The Marquis of Londonderrysaid, that in rising to move the order of the day, for going into a committee of supply, he wished to advert to a question which had been put to him two days ago, and to which he had not at that time been able to give any other than an argumentative reply. The question to which he alluded was this—" Were the Russian troops continuing their march towards the south of Europe or not?" He had then stated, in answer to the question, that those troops had been put in march under special circumstances, and that, though he was not able to say that their march had been suspended, he felt himself entitled to observe, that the change of circumstances in Piedmont, where events had rendered it necessary to call in the assistance of an Austrian army, might produce a change in the movements of those troops. He could now state to the House from official information, that the Russian army would, not pass its own boundaries. In giving this information, he felt it to be due, not only to the House and to the country, but to the two great powers which had been most improperly, most illiberally, and most unjustly treated in that House—for it was sporting with them most unfairly 539 when hon. gentlemen got up in their places, without any knowledge of the facts on which they were speaking, to charge those illustrious individuals in whose hands the destinies of Europe were placed, with a design of overrunning it, for purposes which were no less tyrannical in themselves than injurious to the interests of the world; he felt it due, he repeated, to those great powers to state, that they had never had any such object in contemplation. He had on a former occasion, in the face of the House, entered his protest against the imputation that they were actuated by a spirit of aggrandizement, because his experience of their characters convinced him that the charge was wholly unfounded. He would take upon himself to affirm, that no information had come to his knowledge which could lead him to suppose that they were actuated by any sinister motives or selfish purposes in the policy which they had pursued towards Naples. This declaration he had made on a former evening, and what he had since learned had not caused him to alter his opinion. He had formerly stated his opinion, that that army would be arrested on its march. He could now state the circumstances under which it had been so arrested. The fact was, that in the present state of the king of Sardinia's dominions, a considerable part of his army having been disbanded in consequence of its late insurrectionary movement, it was only natural for that sovereign to apply to the allied powers for troops to occupy his dominions. That application had been made in the first instance to the emperor of Austria, through the medium of count Bubna. The emperor of Austria replied, that however anxious he might be to attend to that application, he was still more anxious to avoid all grounds for a charge of being desirous to aggrandize himself in Italy, at the expense of his neighbours, contrary to the faith of treaties which he had most religiously observed. He said, however, that he would apply to the emperor of Russia to allow a limited corps of his army, amounting to 25,000 or 30,000 men—to come down into the south of Europe, to execute the purposes which he had himself been requested to execute. The emperor of Russia had said, in the same spirit with the emperor of Austria, that he was also open to the same charge of aggrandizement, and he earnestly begged that every step might be taken to prevent any idea of such a nature being 540 attached to any movement of his troops. This statement would completely repel one practical notion which he had endeavoured to negative by inference—namely, that the Russian army was put in motion with a view to ulterior motions as respected Spain. The fact was, that such a charge against the allied powers was as visionary a charge as any that had ever been brought forward. He trusted that the information which he had given would be satisfactory both to the House and to the country.
§ Lord Miltonobserved, that the House and the country would feel satisfaction at the explanation which the noble lord had given upon a subject so important. He could not, however, think that hon. gentlemen were, in consequence of it, to be restrained from expressing their opinions upon the conduct of the continental powers. Allowing that both Russia and Austria were free from any spirit of territorial aggrandizement, still it was evident that they were actuated by a spirit of aggrandizement scarcely less injurious—he meant that of making the executive government too strong for the liberties of the people. He did not know whether the fact of one sovereign applying to another sovereign for a body of troops to keep down the discontents of his own people, was not a precedent as dangerous to the liberties of nations, as the fact of the Stuarts taking money from Louis 14th, to put down the rising spirit of England, would, if long continued, have been to the liberties of England. When he recollected the conduct of the allied sovereigns in general since the conclusion of the war, and especially when he recollected the conduct of the king of Prussia who had made more promises to give a constitution to his subjects than any other monarch, and who had nevertheless broken them all, he thought it rather too much for any member to say, that they ought not to look with an eye of jealousy at the designs entertained by these sovereigns.
§ Mr. Warrethanked God that there was yet one corner of Europe in which the conduct of the allied sovereigns could be freely discussed. He implored the House not to look upon the stoppage of the Russian army in any other light than as an abstinence from crime and violence.
The Marquis of Londonderryshortly stated the principles on which he had written the circular, with regard to the Neapolitan government, and distinguished 541 the case of Naples from that of Piedmont. Against the insurgents in the latter state, he maintained that Austria had an undoubted right to march, as they had gone so far as to declare war against Austria. With regard to the desire of aggrandizement, with which the emperor of Russia had been charged on a former evening, he would say this, that though he would not make himself answerable for the conduct of any individual, he believed, from his own knowledge of the character of the emperor of Russia, that that illustrious personage was too deeply impressed with a true sense of his own glory and his real policy, to seek for any further aggrandizement either on the side of Turkey or of Spain.
§ Mr. Denmanwas surprised that the noble marquis should have charged hon. gentlemen with injustice and illiberality, when those gentlemen were absent who had taken part in the debate of Friday last. He himself thought that those charges were perfectly untenable. The House had seen the conduct of the allied powers towards Naples; they had seen the emperor of Russia denouncing the revolution in Spain as an insurrection, at the very moment that it was completed; and they had seen his forces moving in the direction of Spain at the very moment that the forces of the emperor of Austria were moving in the direction of Naples. Under such circumstances, suspicion would have been impossible, even if they had known nothing of the partition of Saxony, the transfer of Norway, and the abandonment of Genoa. If the noble marquis had committed this country by approving of such enormous atrocities, it became doubly incumbent upon members of that House to denounce the continuance of so abominable a system.
The Marquis of Londonderrysaid, it was not his fault if the hon. members in question were not in their places: probably they had been kept away by the smoke of the bill of the hon. member opposite.