POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY.
The House of Commons was engaged for several hours last night in listening to questions and answers upon matters arising out of the war.
Sir Jourr WALSH suggestively asked whether steam-power would be applied to the conveyance of infantry, cavalry, and artillery to the East F- Sir JAMES GRAHAM replied by stating what Government has done- !' We have despatched to Turkey, since the 9th of February last, 830 of- ficers, 21,119 men, and 2259 horses ; we have, in addition to that, sent 2800 tons of provisions and commissariat stores, and also 3000 tons of ordnance-, stores. To effect this, we have employed 92 transports,—about 27 steamers, and about 76 sailing-vessels,—of which 70 are horse transports. Con- sidering the distance to which these forces have been conveyed in the short time which I have mentioned, and that they have been conveyed within reach of the work to be accomplished, I am confident that at no former period in the history of this country has an operation of the same nature been performed." Lord DUDLEY STUART renewed the catechizing of Ministers on the subject of the unopposed removal of the Russian garrisons from the Cir- cassian coast. Sir JAMES GB ku M answered, that on the 16th March the British war-steamer Sampson, commanded by Captain Jones, obserVed five small steamers on the Circassian coast, but could not overhaul them, as they were close in-shore. He overhauled a transport carrying troops, the officers of which tendered their 'swords; Captain Jones rightly judged that his instructions—transmitted before the declaration of war— did not permit him to interfere with the passage of a Russian transport from the coast of Circassia, which is Russian territory, to Sebastopol, a Russian fort. He would produce the despatch of Captain Jones, so that the House might see the accounts given by their own officers, in which, of course, they could place confidence, and compare them with the Russian accounts, with which they are entirely at variance."
In answer to Lord DUDLEY STUART, Lord Jonie RUSSELL stated that Austrian troops do not yet occupy Servia, nor have arrangements been made for such occupation. Without the consent of the Porte, Austria will not occupy Servia except in two events—the entry of Russian troops, or a general Servian insurrection.
Mr. DIGBY SEYMOUR drew the attention of the Seeretary at War to the statements of the Times correspondent regarding the alleged defective ar- rangements for the British troops at Gallipoli; and Mr. SIDNEY HER- BERT, in reply, made a statement of what had been done by Government, similar to the Duke of Newcastle's explanation in the House of Lords. He read an extract from a note written by Sir John Burgoyne, stating that instead of ten minutes, as alleged, he had given four days to the in- spection of the isthmus of Gallipoli.
Mr. COBDEN, with a formal motion of the usual adjournment till Mon- day, asked for information regarding the Christian insurrection in Turkey, and our relations with the Court of Athens. He enlarged on the atro- cities committed by the Bashi-bozouks ;:the expulsion of the Greeks from Constantinople, which he compared to the edict of Nantes. The Greeks, born subjects of the Porte, but naturalized subjects of Greece, Russia, England, or Austria, carry on almost the whole trade of Turkey ; deal- ing with Glasgow and Manchester to the amount of say 3,000,000/. a year : these Greeks have been expelled, and this concerns English in- terests. Mr. BRIGHT also enlarged upon this matter, and fixed the blame of the proceeding upon Lord Stratford ; who would have protested against it had he not been plunged chin-deep in the disturbance.
Mr. LAYARD subsequently intervened, provoked to correct the total misconceptions of the previous speakers respecting the treatment of Chris- tians and the evasive " naturalization" of Greeks ; but still pressing upon Government his old retrospective complaints. Replying to-Mr. Cobden, Lord JOHN RUSSELL said, that all the despatches he has received show that the Greek Government have been most active in fomenting the insur- rection ; that with respect to the expulsion of the Greeks, the Sultan had an undoubted right to expel them, but that he had not communicated his reasons for so doing to her Majesty's Government. He exposed the edict of Nantes parallel—the expulsion of French subjects from their own land, merely for religious opinions, is no parallel to the exclusion of the sub- jects of a foreign prince actively fomenting insurrection and invasion. Lord John admitted that great atrocities have been committed both by the Turkish irregulars and the insurgents : "but this is one of the con- sequences that was to be foreseen from the ambitious attempts of the Emperor of Russia,"—an ambition for which there is scarcely one apolo- gist except Mr. Cobden. The Government hope shortly to lay before Parliament papers relating to the insurrection of the Greek Christians in Turkey, and explanatory of our present relations with the Court at Athens.
Mr. MILNER GIBSON, in a tone strongly vindicatory of the Emperor Nicholas, asked whether Government would not issue 'orders for allowing a ship, the Anne M'Allister, having Sir Hamilton Seymour's property on board, and now threatened with seizure by British cruisers as "trading with the enemy," to return home unmolested ?
Sir JAMES GRAHAM said he was able to impart some consolation to Mr. Gibson with regard to " the unhappy Anne lEttllister." She cleared at Cronstadt last November, but put back from stress of weather. She had nothing therefore to apprehend on account of having no licence, and might pass unmolested through the blockading squadrons. Of course we cannot control the Emperor of Russia. The goods of Sir Hamilton Sey- mour were not on board that ship, but on shore. With respect to li- cences, he objected to them as opening a door to hazardous abuses ; and he hoped that neither England nor France would introduce them.
In reply to another question from Mr. GIBSON, Sir JAMES GRAHAM said, that the order of the French Government, giving immunity to Rus- sian vessels leaving Russian ports in the Baltic or White Sea before the 15th May, and the corresponding order of the British Government, was the result of a policy favourable to their own subjects who had entered into contracts with Russian subjects before war was declared. The Rus- sian Government has met our concessions by a corresponding order.
Some other Members took part in a desultory talk upon most of the subjects that had come before the House.
Lord Joan RUSSELL announced that Lord Palmerston would bring in a bill to amend the law relating to the Militia. Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, in reply to Colonel BLAIR, also stated Lord Palmerston's intention to intro- duce a bill to enable him to enrol the Scotch Militia.
In reply to Mr. WALPOLE, Lord Joan RUSSELL stated that Govern- ment intend to bring in a bill empowering the Queen in Council to place any day of solemnity that might occur on the same footing as Sunday.
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