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

condition; and he asked first for health for himself and
family, next for fruitful erops, then for an additional farm ;
and his requests were granted. Then he asked for a park
and a castle, which were also granted. But in a corner of
the park there was a little slope belonging to a neighbouring
farmer, and he conceived a desire to obtain it, but his neigh-
bour would not sell the slope, nor exchange, nor yield it.
The fairy had warned the farmer not to ask for what was
unreasonable, on the peril of being re if ~i ed to his former
condition. The benevolent spirit warned him against inor-
dinate ambition, refused the territory, and restored him
again to his position of destitution and poverty. The Em-
peror, having finished the story, closed the book, and said,
1 " This applies to me likewise; and behold lam at St. Helena."
) (Hear.) That was the picture of a very great man morals-
; ing on the conduct which had led him to the condition in

which he then stood. He (Mr. Whiteside) believed, with
the noble lord, that the policy commenced in this particular
matter was a policy of the last consequence to the peace of
Europe, and he did not think he had been judicious in pro-
moting that policy; therefore he said that the inquiry for
information was both reasonable and just. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. MILNES thought that the hon. and learned gentle-
man had shown something like forgetfulness when he traced
the picture of diplomatic confusion, of which he said he was
totolly unable to discover a solution. That inability, how-
ever, appeared to arise from the omission of one part of the
argument. The hon. and learned gentleman charged Count
Cavour with that which was contrary to the fact. He (Mr.
Wiles) believed that Count Cavour was incapable of such
an act. He believed that in the conversation which took
place at Plombieres, or somewhere else, the arrange-
ment was not that Savoy or Nice should be ceded if Sardi-
nia was aggrandised in any way, but only if Sardinia got
possession of Lombardy, Venetia, and the quadrilateral. In
that event Sardinia would assume a military position, and
France was to be authorised to demand a rectification of her
frontier by the cession of Savoy and Nice. But that condi-
tion had not been carried out—Venetia was not annexed to
Sardinia, and the great quadrilateral remained a menace on
the part of Austria to Sardinia and the security of Italy.
Therefore Count Cavour was perfectly right in the position
he took. Up to the present moment he absolutely asserted
that if Savoy and Nice were separated from Sardinia it could
only be by a force majeure on the part of France, and not in
consequen.e of any agreement between the Emperor and
M. Cavour. The Emperor of the French had now asserted
that the annexation of Tuscany and the Duchies was equal
for all the purposes of the agreement to the annexation at
first contemplated, and therefore he claimed the cession of
Savoy and Nice. In making that assertion the Emperor
placed himself in a totally fresh position towards Sardinia,
which M. Cavour never recognised, and M. Cavour main-
tained that if Sardinia were put in possession of Venetia,
with a kingdom stretching from sea to sea, the question of
the rectification of the frontiers of France might come legi-
timately before Europe. If, therefore, Savoy and Nice were
given to France it would only be because Sardinia was not
in a position to resist, and because having received from
France the magnificent possession of Lombardy, it was im-
possible she could hold any other language except that al-
most of a dependent. He believed that Italy had a bright
prospect before her, and he trusted the house would never,
for any other consideration, lose sight of the great advan-
tage which would accrue to Europe and humanity from the
national independence of that country.
Mr. B. COCHRANE protested against the notion im-
plied in the noble lord's despatches, that countries had a
right to choose their own rulers. There were some of the
inhabitants of Zante who meant to petition the Congress, if
a Congress were held on the affairs of Italy, and to ask that
the lonian Islands might be annexed to the kingdom of
Greece. How could the noble lord reply to that? The
principle he had adopted was a most objectionable and sub-
versive one. The arguments used by the Emperor of the
French to palliate the annexation of Savoy were such as
would apply to Switzerland or any other small neighbour-
ing territory. And on the side of Nice, where was it pro-
posed to fix the new boundary of the French empire—at
San Remo, or still further on, within the limits of Italian
soil ? He (Mr. B. Cochrane) in perusing the additional
Italian despatches, could trace the same spirit which ani-
mated the noble lord and the noble viscount in 1848, when
they interfered in the affairs of Italy in such a manner that
the independent parties throughout Italy felt that Italy
had been betrayed by them. To show what the Piedmon-
tese thought of the policy which their Government had
been led to pursue, he quoted a speech of Count Solar della
Margherita, in the Parliament of Turin. Sardinia had
never gained anything but loss and misery from any con-
nection with France, and if the King now gave up to France
his ancient territory it would be a discredit to him.
Mr. HORSMAN said he had been surprised at the
altered tone of the noble lord on the previous night. The
noble lord said that if the annexation of Savoy took place,
then England would have no alternative but either war or
silent acquiescence. Now he (Mr. Horsman) would not
accept that alternative. As for war, he believed there would
be an unanimous opinion amongst all the members of that
house in condemnation of any Minister who should make
the annexation of Savoy to France at this moment a ques-
tion of war ; and there was no prominent part that he him-
self would not take in impeaching a Minister who could be
guilty of such a criminal act. Then what other alternative
was there ? The noble lord's own despatch of Jan. 28 con-
tained a paragraph stating that great alarm and distrust
would be excited throughout Europe by the annexation
of Savoy. But there was a contrast between that despatch,
which treated it as an European question, and the lan-
guage of the noble lord now, which seemed to lower it to
a question between Savoy and France, as to the transfer of a
few mountain tops and a few hundred thousand inhabitants.
