The Statesman. — London, England, 1815-04-28 00:00:00

IPER TEM BTAFF• _ Ir . • - • - . •r• . -• shortest questing in the .wciald, and incapable of se. that'sl independence in a way little becoming a the s . ftuatien of Belgium and Piedmont, which are thins discussion. He quoted the lest paragraph of British Minister . Nay, the Noble Lord even at- the barriers Of the north end south. He then entered the ProclamatiOn of the i4th of March, as it was tempted to convince' them that their political an- into a variety of arguments in favour of the arrange- . referred tiinnnenf the dispatches, as the key t o nihilatioti woof(' be a blessing. This reminded him of metes of Congress. the construction of that Proclamation, and the words l a story he had heard of a person once high in o ffi ce Mr. J. P. GRA NT, feeling as he did that the , were, a Italy shall become w hat :he. was in her most lin this country, who, when applied to by a female faith of the British nation had been brokinf, could prosperous, .ariods, and what Spain nosy is." It ' suitor for a pard o n t o a n ear relative of her's, under not consent to give a silent vote on' this question.— was impute's)e t o endt; rs t ae d thi s in any other sense sentence of death, told her, that the justice of the Ile thought his Majesty's Ministers had got into a then 46 before the usurpations of Fiance and the sentence was so manifest, that even if her relative dilemma, out of which they could net extricate' war;" and es to this Get i otsee, it must, therefore, applied in person, he could convince him of the ne- ' themselves. Any body who had read the instruc mean that the Republic of Genoa should be restored. cessity of his being hanged. It was in this way that lions given to Lord Wm. Bentinck, he contended, If any other construction could be pet upon the the Noble Lord consoled the Genoese under the loss must at once he convinced that he was empowered words than the ;tutus quo axle bellittn, titan be should of their ancient independence. The measure had to offer to the Italian people freedom and independ give human ingenuity credit for a power of converting I also been defended, on the policy of putting the ence, and to give them that assistance which was ne the meaning of the plainest words, of which he hail whole of the Alps 'into the hands of the King of cessary to obtain soch an end. He would, how. not before believed it capable. If the words did not Sardinia. This policy might have had Some meaning ever, pass over all these subjects, which had been al mean this, did they meets that lobe subject to the King iat the period. of the Treaty of Ais-la-Chapelle, but ready so admirably discussed by his Hon. Friend of Sardinia was the state of Genoa before the war ? i considering the character and resources of the present (Sir James Mackintosh), and proceed to the Proclaa The Noble Lord had talked of disentangling the I Ssidinian Government, it was now rather antiquated: motion of Lord Wm. Bentinck, in Genoa, on the consideration of Genoa from that of Italy, but the The policy; therefore, %%as at least doubtful ; but he 14th of March. By this Proclamation, he submit. latter comprehended the former. He admitted the I would contend, that nothing short of i m perious ne. ted, that the Genoese had been promised, not alone exeeption of Lombardy, because that was an Aus. cessity could justify an act which brought the faith to be relieved from the iron yoke of Bonaparte, but trien State before the war; and his very admission I and honour of this country into question. If at- to he, as had been the case with Sicily, with Porto viola this principle imported a consent that Genoa! tempted to he justified on the right of conquest, was gal, with Spain, and with Holland, restored to indes should now become a Republic. He in s e t adverted lit for this that all Europe had been called to arms ? pendence, to civil liberty, and to their ancient splen to the Proclamation of the 27th April (this very day I Was it for this that the Coalition was formed which dour among independent natio:sc.—[/lm-, hear !]