The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC .JOURNALS

It is not a fortnight since we pressed upon
Ministers the sacred obligations of interest, hu-
manity, and honour, by which they were bound
to inflict upom Ibrahim Pacha the most exem-
plary chastisement, in default of obtaining ample
and satisfactory atonement for his recent cruelty
to the Greek people. When the seizure, the
forcible deportation, and sale of Greek women
and children for slaves, by that ruffian, were
alluded to on the former occasion in Parliament,
the Ministerial answer was, that orders hail been
issued to prevent such outrages against the
people of Greece—that is, to prevent an evil,
hie'', in spite of our preventive measures, had
actually been carried to its consummation. To
Sir Robert Wilson's inquiry on the same subject,
last Thursday evening, nearly the same reply was
given—to wit, that orders had been long ago
sent out, and were still in full force, to resist any
efibrt of Ibrahim Pacha towards executing the
atrocious threat, that he would carry away into
bondage as many as he could lay hands •n, of
the Greek inhabitants Of the Moroa, and
fill up the vacuum by Arabs. Now there
is no doubt whatever that the Greek na-
tion, which had accepted the terms held forth
to Greece and Turkey severally, by the Allied
Powers, were under the protection of those
Powers, and of England as one of them, at the
moment when so many thousands of the Chris-
tian women and children of that country (Mr.
Peel says hundreds, but his business was to pal-
Mate the fact, when he could not deny the prin-
ciple, and we believe his fact to be wrong) re-
ceived this brutal treatment. If the Greeks
were wards of England,—and if not, she would
keve had no right to protect them from ill usage
by the Pacha,—it was no less her duty to repair
their pereonal wrongs, than to prevent theta. In
the case of British subjects, the Kiog ':Govern-
ment would of course adopt it easu t oprevent
by force, if force were requisite, at .:njtry from
being offered to their properties or persons. But
if the wrong could not be averted, it could at
least be redressed. Punishment is the re-
medy for the failure of prevention, and the
same principle which justified or called for
au order to Ibrahim Paella, by England to ab-
stain from doing violence to the Greeks, conferred
Lipon her the right, and imposed the obligation
of exacting atonement, or inflicting chastisement
for his contempt of the injunction. When,
however, Mr. Peel was required by Sir Robert
Wilson to inform the House what measures had
been taken by the King's Government or its
Allies, to relieve from bondage the miserable
Greek slaves thus torn from the wing of this
country, an,s wlien the same point was pressed
le/ Air James Alecintosh in another form, the
answer, if it deserves the name, was this—" That
he was not aware of its Lseing altogether possible
to go that length,"—vie., to obtain the restora-
tion to their country of our stolenc fettered, and
degraded friends and fellow-Christian`, " that
if they had been met at sea, they might have
been rescued from the Turks ; but, unfortu-
nately, these slaves had been landed in Egypt,
and sold in the public market—they Were
probably divided, and had become private
property." Yes—" unfortunate" is it indeed
:for the wretched Greeks, if, through such
evasions, they are to be unmercifully aban-
doned ; and trebly unfortunate for English clia-
sacter and honour, if language like this—the
lost shameful ever heard in Parliament--be to.

lerated by the Representatives of the people
4 Private property," forsooth ! Away with such
gotical pretences. How can the sale of stolen
goods be rendered valid between man and man,
or the of kidnapped Christians be pleaded be-
.

f< re a race of Christian men, in bar of their title
to redemption ? What notions of " property"
are they that float through the brain of a Secre-
tary of State for England,—a systematic re-
firmer of our laws,—when he talks of " pri-
vate property" thus founded in piracy, treachery,
and abomination ? In the case of English sub-
jects, would it he endured in Mr. Peel to tell
the country, that if our fellow-citizens had been
met at sea, they might have been stopped ; but
now they had been divided, sold, and become

the bondsmen of masters who themselves were
slaves ? if the. Paella divided the Greek Allies

of England from each other, let him issue a
mandate tore-assemble them : if he sold them,

let him redeem them—let him, the wrong -doer,

air the injury. He can do it by a nod. Let
not The innocent victim be insulted as well as
sacrificed, and told, that had his suffering been

ncomplete, relief might possibly have been
afforded hire ; but being consummate and im-
measurable, he Ws no avenger. 'We fed this
matter deeply, because it is not alone a question
of redress or lasting Ynk.ery for the Greeks, but
cf lasting shame or glory h;i: the British nation.
If Eagland threatened Ibrahim, :ibe is bound to

punish him : iE the tendered pra,?ction to
Greece, ate is bound to repair the injuries
-,-;hich she failed to avert. Every captive Greek
hag as much a right to freedom, under the de-
clara.aon of England to Ibrahim, as Greece
herself has to independence under the Duke of

protocol and Mr. Canning's t.r.,3aty.

—Times.

'The petition vesented on Tuesday evening
by Vlr. James Grattan, soliciting from Parlia-
ment the introduction of poor laws into Ireland,

crave rise to an earnest conflict of opinion among
the members connected by birth .cr office with

that country. The mode in which the .F.nglish
poor laws are administered, and the system of
almost indiscriminate provision for all classes of
paupers—not merely for the aged, the infant,
and the sick, but for the sound and £trong, the
idle or industrious,—into which the old imlicy
.of the reign of Elizabeth has degenerated, have
rased against the poor laws, as a whole, a rooted
ilrejudice throughout the wealthier orders in
both „countries, which can only be just when
directed against their obvious abuses. The.
inarifold ramifications and extensions given by,
modern Parlionent and magistrates to the poor
laws, have created, it is certain, a considerable
portion of those habits among the labouring class
._wh7,e4 lead to pauperism ; and have therefore sup-
plied, in an equal ratio, nowishment to the dis-
easePon which they
c were dmigned to operate.
hut this superindueement of hull, 4.4 complexity
non the system goes no further fo ind:cate an
excess of legislation for the ElTEsii
than the absence of all care for age,.,/nfancy, or
sickness—of nil funds for their relietand of
torg.:mized means for their management, prow:.'s
an utter; arid we must add a barbarous, defect of
law, justice, and humanity, in countries
zuous to England. When Irish gentlemen gx,
up to' tell Parliament that the whole rental 41
England will not do more than cuffieeto give
sustenance to her paupers, the exaggeratton be-
comes ridiculous in speaking of an island which
exports annually to Great Britain 2,000,000
.quarters of corn. When such language, moreover,
4.'s made use of, gentlemen must rater to the effect