The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAncH 6, 1858.

the bill—was it a resolution adverse to all change in the
criminal law of the country—was it a resolution which
would give the slightest countenance to the atrocious act of
conspiracy to murder ? No ; the resolution was this :

That this house hears with much concern that it is alleged
that recent attempts upon the life of the Emperor of the French
have been devi-ed in England, and expresses its detestation of
-uch guilty enterprises ; that this house is ready at all times
to assist in remedying any defects in the crim,nal law which,
after duo investigauon, are proved to exist. yet it cannot but
regret that her Majesty's Government, previously to inviting
the house to amend the law of conspiracy by the second reading
of this bill at the present time, has not felt it to be their duty
to make some reply to the important despatch received front
the French Government. dated Paris, January 20, 108, and
which has been laid before Parliament.

The question, therefore, was not one as between Parlia-
ment and a foreign country. It was emphatically a ques-
tion as between Parliament and the Ministers of the Crown.
( Hear, hear.) Upon that resolution being carried her
Majesty's late Government resigned office, and the first
duty which the present Government had to perform was
to consider what course they should take with reference to
the state of affairs which had been produced by that deci-
sion of the House of Commons.

My lords, her Majesty's Government came to the reso-
lution, upon which they will feel it to be their duty to act,
in full conformity With the votelof the other House of
Commons and on terms of friendly conciliation, to point
out to the French Minister the misinterpretations and
misconstructions which have been placed upon his de-
spatch, and in the most amicable manner to request of him
an explanation which may remove the painful impression
now prevailing among the English people. (Cheers.)
If I know anything of the friendly feeling which his
Imperial Majesty has at all times shown to this
country—if I know anything of his earnest and
cordial desire to maintain the British alliance, which
is as beneficial to the one nation as it is to the
other—if I bear in mind how ready he has always been to
listen to representations and counsels given in a friendly
spirit and made in a friendly quarter —I am led to enter-
tain the sanguine hope that the answer to the despatch
which my noble friend the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs has undertaken to prepare and to transmit to France
will be such as to remove from the minds of the people of
this country all irritation, and enable ns calmly and deli-
berately to proceed to the consideration of the important
question of the amendment of the law. ( Hear.) It is, of
coarse, not desirable that I should enter into farther de-
tails upon this subject at the present time. The course
which her Majesty's Government may deem it their duty
to pursue must in a great measure depend upon the cha-
racier of the reply which they may receive to their friendly
communication; but I say without hesitation that in the
neantime it is their bounden duty—and it is one which
they will not shrink from performing faithfully and vigo-
rously—to put in force the existing powers of the law for
the purpose of checking by the strong arm of the law
these dangerous and alarming conspiracies. (Cheers.)
At the present moment—and I speak therefore under some
lifficalty, because I should be very unwilling in the
slightest degree to prejudice the cases which are now
pending before the courts of justice—proceedings are
being taken against a person named Bernard as a party
concerned in the 'conspiracy which led to the recent at-
tempted assassination of the Emperor of the French.
Another person, and I blush to say it, a British subject, is
now a fugitive from justice under a siinilar charge. Against
a third person, for the publication of • work containing
instigations and incitements to assassination, proceedings
are pending before a British court of justice; and no
further back than fort}-eight hours ago the attention of
her Majesty's Government was called to another publica-
tion of a similar character, but, as it appears to me, of a
still more violent tendency, and that publication also has
been without a moment's hesitation placed in the hands of
the law officers of the Crown. Should their opinion be
that it affords reasonable and legitimate grounds for pro-
secution, her Majesty's Government will not hesitate for a
single moment in putting in force the existing powers of
the law. ( Hear, 'near.) For, my lords, with all my de-
sire to maintain inviolable now and for ever, tinder all cir-
cumstances, that right of asylum to refugees which it is
the pride of this country to afford, without distinction of
cause, of principle, or of opinion, Ido say it is an in-
tolerable grievance that persons who owe their life and
their safety to the protection which we afford them should
basely and ungratefully reward this country for the shelter
and asylum it gives them by a course of conduct, by pub-
lications, by instigations to crime which may have a most
dangerous tendency towards embroiling England with one
of its most faithful and also one of its firmest allies.
(Cheers.)

My lords, if upon the present occasion I were address-
ing your lordships at the commencement of a new session'

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