The Express.
London, England, 1856-08-02 00:00:00

M. MANIN AND THE SICILIAN QUESTION.

TO Tit IDITOI 07 YRS DAILY

Kll,-1 law in the Daily Netss of the 25th or July
a reply to a letter of the 10th of the use mouth. This reply,
written by another deputy of the last Sicilian parliament,
dewy., en answer, fur which I am sure you will have the
goodnen to God ems in your very valuable jtinreal.
My honourable 0011081011 Weeds Moulin in such •
fashion that I am obliged t 4 repeat here what the celebrated
Dictator of Venice stated in his letter of the 4th of JO,.
lewd the 'Temente which I made use of is Boomer to him.
M. Mien appeared to believe in the existence of numerous
Petitions from several places within the Kingdom of the
Two 8 elite for re-eitablishing the constitution of the year
1812, He expressed regret at this circumstance, if true,
' adding that the right thing to demand would rather be the
observance of the enatitution of 1848, still anions! by law,
and, by way of supporting this demand, to refuse payment
of the taxes, as a maw of forcing King Ferdinand to gine
My point wee, that there was no ground for belie deg in
the existent!, of such petitioss in the Morten of the Two
&Cities ; for the folio:ming nano!' : lat, Because the in-
stitution of 1812 was framed t r the Island of Sicily alone,
and not for the King4om of the Two ; consequently,
that the inhabitant; of then two provinces could not demand,
as of right, that it should be put in force, especially coo-
'Waning that its revisions extras/1y senctioned their pot
Weal separation ; 2nd, Because the two monarchical parties
in the two previews* are at variance—the Scilian party in-
elinieg for a tepee/ of the anion, the Nearli•an, re,oluts for
I asserting a despoil. inty over the island, which it has
always regarded sad treated es • conquered territory.
I oppcsed—bscau.e 1 thought it impractieable—the re-
medy suggested by ld. Manic, namely, the reins-1 ct the
taxes*, as bawd upon the constitution of 1848. This constitu-
tion, the 87th article of which has bees cited at length by
my colleague, has sever been promulgated in Sicily.
Now, IL Mania, who is an athomplished jurist, knows
perfectly well that a law, which has not been promulgated,
has no binding tow as law, and COlll,l quaintly that the in-
habitants of the Bland could not avail themselves of it for
the purpose of refusing payment of the public tense. I
will add, moreover, since the segments of my former
letter have cot su tV:o1, that the refuel of taxes in
Sicily is not pectic able for other reasons. On what
pound Is it that the retueal of taxes is justifiable under a
sonstitational goverumest Because to vote axe, le within
the cospet.ney sod r:ght of parliament. Naar the pulite-
ingot which was origicatcd by the constitution of 1848, never
did exist, end never could have exilic.' in the island, the
Mug n having sate ioned the electoral la • for that part
of his dominions th it lies beyond the Straits, nor ever
having named the Sicilisu peers who were to form pert of
the Upper Chamber. How thee cat the Sicilians fall back
on the rights of a parliament, which for them has
existed, and convert them into a weapon against the peen-
' gative of the Kiog ? Thoth who are so unwise as to enter
up in this c .tares of reaithance, will unquestionably give the
government • plea for proceeding againet them as amenable
to the penalties of high treason.
My coital/se, without contesting the fact that the
monarchical party in Sicily desires to break up the union
between the two countries, espouses the cause of the
monarchical par y in Naples, which he declines to be
favourable to the constitution. This may be true, but is

certainly not relevant tr the preient dircussion. Whet we
went t) know ie thi.—ie the Neapolitan isonarebical

patty, or is it not, dstermined to aunt a suzerainty over
Sicily, sad can or will the itoyslists of the two provinces
Ail la crgsaising a legal and orncerted plan of resistant*
with the vie,' of forcing concessions upon the government
For my own part I believe not ; nay, I have a firm and
unalterable conviction the contrary.

ly colleague, in dui course of defendiag the Neapolitan
- -

trustitutionsliete, hes mentioned the oases of lie mem-
bars of tkat puty who ore now in exile. Those gentlemen
bays my calks respect. At the same tints it would not to
difficult to show with regard to most of them, especially DI.
Scieloja, that in 1848, they did their best to thwart and die-
courage the Sicilian inenerecCon. Speiskiog g ily too of
t►e tionstitutiooal put, fe Noplu, as a governmect.l party,
It would be easy enough to show that In almost all periods
emu history, it ►as been anythieg but cordially united
with the monarchical p.rty is Sicily. To prove this, how-
ever,
eves if it were wsttv the while, wined require more
space than I can reasonably ask you to allot me for that
purpose.
From the feet that I have thus dwelt os the disureement
between the Sicilian and Neapolitan Royalists, my
colleague +cold draw the ishreece that I am for the repa-
ration of Naples and Sicily. It to not so. lam sot, end
have been, a e.p *runt. What I desire to see is
emnothing higher sad better then this Kingdom of the Two
8 silks—the mere creature of diplomatic treaties—l state
sinned with political impolite', which has never been
able to defend hug from fonds' Wrests's. My ideal is the
constitution of as Italian Ration, smbracion sU parte of