Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-12-02
IMPERIAL GODS,
A Possible Anglo American Diplomatic
Fuss.
baltimore Sum Mnrseilles Letler.

Baltimore Sun Marseilles Letter.
At the hotel here this morning at
tention was called to two gentlemen
vigorouslydebating the legal and moral
question Of what constitutes an
4" American citizen" | have heard
this question more than once angrily
debated nearer home, and the same re-
suit arrived at as by these two indi-
yiduals here. | learn hal the ques-
ton was mooted by a fierce little man
of dark complexion and oily airs, who
speaksneither Anglo Saxon nor Anglo
American, yet who claims Justify to be
a subject of "The Stars and Stripes. y
And this is the story on which the
question grew, and may grow higher
and higher, like the green brier out of
the 'bussum' of Lord Lowell, so cele-
brated in song. "Major" A 2. di
Cesnola, brother of the general and
an American consul at Cyprus, who
has dug himself into fame by excavat-
ing antiquities in this historic-politic
and diplomatic island, has been the
first to appear before a British com
mission court, at Larnaca, for this A.
that he did, without due law, license,
permit, or liberty granted to him by
her sovereign majesty Queen Victoria,
or her commission at Larnaca, dig,
excavate and carry away certain an
tique remains belonging to the domain
of her said Majesty Queen Victoria,
all of which is a misdemeanOr and
high crime, not only as regarded
by the new broom of British
law, but by the old Turkish code.
Thus in the Konak at Larnaca, some
three weeks ago, sat Colonel White, OF
the First British royals, as legal dis
trict commissioner and assessor, in
company with a Cadi, a Christian mag
nate and some Mussulman legal lights
of the MedDlis Daavi, who collectively
formed a court of trial, and before this
grand array of gifted beings appeared
the Major" aforesaid, tearing testi-
mony a pezzi, says my informant, Al
officer of Sir Garnet Wolsely's staff
acting as chief of police, was the pros
e%cuting attorney, and his witnesses
were Levantines and Greeks, with
swearing capacity equal to any tina
" My Uncle Toby" described the Eng
fish in or out Of Flanders to possess
though the Greek Archimandeth wa
present and looked unutterable things
as | am told. These three Leyantine
swore "roundly and well that on,
Lari or Lazari, an agent of the SAT-
Major, had engaged their service
to dig-in fact, to go it root-hog-or
die style-after antiquities, and tina
they did so in company with som
fifty or sixty other laborers worthy O
their hire in the region Of Ankomi
where much treasure-trove was game,
and taken to the house of the major
Americana or " Melikenman," an,
some in the house of one Panarghi
if | am correct in translating m.
informant. A good deal of stron
swearing went to show, or indicate
that the Major had come to tn
"diggins," had seen and had conquere
the curiosity and cupidity of the dig
gers. To this the charge of the new
broom brigade of law the gallar
major responded in fluent Italian
FIRST claiming that he was an Amer
. can citizen, and protesting, in the pow
er of that glorious privilege, hat I'll
2 tribunal was a mockery and a sham
a certain extent, and in the rude Ems
fish translation / am compelled
t adopt from the rapid flow of Franc,
Italian information on my ear. ii
3 denied the right of the arrest, the er
2 try of his domicile, his national cast.
and the sequestration of his curios
7 ties purchased and collected. He, {
t all the evidence of truth, said what h
collected and dug for was collecte
l and dug for when Britannia did n,
r rule in the Cyprian regions, and thi
, he dug and collected, obtained an
purchased these treasures according
the custom then prevailing a car.
} blanche instead Of a black "frman.
That under the most constrained col
| conception of this court of tri
} these collections could only b
t proved to be for an English societ
9 and therefore no wrong was done un,
= her sovereign majesty the Queen
t England and Empress of Cyprus.
The court, animated, perhaps infl
e enced by some " j pensieri s%tretti,"
e my informant classically puts it, rath,
d pooh-poohed the majors" logic
: defense, and mulcted him in the il
t glorious sum of fifteen dollars, besid0
confscating all the heather gods al
o goddesses, teapots and caddies of Il
e industrious collector. L give th
s story as heard it, shorn of the irr
pressible informer's poetic fame
and as neal the facts as his excit,
imagery and language will allow in
e translation, knowing the while tn
e nothing but a bishop improves by tn
n process. For the sake of scienti.
discovery, if there be any for t
sake Of art, and there is much; for t
d cause Of international comfy a
y amity, | hope chs will not add to t
le fame some noble countrymen Of on
d native and adopted, and particular
le the latter. in this white city of NJ;
lie settles, are 50 anxious to fan into a "
between England and America.
n Chinese tea did it once, why not {
II prian antiquities now? The sum a
: battle of life is made up of trif.
Now, We learned diplomats, on wi
the fray, the foe is there and m
the mother of the Graoes smile
your results.
"Sic to diva potens Cypri,
v Sic lratrcs Helene, lucidia sidora!"
if such a dual quotation from two a
10 thors may be permitted.
Hiheruoffon Of VpIIOvv FQver