The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-02 00:00:00

orders, the inspection of letters directed to or
sent to any Foreign Minister of what rank
soever residing at this Court," and he ordered that
copies of those letters should be sent to " this office."
That was the warrant of Charles James Fox, and he
found that during the whole time that he was at the
Home-office he used this power. His successor, the Mar-
quis of Carmarthen, also issued similar warrants, and
the last be would read to the House was one signed by
the Marquis of Carmarthen, and issued for a similar
purpose with the former ones. The Right Hon. Baronet
then read the warrant. He would not weary the House
by entering at length upon topics on which he would re-
quire to address them on a future day ; but considering
all the circumstances of the times in which his (Sir
J. Graham's) warrants had been issued, the important
exigencies they were intended to meet, he thought that
the House must be satisfied, as he himself was, that these
warrants had not been issued illegally. It was a hard
matter to judge of the circumstances under which these
warrants wt re issued, by comparing them with other
circumstances entirely different ; and he would be dis-
charging his public duty in a manner unsatisfactory to
himself and to his country, if he had hesitated to issue
those warrants in the peculiar circumstances which had
called them forth. He must say that, as far as circum-
stances had gone, he was perfectly satisfied up to this
time, and he felt that, as the question stood before the
country, he would rather be the person accused than the
man who brought the accusation.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE said that having been the person
who had presented, on two different occasions, the peti-
tions which had given rise to the discussions on this
question, he thought it was but right that he should rise
in his place to say that a more foul, unmerited,
and undeserved calumny was never cast by any Memher
of any Government than that sought to be cast by the
Right Hon. Baronet on the character of the gentleman
from whom those petitions had emanated. He would
say, and say it with confidence, that he had it in his
power to crush the foul calumny sought to be thrown on
that gentleman's character ; and he would ask what
was the effect of this accusation ? It appeared to him
that every step they took—every time they stirred in
this painful subject, the aspersions were darker—the
calumny was deeper, and the worse the Government
came out of the struggle. When he moved for a
Committee, he was told that the truth, and the whole
truth, would be submitted to it. But they had got more
that day than they had got in the whole proceedings.
It was a proof positive of the necessity for further in-
quiry—it was a proof that the report which had ema-
nated from that Committee ought not to make the mat-
ter stop here—it was a proof that his demand for an
open Committee was a just and fair one. The subject
demanded a full, a fair, and open investigation, and he
would leave it to the judgment of the House, whether it
had ever seen a more unsatisfactory report than that
which had been given by the Secret Committee. One of
his principal reasons for asking that inquiry was, that
Mr. Mazzini understood that gross calumnies had
been advanced against him in that Committee, and
that he had had no opportunity of replying.
In reference to the point which had been argued by the
Right Hon. Baronet—that of assassination—he (Mr.
Duncombe) did not know whether that, point came be-
fore the. Secret Committee or not but if it did, they
surely were bound in honour and in fairness to have Mr.
Mazzini or some of his friends before them. What was

the charge before them ? Why this ; it was said that
while Mr. Mazzini was living at Marseilles, he, as presi-
dent of a secret society, had ordered the assassination of
two of his countrymen. The Right Hon. Baronet had
read an extract from a newspaper to support this state •
ment. But without looking to the Moniteur, he might
have found the facts of the case in the Westminster Re-
view, and before going further he should wish to ask
him if he had seen that publication ?—(The Hon. Mem-
ber seemed to wait for an answer, but received none.)
There was an article in that Review, upon the Report
of the Secret Committee, and he should quote from it.
The Hon. Member then read the extract in question,
which stated that the Secret Committee had investi-
gated the alleged murder of two of Mr. Mazzini's coun-
trymen in the year 1832; and,
though that might not
have been believed by the members of the Committee,
still they ought to have given an opportunity to Mr.
Mazzini or his friends to rebut that report. So he said—
they ought to have given him or his friends the oppor-
tunity of doing away with that report. On the 31st of
May, 1833, there had appeared in the Moniteur a forged
document, which the Right lion. Baronet hail read. He
repeated it—it was a forged document.—(Hear, hear.)
That document purported to be signed by Mr. Mazzini,
as president, and by the secretary, dooming their country-
men to death. But that document bore internal evidence
of its fictitious character. It was full of grammatical
errors, such as a man of Mr. Mazzini's education could
not possibly have committed. But Mr. Mazzini after-
wards denounced theforgery in the Gazette de Tribunal,
The Right Hon. Baronet had said that Mazzini had often
threatened to prosecute the Monifeur, but he had never
attempted to put his threat in force. Now, so far from
this being the case, Mr. Mazzini did bring his action, and

was tried before the Tribunal Correctional at Paris.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM—Not against the Moniker.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE—No, but against a paper that
copied the paragraph from theMonialcitr. Well, the action
was tried in April, 1841, and what was the character of
the defence? "Why, that there was more than one Mr.
Mazzini in the world, and as Mr. Mazzini, the com-

