Sir R. Peelsaid, that he had a question to put to the noble Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whom he was sorry not to see at that moment in his place. In the absence of the noble Secretary, perhaps the noble Lord opposite (Lord Althorp) would undertake to answer the question for him. That document, which they had all seen announced in the public journals as the Speech of the King of the French, stated, that an arrangement had been entered into, under which the fortresses, erected in the Netherlands subsequent to the general peace in 1815, were to be destroyed, either wholly or in part. The question which he wished to put to the noble Lord was this, was it the intention of the Government to lay on the Table of that House a copy of the convention, or formal instrument, by which this destruction was to be carried into effect? He supposed there was some convention for so extraordinary a measure.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, that he could not give an answer to such a question at that moment, and he begged the right hon. Baronet would wait until his noble friend, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was in his place.