previously secured. It was not at last secured until after a struggle of seventeen years' duration; and if the merit of it did really belong to Lord Shaftesbury, as was sometimes asserted, it went far to redeem the faults of that great, though not blameless character. But the law of habeas corpus was evidently as perfect in its kind as legislative wisdom could make it; and although we had been doomed to witness too frequent suspensions, it still existed for the benefit of the present age, however disagreeable it had been to Charles the second, and notwithstanding that his brother told Barillau, the French ambassador, that it was a law too good to be carried into execution. The care taken in establishing the protestant succession proved how seriously our ancestors had laboured to prevent future ministers from degrading and dishonouring the country by a departure from those general principles to which they themselves adhered. He recollected that an honourable and learned friend of his (Mr. Brougham) had on a former occasion, when alluding to the congress of sovereigns, talked of the abouchement des rois, and congratulated the noble lord on his coming back reeking from the friendly and no doubt convivial intercourse of those illustrious persons. The example was, however, one of danger to kings: he could conceive nothing more calculated to be subversive of monarchical authority than the practice of transferring from responsible ministers to those who were not responsible the business of settling national affairs, and of dividing the world amongst them in the giddiness and extravagance These personal debuts

of power.

of sovereigns exposed them both to peril and discredit One of the few of them since the days of Charlemagne, was that which ended in the partition of Poland, and they were now receiving a sad earnest of the objects and intentions of that last abouchement which had produced a treaty amongst powers describing themselves as engaged in a holy alliance. This term appeared to him to be an unmeaning rhapsody, or, if it meant any thing, to signify that the contracting powers would, in future, observe the holy scriptures more faithfully than their predecessors. But had these professors of theology and ethics clearly understood the sacred obligations by which they bound themselves to regulate their future policy? The Christian religion was not a religion of slavery, but a faith that embodied in it the principles of morality and freedom. Its doctrines were preached originally to the poor and humble, nor would any modern confederacy of tyrants find in it a fit instrument for debasing them. He would now shortly refer to the celebrated meeting of Catherine de Medici, and of Philip the second, of Spain, at Bayonne, the object of which was to maintain ancient establishments against the innovations of that time. The object was to put down the protestants, who were then beginning to exercise the long-forgotten rights of human reason. But did England make herself a party to the league? No! It was opposed by three illustrious princes, and the cause of protestantism became at length triumphant. Those princes placed themselves at the head of that great movement of the human mind. Queen Elizabeth,

Henry

Henry the fourth of France, and William the third, all acted on the same magnanimous policy. The last was inferior in talents; but Elizabeth and Henry, the immortal chiefs of the cause, were perhaps the greatest contemporary princes who ever reigned; and what was not less singular, the woman endowed with a superior genius, and the man with those milder virtues which had procured him the wellmerited name of "father of his country." Those virtues had unhappily not saved him from the dagger of an assassin; but the reign of our own princess was as happy as it was splendid. He knew not how to express his admiration when he contemplated her at one time braving the thunders of the Vatican, and the intrigues of the Jesuits, at another the arms of Spain, beset continually with dangers, and, though scarcely conscious of her own greatness, dying at last full of years and glory. There were not wanting persons, however, who had represented her as tearing her country from the christian church-as the head of an unnatural as well as unholy union, and as an object of general execration. Yet had it not been for her successful maintenance of the policy which she adopted, we might at this moment have been obliged to submit to arbitrary imprisonment, to torture, and might have been rendering forced obe dience to a hated yoke. These might have been our inheritance, instead of the habeas corpus act, the bill of rights, the protestant succession, and all that genius and virtue which those measures had carried in their train. We might at this day have been sunk in the most

