§ Sir R. Peelinquired whether the noble Lord thought it probable 1148 that any communication would be made to Parliament by the Government, explanatory of the state of affairs in the east? He thought it was most important that Parliament should not separate without information on the subject.
§ Viscount Palmerstonwas quite aware of the great importance of the matter to which the right hon. Baronet had alluded, and it certainly was very natural that Parliament should wish to be put in possession of any information that could be properly communicated. At the same time he was afraid, that in the present state of those affairs, it would not be in the power of the Government, consistently with that practice, the expediency of which was felt by all, to make any communication, because this was not a matter in which the English Government were alone concerned. It was a matter which affected the interests of all Europe, and the five great powers of Europe, feeling that it deeply interested them, had entered into communications with each other. Of course, those communications being pending, it would be improper to communicate details until some result was arrived at. At the same time, he had the satisfaction of assuring the House that as far as those communications which had taken place between her Majesty's Government and the government of France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia had gone, there was no difference of opinion whatever, but all were animated by the same desire to maintain peace, and all were convinced that the peace of Europe could only be maintained as regarded those affairs by upholding the independence and integrity of the Turkish empire.
§ Subject dropped.