HL Deb 13 July 1860 vol 159 cc1842-3
THE MARQUESS OF NORMANBY

said, he had given notice that he would move for certain papers additional to the despatches which had been produced from Mr. Lyons with regard to the condition of the Roman States. He was happy to take that opportunity to state that during the whole of the three years during which he had been in official communication with Mr. Lyons, there was the most complete concurrence between them on all subjects connected with the affairs of Italy, and he regretted that his promotion elsewhere had prevented Italy from having in the present crisis the benefit of his ability and experience. On a former occasion he had taken an opportunity to express his high sense of the merits of Mr. Odo Russell, and he was sure that gentleman would be the first to admit the great advantage he would now derive from having the benefit of Mr. Lyons' experience. These despatches when produced would show the efforts that had been made by Mr. Lyons and himself to induce the Papal Government to institute reforms: but their efforts were often frustrated by the conduct of others. On one occasion, in particular, there occurred an incident that ought to be known. Mr. Lyons had received some conciliatory instructions from Lord Clarendon, and he was making use of them to induce the Roman Government to institute some reform in their mode of government, when there arrived the account of a public declaration made by the highest Ministerial authority in the other House of Parliament, to the effect that the Roman States had never been so well governed as under the republic of Mazzini. Their Lordships could not conceive the painful effect that this declaration produced on the Papal Government. He was himself at that moment engaged with a person of high influence at the Court of Rome, endeavouring to persuade him to introduce that reform which he hoped the Roman people were now about to enjoy—the right of a deliberative council; but that Gentleman said, "How is it possible for us to institute reforms when we are told from your Parliament that the Government we ought to imitate is a Govern- ment that in our eyes was the impersonation of anarchy, a Government in which neither life nor property was secure?" Under these circumstances he thought it necessary to address a further despatch to the Government, stating the painful impression which this declaration had made, and communicating what he had ascertain-ed as to the real facts of the case, to show the inaccuracy of the statements that had been made in the other House of Parliament. This was one of the despatches which he hoped the Government would not object to produce. His Motion would be for, Copies or Extracts from the Despatches of Her Majesty's Minister in Tuscany in 1855, 1356, and 1857, referring to the Condition and Administration of the Roman States.

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