The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-05 00:00:00

the fault of those in (ace ;here. They were
wasting their forecs in two quartets of the globe, which.
were not even basely suffi.:;ient to carry into ktitct :hoc
ii itentinis. In China be understood that the idea of Lego-
t;-.ton at Fekin had been abaudond, and that the at-
tt;ugeokwhatsit vetoldreyre4de with cur snaa.l force on Canton. He
likely that the attack would succeed—
they might destroy the c;ty, burn it, and then not be
one whit nearer to the at ainment of their object than
at present. If they took possession of Canton they
might hold it, and the holding of it, if there
were no ulterior 01ject, would withdraw a large
amount of force which they could ill spare, and it
would be degrading to the city of Canton. Even then
what would they have done ? They would not have ap-
proached the settlement of the question with CLina
they would have succeeded in destroying Canton and the
population with which we had carried on such a lucra-
tive trade, and raised such a flame in China that we must
have a large force, or we might be expelled from the
other ports as well as from Canton ; and for this miser-
able war they were obliged to cripple the Indian army
and the defence of our own country. There was another
and a different subject on shies he had hoped something
assassinate
not b
would have been said by her Majesty's Government on
dtheeni fiedrettbdazytohfe
recentthi
this
P r
atrocious"eutsit attemptting.lt
to co

ri yen in

the Emperor of the French had produced in France the
most excited and dangerous feeling as to this country,
though it could not be denied that accusations and
charges had been made which were utterly without -
foundation, and many of which the enemies of this
country in France bad impressed on the minds of the
peopls, and which had led to sentiments which, if they
had proceeded from quarters entitled to any respect,would
have been little likely to have been followed by such
favourable notice by this country of what had taken
place as they now have. Undoubtedly what had been
said of the French, and the language held by so great a
person as the First Lcrd cf the Treasury, was undigni-
fied bluster, which had found in France persons who had
imitated it not surpassed it. But he did not think that
the impertin-at aril disgraceful language held on this
subject would induce dB to doubt that the accusations,
however unjust, and the imputations, however unfounded,
had had the effect of alienating from this country the
minds of part of the population of France, and he
thought that the earliest opportunity should have been
taken by the Government to disabuse the minds of the
people as to the real a ate of affairs. If there was any
offence which was utterly revolting and repugnant to the
feelings of every Englishman—if there was any crime
which carried hope for sympathy and protection from no
human being, with regard to which the moment it was
committed the sympathies of all the world were on the
bide of justice, and thatconviction and punishment should
be executed on the offender, that was the c. ime of secret

assassination. He was convinced that no man with an

English heart coon have a proposal made to him to get
rid of the bitterest enemy by means of secret assa•eins-
Lion aith>ut the fi:st impulse of his mind being to knock
down the man who made it. But when the offence was

sought to be committed, not against a bitter enomy, but
against one who had proved himself a firm friend of this
country, one whose life was of vital importance to the
English alliance with France and the maintenance of
peace and good order throughout Europe, and where the

offence hadnot even the poor disguise of political excite-
ment to palliate murder, but when they were so reckless
that they did not hesitate to expose to risk the spectators
ar.d the wife of the man they sought to murder, he must
say that the feeling of indignation against the crime of
assassination that would be raised in this country under
ordinary circumstances would, under the present circum-
stances, he felt, be still deeper. Undoubtedly, it must
be said that the language which certain parties in France
had indulged in deprived them of the right of asking any
explanation of us of our conduct ; but he did not think
that in our indignation there should be want of friendly
feeling, because this had arisen from want of real appre-
hension of the state of affairs—he did not say between
the governments, for he did not believe it existed—but
between the population of these two countries. Under
no conceivable circumstances could the slightest charge
of negligence or want of watchfulness be brought
against this country. He admitted that if it were the
duty of this country, which he did not admit, to drive
from its shores men who might be suspected of enter-
taining hostile intentions against a foreign sovereign,
there were no circumstances under which the Govern-
ment could have acted in this case so as to have pre-
vented the attempt on the life of the EmperJr. There
was a man who, for some years, bad resided iaßirming-

harm, and earned his living by teaching languages,
universally well esteemed, and not engaged in any secret
plot or understanding. As long as Pierri remained at
Birmingham he was perfectly *ale, perfectly inoffensive,
and there was no suspicion of danger. But then it wag
said,