— last yea;), for the Provisional Government, and asked interested the hearts, and had the prayers and good This was the language of the Proclamation, and in whether it was possible to contend that that Provi. I wishes of every friend to the liberties of the world ? having stated it, he thought he should he wasting the singlet Government was to exist till the pleasure of , The great means by which the commonwealth of Eu- time of the House, and stultifying himself, were he • the Congress should be known ? He then entered ' rope was maintained in that balance which so happily to attempt to use a single argument in support of upon the subject of Lord W. Bentitick's force; he ! existed prior to the partition of Poland, was by the the inference he had already drawn. As it stood, had made enquires of high military authorities, and affection which each people, however small, had to the Genoese had been distinctly promised the enjoy learned that the enterprise was considered as frantic, its ancient laws, its habits, its institutions, and from merit of their ancient freedom and splendour, and unless it w a s en ti r ely founded on a certain knowledge : the recollections which were transmitted from gene- for those who argued the contrary, he had neither of the . Inca hle disposition of the people. Lord W. ' ration to generation. The greater Powers e ere the respect for their understanding, nor sympathy for B.'s force consisted of 8000 mete 30(X) only of • guardians of this system, and Ile? small Powers were their feeling. The avowed object upon which Lord whom were English, the rest !wine composed of Ai. the indications of its perfect state— 'file new system Wm. Bentinck set out in his proceeding towards, cilians, Italians, Germans, and 1 6reeks, inexperi- which the Noble fond had imported from the Con- Genoa, was the restoration of the ancient Govern- , sewed troops who had never seen the face of an ene. press was, that nothing really deserved attention but ment of that Republic, and in the spirit of her me. my ; and there was a body of 6000 veteran• French lines of country, and froutierCsod flanks ' • that the ginal Constitution. In the arrangement of the Pro troops in the city and environs of Genoa; and yet affections of nations, and thileancient and dearest' visional Government, there was no specification of the) were compelled to ley down their arms. It was recollections, were all to be unmercifully sacrificed its termination in the manner which it had termi. calculated that it would have taken 25,000 men to to complete this line, and round off that flank. The elated; quite the reverse; for from a perusal of the .cnisquer Genoa, and on this datum he entered into a prophetic mind of Mr. Burke foresaw the present correspondence of Lord Wm. Bentinck, with the calculation of the numerical value of the friendship situation in which the Congress had placed itself..-e. Government at home, it would appear that he was of the Genoese. Lord Wellesley's instructions to In his Letter on a Regicide Peace he observed, " I fuly impressed with the feelings of the Genoese upon ' the Commanders pf the British army. in Italy were can see a fund likely to arise out of which it may be this point. For he expressly states, in one of his not to precipitate insurrections, but to wait for the ' proposed to carve indemnities and equivalents ; but letters, " that they dreaded their annexation to favourable moment of throwing off the French yoke. I forbear to touch upon it—it is opening an flied of Piedmont, and rejoiced at the prospect of the resto- Besides the Genoese garrison of 6000 men, there was woes to Europe." Though that great man then al- ration of their old Government ;" and yet this offi at. Alexandria an army of 50 or 60,000 French, luded to the partition of the ecclesiastical States of cer, in possession of such information, and having within a march of the Genoese territory. He knew Germany, in which Russia took so great a part, yet' communicated it to the Administration by whom he' that great bodies of the Genoese peasantry rose, and his words were equally applicable to the system now was employed, was by them traduced, and stated to that Lord W. B. received important communications pursutel, of which it might be said—animo vidit, in- have acted one part to the Genoese, while he har. from agents in Genoa, assuring him of this friendly gcitio complexes est, cloquentia illuntinavit. That boured another.—[licar, hear !] —When he reflect disposition of the Vettoese ; and on the very morning system, like its French predecessor, was a con- ed on those transactions, he could not but feel a de of the investment, there was a revolt among the p! o- spiracy of the great States to partition the small, in- gree of humiliation at seeing the honour of the coon- I pie, who destroyed the statue of Bonaparte under stead of pr o te c ting them. Whoever visited France try sullied and betrayed by those who were bound to the very guns of the French. And so much for the in December last, must have witnessed the effect have maintained it •with purity and integrity. The lukewarmness of the Genoese! lie appealed to the produced open that ardent people by such measures character of British faith had been prostituted for I Ilouse whether this was not an important military as that of Genoa ; how much the military spirit was' the purpose of enslaving n nation which it was co-operation, and whether success could have been inflamed, The French army had all the feelings of pledged to have liberated.