Your Lordship’s letter refers to three very distinct topics. First, the conduct of the Liberals; second, that of the King and his Government; third, that of the Courts of Law.
With respect to the first point, I shall not trouble your Lordship with many observations. If it be true that the people had no reason to be dissatisfied; if it be true that in Sicily, for instance, they were guilty of the atrocities laid at their door; if the chambers of representatives were formed out of needy lawyers and brawling demagogues, how is it, my Lord, that the Government which has always been strong and despotic has not produced better results? Whose fault is it that people don’t know when they ought to be satisfied, that when they can they are cruel, ferocious, and all that, that needy lawyers and demagogues carry the day?...
I hope, my dear Lord, that a passage in your letter is misunderstood by me. Your Lordship seems to think that it was owing to the leniency of the Government that the Liberals did all the alleged mischief, and that, by shedding of blood, better results would have been obtained. If so, I beg to differ entirely from your Lordship. I am not one of those squeamish sort of persons who faint at the mention of punishment of death, even for political crimes; but assuredly the Neapolitan Government has never been accused of weakness on that score. I believe there have been more people put to death in the two Sicilies for political crimes since the French Revolution in 1789 began than in any other country in the world, France excepted. In Spain civil war has raged for so many years that it is impossible to draw a comparison. But in no part of Germany or of the North, of course not in England, nor even in other parts of Italy, has blood been shed more recklessly, more cruelly, or more remorselessly than in the kingdom of the two Sicilies. And what is the result, I ask once more? Oh, my Lord, that blood letting is a terrible and dangerous remedy!... It is a game at which two may play, and if Kings are too ready to put to death, they may teach republicans the same readiness....
As to the conduct of the King’s Government, I can only say that, if there be no aristocracy in either Sicily or Naples, it is only because it has been destroyed by the King’s Government—that it is owing to the Government that the French law of succession has been introduced in the kingdom of Naples, and then in Sicily, that in those kingdoms the scandal has been often seen repeated of the Sovereign swearing to statutes and fundamental laws, and then breaking his oath without fear of God or man.... This may be kingcraft of some sort, but it is not either religion or morality.... I hear it often said, ‘Oh, the people are deceived and misled by demagogues, on whom they ought not to place confidence.’ Why, on whom are they to place confidence? The poor people, when what passes before their eyes shows to them that those who govern them hold nothing sacred, and that the more solemn the oath, the more explicit the promises, the more earnest the appeals to loyalty, the more easy the perjury, the more barefaced the quibbling, the more gross the deception of those who relied on oaths, on promises, and on fair words?
After the 15th of May, 1848, a proclamation was published at Naples, signed by the King only; weigh well his words as an English gentleman, and recollect there are not two principles of morals—one for Kings and the other for other persons, or one for England, and one for Naples.... Well, then, what has been done, and with what success—for I am a man of facts, and not of theories—to establish that good Government that is to be the forerunner of the Guarantees for it? And if the Constitutional system is impossible, why did the King give a Constitution?...
I now come to the third point. Your Lordship tells me that Mr. Gladstone has been deceived.... You say distinctly not only that Sir W. Temple and Sir W. Molesworth are mistaken and have been deceived, but you hold as undoubted that Sicilian liberals, as well as foreign Diplomatists and Consuls, and Captains, and Admirals, and Ministers, &c., &c., all are either knaves or fools, who either wilfully or stupidly misrepresent the truth. Well, if I had no other data to judge of the validity of this sweeping exception than that the bulk of the persons here mentioned are Englishmen, I should not assent to your views. And not only many of them are Englishmen, that is belonging to a nation, as a whole, the most veracious on earth, but both English and Foreigners are persons of standing, &c.... On what ground is your Lordship induced to doubt their trustworthiness? Of your own knowledge you cannot know much. You collect your information from persons belonging to one side only, &c., &c.... It is not said of all the Deputies on the liberal side of the late Chamber “there is not one who is not either an exile or a prisoner.” What is said is what follows: ‘Of the whole number of deputies (160), only 140 attended when the Chamber sat, of these 140 there are 24 in prison and 52 in exile, that is to say, more than half.’ Let the names of those 140 who attended be looked after, and let the Government say where are 76 of them. If the Government do not do so, it may be, my Lord, I shall have the painful duty of sending a list to your Lordship myself for the Government’s information. And in looking after deputies, I wish you would inquire after one who was assassinated, and also ask for a certain Peluso, a priest, who enjoys a pension from the Government.... With respect to the evidence of Mr. Gladstone individually, I beg to submit the following facts. Mr. Gladstone is a political opponent of the Ministers, and just before leaving London for Naples last summer, voted against Lord Palmerston on the Greek question. He went from here as strongly impressed as your Lordship can now be that Lord Palmerston’s policy was wrong at Naples, and that Sir W. Temple was greatly to blame for calumniating the Neapolitan Government. Such were Mr. Gladstone’s feelings on arriving at Naples. To say that he is a most scrupulously honourable man as well as one of the most acute living Statesmen, is to say what everybody knows. What must be stated in addition, as it is important to the point now in discussion, is that Mr. Gladstone is a thorough Italian Scholar, and reads as well as speaks the language as fluently and correctly as a well educated Italian....
“Now, my Lord, I defy those who tell you that Mr. Gladstone has been deceived to show that they have taken one-tenth of the trouble he has taken.... And I beg also to add that in Europe a statement of facts by Mr. Gladstone, even unsupported, which it is far from being, will outweigh the statements of all the judges and other officials of the Neapolitan Court. My blood boils to have to call such people judges, and such a den a Court!... I shall not apologise for the length of this letter. It was due to Mr. Gladstone to show that he is not likely to have been deceived, and it was due to your Lordship to show that you must have been deceived. I hope and trust you will not countenance by your praises, or by an extenuation of its faults, a Government which is a disgrace to humanity and to Christianity....
Believe me, with great respect and truth,
Yours, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”