The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-06-22 00:00:00

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Lor.l W. lIVNTINCK feeling his own iocapacity to
Jo justice to the motion he hid given notice of relative
to Sicily, would willinciy have deferred the task to
another, had he not felt that the active share he had
taken in the transactions which ha,l ultimately led to
whit hail placed Sicily in a worse condition than when
Great Vritain first interf,red with it, imposed the task
tapir) hitt, as a point of honour. Ile had only there-
fore to request that the rams* mi2la not suffer frau, the
wralsoess of its ativocatf..—',Hear, hear.)—Ile hez-
ged to assure the House, on his honour, that he un-
Aertook the motion without the sug_estion of any
whatever. lie hail no desire to bring on a
useless discussion on matters with which he heti
been connected, and whim') therefore his vanity might
induce bins to think were of more interest or ins;tort-
ance than they really were. Since he was in Sicily he
had no communication with any of the natives, and his
present motion arose solely tint of a e!eep interest lee
felt fir the concerns of that people with whom lee hail
been so ,nurh connected fornaewly. Ile wished, if pos-
sible, to obtain for the Siciiiatos that degree of liber-
ty and thase privileges which they formerly possess-
ed, and of which this country had in a great measure
guaranteed the continuance. Ii the an.iquity of tee
claim gave any value to it, he *as the aelvarate of
rights, as valuable as those of • the Holy Alliance it-
self; for the rights of the Sicilians stood upon the
sotiqesity of crutu ries. .When he left Sicily, the Noble
Marine i• , had desired Liao • to require Inv

conditions from the Government with respect to the
Sicilians. The best was, that no inhabitant of Sicily
should be exposed to persecution for his political opi-
nions; and the second was, that the Sicilians should
not be placed in a worse condition with regard to their
political rights than before we had possession of the
island. From all he had heard he was convinced that
those conditions had been grossly violated ; audit was
actually incumbent on this country to interfere to cause
like observance of the stipulated conditions. lie had
M means of judging of the course tikeo by this coun-
try but by the instructions sentipt Cy the Noble Lord
opposite to Sir W. A'Court. Thise instructions, he
admitted, were drawn in precisely the same spirit as
he should himself have drawn them, and he was, there-
fore, the more snrprised, that the acts of the Sicilian
Oovernnient had been so contrary to them. It would
be in the memory of those who heard hiss, that in
1805, the Royal Family of Naples were driven from
that capital to seek refuge in Sicily, and for ten years
following remained there. During the whole of that
time the island was in our possession; and besides a
Ileet, we had there 25,000 troops. During that time
also, we furnished them with subsidies to the amount
at different times, of 1,500,0001. All that we obtained
in return fee this was nothing but distrust, hatred and
hostility. For sic years the affairs of the nation were
administered by the Neapolitans, but (ruin the mowers
the Sicilian Ministry was appointed, all things t0...1t
a change for the better. The native army..which tl:t
then had been useless, became available for all the
purposes of ;retire service. The old Coestitmion Lt.
Sicily had existed fur centuries, and had been res-
pected by every Monarch in Europe. They bail .s
Parliament, though an imperfect oae, but they emij•ci-
eml many privileges. The Parliament met every toe r
yeasts, had the power of imposing taxes, and appoin•-
eil a Cossuniss;on to superintend the collection of tbe
revenue and its appropriation. When tht new Si•
Ilan Ministre came in they wished to provide a reme-
dy for the aintses which hal crept in during the years
1411 and 1412. Three bodies wete made in the Sta'e,
and tile Nohleisien of the country had the glorious its.
tinction of being unanimous in the surrender of their
fendal rights.—(Hear, hoar.)—lt was agreed that they
*boob! adopt, as far as they were able, the British Con-
stitution; accor•lingly they formed the three C.;-
tares with Lord% and Uominons. 'this Constitutiari
lasted till the year 1415. In t4ll the King resumed
the reigns of (loves niuent, and took the oath to uh.
serve the Constittition.,
tions given to the lititishiAl now t rote to
Minister lmythe\hohenr
leiL'itoL,
noted September, I!,16; but as the evacuation was
ordered in 1415, hr coulrLeot but (auntie, that
sonic had been *item before, as Sir W.
A'Court delivered a inenioraadaiii on that oceeeiin,
expla nattily of the principles of the interference
which had been ecercised by Great Britain
in the internal regulations of Sicily. It was to be re-
marked, that the rnioit which deprived Sicily of its
Constiottion and all its rights, followed immediately
upon these instrucliona. This act of union from an in-
oependent kingdom made Sicily a province of France,
throeen the iiitereentinh orNaples, and it was we'd
anoint that there was nothing so counter to the
.preitt
'nevi of the Sicilians. than to annex deem to Naples.