—[hear !]—Other treaties] obtained without it. The. lan s which regulated the deposed tyrauts; and it was before them that the had been alluded to on former European Confederacies, distribution of prize-money said, that every ship Congress was every day setting an etample which as justifying the outrage which was then under dis.l which Came_ in sight eters a moment before the goaded en their ambition to phrenzy. The Noble cussion, but they had no applicability to the case ofi enemy struck, should share the prize, and this Lord and his colleagues shook the pillar on which Genoa. That State bad been annexed to France by upon the principle that the sight of her may , the throne of the Bourbons rested, by compelling force, still retaining a great part of her integral have contributed to the intimidation. So here lee the French to see in them an authority of no weight character: When she was taken possession of by attributed a share of the French overthrow in in the affairs of Europe, and to contrast the Bout- Lard W. Bentinck, she was not taker, as a eon. Genoa to a fear of the Genoese population.— bons with a Chief, who, if he oppressed them ai . ..tittered Power, but rescued as an Independent State Lord W. B. was doubtless perfectly acquainted with home, exalted them abroad. Louis XVIII. though from the hands of an enemy.— [/fear!} —Aeld was I this disposition'of the Genoese, he having beet; three it was the interest of every Monarch to strengthen ! there any precedent in the law of nations, that el years engaged in negotiations with the north of Italy, him on his throne, had net even the power to obtain power so rescued became the property of the cap. . • e view to resist the oppressions of France. He pardon for the condemned King of Saxony. He de- ; tors ?—[flear !1 —He denied Clot the Treaty of AC et agents in the city, and understood that tired Gentlemen, who, though they did not go so far t Westphalia was a case in point ;it was true the in 'lke' s surrection was not premature; and it was as he did, yet still thought that some stain had been I tinsel state of Germany had received on that oc- %proved, that the people if Genoa acted upon the De- inflicted on the honour of their beloved country, to casion a complete organization; but there was no in ;Acta ration of the 14th of March. He mentioned one consider that we were now possibly on the eve of a new I stance of the - transfer eta whole Independent Power. ,Ifact more, that the Commandant of the French gar- war, the result of which might be, that vast masses of —When Bonaparte offered to Mr. Fox, that Sicily rison actually implored the protection of Lord %V. territory might be again to be disposed of. Was it, should receive Ragusa, as a compensation for the Bentinck against the Genoese people, who would then, unfit for that House to convey to the Allies, ; cession of Napks, what was the reply .of that dis. otherwise ha destroyed him. The next question by their vote of that n i g ht, the sense of all conside. tinguished Statesman ? Why, that the King of was, whethef he was sufficiently authorised to issue' rate men in Europe? What body more fit for such Sicily should consider of the compensation in the . ese Proclamations ; and to prove that he was, he - a p ur p o se tha n th a t [louse, which was now in the ' first instance, and that even then, perhaps objet erred to d Lord Wellesley's orders of 1811; recom- seventh century of its existence, and which had of--' tions would exist which would require deliberation. iu ssistance to the p eo ple o f Italy i n all their forded the best practical proof that liberty can exist This new system which has, been introduced, under inns 'cola against the French ; and under these in a great empire ? It was an Assembly that might this auspices of the Noble Lord opposite (Castle. instructions Lord W. B. was sufficiently authorised speak with authority, anal to implore them, as they reegh) was not likely to be' of long duration—it ' to proclaim the independence of Genoa ; for that , valued the blessing of Providence on those new '. was built upon ton narrow a basis to exist when • was in the same situation in the spring of 1814, efforts which they might be called upon to make, to force, which introduced it, became weakened or di the autumn of 1811, when those instructions , banish for ever the counsels of spoliation. 