[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

No. 314.-PROTEST of the Duchess of Parma against the Annexation of the Duchy of Parma to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Zurich, 28th March, 1860.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.*)

WE, Louisa Maria, of Bourbon, Regent of the States of Parma, for Duke Robert I.;

In view of the facts recently occurring in the States of Duke Robert, our beloved son, and especially looking to the pretended popular votes illegally given on the 11th and 12th instant, and to the Usurpation of those States, now completed by their Annexation to another adjoining State, we consider it our holy duty to pronounce again our solemn Protest.

We Protest first of all

Against the pretended right of transfer (dedizione) proclaimed in favour of the people; a fresh encouragement brought forward for withdrawing them from obedience to constituted Governments;

Against the proceedings taken by the Government of the King of Sardinia in order to obtain at any cost manifestations in its favour by the inhabitants of the Duchy;

Against the violence used towards the people of Parma by the agents of the Piedmontese Government. We have for a long time known the real sentiments of the inhabitants of the Duchy; we have had many proofs thereof in memorable circumstances during our Regency, and even in times very recent; they are sentiments of attachment to the autonomy of the country, of fidelity to their Legitimate Sovereign. Under the intimidation of threats, the corruption of deceit, and the oppression of terror, in consequence of Oaths of Allegiance to Victor Emanuel, forced upon functionaries in every department of administration, under the penalty of dismissal, through the general discouragement produced by 9 months of pretended uncertainties and perilous sufferings; by those means have the manifestations of a suffrage previously counterfeited been procured from a considerable number of individuals. Being the work of the foreigner, and opposed to *For French version, see "State Papers," vol. lvii, p. 1037.

[Protest. Annexation of Parma to Sardinia.]

the permanent interests of the people, as well as to the Rights of Sovereignty and to the Independence of the State, these manifestations can have no moral force, and we, therefore, declare them to be null and of none effect.

We further Protest

Against the Annexation of the States of our most beloved son to the Dominions of the House of Savoy, which that House has now accepted and accomplished; and, therefore, we Protest also,

Against the Acts of Acceptation and of taking Possession of the said States; and

Against whomsoever has concurred, by his counsels or his aid, to promote and carry out the same.

This Annexation is a flagrant violation of European Treaties, of all the principles of the Law of Nations, and of the Inviolability of States and Crowns.

This Annexation could never be claimed as a legitimate consequence of War, and we desire to reply always, and above all, to the false arguments contrived by the Piedmontese Government, falsifying the meaning of the purely defensive Treaties made between the Duchy of Parma and Austria, and misrepresenting facts, for the purpose of bringing the Duchy to the condition of a Belligerent Power in the conflict which has broken out between Austria on the one hand, and France and Piedmont on the other, thus procuring a seeming title to make of it an object of conquest.

Everybody knows perfectly well that from the moment when War was declared, our irrevocable conduct, and our persevering efforts, have had no other aim than to guarantee as far as possible the Independence and welfare of our People, by maintaining an attitude of Neutrality. This Neutrality, as permitted by Treaties, but therefore real and legitimate, was violated by the entrance of the foreign troops at Pontremoli. We protested then, and we did not quit our States until the moment when our protests were no longer able to protect the Sacred Rights of our Son.

Our Neutrality is founded on solid arguments of law and of facts, which availed for the recognition and reservation of the right of the Duke of Parma in the Treaty of Zurich. But that is, nevertheless, always superior to the conditions and vicissitudes of this Treaty. Based upon the Law of Nations, it cannot perish. Now the Right of Duke Robert over the States of Parma is

[Protest. Annexation of Parma to Sardinia.]

It was

ancient, acknowledged, reconfirmed, and complete. guaranteed by the European Powers in the Treaties of 1815 (Nos. 19, 27, and 40), and of 10th June, 1817 (No. 73). It was implicitly confirmed by the King of Sardinia in the International Treaties which have followed since that epoch, and particularly in the Treaty of Peace stipulated between Austria and Piedmont on the 6th August, 1849 (No. 215), to which the Duke of Parma, by Article V, was invited to give his adhesion, and he did give it. It cannot, according to the principles hitherto recognised and upheld in Europe, be set aside by a pretended right of popular suffrage; still less by the unlimited right of peoples to transfer themselves to a foreign Sovereign.

