HC Deb 26 July 1860 vol 160 c212
MR. DARBY GRIEFITH

said, he would beg to ask the noble Lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any proposition has been made to Her Majesty's Government by the Special Envoy of the Neapolitan Government, lately arrived here, that the English Government should join with the other Powers in imposing and enforcing, by the means at their command, an armistice for six months between the Neapolitan Government and the Sicilian Government under General Garibaldi; and whether Her Majesty's Government have any intention of entertaining any such proposition?

LORD JOHN RUSSELL

Sir—In answer to the present question, I have to state that it is true that an Envoy from the Neapolitan Government has lately arrived in this country, and has proposed to Her Majesty's Government that they should mediate between the King of the Two Sicilies and Garibaldi; and that if that mediation, for the purpose of obtaining an armistice, and providing that there should be no attack upon the territories of the King of the Two Sicilies on the mainland, should not be accepted by Garibaldi, force should be used by the Governments of Great Britain and France, with a view of imposing such an armistice upon him. To that proposition Her Majesty's Government have declined to assent.