you have made a formal accepting for himself of
this vote, and, in order to deceive the ignorant multitude, you ordered
public rejoicings in honor of a fact which you knew to be false. You
declared yourselves the ministers of a king who had not appointed you. You
administer the government in his name; you give judgments in his name; you
pledge the public faith of a sovereign who has given you no commission to
do any such thing; and although you forced the Tuscans to acknowledge him
for king, you despise his authority to such an extent as to impose upon
him the choice of a regent. What right have you to do this, if he be
really king, and if he be not, is your right any better founded?"

The Marquis of Normanby laughs to scorn the various attempts that were
made to establish a government in Central Italy against the will of the
people. First of all, a certain Signor Buoncompagni was appointed
governor-general by the King of Sardinia. The Emperor of the French judged
that the ambitious satrap had exceeded his powers, and Buoncompagni was
immediately recalled. The Prince de Carignan was then offered the regency
of Central Italy. He thought it prudent to decline; but, unwilling wholly
to relinquish a cherished object of ambition, he named in his place the
above-mentioned Signor Buoncompagni. It would be hard to say in virtue of
what right he so acted. The appointment, it is well known, caused the
greatest indignation at Florence, and elicited a protest from the liberal
representatives themselves. Will it be believed, in after times, that the
British ministry, at that time in power, actually recognized this spurious
government, ordering the Queen's representative to pay an official visit
to Signor Buoncompagni? Whilst all Europe held aloof, anxious to avoid
wrong and insult to the Italian people, whence this zeal and haste on the
part of the British cabinet? At first they had resolved to be neutral. But
there occurred to them the chimerical idea of a great kingdom of Central
Italy; and, as Lord Normanby stated, they hastened in their ignorance to
carry this idea into effect. "Yes," continued the illustrious Peer, when
assailed by the laughter of the more ignorant portion of his hearers,
"yes, in complete ignorance of the aspirations and the prejudices of the
Italian people."

"It is a painful duty," said the illustrious statesman, in concluding his
eloquent appeal to the common sense and honorable feeling of the British
peer