Current:

Northern Star (1837-1852), 27th November 1852, Edition 2 of 2, Page 11, The humble petition of -. Sheweth: That ...

Page 11
Page 11
11 of 16

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • DEMOCRATIC MOVEKE^TsT
  • Text (6)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      November 21.1 ^^^^^^ ^^ The Sta1 Of Fkee...

      November 21 . 1 ^^^^^^ ^^ THE STA 1 Of fKEEDOIL 251

      Democratic Moveke^Tst

      DEMOCRATIC MOVEKE ^ TsT

      Petition Foe Italy. To The Editor Of The...

      PETITION FOE ITALY . To the Editor of the Star of Freedom . London , Nov 23 181 % Sik , —Allow me to entreat your attention fn ti , Q t > * * ' ' ^ adopted bythe Council o / the « 1 ^?& concerning the prolonged occupation of the Roman proves bv Acs ^^^ T & IS **** ^ that yol ^ Stfttn " with few words of

      pur paper a yours recommending it to ™™ to ClIC nt l = 3 mt f ~ Pt > * every locV , SutS ag ency ot hberal collective bodies or Of mfluential \ diSuals slgned in every popular association whose members look for the best 5 llpportfor their special agitation , int ] ie general princiol tlr V tinnn Us been placed here down to do all the goo d he can h ? Ity feto iu every religious congregation where there lives abhorrence of the S now enthroned at Home , and communing love for a people longing to proclaim liberty of conscience in the very seat of spiritual d ^ otism adopted by all behevers in civil andrelidous KbertvasZ ^ SSS '

      not only tor England but for the world ; and sent back to Parliament through the representative of the town or county , it would rise to the importance of a great national document , it would embody a imVhtv thought of international justice , determine the first step of apolitical hie more attuned to England ' s mission and the true interests , than the now prevailing system or self-abdication , and record a noble protect against the schemes of absolutist re-action , now unfolding on the Continent and threatening England ' s shores . I am , Sir , Yours respectfully , Joseph Mazzini .

      Petition Of The Friends Of Italy, On The...

      PETITION OF THE FRIENDS OF ITALY , ON THE FRENCH AND AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION OF THE ROMAN STATES . The humble Petition of the Members and Friends of the Society of the Friends of Italy , assembled in Public Meeting , at the Music Hall , Store Street , Bedford Square , London , on Wednesday Evening , November 10 th , 1852 , to the Commons' House of Parliament , Sheweth :

      That on the 9 th of February , 1849 , the Pope having left his metropolis more than two months before , and all attempts of the provisional authorities to induce him to return having failed , a Republican Government was adopted at Home , and the temporal power of the Pope abolished , by a Constituent Assembly , issued from peacefully exercised univeraal suffrage' and duly elected by 343 , 000 votes out of a population of two millions and a half . That this Republican Government was decreed in that Assembly by 143 votes against eleven ; and the temporal power of the Pope abolished by 149 votes against five .

      lhat , by these almost unanimous votes—by tne joyful acceptance by the people of the Soman States of that double declaration , in a time in which the new Government had neither army nor treasury—by the utter failure of all excommunications , intrigues , and plots of the Pope and his priestly party—by the official confirmatory vote spontaneously given by almost all the town councils or municipahties whilst foreign armies had already invaded the country and the Republic seemed verging to its fall—by the gallant enthusiastic defence of Ancona , Bologna , and Rome , against the Austrian , French , and Neapolitan invadersit appears that the double proclamation of the Republican form o government and of the abolition of the Pope ' s temporal power was in accordance with the universal wishes of the population .

      That , moreover , this fact has been acknowledged and confirmed in a series of despatches from British agents to her Majesty ' s Government , ¦ which all tend to support the words used in a despatch of May 3 rd , 1849 , from Sir George Hamilton to Lord Palmerston : "In Rome , a hatred of priestly government seems to be deeply rooted in the minds of the great mass of the people . " That , during nearly five months of existence , the representatives of the Roman Republic displayed , in the words of a despatch of the 5 th of May ( 1849 ) , from Mr . Freeborn to Lord Palmerston , <• both courage and moderation . "

