ommander of the
armed police is a Piedmontese; the military governor of Leghorn is a
Piedmontese; the captain of the port is a Piedmontese; without reckoning a
great number of other functionaries of the same nation. This is what I
call armed and foreign intervention. Let us be disembarrassed of all this;
let us be free from the despotic pressure of this government, and the
great majority of the country would vote the restoration of the House of
Lorraine. Almost all the army would be for the Grand Duke, and on this
account it is kept at a distance from Tuscany. I can say the same of
two-thirds of the national guard. All the Great Powers have observed
strict neutrality here, inasmuch as they have not been present at any
ceremony which could be looked upon as a recognition of the existing
government. But since the peace of Villafranca, the English agents have
taken part in all the ceremonies, in all the balls.' Assuredly, thus to
recognize such a government is far from being faithful to the assurance
given last session by the noble Lord at the head of the foreign department
(cheers)."

Lord Normanby's trustworthy correspondent says, moreover, in the letter
referred to, that the Tuscan troops being kept at a distance from Tuscany,
the people dreaded making any demonstration, being well aware that an
imprudent word would be punished with imprisonment. "At Leghorn, however,
some private meetings were held, at which influential persons were
present. Public meetings are impossible. Twenty-three members of the
assembly asked that it should be convened. This was refused them. At the
private meetings, however, it was decided that Ferdinand IV. should be
recalled, on condition of granting a constitution and an amnesty. The
people have been dreadfully deceived. All promises have been violated, the
price of provisions has risen, the national debt has been enormously
increased."

Lord Normanby also laid before the House of Peers the testimony of a
distinguished Italian writer, Signor Amperi, whom he described as a man of
high character. This gentleman addressed the governments of Central Italy
in the following terms:

"The false position in which you have placed yourselves has reduced you to
the necessity, in times of liberty, as you pretend, but of false liberty,
as I conceive, to make falsehood a system of government. Of the promises
of Victor Emmanuel that he would sustain before the Great Powers the vote
of the Tuscan Assembly,