§ THE EARL OF HARRINGTONI beg to put the question of which I have given notice to Her Majesty's Ministers. I wish to know whether it be true that they have directed the Earl of Westmoreland to state to the Cabinet of Vienna that Polish subjects of the Czar will not be allowed to enter the armies or to follow the standards of the allies? My Lords, I can scarcely believe that such a thing is possible, because the main strength of our cause and that of the allies depends upon the co-operation of Poland. When I say Poland, I do not mean the Polish subjects of Austria or of Prussia, but I alllude to the 490 13,000,000 of Polish subjects and 200,000 of Polish soldiers belonging to Russia. It appears to me that it is only with the cooperation of Poland that the cause which the allies have undertaken can be made to succeed; and if the report that has been circulated is true, the Ambassador of England at the Court of Vienna, acting, no doubt, with the most honourable intentions (because I believe Lord Westmoreland is incapable of acting otherwise), will in point of fact have been made to promote the objects of Russian diplomacy. My Lords, I repeat that it is by the aid of Poland that this war can be brought to a successful issue; and by that means alone can you obtain a durable peace, or permanently secure for the allies and for Europe the maintenance of the balance of power. You may take the Crimea, may take Sebastopol or Cronstadt, and destroy the Russian fleets, but this would not terminate the struggle; on the contrary, you will have much to do even after you have accomplished all these achievements. My Lords, as you may remember, the Emperor Napoleon, as a soldier not inferior to Cæsar himself, with 600,000 men, 140,000 cavalry, and 1,300 cannon, made the attempt to conquer Russia, and failed; and those armies, which had succeeded in subjugating nearly half the civilised world, were defeated, routed, plundered, and destroyed—not, as was said, owing to frost and fire, or to the bravery of the legions who opposed them, but from the want of a gallant nation like that of Poland to advance and retreat upon. My Lords, you may humble Russia; and, perchance, with the good fortune of the noble Earl opposite, and with the aid of an able diplomacy, you may succeed in obtaining another peace of twenty-five years' duration; but, mark well, at the expiration of that period are you likely to find a second Louis Napoleon Bonaparte— a man of iron mind—to extricate you again from your difficulties, with money at his disposal, with 500,000 troops, and with as fine fleets as ever sailed to sea? You may not have that good fortune; and, in my opinion, you might as well attempt to carry on this war without the aid of gold or iron, or gunpowder, as to carry it on without the aid of the heart and nerve of Poland. My Lords, it appears to me that it is the interest of the alliance in the first place to endeavour to conciliate the followers of the Greek Church, and in the next place, to restore this 13,000,000 of Poles to their independence—for without 491 these you can never hope to have a permanent peace in Europe. And not only this, but you must look to that which has been much apprehended by Russia, namely, a Panslavonian Empire, and to have that empire based upon a liberal constitution.
§ THE EARL OF ABERDEENsaid, that he did not clearly understand what was the noble Earl's question.
§ THE EARL OF HARRINGTONI am not in the habit of addressing your Lordships, and I may have failed to make myself sufficiently intelligible; but my question is, whether Her Majesty's Ministers have directed the Earl of Westmoreland, our Ambassador to Austria, to assure the Cabinet of Vienna that the Polish subjects of the Czar would not be allowed in any way to co-operate with our armies or to follow the standards of the allies? I do not mean to put the question in that merely technical form; but I want to know from Her Majesty's Government whether they really wish to co-operate with these 13,000,000 of Poles, their most sincere allies in this struggle, or whether they do not?
§ THE EARL OF ABERDEENMy Lords, in answer to the question of the noble Earl, I have to state, first, that if he had had the goodness to wait till my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was present, my noble Friend would have been able to give him a more precise answer than I can do; but I will take on myself to state that no such instructions have been given to Lord Westmoreland as the noble Earl opposite imagines. I cannot quite understand, even now, what is the nature of the co-operation to which the noble Earl refers. If he means to ask whether the subjects of the Emperor of Russia are not to co-operate with British troops, that is a question for the Commander in Chief of the British forces to decide. As for the intentions of the allies, we could, of course, give no instructions with respect to any other Power; and with regard to our own forces, I take it that that is a military question that will entirely depend upon the views of the Commander in Chief, who will have to determine whether deserters from other Powers should be employed or not. But as far as the instructions of Lord Westmoreland, to which the noble Earl alludes, are concerned, I think I can undertake to say that nothing of the sort that he supposes has taken place.
§ THE EARL OF HARRINGTONI understand that one of the chiefs of Poland 492 had been refused leave to form a Polish Legion to act with the allies, and that the Government of England had been instrumental in that refusal.