      That , notwithstanding these solemn facts , a league of the so-called Catholic Powers , France , Austria , Spain and Naples , was hatched , under the auspices of the Pope at Gaeta , for the purpose of overthrowing the Roman Republic and reinstating the Papal temporal government ; and that , under the unprovoked , ungrounded and unsuspected attack of those Powers , mainly of France and Austria , the Roman Republic was , after a long struggle and with a large amount of bloodshed and loss of property , finally overthrown . That no protestation , no official sign of dissent , your petitioners

      grieve to say , took place from the hberal Government ot wear xsritam aaainst such a gross and insolent violation of all recognized international principles ; but that , on the contrary , from various despatches , and especially from one of Lord Normanby to Lord Palmerston , dated April 19 th , 1849 , it appears that " the restoration of the Pope under an improved form of government was likewise the expressed object of her Majesty ' s Government . " That although such an object and such a hue m conduct were , according to your petitioners , a deviation from the principles which ought to rule the external action of a liberal and Protestant nation , still the view expressed in the despatches alluded to being less immoral than the one entertained then by Austria and the Pope himself , it ought , at least , to have been and still to be adhered to and insisted upon . rational and to d in

      That it was and is so much the more easy o ^ so , - asmuch as the declarations and solemn promises given by thei French Government were , during the war with Rome , framed in the same spirit and almost constituting a sort of bilateral compact between the British and French Governments . That as a proof of this , your Petitioners have only to refer to a « Srf Sffiriaffi . of the two " Governments viz .: to tl * despa | b , o April 19 th , from Lord Normenby to Lord Palmers on , m which the "W ^& nii of government" was defined to consist m carrying out since , and also in confirming those constitutional ^ tions which the present Pope had previously granted of his own free wdl , to d * despatch dated April 17 th , from Monsieur D f r ^^ ^ X Roman sietrr De la Cour , saying , our " intention is not tu ^^ JT ^ people a system of administration which their free will would haveje iected- " to the despatch addressed on the 19 th of April , by M . Ihouyn ^ LJ ^ S ^ CbSOb . statin g that the object of the intervention

      was "to grantee the independence of the ^^ f ^^ cure to tnfSiman people a liberal and regular syste * * atam stra tion ; " to the proclamation dated CJivita Vecchia , ^^^ sign d by Colonel Esp ivent for General Oudinot , saying 'ttaGwenH ment ofthe French Republic animated by ahberal ff ^ J" ^™ K ^ o ^ ^^^^^^^^ X ^ the Pope and the Roman people ought to to founded ou the tatMt tbe P „ p e shouM maintain s—iajJy S & **«« £££ & ^^ S ^ n ^^ JTU ^ and ***

      Petition Of The Friends Of Italy, On The...

      power of the Pope as Sovereign of the Soman States , " to the answer to tne preceding despatch , in which Monsieur De Tocqueville completely adopts as the line of conduct of the French Government , the conclusiaus to which Lord Palmerston had come . . . ' that their ( the r rencii invaders' ) first care would be to secure the constitutional liberties of the Romans , as already granted by the Pope , and to take care that his authority should not be re-established on that arbitrary tooting which had formerly been found inconsistent with the good government of the people ;* ' to the counter answer of the 3 d of July , in which Lord Palmerston says « her Majesty ' s Government are glad to hud that your Excellency has formally agreed that those intentions are the same as the views originally explained bthe French

      Governy ment before their expedition sailed for Civita Yecchia ; " to another despatch dated July 3 rd , from the Marquis of Normanby to Lord lahnerstom in which it is again asserted " that the French Government only desired such a solution of the Roman question as had been counselled . . . by her Majesty ' s Government , namely , the restoration of the Government of the Pope with constitutional guarantees ; " to the letter of the envoy extraordinary of France to Rome , Monsieur De Courcelles , declaring , on the 13 th of June , that the object of French intervention was " the liberty of the head of the Church , the liberty ofthe Roman States , and the peace of the world ; " and to many other parts of such official acts and despatches .

