tion, it would be possible for you to obtain. Peace, true peace-pency founded upon justice, and equality, and national contentment, has 8 enriching, as well as a civilizing and ameliorating, attribute. Peace will pay you large import duties-peace will consume in abundance sugar, and coffee, and tea, and every article on which a charge will remain-peace will draw from the earth twice its ordinary return, and while it shall give you more food, will take more of your manufactures in return-peace will enlarge and give security to that market which is already the best you possess-peace will open a wider field to your aborious industry and your commercial enterprise and for every benefit you confer upon us, for every indulgence you shall show us, for every gift you bestow, with an usury incalculably profitable, by peacs you will be repaid.

POST-OFFICE ESPIONAGE.

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL 1, 1845, ON MOVING A RESOLUTION REGARDING THE LETTERS OF JOSEPH MAZZINI, WHICH HAD BEEN OPENED BY THE WARRANT OF SIR JAMES GRAHAM, ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S SECRETARIES OF STATE.

I HAVE risen in order to move the resolution of which I gave noticə before the Easter recess. I submit it in the following terms :-

Resolved that this house has learned with regret, that with a view to the prevention of a political movement in Italy, and more especially in the Papal States, the letters of a foreigner, which had no relation to the maintenance of the internal tranquillity of the United Kingdom, should have been opened under a warrant bearing date the 1st of March, and cancelled on the 3rd of June, 1844, and that the information obtained by such means should have been communicated to a foreign power."

Let me be permitted in the first instance to correct a misconception It is not my purpose to make the fatalities which happened in Calabria the grounds of imputation. I believe every word which has been stated by Lord Aberdeen. In this country-this veracious country, in which the spirit of truth is pre-eminent, if a minister of the Crown, no matter to what party he may appertain, rises in his place in either House of Parliament, and either with respect to what he has done, or what he has not done, makes a solemn asseveration, with an instinctive promptitude he is instantaneously believed; and if in the case of every man who is in the enjoyment of the official confidence of his Sovereign this remark holds good, how much more applicable it is to a statesman, with honour so unimpeached, with honour so unimpeachable, as the Earl of Aberdeen. I will not deny that it has been to me the occasion of some surprise, that with the letters of Emilio and of Attilio Bandiera before his eyes, letters written at Corfu, and relating to the intended descent upon the Calabrian coast-with such means of knowledge-with so much light about him, Lord Aberdeen should have been in ignorance so complete; but his statement--the simple statement of a may of such indisputable truthfulness-outweighs every other consideration and to any conjecture injurious to Lord Aberdeen I will not permit myself to give way; but the actual descent upon Calabria, and the prospective movement in the Papal States, are distinct. The scaffolds of Cosenza and of Bologna are unconnected. Lord Aberdeen has cleared himself with regard to any perfidy practised towards the Bandieras, but the Post-office intervention with regard to the movement in the ecclesiastical territories has with the Calabrian catastrophe little to do. This distinction has been lost sight of in the course of the Post-office discussions. Indeed, the public attention was a good deal engrossed by the parliamentary encounter between the Secretary of the Home Department and his old and yaluable friend. By a singular combination of bravery and of ability, the member for Finsbury has obtained a series of

successes of the most signal kind. I cannot help thinking, however, that more plausibilities may be pleaded for the opening of the letters of a member of parliament than for breaking the seals of letters written to a foreigner, who had no English confederates, who had raised no money in England, who had not made any shipment of arms, who had not enrolled any auxiliary legion, and whose letters related to transactions with which the internal tranquillity of England is wholly unconnected. The Duncombe is not as strong as the Mazzini case. What is the case of Joseph Mazzini? He is an exile in a cause once deemed to be a most noble one. In 1814 England called on Italy to rise. The English government (it then suited their purpose) invoked the Venetian, and the Genoese, and the Tuscan, and the Roman, and the Calabrian to combine for the liberation of their country. Proclamations ([ have one of them before me,) were issued, in which sentiments were expressed for which Mazzini is in exile, and for which the Bandieras died. Botta, the Italian historian, tells us that Lord William Bentinck and Sir Robert Wilson, acting by the authority of the English Government, caused a banner to be unfurled, on which was inscribed "The Independence of Italy," and two hands were represented clasped together, as a symbol of the union in which all Italians were invited by the English government to combine. How badly have we acted towards Italy! When our purpose had been served, after having administered these provocatives--after having drugged Italy with provocatives, we turned suddenly round-we surrendered Italy to a domination worse than that of Napoleon, and transferred to Austria the iron crown. But the spirit of nationality did not expire; i remained, and a long time, dormant, but it was not dead. After the Revolution in France of 1830, and the Revolution in England w 1831, a reform of abuses-of proved abuses-was demanded in the ecclesiastical states. It was denied, and an insurrection was the cousequence. It was suppressed, and Mazzini, who was engaged in it, was compelled to fly from Italy, bearing the love of Italy, the malady of exile, in his heart. Louis Blanc, in his history of the ten years, gives au account of the incidents which took place in the struggle between the Papal government and its subjects, to which I will not minutely refer, because he may not be regarded as an impartial writer; but in the appendix to the third volume of his work, a document is to be found of a most remarkable kind. Lord Palmerston had directed Sir Hamilton Seymour, who belonged to the legation at Florence, to proceed to Rome with a view, in concert with the representatives of the four great powers, to induce the Papal government to adopt such reforms as would prevent any popular outbreak, from which consequences prejudicial to the peace of Italy might be apprehended. The utmost efforts were made by Lord Palmerston not to crush the just efforts made by Italians for the reform of great abuses, but to induce the government, by a timely concession, to prevent any popular commotion. Sir Hamilton Seymour was employed by Lord Palmerston for this purpose. He writes the following letter to the delegates of the four powers, which is I think, most deserving of attention:—

