d, and, taking boat, arrived at Constantinople by night.

[Sidenote: RUSSIAN INSOLENCE.] As they were quietly ascending the hill
towards Pera, the guard seized upon them, and, notwithstanding their
remonstrances, took them to the common prison, where they were thrust in
among a crowd of wretches who had been pining there for several days.
Indignant at this outrage, they sent a messenger for the consul, and for
Giuseppino, at break of day; and in the course of the morning, after a
tremendous row with the colonel of the guard-house, they were set at
liberty. The consul is exasperated, but they will get no redress, so
long as the present system of English diplomacy exists. Be it in Pera or
in Madrid, Petersburg or Naples, poor John Bull must always be kicked
and cuffed, ill used, and treated contrary to the law of the land in
which he happens to be sojourning. Is it to be supposed that any
minister would give himself the trouble to mix himself up in such
affairs? He might address a note to the authorities, when the facts
would in all probability be denied, or some paltry excuse made: the
minister declares himself satisfied, and the Perotes have the laugh
against us and our boasted powerful and energetic government. Now, had
it been a Frenchman, a Russian, or even a Prussian, who had been served
in this scandalous manner, how different would have been the result! The
colonel would have been dismissed, if not imprisoned; an apology from
the government, with the corporal punishment of the insolent soldiers,
and every satisfaction that could have washed away such foul treatment,
would have assuredly followed. For, though the law allows the arrest of
persons going through the streets at night without a light; yet, the
officer, seeing they were gentlemen, and just arrived by sea, had full
discretionary power to send them home with a guard; or, if it was
thought requisite to detain them, he had a good chamber in which they
might have been placed. But, insolent and obstinate, he turned a deaf
ear to every remonstrance, and ended by placing them in the same room
with filthy beggars and malefactors.

[Sidenote: ANECDOTE.] As an illustration of what has been just stated, I
will present the reader with a similar and somewhat more ludicrous
anecdote. A few weeks since, Costingen had gone on horseback to
Buyukdere, where, in passing the Sultan's kiosk at Dolma Batche, it is
always necessary to dismount. Woe betide the unlucky wight who,