The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-01 00:00:00

(TN,

LONDON,

patch you had communicated to me previously, has
been seriously examined in the Council of,- Ministers,
and submitted to the high consideration of my august
Sovereign.,

. _
I must, in the first place, answering with an equal
frankness the sincerity of your Excellency's declarations,
state that his Imperial and Royal Highness the Grand
Duke's Government has been painfully affected and stir•
prised at the receipt of these documents, and that my
august Prince has shared this sentiment. __ _

Being charged to signfy to you the painful impres-
sion which has been felt at their perusal by my So-
vereign and the members of his Government, I must add
that the latter was necessarily entitled to look upon this
affair as terminated, after it had been arranged with the
official representative of the British Government, and
that this negotiation had received in the English Par-
liament the most explicit end solemn sanction, with flat-
tering eulogiums of the conduct of that honourable agent.
Relying on those acts, the Tuscan Government had
reason to expect that no modification would be made in
the settlement of this affair, such as Mr. Scarlett had
accepted it; and the British Government, cannot forget
that, as appears from the dispatch of Mr. Barron, who
acted in the place of the Charge d'Affaires during his
illness, of which dispatch your Excellency has commu-
nicated to me an extract, the pecuniary indemnity ac-
corded to Mr. Mather was accompanied by a generous
and spontaneous act of the sovereign prerogative to-
wards the Messrs. Stratford, English subjects, who had
rendered themselves guilty of a political crime, for
which act the Government of her Majesty the Queen
of Great Britain, yieldiog to a sentiment of jtut pro-
priety, has already expressed to his Imperial and Royal
Highness the most formal thanks.

Your Excellency, in admitting that the negotiation
had been at first accepted and justified by your Go-
vernment, then developer all the succeeding stages of
this affair, quotes the instructions which your Excellency
has received on the subject, and explains how,
according to those which had been given to
Mr. Searlett himself, the British Government
has .thought itself obliged to disavow, as is
declared in Lord Malmesbury's dispatch, the conduct of
its representative, and annul his work. In appreciating
these explanations, I hasten to come to the main points
of the question, and to declare that the Grand Ducal
Government will never ignore its rights and its duties,
counting amongst the first thereof that of being just to
every one, and of according to foreign subjects the most
extended and cordial hospitality; nor can the excep-
tional case of the special jurisdiction to which the soldiers
of the Austrian auxiliary force are subject affect the
exercise of those rights and of those duties.
The refusal of Mr. Mather to receive any indemnity
having induced the British Government to give to its
demand the new form which is, according to your
instructions, communicated to me by your Excellency,
I must first remark that the note of Mr. Searlett,
which led to the conclusion of the affair, having now
been completely disavowed by the English Govern-
ment, and being annulled, I acknowledge that all the
correspondence which followed, and which was only
a consequence of the first document, shares logically the
same fate. The whole is therefore to be considered as
if it had never taken place, and passing on (to other
subjtcts), I am happy to seize eagerly this occasion to
beg you to be the means of expressing to the Govern-
mens of her Majesty your august Queen the most lively
regrets of the Grand Ducal Government at this unfor-
tunate effair of the wound received by Mr. Mather,
which affair ought not in any wise to disturb such an-
cient, such intimate, and such amicable relations as ours;
and concerning which, moreover, a satisfaction has been
given by the Australian military authority. The per-
fect harmony which has constantly united the two Go-
vernments, the friendship which reigns between the two
august Sovereigns, and the sympathy which has always
been felt in Tuscany towards the illustrious English na-
tion, must dispel every supposition contrary to these
sentiments, and the Tuscan Government rejects such a
supposition with all the energy and all the sincerity of
the sentiments which it has already experienced.
The Grand Ducal Government, in priding itself on the
identity of its conduct with its sentiments, is always dis-
posed to accept the obligation of maintaining the rights
and of providing for the safety of British subjects, as
well as of other foreign subjects in Tuscany, by means
of the tribunals, as a general rule, and hastens to recog-
nise the principle that this duty becomes more impera-
tive on the executive power in those exceptional cases,
such as the one which now exists in respect to the Aus-
trian auxiliary force in Tuscany, which cannot be
submitted to the ordinary tribunals. It therefore de-
clines none of the consequences imposed on it by that
protection.
I am happy to acknowledge M. le Ministre, the great
tact and the conciliatory spirit of which your Excel-
lency has given a proof in this delicate conjuncture; and
I have the confidence that you will derive from my
language a conviction that the Tuscan Government,
far from having abdicated its independence, of which
it is jealous and proud, is resolved, on the contrary, to
uphold the rights and to exercise the duties of that in-
dependence.
The enlightened and impartial Government of her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain will no doubt share
this conviction; and nothing will henceforth be able to
disturb the continuation of these official and amicable
relations which are of ancient date, and twhich the two
Governments have ever been so happy to maintain. For
my part, I shall be proud to contribute to drawing closer
these bonds, and I doubt not but that your Excellency
desires equally to arrive at the same end.
The justice which your Government is desirous of
rendering to the zeal and talent of the Hon. Mr. Scar-
lett, notwithstanding the di-avowal given in this case to
his conduct, induces me to express, on behalf of the
Grand Ducal Government, the esteem and confidence
which that able gentleman has constantly merited.
I avail, &c.,
(Signed) THE DUKE OF CAsIGLIANO.