[Inclosure.—Translation.]
the resignation of mr. sella.
[From L’Opinione of
Rome, of May 10, 1817.]
The determination announced by Mr. Sella to resign the presidency of the
Central Constitutional Association has caused a sensation in all the
political circles which it would be in vain to dissimulate. It appears
that this determination has been taken in consequence of the vote by the
Senate against the law on the abuses by the clergy. But respecting this
law, was his party bound to vote in one way rather than another This is
the first question that every one asks of himself. Another question is
this, to what point, in the Chamber, in the Senate and in the country,
does the action of the head of the Central Constitutional Association
extend?
It is easy to reply to the first question. Mr. Sella has not denied that
every one was free to vote upon the law on the abuses of the clergy as
it appeared best and as he might choose. It was not a party but an
individual vote. We express no opinion, upon the fact; we only assert
it, and the vote in the Chamber was the proof of it. In that vote the
opposition did not express itself as a party; some were favorable,
others [Page 329] contrary, and no one
thought that this dissent signified a division in the party. Mr. Sella
himself did not believe it.
In the Senate, the political situation was different, and the
intervention of the whole European clerical party should, have acted as
a warning to the Senate that a high political question had come upon the
field, which question, if not decided in a liberal sense, would
necessarily be decided in a clerical sense, whatever might be the
liberal intentions and sentiments and principles of the senators
notwithstanding. In Mr. Sella’s opinion, to bill ought to be approved,
modified, amended, and corrected, and he said so to several senators.
But not all knew it; and some, when they learned it, had already
promised their vote. He did not think fit to call together the
association in order to expose to it clearly his ideas, so that none
should be ignorant of them. Not a few senators, considering what had
taken place in the Chamber, had no suspicion that voting against the law
might be the cause of a division in the party, and declared this to Mr.
Sella as soon as informed that he had taken the determination to
withdraw from the supreme direction of the opposition party. Mr. Sella
should take this circumstance into consideration. We have explained it
in the most explicit manner before passing to the second query.
Mr. Sella is not only the president of the Central Constitutional
Association, he is also the chief of the constitutional opposition in
the Chamber. The two high charges are united in him, but might be
separate from each other, but only to the prejudice of the authority and
action of the party. The chief of the opposition in the Chamber could
not expect to exercise equal influence in the Senate, but the president
of the association has the right to expect that the senators, who form
part of it, will not take serious, resolutions before arriving at an
understanding with him.
Tous it has neverseemed fitting that the Senate should be a militant
political assembly-It is, in our opinion, a congress of experienced and
learned men who give to the Crown and to the nation guarantees of
intelligence, of probity, of calm impartiality, who judge laws according
to their intrinsic value, regardless of the ministers who present them
and unbound by the inflexible ties of party. The conditions of the
opposition in the Chamber and in the Senate are so different that it
would not be possible to give to both of them the same direction. It
would be opening a passage to extreme confusion, for the opposition in
the Chamber is essentially political, while in the Senate it is
principally legislative and administrative, and could not become
political except when it saw the ministry taking a course, the result of
which then would be disorder and the ruin of the-state. The purposes and
the offices (committees) of the Senate and the Chamber being distinct,
it should not be inferred that the general spirit that moves both should
be different, and that there should be no community of ideas, of
thoughts, and of aims between the two assemblies. To the Central
Constitutional Association belong senators, deputies, and free citizens
who do not sit in Parliament. They meet together, because they have in
common a programme of government, and in common the desire to defend, no
less valiantly, liberty against arbitrary measures than order against
anarchy. For order does not consist alone in public quiet. In this
aspect, order is a matter for the police and not for politics. Order can
be maintained in the streets while there is being prepared a moral
disorder, which overthrows all ideas, deranges all the administrations,
and lowers the intelligence and the heart. The Central Constitutional
Association has this programme: to protect liberty when menaced, and to
fight for those principles of moral and material order that are the
foundation of civil society. Among those who compose it, some divergence
(of views) may at times manifest itself. Is such divergence slight and
not irreconcilable with great principles? It may be disregarded. Are
they dissensions in principle, in direction, in attitude? Then it is
better to come to explanations and declarations. No difficulty can be
resolved, nor can any question be determined by silence. The best policy
has. ever been that of speaking plainly, for it is only by clear and
loyal declarations that a criterion can be found for distinguishing
between friends and foes.
If the letter sent by Mr. Sella to Mr. Rudini had but this scope in view,
to open a discussion in the central association, we think that it would
have been opportune.
We do not believe that the committee will deliberate on the letter of Mr.
Sella, but that it will limit itself to its communication to the
association from which it holds office.
But he has certainly the right to demand that the party should have
confidence in him, in Parliament as well as in the country; and that it
has, there are too many sure-indications to doubt it. The only thing
that remains to be done is that Mr. Sella and his friends may have a
clear understanding between them, and that they may not make-speeches to
be interrupted half way. Let them go to the end, and let each one
express, entire his own opinion.
We know many who have no other desire than that Mr. Sella should lead
them in all the political contests; all follow him with affection,
having faith in him, and knowing that he could not be replaced by any
one with the same authority in Parliament and in Italy.
A meeting of the association is besides very useful and opportune, now
that important questions lie before the mature reflections of the
Chamber.
[Page 330]
Mr. Sella is not one of those who, even while chiefs of party, withdraw
to gratify a caprice. No office does he accept that he is not sure of
tilling completely. Nevertheless, the high magistracy to which he was
called by the confidence of his political friends is a serious matter
for him. Nor could he resign it on account of the vote of the Senate,
the vote of an assembly from whom it would not be reasonable to exact a
strict party discipline.
