I have given one sample of the not very even-handed justice which pervaded the correspondence.  But I will proceed further.  After the battle of Messina 700 or 800 rebels escaped towards the Ionian Islands.  They were taken, and it was said by a stratagem:  that by hoisting the English flag a Neapolitan cruiser was enabled to near them and take them.  It was further alleged—­and much of the correspondence is addressed to this point—­that they were taken, contrary to the law of nations, within three miles or cannon-shot of the Ionian Islands, and therefore within the British waters.  Very elaborate arguments are given in the correspondence to prove that position, and a great deal of indignation is expressed; and satisfaction was also demanded on account of the abuse of the English flag.  An elaborate argument is prepared and sent by the Foreign Secretary to show that because the ships were first seen twenty miles off, and in half an hour more they were more clearly perceived, therefore at some unknown and unspecified time after the half hour, they must have been close in with the shore.  I suppose on the principle that a sailing vessel going without steam, moves at the rate of twenty or thirty miles in the hour.  However, such is this zealous argument to prove the favourite point that the rebels are always right and the Government always wrong.  Alas! that so much good information and subtlety of argument should be thrown away.  This able and argumentative paper crossed on its way out another from our own Admiral on its way homeward, in which he said he had inquired from the Governor of the Ionian Islands, and had ascertained that the ship was at least eight miles from the shore—­so there was an end of the argument upon distance; and that of the insult to our flag was as shortly disposed of by a letter from our own Admiralty, stating that it was only a stratagem which our own Navy constantly employed, freely using the flags of other nations for its own purposes.

I rejoice to say, and your Lordships must he rejoiced to hear it, that I am approaching the end of this subject, but I cannot abstain from observing, to show how completely we took part with the one side against the other, that we treated the Sicilian prisoners as if they had been our allies, our own subjects.  They were taken in rebellion, with arms in their hands, against their lawful Sovereign.  But Lord Napier complains to Prince Cariati of his treatment of the prisoners, and says it would be observed upon in England, would raise a strong feeling on its exposure and publication, and that the feeling would be such that Her Majesty’s Government could scarcely fail to take notice of it.  But how?  For those prisoners were guilty of municipal offence against the municipal law of their own country.  Suppose, contrary to all probability and possibility, hostilities had ensued upon the late attempt at rebellion in Ireland, and some of the prisoners having been taken and sent to Bermuda or Australia, that the Ministers