go into a short detail, which, however, would be quite sufficient to clear away the charge of ill-faith brought against this country. The first fact which he should state, related to the promises supposed to be held out to the Genoese. So far back as 1809, there had been in Italy parties who were anxious to get rid of the French. They had made proposals to Austria, which were declined, from the improbability of their being able to effect them, and subsequent events appeared to justify that conclusion; but nothing could be more unsettled than the sentiments of those parties on the government they were to re-establish. Some were for a great republic, some for federative governments, some, and probably the majority, for a king and free constitution. The extent of the new kingdom to the South, was also matter of division. From this want of consent it happened, that when the fairest prospect of success was opened, the North of Italy never stirred. The instructions of the 28th of December, 1813, which were quoted as encouraging the Italians to insurrection, did no such thing. They merely said-Rise, and we, on receiving information of it, will assist you. This was what we said to Spain and Holland. Rise first, show that you have the spirit and the means; we will then help you, though we will not hurry you into an unprepared conflict. Those instructions did not, however, reach lord W. Bentinck till after the 2d of February, 1814, previously to which he had sent a confidential person on the invitation of marshal Bellegarde to the Austrian camp, to concert his further movements. Italy was then before them, completely under the domination of the enemy. Marshal Bellegarde gave the British general bis alternative of an attack on Genoa or Leghorn. The advantage of the former was, that the city was then ill garrisoned; that of the latter, the securing a retreat in case of disaster. Lord William Bentinck took possession of Leghorn. By this time the garrison of Genoa was made up from two to four or five thousand men. The place was regularly attacked like any other fortress, the strong works round it taken, and the bombardment prepared. The Genoese had never moved. Now, however, they did so; for a deputation of the citizens with some French officers, came out from the city begging an armistice, both to prevent the bombardment, and for the sake of the delay, as, from the events of the time, peace'might be expected in a few days. And this was the movement of the Genoese. [Hear, hear! from the Ministerial bench.] Yes, what was the movement at last? Why, it was simply to leave the town within an armistice which might have and was expected to have placed it within a peace, and secured it to France, in the very probable case that the possessions of the belligerents should be left as they were at the end of hostilities. What did the Genoese do to expel the French?-nothing. Lord William Bentinck called his taking the city a conquest. There could be no more honourable mean, and he could not have so called it if it was not strictly so. Undoubtedly the people did not fight for the French; undoubtedly they were hostile, but they did nothing for the Allies. They might, of course, have rendered the conquest more difficult by their opposition. So might the people of Martinique; but they were not therefore the deliverers over of their island, nor entitled to obtain any new rights upon that ground. But as to the offer of freedom, the noble marquis said the proclamation offered regeneration: it was not easy to know what he might mean by regeneration, but it was not a common word for a return to an old government. But it was so perfectly known that a British officer could make no permanent political arrangement without a direct instruction, that there was no people in Europe who could be duped by the idea. The British general had no such instruction. The original instructions contemplated a case of insurrection, which did not exist; and even then his instructions only went to giving over Genoa to the king of Sardinia, in case the Genoese were not adverse to it. The case not existing, the instructions had no force; but in the mean time came lord Castlereagh's instructions, which positively di. rected that no definitive arrangement should be entered into, but for Tuscany, and the king of Sardinia's territory. Those were the only states to be restored to their old governments. The plain proof that restoration was not understood, was that the marquis Campo-Chiaro conceived that it was intended to render Italy independent. A proof, too, that lord Castlereagh's letter was considered to be the direction, was in lord William Bentinck's returning his answer to lord Castlereagh, and not to him (lord Bathurst). He contended, first, that this arrangement was not considered as final by the people of Genoa, Earl Stanhope said, that the noble earl, in his anxiety to justify himself and his colleagues, had misrepresented (unintentionally no doubt) the facts contained in the instructions to lord William Bentinck. The sentence in those instructions was, that if circumstances should occur to encourage a rising of the inhabitants, they were to be employed by that commander: they did so occur, and lord William, therefore, in encouraging them, only acted according to his instructions. Lord Boringdon thought that the ques tion respecting Genoa could not be adequately gone into without a full knowledge of all the proceedings of Congress; but, at the same time, he approved of the principle of consolidating the different states on the frontiers of France, to prevent a recurrence of those evils from which Europe had so recently been de that they had committed any breach of good faith towards the Genoese, and hoped that none of his noble friends for their personal justification would be induced to give any premature information on the subject. · The Marquis of Buckingham's Motion who prayed a confirmation of it from lord Castlereagh. He