The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-22 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1852.

Another tedious and confused debate in reference
to the treatment of a British subject at Florence has
tended only to render yet more apparent the extra-
ordinary incapacity of the Foreign Secretary as a
diplomatist. The discussion taking place, as it did,
this time in the House of Lords deprived the Earl of
MALMESBURY of the advantage of being defended by
the rhetorical ingenuity of the Right Hon. Gentleman
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. It will be
perceived by a glance at the Parliamentary
report of yesterday that the course pursued
by the Cabinet in regard to the insult
offered to Mr. MATnen, and not only the insult but the
grievous bodily iejury inflicted upon him by an
Austrian officer in one of the streets of the capital
of Tuscany, was endeavoured to be extenuated by
the PRIME MINISTER himself, as well as by the Se-
cretary of State for the Foreign Department. Nei-
ther of the Noble Earls, it must be admitted
even by their most infatuated supporters, were
particularly successful in their mode of bringing the
details of the case under consideration. What
might previously have been doubtful in reference to
the diplomatic bungling and Ministerial culpability
of Lord MALMESBURY has now become altogether
indisputable. After blowing hot in his correspon-
dence with the Tuscan, and cold in his correspon-
dence with the Austrian Government, the Foreign
Secretary has now endeavoured to screen himself
from the blame of blundering into an agreement to a
singularly inadequate reparation, by attributing the
evil complained of, on all hands, to the error
of a subordinate. In this there is surely but very
little magnanimity. It cannot be forgotten that a
proceeding, not one-thousandth part so visible in its
harshness, called forth, two or three years ago, in the
House of Commons (namely in 1846),
the indignant
protests of the party with which the present Foreign
Secretary is associated, namely, that of the Pro-
tectionists. At that period an official connected with
the Treasury, after entering into a compromise, in
regard to time, with Lord GEORGE BENTINCK, then
acting as the leader of the agriculturists, was repu-
diated by Sir ROBERT PEEL—the PRIME MINISTER
asserting that the gentleman in question had
not been authorized by him to enter into any such
agreement. The repudiation was the source of the
bitterest invectives against Sir ROBERT, although
that illustrious statesman maintained that be had
never deputed the Under-Secretary of the Treasury
to enter into the compromise specified, and although no
written evidence whatever could be adduced to testify
to the contrary. Very different is it, in all respects, in
the present instance, with the Earl of MALMESBURY.
Ten Noble Lord does not deny that Mr. SCARLETT
was authorised to treat in this matter with the heads
of the Tuscan Government. He asserts more, he
goes yet further, he avows that Mr. SCARLETT acted
precipitately, although the documents relating to the
transaction, the documents presented by order of her
MAJESTY, and lying on the tables of the
Legislature, prove -as distinctly as words can prove
anything, that he, the Earl of MALMESBURY
himself, had urged upon Mr. SCARLETT the necessity
of that precipitation. Yesterday, the 21st of June,
1852, the Earl of MALMESBURY concluded his
speech with this declaration—" My Lords, I must say
I...deeply regret that Mr. SCARLETT committed the
a'Ploinatic error of not awaiting the arrival of that
di r
"igui h d
closed his
s e man [Sir HENRY BTJLWER] before he
diplomatic mission." And yet in his des-
Patcl' of the 27th of April, 1852, the Earl of MALMES-
course
"RI ofd written thus
vvraaen to Mr. SCARLETT in the HENRY his instructions as Foreign Secretary—" Sir
Not witbseaawd.Ei will start to-morrow for Florence.
the Tuscan 00:1g the crisis you describe as going on in
settle the matter 6 /am still in hopes that you will
y arbitration or otherwise BEFORE HE
ARRIVES, and I
push it on bef ore t see
no
reason why you should not
Than that
he
present Government is turned
Out." allrelY nothing could be more
bungling, as assuredly nothing
could be more ex-
oar; To say nothing about the indiscretion of the
Foreign Secretary's allusion to the instability
was an urgent re_oe of the
nim d that
en a ion in
Mr. Maessuit,3
dispatch about
case, so very ele-
gantly idiomatically
Cabinet, there
and expressed, •
advising Mr.
flush it on," re
SCARLETT r eorarnendation that
hope
to avow a
that
went so far as the question
ht he settled "by „b.,
at issue, miges',ration or othr-
e
of S l arriva u. Rex
wise," before the RY Thum en at
Florence. Accustomed as we had bscorneo the
Earl
_p
contradictions indulged in by the
AIALMES.
We wen© with •
BURY—acquainted as his piebald
in his diplomatic
statement of the case correspond-
ence, painting it • the
blackest colours
Government,
and addressing the Tuscan
and painting, it on the contrary, quite colour
de rose when addressing the Government ot'Augzia
not exactly prepared
we must confess that we were