The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-14 00:00:00

ROBBERY AND TORTURE IN

TURKEY.

We find the subjoined from Smyrna, 19th tilt., in
the Malta Times :

" I related in my last a short account of a daring
and, ultimately, as it turns out, successful attack on
an escort in charge of a sum of money belonging to
the Turkish Government, on its way from Aidin to
Constantinople. The robbery, as then stated, would
excite little curiosity, as the ends of justice seemed
nearly all satisfactorily answered. Both the facts
and results, however, differ so widely from that state-
ment, and seem with evil so portent, that nothing less
than a full and detailed account will serve to convey
an adequate idea of them. In the first stages of the
horrible persecutions which I am now about to relate,
such wp the secrecy inculcated and observed, and
such the tendency of the stories industriously
circulated to allay or divert public curiosity,
that suspicion, though long wakeful, was nearly
lulled to repose, when suddenly it became known
that torture had been applied to two of the prisoners,
the surgeon of the Greek Hospital having been sent
for to attend one of them, who was dying under its
effects ! A thrill of horror, like an electric shock, ran
through the whole Christian community. It appears,
then, that instead of nine mule-loads of money, there
were twelve ; but the amount is the same-400,000
piastres. The attack was made, not from or close by
a kaffene guard-house, but about mid-way between
two kaffenes, an hour's distance from each other. In-
stead of a robber having been seized, and, on being
questioned, had confessed, and, in consequence of this
confession, a great part of the -gang had been
arrested, and nearly all the money found, only
one of the number has been discovered, and he
only cognisant and abetting—not present at the affair.
Of the money, only one mule-load, and that by mere
chance, the animal being found dead on the mountains ;
it appears that it had been wounded in the affray,
broken loose, and ran on till it fell dead with exhaustion.
The gang seem to have made a successful razzia of all
the rest, led them safely to the sea-coast, near Vourla,
and to have got clear away with their boot}' in two
open boats waiting there to receive them. The whole
party was composed of Turks and natives of Samos.
Of the two prisoners above alluded to, one is a
Turk who confessed not by questioning, but by
torture, that he has leagued, though not pre-
sent, with the robbers ; he is the Bollook-Bashi, or
head of the guards at one of the kaffenes. The other is a
Greek, arrested on mere suspicion, and now reported
dead. Two other Greeks are also reported to have
expired under the horrid tortures to which they were
subjected to extort a confession of what they knew
nothing. In vain they protested their ignorance ;
torment after torment was added, until death released
them from their sufferings. The torture was inflicted
as privately and secretly as possible. Every exquisite
suffering that a fiendish imagination could devise was
remorselessly inflicted. They were first bastinadoed ;
the temples were then crushed by balls of bone
pressed by a band twisted behind the head
till the eyes started from the sockets. Needles
were forced up the fingers; boiling oil poured on the
breast. If they still lived, red-hot horse-shoes were
applied to the feet, the wrists were turned, and a red
hot brass basin placed upon the naked head ! Other
atrocities were perpetrated, far too horrible to name I
Two of those who suffered most severely, confessed
all they knew, even before torture was threatened.
Against these there were some grounds of accusation.
It appeared by their own account, which is also con-
firmed by other evidence, that being at their occu-
pation on the hills, they were seen by the rob-
bers, who obliged them, on pain of death, to go
to the next village to buy provisions.. Had they
disobeyed—much less denounced—these bandits,
murder surely awaited them. More than fifty per-
sons in all have been tortured or imprisoned. Some
of them have been released. Amongst those remain-
ing are three Primates of the village of Bouja, being
held responsible for the conduct of one or two vil-
lagers who have been arrested on suspicion ; whilst
from the confession of the Bollook Bashi it appears
evident that none of these were any way concerned
in it. The various European Consuls, and such of
the respectable merchants as were known to have in-
fluence with the Governor, proceeded to the Konak to
endeavour to induce him to mitigate the severity-of
these proceedings. Their humane intentions were
however fruitless, and some of them were not even ad-
mitted to his presence. Said Pacha, the Governor, be
it known, is a most devout and rigid Mussulman. Dur-
ing the day he has a Mollah by his side reading the
Koran. Being very regular in his devotions, he always
retires from the scene of torture at the appointed
hour. He was married.to a daughter of the Sultan,
but the Princess died some time ago. Latterly he
was Governor of Aidin, where he still governs by
deputy. His cruelties there to the Greeks are said
to be of the blackest dye. At the time of the pro-
mulgation of the celebrated Hatti-Scherif of Gull-
Hane, he was one of the leading Ministers of the
Porte, and the document bears his signature.
