§ LORD LYNDHURSTMy Lords, a short time ago I asked my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he would lay upon the table of the House the correspondence relating to the affairs of Italy. Since that, the noble Lord has, on two several occasions, stated to your Lordships that a correspondence was going on, as I understood it, between Her Majesty's Government and the Government of Naples and other European Powers with regard to the affairs of Italy. I now wish to repeat my question; for, as relates to Naples, it is to be presumed, I 2 think, that that correspondence is at an end; and, I fear, it is an end without any satisfactory result. I form that opinion from what is now passing in Naples. I allude to the trials now going on there—the political trials—which have, as your Lordships are well aware, disclosed proceedings of a most scandalous description. Ministers of religion have been stripped of their religious dress, threatened with imprisonment—threatened even with infliction of the lash—unless they would consent to give evidence against the parties accused. The whole course of those proceedings appears to me to be a mere duplicate of those proceedings which took place on the trial of Poerio, of which my right hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford (Mr. Gladstone), has given so graphic a description. It appears to me, so far as I can collect, that the whole Government of Naples is in the hands of police agents, spies, and informers, and that the position of affairs in that part of Italy is truly deplorable. I beg to ask my noble Friend whether he is prepared to lay upon the table of the House copies of the communications which have passed between this Government and the Neapolitan Government, or any other European Powers, in respect to the affairs of Italy?
§ THE EARL OF CLARENDONMy Lords, I cannot at present inform my noble and learned Friend whether it will be in the power of Her Majesty's Government to lay upon the table of the House the correspondence to which he alludes. That correspondence, as respects Naples, has not, as my noble and learned Friend supposes, been brought to a close; we have not yet received an answer to the despatch communicated by Her Majesty's Government, in concert with that of the Emperor of the French, to the Neapolitan Government. The King of Naples was absent from that capital when this despatch arrived there; but he returned in a few days after, and we have reason to believe that he gave directions that an answer should be made out and forwarded to the Neapolitan Ministers in London and Paris, to be by them communicated to the French and English Governments. Well, as I said before, we have not yet received it; and until we shall have received it, and Her Majesty's Government shall have determined what further steps are to be taken in respect of the affairs of Italy, my noble and learned Friend will understand that it would be premature to lay this correspondence upon the table. With respect to the correspondence that has taken place between this Government and other Governments in regard of the affairs of Italy, it is perfectly true that we have offered our opinions and advice to those Governments whose armies occupy a portion of the Italian States; but I do not think the object my noble and learned Friend has in view would be served by the production of this correspondence at present. I believe that the only result of its production would be to check the friendly and confidential communication which is now going on, and from which some good may be expected. Your Lordships must be aware that to correct the state of things now existing in that country, and to render the withdrawal of those foreign armies safe, must be a work of some time. I can, therefore, only hope that my noble and learned Friend will accept the assurance that nothing which it is possible for Her Majesty's Government to do has been or will be neglected to promote the cessation of this foreign occupation. I believe that the French and Austrian Governments are both desirous to withdraw their troops from the Roman territory, and that this withdrawal will take place as soon as a military organisation which the Pope is preparing shall have been completed.
§ LORD LYNDHURSTWill my noble Friend lay on the table the correspondence with the Neapolitan Government as soon as the answer arrives?
§ THE EARL OF CLARENDONUntil I see the answer I cannot tell; but my noble and learned Friend will have an opportunity of repeating his question.