      That it was , at all events , clearly stated on all sides that the occupation of the Roman States would be a measure of a short duration . That this is proved , 1 st , by a despatch signed Prince Schwarzenberg , and dated April 20 th , which says , " the object of our intervention is no other than the re-establishment of the legitimate Government and of legal order * , whenever that object shall have been attained , and . . it will be so , we hope , shortly , our troops wiir retire ; " " 2 nd , by a despatch of July the 3 rd , from Lord Palmerston to the Marquis

      of Normanby , stating that " a prolonged occupation of the city or territory of Rome by the troops of any foreign Power would be , with regard both to its principles and its consequences , a tiling much to be avoided ; " 3 rd , by a despatch of Lord Palmerston to Yicount Ponsonby , dated Jul y 13 th , repeating that a " restoration of the Pope to his former unlimited authority by the force of foreign arms , setting aside the injustice of such a measure in point of principle , would only be looked upon as a temporary arrangement . "

      That notwithstanding these and other official declarations on the double point of the tendency and duration of the foreign occupatiou , Austria and France have re-established the " former unlimited authority" of the Pope , and are still occupying the Roman States after a lapse of more than three years : That no Constitutional Government has been conceded , no guarantee given , not a shadow of liberty granted to the Roman people ; and that Priestly absolute government still misrules in safety in the Roman States :

      That the press is gagged , individual liberty violated ; administration bought and sold ; corruption made a system ; terror organized ; free conscience tortured and denied throughout the whole extent of the Roman territory : That in spite of a nominal amnesty granted , and solemn promises given both by the Pope and by the French invader , that tho past should not be visited except upon a few leaders , thousands of employes have been turned out of office , thousands of families thrown into utter poverty , thousands doomed to exile , thousands confined in dungeons , hundreds shot by the Government of the Pope since its reinstatement , or by Austrian and French military councils :

      That during the last month alone , twenty-lour persons have been shot in Sinigaglia , and thirty-six in Ancona * , that other wholesale executions are soon to take place ; and that , as if killing alone could not satisfy the revengeful feelings of the Papal Government , the trials of the victims have been prolonged during three years , and many of the sentences pronounced eight or nine months before their execution , so as to cause them and their families to linger through the whole of that period in a nameless existence , a lengthened agony between hope and despair , between life and death :

      That your Petitioners believe such a state of things in our nineteenth century , and in a country governed by the very Man who refused to help the war of Italian independence in 1848 , because the " Croats were Christians , and he could not shed Christian blood , " to be an unexampled shame , and a dark spot not only on the forehead of the Impostor Pope , but on that of all Nations calling themselves civilized , liberal , and Christians , who still look on unmoved and indifferent at such transactions : That the duty of doing something towards putting an end to such an abnormal condition of some millions of our fellow-creatures is

      greatly increased by the fact that such a condition is only maintained by a foreign Austrian aiid French intervention , unlawful and unjust in its principle , faithless to all its promises , indefinite as to time , threatening in its military and political bearing to the rights and to the interests of all nations . That it . is still further increased by the fact that the people they torment and slaughter is that noble Roman people , to whom we are

      indebted for European art , learning , civilization , and liberty : That the prolonged occupation of Rome and of all central Italy by Austria and France , resting on fortified points , and connected with their respective bases of operations , amount almost to a military conquest ; and that in the base of conflict between the great European Powers , it would ensure to those two Governments some of the most imnortant strategic positions in Europe .

      That such considerations are strengthened by the fact of an impending radical change in the form of the French Government , relinking the traditions of a warlike Empire , breaking altogether the diplomatic tradition grounded on the treaty of Vienna , and substituting for the collective will of the French Nation , the arbitrary will of a man who a short time ago declared that " the Mediterranean must be a French lake . " That higher even "than all these considerations stand the eternal principles derived from the law of God , bidding all individuals and nations protect right , justice and truth , against lies , tyranny , and wrong ; ., „ * -7 , , for land ¦ to

      , That it is degrading aiid highly perilous Eng abandon Europe to uncontrolled despotic influences : to renounce all interference for good , while allowing every other Government to interfere for evil : to keep aloof from the mighty contest now going on in the name of her own creed , liberty of conscience , between the Italian people and papacy ; not to interpose her will so as to have at least the principle of non-mterference respected by all , and the Italians free to solve the question , on a fair and equal ground , between the claims of conscience and Papal oppression left to its own internal forces : That a great , enlightened , religious , and powerful nation cannot answer the peoples struggling around her by the words of Cain : "Am I my brother ' s keeper ? " without suicide—a suicide of soul , honour , and missionfar worse than physical death .

      , That for aU these reasons your petitioners believe it to be a pressing dutv ofthe English nation , and of her Majesty ' s Government to take whatever steps may be deemed advisable to procure as speedy a withdrawal as possible of the Austrian and French troops from the Roman C-f-rj-f-po * Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your honourable House to present an Address to her Majesty , praying that her Majesty will use }> r good offices to put an end to the present occupation of the Roman States on the part of the Governments of France and Austria : And your petitioners will ever pray , & c .

