Representative British Orations Volume 4 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
History
Representative British Orations Volume 4 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
Speeches, addresses, etc., English
result, the case did not arise to which those instructions could have
applied.
Those instructions, if they had reached Mr. Wyse, would not have
applied to the difference which did arise between him and Baron Gros;
for that difference was this--it turned upon the claims of M. Pacifico.
Baron Gros, on the 16th of April, was willing to recommend to the
Greek Government to take an engagement to investigate the claims of M.
Pacifico, in regard to the destruction of his Portuguese documents; and
to pay him whatever might be the amount which, upon investigation, he
might prove to be entitled to on that account; and to make a deposit of
150,000 drachmas as a pledge for the good faith with which they would
execute that engagement. The only difference between Baron Gros and Mr.
Wyse upon that occasion was, that Baron Gros proposed that the deposit,
which they had both agreed should consist of shares of the Bank of
Athens, should be left in the Bank of Athens; whereas Mr. Wyse required
that it should be deposited either in the Bank of England, or, if the
Greek Government preferred it, in the Bank of France. That seemed to be
a difference that might be easily settled. But, on the 22d of April,
Baron Gros altered his opinion. He retracted his opinion upon that
point, and stated that later information from Portugal had convinced
him, that M. Pacifico’s claim, in reference to the destruction of his
Portuguese documents, was wholly unfounded. Baron Gros said he would
no longer consent to recommend the Greek Government to enter into any
engagement to pay anything to M. Pacifico on that account. He would
agree to an investigation, but only provided that Portugal, and not the
Greek Government should pay what might turn out to be due. But this was
a point which Baron Gros was not competent to discuss. This new view
of his would have been a negation of the principle upon which one of
our claims rested; and, there being a difference of that kind between
Mr. Wyse and Baron Gros, Mr. Wyse had no occasion to refer for fresh
instructions--for he had received detailed instructions from me in a
despatch, dated the 25th of March, sufficient to guide his conduct upon
that point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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