In

Rome, September 7. "The undersigned has the honour to inform your excellency that he has received orders from his court to quit Rome, and to return to his post at Florence. The undersigned is also instructed briefly to express to your excellency the motives which have induced the English government to send him to Rome, and also the reasons for which he is about to quit that city. The English government has no direct interest in the concerns of the Roman States, and has never thought of interfering in them. It was invited by the cabinets of France and of Austria to take part in the negotiations at Rome, and it yielded to the entreaties of both those cabinets, in the hope that their good offices, when combined, would lead to the amicable solution of the discussions between the Pope and his subjects, and thus avoid the danger of war in Europe. The ambassadors of Prussia and of Russia at Rome, having subsequently taken part in these aegotiations, the ambas sadors of the five powers were not long in discovering the chief vices of the Roman administration, and the remedies which they required. May, 1831, they laid before the Papal government a memoir suggesting reforms, which they unanimously declared to be indispensable for the permanent tranquillity of the Roman States, and which the English government considered to be founded in justice and in reaso.... More than fourteen months have elapsed, and not one of their recom. mendations has been adopted or exccuted by the Papal government The edicts, even, which have been prepared or published, and which announce that some of these recommendations are about to be carried into effect, differ essentially from the measures specified in the memoir The consequence of this state of things has been such as might be expected. The Papal government not having done anything to allay the popular discontent, it has augmented, and has been increased by the disappointment of the hopes which had been awakened by the negotiations at Rome. Thus the efforts made for more than a year by the five powers to re-establish tranquillity in the Roman States have been made in vain. The hope of seeing the population voluntarily submitting to the Sovereign power is not stronger than it was at the commence ment of these negotiations. The court of Rome appears to rely upon the temporary presence of foreign troops, and upon the co-operation which it expects from a corps of Swiss ror the maintenance of order But foreign occupation cannot be indefinitely prolonged, and it does not appear that a corps of Swiss, such as the Papal finances could support, would be sufficient to control a discontented population. Even if tranquillity could be restored by these means, it could not be expected that it would be durable, and would besides never accomplish the objects entertained by the English government in taking part in the negotia tions. Under these circumstances, the undersigned has received orders from his government to declare that his government no longer entertains any hope of success, and that the presence of the undersigned at Rome ne longer having any object, he has been instructed to resume his post a Florence. The undersigned is besides directed to express the regret which he profoundis feels at not having beɛr able for a year and a half to

The

do anything for the re-establishment of tranquillity in Italy. English government foresees that if there be a perseverance in the present course new troubles will break out in the Roman States of a still more erious nature, and of which the consequences will at last become dangerous to the peace of Europe. If these anticipations shall be unhap pily fulfilled, England will at all events be free from all responsibility for the calamities which will be occasioned by the resistance offered o the wise and urgent counsels given by the English cabinet. "G. H. SEYMOUR."

Such is the view taken by Sir Hamilton Seymour of the abuses existing in the Papal states. It may appear singular that I, a Romav Catholic, should think it judicious to advert to the subject. I distinguish between the Italian potentate and the spiritual head of the CathoEc Church-I see in the pope, as pope, the supreme pontiff of Christendom, the successor of St. Peter in an uninterrupted apostolical lineage; -I see in the pope the supreme authority in the government of the church invested with holy prerogatives, which for the execution of his office are indispensably required. Upon questions of pure, unmixed spirituality I bow without hesitation to the decision of the pope; but when I pass from the pontiff to the prince, I cannot be insensible to those temporal abuses, to which the dispatch of Sir Hamilton Seymour called the attention of the four powers;-abuses for which the pope himself is far less responsible than the fallible Italian ministers by whom he is surrounded. Neither will I disguise my apprehension that the Roman cabinet with a view to political purposes-with a view more especially to the conciliation of England, may be occasionally induced to recommend to his Holiness certain compliances of which a recent example has been perhaps afforded. But to return to Sir Hainilton Seymour; his dispatch reflects, I think, great honour upon Lord Palmerston; the merit, however, is not undivided, for it belongs in part to the right honourable baronet the Secretary of State for the Home Department, himself a member of the Reform Cabinet, with whose concurrence it is indisputable that this course was adopted. When the right honourable gentleman signed a warrant for the opening of Mazzini's letters, did he revert to that document, and did he suggest to the Austrian or the Roman court the adoption of the salutary ameliorations by which alone the tranquillity of Italy can be secured? The prediction of Sir Hamilton Seymour was fulfilled. The Romagna was in a state of almost perpetual disturbance all redress of grievances was refused; and at length, in 1844, a conjuration for an insurrectionary movement was formed. The Austriar and Roman governments were apprised of it, and a communication was made, from what the committee call a high quarter, to the English ministry. The Secretary for the Home Department signed a warrant on the 1st of March for the opening of Mazzini's letters. The follow. ing words of Lord Aberdeen are remarkable. He said, on the 28th of February: "Your Lordships are already aware that that warrant was not issued by me or at my desire." This statement is most singular. Lord Aberdeen, the foreign minister, upon a question so grave as the