      Petition Of The Friends Of Italy, On The...

      THE FRENCH REPUBLICANS AND THE EMPIRE . The Society . La Revolution has issued the following proclamation to the French people . —Citizens , In his recent message to the Senate chosen from among his valets , Louis Bonaparte has said that the Empire is the people opposed to the old monarchies , and the country avenged for the double insult of two invasions . The hypocritical burglar of the 2 nd of December , seeks now to take the benefit of the national sentiment , which suffered so much in the crises brought about by the ambition of his uncle . He would that Prance should ascribe to him the two great checks of the fatal year , and lhat the Eagle of Austerlitz should again take wing from the devastated fields of Champaign . Eh bien , Citizens , if you no longer remember , open at its last page , the history of our misfortunes , and

      on that bloody sheet of 1815 , you will read that after the terrible disaster of Waterloo , when the foreigners invaded on every side our enfeebled and falling France , —one man , one single man , the chief of the state , in that supreme peril of the country , refused arms to the people ! The faubourgs of Paris , rallying at sound of the tocsin , would have defended the sacred town , the citadel of the Revolution , against the restless hesitating barbarian . With clasped hands they demanded muskets , and the Emperor , the great Emperor , declared that he would rather deliver France to the monarchs , his brothers , than arm the demagogy , ( that is lo say , the poor , these great soldiers ) , and engage it in a struggle in which all might be engulphed : the idea , honour , nationality , and country ! Citizens , in 1815 , Tallyevand , Marmont and Fouche delivered up Paris ; but the

      Emperor delivered up France by refusingarins |* o our faubourgs , and to those hardy guerillas of the interior , who would have made of our country a tomb for the armies of Europe . And the nephew of that Emperor , his problematical nephew , tells you now that the Emperor and the country having fallen together , the law of reprisals , like that of honour , calls for a new Empire . A falsehood , citizens , another falsehood ! The Empire long ceased to be the country . Bonaparte had assass \ nated it before the Cossacks . There were no longer anyjarms out of his camps , he had suppressed all the civic guards . There was no longer any discussion , except such as was allowed by 'his censure , he had suppressed all the free journals , the . legion of ideas . There was no longer any sovereignty but that of his police , he had suppressed the ballot , the club , and the tribune . His fall and

      his misfortunes were , therefore , ; his own fault—a fault aggravated by a crime , by the greatest of crimes . For , fo please the avenging kings , he refused arms lo the last dispair of invaded France ! Such is the truth , citizens . None but fools or traitors , therefore , remembering the two invasions , will cry Vive L'Em pereur ! We know that our country is proud , and that it has never slept tranquil in the bed of Waterloo ; but , we repeat , Waterloo was the work , or , if you will , the misfortune of the Emperor ; and when the people issued from their miserable kennels to avenge that defeat , they were refused arms ! There was used against them thelast cavtoueh of the Empire ! The heirs of that man , and that time should not therefore , profit hy that great grief of a former time—grief that the people has already avenged by two revolutions ! A last word , citizens ; we are now menaced by a great misfortune , the Caesarian madness . Either this man ,

      whom we have seen till now raise himself by a ladder of crimes , will sleep like a coward under his crown , in which case there will re-commence the era of Louis Phillippe , that is to say , the reign of thieves , this time , of prostitutes also , and without discussion to aid our future deliverance ; or , monimaniac having his star to follow , he will gamble like his uncle , with the fortune of France in the chances of battle , and then a new Waterloo may come to crush us . For the armies which are not " people and Revolution have only the chance and the destiny of blind forces ! Behold the alternative . Think of that , citizens . With the Republic all the governments trembling , but all the peoples friends ; with the Empire , all is hostile and restless , the peoples as well as the governments . Think , then , is it for you to allow an Empire to be made ! London , November 17 , 1852 .

      The Fraternal Democrats To The British P...

      THE FRATERNAL DEMOCRATS TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE . Fellow-Country men , —Europe ' is entering upon a new era—upon a hew struggle , and one in which it is the destiny of our own country to play an important part . The European Revolution , if not vanquished , hath , at least been defeated for a time , and the peoples who have taken the most active part in it , are now groaning beneath the yoke of the oppressor . France , that has done so much , and from whom so much was expected , has indeed fallen—fallen into the lowest depths of degradation ; from her , for a time at least , we can hope for no aid for the cause of the peoples .

