§ MR. GREGORYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If he has received any information of the occupation of any portion of the Island of St. Domingo by the Spaniards, and if he has received any Copies of any proclamations by Spanish officers relative thereto; and, if so, whether he will lay them upon the Table of the House?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, the Government had received no account of the occupation of St. Domingo by Spaniards. That which they had received was a proclamation by General Saldanha, issued in consequence, of a meeting which took place, in which he declared that the Republic was at an end, and that the Sovereignty of the island should henceforth be annexed to that of Spain, and ordering the Spanish flag should be immediately hoisted. The Government had also received intelligence that a vessel of war had sailed with troops from Cuba to St. Domingo, but no account of its arrival there had reached them. Intelligence bad also arrived from Madrid to the effect that the Spanish Government would probably not accept the transfer of the Sovereignty of St. Domingo; but nothing official had been declared on that head. He might add that the Spanish Government had declared that they had received no official information on the subject, and he had simply to say, in conclusion, that he did not think it would be convenient for the public service that the papers to which the hon. Gentleman referred should be laid on the Table of the House.