cited a letter from M. Pareto, from which it appeared that be understood it was not the intention of the British Government to re-establish the republic; and lord Castlereagh, in his instructions to lord William Bentinck, expressly desired him, if it had been understood by any of the Genoese that the proclamation pledged our Government to the re-establishment of the republic, that he should explain our real intentions to them: he desired that it might not be considered as prejudging any future system; and requested lord William to conciliate them, and to avoid alluding to the ancient form of their government in terms which might excite their disappointment, should the future arrangement be different from that form. It therefore became his duty to explain the case to the Genoese, which was thus not to be considered as pre-livered. He vindicated ministers, denied judged and it would be injustice to him not to suppose that the moment he received this dispatch, he explained what had thus been the subject of misconstruction. The length of time which had elapsed between the establishing of the provisional government, and the declara. tion of its permanent destination, had been relied upon on the other side; and it had been argued that a reasonable expectation that the provisional government would be come permanent had grown out of that length of time, or indeed had made it so: but in answer to this, he recurred to the declarations of the Genoese themselves, that they did not consider it as permanent; and to the meeting of Congress they sent a representative, not merely with a view of remonstrating against their being annexed to Piedmont, but to know on what condition they were to be so annexed. This would indeed be an extraordinary proposition, if they had thought their republic was permanently re-established. They submitted their projet to three ministers, the particulars of which did not appear, except one, in which they pro posed the title which the king of Sardinia was to take, upon the annexation of Genoa to his dominions; and they had even gone so far as to propose that he should be called king of Liguria.' Upon the whole, he thought there never was a charge more confidently urged, or more weakly supported, than the present one, which endeavoured to throw on the Government of this country the imputation of violating the national faith. The Marquis of Lansdowne said, that after an attentive perusal of the documents already before the House, he felt himself bound to concur in the resolutions which had been proposed by his noble friend. The noble earl who had spoken second in the debate had proved the assistance afforded by the inhabitants of Genoa to the British arms under lord William Bentinck, and could give that assistance no other name than that of negative co-operation. He could only say, that if the negative co-operation of any country was to meet with such a reward, in no future contest should we meet with negative co-operation; but instead thereof, with that determined and active resistance which any government threatened with annihilation would make against the arms of those in whom it could place no confidence. But was this co-operation negative? We all knew that the population of a garrisoned town was incapable of operations against the garrison which held its strong places, and which commanded its police: but was not every opposition given to France which the situation of the Genoese admitted? After lord William Bentinck's first proclamation the peasantry rose, and forces were collected; and when the capitulation was negociated, it was done by Genoese representatives in confederacy sonable expectation of being restored to their ancient government, or, on the other, that there was an over-ruling necessity for transferring them to another country, he would be justified in negativing the motion. But those who had not read the evidence would hardly believe, that in the whole of it there were no more than two or three sentences containing any reasons for transferring Genoa to Sardinia. It spoke of some arrangement in contempla. tion in Italy, to which the extinction of a state 800 years old would contribute; and alluded to the Treaty of Paris as having reduced the territory of the King of Sardinia: and thus was imposed the necessity of repairing that error, by robbing the Genoese. It appeared from the papers, that lord Castlereagh had urged the necessity of thus strengthening the domi nions of the King of Sardinia as the guardian of Italy; and thus he had confessed the error of giving away that king's territory by the Treaty of Paris. And the King of Sardinia's territory was to be made strong by making over to him the unwilling population of Genoa, which would only weaken him; for they would never assist him, but, on the contrary, require a constant Sardinian force to keep them in subjection. He contended that lord William Bentinck's proclamation raised the Genoese expectation of being restored to their republic, as far as it was possible to raise it; and he vindicated the prudence and discretion of his lordship in with French officers; and a messenger was subsequently dispatched by a French officer to lord William Bentinck, urging him to hasten to take immediate possession, for the French officers and army were in danger from the feeling of the inhabitants those negative co-operators!