LORD BROUGHAMwished to make a statement on the subject of the charge which he had formerly brought against M. Manzoni. M. Manzoni was now a resident in London, and he (Lord Brougham) had told that individual that if he would 687 give a denial to the charges preferred against him in a petition, he would undertake to present it to their Lordships, to make its contents known, and to give publicity to his assertions that what had been urged against him was without foundation. On a former evening he had informed their Lordships that M. Manzoni had not forwarded to him any such petition; but he had now in his possession a positive assurance, under the handwriting of M. Manzoni, that he had only refrained from presenting a petition to their Lordships on the subject owing to the informality of his position, which he conceived would have prevented his petition from being received. M. Manzoni, however, assured him, in the most distinct and positive terms, that the reports—which appeared in the French, and also in some of the English papers—of his having brought away from Rome valuable works of art, were entirely without foundation. He further affirmed, that no works of art had been removed from their places in Rome, either by himself or by any parties whatever. He thought that it was merely justice to M. Manzoni, especially as he was now an exile, and, from the circumstances of his country, not very likely soon to be restored from exile, that he should make this statement, to clear M. Manzoni, so far as it went, from the charges which had been preferred against him.