§ SIR THOMAS LLOYDasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been drawn to a statement in the newspapers of a domiciliary visit having been made, by order of the Papal Government, at the house of Mr. Odo Russell, our acknowledged Agent at Rome; and what steps the noble Lord intends to take if such a report be substantiated?
LORD STANLEYWhat has occurred in regard to the transaction referred to in the Question of the hon. Baronet is briefly as follows:—On Saturday, the 9th instant, Mr. Odo Russell being then at Florence, the Pontifical police entered and searched the Palazzo Chigi, in which he resides when at Rome. They declared that they were in search of concealed arms, and they searched the rooms minutely, but they did not touch Mr. Russell's papers or books. Mr. Russell, on arriving at Rome three or four days afterwards, learnt what had taken place, and he very properly lost no time in applying to Cardinal Antonelli for an explanation. Cardinal Antonelli replied that no perquisition, in the ordinary sense in which that word is understood, had been intended or had taken place; but that the police had received information that several Roman palaces, and among them the palace in question, had been marked out by the revolutionary party to be blown up with gunpowder in the same way as the Pontifical barracks had been blown up. Cardinal Antonelli added that the search he had ordered was therefore made not in consequence of any suspicions concerning the inmates, but to secure the safety of 163 their property and lives. Mr. Russell stated that he considered that explanation satisfactory, and I concur in that view.