The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-02 00:00:00

which might have been naturally expected upon the
Whnde of an enthusia etic and sensitive people. The peril
ich the Emperor end Empress had essaped doubled
and trebled the enthusiastic feeling and the indignant
loyalty which burst forth upen the instant. From every
quarter were poured in addresses of congratulation and
thankfulness that lives so valuable to Franca and to
Europe had been eaved. Nor was it by France alone,
but by the British !residents in France, and by the
inhabitants of various parts of this kingdom that these
feelings of thankfulness and congratulation were testified.
But, unfortunately, my lords, it transpired that among
the small band of miscreants by whom this outrage was
perpetrated were some at least who, having been com-
pelled toiflee from their own country, had for a certain
period of time been enjoying and abusing the hospitality
of England. (Hear, hear.) Supposing the circumstances
had been reversed—supposing that her Majesty, going
among her subjects with that frank confidence which
characterises her, knowing as she does that in the
loyalty and affection of her people she has her best and
securest guard, and surrounded by a loyal and devoted
multitude, had been exposed to an attack upon her
Royal person while proceeding to the opera-house in
London—what, I ask your lordships to consider, would
have been the feelings of the people of this country,
what would have been the indignation of the people of
this metropolis! And if it had come to their knowledge,
as it undoubtedly would in such a case, that that das-
tardly attempt was not the work of any native-born
subject of her Majesty, but the preconcerted design of a
band of assassins who had abused the hospitality they
had received in a neighbouring country, I put it to your
lordships whether you think that their censures and their
indignation would have been very cautious or very dis-
criminating ? (Hear, hear.) I cannot therefore wonder,
however, deeply I may deplore, that upon the news
spreading through France that this atrocious deed
was the act of refugees coming straight from England
with the enthusiastic expressions of loyalty and congra-
tulation at the safety of the Emperor there should have
been mingled more especially from the army of France,
some expressions which,:eeeing how unworthy they were
as applied to England, must naturally have wounded the
feelings of the people of this country. Under .th e circums
stances, my lords, I think that such exprcfsshehns ought
not to have been too nicely scanned, even iis Imperial
Majesty, with that frankness and candour which he has
always displayed in his relations with England, had not
fairly avowed the regret he felt that such language, ac-
companying the manifestations of loyalty to himself, had
been suffered to appear in the public papers, and thereby
to create a just resentment in the people of this country.
(Hear, hear.) But, my lords, I should be sorry, indeed,
to think that those expressions, whatever they may have
been, truly represented the calm and deliberate feeling
entertained towards England by the great and noble
army of France. I will not believe it, my lords, for true
valour never indulges in bombast—(near)—and I should
be surprised to find that those who were the authors of
these intemperate addresses were in reality the most dis-
tinguished among those glorious!aoldiers of France, who,
in many a hard-won battle on the fields of the Crimea,
fought and bled in honourable rivalry with their British
allies, and have therefore learnt how to appreciate British
bravery and British ce-operation. (Cheers.) It is now
more than 100 years since we have had in England any
of those civil disourbances which compelled many of the
citizens of this country to take refuge in foreign lands.
We cannot, therefore, judge (out we ought to make
allowance for French feeling) how annoying and irritat-
ing it must be, and would be to ourselves, if in a neigh-
bouring town on the continent we were conscious that
many disaffected persons were concentrated together,
entertaining the most hostile sentiments towards the Go-
vernment of this country, and bent upon overthrowing it
by the most treasonable designs. My lords, although
the oppression must be most grievous and intolerable
which can justify any man or set of men in exposing
their own country to the horrors of civil war, yet when
that dreadful state of affairs arrives—when the sword
is drawn in civil strife in defence of opposing prin-
ciples, whatever may be our own predilections or our
own opinions, we cannot but regard with respect
and sympathy those to whom fortune has been
unfavourable, on whatever side they may have
struggled. Whether they be those who, from an un-
wavering sentiment of loyalty, stood to the last by an
unpopular and ill-fated Sovereign, or those who, from a
desire to rescue their country from tyranny, have risen
in unsuccessful revolt, if they have fairly and in the open
field maintained their principles by the sword, at the
risk of their fortunes and their lives, public sympathy
will always follow them in their misfortunes and in their
exile. (Hear, hear.) Contemporary history may not be
AS indulgent; but posterity will do justice to those who,
from whatever cause, have suffered in defence of doc-
trines which they honestly believed to be sound and true.
If we look back to the periods of our own civil war,
when men here contended earnestly and vehemently fcr
principles truly and deeply implanted in their minds,
and sternly upheld them in the field of battle—if
we revert to those distant times and view them
by the light of history, we can even now sympa
thise with the gallant and devoted Cavaliers in the
days of their affliction—we can sympathise with the
stern Puritans, whose ardent love of liberty led them to
prefer poverty and exile to the violation of their con-
scientious convictions. There is no man, however
warm an admirer he may be of that great deliverer
William 111., but looks with sympathy on the faithful
attachment to a fallen monarch of many of the followers
of James 11. And coining down to a later, and happily
the last, period to which I can refer in our own history
for an illustration, even at this day, devoted as this
country is to the House which now so auspiciously reigns
over us, no man can look back without a feeling of sym-
pathy and admiration upon the heroic and romantic
sacrifices made by the supporters of the unhappy Stuart..
