The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-14 00:00:00

ITALY.

Lord J. RUSSELL brought up further papers on the
affairs of Italy. The noble lord, in moving that they be laid
on the table, said—l wish to answer the inquiry made
yesterday by the right hon. gentleman the member for
Bucks. The right hon. gentleman, as I understood, com-
plained that in the debate upon the commercial treaty I had
not answered various questions which were put in regard
to the conduct of foreign affairs. I did not think it at all ad-
visable to enter at that time into a discussion as to the con -
duct of foreign affairs, because it would have prevented the
progress of the debate, which was properly directed to the
merits of the commercial treaty. Although .I took no part
in that debate I have no objection—although I cannot refer
regularly to what took place in a former debate—to answer
the charges which were made the subject of complaint, and
in the first place I think I ought to say that I should be
very sorry to be thought to have misrepresented the conduot
of Lord 31almesbury, as I understood was stated by the
noble lord opposite, the member for Leicestershire (Lord J.
Manners). I said as far as I could make out that Lord.
Malmesbury had not obtained any satisfactory assurance
upon
the subject of Savoy from the French Government. It
is of some importance to know in what state the question
was left by the late Government. I find in the first page of
the correspondence with regard to Savoy and Nice, and in
Capt. Harris's despatch, the following :—" I pointed to the
pages 480 and 507, showing the steps which the Govern-
ment had taken to ascertain the truth of this report, but
will& led to no distinct statement on the part of the French
Government." Ido not consider Capt. Harris is a person
likely to view unfavourably the conduct of Lord Malmesbury,
and if he had thought that Lord Malmesbury had obtained
any satisfactory assurance and a distinct statement, he would
have no doubt stated it in the despatch. But looking at the
despatches which are referred to, that at 480 is a despatch
from Lord Malmesbury to Lord Cowley, in which he states
he had read au account of a treaty concluded between France
and Sardinia, which was said to provide for the cession of
Savoy and the future government of Italy, and directed Lord
Cowley to ask whether any such treaty had been concluded.
Lord Cowley's answer to that despatch, which is dated May
Ist, states that Count Walewski had replied that up to that
moment there was no treaty whatever between France and
Sardinia, but he said that under certain circumstances an
offensive and defensive treaty would become necessary, but
he made no allusion to the territorial question. This is what
I understood the noble lord opposite to say was to be taken
as a satisfactory answer in regard to the annexation of Savoy
and Nice to France. It appears to me that it was left for
Lord Malmesbury to judge whether he would pursue the
inquiry further, as to whether there was any treaty or not,
as in regard to this particular question there was no assur-
ance that there was not an understanding between the two
Governa.cuts that 2,trui vas to be ceded to Franca under
certain arrangements. (Hear, hear.) It was in this state,
therefore, that the present Government found the question;
and I think the first of the accusations brought against us
is to this effect, that her Majesty s Government have pur-
sued a policy of promoting the annexation of Tuscany and
the Romagnas to Sardinia, and. that thereby we have been
laying the ground-work for tne annexation of Savoy to
France, and which it ought to have been our business to
avert. I think the accusation is founded upon a misappre-
hension of the policy which her Majesty's Government has
pursued. The policy of the Government is not a policy which
requires the annexation of Tuscany and the Romagnas to
Sardinia, or required them to have a separate form of Go-
vernment; our policy is to endeavour by negotiations and
by representations of our views to the different Governments
of Europe to secure to the Italian people the power of manag-
ing their own affairs. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Now that
object, which i§ 1 fact the in,depeudeuce a Italy, wa t 9 be