THE MISSION TO ROME. in 



Government, with the majority of a sovereign 

 Assembly ! But if the Minister for Foreign Affairs 

 had at the time an arriere-pensee, which I will not 

 even now do him the injustice of supposing, was I the 

 man to accept, in view of a wretched personal interest, 

 a mission the object of which was to do the very 

 opposite of what my country had the right to expect 

 of me after the public statements made from the 

 tribune ? 



" My instructions authorised me in so many words 

 to be ' guided by circumstances, 7 so how can it be 

 argued that they limit me within the hard and fast 

 lines of the despatch of May 8th ? Are the subse- 

 quent utterances of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, M. Odilon 

 Barrot, and the President of the Republic to go for 

 nothing ? Is the speech of M. Barrot (President of 

 the Council) on the 9th of May, announcing my de- 

 parture and the object of my mission in conformity 

 with the vote of the 7th, of no value in the eyes of 

 the Council ? Then in that case the speech of the 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered on May 22nd, 

 should be erased from the official record of the 

 Assembly, when he said: 'As to the Koman expedi- 

 tion, it has been the subject of two debates. The second 

 was a very recent one ; the Government explained the 

 object of the expedition* the Assembly expressed its 

 views and made known its decrees, and an agent was 

 at once sent to Kome and to head-quarters. He took 

 with him as his instructions the report of the debate in 