-and the force in which they had collected. It was needless to dwell upon the co-operation of the inhabitants with respect to the operations against that city. Every one knew the strength of its fortifications, and the sieges it had undergone, when the garrison under Massena resisted for seven months the efforts of the whole Austrian army, aided by the British fleet. And what was the strength of lord William Bentinck's force? Against one of the strongest places in Europe he brought 8,000 men to bear. What could he do, but what, instructed or not, he had done judiciously-appeal to the patriotic sentiments of the country which he was called upon to liberate, and bring into action the most powerful means which a nation afforded, and the most legitimate and lasting by which it could be influenced. In lord William Bentinck's letter, giving an account of his proclamation, one of his reasons for it is stated to be, that he felt the extreme importance of establishing a government in Genoa favourable to public feeling, in order that he might otherwise dispose of the forces entrusted to his command, and that he thus was able to dispatch the greater part of that force to the north of Italy. It could not be con-making that proclamation, which he must tended by any Englishman, that he had a right so to liberate his force by a feigned pretence to the people of Genoa, and to hold out to them a government so popular that he was enabled to employ his army elsewhere, and that now we could compel the Genoese to submit to any other government we might choose to impose upon them, and to silence all their complaints, by saying, "We have referred your case to a congress, and they have determined that you shall be no longer a republic, but shall be annexed to a government which you have always avowedly held in abhorrence and detestation." The House had been induced some time ago to delay its proceedings on this subject because evidence was not on their table; that reason no longer operated, and the question now was, whether the evidence was satisfactory? If any noble lord could read it, and be satisfied on the one hand that it held out to the Genoese no just and rea(VOL. XXX. ) have felt persuaded his instructions authorized him to make, as essential to the success of his Majesty's arms. It was said, that the addresses of the inhabitants of Genoa were not to be found in our offices. And thus the state of Genoa was here disposed of without our condescending to know what were the wishes of the people. There was enough to interest the feelings in this unfortunate republic, whose fate was now sealed: when first the imposing scene of the Congress at Vienna presented itself, Providence had brightened the atmosphere which had been darkened by the disturber of the repose of Europe; and it was believed that that element of evil was for ever chained down to a rock in the Mediterranean, where he was con demned to spend his mischievous strength for nought. At Vienna was erected a great stage of justice, not less awful from its power, than venerable for its beneficence-a stage not of penal but of retri( 3 H ) butive justice, not wielding a sword to destroy, but holding out a staff to restore, its great object being to secure and protect the peace, the independence, and the happiness of all nations, whether great or small, weak or strong. When it was understood that this Congress proposed to take into their early consideration the state of Genoa, it was felt that there could be no doubt that they would, as a pledge of the sincerity of those professions which had preceded their conquests, and in the name of which they had triumphed, reestablish a government, in the re-establishment of which suspicion could not hint that they were actuated by interested motives or views of self-aggrandizement. How different their conduct had turned out to be! Genoa had received promises of re-establishment; therefore was it not to be re-established. She had conceived hopes of being so, and had assisted the arms of the Allies; therefore were those hopes to be disappointed; and therefore was England, who had held out those promises and those hopes to her, to be selected as the instrument of executing upon her people the unjust sentence of annihilation. The position which the noble earl opposite must contend for was, that any weak state might, in defiance of promises, be at any moment sacrificed to the wishes of a more powerful one, and be used as a make-weight, in any political arrangement to which an assembly of those powerful States might be parties. Genoa was to have a senate without power, like Turin. He would not insult the understanding of noble lords by referring to the stipulations as any guaranty for the people of Genoa. The whole business stood only on the right of conquest. He could not admit that any overruling necessity existed for our proceedings, while, on the contrary, he considered that there was a strong moral duty which this country ought to have discharged in acting up to the promises and assurances held out by lord William Bentinck in his proclamations. Upon these grounds he should vote for the motion of his noble friend. The Earl of Harrowby said, that none of the arguments which had been used by the noble marquis went to maintain the resolutions then before their lordships, in the tone and spirit with which they were proposed. He denied that any effectual and active co-operation had taken place on the part of the Genoese, and contended that lord William Bentinck's capture of the city was in fact a conquest, according to all the principles laid down in the writings of the most eminent publicists. With regard to the annexation of Genoa to the Crown of Sardinia, he had no hesitation in saying, that it ought to be united to the natural guardian of the Alps, namely, to the King of Sardinia. It had been said, however, that while the Allied Powers gave Genoa to Sardinia on one side, they weakened her on the other; but, in the opinion of military men, the territories which had been given to France, though they might slightly diminish the revenues of the King of Sardinia, did not at all enfeeble him as a military power. The noble earl then entered into a defence of the conduct of Congress in its disposal of Genoa. It should be recollected, that in the year 1797, the Genoese placed themselves under the protection of France; and that in 1805, they sent a formal deputation, petitioning that their country might become a part of the French territory. There never, perhaps, was a case in the annals of