ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 826, 2 July 1853, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The following admirable letter on the subject of the persecution of the Madiais has been addressed by Lord John Russell to the British Minister at Florence :—: — Lord John Russell to Sir Henry Bulicer. Foreign Office, January 18, 1855. Sir, — According lo the last accounts received from you, the G» # and Duke of Tuscany still bssilates on the subject of the Madiais. But this is a matter on v;hich hesitation implies capital punishment. Ii is tha same thing in effect to conderail a mau to die by fit e, like Savonarola, or to pin him to 'death by tfie slow torture of an'unhealthy prison. It seem 3 to be imagined, indeed, by some Governments on the Continent, that if they avoid the syectacle of au execution on the scaffold, they will escape the odium ,to themselves, and the sympathy of their victims, which attends upon the punishment of death fot offences of a political or religious character. But this is an error. It is now well understood that the wasting of the body, the sinking of the spirits, the weakening of the mind, are but additions to the capital punishment which long and close confinement too often involves. If, therefore, as has been lately reported, one of the Madiais were to die in prison, the Grand Duke roust expect that throughout Europe he will be considered as having put .\human being to death for being a Protestant. It will be said, no doubt, that the offence of Francesco Madiai was not that of beiug a Protestant, but that of endeavouring to seduce others from the Roman Catholic faith ; thai the Tuscau Government had the most merciful intentions, and meant to have shortened the period of imprisonment allotted by law to bis offence ; that such offences cannot be permitted lo pass unpunished. Ail this, however, will avail very little. Throughout the civilized world this example of religious persecution will excite abhorrence. Nor will it be the least of the reproaches addressed to the Government of the Grand Dake that the name of Leopold of Tuscany has been thus desecrated, sad the example of a benevolent sovereign thus departed from. The peaceful, mild, and ingenuous character of the Tuscan people makes this severity tiie less necessary and the more cdious. As this is a matter affecting a Tuscan subject, it may be said that her Majesty's Government have no right to interfere. If this means that interference by force of arms would not be justifiable, 1 confess at once that nothing but the most extreme «ase would justify such interference. But if it be meant that Her Majesty has not the right to point out to a friendly sovereign the arI guments which have prevailed in the most civi- ! lized nations against the use of the civil sword to punish religious opinions, I entirely deny the truth of such an allegation. You are, therefore, instructed to speak in the most serious tone to the Minister of Foreign affairs, and to lay before him all the considerations stated in this despatch. You will do it in the most friendly tone, and take care to assure the Government to which you are accredited that none are more sincere in their wishes for the independence and happiness of Tuscany than the Queen of Great Britain. I am, &c, J. Russell.