MR. BLACKETTsaid, he wished to call the attention of the noble Lord (Lord J. Russell) to the severe capital punishments now being carried into effect in Lombardy, to the expulsion of a large number of Swiss people from that territory, and to the confiscation of the property, by the Austrian Government, of 447 many persons formerly Austrian subjects, now domiciled in Sardinia. He begged to inquire whether Her Majesty's Government would have any objection, in the interest of the Government and house of Austria, and that of the general peace of Europe, to use their friendly offices with the Court of Vienna, in the hope of procuring some mitigation of the severe penal measures now being enforced against Austrian subjects in Lombardy?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLSir, with respect to the measures to which the hon. Gentleman has called my attention, I think his question has reference to three subjects. The first is with regard to the capital punishments resorted to in Lombardy, in the cases of persons believed to have been engaged in a conspiracy. Upon that subject, I have nothing whatever to say, nor has any representation been made, nor is intended to be made, by Her Majesty's Government. With respect to the second question, the expulsion of certain persons—a great number of persons—belonging to one of the cantons in Switzerland from Lombardy, it certainly seems a very harsh measure, and I know not what has been the justification of it. It has of course caused considerable excitement in Switzerland, and very great distress to those poor persons who have been the objects of it. I know not, however, that it is a subject in which Her Majesty's Government ought to interfere in any way. With regard to the third point, it is one on which the Sardinian Government has communicated with Her Majesty's Government, and upon which I trust there will be some measures taken by the Austrian Government which will make their proceedings more consonant to the general law of justice than at present appears to be the case. The facts, so far as I know them, and as they have been stated to Her Majesty's Government by the Government of Sardinia, are these. After the insurrection in Lombardy, and the war that took place in 1848, there were a number of persons belonging to Lombardy who were permitted by the Austrian Government to have letters which freed them from their subjection to Austria—letters of denaturalisation—and they were allowed to settle in Piedmont, where they obtained letters of naturalisation. There was a decree issued in 1851 with respect to another class of persons who were stated to have left Lombardy, and whose property must have been liable to be seized; but the Austrian Government 448 decreed that their property should not be liable to sequestration, and they were put in as favourable a condition as those persons who were allowed to leave the country and be denaturalised in 1848. When the attempt was made at Milan very lately to overpower the Austrian garrison there, and by means which excited a general abhorrence—to kill the soldiers unawares who were in possession of the fortified posts—it appears the people to whom I have alluded, and who were settled at Piedmont, expressed general indignation at the attempt thus made, which merely resulted in useless bloodshed, and could not but be injurious to the quiet and tranquillity of the people of Lombardy. The Austrian Governor of Milan put forth a new decree, in which it was stated that this insurrection was the act of a very few individuals, and that the population generally were averse to the conduct of those individuals; but soon afterwards there appeared a decree, signed by Marshal Radetzky, which placed under sequestration the property of a large class of persons, namely, those who had left Lombardy with the consent of the Austrian Government, and those also who came under the decree of 1851. The Sardinian Government very naturally looked on that decree as a very unjust and iniquitous one; they said that it sequestrated the property of men who were Sardinian subjects; they considered it was contrary to the treaty between Austria and Sardinia, and they made strong representations at Vienna on the subject. They also made similar representations to Her Majesty's Government on the subject, and they asked Her Majesty's Government to support them. Her Majesty's Government have acceded to their request; and my noble Friend the Earl of Clarendon has written to Tier Majesty's Minister at Vienna, to express the sense which this Government cannot but entertain with regard to conduct for which I do not know that there is any precedent, and which appears to have no justification. I must say, however, that we have heard very lately that the intention of the Austrian Government is not to continue the sequestration, as was at first intended, to the cases of all those persons, but to make inquiry whether or not any, and what number, of them had any part in the insurrection at Milan. It is their intention to take off this sequestration, except from the property of those who, on information received, in some way or other assisted and supported that insurrection, 449 Of course, if that measure be thus modified, it will bear a different character, and the Austrian Government will proceed in due course of law to show that their suspicions and acts with regard to individuals are justified. I can only say, therefore, that I trust that this measure, which appears to be an act towards Sardinia of a most unfriendly nature, and unjust towards individuals, will not be persevered in in the shape in which it was originally proposed.