conclusion that the Noble Lord
had taken the only step that was open to him in
the matter. He came to this conclusion from no
personal feeling, because, though for many years he had
watched the course of the Noble Lord, he did not know him
personally, nor did he know that he had ever exchanged a
word with him. But this be did say, that looking to the
year 1848, when the peace of Europe was menaced to so
alarming an extent, and to the adroitness with which the
Noble Lord maintained the position and influence of England,
and at the same time conduced to the preservation of peace
iu Europe—(Cheers)—looking at that, and seeing that at all
events peace had been maintained, he could not believe but
that the Noble Lord was entitled to the admiration and the
support of the country.—(Cheers.) It was true that the
Noble Lord had been engaged in negotiations with France
and other countries, arising out of those events. But those
who deprecated the interference of the Noble Lord, spoke as
though there had been no interference elsewhere, as if France
bad not interfered at Rome ( Ministerial cheers)—Russia
in Hungary— (Cheers)—and Prussia with Denmark.—(Hear,
hear.) These were armed interferences, whereas the inter-
ference of the Noble Lord had in all cases been first solicited,
and had always been. confined to friendly meditation, with
the view of maintaining peace.—(Great laughter on the
Opposition benches.) He could understand why that state-
ment was leliculed by those who were for maintaining peace
by at all times ranging themselves on the side of absolutism
—(Ministerial cheers)—who were, as the Hon. and Learned
Member for Abingdon had said, "the party of order and not
of change." His Hon. and Learned Friend, no doubt,
thought he had made an antithesis when he used that ex-
pression, but there was little philosophy in it. He believed
that change was the only mode of maintaining order.—
(Hear.) He would ask any one who had observed the pre-
sent state of European nations, if they believed that order
could be long maintained if it was not for change. It was not
for us to stimulate that change.. Our desire was that every
nation in Furope should be as free and as happy as ourselves.
But it was well known that our power and influence were
limited to friendly advice. Whenever that was asked it was
given freely. We did not interfere against existing autho-
rities in any country, and those who opposed them knew
well that they would not receive assistance either in arms
oe money from the British Government. He must say
that
ae he
te re
sHhouunldgariahnaN:,edeputatitnt
mtrusted
more
gthreisttedcotthinattrywhtehn the
they
to the declarations made at public meet-
ingsc by persons who had no power of realising their
statements, or of giving efficient assistance, than to the
exposition of the Noble Lord's views in that House, in
which he frankly expressed his deep sympathy with that
unfortunate people, but at the same time frankly stated that
they could have no assistance from the Government. If
these gentlemen had been deceived it had not been by the
Noble Lord, or the Ministry with which he was connected,
which had strictly acted on the avowed policy of non-inter-
ference with the internal affairs of Foreign States. He well
remembered that when the Hon. Member for 13uckingliam-
shire ventured to raise a debate with regard to Italy, he was
not able to point to any act of interference which was not just!-
fled by the Noble Lord, by showing that his advice, so far
from being volunteered, had in every instance been asked.
It was requested by the Sovereigns of Rome, the Court
of Austria, and the Cabinet of Prussia. In the case
of the mediation at the instance of Austria, there
could be no doubt the Noble Lord had aided in
preventing French armies being sent to the plains
of Lombardy.—(Hear, hear.) With respect to the affair at
Athens, much had been said in depreciation of the claims of
one of the parties, because he was a Jew ; but Hon. Mem-
o bers were aware that the term Greek Thad a similar signifi-
cation for the French people. The fact was, that the
Greeks and the Jews had been trampled upon, oppressed,
and precluded from the exercise of constitutional rights, and