'fhe vided. The idea that smaller States could not given. There were also Lord Bathurst's in- Honourable Member concluded by reading a series maintain an independent footing, was contrary to the ictions of December, 1813, authorising the con. of ten Resolutions, embracing the various inStruc- ! known experience of history. The ancestor of one to the annexation of Genoa to Sardinia, if, ' tions sent by this Government, at different times, to of the Allied Sovereigns, engaged in these transac the unanimous concurrence 'of the inhabitants Lord W. Bentinck, with respect to the conduct he tions, whose wisdom and activity made Prussia what he former. \Vas n o t this a dirc...'on to take the' was to pursue towards Genoa ; inferring that, by she -was, is recorded to have said :•••-: 46 I have seen ; ion of the people ? These were direct I..struc. , them, his Lordship was authorised to hold out pro- that small States can sustain themselves against large hut there were other indirect ones, which mises of independence to the Genoese—and con- : ones, if their internal affairs are regulated by attest. !newly justified Lord W. B.,—such as the re- eluding with a severe censure on his Majesty's Mi- lion and industry ; and that great States proceed to recognise the Republic of Liguria without a nisters, who had broken those promises, although ! only by intrigues anti abuses, in proportion to the pledge for the re-establishment of her ancient insti- they had never disav ow ed either the instructions extent they embrace."—The Honourable Gentleman lotions, the Declaration of Frankfort, and the Treaty given to Lord W. Bentinck, or the Proclamations,, concluded by declaring, that the country stood dis of Chaumont. Would it have been becoming in Lord founded thereon, which he had issued. graced in the eyes of the• world, by the line of con-' W. B. to believe that this pledge of faitirwas made The first Resolution being put from the Chair— I duct which Ministers had adopted in the course they with a lie in the mouth, and as a fraud on all people Mr. C. GRANT said, he bad heard with great ,had sanctioned towards a small but independent promise coming from an Assembly (would to pleasure those sentiments of regard fo r ancient i n - ;State.---(lfeor 1] God he could say !) as unparalleled in their honour stitutions which had bee n e xp r es se d by hi s Hon.' Mr. ROBERT IVA RD preferred common sense as in their splendour; and was there any object Friend : and he had heard them with the more Mei. fetkittllitriitttih. He read the Declarations issued by which Lord W. B. could think equivalent to a de. sure, as in their conduct of late, such sentiments had the Allies at Frankfort, to show that they had pro tai mination not to throw a doubt and suspicion on all not been habitual with the Gentlemen on the other' claimed their policy to the Whole world ; that the the Power; of Europe, and all the faith of the side of the House.—[ Hear, hear! front the opposite i political state of Europe was to be recast, as it were, Christian World ? Ac to Lord W. B.'s negative benches.]—So much at least he was led to presume, and not that every State was td be•restored to its for. ord..rs, he had searched hut found that no instate.. from their wish to speak favourahly,and to make peace mar and precise situation. He explained that Mr. t:on had been given publicly to disavow the act done. with that man who had trod under foot all ancient in. I Novosilsnff's breaking up of the negotiations was Ile then commented upon the letters of March 30; stitutions, and destroyed as far as lay in his power the not in consequence of regard for the feelings or Coe- April 3, and May 16 ; anti said, that the Declaration 'old land-marks of nations. The Honourable Gen-istitution of the Genoese, but because he was to treat in the second of these came too late, and that if tlemao then proceeded to argue that the faith of !for peace only in case France would relinquish her Great Britain wished to escape from the previous the country had, been in no respect pledged ,to th e ' syitetb of aggression. The •sheifiretion of Genoa act of her agent, it was iricoinbent _on her to have restoration of Genol l either by the instructions !was take n as a p r o o f that she continued to act on taken the earliest moment of making . 