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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
AUSTEIAN PIRACY : THE SICHEL CASE . An American missionary preaching in Athens is subject to iasult and outrage upon his rights and dignity as an American citizen .: an English merchant is travelling in Austria , and is subject to the most extravagant personal indignity . Lord Clarendon sends a " spirited note" to Vienna , the American government send 3 a frigate to Athens .
This is not the first occasion on which we have had to draw the contrast . About the time when Mr . Mather and other English subjects were liable to imprisonment and personal injury , an American gentleman in Home was placed under arrest ; and not only was an apology instantly extorted , but the officer who inflicted the injury was punished . In Mr . Mather ' s case , a long and feeble negotiation on the part of our Government added to the indignity upon the nation . The Mather affair was only a part of a series
continued down to the present day ; nor are persons bearing an English name , from a Peer to a maid servant , free from systematic annoyance and insult . But this case of Mr . Sichel is perhaps the most flagrant that has yet occurred . Travelling from Turin to Milan , Mr . Sichel reaches the Austrian frontier ; other passengers are permitted to pass , but he is detained to give an account of himself . He is summoned "before the major in command of the military post , and examined at six o'clock in the morning . Standing with his fingers between the buttons of his that his attitude is not f
waistcoat , he is told suficiently respectful , and his hand is knocked away . His cross-examination ends in his being sent to prison in Milan ; there he is stripped to the skin in the presence of two corporals , and his clothes are searched . He is confined for twentyone days in a room with another prisoner , an Italian . For some time he is prevented from writing to any one ; but at length he obtains leave to forward notes to his father , to the Consul-General at Venice , and to the British Ambassador at Vienna ; he is released , and then Lord Clarendon sends a " spirited note . "
Lord Brougham drew the attention of the Peers , the other night , to the American expedition against Cuba , confessing that the Government at Washington had behaved as it ought to have done towards the pirates who undertook that expedition ; but he made this allusion in preface to another , —the still worse piracy of the Spanish Government at Cuba , which professes to suppress the slave-trade under treaty stipulait
tions with England , and really connives at . It is said that English influences incline to support Spain against America in the possession of Cuba ; England siding with the worst of the two piratical parties . But towards Austria , who executes the part of land-pirates upon English subjects—who makes Englishmen stand and deliver—subjects them to imprisonment although not making even a charge against them—with that Austria our Government is " on the most
friendly relations . ' It is not only that Mr . Sichel is attacked , but it is notorious that the Government of Austria systematically persecutes English subjects ; nevertheless , the friendly relations continue unbroken . With the Italians indeed , when they follow the copy of our Hampilen , and struggle for their liberty , our Government has no relations . If a iVlazzini does so much as speculate
on tho possibility of effecting for Italy what Hampdcn did for ' England , the English Ministry Avill help tho police of Austria in defeating him , keeping npy upon him , seizing him , und delivering him up to punishment . Tho free-born Englishman actually shares tho unjust prison of tho Italian and tho Hungarian ; for Mr . Siehel found a fellow prisoner in an J talian , nnd Mr . Harwood . thccorreHpondcntof the Morning Chronicle , was in prison with a . Hungarian ; nevertheless thoGoverninentof these wronged and imprisoned Englishmen sides against their fellow prisoners and with tho tyrant .
Whon our police wero led , in a wild-goose ohase , to discover hoiiio non-existent , treachery of Kossuth ' s , —whon the police had got thoroughly ontanglod in the pursuit , and the Homo Ollico , following in tho wake- of tho Times , was supporting Sir Itiehard M ' ayno , and sharing witneHHOB with that iournal ,- ^ -whon our Government , in fact , had boon drilled into playing tho Bpy and Rmularme for Austria , tho Attorney-Uoneral , Nftmer , and tho Police Lieutenant
Goldheim , returned to Berlin , and announced that they had succeeded in discovering the Kossuth stores of arms , at Rotherhithe . This premature announcement of theirs made us aware who it was that had led our police and Government into the unwarrantable , because unreasonable , police machinations against Kossuth . But it is remarkable that we should thus find the Prussian police instigating the English police in a mission for Austrian purposes . This triple fact makes us understand the announcement in
the papers , that a police machinery exists , embracing Germany , France , Austria , Italy , and Sicily , furnished with descriptions of all the most dangerous persons , and an index expurgatorium of individuals , judged by their acquaintance . Whatever our Government may do , it is certain that a considerable number of Englishmen sympathise with the efforts of foreign patriots , sometimes call upon foreign patriots , or aid them in their difficulty . Men of this sort are to be found all over England , from Newcastle to Bristoland woe to them if they travel . The
, most straightforward , constitutional , and peaceful of Englishmen will be as much persecuted as if he were a fugitive swindler . Let John Bright travel in Austrian territory at his peril ; the combined police of Europe have his name down , as the vindicator of man's liberty , without regard to race ; and if he should be seized , like Siehel , why Lord Clarendon will write a " spirited note , " to save the custom of thi 3 country , or , perhaps , some polite secretary will offer to get for him , from the Austrian Government , a paltry
paymoney . . . The English people , however , enjoy this kind of Government ; they are not ashamed of it , or they would cease to tolerate it . If our Government renders itself a department of the Austrian European police , it is with the sufferance of the English people . And when gentlemen like Mr . Sichel get into trouble , they may reflect that it is their own doing , with the instrumentality of their own police , under the sanction of their own Home Office , at the instigation of their own Foreign Office .
