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Northern Star (1837-1852), 27th November 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 251, DEMOCEATIC MOVEMENTS aS 11 of the

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      Democeatic Movements As 11 Of The

      aS 11 of the

      Democeatic Movements. R\

      DEMOCEATIC MOVEMENTS . r \

      Petition For Italy. To The Editor Of The...

      PETITION FOR ITALY . To the Editor of the Star of Freedom . A 11 . x _Lohdos , Nov . 33 , 1852 . Sis , —Allow me to entreat your atteution + n tha tw +- _t _Jaa _optedby the Council of the " 8 _^ _^^^ concerning the prolonged occupation of the Roman provinces by _Austrian and French troops ; and let me hope that you will insert _iHn pur paper , with a few words of yours recommending it to your readers Circulated m print or manuscri pt , in every _lollity , _\ _roughthe agency othberalcoUective bodies or of influential _individuals

      • signed m every popular association whose members look for " theTe st supp ort for their special agitation , in the general principle that man has been placed here down to do da the good he can in every direction in every religious congregation where there lives abhorrence of the Lie n 0 _* enthroned at Rome , and communing love for a people Wing to proclaim hberty of conscience in the very seat of spiritual _despotism ; adopted by all _behevers mcml and religious liberty as the rightful law not only tor England but for the world ; and sent back to Parliament

      through the representative of the town or county , it would rise _totiie importance ot a great national document , it would embody a mighty thought of international justice , determine the first step of a political life more attuned to England ' s mission and the true interests , than the now prevailing system of self-abdication , and record a noble protest against the schemes of absolutist re-action , now unfoldino- on the Continent and threatening England ' s shores . °

      I am , Sir , Yours respectfully , Joseph Mazzixi

      PETITION OF THE FRIENDS OF ITALY , ON THE TRENCH AND _AUSTRIAN OCCUPATION OP THE R 03 IAX 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 , _SlipwpfTi

      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 Rome , 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 .

      That , by these almost unanimous votes—by the joyful acceptance by the people of the Roman 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 municipalities 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 _nr \(\ _mnrleratimi . "

      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 liberal Government of Great Britain against such a gross and insolent violation of all recognized _international principles ; but that , on the coutrary , from various despatches , and especially from one of Lord Nonnanby to Lord Palmerston , dated April 19 th , 1 * 849 , it appears that "the restoration of the Pope under an improved form of g overnment was likewise the expressed object of her Majesty ' s Government . " line of conduct

      That _' although such an object and such a 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 . That it was and is so much the more rational and easy to do so , inasmuch as the declarations and solemn promises given by the French Government were , during the war with Rome , framed in the same spirit and almost constituting a sort of bilateral compact between the _"Rritieli and French Governments . _*

      That as a proof of this , your Petitioners have only to reter to a series of official acts of the two Governments , viz .: to the despatch of Apnl 19 th from Lord Normenby to Lord Palmerston , in which the "inroTOvedfoTm of government" was defined to consist in carrying out « those administrative reforms which had been proposed eighteen years since , and also in confirming those constitutional institutions which the present Pope had previously granted of his own free will ; to the despatch dated April 17 th , from Monsieur Drouyn de Lhuys to Monsieur De la Cour , saying , our " intention is not to impose on the Roman people a system of administration which their free will would have rejected " to the despatch addressed on the 19 th of April , by M . Drouyn de Lhuys to Admiral Cecille , statingthat the object of the intervention was « t o guarantee the independence of the Italian States , and to secure to the Roman people a liberal and regular system of _admmistration- " to the proclamation dated Cmta Vecchia , Apri 124 th , and

      signed by Colonel Espiventfor General Oudmot , saying , "the _Government of the French Republic animated by a liberal spirit , declares that the wishes of the majority of the Roman people shall be respected . . and " it is moreover resolved not to impose on this population any form of government which is not desired by it ! " to a despatch signed by Lord Palmerston June 12 th , where it is stated " that the reconciliation which is their ( the French Government ' s ) object to effect between the Pope and the Roman people ought to be founded on the basis that tbe Pope should maintain substantially the Representative Constitution which he granted . - . to his States' and that there should be a real and effectual separation between the temporal and spiritual

      Petition For Italy. To The Editor Of The...

      tolhl _^ h _T S f erei _8 Koman State _* ' " to the answer _adol _nf _, _\ i deTtch ' wMch Monsieur De Tocqueville completey _Wto _wK ? ° P ? dUCt ° f _, French Go _«» t > the _conclusions to whidi Lord Palmerston had come . . , <• that their ( the _SStadSI ? first caTe _rf t 0 secure _^ —LS _carfjhahk JCT \ , ? 5 l granted b _? the ° P ' and t 0 take _footing _wvl _T _^ _f ? uld n 0 t be re-established on that arbitrary footing which had formerl y been found inconsistent with the good fnXT ? P _!^ ' ' t 0 _the co _^ er answer of the 3 d ofuy , to _fiSbaf t f T I ' _** _" _*> _lament « e glad arTit _™ Jour _. _? llency . _has _«™ _% agreed that those intentions are the same as the views originally explained by the French Govern-Z , f _^ _. _^ Pftion sailed for Civita Vecchia ; " to another despatch dated Juy 3 rd , from the Marquis of Normanby to Lord _ralmerston , in which it is again asserted " that the French _Govern-ZfJSffil SU _t V _^ ° the Roman _^ estion as _^ been counselled by her Majesty ' s Government , namely , theretoration 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 tK of June , that the object of Frencn intervention was « the liberty of the head of the Church , the liberty of the 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 oi the Roman States would be a measure of a short duration lnat 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 will retire ; " 2 nd , bya despatch of July the 3 rdfrom Lord Palnieiston to the Marquis

