§ LORD ROBERT CECILsaid, he wished to ask a Question, which, at the interposition of the noble Lord at the head of the Government, he had postponed on Friday evening. He wished to know from the Attorney General, Whether he still considers a certain Report alleged to be signed by Mr. Mallory, on behalf of the Confederate Government, as a document of a character entirely unquestionable, as he on a former occasion had described it? He also wished to know whether the Government will lay on the table the Despatch of Mr. Seward with reference to that document?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, he had to thank the noble Lord for giving him the opportunity of assuring the House that when he referred to that document on a former occasion, and used the word "unquestionable," his meaning was simply this—that never having heard any suggestion that the document was not what it professed to be, and knowing that it had been placed in the hands of Lord Lyons by Mr. Seward, and sent on that authority by Lord Lyons to Her Majesty's Government, and that it had been referred to, as if substantially trustworthy, in a communication by Mr. Adams to Earl Russell; being ignorant also of the peculiar form in which such documents are presented to the Confederate Congress; and also not being aware at the time that an opinion had been expressed by any person throwing doubt on the genuineness of the document, he, in his simplicity, did assume that the document was what it purported to be. Had it been so, emanating from the Confederate Government, it would undoubtedly have been as he had represented it, of unquestionable authority. His impression was, that the letter of Mr. Adams should be produced. [Mr. LAYARD: No, no; the despatch of Lord Lyons.] He meant, that 1203 the despatch of Lord Lyons should be produced.