(Hear.) Bat, my lords, if we have this sympathy for
men whose misfortunes have followed their open and
manly defence of their principles by the sword, no such
sympathy is due, and none is extended either by con-
temporary history or by impartial posterity, to those
who, in order to attain their political ends, resort to
the base and vile means which characterise the designs
of the assassin. (Hear, and cheers.) If tbere is one
degree of infamy beyond that which attends the man
who wields the assassin's knife, that infamy belongs to
him who, lacking 'the only pailiation of the assassin's
. guilt, the bold sacrifice of his own life—skulks in safety
at a distance, and, plotting and devising crimes and
assassinations, sends forth his wretched tools to perpe-
trate and suffer for deeds which he has the heart to con-
ceive, but not the boldness to execute. (Hear, hear.)
And these men call themselves the friends of liberty.
Why, my lords, these men are the bitterest and most
determined foes of liberty. They are those who cause
every right-thinking mind to shrink from connexion with
the purest and holiest cause, because they pollute it by
the vile machinery they employ—they are those who in
their own country rivet the chains of slavery and oppres-
sion—they are those who drive from their shores
every upright and every honourable mind— they are
those who compel the treachery of the assassin to be
met by the machination of the secret spy—they are
those who by their dark designs make des-
potic sovereigns have recourse to measures more
despotic still, and by their conduct they do the utmost
to destroy that liberty of which they presume to call
themselves the constituted champions. (Cheers.) Are
men, then, who so conduct themselves—are men who
thus abuse the hospitality and esylum which Ecglan i
affords them—are these men, whom the law of England
protects and shelters, to commit crime among us with
impunity ? No, my lords, they are not. There's not a
crime of which these persons can be guilty, there's not
an approach to such a crime, for which the law of Eng-
land does not provide. Not only assassination, not only
conspiracy to assassinate, but even an incitement to as-
sasinate, whether by publication or by word of mouth,
is an offence recognised by the law of England when the
guilt of the accused person shall be proved. But it is
naturally said, "If these things are done—if these crimes
are concocted in England and in London, how is it that
the Government of England has not the power to pre-
vent their repetition I" Ify answer is perfectly simple •
but let me say that I can understand that personsbe-
lieving that Government had the means of so dealing
with such supposed offenders might consider that we
exercised an unfriendly part in not using these powers.
Still the answer is plain and obvious. Although the
law provides remedies for all those shades and colour, of
crime, yet the law cannot be put in force until the crime
is established. (Hear, hear.) Intention, unaccompanied
by any overt act, so long as the intention remains in the
mind of the party alone conceiving it, affords no ground
fur prosecution. Of the great number of those whom
misfortune has driven to these shores the vast propor-
tion I firmly believe are honestly and honourably ob-
taining a living in this country, and are performing the
duty of peaceful citizens. (Hear, hear.) Others there are
no doubt, who are engaged in pursuits which are of a me-
nacing and dangerous description ; but, as I have already
said, these persons are all amenable t ) the law—if even
thelaw does not provide a sufficient remedy—the moment
thatyou have sufficient evidence to satisfy a jury of their
guilt. But with us suspicion is not crime—suspicion does
not warrant the punishment of crime, and notoriety is
a word which is notl recognised in our statute book.
(Hear, hear.) It isi.a think, owing to the total difference
between the law
misapprehension
country and in France in this
respect that some
Government
has been excited in
France as to what the reent of England ought to
do to meet cases of this deeriuription. Now, I do not
hesitate to say that it is the ywoaftGovernment, so far
as it is in its power, carefullybetotsuspecch,edthe proceedings
of persons who may justly
of illegal prac-
tices, nor do I doubt that the late Government—or any
Government that was ever fox med in this country—would
do its utmost, subject to the laws of this country' top
tect a friendly nation against machinations and
laiukcehthis, but in every case the evidence of guilt roast pb
t.?
s.
as would satisfy a jury. To that tribunal every
case must necessarily be brought. Before that tribunal
tahhee
_u_ee..n.
tihe.orsreltf bound to plead ;to that tribunal
in Sn'oPtr
s: in,oorplauraprotection of her person ; and it it
cannot for a mo:flat with your judicial system that I
enterpwcutlidnthe
of feral
alt. 1 thi toTl(nluee thatve
etiguat tte:i suggest
mthiendposlosifbilalutyy
) What, then, prudenceuwrsass-
of the country, the je7u
the course taken by the late Gr,:vheeae.
telligence was received of the atterreiTtenat ao
ra as
yin-
"failure" of the attempt, upon the life liot•
of the French? Her Majesty's Government—I think'e-
propeely—directed their immediate attention to the con
sideration of the question whether the existing
law wag
adequate for the protection of fireign Sovereigns, or
whether some more .
adequate provision might not be
called for. With this
.riew they introduced into Parlia-
ment bill was secured by a
a bill, of the merits of which I shall at present say
nothing. The first reading
. of that
very• catansously with
considerable majority of the House of Commons;
but, most unfortunately, as I think, sim
the introduction of that bill a despatch was read from
Count Walewski which was tinanswer4d at the time by
her Majesty's Government, and which was laid re befo
the public without answer or explanation. My lux".
I will not refer to any terms which aro contained