" Why did you 'allow him to leave Birminghaioto

go to Franc-e
?" It was no part of our business 7 in this
country every man freely came and went when and

where be pleased ; and this man had not been guilty of
any offence against our laws. But he must Bay that one
lesson to be drawn from the manner in which this diabo-
lical plot had been so nearly made successful was the
utter futility of that vexatious system of passports. It
had long been the rule of the Foreign-office never to
grant passports except to subjects of this country, and
no doubt the noble Secretary for Foreign Affairs would
bear him out, that that was still the rule. Danger from
Pierri arose not from the circumstance of his being in
England, but from his landing on the shores of France ;
and how did he obtain the means of landing there I
Where was the point at which danger commenced I
Why his arriving in France. And how did he arrive
there ? Why, he obtained a passport not from the British
minister, but he entered France by means of a passport
signed by the vice-consul of France in Belgium. He
proceded to Belgium. He (the Earl of Derby) believed
tint the Belgian police, who knew the man, gave
notice to the French Government that he was in Bel-
giuss and on his way to Paris. To Paris he went ;in
Paris he remained, he believed, a week ; in Paris, and
not in Birmingham, he completed the arrangements for
his attempt ; in Paris he conspired with co-conspirators.
The plot might have been devised in England, but it WAS
matured and carried into execution—so far as it was
carried into execution at all—in Paris, this person hav-
ing gone there by means of a passport furnished by the
French Consul, and in the face of what they had been
accustomed to consider an active and vigilant polioe—a
police upon whom, he must say, it reflected no great
credit that they should have permitted this great crime
to be so nearly successful as it was. Now, he ventured
to say, with regard to the case of Pierri, that, whatever
might have been the state of the law in this country,
nothing that could be done would have given that pro-
tection to the Emperor which he (Earl of Derby) thought
he ought to have received from greater caution in grant-
ing a passport on the part of its own officer and from
greater vigilance on the part of its own police. So much
for the individual case of Pierri. It was perfectly well
known that there were men in this country who enter-
tained the most dangerous designs; but it had never been
the habit of England, and he hoped it never would be
her babl, to punish men for designs and intentions un-
accompanied by any indication of action, and upon charges
' unsustained by any producible evidence. Here these
persons were, certainly not by our wish, nor by their
own, but because they had no other resting place for
the sole of their foot : and they undoubtedly did combine
and consult together as to the means of effecting most
dangerous and criminal projects; but so long as they
went no further than projects, neither for the proteetioa
of foreign sovereigns, nor for the protection of our own
totglisemw
which
hb be iandtebrefee rned sought with.
sovereign,H e k n
ew
to be impressed on the sensitive minds of ,the French
thatdid the
one l a o
f w
thePe permit
people was that these men were kept in England, as it
were, in the leash, ready to be slipped whenever it suited
the purpose of the English Government to let them go
abroad. Now he thought it but right that the people of
this countryand the people of France should be undeceived
in that respect; and he said in the presence of his noble
friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affair,, who
would contradict biinif he was mistaken, that the persons
who entertained these dangeroasdesigns were known to
the police, and that, so far as our repugnance to the sys-
tem of surveillance would admit of it, they were under
the observation of the police. Moreover, so far from our
keeping these persons here to endanger foreign sovereigns
it had, he believed, always been considered the duty of
the Government, when they knew of any design against
the He of a foreign sovereign, to give that sovereign
friendly warning, and to place him on his guard against
such ma hinations ; and he would express his conviction
that on more than one occasion the Emperor of the
French had been mainly indebted to friendly intimations
given by the Government of this country for the fine-
tration of the designs of persons whom we were now
obarged with keeping here for the endangering of his
life. (Rear, hear.) He thought it right that it should
be known to the people of this country that there are
men here who entertained dangerous designs ; he thought
it right, too, that it should be known to the people of
France that these deigns were watched by the Govern.
ment, that information respecting them was always
given to the sovereigns whose lives were endangered,
and that, as far as possible, they were counteracted by
the police, which, if it did not make as much noise, was,
he believed, quite as effective as the police of France.
(Hear,hear.) He thought it important that her Majesty's
Government should give an early explanation of their
e apublichi m
m attentionost
opinions and views on this question, because it was ono
upon which there was much misapprehension, and one
to whichred
to
importantw as
grte.h-tatlty
they should
hltaepa;
p
troni her Majesty's Government without delay whether
they intended to take any steps in consequence of the
late atrocious attempt, any steps which, if they did not
give more effectual protection to the lives of foreign so-
vereigns, would at least manifest the goodwill of this
country, and meet the reasonable wishes and hopes of
other countries. He would say at once, however, that
not to avert the threatened hostility of France, not to
secure the friendship of France or any other power in
Europe, would he consent to violate in the slightest de.
gree that right of asy:um which had always been th•
boast of this country that it afforded. (Hear.). Of that
asylum men of all political shades of cpinion, and of all
political denominations, had freely and amply partaken.
That a ylum had, indeed, by many persons been dia.
gracefully and in. st ungratefully abused—(hear)—and
he did not hesitate to say that those persons were
guilty of a crime against the world and against
humanity who did so much by their conduct in abusing
the asylum granted to them, and by the suspicions which
they raised to embroil with other countries the country
which protected them. (Hear.) Still, not even °newel!.
of the crimes of these parties, nor on account ofrleoo _
sequences which might follow, would he conseyunfor i_a
moment to destroy or to relax that right
be thelawr
was enjoyed by all persons who did not
thing which be was
of this country. There was another
ropose to do—if it
sure the Government would nu9tdiP
not grant it to any
wero proposed parliament ,
errui ana that was, that any
government, however or!
P in this country on suspicion or
man should be punished vidence ven in the face of day
instead of e
on notoriety,
tribunal, (sear, hter.) If the people
before a public tri