The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-28 00:00:00

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN TUSCANY
AND SWEDEN.

DEPUTATION TO LORD CLARENDON.
Yesterday afternoon, a deputation from the Evan-
gelical Alliance waited upon the Earl of Clarendon, at
the Foreign-office, to express their gratitude for the
liberation of Miss Cunninghame by the Government of
Tuscany, and to call the attention of the Foreign Secre-
tary to circumstances which have transpired relative to
the oppression of religious dissidents in Sweden. The
deputation consisted of the following gentlemen :—Sir
Culling Eardley, Bart. ; Mr. G. Hitchcock, London ;
Mr. G. Henderson, Glasgow; Rev. Dr. Steane, hon.
secretary of the Evangelical Alliance ; Rev. Dr. Black-
wood, Rev. Peter Latrobe, Rev. J. A. James, Bir-
mingham; Rev. Carr Glyn, rector of Witchampton ;
Rev. Dr. Duff, Rev. J. Jordan, and rector of Enstone.
The deputation haring been introduced to Lord Cla-
rendon,

Sir C. EARDLEY said he had had the honour of wait-
ng on his lordship some time ago, with a deputation,
on the subject of Miss Cunninghame's arrest in the terri-
tory of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was glad to
see that the tables were now turned, and that the young
lady who had been a prisoner was now free. On hear-
ing of this, of course, his immediate impulse was to
express his belief and hope that she owed her liberation
to the remonstrances of the British Government. But
in re'erence to this there were two questions that met
them. One was of time, for they were not quite sure
whether his lordship's despatch could have arrived in
time to effect the object at which it aimed ; but that
was, of course, no affair of theirs, for if the kindness
were done, whether -it was the immediate cause of
the effect produced or not was very immaterial.
Another question was, whether the liberation of
Miss Cunninghame had been produced consistently with
principles which the deputation could, to use a Scot-
tish legal phrase, homologate—in other words, whether
it had been granted by the Grand Duke's Govern-
ment as a mere matter of course, or whether it had
been asked and conceded in the name of the English
Government. He hoped his lordship would understand
that they did not say this with any purpose of dictating
to the Government--a view which would be incompa-
tible with their duty as English Christians—or with any
wish to extract from his lordship any disclosures that
might be prejudicial to the public service. But their
feeling was—and they looked at the matter unanimously
in this light—that they ought not to do anything incon-
sistent with the views of those for whom they acted, and
their hope certainly was that the liberation had been
effected on the demand of the British Government, and
not as a favour granted by the Grand Duke of Tuscany
In the belief that that had been the case, he begged to
assure his lordship that the deputation felt they owed a
great debt of gratitude to the Government for vindicat-
ing the privileges of British subjects by setting the lady
in question at liberty.
The Earl of CLARENDON said in reply—Sir Culling
Eardley, you are quite right in thinking that my dis-
patch did not arrive in time to be acted upon by Mr.
Scarlett, but he had received private letters upon the
subject. There was not the least doubt about the course
we should pursue, however, and that course was corn-
munica,ted to the Tuscaa Government, but it was after
Mr. Scarlett had obtained the release of Miss Cunning-
hame. lam sorry to see that there have been some
' attacks made against Mr. Scarlett for the course he has
taken, which, I must say, appears to me to have been
very judicious. He represented to the Tuscan Govern-
ment that Miss Cunninghame was ignorant of the law for
the infraction of which she was apprehended, that the
law was a most harsh and cruel one, that its application
to her was extremely wrong, and that the people of Eng-
land would take up the case as one of great injustice to
a fellow-subject. He pointed out the manner in which
it would be looked at in this country, and strongly
recommended the Tuscan Government to do motu
proprio what must otherwise be insisted upon as
an act indispensable for our satisfaction. It is
not for me to dive into the motives which have
induced the Duke of Tuscany to liberate Miss Cun-
ninghame. I can only say it appears, as far as my
dispatches go, that the conduct of the Tuscan MinisttL4
was extremely creditable to them. They quite approved
of Mr. Scarlett's efforts to obtain her liberation, and
assisted in every way to forward the measures he took
for the alleviation of her position, and for enabling her
to see her mother. Except as regarded the privation of
liberty, there was nothing, as she herself told Mr. Scar-
lett, that she had to complain of. I really cannot pre.
tend to say what motives they
were that induced the
Grand Duke to yield, but Miss Cunninghame was liber-
ated. I have heard since that the judges were likely to
give an opinion in her favour, which, of course, nobody
could have had reason to anticipate in the first instance.
I do not certainly know that they were about to do so ;
indeed, I should think it rather doubtful ; nor do I know
what were the motives of the Tuscan Government. I
know that my dispatch was communicated to the Tuscan
Government, as an earnest of what might be expected
if Miss Cunninghame was not liberated. Upon her being
set at liberty, they at once acceded to Mr. Scarlett's re-
quest. She was first desired to quit the country, but
Mr. Scarlett said he thought it would be very hard to
force her to do so, and asked that she might be allowed
to remain with her mother, who was ill. This was at
once acceded to, and Ido not know that she has left
Lucca, but believe she still remains there. I think there
has been a manifestation of sentiment, on the part both
of the Government and people of'this country, sufficient
to leave no doubt on the minds of the Tuscan Govern-
ment as to the light in which the matter was viewed
by us.

