§ Mr. Humewished to know from the right hon. the President of the Board of Control whether Government had received any accounts confirming the news that had appeared in the public papers of the Russian expedition against Khiva having arrived there in considerable force, with artillery, and also of their having extended their movement as far as Bokhara.
§ Sir J. Hobhousedid not believe a single syllable of the reports in question. He had been much surprised to see them. Rumours to the effects of those statements had reached Bombay, but they were wholly improbable, unless these troops and cannon had dropped down from the skies. He had other means of knowing, however, that the reports in question were false. Captain Abbott, an English officer, who had left Khiva at a period subsequent to that of the supposed arrival of the Russians there, stated that no such arrival had taken place; and further, he had come by way of St. Petersburg in company with the Russian general who was to have commanded the expedition had it been able to reach Khiva. But it 1366 was not able, and after two or three inarches it returned to Oremburg. He might also add, that he had received that morning a letter from Herat, to the same effect.