'that intention given to Lord W: Bentinck, or by the conduct of the same principles, and the signal for hostilities. as public as the agent's act bad ,aken medsk , The • that officer. He argued that even if Lord Ben- Genoa had been found acting against us as an enemy ; Noble Lord said, that we had done ualing since to • tinck's Proclamation pr'pmised the r estor a ti on o f it s ! her transfer could not, therefor e, - be ,compared with deceive Genoa ; bat it was oar duty to have untie. ancient Constitution. the people of Ge no a did no t 1 the partition of Poland, which had been effected in ceived. But it appeared that his Lordship did use an I perfo r m th e i r part of the.eptitract by co-operation.—; a time of profound peace, and without the least argument to deceive Genoa to alt.. Pareto, when hel What a proposition watinide dorint.Mr. Fox's pretence for such enact. The Proclamation in Lord said to him that the city of Genoa might be a Bowed,. i... ilanititratinn rot the surrender . .Si c ily to Pifapiaa t t ' Bentinck's Mind, and that of the persons like the Hausa Towns, to retain her indeptnctency - , , and for the Ateini an equivalent hi .2libasite. Or towitons Were, add resse d, on l y re f erre d to n Pro provided she would consent to give up her Territory, ! Dahleitis, Mr. Fox, who was not likeij, to ideate, visional Government: Had Ge noa b een a frien dly that is, to be doomed to beggary. lie further ar. the independiece of nations, said it was s o il wiestieri" oeljon, deald we have takemthe t booty whic h great dVii' and since geed that Genoa was deceived by the silence of the of cession, but of compensation. It appease in the `ba d been b roug ht f rom il ta t • „ sou- Treaty of Paris,. and also by the words of that "general system of European affairs, that,Fropce and dirtied in our ports ? Its feet, i it nut not beetti Ter the Gentlemen opposite, - tlie're would Imre .beets Treaty. lie then commented on the letter . .oUtlie I Austria wero most likely to he tiropi.lo‘.;(4otoot means W.W.l.° f the I DO misunderstanding whatever as butqo Noble Lord to Colonel Dalrymple, annnuncieg the in Italy, and thereby transfer of the people of Genoa. The style and strengthening of the barriers of 4V? I is, of' the argamen4 now going .4em many in Fraate against, . - this couttley, would nevet hale been thought of.— manner of it, seemed to depredate the va!ne of na. stgrestions of France. Such. to 'a. • 4 Z'State - • t• as in were f strucl • sent with of tin opinii tinne suffici fugal rifecor 7 A ar . . then On. dicated Sir John' Dalrymple from the iinputtlti, ns cast upon him by thr Ron. Opener of the question, who owed en apology to that gallant OiEcer. Mr. W. SMITH maintained, that from the do e " meats before tile [louse, Genoa might be costsidore,l at a friendly State. Lord Bathurst, in his lette r to Lord Vi. Bintinck, dated the 24th December, lgi3, had directed him to take possession of Genoa. in th e name of the King of Sardinia, provided it be wi t h the entire concurroce of Ike ciliserty. Would have said so if the city had been acquired by cou . quest ? Mr. WARD explained. Mr. WM. BATHURST said, that Lord W u. Bentitick's instructions were not to force his co -ap e . ration, unless the Italians would voluntarily It was not the intention to.restena lbe•peopk of (4., noa to their ancient state, but ,to that svhiFh•the cii cumstances ofT.orope woulo allow, and to free then from the thraldom of France - . Lord Wm. Hemlock approached Genoa because he thought the garrison consisted but of '2OOO men. His Lordship', patches showed that there was no co-eperalio n ns the part of the Genoese. The Han. Geutkrnau concluded by opposing the motion. Lord A. HAMILTON shortly supported the It,. solutions. Lord CASTLEREAGH began by observing, that after the length and ability of the discussion, he should not have thought it necessary to trouble the House with any observations, were it not far the re. Election, that it might be considered a duty in his si. tuation not to suffer a question of this nature to he passed with a silent vote. The suit: i nt had been pro. perly divided into two branches, the first of which respected the general policy of the arrangement en. tered into with regard to Genoa, and the second of which involved the far more important question, whether or not a breach of faith had beep committed by the British Government. The lion. and Learned Mover's argument, however eloquently supported, amounted to this, that Congress had no right to in terfere with, or alter the frame and Constitution of the European commonwealth. If such a principle had always been acted on, it was impossible that the system of European policy could have advanced in a