plainant, was a man whom all admitted to be p )ssessecl
of high moral integrity, he could not possibly be the
Mazzini mentioned in the paragraph quoted from the
Monikur. Where, then, was the pretence of the
Government for opening hie letters? The defence,
however, set up now was quite different to that which
they heard the other day. It was now declared that
Lord Aberdeen had never seen any letter or letters
which came from Corfu, nor was any letter or letters
coming from Corfu ever received at the Foreign-office.
thelV Hell,nouoswe, if it was necessary, he could prove that the
Government did open letters coming from Corfu. Let
give him an ':opportunity, and he would
bring the matter home to the Government.—(Hear,
hear.) Did the Government shrink from that?—(Hear,
hear.) Hehad got the letters of Mr. Mazaini which they
opened, and could at any moment produce them. He
did not know whether the man who copied these letters,
forged the seals, and went through all the other dirty
work, gave the address correctly or not ; but he had ex-
tracts from letters corning, certainly not from Corfu,
but from Bologna, which was in the neighbourhood,
which had been opened and detained at the Post-office.
—(Hear, hear.) Yet, on the former occasion when this
matter was before the House, it was stated that the Go-
vernment never knew that the Bandieri were at Corfu
until after they had sailed. The Bandieri sailed from Corfu
on the 12th of June,: and landed at Calabra on the 19th.
but, according to the statement of the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet, it was totally impossible the Government could
have been aware of the existence of their plot. Now one
of the Bandieras arrived at Corfu on the 28th of March,
and the other on the 21st of April, and from that period
up to the time of their sailing, on the 12th of June, they
never moved from Corfu, so that the Government must
have been aware of their presence there.—(Hear, hear.)
Another reason given by the Government was that they
could not by any means know where the Bandieri were
going to, or they could perhaps have prevented
their massacre. Could this be so ? Information
was certainly given to Lord Seymour that a party
had gone out with arms, ammunition, and 22
men, and he was asked by the foreign Powers to send a
steamer after them. But what did Lord Seymour do ?
Why, he said the accounts were dreadfully exaggerated;
and twenty-four hours after he received the information
he sent a sailing vessel after them. Lord Seymour,
however, in his opinion, ought to have sent to Madrid ;
but if he had sent even a steam-boat after these people,
who, he still said, had been murdered by a foreign
Power, aided by the British Government, the honour
of this country would have been saved. Then they
were told that there were no troops to put them down,
and the peasantry rose against them. Now was that so?
No, it was not; for these people were met by the regular
troops. They were met by the 11th Chasseurs, by
whom they were charged, and they proved that it was
not the peasantry who put these unfortunate people
down, and af:erwards took them prisoners. The King
of Naples, a short time subsequently, thanked no less
than 170 individuals, who were chiefly connected with
the army, for services they had performed in
suppressing this insurrectionary movement, and
conferred an order upon the Neapolitan consul at Corfu,
for services he had performed in this most horrible
transaction. Then the Right Hon. Baronet said, if they
had not taken the course they did, Austria would
have marched 70,000 men into the Papal States. Now,
with this declaration before them, he thought the House
was much indebted to the Hon. Member for Waterford,
for bringing the question of the foreign relations of
the country before them. In his opinion, they had
completely lost sight of this part of the subject.
Their pet sonal altercations had made them overlook what
was going forward on the continent. They were told
that if there were to be an insurrection in the Papal
States, Austria would immediately march 70,000 men
into those States, and upon this ground the Government
were justified in opening the letters of a foreign exile
residing in this country. 6 Now he should like to know
upon what principle they interfered with the internal
commotions of a foreign country ? He thought this was
a subject well 'worthy the consideration of the House.
Now, by what be knew of the Constitution, he did not
think they had any right to interfere with the internal
commotions of other countries ; indeed he had always
understood that England repudiated any such steps. It
was resisted in mere than one instance by Mr.
Canning. It was resisted by him in the case of
Spain, when France tried to dictate to Spain on the subject
of its civil institutions. But now England was to be told
that Austria had threatened to march 70,000 men into
the Papal States, and to prevent this, it was necessary
that the British Government should supply a foreign
Power with certain information.—(Hear, hear.) He must
repeat, then, that this was a subject well worth the at-
tention of the House. Why should they favour these
little despotic States ? They were, in his opinion, a dis-
grace to civilised Europe, and he hoped one day to see
swept away.
them totally But not so the British Go-
vernment. They aided Austria who held out a threat to
these States that they would send down upon them
70,000 men, in the event of an insurrection, and openly
declared that England would assist them in every possible
way, and thus the British Government involved
themselves in every petty dispute in Europe.—
(Hear, hear.) That, in his opinion, was what
the conduct of the Government savoured with, through-
out the whole of this transaction, than which anything
could hardly be more disgraceful.—(Hear, hear.) He
thanked his Right Hon. Friend for having introduced
that motion, and he could only say that, so far as the
exertions of an individual Member of that House went,
he would do all he could to wipe away the stain that
remained upon this country, in consequence of the part
taken in this transaction by the Government. He should
give the motion his most cordial support.
Mr. WARBURTON informed the House that no
attack was made upon Mr. Mazzini in the recent Com-
mittee, in so far as the Rodez transaction was con-
cerned.--(Bear, hear.)