history, in which all the prerogatives belonging to the jus dominii were more strictly applicable. Genoa was neither able nor willing to defend the passess from France to Italy, and nothing could therefore be more natural, under the circumstances in which she stood, than to consign her to a power which had for ages been considered as the natural guardian of the Alps. The noble earl then read an extract from a paper addressed by Mr. Pitt, in January 1805, to count Woronzow the Russian minister, in which, after taking a view of the relative situation of the different states of Europe, he considers it desirable that Genoa should be annexed to Piedmont, as constituting by their union the best bulwark that could be established for the defence of the Italian frontier. The noble earl also maintained, that these principles were exactly the same as those recognized in the Treaty of Westphalia-a treaty always referred to for the wisdom and policy of its provisions. Lord St. John contrasted the arrangement relative to Genoa with the language of the Declaration of the Allies when at Frankfort, and said he never gave a vote more firmly convinced of its justice, than that by which he should support the motion of his noble friend. Lord Grenville professed his wish to state astonished that any man could suppose that the office of secretary of state could be removed to another country for any length of time. Acting on this idea, they had seen a foreign secretary, converted into a sort of travelling officer all over Europe; and by this means lord William Bentinck received at times contradictory instructions from the office at home and the office abroad. The Resolutions of his noble relation should have his cordial support. The Earl of Westmoreland entered into a justification of lord Castlereagh, and contended that there was not the slightest reason for charging the Government of this country with breach of faith to the Genoese. shortly the grounds on which he felt it his duty to support the resolutions of his noble relation. In the first place he considered lord William Bentinck to have been specially authorized to issue the Proclamations in question, because, as had been shown by his noble relative, his instructions were not limited to the encouragement of actual insurrection, but extended to any circumstances which might favour an insurrection. The noble earl had treated very lightly the fact of raising an expectation amongst the Genoese; but could any form of words or lightness of expression alter the character of a proceeding, by which the expectation raised upon the promises of a British general and plenipotentiary, speaking in the name of the Prince Regent, and pledging the honour of his country to their fulfilment, had been completely disappointed? The promises we had made had had the effect of inducing the Genoese to change their conduct; and we had thus not only broken our plighted faith, but had refused to pay the stipulated price for an actual benefit received. He did not know what was meant by negative co-operation; but it was obvious that one of the strongest places in Europe, with a garrison of 5000 men, never would have capitulated to an enemy, whose force did not exceed 8000, without a strong disposition manifested on the part of the inhabitants. True it was, Genoa had been conquered, but it had been conquered from the French garrison, not from the Genoese people. Even if lord William Bentinck had exceeded his instructions, still it would have been wise, in his opinion, to have ratified his proceedings; but at all events a British Cabinet sitting in London, would either have done so, or have solemnly and publicly disavowed the act of their minister. This, however, was not the course pursued under the counsels of our minister at Vienna, and this was one of the many practical evils resulting from the union in one person, of two such offices as those of secretary of state, and of diplomatic agent at a foreign court. How so extravagant a conception could enter into any man's mind, it was difficult to conceive. It was, in truth, nothing short of that crime described in our statute-book, under the name of encroaching upon the Royal power; it was to escape from the control of the Sove reign, and, in his judgment, to commit a high breach of the constitution. He was Earl Grey said, it was demonstrative of itself, that if lord William Bentinck had not been assisted by the Genoese, he never could have got possession of Genoa. So far was the indifference with which they had been charged from being true, that even the peasants scaled the walls before the British troops. If the Genoese did not rise on the 6000 men who garrisoned their town, they knew that there was not only these 6000 men, but an army of 80,000 men, under the Viceroy, at hand; and they had seen sufficient examples of French force and French vengeance. There was not the smallest reason to charge them with indisposition towards England. In addition to the instructions sent to lord William Bentinck, by which he was authorized to hold out to the Genoese the establishment of their government, there was the Declaration of the Allies, and the Treaty of Chaumont, in which their object was declared to be to secure a general peace, under which all nations might enjoy their rights, and the peace and security of the world be established. The noble earl then proceeded to his second point, namely the policy of the annexation of Genoa to Piedmont. He went into an examination of the various relations of the surrounding Powers, and argued that in giving Genoa to the King of Sardinia, lord Castlereagh had accomplished a French and not an English object. The true principle on which the Allies, in this, and other cases, should have proceeded, was to show that governments were made for the people, and not the people for the governments. Had they acted upon this system, many of the calamities we now had to lament would never have occurred. |