course of progressive improvement, the Treaty of Westphalia could never have been carried into effect, and the very end and being of a general Congress of different States would be utterly nugatory and ■n. necessary. The Congress at Vienna was not as setnbled for the discussion of moral principles, but for great practical purposes, to carry into effect the Treaty of Paris, and establish effectual provisions for the general security. The Powers there assembled felt that they had to perform high political duties; duties for the discharge of which they were responsi ble at the tribunal of public opinion, but which never could have been beneficially discarged, had they divested themselves of the right and full discretiou of protecting the true separate interests of every . state,, by _securing, upon an adequate basis of ar. rangemetst, the general interests of the whole.- 1 One greet object was to provide against the re imains of that .military system which had existed in France, and that military spirit that belonged to the French character. What claim bad Genoa, then, upon any particular gratitude or consideration, which •had for a long series ofr yews been intimately coo• netted .with, and subservient to, the views of Fraece, at certain periods even incorporated with the strength and resources of the French Empire, form. ing a point of weakness. to the King of Sardinia, and rendering . Piedmont an ineffectual barrier betweea Austria . and France? When Genea capitulated to Lord W. Bentinck. it was not from a desire of lisi. fish alliance, but from a dread of ,British conquest, and a knowledge that the dignity of Bonaparte was about to be at an end.i--111ear, hear !]- 7 -Could any State be thus allowed to shelter itself against all the consequences of legitimate hoqility, to escape from the Taw of Conquest, ate) derive from • the enemy against whom they had ectid the very means of their.own defence and safety ? Ile could spinet to great authorities in confirmation of the principles he had laid down to the proposed arrangement of parti tion in• 1799, sanctioned by Mr. Pitt and Lard Grenville; and to the conduct of Mr. Fox himself in 1805, with respect to Sicily. He proposed to read to the House a paper drawn up and w riacn by Mr. Pitt himself, in which in the year 1805, that great statesman had expressed his approbation of the prin ciple of annexing Genoa to Piedmont, and had framed a plan of settlement, of which the Congress at Vienna had only been the servile copyists. Sir JOHN'NE W PORT spoke to order, and ob jected to the Noble Lord's availing himself of his official situation to read partial documents which were not accessible to the other side. Lord CASTLEREAGH resumed, and observed, that there could be rio objection to his stating the substance of a document, which, if moved for, would be laid on the table. The charge brought by the lion. and Learned Gent., was a charge, in tact, against my .Lord W. Bentinck, and implied nothing less than that be had practised a system of deception upon the Genoese, and now resided in Gel - ilia in the command of a British army, without Navin! tendered his resignation. lie conceived, upon the whole, that the present question n as nothing but a very laborious till'ort of the Hon. Gent. to redeem a sort of pledge that he had improvidently and indiscreetly given. The Proclamation of the 14th of Ala rch could not he issued with such an intention as nas attributed to it, because Lord W. Bentitick was then acting in conjutwinn with an Austrian General ; neither could the Pr lciansation published at Genoa, hear the construction pat upon it, inasmuch as Lord W. Ben• tinck had at that time his positive instructions in hie pocket. If Lord W. Helaine!: had supposed that the Genoese had been deceived, could it be supposed that his feelings woold'have permitted him still to re tain the command in that salmi city 'of Genoa ? Sir AM ES MACKINTOSH replied at serf D' siderahle length. . . . . After some explanations... , between Lord BIN• Ni NG and Sir J. NIACSISTI:iIi, • The House divided • • • F.lO the * utiao . ' Aghis tit' Eaprity - fi 11 1 1 • Adjourned. LtN VON Priatod • top. to it el I.e RTATEsraii Orrice, 7, FlftT•fliee- • Mt . rb ge On" Valk i r ~" I rte . irr , rir, N,, too.: cad A pe h• t!mint th.ra N. Yr re C I p.rrto 1411 Tit App ' I P t or, 'I IV Serer Tli Bi BA 3 Tot I)) 10r. i B) thur 10r. GE Maie out d it to kesi from eur r T' Muni TR I.: gnat red I told So l *Mir' HA I IR( a.mr Geet Pr Toe 841 ROI Mc • new •, tuir tic Ulm oft 4 ✓n lou the I's: I 4 It rut Ir Mt ?di; eru, f T 4 re v hi thei r • i • ,