No sooner did these shocking facts become known,
than the English residents petitioned the British
Consul to interpose all his influence and authority
in behalf of the sufferers. This example was
followed by the French residents. The only answer
Mr. Brant could make was that Said Pacha might
question his right to interfere ; that he might place
himself in a false position by attempting it ; but pro-
mised to refer the case immediately to Sir Stratford
Canning. But the frenetic rage of the Pacha has not
stopped here. His vengeance could not be glutted,
by his unheard-of cruelties to the Sultan's subjects,
he has dared to insult his master's best friend and ally
(England) by bastinadoing two Anglo-Greeks. One
of them, a farmer, he imprisoned on suspicion of
knowing something of the robbers ; the other, by trade
a butcher, was seized for selling meat at a higher rate
than that fixed by the Governor. In vain did Mr.
Brant remonstrate and claim exclusive jurisdiction
over them ; in vain he warned him of the consequences
of his refusal to give them up to him. They were both
brutally beaten.

RECOVERY OF A PERSON APPARENTLY DROWNED.
—On Saturday morning. shortly before ten o'clock, a man
named Campan, a cork-binder, while passing from a ship on
to the north quay of the London Dock, fell overboard into the
water between the vessel and the wall quay, and disappeared
under the bottom of the ship, which it was found necessary
to haul off from the berth she was in, before the drags
could be made available. This occupied some time, and
after the third drag with the grapnels, the body of the
man was recovered. He was apparently dead, and was con-
veyed in the most careful manner, with the head elevated,
to the guard-house near the western entiance, where the
admirable and complete apparatus, kept always in readi-
ness by the London Dock Company, was put .in requisition,
and Mr. Bloomfield, a surgeon, of High-street, Wapping, was
' immediately fetched. On his arrival, he found the body in a
warm bath, and friction being applied by the dock officers and
police. There were no signs of life; bnt.Mr. Bloomfield de-
termined to persevere. He inflated the lungs, and used a,
variety of other means to res'ore animation; and it was net
until three hours had elapsed that the least animation.-look
place. The surgeon and his assistants continued their mutat*
attt ntions, and they had the gratification of sewing the :',alt
Mr. Illoomfield was in attendance upon him all day.ca a_ it
was not until late on Satinday night that he P"n°4icetli lilt
patient out of danger. This is not the first
been seccess'ully treated in this dock by Mr. B
'"
may in some measure be attributed to the
texcellentorestore persons
arrange-
ments made by the London Dock Comps) ,
th 3; and warm beds are
apparently drowned, while the warm ha
always kept in readiness. pc;fi whisk
MARCH I I.—The sales
1
BRISTOL SUGAR-MARKET,
a,
it
was
natural
to
ex-
of sugar in the past weekihave.breietant'ed question relative to the
peet, very trifling. The long Agitated
probably business will be
resumed more actively. I._
duty being now
recently arrived per
privately disKtseu
et.
