The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-06-15 00:00:00

...

I.

- - '

_~

, P

- .
Subseqtiontly the Swhs t 'anions rem I snxl sow of 11w
fugitives who bad offended Autria with that hospitality
which they had Bern sents'onsed- to shew In.esr 1.
strangers. S lof the (inton. hart the po4ll,.niiiiitt
to comply with the demand. Ile blamed this pusillr
nionity ; but he whited the Howie to 1w just, and ..mis;
der whether the powerful Government which made tb
demand, or the feeble one which yielded compliance.
most deierved the execrations of mankind. Thy State
of Geneva proved as exception. An application was
made by Austria for the, fugitives to be given up ; avid
what was a demand like this from a powerful Clovern-
meat to a weak one better than an application front a
highwayman to a traveller to give up his purse. The
State of Geneva replied,in a manner•which did: them
the highest honour, that they would expose themselves
to any evil rather than give up those who had con-
fided in their hospitality. The Commissioners departed,
hot soon returned and intimated to the Magistrates of
Geneva that if they did not take steps to send those
unfortunate persons away, they must take the come•
qnences upon themselves. What was this but a threat
of war from a powerful government agairsi. a feeble
state, because it refused to assist in punishing those who
had become objects of persecution. Coml.:awing the
principle of the Bill he contended that there was nothing
in the present slue of Europe to call for such a mea-
sure, hut, on the contrary, existing circunn.tanves sop-
plied tile strongest arguments against its ailapth,n. 1:e
supposed the c•tsCof some Polish Itehtgees catniog, who
tins) disturbed the Emperor Alexander's kingilain of Pr.
Lind,.pith a view of overturning that happy order of
things which his pious grand thee, of glor%ins me-
mory. bad established there. In smut a case these per-
sons under this Bill might he iven up to the vt ageance
of the Emperor. But if an attempt were iinnle to
revive that :Monarchy which hail flourished in Europe
lung before Muscovy merged from the basest barba-
rism, was there a man who would not say;—" (40d
grant that success may crown the effort." 'This Gill
then bound us to act against those to whom io our
heart. we wished success, and in favonr of whom the
strongest sympathies were excited. We were thins to OF-
pose ourselves to all who resisted tyranny—we whose
constitution was founded on resistance to tyranny—which
hail been improved by resistance—we who now baasted
a Royal Family which had been enthroned by resistance
—were now to pass a measure which was directed against
al! who resisted, however justly, against any tiovern•
went, however tyrannical. Ile could not see this with-
out recalling the words of a celebrated modern Poet,.:
which bad been directed half a century ago against the
Holy Alliance of that day, and participating in the feel-
ing which be had embodied, say—
" While European freedom still withstands
The encroaching goods whialt drowns her lessening
lands,
She sees ferWiT, with an indixnant groan,
Bar native plains and empires once her own."
He then noticed and censored the system which had been
acted upon by the British Authorities in the lonian
Islands. Ile afterwards adverted to the conduct of Rus-
sia with respect to the Greeks, who had been encouraged
by the course which she had taken to resist their oppres•
son. He did not know whether the Greeks were now;
to experience a repetition of that cruel perfidy which
they had to deplore in 1777. Ile dill not know whether
Russia had been prevailed upon by the Holy Alliance to
give up the Christian Greeks to the Malsometan tyrants.
On this subject his feelings were strong, but hi*
illation was imperfect, but he hoped the voice of this
country would be beard in their behalf, and that our best
efforts would be used in favour of those who spoke
the language of Socrates, from a fellow feeling -in Ole
faith oflUbrist. The Honourable and Learned Gentle-:
MIN etincludyitandittt loud cheers, an eloquent speech,
of which we have given only a brief outline, by moving
" That the Bill should be read a second time on that
day six months."

Mr. PLUNKETT said it was impossible for his lion.
and Learned-Friend (Sir J. Mackintosh) to address that
House or any assembly, without rivetting their atten-
tion; and the power which he possessed of command.
ing approbation for that which on the surface would he
condemned in any other person as irrelevant, bad per
haps never been more strikingly displayed than it was
by the uninterrupted attention which be had received,
and the applause which at its close had flowed in upon
him from all parts of the Honee.—(llear, hear.) It
would be his (Mr. Plonkett'e) humble duty to call back
the attention of the House to the question before them,
and to remind them that it was net for them on Utis oc-
casion to consider in what relation this country might
stand to other Powers at future periods of her history,
bat simply to determine whether it was proper that the
act which passed in 1820 ought now to be continued :or
Worms longer. The House would recollect that the
Menallie now before them bad passed in four successive
ParKeepents, and that some of the wisest men who had
eviti‘eat hi the House hail concurred in it. They would
alto bear-in wind that in all this time no complaint had
been heard from the people in this country on the sub-
ject. No petition had been sent to them, with the ex-
ception of one from the people of Westminster. These
things remembered, his fears diminished, when lie felt
that he had the Parliament and the People at his back.
He would take, then, the sense of the honourable and
generous people of this country.—(A laugh.)—He was
not aware that to mention the honourable and generous
character of the people of this country could justly pro-
vokes sneer. (" It was an expression of acquiescence "
a Member remarked.) When he could distinguish be-
tween acquiescence and reproof so cap d, he would
shape his course accordingly. While he was supported
by thelionest and generous feelings of the people of
this country, he must consider that the attack of the
Learned Gent. on this measure was founded in error.
Before stating what that Bill did, he would state what
it did not do. His Hon. and Learned Friend had spoken
of it as if it pat 25,000 subjects out of the pale of the law.
Prom the assumptions of his Learned Friend, it mitcht
he supposed that the bill took from the Alien Trial
by Jury, the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act,
and left him in a state of slavery. Lie took the
liberty to say. that the Alien while here enjoyed the
rights of a British subject in the highest degree.—
The power of removing aliens was claimed by every
State, whether arbitrary or free, monarchical or repub-
lican, liberal or despotic. Instead of being a new mea-
sure, this law, though the mode et executing it ea. new,
was footnoted on the most ancient usages „down to our
Constitution. It d with the Crown to 4(11114 an
alien into the country, and the Crown haul therefore the
right of sending aliens out. It was a part of the Royal
Prerogative. He did not say that that Prerogative was
nut to be regulated by Parliament, but what Its, had
stated was sufficient to prove that this measure was not
to he cried down as a novelty. If this power had lain
dormant from the time of the Revolution down to 179:?,
it was because the dangers to which the country was ex-
posed in the intermediate periods had not arisen from
aliens. Bet in 1793 a war of principles commenced,
and foreign emissaries were sent to this country to cot-',
rept British subjects.—(Hear, hear, bear.)—The Alien
Bill was then resorted to, and many of those who op-
posed it then, and who were no more, would, were they
now alive, confess themselves to have been mistaken.—
(Hear, hear.)—lie would say, that had ibises measures
not been adopted, be did nut believe that they would
now have been debating there.—(Cries of hear, bear.)—
He appealed to the House if the door of the country had
ever been closed against foreigners flying from persecu-
tion. When they arrived, having given in their saws,
with certificates to prove they were what they repre-
sented themselves to be, they were allowed to go to an

1

a, -