Consequently, the offer of the States of Parma, which the Piedmontese Government has procured for the King of Sardinia by revolutionary means, the acceptation thereof, and their Annexation now completed by the Decree of King Victor Emanuel of 18th March, 1860 (No. 308), are acts of guilty and hateful spoliation, to the injury of our most beloved son Duke Robert I, and his

successors.

And we, mother, guardian, and Regent, do again Protest, in the interest of our Dynasty, and of the people of the States of Parma, as well against all the unjust acts aforesaid as against the consequences thereof.

And without awaiting the examination to which the European Powers may submit the new conditions made for Italy, also by Article XIX of the Treaty of Zurich (No. 301), we appeal to the said Powers, we demand their support, and we rely with confidence upon their equity, and upon the justice of God.

The present Protest will be notified to all the Powers who signed the Treaties of 1815 (Nos. 19, 27, and 40), and 1817 Nos. 71, 72, and 73), as well as to the other friendly Courts.

LOUISA.

[Protest. Cession of Savoy to France.]

No. 315.-PROTEST of the Swiss Government against the Cession by Sardinia of the Neutral Part of Savoy to France. Turin, 28th March, 1860.

The Swiss Minister at Turin to the Sardinian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

EXCELLENCY,

(Translation, as laid before Parliament.)

A TREATY for the Cession of Savoy to France, concluded on the 24th instant by the Plenipotentiaries of His Majesty King Victor Emanuel II, and those of His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon III, subject to the approval of the Sardinian Parliament, has just been inserted in the "Moniteur Universel."

As this Treaty has been concluded without the concurrence of Switzerland, who had, however, applied to be allowed to participate in it as one of the principal parties concerned in the negotiations relative to this Cession, this official publication cannot be considered by the Federal Council but as a preliminary act of menace against the rights of which the Confederation is possessed in virtue of former Treaties.

Consequently any act of appropriation by France in the North of Savoy, whether civil or military, as long as no understanding shall have been come to with Switzerland on the subject, will be regarded by her as a flagrant violation of her rights.

A preliminary occupation by foreign Agents would be an unfair coercion of the free expression of the wishes of the population of these Provinces. Switzerland therefore repeatedly claims the indefeasible right, which she possesses, of not allowing a state of things on which her Independence is based, to be severely compromised, without her own consent to the change.

The defence of Switzerland's Neutrality in time of War, making the occupation of Faucigny, Chablais, and Genevois, by Federal Troops indispensable, the Federal Council has been obliged to address the Powers who signed the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna (No. 27), and the Declaration of Paris of the 20th of November, 1815 (No. 43), which Powers guaranteed this Neutrality, and also that of the Territory, at that time belonging

[Protest. Cession of Savoy to France.]

to Sardinia, situated north of Ugine, in order to submit to them the new position which one of the Contracting Powers alone wishes to impose upon her, in transferring the Sovereignty of these Provinces from Sardinia to France.

In the event of the Cession of Savoy to France, Switzerland demands the Annexation to her Territory of the frontier districts of Northern Savoy. This demand is in conformity with the letter and spirit of the Treaties, which are equally binding on the Powers who signed the Congress of Vienna, and on the House of Savoy and the Helvetic Confederation.

Under these circumstances I am obliged, in the name and by order of the Federal Council, with reference to their Note dated the 11th of March,* to my Protest of the 14th, and to my Notes of the 21st and 27th of the same month, again to protest to the Government of His Majesty King Victor Emanuel II, against any occupation, civil or military, on the part of France, of the disputed Territory, until an understanding shall have been come to on the subject between the Powers who guaranteed the Neutrality of Switzerland, and Switzerland herself; this latter positively demanding the assembly of a Conference, convoked exclusively for the consideration of this subject.

In the hope that the just right to which I appeal will be respected by the Government of His Majesty the King of Sardinia, and that that Government may never forget the consideration due to an old and friendly neighbour, I beg, &c.

A. TOURTE.

* See French Proposals of 20th June, and British Reply of 25th June, 1860; and Treaties between France and Sardinia of 23rd August, 1860, and 7th March, 1861.