in the general D 2 It is currently reported that the cargo
YHeliance, from the Mauritius, has been
of for cash, and will not make its appearance
to —Bristol Merct.rv, manes
abouti to be decided,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TICE DAILY PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
CHRONICLt.—It is impossible to refuse to the Right
Honourable Baronet the:praise of great clearness in the mode
in widen he submitted his very laborious statements to the
House. It will be observed that Lord John Russell, while he
avoided giving any opinion on the extensive plans of the Right
Hon. Baronet, approved of the removal of prohibitory duties,
but thought that he. would have chosen better, had he made
the reduction on sugar instead of timber ; for every year that
we went on refusing to foreign sugar an entrance into the British
market; we should be encouraging a monopoly in the East
Indies, and interposing greater difficulties in the way of
the West Indies. We content ourselves for the present with
giving an outline of the various important changes which the
Right Hon. Baronet proposes to make. We cannot help now
observing, however, that the income-tax, though of course
small compared with that levied during the war, can only be
obtained by the inquisitorial process which rendered it then so
generally odious. We might add that objection will unques-
tionably be taken, too, on principle, to the placing incomes de-
rived from property and from professional exertions on the
same footing. But we reserve all opinions on the various
questions involved in the statement of the Right Hon. Baronet
to a future day.
TIMES.— We do not hesitate so say, that the proposals made
by Sir Robert Peel last night, and the speech in which he
' developed them, would be sufficient, if they stood alone, to
place him in the first rank of financial statesmen. They are a
complete justification of the confidence which the country has
reposed in him ; and the nation will respond to the appeal
nude to it, nut only with satisfaction, but with enthusiasm.
The emergency in which Sir Robert Peel found himself was
great; the difficulties which surrounded him were most seri-
ous. He had to provide at once for accumulated and pro..
gressive deficiency in revenue, and for an increasing expendi-
ture ; to sustain the honour of the British name and the in-
tegrity of the British empire abroad, and to relieve a distressed
population, and recruit a paralyzed commerce at home; to
reauce the pressure of taxation upon the body of the community,
and augment largely the receipts of the Exchequer,
These difficulties he has apparently overcome. In one measure
he has comprehended all these objects, and it will be a hard
task for any one who reads his masterly details, either to gainsay
bis ends, or to deny the efficiency of the means by which he
proposes to accomplish them. His measure is calculated to
provide permanently for the whole present and estimated defi-
ciency of the revenue, to. provide also for an extensive and
systematic reduction of the duties which operate as impediments
to our foreign trade, and, atter all, to leave a surplus in the
public coffers. And this without laying the weight of a man's
little finger upon the poorer classes of society. An estimated
amount of 3,775,000/. is to be raised ftom a general income tax
of sevecpence in the pound, or 21. 18s. 4d. per cent. From
this burden all incomes under 1501. a year are to be exempted,
and the interest of occupiers of land is to be rated at one-half
only, instead of three•fourths (as under the former income tax)
of the rent. In expressing our approbation of this proposal, we
do so, with respect to the principle, reserving our judgment
upon the details.
POS l'.—Sir Robert Peel was very earnest in stating the
unwillingness of the Government to increase the taxation oh
any of the comforts of the poorer classes, and in asserting his
opinion generally that taxation on articles of consumption had
already gone as far as was politic or likely to be productive.
The statement of the new revenue was received by the House
with the most eager attention, and apparently with no slight
approbation, even on the Opposition side. Assuredly, a plan
was developed which none but a Conservative Minister might
have dared to propose.. Sir R. Peel established a strong claim
to the respect and gratitude of the country, and it was recog-
nised by the unanimous cheers of the House, when, in an-
nouncing the proposed modifications of the commercial tariff,
he stated the tact that,
,of the twelve hundred distinct articles
comprehended in the present tariff of duties, every one had
undergone a separate investigation in order to ascertain the
proportion between the duty and the ordinary price of the
artic.e to which it applied:
HERALD.-Never did any Minister of the British Crown
lay before the House of Commons a fuller or plainer statement
of the finances, or propose more extensive alterations in the
fi,cal sy.tens or tariff of the country, than did Sir Robert Peel
last night. Sir Robert, in the opening remarks of a speech
which will hereafter form a model for future Chancellor's of
the Exchequer, promised the House the " unexaggerated
truth," and he fulfilled that promise to the very letter. The
country will now know the real difficulties which the Whig-
Radical Ministers left their successors to remove ; those diffi-
culties are in truth most enormous, but their full and unre-
served disclosure is, as Sir R. Peel justly remarked, the first step
towards improvement. The probable deficiency in revenue to
meet expenditure for the year ending sth April, 1842, is no
less than 2,350,0001 ; the estimated deficiency for the year
ending sth April, 1843, with existing taxes, is 2,569,0001.
