Now the case, reduced to its bare details, is as follows: Don Pacifico, a Jew of Gibraltar, and a British subject, had taken up his residence at Athens, where, in the spring of 1847, he comes out of obscurity into momentary international fame, becomes with his petty affairs almost a _casus belli_ between two great Powers, and then sinks to oblivion again. In the new kingdom of Greece, then only since a score of years galvanized into a nation by the protective agencies of France, Russia, and Great Britain, foreigners and their rights had met with no nice consideration at the hands of King Otho and his officials. Certain Ionian subjects of the Queen had suffered insult or damages; a midshipman of H. M. S. _Fantôme_, landing by night at Patras, had been forthwith arrested; and England had already reasonable right to complain, when the case of Don Pacifico permitted her, in Lord Palmerston’s opinion, no longer to hesitate. On April 4, 1847, during the celebration of the Greek Easter, certain riotous Athenians, prohibited that year from indulging in one feature of the _fête_,--the hanging of Judas Iscariot in effigy,--and consequently enraged at Jews in general, made an attack upon the modest house of Don Pacifico. It was alleged at the time that sons of the Minister of War were among the mob; it is agreed that both house and furnishings were ruined. The establishment, we have said, was modest; but, although the Jew filed an extraordinary bill of claims (one bedstead he valued at £150), the principle involved was such that the incident could not be ignored by an English foreign secretary. Thus the matter at once became the subject of the most strenuous diplomatic correspondence; but Greece being like Turkey one of the countries of “To-morrow,” nearly three years dragged away without satisfaction for Don Pacifico, until at last, with patience exhausted, Lord Palmerston sent the following instructions to the British Minister at Athens: “F. O., December 3, 1849. “MY DEAR WYSE: “I have desired the Admiralty to instruct Sir William Parker to take Athens on his way back from the Dardanelles, and to support you in bringing at last to a satisfactory ending the settlement of our various claims upon the Greek Government. You will, of course, in conjunction with him, persevere in the _suaviter in modo_ as long as is consistent with our dignity and honor, and I measure that time by days--perhaps by some very small number of hours. If, however, the Greek Government does not strike, Parker must do so.”