Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-01 00:00:00

and the meaning of these last words mast be well ton-
sidered; they .are to be taken strictly."
And what was the offence that these men 'had committed.
Many of the exiles, for whom X now plead, formed part of
that group of 41 victims, and you have it on the authority
of Lord Shaftesbury and Lord John Rust ;ell that they are
gentlemen by birth and education, and Itiel 1 of unimpeachable
character. Their sole crime was, that. when the Sicilian
insurrection, in 1847, had compelled 'Fordinand to restore
the constitution to his subjects, these roen assisted him in
his task. It is said that the Bourbons.. have never learned
and have never forgotten anything ; beat there is one thing
that this Bourbon forgot--I mean h solemnoath of fidelity
to the constitution. I will read to you the oath itself::
4, We kave promised, on ourownyfull, free, and spontaneous
will, to establish in this kingdom =a coustitution conformable
to the civilisation of the times. '* • • Deterthined to
give effect to this Excd resoduti,an of our minds. In the
awful name of a Most Holy and Almighty God, the Trinity
in Unity, to whom alone it appertains to read the depths of
the heart, and whom we loudly invoke as the Jc.dge of the
simplicity of our intentions, and of the unreserved sincerity
with which we have determined to enter uponvthe paths for
a new political order, we ha,ve decided on procllaiming, and
do proclaim, as irrevocably ratified by us, the following con-
stitnion."

Well, with this oath he had sworn to the :constitution on
the 10th Febrtmry, and-en the /sth May—the very day of
'the convocation of the new parliament-4e let loose on
Naples his brutal soldie-ri and the lazzanni of the city,
g,ivang it up to pillage. and slaughter for several hours. In
vain was theresistance --of the national •guard—victory and
dislaouour rmained with the king. Scarcely had the can-
nen ceased to resound, than he addressed'his subjects in the
'following peoclamatiotr :
-4‘ Neapolitans ! Profoundly afflicted by the horrible
,calamity of the 15th Of May, our most lively desire is to
mitigate as far as possible its consequences. It is our most
itsed. and -irrevocable -will to maintain the constitution of
the I.oth'Pebruary pure and free from the stain of all excess.
As it is the only one compatible with the true and imme-
diate wants of this portion of Italy, so it will be the
altar -upon which must rest the. doctrines of our
most' beloved people and of our crown. Resume, then, all
Tour customary occupations ; confide with the utmost full-
' ness of your hearts in our good faith, in our sense of religion,
andi in ,our sacrect,end spontaneous -oath."