Sir C. EARDLEY said the inquiry of the deputation did
not so much relate to the grounds taken by the Tuscan
Government as to the position assumed by our own. They
could not dive into the motives of the Tuscan Govern-
ment, but what they wished to ascertain was, that such
high language had been held by our own as would
satisfy the expectations of the religious community of
this country.
The Earl of CLARENDON-1 can only repeat what I
said to you, as I did to Lord Shaftesbury, that Ido not
think any British subject has a right to go into another
country and refuse to observe the laws that prevail there.
The laws may be as cruel and harsh as possible, but if
British subjects do go there of their own accord and live,
they cannot disregard those laws altogether.
Sir C. EARDLEY begged to observe that there was a
great difference between the act of a Government that
protected its own laws by turning those who disregarded
them out of the country, and that of a Government which
punished such trespassers by imprisonment.
The Earl of CLARENDON—I do not think it quite ap-
posite at this moment to argue these points. The ques-
tion is, whether the law exists, and whether a govern-
ment has a right to make an exception for all foreigners
as regards the observance of the laW: We should not
do so in this country ; we require all foreigners to com-
ply with our laws. My language in this case was that
it was a melancholy thing that such a law should exist
at all, and still more so that it should have been recently
enacted—that it was melancholy to think that persons
in high places should bring themtelves to believe that
such proceedings could be agreeable to the Almighty, or
could be in harmony with the mild doctrines of Chris-
tianity. I said that the cruel provisions. of the ;law
were probably not known to Miss Cunninghame or her
friends, and that I trusted to the good feeling of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany that she should be immediately
set at liberty. Ido not know that he was the instigator
or promoter of the act in the first instance.

Sir C. EARDLEY said there had been strong reason
priori to think he probably was, as he was known to
be actuated by feelings of intense bigotry.
The Earl of CLARENDON—•I have no reason whatever
to say so. Miss Cunninghame was arrested, and imme-
diately the affair took its legal course, as one of police.
Who was the instigator of it. I have not the least idea.
Sir C. EARDLEY then called his lordship's attention to
the conduct pursued by the Swedish Government to-
wards religious dissidents in Sweden, which appeared to
be very much of a piece with the conduct of the Tuscan
Government towards the Madiais and Miss Cunninghame,
with this worse feature, that Tuscany acted in the dark.
ness of Papacy, whereas Sweden acted in the light, or at
least with the profession, of Protestantism. They
wished to state a few facts communicated to them by
the sufferers in Sweden, who had appealed to them to
take up their case, which would appear to amount to a
complete denial of religious liberty. They had it in
contemplation to make a proposition to the Diet that
was about to assemble in Sweden at the beginning of
December. He should call upon his reverend friend to
state the facts.

The Rev. Dr. STEANE said that in the northern parts
of Sweden a number of persons were at present holding
religious meetings, some of whom still continued mem-