The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-08 00:00:00

ADDRESS FROM THE FRIENDS

OF ITALY.

O❑ Wednesday, a deputation from the Society of

the Friends of Italy, waited upon Kossuth, for the
purpose of presenting an address. The deputation
consisted of the following gentlemen :—Messrs. P.
A. Taylor, chairman of the committee ; David Masson,

secretary of the society ; the Rev. George Armstrong,
of Bristol; W. 13. Ashurst, jun. ; John Bainbridge,
W. D. Bruce, W. A. Case, C. D. Collet, J. Corss,

William Coningham, of Brighton • Frank Crossley,
of Halifax; John Davis, Frank Dillon, T. Donatty,
Dr. Epps, Charles Furtado, the Rev. Dr. Giles, of
Bampton ; S. M. Hawkes, T. K. Hervey, G. J. Ho-
ly ake, George Hooper, Thornton Hunt, Henry Fer-
son, A.M. ; Dr. Lankester, Rev. J. P. Malleson,
8.A., of Brighton ; M. E. Marsden, E. F. Smythe
Pigott, T. J. Serle, William Shaen, John Saunders,
William Simpson, James Stansfeld, W. Strudwicke,
Lord Dudley C. Stuart, Peter Stuart, of Liverpool;
Ebenezer Syme, H. Taylor, W. Taylor, N. Travers,
J. Watson, E. T. Weller, Thomas Wilson.

The address was as follows :
" THE SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF ITALY TO LOUIS

KOSSUTH.
" Sir,—As members of the Society of the Friends of
Italy, we desire to add our voice to the many which, in
this country, have greeted your deliverance from cap-
tivity, and your restoration to a life of freedom and

action.
" The intelligence of your release has been received
with rage and consternation in the camp of the enemies
of European liberty.
"It brings new hope and confidence to oppressed
nations now preparing for the struggle which must pre-
cede their emancipation. They hail in you a man in
whom the will of a whole nation is embodied; a leader
whom an overwhelming preponderance of organised
military force could not dismai; a patriot who now
re-enters the field of European action, with the
distinct purpose of regaining the liberty and inde-
pendence of his country. They feel that, in seeking
to accomplish this object, you necessarily bring into the
common cause the power of the Hungarian people, as
organised and directed by your own genius and energy.
" The society of which we are members has been founded
to promote, by such means as are open and legitimate
within the limits of our own country, the cause of
the national independence and liberty of the Italian
people. We regard the cause of Italy and that of
Hungary as in reality identical. Both countries make
the same simple and rightful claim to free national ex-
istence; both alike have been repressed for a time by the
lawless intervention of foreign force. Your own Hun-
garian soldiers are now encamped in Italy; Italian sol-
diers are on the banks of the Danube—both under the

flag of a common oppressor. The simultaneous action of
both countries is necessary for the triumph of liberty in
either.
In you, Sir, we reeognise the impersonation of, the
cause of Hungary. And we are enabled the more
vividly to realise the identity of this cause with that of
Italy by the fact that we have already in the midst of
us, driven hither by causes similar to those which have
made you an exile, an Italian patriot, who has con-

oentrated largely on himself the confidence and affection
of the Italian people, and who commands our admiration
by the genius, the purity of purpose, the devotion, and
the humanity which he has ever shown in his country's
service, and which were pro-eminently displayed in the
heroic defence of Rome.
" As there is no other European cause ranking more
closely in the English mind with the cause of Hungary,
in respect of its simplicity and justice, than the cause of
the Italian people, so there is no other European name
which you will find more closely linked with your own,
whether in the general heart of the English people, or in
the express appreciation of Englishmen of high
intelli-
gence, than the name of Joseph Mazzini.
" Ne hail your liberation, therefore, not only for the
sake of justice and humanity, which have been outraged
in your person; not only for the sake of Hungary, to
whose service you have dedicated your life; but also be-
cause we long earnestly for the emancipation of Italy,
whose fortunes are indissolubly connected with those of
the land yon labour for, and because we are interested
in that common cause of liberty and national independ-
ence which demands the closest alliance of all patriots
and all oppressed peoples.—Signed for the Society,
" P.A. TAYLOR, Chairman of Committee.
" DAVID MASSON, Secretary."

KOSSUTH replied as follows :—Gentlemen, the views
and sentiments which the chairman of the committee
of the Association of the Friends of Italy, in so
eloquent and so logical a form, and with such noble-
minded expressions, have been pleased to address to
me, have put me in a situation rather favourable to
my answer. In other places, and on other occasions,
when I addressed public assemblies, and where I
expected to find only the sympathy of the heart,
there of course it was my duty to explain my views,
my principles, and the true nature of those principlps,
and of that cause of which I have the honour to be the

humble representative, in order that the sympathy o
my hearers might ripen and grow into something like
practical action. But with you, gentlemen, finding an
entire identity in views, I find that I am anticipated in
whatl wish to say, and that what I sought for is al-
ready established and at work here in England. Of
course, then, it is not necessary for me to enter into
those views and sentiments, it only remains for me to say
that I feel most happy in seeing a body—a corpo-
ration, established by the impulse of their
own sentiments to promote, to protect, and
to advance that very cause and those very principles
which I have considered to be the end and the aim of
my life.—(Cheers.) Still, in other respects, the
views and sentiments which I have now the
honour to hear, open up to my mind a very large field
of observation, respecting which, although I cannot
on the present occasion enter into it at length, I
trust I may be permitted to say a very few words.
--(Hear, hear.) The observations I am about to
make shall have reference to the practical force of pub-
lic opinion, as directed to whatever cause. Of course
there can be no man on earth who would not wish for
peace. War, even by the most warlike men on earth,
cannot be considered as our aim. War is an excep-
tional situation, the aim can only be peace.—(Hear,
hear.) But in the particular life of a single man, as
well as in large communities, the aim must never be
confounded with the instrument by which it is to be
attained. It is very seldom that it is sufficient to pro-
nounce the aim in the hope that by such pronuncia-
tionwh the aim may be carried. So it is •
public opinion. Public opinion in itself is no aim,
it can only be the medium for carrying that which it
takes for its aim. Therefore, when I hear men speak I
of the moral force of public opinion, must frankly
confess my belief that it is very rarely that
public opinion is previously restricted and clearly
confined within certain limits—when men say that,
although such be our public opinion, we will not avail
ourselves of those media of action which circum-
stances may render necessary—then I
._ believe that in
that condition of things it is very possible that public
()Pinion will not be of any weight.—(Cheers.) Public
opinion to have an effect on the freedom of the world
must be ready to say, " Now we will go to war if our