When the tidings arrived in England of the strange, sudden, and daring occurrences at Paris, men’s minds were greatly agitated. A conflict of opinion arose in parliament and throughout the nation. Some regarded the coup d’état as Montalembert regarded it in 1859, as a violation of conscience, a treason, a perjury, a sanguinary violation of the rights of the French people; others deemed it an advantage gained by order, and even freedom, over anarchy and the despotism of red republicanism; they spoke of it as Montalembert did in 1851, when he addressed his countrymen, and told them that “to vote against Louis Napoleon would be to declare in favour of the socialist revolution, the only thing which can at present succeed the existing government.” It will, however, belong to other chapters of this history to depict the effect upon English affairs, and English public opinion, of the policy and power of him who seized the reins of government, in France, with a hand as daring as that of his renowned uncle.
DISCUSSIONS IN THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT CONCERNING THE STATE OF AFFAIRS AT NAPLES.
Throughout the year 1851 the state of the kingdom of Naples attracted the attention of the civilized world, but made most impression in England. The King of Naples was a bigot and a tyrant, a man of obstinate will, and he exhibited a fierce hatred to both civil and religious liberty. During the European struggle for freedom, in 1848, he swore to give a constitution to his subjects, and to observe it for ever. Utterly faithless in his own character, he violated his oath when the opportunity of power permitted. The description Milton gives as the probable result of restoring Satan and his fallen host to their primitive glory, on professions of repentance, depicts the actual conduct of the Neapolitan Bourbon when he attained to power, after being spared by his subjects the humiliation so generally the lot of European princes in the great year of revolutions—
“Height would recall high thought, and ease recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void.”
A pamphlet, written by Mr. Gladstone, roused intelligent persons in England, and in Europe generally, to the atrocities perpetrated upon virtuous, loyal, and even illustrious subjects, in sheer wantonness of power, by the Neapolitan king. Lord Palmerston, then at the head of foreign affairs, sent a copy of the pamphlet to the English minister at every court of Europe, with the design of calling the attention of all civilized nations to the oppression with which the people of the kingdom of Naples were overwhelmed by their perjurious prince. This announcement was received by enthusiastic cheers in the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, however, was disappointed in his expectation that the moral influence of Europe would be brought to bear upon the Neapolitan government, in favour of humanity. Some of the European states upheld the conduct of the King of Naples, and the pope especially lent him his moral support, although twenty thousand citizens of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies were incarcerated for expressing liberal opinions, or demanding the institutions which the king had sworn to respect. Thus supported by the despotic states, and the sovereign pontiff, he bid defiance to the constitutional states of Europe, and even increased the cruelties of his stern absolutism.
DIPLOMATIC DISPUTE WITH AUSTRIA AND TUSCANY, ARISING FROM AN OUTRAGE UPON A YOUNG ENGLISH GENTLEMAN AT FLORENCE.
It was early in January, 1852, that the tidings arrived in England of one of the most unprovoked and barbarous outrages ever perpetrated upon one of her sons, but the event itself occurred in 1851. The events of this chapter relate to that year, but as the transactions at Florence, in which England suffered so much humiliation, extended into 1852, it is proper the narrative should also extend into that year, so far as they are concerned.
It appears that a young English gentleman, Mr. Erskine Mather, about nineteen years of age, and his younger brother, Mr. Thomas M. Mather, about sixteen, had been for some time in Paris, where their parents had placed them to promote their education. The elder brother being delicate, had been ordered south as the winter approached. In this search after health they had a desire, at the same time, to acquire in the country a knowledge of the language of Italy, and of the art for which that land is celebrated. They had already spent two or three months at Nice, and in November had moved down to Genoa, and then on to Florence, where they meant to reside for the winter; at which place the injury and insult were inflicted. On the 29th of December Earl Granville, the foreign minister of England, in writing to the Honourable P. C. Scarlett, the charge d’affaires at Florence, thus speaks of these young Englishmen, and the outrage:*—