Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Now, I deny that proposition, and I say it is a doctrine on which
no British Minister ever yet has acted, and on which the people of
England never will suffer any British Minister to act. Do I mean to
say that British subjects abroad are to be above the law, or are to
be taken out of the scope of the laws of the land in which they live?
I mean no such thing; I contend for no such principle. Undoubtedly,
in the first instance, British subjects are bound to have recourse
for redress to the means which the law of the land affords them when
that law is available for such purpose. It is only on a denial of
justice or upon decisions manifestly unjust that the British Government
should be called upon to interfere. But there may be cases in which no
confidence can be placed in the tribunals, those tribunals being, from
their composition and nature, not of a character to inspire any hope of
obtaining justice from them....
We shall be told, perhaps, as we have already been told, that if the
people of the country are liable to have heavy stones placed upon their
breasts, and police officers to dance upon them; if they are liable to
have their heads tied to their knees, and to be left for hours in that
state; or to be swung like a pendulum, and to be bastinadoed as they
swing, foreigners have no right to be better treated than the natives,
and have no business to complain if the same things are practised
upon them. We may be told this, but that is not my opinion, nor do I
believe it is the opinion of any reasonable man. Then, I say, that in
considering the cases of the Ionians, for whom we demanded reparation,
the House must look at and consider what was the state of things in
this respect in Greece; they must consider the practices that were
going on, and the necessity of putting a stop to the extension of
these abuses to British and Ionian subjects by demanding compensation,
scarcely, indeed, more than nominal in some cases, but the granting of
which would be an acknowledgment that such things should not be done
towards us in future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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