That was not the question, but the question was one of giving
a new military frontier to a great military power, with a pass
through the mountains for the conveyance of its artillery.
This was the object which France now sought to obtain.
For the last 45 years France had been complaining of the
treaties of 1815, which she viewed as a great wrong and a
grievance to herself. The Emperor Napoleon had held out
the hope to France that he would be the person destined to
relieve her from this humiliation. But what had France to
complain of ? The nations of Europe, which had been
trampled under the heel of Frame for 15 years, the nations
of Europe determined that France should have a clearly de-
fined frontier. At that time there was a proposal for the
dismemberment of France, and the Duke of Wellington pre-
vented it. But the Duke of Wellington, though he was in
favour of keeping France still a great power, was of opinion
that her frontier ought to be clearly defined ; and now, what
right had any one nation, what right had Sardinia, to say
that France should make herself larger ? It was quite evi-
dent that by the war of last year France had entered on a
new career of self-aggrandisement and conquest. The ob-
vious course for us to pursue, since England herself would
be endangered by this, was to form alliances and combina-
tions with those powers which might be threatened as well
as ourselves. The lust of conquest in France, if it were
now indulged, would become stronger. The policy of Eng-
land in past times had been such as he now recommended;
it was our traditional policy. He thought our Government
would have done more wisely on this occasion if they had
entered into a prospective alliance with Prussia, as a pro-
test that could not have been mistaken against this aggres-
sion and challenge to Europe. In his view this would have
been the sound and wise policy to have adopted, and then
England would have been taking a dignified attitude, in-
stead of hugging a commercial treaty with France while
this was going on. The policy of total acquiescence was a
dangerous and unworthy policy.
Lord H. VANE regretted that discussions like this, which
wero of a provoking character, and could attain no object,
should be prolonged ; and he disapproved of the vitupera-
tion of the head of the French Empire, in which some hon.
gentlemen indulged. But he thought the deliberate opi-
nion of the House of Commons ought to be pronounced on
this question. He regretted that so much of the correspon-
dence that had taken place on this subject between our Fo-
reign Secretary and our Ambassador had been in private
letters. He hoped that her Majesty's Government would
take care that hereafter there should be a record of any im-
portant conversation that took place between the Minister
of Foreign Affairs and our Ambassador in France. It was
impossible that the House of Commons should be informed
of the events that took place if matters of this kind were
wrapped up in secret correspondence. In fact, he had heard
i
t statementrai saete
it said that a great portion of the correspondence relating
laid a iobdf
ya privateir abeforeirs, thea nd
correspondence H
that o u s
se o o
much
uCc
ho mt 0
hfmat
tohnno s
no fair
busi-
nessfair
was
nt to t foreign
ao
fairwreai g lia
affairs
view was placed before that house.
Mr. D. GRIFFITH said it had alwayseen
bassumed
that the proceedings in Central Italy had
been caused d
other parties, and had not been the spontaneousn c by
act of the
people themselves. He was •con -
vinced, however, that
though there had been some pressure on Sardinia, the Go-
vernment of Sardinia had by no means been the cause of
this movement. On the contrary, he believed that the Go-
vernment of Sardinia was extremely unwilling after the
treaty of Villafranca to be mixed up with the affairs of Central
Italy. Since that treaty various propositions for the settle-
ment of Italy had been made, but the people had never
changed for a moment, and there was little doubt that at this
moment they had shown their desire by their votes to be an-
nexed to Sardinia. The policy of non-intervention followed
by her Majesty's Government had had an important effect
on Italy and on the peace of Europe generally. The Em-
peror of the French might say to Sardinia, "True, I did not
give you Venetia as I had promised, but if you obtain Cen-
tral Italy that will be an equivalent." Central Italy, how-
ever, was never the Emperor's to give, and he (Mr. Griffith)
believed that no small portion of the present difficulty arose
from the fundamental error which bad gone through the
whole of these transactions, that the proceedings in, and
aspirations of Central Italy were merely at the suggestion
of the government of Sardinia, instead of being the sponta-
neous acts of the people.
Mr. KINNAIRD asked the noble lord whether any se-
curity had been taken, as was currently reported, for the
protection of the neutrality of Switzerland by the cession of
Faucigny and Chablais ?
Viscount PALMERSTON—I am anxious to say a few
words in reply to what has been advanced in the course of
this debate. The hon. and learned gentleman (Mr.White-
side) misunderstood that which I stated on a former occa-
sion; for he said that I laid down the principle that if this
subject were debated at all it must be by the censure either
of the
Emperor of the French or of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, and that I wished to preclude the house from
expres-
sing its opinion or
discussing the matter, except with a view