The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-22 00:00:00

GREECE.

Letters from Malta of the 13th state that the resti-
tution of Sapienza has formed no part of the condi-
tions under discussion between the British and
Greek Governments ; and that it is untrue that the
British marines have taken possession of Sapienza
and Cervi.

The Corfu Gazette of the sth publishes the fol-
lowing letter from the Lord High Commissioner of
the lonian Islands to the President of the Senate :

"Highness,—The uneasiness naturally caused here by
the present interruption of the friendly relations exist-
ing hitherto between her Britannic Majesty's Govern-
ment and that of his Majesty the King of Greece, and
the charges openly preferred against her Majesty's
Minister at Athens and Vice-Admiral Sir W. Parker, of
hiving provoked the rupture by the precipitation
and dictatorial character of their demands, induce
me to communicate to the Senate a statement published
by her Majesty's Minister, Mr. Wyse, which places the
course :adopted by him, aad the nature of the matters in
dispute, in the clearest possible light. By this your
Highness will perceive that the claims preferred by
her Majesty in behalf of British and lonian citizens,
who bare thrown themselves upon her protection
are of very old standing, and have been repeatedly urged
upon the attention of the Greek Government, which has
either denied justice, or left the official applications made
to it without a reply. The whole of the cases
now at issue were recapitulated in a note addressed
to the Greek Government by Sir E. Lyons, on the
6th December, 1848 ; and that note again referred to
matters, many of which were included in the warning
given by him so far back as May, :847, not to mis-
construe the forbearance shown by her Majesty, or to
imagine that she was not determied to enforce the
justice due to her subjects for wrongs and outrages
sustained, if that justice were further withheld.' I
need not point out to your Highness the fact, that
the right of Great Britain to take the course which
she has taken is incontestable. Greece is independent,
but not irresponsible; indeed, it is because she is inde-
pendent that she is responsible for injuries inflicted upon
the subjects of other independent powers. Of these in-
juries the power that sustains them must judge; and
the Queen of England is no more bound by the
opinion of the law officers of the Greek Crown,
in sustaining what she considers to be the just rights
of her subjects, than France was bound, some years ago,
by the opinion of Mexican law officere, as to the
equity of the indemnity for wrongs, said to have been sus-
tained by French citizens, which she claimed and en-
forced. The time has now arrived when remonstraeasee
having been carried to the utmost .extent, and justice
being still refused, her Majesty has been compelled
to have recourse to other means. Those means
are recapitulated by Mr. Wyse in the documents
which I have the honour to enclose. They have been
carried out with the utmost desire, on the part of
Sir William Parker and the officers under his com-
mand, to avoid irritaion, or effusion of blood; but
measures at first restricted to Government property
have now been extended to Greek property engaged in
trade, an embargo being laid upon all Greek merchant-
vessels which will be detained by her Majesty's ships,
until a settlement can bo effected of the matters in
dispute. Your Highness will perceive that there is
nothing in this question to affect the territorial in-
tegrity of Greece. The claim pie ftrred by her Majesty
is a pecuniary claim ; and I b: hey° that there would
be no difficulty in submitting the details of that claim
to arbitration, provided proper provision were made
for the amount. It is the refusal of his Hel-
lenic Majesty's Government to enterain it in
any shape—and the assertion that they alone are the
jaeges of its equity—that have.coropelled her Majesty's
Minister and Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker to
resort to measures, the necessity of which they regret.
But the case is ono of those in which a community must
suffer for the faults of its Government, because it is only
by these means that the Government can be coerced.
I hope that the evil will not be of long duration ;
and I believe that I am authorised in assuring your
Highness that so soon as the responsibility of
the Greek Government is acknowledged, and proper
provision made for the payment of such demands as
shall be shown to be justly due, commerce will be re-
lieved from its present restrictions, and the whole of the
property now seined restored. I have only to add, as
a proof of the caution with which her Majesty's Mi-
nister at Athens, and Vice-Admiral Sir William
Parker have proceeded, that although a note ad-
dressed to the Greek Government eleven years ago
by Sir Edmund Lyons upon the subject of the islands
of Cervi and Sapienza, was left unanswered and un-
noticed till the month of December last, when it was ge-
nerally understood that her Majesty's Government was
about to take measures for bringing this matter to a
close, the question has not been included in the claims
now preferred, facts having been stated in the note of
Mr. Glarakis, which it was thought desirable to submit to
the consideration of her Majesty's confidential advisers,
before any step was taken to enforce a claim, which can
only be interesting to her Majesty, in virtue of the obli-
gation contracted by the Crown of England, under the
treaty of Paris, to maintain the integrity of the lonian
States.—l have the honour to be your Highness's most
obedient humble servant. " 11. G. WARD.

