HL Deb 17 April 1860 vol 157 cc1871-3
LORD WODEHOUSE,

referring to a debate in their Lordships' House on the 9th March, wished to take that opportunity of referring to a statement which he had previously made respecting M. Tassinari. That gentleman had written a letter to him, which he would take the liberty of reading. It was as follows:— Florence, March 21. My Lord,—It was with much pain and regret that I read in The Times, of the 10th inst., certain statements made by your Lordship, in reply to a speech from the Marquess of Normanby, reflecting upon my honour, and which I feel assured, from your Lordship's high character, you never would have made had your information been more correct upon the subject than it appears to have been. Your Lordship is reported to have stated that I, with eleven other persons, was arrested on a charge of being engaged in a plot, having for its object the destruction of one of the Ministers of the existing Government by the explosion of shells, and that I was examined upon that charge the following day, and ultimately tried. This, my Lord, is a very serious accusation, and ought not to have been lightly made, though, happily for me, it is wholly devoid of truth. No such charge was ever preferred against me in the only examination I underwent, which, however, did not take place until eleven days after my arrest. It is true that your Lordship partially corrected your speech in a note to The Times of the day following, but not in such a manner as to exonerate me. What I was, however, falsely charged with was having given 10 dols. (£2 4s.) to create a reactionary movement against the existing Government, and 20 dols. (£4 8s.) for the printing of circulars. This fact can be ascertained by referring to the sentence of the police-court, which condemned me, without trial, to six months' imprisonment in a fortress. I am unhappily now threatened with deprivation of sight, and could not, in consequence, during the period of my solitary confinement in the common gaol, relieve the irksome-ness of my imprisonment by any of those resources of which my fellow-prisoners might have availed themselves; therefore my incarceration told heavily upon me, both morally and physically. Under these circumstances, my wife, though she had no legal claim for interference upon the British Chargé d'Affaires, yet, as the daughter of a distinguished diplomatist who long served his country, and the sister of another now serving with honour and credit, she did not think that she was requiring too much of Mr. Corbett in requesting him to use his influence to procure a mitigation of my confinement; and so far from being insensible to Mr. Corbett's exertions in my behalf, on his telling her that he could do no more in this matter, she then expressed her thanks to him for what he had already done, with a hope that, should any opportunity occur whereby he might benefit me, he would take advantage of it. As your Lordship's speech has obtained extensive publicity through the press, I hope you will do me the justice to make the refutation also public through any channel your Lordship may think fit. I have the honour to be, Your Lordship's obedient humble servant, Cavaliére Brigadiêre TASSINARI. The only remark he wished to make upon this was, that he had not said that M. Tassinari was charged with having been concerned in a plot for throwing shells into the house of one of the Tuscan Ministers, and when he saw that assertion imputed to him in the newspaper reports he wrote a letter to The Times explaining what he really had said. What he had said was, that the plot with which M. Tassinari was charged was suspected by the Tuscan Government to have some connection with the throwing of the shells. But he was quite ready and willing to believe that M. Tassinari, whatever might have been his hostility to the then existing Government of Tuscany, would not have been guilty of complicity in any such attempt as that of throwing explosive shells. He regretted that any statement he had made should have given rise to misapprehension.

THE MARQUESS OF NORMANBY

said, he was glad to hear the explanation which the noble Earl had given; for he himself had received a copy of M. Tassinari's letter, and he was quite sure his noble Friend would take the earliest opportunity of setting the matter right. It now appeared that M. Tassinari had never been tried at all, and that the only examination he underwent did not take place till eleven days after his arrest. That gentleman, without ever having been heard in his defence, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on a false charge of giving ten dollars for creating a reactionary movement against the Government. That was the real fact of the case. He was happy to be able to add that, as one of the results of recent events in Tuscany, M. Tassinari had since then been set at liberty. He had felt sure that his noble Friend would take the earliest opportunity of correcting the error into which he had been led, as M. Tassinari was one of the most respectable men in Tuscany. It was too absurd to suppose that he, who was universally esteemed in Florence society, and who was now afflicted with almost total blindness, could really have been accused of any participation in a conspiracy for throwing bombs.

LORD WODEHOUSE

said, he had not stated that he bad been misled. What be said was, that misapprehension had arisen as to a previous statement which he had made, founded on the information he had received.

THE MARQUESS OF NORMANBY

wished to know whether or not his noble Friend adhered to the charge, not that M. Tassinari had been actually concerned in the throwing of the shells, but that he had had any connection whatever with the plot imputed to him.

LORD WODEHOUSE

said, he had already read M. Tassinari's letter to the House, and also explained what it was that he had said.