The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1864.

had done more than any other man to keep alive the great
idea of Italian unity.
Mr. DI'zRAE LI—I think the observations of the hon.
member for Bradford should not be allowed to pass alto-
gether without observation. The hon. gentleman has en-
tirely drawn the attention of the house from the real ques-
tion before it, and the positions which he has laid down are
such as we ought not to recognise. (Hear.) It seems to me
to be not only the right but the duty of members of Par-
liament to make rem arks upon absent men, and that it is
not necessary M. Mazzini should be amongst us in order to
qualify hon. gentlemen to criticise his conduct. (Hear.) I
think the remarks of the Prime Minister upon a former
evening, when he deprecated observations upon a Minister
of State who sits in the other House of Parliament, merely
on account of his absence, went to the root of all Parlia-
mentary criticism. (Hear.) However, what 1 rise for is to
say that the cause which rendered it necessary for the hon.
member for the King's County to make these observations
to the house seems to be perfectly forgotten. Some nights
ago, when this question was brought before the house, and
the conduct of a member of the Administration was im-
pugned for his supposed intimacy with Mazzini and his
possible connection with assassins, that gentleman, sitting
next the Prime Minister, and announcing himself a
Minister of the Crown, giving thereby due solemnity
to any statement he might make, repudiated in the
most indignant language the imputation that he could
be connected with assassins, and owning e.t the same
time a long intimacy and fervent friendship with
Mazzini, he also declared Mazzini incapable of such conduct
or exploits. Well, the affair of the moment terminated ;
but certainly, with such evidence before him, it became the
duty of my hon. and learned friend to show that the state-
ment of the Minister of the Crown was perfectly unfounded.
and that upon political as well as philosophical principles,
Mazzini is not cnly an advocate but a great promoter of
assassination. Gear, hear.) Nor am I surprised that my
hon. friend the member for South Devon should have put a
question to the Minister which has been so unsatisfactorily
answered. Here is a plot to assassinate a neighbouring
sovereign, whom some believe is the intimate ally of this
country. A member of the Government, a Minister of the
country, who by his own admission is at least the friend of
Mazzini, if not the correspondent of Greco, while he repu-
diates being connected with Mazzini, yet gives him a cha-
racter which it is in the power of any ono to show has no
' foundation in fact. He acknowledges his long intimacy
with Mazzini, and he says at the same time that, from per-
sonal observation of his character, Mazzini is incapable of
holding these odious opinions. Well, it speaks very little
for the knowledge of human nature by a Minister of the
Crown. or for his powers of observation, if for 17 years he
has been intimate with this well-known character, and that
he should believe him incapable of opinions which he has so
elaborately vindicated, and upon every occasion circulated
and defended. (Opposition cheers and la ughter.) I think
these are grave circumstances. We have the admission that
a member of the Administration is the intimate friend of
one who has professed a system of organised assassination,
and I therefore think that the member for South Devon was
perfectly justified in making the inquiry which he did;
while I believe the House of Commons, the country, and
other countries will deem the answer of the Government
most unsatisfactory. (Opposition cheers.)
OUR CONDUCT TO WARDS DENMARK.

Mr. BUTLER-JOH N STONE asked, with reference to
the detention of the Danish ironclad in the Clyde, whether,
following the course adopted at the commencement of the
Italian war and at the outbreak of the American rebellion,
it was the intention of her Majesty's Government to advise
the issue of a Royal proclamation in regard to the Danish
war ?

The ATTORNEY•GENERAL said that the respect
which her Majesty's Government felt for the hon, member
induced them to make an answer to his question, to the
effect that it had never been the custom to issue proclama-
tions of neutrality in any case in which her Majesty's Go-
vernment felt that they had a deep interest in the matters
which were inyolvel in pending negotiations, and which
might call for any action on the part of hal. Majesty's Go-
vernment. In the present case, her Majesty's Government
was a party by treaty, and might be involved in the nego-
tiatious which were pending. They were watching with
deep solicitude tho course of events, and using their utmost
exertions to promote an issue which was for the general in-
terest of Europe, of Denmark, and of this country. Under
these circumstances, it was absolutely necessary that her
Majesty's Government should reserve to themselves power
to take any course which the honour and interests of Europe
and Great Britain might require. To issue a proclamation
of neutrality—which would be to declare that we should
necessarily keep neutral during the war, whatever the even-
tualities of that war might be—woul be to take a most
undignified and inconsistent position.