The Grit act of the Palsaieritans.wila to attack the Neapo.
11/.111 Harrison, nputi the breaking out of the sulistiquebt
insurrection. General Church, who bad been accused of
terineoting that Revolution, had completely vindicated
aini4elf hr his p.sWlratinn on the 'subject ills forcible
sensaes In the Cointitsetittil of the !Sicilians &mitred in
...Oils • Th. Noble IWM made a few obeeventions tola-
-1•94.• ay dm state of too revenue r,f the island of Sicily,
were nut distintaly audible in tire_ gallery. He
soacluded by inuring an !nubble Address to his Ma-
lininhiy, to represent to his Majetty, that that Hones
sat with mortttleattnl the steps taken by the Govern-
mein of the two Sit isles foliminish the privileges here-
iiiiore enjoyed hy the people of Sicily to sods a degree,
that it became isecessary to avert reproach, from the Bei-
-14 nation, pieties' as it was to cause their ancient
rights to he reepra.:ted, trt pray his Majesty grasio'uly
-n interfere in their bslealf, in such a mot. as the ho-
mier and good faith ot ate Country Mined Itbsolutelyo
rrefeire.
Ihe Marquess of WiIiDONDERRt, in rising to
trouble the Howse with such obteriatiolls is he found
it necessary to offer, wished to do justice to the
fair and eandid th inn-r in which the suhjeet had been
brought forward b the Noble Lord. Be wai per-
fectly ready to adoit! that, from the pentiuml tarty-
ledge poesessed by the Noble Lord of the Ilan of
Sicily, and from his connection imp Aani; of the
transactions which had taleen'eace that b isJ, fro
individnal comb! more naturally In'terfat hide& in
the happiness of that cowry Seliose.situation Isis had
now brought befuret the. Molise. Bat whilb he was
early to render homage to the feelihgs which hail in-
sured the Noble Lori to come fbrward on this arca-
he thought it rather late,—if the proeeedings
in Sicily deserved the character which had been be-
stowed on them by the Noble Lord,—far him now to
endeavour to prevail on the Muse to conic to the con-
Musiint that the acts of the Sicilian Government had
been of so arbitrary and llegpotie * character as to
Call oa the King of Roglnil to take upon himself
the delLtate and responalble• task of interfering be-
Veen the people of Sicily and their Government.
The Noble Lord had fairly admitted that the instruc-
tions which hail been seat-out to Sir William A'Cottrt,
since the evarnadamt of Sicily, were such, that Ile.
conlil bare suggested nothing to improve them, hail
he been present wlsea they tree drawn up. This in
no small degree am:pitted the Ouverntnetat of having
acted improperly by the Sicilians. But the House
would remember, that that to which the atteution had
been particularly directed had occurred lu -ISIS.
The ideas of the Noble Lord on the subject could
not be altered his being made aeptainted with time
instructions sent out to Sir William A'tourt. if
then there wat any thing errohernis 4. the course ori-
ginally taken--if any thing h+ `hies done which
called for interference on the pia elf rbe British Go-
vernment, why slid not the Nislile Lord bring the
question sooner before the House , and call on thi do-
vernment to redeem any pledge 'thin thiy hid given,
while the' suliject.ini,:rht he empisitteresras iif a. &Daimler
till ,pen ttio,li!Lazi ? 1: was a litte late to cove

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f *tweed with moth !'gotten, five years after that bat'
happened to which If referred, and that tee at it
period when Airily. from eireentstances which were a•
pelmet but imperfectly known in this country. was
afloat to nndergo another organisation.—Tkether the
change would be for the better or the worse, he could
not determine. As far as he nederstuod it, he
believed that it appromtbed to that system which the
Noble Lord seemed to *onside, as vastly superior to
that which had for some years been acted nym,
as It pre Sicily a Government independent of
that of Naples. Ile did not mean to say that those
advantages necessarily grew out of independence
which some Gentlemen were in the habit of connect-
ing with it, bit Whether independence was a good or
an eel!, he believed that it was about to be restored to
Sicily, and therefor* the Noble Lord wool I Lave
h.rneght forward his motion more felicitously at the
period when the breach of the Sicilian Constitution
was gild to have taken place by its being' united to
Naples, than now when its separation from that
c..untre was node:stood to he determined upon. The
-uhieet metier the consideration of the House resolved
it-elf into two questions; first, as to the course of
moasnres adopted while the British Government were
io the military occupation of Sicily, and the nature
cf the relations growing oat of the connection then
e-tahlished : and secondly, the situation in which we
were placed after leaving that island from the duties
growing out of those relations, and the declarations
ciade on the part of this country. Under the first head.
the House would take into consideration the circum-
stances ender which Sicily had been occupied.