" His Highness the President of Senate, &c., Corfu."
The same journal publishes the following letter from
Sir Thomas Wyse to the British Counsul at Patras

" On board her Majesty's ship Queen.
" Salamis Bay, 26th January, 1850.
"Sir,—Various incorrect accounts have been pro-
pagated with respect to the proceedings adopted by
Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, Commander-in-
Chief of her Majesty's naval forces in the Mediter-
ranean, and me, in obedience to the instruction
of her Majesty's Government, for the purpose of
inducing th• Greek Government to settle the long-pend-
ing claims for losses and outrages inflicted in Greece on
British and lonian subjects. It is therefore necessary to
furnish you with a correct account of them up to the
present moment, and you will find this in the accom-
panying paper, which you are at liberty to make
generally known, together with the contents of this letter.
You will be careful to make it clearly understood,
that the claims, of which we demand the settlement,
affect, exclusively, the rights and interests of individuals
to whom her Britannic Majesty's Government is bound
to afford protection; that the patience and forbearance
of her Majesty's Government during so many years
have had no other effect upon the Greek Government
than to cause it to treat with neglect and indifference
the repeated and urgent remonstrances, and warn-
ings addressed to it :—that the demands of her
Majesty's Government do not, in the slightest degree,
affect the independence of Greece, of which her Ma-
jesty's Government is, and ever will be, the effective
protector: but that, on the contrary, they are exclu-
sively limited to the enforcement of that just and
proper treatment, which is due by one Sovereign
state to the subjects of another. No Government
has a greater interest in the tranquillity and pros-
perity of Greec• than that of her Britannic Majesty,
and by no one more than by Vice-Admiral Sir William
Parker, and me, twill any evil be lamented which may
result to the country, from the persistence of its Go-
vernment in refusing to redress the wrongs and in-
juries, for the reparation of which her Majesty's
Government has for so many years ineffectually ap-
plied. No stronger proof of this can be given thai.i the
extreme care which was taken by me to avoid, to
the last moment, giving any publicity to the instructions
I had received. You will point out the opportunity
thus afforded to the Greek Government for settling
the questions, without its ever becoming public that
coercive measures had been in contemplation ; the
very mild nature of the mcsiures at first resorted
to, the slow degrees by which we have pro-
ceeded, and the extreme reluctance with which we
have at last resorted to measures affecting Greek com-
merce. It will cause us the greatest pain to be com-
pelled to have recourse to still more stringent measures;
but it must be evident to every one that the Greek
Government is alone responsible for consequences
which it is in its power at once to obviate,
by complying with a just and simple demand.
Our present demands do not include the treaty engage-
ments relative to the regular payment of the interest on
the allied loan of sixty millions of francs, nor do they re-
fer in any way to the islands of Cervi and Sapienza.—l
have, &c.,

(Signed) " T. WYSE.
" T.. Wood, ZVI" lI.M. COLISUI, Patras."

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Feb. 21.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the
WoolFack at Five o'clock.
SLAVE TRADE.

The Bishop of OXFORD moved for the appointment
of a Select Committee to consider the best method to be
adopted for the extinction of the slave trade.

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT ABBREVIATION BILL.
This Bill passed through Committee.
WAR MEDALS.

