He appealed to the
government at Athens for redress, demanding over $150,000 indemnity for
the loss of his property, among which "a peculiarly sumptuous bedstead
figured largely." Don Pacifico's claim was unheeded, probably because it
was exorbitant and the Greek government was poor. Lord Palmerston was
then the Foreign Secretary of the English Government. He was rash and
independent in his Foreign policy, and often acted, as the Queen
complained, without consultation and without the authority of the
Sovereign.
The Foreign Secretary had had other quarrels with the Government at
Athens. Land belonging to an English resident in Athens had been seized
without sufficient compensation; Ionian subjects of the English Crown
had suffered hardships at the hands of the Greek authorities, and an
English Midshipman had been arrested by mistake. Lord Palmerston looked
upon these incidents, slight as they were in themselves, as indicative
of a plot on the part of the French Minister against the English, and
especially as the Greek Government was so dilatory in satisfying the
English claims. "This was enough. The outrage on Don Pacifico's bedstead
remained the head and front of Greek offending, but Lord Palmerston
included all the other slight blunders and delays of justice in one
sweeping indictment; made the private claims into a national demand, and
peremptorily informed the Greek Government that they must pay what was
demanded of them within a given time.
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