How is the deficit to be met? To increase the taxes already
imposed on articles of necessity is only to augment the defi-
ciency; the result of Mr. Baring's budget of 1840 proves that
the limit of productiveness has been already passed. The im-
port duties now levied on sugar, coffee, and timber check, it is
irresistibly established, the consumption of those articles, and
seriously restrict the commercial and manufacturing energies of
the country. To find a deficiency of two millions and a half
annually, at the termination of every five years, is but to have
recourse to a series of loans, which must effect the value of
stocks, and so augment the cost of funding as often at that pro-
cess isresorted to. Economy iselearly no remedy for a deficiency so
great as exists—to save two millions annually is beyond all rational
expectation.
To raise the amount, or any sum approaching to
the amount, by the Pest-office, is not only impossible, but
would be an interference with a great moral and social experi-
ment. The revival of old taxes on various articles, or a re-
newai of the assessed taxes, would be expensive and unpopular
experiments. The difficulty of finding a new source of revenue,
which shall nut only be suffieiently productive to discharge the
deficiency, but enable the Legislature to repeal those import
duties which press su heavily on consumers and on commerce
is undoubtedly great, and the expedient resorted to by Govern:
ment is startling. Sir Robert Peel proposes a return to a certain
extent to direct taxation, and to make the basis of that taxation
property. From this tax all incomes under 1501. a year
are to be excepted. It has to be levied upon landowners,
occupiers of lands and houses, public funds and securities,
trades, and professions, and incomes from salaries in public
offices, and the amount anticipat, d to be derived therefrom is
3,771,000/. It is proposed to be co &nuoti for a period of five
years, but with power fur the Legislature to review it at the
termination of three
,y,ars. Assuming for the moment the
principle of this tax to be unobjectionable, it. will occur to
the bulk pf the community that into its details the slid-
ing scale might he advantageously introduced. and the
impost be augmented in proportion to the amount of in-
come possessed. We reserve, however, comment for here-
after. Whatever objections there may he to the plan as
a whole, that of insufficiency or inefficiency cannot be
applied to it. That plan includes the equalisation of the in-
come and revenue of the country, it provides for surplus,
whereby to remit taxes which check consumption, and so to re-
model our tariff as to lay the. foundation of new commercial
treaties with foreign states to the augmentation of our com-
merce without the sacrifice of any great domestic or colonial
interest. Sir Robert Peel was rarely beard to greater advan-
tage than last night; the house was at first startled by the
boldness of the proposition of an income tax ; but by the time
the Right Hon. Baronet rose to reply, it was evident that any
serious objections had been greatly shaken by very important
changes which Government proposed to effect through the in-
strumentality of the surplus to be obtained thereby. The whole
subject is, however, as Lord Howick remarked, far too important
for us to expresk an immediate opinion on it.
ADVERTISER.—With a boldness, for which we had not
previously given him credit, anti an ability, precision, clear-
ness, eloquence, and dignity worthy of such an important oc-
casion, Sir Peel last night laid his financial project before the
House of Commons. It affords us unwonted gratification to be
enabled conscientously to offer this tribute to a Minister whose
policy has so generally evoked our unqualified condemnation.