      _^ , ot 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 thing much to be avoided ; " 3 rd , by a despatch of Lord Palmerston to Vicount Ponsonby , dated July 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 Simian people ; and that Priestly absolute government still misrules iii safety in the Roman

      _^ 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 : j . That in spite of a nominal amnesty granted , and solemn promises given both by the Pope and by the French invader , that the 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 , twentyj-tour 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 lingbr 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 statej 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 Imposter Pope , but on that of all Nations calling themselves civilized , liberal , and Christians , who still look on unmoved and _inrHffinrprit . at , _snf . _li t _. _rn . nsfl . f . t _. _inns :

      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 and 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 Home and of all central Italy by Austria and France , resting on forfciffed 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 important strategic positions in Europe .

      That such considerations are strengthened by the fact ot 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 " tlie Mediterranean must be a French lalro "

      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 : That it is degrading and highly perilous for England to 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 mig hty 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-interference 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 , relig ious , 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 mission , far worse than physical death . That for all these reasons your petitioners believe it to be a pressing duty of the 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

      Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your honourable House to present an Address to her Majesty , praying that her Majesty will use her 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 For Italy. To The Editor Of 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 Seriate 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 France should ascribe to him the two great checks of the fatal year , ai _> d that 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 tho country , refused arms to the people ! The faubourgs of Paris , rallying at sonnd 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 be would rather deliver France to the monarchs , his brothers , than arm the demagogy , ( that is to say , the poor , these great soldiers ) , and engage it in a struggle in which all might be engulpned : the idea , honour , nationality , and country 1 Citizens , in 1815 , Tallyerand , Marrnont and Fouche delivered up Paris ; but the

      Emperor delivered up France by refusing arms _^ 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 assassinated it before the Cossacks . There were no longer _anyjarrns 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 nolice . he had _sunnressed tbe 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 , to please the avenging kings ,, he refused anus to 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'JSm perevr ! 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 cartouch of the Empire ! The heirs of that mavi , and that time should not therefore , profit by that great grief of a former time—grief that the people has already avenged by two revolutions ! A hist 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 Revohdion 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-Countrymen , —Europe is entering upon a new era—upon a new 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 _ueonles .

      In Germany , in Hungary , and in Italy , the reaction _l'eigns 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 tbe world in chains , and continue to crucify humanity _dayiby 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 place the brand of infamy upon the brows of their tyrants .

      So will ye hasten the renewal of the struggle and aid it when it arrives . The future is pregnant with great events . A storm is gathering in the souIh whose bursting cannot be distant . May the princes , the invaders and tyrants of fair Italy be scattered and destroyed before a calm again shall come . The recent executions in the Papal states are oignificant . 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 of the population ; but the heroic deaths of the victims will serve only to increase the patriotic enthusiasm of the _neoole , and insnire them with a detestation for the murdeiers of 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 unavaling sympathy , but one which will be loudly _impressed as an encouragement to the Italians struggling for liberty , and one which you should make every endeavour to x _* esolve into active aid . Youv present means of aiding the Italian national cause , though limited , are yet valuable , and may be of great avail . There is the _.-shillingaiibsuription ibr European _Freedom , which merits the support of every lover of libert y , inasmuch as , placed in the handsjof those in whom confidence can be reposed , it will bo used to promote the cause of Republican Freedom in Italy , and not in lLaly alone but throughout the entirety of Europe . You have also the means recommended by Mazzini , namely , to flood Parliament with petitions for the ensurim , ' the evacuation of the Roman States , by the French and Austrian troops at present _thfli'oin - '

      The excellent petition of M . Mazzini will in many instances be found more lengthy than is advisable . In such cases , that which we append hereto and which contains the substance of that of Mazzini , may be substituted . We trirt that one or other will be copied and numerously signed in every town an ' d village throughout the country . It may be said that neither Parliament nor Government have any desire to see Italy free , and that it is therefore useless to send such a petition , _jf _^ so . for it will be one of the most effectual means of arousing the attention of the British public to the great importance of this question of Italian freedom . Finally we appeal to you to strengthen our hands , in order that we may be enabled to carry into effect tbe objects of oui- . society , namely to spread amongst the British people a better knowledge of continental politics and parties and of the wants and wishes of the continental nations , than is ' , o be found in the ' columns of the anti-Democratic press of this country . Our watchword is " The Freedom , Equality , and Solidarity of fhe European peoples . !"

      ( In the name of the Committee . ) ' HENRY W 1 LKS , Chairman G . JULIAN HARNEY , _ ALEXANDER BELL , _Sewta _™

      The Humble Petition Of . Shewetii *. Tha...

      The humble petition of . Shewetii * . That the Pope having left his metropolis two months previously , on the 9 th of February , 1849 , a republican government was adopted by the almost -unanimous votes of a Constituent Assembly , elected by the whole people of the-Roman States : That , in contravention of the law of nations , and of the principles of ri ght and justice , a league was formed by France , Austria , Spain , and Naples , to overthrow the Roman Republic , and , after a long _Sto- ' _uggle , this object was at length achieved .:

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 27, 1852, page 251, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/nss_27111852/page/11/