They 'mild see, that to oppose that gigantic power
which was then over-running the world, that it was
t'le object of this country to make a diversion against
tL.e enemy in l•aly. This made the occupation of
'-Rile desirable, but it was necessary to make suck
ilecisrations as should Jo away the idea that it was
-tended f welitly to retain it by military force. When
Aro occupied Sicily. the Sicilians were found oc-
c :pied with discussions on the form of their Govern-
ment. Snhseqiently considerable progress was made
I, these discussions, and a constitution was formed,
as nearly resembling that of England as they could
?rake it; an l the Sicilians had flattered themselves
e- it they would enjoy the same fruits, from the adop-
tion of one Constitution, which it had produced in
ti s country. But certainly, while the British army
eras there, its intervention was frequently found neces-
gory, to enable the (forerun:rot to go on at all. This
fi..ca•ne indispensable, not to promote any sinister
!e'er of our own, hat to protect the King's interest,
fi". I to preserve all that bad been done from being un-
done. So far as his experience went, and be (the
Marquess of Londonderry) had been in official cow-
ry: unica.lon with the Noble Lord, during the latter
part of the time he was in Sicily, he (the 31:trquess of
Londonderry) had never seen a Constitution that ap-
peared, to jade from its workings, less suited to the
!fettles of tbe people for whom it was intended, or less
a:Tlimbie to the actual circumstances of the country
then that which had been given to Sicily. So tho-
rough had the conviction been that that Constitution
not stand, that all were determined that a fun.
da:nental change ought to take place. It was true,
that in 1614, when it was thought necessary to with-
draw onr army, that Sir W. A'Court (then Mr.
A'Conri) had put forth a statement to open the eyes
of the Sicilians as to the real motives of this country.
and had explained to them the intention of the British
Government with respect to the army. which it was '
proposed to withdraw is the course of a few month*.
a; soon as they could be replaced by the troops of the
tiieg of Naples. In consequence of this, an attempt
a: a reform wan made by the Parliament, but, after
proceeding in the work for many months. they at last
came to a deed stop, and they, therefore, to pat a stop
to the evil, call on the King to appoint a Royal Com-
toission to reform the Constitution. A Royal Com-
mission was then formed, which made some progress
la the work assigned to it. bat did sot ultimately suc-
ceed ; and at last it fell to the King to meet the et-
genoy of the cue, by forming some sort of Govern-
ment. It was proper to remark, that the instructions
sent to Sir W. A'Coort were not sent at the time we
evacuated the island. It was is Slay 1815 that we
evocuateil Sicily; but the instructions were not sent
out till September in the following year. i t was not
supposed when we left Sicily that we were booed to
leak to its Constitution. The last thing that we
ought to do was to make a Constitittion for any coun-
try it we were not obliged by our own Constitution
to govern. if we were to do this, inconyetcnt as we
must he to dolt well, he was of opinion that such con-
duct would make the English name as odious through-
out gurer as It was respectable at this day. No in-
stractions had been give"' to Sir IV. A'Court to con-
vey to the Neapolitan Bovernment the ideas of ibis
Goverumeot as to the change which ought to take
place in their system ; bat these circunistancrs had
been tested under which this Uovernment might eon-
ceiie itself booed tr interfere. It wos intimated that
if any thing like a re-action. directed against those
who bad acted in conformity with the views of the
British should take Sem that then it witoW be their
duty to interfere in behalf of the parties. But be was
not aware that in the six years which had passed since
the change in the Governeseut took place. that any
complaints had been received from those who were
this' circumstanced. The Noble Lord bad said that
he had brought forward this question on his own view
of thesubject. without having had any commentate-
*tion respective it from any Sicilian. bat to hint it
seemed rather late to bring forward after six years bad
passed away a charge against this Ilovernmeat for **-
Oneness is not interfering to save Sicily from thn
evil, which had fallen on her throagh her union viii
Is!apies. It was a little late to bring forward such a
urge at a moment when it was aaderstood that the
meats*, were again separated. The 86461100-
wet had never bound itself to interfere in the of
It had rather &milled itself to make
which should justify luterferenee la the
_ their being called upon io do se.
Noble Lori had dressed up the foe wet Wefts-
of Wily in the most gorgeous habits that lie
supply, amid he had given his own picture of the
Government. From his description of the
it would appear that nothing amid be more
. then the amiss* Goverament of Sicily. But
7 were to look at the papers which could be
abed us this subject. it weal(' be seen, even room
Noble Lord's owe dispeeehee, it would appear that
Govern:neat was act always considered to be so

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