These is, however, one evil incident to the scheme, against
which we must in limine caution the people. It is precisely
the ineasure calculated to form the basis of an union between
the Whigs and Tories, and Sir Robert Peel is precisely the
man, by nature anti circumstances, formed to be the nucleus of
that uniona union to which, notwithstanding appearances,
the rival factions have, almost ever since the passing of the
Reform Act, been progressing by all manner of indirect ap-
proaches, urged on by an abhorrence of popular rights and po-
pular repre,entations, innate with, and innate in, both par-
ties. Sanely as a financial scheme, we generally approve
of the Premier's plan. It is but natural that Sir Robert Peel
should have more than ordinary skill in balancing a profit and
loss account, but there are fir higher attributes than those
associated with the counting-house necessary to the mart en-
truited w th the destinies of the British people in the present
lowering eiretundani es of their fate. It is in these higher re-
quisites of statesmanship that we doubt Sir Robert Peel's qua-
lifications fer his exalted position, but if in these regards he
should, den by his own slow, tortuous, and reluctant advances,
enteesta our anticipations, we shall be ready, without allusion to
the-past, to hail him as the regenerator and saviour of his
country. Our opinion of Sir R. Peel is, that urged on by the
Whigs, he will discard the Tory oligarchy, and if perseveringly,
judiciously, and firmly urged on by the people, he will become
the head of that party which we have already designated as the
Ncifion. Sir Robert Peel is essentially the man of expedi-
ency, which means nothing more than a man facile in adapting
himself to the urgency of the times. Let the people only put
on,the pressure, and they may mould the statesman of the pre..
sent day to any form they please. .
GLOBE.—We think that an annually recurring
defieiency, which they had vainly attempted to meet
by, increased taxes on consumption, ought to have led
,
the late Ministers, like the present, to bring forward
a :temporary plan of direct taxation. It may, in-
deed, be said with truth, that none but a strong
Gvernment could carry such a plan. But with equal
truth it might have been said that none but a very
strong Government could hope to carry the fiscal and
commercial changes which were then proposed. The
present Government have taken a leaf from the book
of the last, as regards these changes, and there would
have, been no harm in turning over another and bolder
leaf for their benefit by bringing forward a temporary
se)leme of direct taxation, on principles as much
bqtter than the present as Whig policy could devise.
The heads of our party not having done so, have, we
think, in a good degree disabled themselves, and indis-
posed the sober portion of their followers (amongst
whom we hope we may rank) from offering any
effective opposition to such measures as are now pro-
posed. The mode.of direct taxation adopted is not
that which we think most eligible. We wait, with
1-.nd Howick, to know what are the practical
means which Sir Robert Peel proposes to take
to levy his income tax—to arrive at an accurate know-
ledge of the amount of income on which it is to
levied: We cannot but approve of the exemption
otsinall incomes-from the levy;
dq,nger that the revenue w but we foresee the
ill lose what it ought to re-
ceive from some, and receive what it ought not to re--
c e.ve from other:.. Those who do not care for ap-
P:".mranet.s rna:i contrive to evade taxation ; and those
wls do will suffer taxation beyond the real rate of
their inocrne'• Thee objections. of detail, however,
we reserve WE we have further information.
TANDARD.—it may
.be said, and doubtless it
will be said; that an income tax is inquisitorial. This
me e pretend. No inquisition con be necessary to.
d e. t tin the income of the landholder, shareholder, or
fundh elder ; and as to profssional and commercial
men, there is not one probable income
of them whose
ie
not already"r.ullject to an inquisition far less
d'elicate, far more invidious and malicious than
that of income tax commissioners, bound to se-
cresy. . The inquisition of neighbours, creditors,
commerci4l' correspondents, and commercial, or
professional competitors—this is a9tinquisition which
we have never known any one fortunate enough to es-
cape, and it is the only inquisition that can do any one
a. mischief. We do not know what honest motive any
one can have for concealing the amount of his income.
It seems to us that the interests of all honest men are
much concerned that there should be no conceal-
rtieht ire the matter ; but the truth is, ‘:thfit no man
can or ever does conceal The amount of bid income "'