§ Mr. Humewished to ask the noble Lord, in the absence of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether the Government had received any information of the Turkish army having crossed the Euphrates? He also wished to ask, whether the statement was true, that the Russians had demanded from Mehemet Ali that he should retire altogether from Syria?
§ Lord J. Russellsaid, in answer to the first question of the hon. Member for Kilkenny, he begged to state that the Government had received no intimation of the Turkish army having crossed the Euphrates. The latest intelligence which the Government had received was from the British Consul at Damascus, who had informed the Government of the advance of the Turkish army to the eastern bank of the Euphrates, but there was no information of that army having crossed over to the western bank. The Consul had also stated, that the forces of Mehemet Ali were concentrating in the same quarter. He must say, also, that there was nothing in the accounts. received by the Government to show that war had commenced, or that the efforts which had been made by the great European Powers to prevent hostilities between the Sultan and Mehemet Ali, would not be attended with ultimate success. With regard to the second question which had been put to him, he had to state, that the Government had received no intimation of any such demand as that to which the hon. Gentleman had alluded, as having been made to Mehemet Ali on the part of the Russian Government; and he did not believe that any such demand had been made.