Well, sir, suffice 'it to say that every article in that Con-
•stitution has • been even since that" time violated. (Hear,
hear.) "I have said enough in advocacy of the cause which
has'brought us together this morning. I will now submit
to you the following resolution, which I am sure you will
heartily adopt :
" That, deeply sympathising with the Neapolitan
gentlemen. who have just landed on our shores in the
sufferings which they have endured from their attachment
tothecause of rational freedom, -we most gladly join our
fellow-countrymen in a public aubseription on their behalf—
' not only as an expression Of our sympathy with the
oppressed,•iyut as our protest against that tyranny by which
they have been driven into unmerited exile."
The tyranny piing on at Naples is repeated, with more or
less severity, throughout the whole of the peninsula. Even
on the low ground of commercial policy—how much more
on the higher ground of our common humanity—you
have an interest in the freedom of Italy. From that
fair country, with its twenty-four million inhabitants;
your manufactures are, to a large extent, excluded by
restrictive .tariff's; but these -tariffs are imposed by the
princes, and not approved 'by the people. When Mr.
Cobden visited Italy, after a revision of our own tariff
by Sir Robert Teel, he was •everywhere received with the
most enthusiastic welcome. But, alas ! Italian rulers
are utterly ignorant of the more generous acts of Go-
vernments, -as practised in the 19th century, though
maryellouSly skilled in, the 'tyranny of the middle ages
(hear, hear). You are sometimes told Italy is not ripe
for freedom. Believe it not. Point to what Piedmont is
(hear) ; to the blessed calm that came over Rome during
the short days of her Triumvirate, until broken by the
cannon of. the French army (cheers) ; to the struggles of
the last fifty years all over Italy; always renewed,
though always repressed, not by her own rulers, but by
the intervention of the foreigner. In her common lan-
guage—in her geographical position shut out from the rest
of Europe by the snowy alps and enclosed on every other
side by the waters of the Mediterranean, God has vividly
stamped on -her brow the mark of destructive nation-
ality. That supreme Power, which for some great purpose
permits, bat no less certainly controls; human despot-
isms, has infused into her soul the love of free-
' dom : it is an innate idea, it is an instinct of her being.
4' Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won:"
And though its realisation may be delayed, it will most
surely be fulfilled. (Cheers.)
Mr. J. T. Danson said, I second this resolution with
pocultur tl,,,uirh it wears a poinicai
aspect, it involves, happily, no difference of political opinion.
We cannot consider the case of these men and not perceive
that we stand face to face with a manifest violation of great
principles. But these principles admit of—nay, they
require—great variety of application according to time and
place. In practice they always hare involved, and always
must involve, great differences of opinion opinions differing
even as our views narrow to a kingdom, or environing the
world. Here, however, we are spared their practical appli-
cation. We have but to recognise them—to see that they
have been violated, more or less, and to see, also, that the
more or less in no way affects the claims these men
have upon our sympathy. as Englishmen. For instance,
sir, it is affirmed---but it is not on all hands admitted, or
admitted only with various qualifications, that every people
---and therefore the Neapolitan people---have, foreign
intervention apart, as good a government as they desire to
have. Some of us may hold strong opinions on each side
of this proposition but whatever our opinions, or however
strong they may be, upon this question, they mani-
festly need not, nay, they ought not, to affect our
sympathy for these men. Again, it is affirmed, and
it is also denied, that no nation has, under any
circumstances, a right to interfere in the internal
affairs of another, and that any breach of this rule
justifies war against the aggressor, even by a third party.
And whatever opinions we may hold upon this proposition,
or-upon its application to the affairs' of Naples, we are
,equally called upon to sympathise with those men. The
principle now floats through the politics of Europe, and
:its discussion must sooner or later be realised at the
point of the sword ; but it does not affect the
duty we have to do to-day. And there is yet a
third great principle suggested by the facts before
us ; and even more immediately than the other two;
It is urged, upon very high authority, that not only
persecution for" opinion's sake, but all attempts to prevent or
to punish the free expression of opinion, upon any subject
whatever, is wrong—wrong even in the Interest of truth.
itself. Pruetical statesmen have not yet adopted this prin-
ciple in all its breadth, even in England ; and it is probable
there will long he wide differences of opinion upon its
practical application. But these differences in no way
affect the motives upon which we, as Englishmen, aro
called upon to sympathise with these men. These men are
in truth beyond the pale of all political rules, international
or otherwise. The kingdom of Naples has cast them forth.
No other state of Italy, no other state of the world, has yet
elaiined, or can of right claim, their allegiance. They have
landed here divested of a recognised nationality -- destitute
of a home. They are most truly, and in the fullest sense
of the term, mere citizens of the world. Their character
is written in their antecedents. And when, as their
involuntary hosts, we ask what manner of- men they are,
and what is the reception they merit, we are answered by
history : They are of that stamp of men, to whom England
owes most, and whom she should be most ready to receive
and to honour ; and as is their character, so should he their
reception. We, too, have had oar Poerios and our Settem-
brim's ; and it is because we have had them that we are, as
-a people, what we are. These men have paid down, in labour,
in blood and tears, in long and bitter imprisonment,
a part of the price of such " rational freedom" as may
'hereafter be found fitted for an intelligent people in the
latitude of Naples. To and by such men, and in such coin
also, was that " rational freedom" paid for which we now
enjoy. We never have failed, nor ever shall fail, to revere
the memory of our benefactors—we can always honour their
names. But here is an occasion •on which we may do
something more. Their very shadows are now amongst us.
Dall must be the eye that doeS not see them, and duller
still the understanding that needs argument to prove that in
succouring and honouring theSe unfortunate men we do but
more tangibly hamar those who have handed down to us
the power to do this thing. I most cordially second the
resolution. •

Mr. Philip Rathbone supported the resolution, and ex-
pressed a hope that a welcome as unanimous, as" effective,
might be given to the exiles in this country. It was pecu-
liarly important at the present moment, as there was a
congress soon to be held about Italian affairs. He believed
that it would be a very strong element in the success of
such a congress if they were to speak out at once, and to
have public meetings in EnglanVto sympathise with the
Neapolitan exiles. It was not. fair or right towards Austria
to compare the government of Lombardy with the govern-
ment of Naples. (Hear, hear.) There was indeed tyranny
in Lombardy, and many were firmly of opinion that Italy
ought to be left to herself and for herself ; but, at the
same time, the Austrian government,of Lombardy was ;very
different from the government, of Naples,. jaud very
different'. degree of the people of unanimity existed -in the minds
England on the reference to
the governments of neither place: "There was
:another fact, which perhaps was not very well known
;throw bout England.
They were in the habit, in England,
of talking of the King of Naples, not ongea'atyrant, butf
also as a fool. A fool he might be in
th clever e term, but he certainly was a very higher sense o
fool. (Hear,