The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-12-27 00:00:00

Scotlanb.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S ITALIAN
POLICY.

At a meeting of citizens of Oltagnw in the Religions
Institution-rooms, on Friday, the 15th of December,
Bailie W.kdain in the chair, Mr. Robert M'Tear secre-
tary, the following address to Lord John Russell was
unanimously adopted :
We, the undersigned citizens of Glasgow, beg to ex•
press to your Lordship our high satisfaction that, in the
present critical aspect of Italian affairs, the direction of
the foreign policy of this empire is in the bands of one
who has proved bin attachment to liberty by noble and
successful labours on behalf of the civil and religious
rights of his own countrymen.
" We hailed with the heartiest sympathy your Lord-
ship's ' loud and solemn protest' at Aberdeen (on the
occasion of your acceptance of the freedom of that city,
September 24, 1859), 'against any interference by
foreign force' to prevent the Italian people f
' having their own Government,' and 'and conducting
their affairs as they like,' and becoming 'the free
citizens of a free country.' Your Lordship is reported
to have said that if there should be a Congress of the
Powers of Europe, 'we might waist only upon one con-
dition —viz., that with respect to the using of foreign
force, in order to compel those conditions of peace,
whatever they may he, to be enforced, so as to inter-
fere with the right of the people of these countries to
manage their owls concerns—that if such is the object,
or way be the result of such a Congress, England most
stand apart and take no concern in it and we there-
fore hopefully conclude that the fact of Iler Majesty's
Government consenting to take part in the Congress is
a sign that the just rights of a great people are not to be
outraged or destroyed.
" We now venture to address yont Lordship to give
you the clearest and insist earnest assurance that in the
maintenance of the principals enunciated at Aberdeen
you will be supported by this great community. and also,
as we firuily believe, by the nation at large. We accept
gladly as the guiding law of the foreign policy of our
country your Lordship's declaration that the different
States of Europe should he independent, ' that (in your
Lordship's own words) they should 111/1111ge their own
concerns, and that no one State should have a pre-
ponderance in Europe, no matter what should be the
constitutions or the internal govennuent of the rest.'
We assure your Lordship that the practical maintenance
of this principle, in its application to the affairs of Italy,
will add the gratitude of an Italian nation to the grati-
tude felt by your countrymen for your service, unto
them and will join to the gratitude of Britain and Italy
the admiring respect of every lover of freeduin in the
world at large.
In thins of anxious difficulty like the present, it
cannot but strengthen the bands of a British Statesman
if the world knows that he poesesses the confidence of
the people, the maintenance of whose lionou: lie holds
in charge. Sichi confidence we now express. You
yourself declares' 'tin independence of the severed
States of Europe an object which Great Britian ought
!to feel a sympathy fir and an interest in.' Feeling such
sympathy and interest, we trust your Lordship will
stretch to the utinted the influence of Britain at the
coining Congress to procure the withdrawal of all foreign
troops whatsoever Pain Italian soil. Seldom in history
has any people,. suddenly proved itself adequate to the
task of selfigoveniment as have the Italians in recent
times—seldom in history has so clear • way been opened
for the spread of religious liberty over a land long held
in spiritual bondage; and foreign intervention has no
excuse to pleas', for it has no wrung to redress and no
blessing to bestow.
" We believe, moreover, the issue of the Coni-,reas a
matter not merely if Italian but European moment.
What safety can any State puasess if its intenial affairs
are subject to the decision of • Coupes? If the States
of Central Italy
are to be enforced to act against their
own recorded convictions, why may not any other
States be compelled to exist under like subordination%
to • few paramount Powers? It is the questuri of
European liberty itself which is now at stake.
" kinally, we would express our hope that your Lord-
ships influence will be exerted to prevent undue delay
in the proceedings of the Congress, as tending to coin-
plicate still more dangerously the difficulties of a land in
whose past history civlizal Europe has a grateful interest
—a land bounteously blessed by Providence, but too
long unhappy through the misrule of men not native to
its soil, and not rejoicing in its freedom or its glory.
" With high respect we remain your Lordship's faith-
ful obedient servants."
. . . . .

The aileumnal in b,uig very respectably and unani-
mously signed.