      In Germany , m Hungary , and in Italy , the reaction reigns triumphant , freedom of speech and writing is suppressed . Democracy has neither press nor tribune . Even in free and " constitutional" Belgium , it is proposed to gag the press , —to suffer it no more to give expression to the great thoughts that stir in the minds of the peoples—the noble aspirations for liberty and progress and for vengeance upon the tyrants , who have put the world in chains , and continue to crucify humanity dayboy day—all the grand and enobling ideas that are prompting the nations to struggle for a better and a happier future . It is therefore to you , who have still freedom of speech , to whom has fallen the task of giving utterance to the thoughts and aspirations of the enslaved peoples of the continent . It is for you to raise your voices in defence of right and justice , to protest emphatically and continually against the many wrongs of the peoples , and to nlace the brand of infamy upon the brows of their tyrants ,

      So will ye hasten the renewal ofthe struggle and aid it when it arrives . The future is pregnant with great events . A storm is gathering in the sou ih whose bursting cannot be distant . May the princes , the invaders and tyrants of fait * Italy be scattered and destroyed before a calm agairi shall come . The recent executions in the Papal states are significant . They prove that the idea of Italian national unity and freedom is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the Italian population to be eradicated even by the wholesale slaughters of the Papacy They prove also that the danger to the Popedom is imminent , that in the madness of despair the priestly tyrants wildly murder their prisoners , thinking perhaps , to inspire terror in the breasts ofthe population ; but the heroic deaths of the victims will serve only to increase the patriotic enthusiasm of the people , and inspire them with a detestation for the . murdeiersof their brothers .

      In this approaching struggle between the Italian patriots and their oppressors ,, we can have no doubt as to with which party your sympathies will be . But it must not be a silent and unavalirig sympathy , but one which will be loudly expressed as an encouragement to the Italians struggling for liberty , and one which . you should make every endeavour to resolve into active aid . Your present means of aiding the Italian national cause , though limited , are yet valuable , and may be of great avail . There is the shilling subscription for ¦ European Freedom , which merits the support of every lover of liberty , inasmuch ! as , placed in the hahdsjof those in whom confidence can be reposed , it will be used ! to promote the cause of Republican Freedom in Italy , and not in Italy alone , ! , but throughout the entirely of Europe . You have also the means recommendedd by Mazzini , namely , to flood Parliament with petitions for the ensuring the eva-.-cuation of tho Roman States , hy the French and Austrian troops at presenht therein .

      The excellent petition of M . Mazzini will in many instances he found moree lengthy than is advisable . In such cases , that which we append hereto , anddl which contains the substance of that of Mazzini , may be substituted . We trust t that one or other will be copied and numerously signed in every town and vil-. llage throughout the . country . It may be said that neither Parliament nor Government have any desire tctc : see Italy free , and that it is therefore useless to send such a petition . Not so 3 :: for it will be one of the most effectual means of arousing the attention of thduE British public to the great importance of this question of Italian freedom .

      Finally we appeal to you to strengthen our hands , in order that wo may bbi enabled to carry into effect the objects of our society , namely to spreaeau amongst the British people a better-knowledge of continental politics and partiesess and of the wants and wishes of the continental nations , than is to be found iu thdiei columns of the anti-Democratic press of this country . Our watchword is , " Thaies Freedom , Equality , and Solidarity of flie Europaan peoples . !" ( In the name of the Committee . ) HENRY W 1 LICS , Chairman . G . JULIAN HARNEY , , . ALEXANDER BELL , SctiWtavies '

      The Humble Petition Of -. Sheweth: That ...

      The humble petition of -. Sheweth : That the Pope having left his metropolis two months previously , o 0 ) the 9 th of February , 1849 , a republican government was adopted b b ) the almost unanimous votes of a Constituent Assembly , elected by tlitlii whole people of the Roman States : That , in c ontravention of the lav of nations , and of the principlplu of rio-ht and justice , a league was formed by France , Austria , Spaiain ' Mid Naples , to overthrow the Roman Republic , and , after a loion WrugglOj this object was at length achieved .:

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 27, 1852, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_27111852/page/11/