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PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST . Christianity is promised the accession of two new provinces of great extent—European Turkey and Asiatic China—for two great military commanders are subserving the cause of Christianity . By the instrumentality of Prince MenzschikofF , Russia is working to exalt the Christian against the Turk , Already various treaties and stipulalations give Russia the right of intervention ; she has secured the protectorate of Moldavia in times past , the Moldavians being Christian ; she has acquired by treaty the right to protect a certain
chapel in Constantinople ; moreover , she has a large army in Bessarabia , and a fleet , numerous though shaky in its timbers , on the waters of tho Black Sea . Furthermore , she has had her agents spread in all parts of Turkey , sowing a report that the Turks intended to massacre all their Christians . Now , the Christian is taught patience and charity ; yet tho mere suspicion on tho minds of a barbarous population , that they were on the point of being cut to pioees by persons bo atrocious as to turn their faeos towards Mecca in praying , and to date their era from " the Flight , " was enough to arouso tho moat passive . And it is to be understood that by these means—that is , by little provisions lurking
unobserved in treaties , and by reports and intrigues among the living populace , Jtussia has acquired a very strong footing in 'Vuvkey . She claims to have that power consolidated and recognized by the admission that she is the protector and head of tho Christian population in the Turkish dominions , which would establish her relation to Turkey , as thai , of an extraneous Pope governing tho nonconformist subjects of the bultan ; only it would be a Pope distinguished above all foreign potentates by the possession of a huge army , and a systematic territorial aggrandisement , within tho century . Whatever the means , tho high probability is , that European Turkey will he added to the Christian ntate 8 , with tho Emperor as "defender of the faith . "
China will constitute- n still moro illustrious accession . A rebellion linn boon going on for two or three yearn , but latel y tho chief rebel has learned to boast of very high sanction . One of the proclamations from Iub commanders , which has most recently arrived in this country , profesaea to act under tho authority of the Old an < l
New Testament , under the authority of Shang-To and Jesus Christ ; and verily " Yang , the Eastern King , and Seaou , the Western Kins-, in their joint proclamation , have thoroughly caught the manner of an orthodox church militant . In this presentment , the E mperor , a Mantchoo slave , " a " perpetual enemy of our Chinese race , " becomes " a Tartar fiend , and he is declared to be " in rebellion against Heaven . The Chinese are congratulated upon having been born in the present day , when they are " permitted to witness the glory of God , " through the victory of the rebels . " For , " says the proclaish fiends to resist
mation , " how can imp expect the majesty of Heaven ? " The authors of this proclamation come not as peace , but as a sword ; for they announce that they " are seizing the priests of the temple of Buddah and Taou , and killing them ; " and they call upon " the rich" to contribute towards the speculation . They are therefore in full enjoyment of the triple function of a church militant—preaching the word , smiting the infidel hip and thigh , and taxing the faithful . "It is not without reason , then , that the Times announces this movement with strong , though qualified approval , as something which it would have been very awkward for British arms to aid the Emperor de facto in quashing .
" We learn , too , from independent sources , that certain religious views have undoubtedly been manifested in the proceedings of the insurgents . They have displayed considerable zeal in the purification of temp les , and liave been particularly earnest in destroying images —a resolution which is hardly traceable to any political principle , inasmuch as the idol-worship of the Chinese is not connected with the reigning dynasty , but prevailed long before the Tartar invasion . Whether these of the national
measures import merely a reformation religion , or whether they really bespeak a design of substituting a purer faith for the creed of the Chinese , we cannot say . All we see is , that a successful pretender to the Imperial throne of China has actually addressed an appeal to the Chinese in the name of true religion , and has called upon them , in a proclamation reciting certain leading truths of Christianity , to ' reject corrupt spirits and worship the Tuve Spieit . ' "
The " true spirit ! " It is tho Times that so calls this new propagation of the gospel in foreign parts , illustrated as it is by the conduct of the Chinese generals . If we had made any such remark , we should be accused of Antichristian purposes ; if we were to say the Christianity of China is , in spirit and practice , like the Christianity that governs the Italians just now , or like the Christianity which allies itself with Austria , we should be called censorious ; but the Times , which is the orthodox and representative journal of all the people in England , ought to know best .
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A PUBLIC MINISTRY OF COSTUME . Thebe are many reasons which lend interest to the science of Hat-moving . Possibly , the principle may be discovered which dictates tho importance that the Austrians attach to that capital institution . Great influences are reciprocal , and if a circle of conspirators can move a " wideawake , " what influences may not that wide-awake possess ; what ideas may it not convey from tho head of one man to another P All Conservative States have felt this deference for the different articles of dress as a means of preserving authority and virtue in the community .
In Home eases the rationale is obvious . A judge of tlie Middlesex Sessions , supported by another judicial authority at Bristol , has set his face against ladies' side pockets , and has declined to allow tho expenses of ladies wearing those proscribed conveniences , who appear a ^ s prosecutors of persons stealing from thoir pockets . But here the rationale is intelligible : aa tradesmen must not expose goods for tho temptation of tho passengers , ho ladies , it is argued , must not have their purses in accessible
places . It is evident that these magmtratcH consider the fault , to lie with the victim rather than the thief . They are commencing a , ( ; odo which in to prohibit persons from being robbed , and to punish them , lest they fall into that evil course . It would render that part of our code Jiuito consistent with another bearing upon the omalo part of the community ; for we do not wee why it nhould not be « h criminal in n woman to lose her purse aH her virtue ; but tho utilitarian magistrate has treated tho question in tho con .
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THE LEADER . [ Saturday ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 28, 1853, page 518, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1988/page/14/
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