The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-04 00:00:00

THE CITY ADDRESS TO THE EMPEROR

NAPOLEON.

Lord CAMPBELL rose to put a question to the no
ble lord the Foreign Secretary with respect to an ac-
count which had appeared in the newspapers, of the pre-
sentation of an address by certain persons to the Em-
peror Napoleon 111. Of these persons he wished to
say nothing disrespectful, because they were all per-
sons of respectability, and were no doubt actuatedby laud-
ablemotives, but he apprehended they had been guilty of
an offence against the law of the land, and, at all events,
against the law of nations. :The rule laid down byjurists is,
that intercourse between foreign nations should be carried
on only through the medium of accredited ministers and
ambassadors. The noble and learned lord proceeded to
read an extract from Vattel, in which this doctrine
was laid down, and which was supported by Puffen-
dorf, and also cited an instance which occurred
in 1791 of a deputation having been sent by a private
' body of Englishmen to the Empress Catherine, which
proceeding had been condemned in the strongest terms
by Mr. Burke as a violation of the law of na-
tions. (Hear, hear.) There was no doubt that these
persons, if their proceedings were not sanctioned
by the English Government have been unwittinglyguilty
of a great breach of international law. The declaration
in the address was perfectly harmless, and one in which
he (Lord Campbell) could join most heartily, but it assumed
to be an address from the English nation to the French
nation, and he must therefore ask whether Sir James
Duke bad been sent to supersede Lord Cowley in the
full powers of an ambassador extraordinary find plenipo-
tentiary. It did not appear whether Lord Cowley was
present, and he (Lord Campbell) could not tell whether
he had countenanced the presentation of this address.
He well remembered when Mr. Smith O'Brien and other
Irish gentlemen had presented an address to the Provi-
sional Government of France, and so far as regarded the
principle of the matter the presentation of this address
was exactly similar. He therefore wished to know
whether these gentlemen had the sanction of her Ma-
jeety'n Gov...went in their proceedings.
The Earl of CLARENDON thought that the noble
and learned lord had given the matter more importance
than it deserved. In his own opinion, however, these
gentlemen had only presented an address purporting to
proceed from a particular body of the citizens of London,
expressing their own indivi:ual opinions on a particular
matter, and the noble and learned lord's argument was
therefore wholly based on a fallacy. These gentlemen
had certainly communicated to him (Lord Clarendon)
their intention of presenting this address to the
Emperor Napoleon, and on seeing it he had not
thought that it partook of a national character. He
had not, however, given any authority on the
part of Her Majesty's Government to these gentlemen
to present this address, and he had declined to instruct
the British ambassador to be present.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH thought that this
was a matter of considerable importance. He quite
agreed with all that had fallen from the noble and
learned lord except the complimentary terms in which
he had spoken of these individuals. For himself, he
looked upon the transaction with no feelings but those
of disgust ; and as they had from the very highest autho-
rity that these persons had been guilty of a grave
offence, he hoped that if they came before the noble and
learned lord in his judicial capacity, his sentence would
be divested of all complimentary terms.
The Earl of MALMESBURY agreed with the noble
Earl opposite (Clarendon) that this address was harmless
and unnecessary. Having been present at Paris at the
time, and having conversed with several of the French
ministers on the subject, he wished to bear testimony to
the very beneficial effect which the presentation of this
address had on all classes in Paris.

The LORD CHANCELLOR denied that every such
transaction as this—the presentation of an address of
private British subjects to a foreign sovereign—was ille-
gal without reference to the circumstances, and pointed,
as an example, to the presentation of the address to the
Duke of Florence on the subject of the Madiai.
Lord CAMPELL pointed out that the subject of this
address was not national, and not referring to matters
of peace and war.
The Vaccination Extension Bill was read a second
time.

INDIA.
Lord CAMPBELL rose to present a petition from
the Armenian inhabitants of Calcutta and was
(LEFT SPEAKING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS-(THIS EVENING).

The SPEAKER took the chair a few minutes to four
o'clock.

During the recess the arrangements for lighting the
house have been entirely changed. The roof of the
building is now formed of ground glass, and the gas jets
are placed above. The place of the old chandeliers is
supplied by pillars ohnahogany. As the jets had not
been lighted when our report left, we cannot speak of
the result of the new system.