The Duke of RICHMOND rose, pursuant to notice,
to call the attention of the House to the awards of
medals for actions by sea and land, from 1794 to 1814,
in pursuance of the general orders of the Admiralty and
Horse Guards. He rejoiced that medals had been given
in many cases to which he had drawn their Lordships'
attention. It might be invidious to draw distinctions
between cases in which medals had been awarded, and
those in which they had not been awarded; but he
thought that in all cases in which the thanks of Parliament
bad been voted them, medals should be awarded. Sir
James Gordon had been rightly rewarded with a gold
medal for his services in the Actmon frigate, but why had
not the men who fought at Washington and Bladenbargh
also had a medal? The men who had captured Sc. Se-
bastian had received a medal, but those who fought at
Sebastiano and at the Bidessoa, for the purpose of cover-
ing the attack, were equally entitled to a medal, but had
received none. He hoped his Noble Friend opposite would
revise the list, and would advise her Majesty to award
medals where medals were deserved. He was rejoiced
to hear that it was probable that justice would at length
be done to the medical officers. In 1744 thanks were
•oted for operations in the West Indies—no medal.
The Noble Earl then rapidly read a list of
actions, including the capture of the Dutch squadron,
the;teking of Monte Video, the taking of Copenhagen, the
Basque Roads actions, the taking of the Mauritius, and
of Java, in which no medals had been given.) He
asked upon what principle medals had been refu,ed
for those actions, while they had been awarded
in other cases? He thought some inquiry ought to
be instituted before a committee of officers into these
cues. He asked if it was the intention of the Govern-
ment to take these cases into consideration?

Earl GREY said that it was not the intention of the
Government to make any further award of medals.
He considered the subject was one which it would
bo most inconvenient to discuss in that House. Nothing
could be more inconvenient than that the Government of
the present day should be called upon to review the de-
cision with regard to the distribution of honours of a
Government which existed half a century ago. With
regard to the distribution of army medals, the
Government had been guided by the recommendation of
the Noble Duke at the head of the army. It was con-
sidered that the expedition to Egypt fairly came within
the rules laid down by the Noble Duke, and therefore
medals bad been awarded for that service, but he
believed that the Noble Duke agreed with him that no
further award should take place.
The Duke of WELLINGTON said that several ap-
plications had been made out of doors, and in both
Houses of Parliament, for an award of medals to the
army engaged in the Peninsula, which it was said
had not received the same honours as the
army engaged in Flanders, in China, and in the East
Indies and elsewhere. He had been consulted on the
matter, and he had advised the adoption of a plan
which he thought would meet the wishes of the
applicants and those of his Noble Friend, and
which would gratify all parties, which was to
grant medals to all those engaged in actions in the Pe-
ninsula in which medals had been previously granted,
by order of the Sovereign, to the principal officers en-
gaged in those actions. That aas the principle which he
had adopted, and he believed that it had given satisfaction.
It was a matter for her Majesty to decide whether or
not this list should be extended. When he should rs-
ceive her Majesty's orders to prepare an order for the
extension of the list, he would exert himself to pre-
pare such extended list to the best of his ability.
Lord COLCHESTER regretted that there eas to be
no further grant of medals tor actions.
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY thought that
by increasing the number of medals they were
decreasing their value, until at length a medal
would boa; valueless as the star of a
continental order of knighthood. He regretted
to find that the Noble Duke (Richmond) was still press-
ing for an additional distribution of medals, and ho hoped
that it was the last time they would hear of the subject.
The Duke of RICHMOND, being of opinion that
he had justice on his side, would not promise
his Noble Friend that he would not again men-
tion the subject ; on the contrary, he would press it
forward. He had quitted the army, but he had not
quitted it until all charm for foreign service was over,
and until he had been seriously wounded, and
then he bad preferred quitting it to putting
his claims at the Horse Guards to the detriment of those
who lad perhaps seen more service than he had.—
(Cheers.) All honours proceeded nominally from the
Crown, but really from the Ministers, and the present
Ministry had, much to their credit, overthrown antiquated
prejudices, and grantel the Peninsular medals. He
could not agree with the Noble Duke, that the present
distribution had given general satisfaction to the army.
He complained of the manner in which the Mint had
executed the medals, and of the delay which had taken
place in their distribution.
The Ma-quis of LONDONDERRY expressed his re-
gret that the Noble Duke who had just sat down had
ever quitted the army.
After a few words from Earl Grey, the Duke cf Wel-
lington, and the Duke of Richmond, the subject dropped