LORD BROUGHAMI wish now to advert to a circumstance, and ask a question of my noble Friend opposite (the Marquess of Lansdowne), to which, if his public duty should not prevent him from responding, I am sure he will, with his usual kindness and courtesy, give me an answer—I allude to the event, which I have learned with very great sorrow, of the departure, by command of his Court, of the French Ambassador from this country to Paris. My Lords, it requires no addition to this fact to make it wear an aspect of grave and serious import in my eyes; but I do not consider that the accidental circumstance of Her Majesty's birthday coinciding with the departure of the French Ambassador is to be put into the scale to add weight to the circumstance, because I take for granted that that is owing, more or less, to the accidental coincidence of this day with the day appointed for the explanations that have been asked in the French Chamber. But I must say, it will be to me a matter of great satisfaction, as it will be to the country at large, if my noble Friend should be found—when the time comes to take notice of what I am now stating—to view this departure of the French Ambassador as of less grave importance than I do. For of this I am certain, that the least diminution of the friendly feeling between this country and France is a consummation most devoutly to be deprecated, the more 102 especially as France is one of the very few Powers—perhaps I ought to say almost the only great Power—in Europe, with whom, from unfortunate circumstances, respecting which I cast blame upon no one, we are at the present moment on a friendly footing.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEI will endeavour to reply to what I consider the most material part of my noble Friend's question. There can be no doubt that the sudden and perhaps unexpected absence of the French Ambassador from this Court is an event of importance; but, at the same time, I can assure my noble and learned Friend that it is not of that very grave importance which some persons have been disposed to attribute to it. My noble and learned Friend has almost anticipated what I, nevertheless, think to be my duty to state to the House, that the circumstance of his leaving this capital on the day of Her Majesty's birthday was simply accidental, and in no way connected with any intentional design of manifesting anything like disrespect to Her Majesty or to this country, which, in a case of this sort, would have been identical. It was, I believe, solely from a desire—his presence being required in the French capital by his Government—to give them the benefit of his presence within as short a time as possible. And without entering further into the subject, I am prepared to say there are circumstances which, in my opinion, may render the presence of that very eminent and intelligent person in Paris at this moment, more useful to the connexion between the two countries than would be his stay in London.
LORD BROUGHAMI anticipated the explanation of the noble Marquess. But I can hardly ascribe the absence of the Russian Ambassador from the celebration of Her Majesty's birthday to a similar cause. I wish I could.
§ Subject dropped.
§ House adjourned till To-morrow.