THE HUNGARIAN REFUGEES. (Hansard, 21 February 1851)

§ LORD D. STUART

said, he was sorry to be the means of postponing for a few moments that financial question which was the legitimate subject of discussion that evening. The House would see that he had been compelled to take that course by the neglect of duty of other persons, and not of himself. ["Order, order!"] He believed he was perfectly in order, if he put a question to the noble Lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It might be in the recollection of the House, and certainly in that of the noble Lord, that early in February last Session he had made a Motion for the production of papers relating to the treatment of the Hungarian refugees, which had led to a debate characterised by considerable warmth. The noble Lord met that question in these terms:— I trust my noble Friend and the House will think I am not asking too much of their forbearance if I entreat them not to press the Motion in the words in which my noble Friend has put it, but to allow me to select out of that great mass of papers such documents as may explain to the House the course which Her Majesty's Government has pursued, without giving details which would be inconvenient to the public service, or laying before the House those confidential communications that may have passed between Her Majesty's Government and Her Ministers abroad, or between them and the Ministers of other countries. After making predictions respecting the Danubian provisions which time had falsified, the noble Lord asked him (Lord D. Stuart) not to press the Motion in the form in which he had put it, but to leave him (Viscount Palmerston) to select such of the papers, which were very voluminous, as bore on the treatment of the Hungarian refugees. He (Lord D. Stuart) accepted that offer, and did not press his Motion further. During the last Session he went to the noble Lord privately several times, and asked him to produce the papers in question; and just before the close of the Session he went again, and asked the noble Lord if he meant to produce them. The noble Lord said "yes," and he (Lord D. Stuart) entreated him to produce them at once, as he wished to have them printed. The noble Lord replied, "Don't be under any uneasiness on that account; the Foreign Office prints for itself." On the last day of the Session he applied to the noble Lord to lay the papers on the table of the House, but in vain; he went again to the noble Lord a week before the beginning of the present Session, and asked him for the 886 papers, when the noble Lord replied, "They are in that box before you, and will be printed as soon as the House meets." He went to the noble Lord on a subsequent occasion, and said he thought it was too bad. The noble Lord said it was too bad. He (Lord D. Stuart) asked him for the papers again and again, and told him that he could not help feeling angry with him. What was his answer? The noble Lord said, "If he was in his (Lord D. Stuart's) place, he would feel angry too." On Tuesday week he again saw the noble Lord, and asked him when those papers would be produced? The noble Lord answered, "Next week." Now he (Lord D. Stuart) thought, under these circumstances, he had a right to ask the noble Lord whether he considered it respectful, he would not say becoming, treatment of a sincere and ardent but humble supporter, who had relied upon his promise last Session to produce the papers, never to have let them be forthcoming up to the present time? Perhaps something had occurred to make the noble Lord think he ought not to fulfil his promise in the course of his past political life. They knew such things had occurred, and that the noble Lord had given promises which he had not fulfilled, because, as he said, circumstances had taken place which made it his duty not to do so. If that was not the case, would he state the reasons for this extraordinary delay, and would he state to the House at what period they might expect to have the papers?