If Lord Beaconsfield really emulates the repute of Lord Palmerston,
he should see to it that Lord Derby does not leave British subjects who have suffered grievous injustice from foreign Governments without any redress. We have before drawn atten- tion to the monstrous misconduct of the Peruvian Government in relation to the crew of the British steamer ' Talisman.' The second mate of that ship, Mr. John King, whose letter, written from his dungeon in Callao, in the Timm of the 24th July, 1875, did so much to draw the attention of Parliament and the nation to the misconduct of Peru in the matter, writes to Wednesday's Times to say that, after a miserable im- prisonment of nearly two years, during which he was herded with from sixty to eighty felons of the worst stamp, one of whom murdered the first mate (Sibley), and was allowed to escape almost immediately afterwards, he has at last been released, but without any compensation for his sufferings and broken health, though Lord Derby by his telegram of last autumn to the Peruvian Government intimated that compensation might be claimed on his behalf. This compensation Lord Derby seems now, on more deliberate consideration, to declare himself unable to claim,—which appears not only unfair to this particular victim of Peruvian injustice, but very unwise as regards our relations
h Peru, whosepolicy is always to count upon her insignificance weakness to secure her against the demands of the strong.
Previous page