abject slavery and superstition. He did not mean to compare the Neapolitan revolution with our own; but our own might have been prevented by a coalition similar to that with which Naples was threatened. Pretexts might have been found by M. Gentz of 1688 quite equal to those on which the interference with Naples was justified. He who admired the talents of M. Gentz could have suggested topics of equal plausibility, and calculated to have the same effect as those by which the noble lord had heartened the present despots. He might have talked of treacherous statesmen, of impious daughters, of rebellious subjects, of a clergy faithless to its own creed, of unlimited obedience, and of a mutinous army. What was thus said might also have been repeated, and applied to many transactions in Ireland and Scotland, in which the ancestors of several whom he then saw before him had been actively engaged. He thanked the house for the attention which he had received, but the more he considered this subject the more fully he was satisfied that he was then speaking the sense of a majority in that house. Whatever might be the technical rule of disposing of the question, there was no real difference of opinion. He hoped, at least, that Europe would understand that in this country all men concurred on the main point; and that the grave, honest, and intelligent people of England viewed the present aggression against Naples with indignation and abhorrence. Feeling, however, that the expression of this sentiment had been, if not concealed, softened in the official language employed, he should conclude by

moving an humble address to his majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to direct that copies of the late correspondence relative to the affairs of Naples be laid before the house. Lord Castlereagh observed, that in proceeding to examine some of the positions of the hon. and learned gent. he was perfectly willing to join in many of the sentiments and general principles which he had laid down. With regard to the alliance on which so many strictures had been passed, he was not at all disposed to shrink from its defence. This alliance, which he hoped would long continue to cement the peace of Europe, had proved to demonstration the absurdity of those prophecies in which the hon. gents. opposite had indulged, and of the schemes of policy which they had recommended. The people of England whose courage had nerved the arm of government in its military exertions, would not easily be induced to think that the views on which that alliance was formed had been departed from. It was but an act of justice to others to say, and he said it with the utmost solemnity, that as far as his own knowledge extended, and as far as his means which were derived from personal and confidential communications enabled him to judge, there had not been since the year 1814 the slightest indication on the part of any of the allied powers, of a wish for territorial aggrandizement. Now, if he could declare that this opinion of his was founded on his knowledge of the allied powers, the next question for the house to consider was, whether there was any thing in their conduct towards Naples which showed that they had departed from their

former principles? From private information which had been transmitted to him by persons residing on the continent, as well as from confidential communications which he had received from the cabinets of the allied powers, he was fully of opinion that they were sincere in the application of those principles to Italy. That, however, was a point, which, fortunately for Europe, could be ascertained, by better criteria than personal assertions, or cabinet communications. It was one of the virtues of that alliance so vehemently decried by the hon. gent. opposite, that it was hardly possible for the human mind to conceive any system of territorial aggrandizement which did not find in it a counteraction to its own impurity. If Austria wished to obtain territorial aggrandizement at the expence of Naples, she was certain to meet with immediate opposition, both from Russia and France, not to say any thing of Sardinia, and the countries in the north of Italy, through which her forces were now allowed to march by special permission.

The question with regard to Austria divided itself into a question of right, and a question of expediency: for the difficulty of it did not consist so much in the means to be employed for the occupation of Naples, as in the manner in which the elements of government were to be compounded after its occupation, so as to secure its future independence. For honourable members were not to suppose that it was in contemplation to quarter an Austrian garrison for a prepetuity in Naples ; far from it: those who did so, laboured under very erroneous impressions, and did great injustice

to

to the allied sovereigns, who were acting in this transaction under the most painful circumstances for the general benefit of mankind. He was ready to admit that great difficulty would arise after the occupation of Naples with regard to the manner in which it was hereafter to be governed; and that being his view of the case, nothing could be more impolitic in a British minister than to involve himself and his country in it. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Austria had a right to go to war, still he had never given her any intimation that he wished that she should go to war. On the contrary, he had always held out to the allied sovereigns that Great Britain, was not at all interested in the transaction, and had so far separated himself from it as to be no party to it whatsoever. The noble lord then observed, that the hon. and learned gentleman seemed to him to have argued the whole question upon an unjust and unfounded prejudice; he had not argued it upon general grounds of policy or expediency, but had endeavoured to raise a horror in that house, and a detestation in the country, against the late government of Naples, by representing it of a nature so horrible that the people in self-defence, were obliged to destroy it and by thence deducing, as a conclusion, that the destruction of it could not be for midable to the Austrians.

