HC Deb 12 March 1861 vol 161 cc1797-8
MR. ARTHUR MILLS

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Commission on the Newfoundland Fisheries have pre- sented their Report, and whether any recent Correspondence affecting the settlement of this question has taken place between the Governments of England and France?

LORD JOHN RUSSELL

said, the Commission on the Newfoundland Fisheries made their Report in August, 1859, and in March, 1860, a gentleman was sent to Paris with a view to his coming to some arrangement with the French Government on the subject. He stayed in Paris some time, and came to an arrangement with that Government, which had been all but completed, but there were two points upon which a difference prevailed. In November, Her Majesty's Government made a proposition to the French Government in regard to those two subjects, and they had not yet received an answer.