THE ENGLISH CAPTIVES IN ABYSSINIA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 513, 30 September 1867, Page 2

THE ENGLISH CAPTIVES IN ABYSSINIA.

In a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, Sir Henry Bulwer says : “ I hare just read, in a number of your journal, some days old, that on the 2nd of April the Abyssinian captives were still in chains in the fort of Magdala. It seems to me that, throughout this disgraceful business, we have done too little or too much. If we had reason to suppose that these persons were guilty of any offence which justified their treatment, we had no right to interfere in their behalf. If the cruel imprisonment to which they have been subjected is without justification, we ought surely to have insisted upon their immediate release and ample compensation for their ill usage. There is no question here of wrong done to a British subject in an unexplored country, and by unknown ruffians. We are well acquainted with the precise spot of these unhappy men’s confinement, and with tiie unscrupulous tyrant wito has incarcerated them. It has been till now the boast and the belief of Englishmen that wherever they went they were under the protecting eye and aegis of Great Britain. Mr Baker, iu his recentlypublished travels, relates a case in which he was told not to proceed in his course, for there was danger in the path b.fore him. The substance of his reply was : ‘ I am a subject of the Queen of England, and she will inflict exemplary vengeance on any one who lays his hand on one of her people.’ It is with such notions as these that we have grown up great and powerful, rot only in the world’s esteem, but, what is more important, in our own. Are these traditions lest ? Already—l can speak with authority—the carelessness or the impotence we have manifested b*9

made the worst possible impression throughout the East. Should we go on year after year attempting to hold converse with, or to send presents to, this paltry barbarian? I may be told that there is difficulty in reaching him—difficulty in punishing him. But why is a nation great? Because it performs difficult things ; because in fact, it esteems nothing difficult which its honour tells it must be accotnnliahed. T venture, without accusing one in particular, to say as a general axiom that is only lazy indifference that puts forth the miserable plea of insuperable difficulty. Let England but say plainly ‘ These men shall be liberated ; this miscreant whom we have condescended to call king shall be trodden into the dust,’ and the deed follows the word. Nor do I speak idly. With a moderate British and sepoy force, and such assistance as the Viceroy of Egypt told me be would be ready to give, it would be no rash engagement to undertake to bang Theodorus in the chains that now torture the limbs of his captives. If 1 had the opportunity of raising my voice in Parliament, it would long since have attempted to arouse the sentiments of humanity and chivalry which are, I am sure, to be found there. If I had health and strength sufficiently for the task, I would at this instant traverse England from one end to the other, to invoke the patriotism, the charity, and the •courage of a generous and high spirited people. As it is, I can only appeal through your columns to the public sympathy—to the public dignity; for there is at stake in this case, not merely the lives of the poor victims in the dungeons of Magdala, but the name and honour of Englishmen throughout the world.” The same journal says : After considering what is above stated, and the general reports about the state of Aby?sinia which have now for some time been current, it is to be inferred, I think, that the power of Theodorus is much weakened, and the whole country in such disorganisation, that we ought to be able to find allies against Theodorus in the event of its being then determined to effect by force the release of the captives; for 1 don’t believe in the success of the mild expedients hitherto resorted to ; they have now been tried more than three years without our being one whit nearer the desired result than when the first letter from the Queen-was sent. Fate may assist us by bringing about the death of Theodorus by any one or more of his many adversaries ; but if we are to wait upon fate it may bring about the death of the prisoners likewise, and leave us with the stigma on our power of having been unable to cope with a resolute chief of Abyssinia, and it will be small crowing over a dead lion who kept us at bay while alive, and whom we had no hand in subduing. The effect would njt be lost on Egypt, or along the shores of the Bed Sea, and might have its influence in India. What we do we should do ourselves. If we set the Egvp* tians on Abyssinia we shall merely be immolating its Christian population, and opening the door for influence there not our own—one day, perhaps, to be used adversely to us.