As far as he was acquainted with that country, it enjoyed all the blessings of a free country, though it was not in the possession of a representative governHe deprecated, however, the doctrine that the subjects of go

ment.

vernments which did not possess a representative system were justified in throwing off their allegiance and resorting to arms in order to obtain one. Such an attempt to force the liberties of mankind was the very last method of which he should advise the adoption. A representative form of government, founded on the model of the British constitution, had been introduced into Sicily under the auspices of a noble lord (lord W. Bentinck,) but had not been productive of the advantages which had been anticipated. In short, it had entirely failed, and therefore it was too much to say that a representative government was sure to put a stop to all the fraud, artifice, and oppression of a despotic power. But, even if it were likely to be attended with such beneficial results, he must look upon the introduction of it by an armed force as most injurious. To hold any other doctrine was to patronise principles pregnant with danger, and calculated to loosen all the connexions of society, and to destroy all the security of social existence. His lordship, after some further arguments upon this subject, continued to condemn as untrue and unjust every representation that the government lately overthrown at Naples was arbitrary and tyrannical.

The Carbonari were a sect, whose operations were not confined to Naples alone, but which extended to other parts of Europe. They did not confine their efforts within the borders of any native boundaries, but extended them with philanthropic charity to other and distant parties. The cause of revolution was not with them

local

local, but it was the cause of Europe. They dictated to the prince regent of Naples, as well as to the parliament; they controlled both. It was idle to say they only required a free constitution for Naples; their aim was not Naples, but the consolidation of all Italy, under some form of government which they had not yet modelled; and was not a conspiracy, having such an object in view, hatched within the territory of Austria, and acting with others in concert out of it, a very natural ground of apprehension against which an Austrian minister might feel himself justly called upon in behalf of his own government to interfere? It was in vain then to urge that England should interpose to prevent Austria from guarding herself against the machinations of the Carbonari, whose designs were evidently calculated to the overthrow of the existing frame of government in Italy. The hon. and learned gentleman might declaim in the fine language which it was his faculty to possess, about the principles of liberty which England ought to cultivate in Naples, and might endeavour to reconcile the temporary ears of his audience to such a tone of declamation; but the people of England would see through the delusion, and awake to the object which the hon. gent. opposite had in view. Reverting again to these Carbonari--their strength amounted to hundreds of thousands; and he knew, positively that at the moment when the late events were going on in Naples, a simultaneous plan was matured at the other extremity, namely, in the north of Italy, at Bologna Yet

this was the sect into whose hands the consolidation of Italy was to be intrusted, and who were to rule over it in future as they now did over the parliament at Naples. Under such circumstances, he trusted England would not be called upon to interfere.

He concluded by repeating that England had as yet taken no part in these in these proceedings, and he trusted that ministers would not now be called upon to take any part in them after what he had said respecting Austria. If she were called on, she must be prepared to enforce her remonstrance, and he trusted that this was not a situation in which it would be advisable to place his majesty's ministers at this crisis. At all times he should be ready to afford every explanation respecting the part which his majesty's government took in the affairs of the continent.

Sir Robert Wilson said, that the noble lord had directed it against his hon. and learned friend as a matter of reproach, that he was struggling to hasten this country into a war with Austria, and to blame his majesty's ministers for not rushing, to use his own phrase, into the arms of that Carbonari. His hon. and learned friend had been urging no such thing, but quite the contrary, for his whole argument went to recommend a line of policy which, by the interposition of ministers in a firm but amicable manner, would, in all probability, prevent the ultimate recurrence of a war under circumstances of great disadvantage to the country. On the subject of the constitution, which was so long called for by

the