The project of annexing Savoy to France has been thoroughly
debated in the House of Lords, on a motion by Lord Normanby calculated to draw out the strongest expression of opinion. Lord Normanby proposed an address to the Queen, praying her Ma- jesty to direct her Government " to use their best endeavours to avert the transfer of those territories to the French empire." Lord Normanby's speech was vehemently anti-annexationist ; it was excelled, if not in vehemence, in strength, by the language of Lord Shaftesbury ; in a certain critical pointedness by Earl Grey ; while there was no difference of opinion upon the merits of the question itself. The position of the Government ap- pears to be this. Assurances have been received from Turin, that King Victor Emmanuel contemplates no cession ; from Paris, that if the Emperor Napoleon had contemplated the ac- quisition under certain conditions,—probably the expulsion of Austria beyond the Alps—those conditions have not accrued, and the project, therefore, is not entertained. Lord Palmerston's Cabinet has signified its disapprobation of any attempt to raise the question of natural boundaries, and still more of any step to pay disinterested interference of die French Government in Italy by small acquisitions of territory. Beyond the expression of moral disapprobation' however, the Government holds that Eng- land is in no way called upon to interfere ; and in this position. the Government appears to be giving direct effect to the most general opinion of the country.
