§ MR. CHISHOLM ANSTEYwished to put a question of which he had given notice to the noble Lord at the head of the Government. It had been stated that British subjects of great respectability (including a Protestant clergyman), who had been residing in Hungary for ten years, during which it was a Protestant country, and latterly under the protection of the Austrian constitution, which secures liberty of conscience to all, had been, by an arbitrary order of the Cabinet of Vienna, compelled to quit their residence at Pesth and the Austrian territories within six days. To comply with this order, they were compelled to make large sacrifices of property, and to expose their families, many of the members of which were of tender age, to the hardship of a long and painful route at an inclement season of the year. No charge had been brought against them affecting their loyalty to the Government under which they lived, and they had the highest testimonials of approbation from their spiritual superiors at home, the Free Church of Scotland. He wished to know whether, supposing the Austrian law of domicile to be as he had assumed it, and the facts which he had stated to be true, the Government had taken any, and, if so, what measures, to procure from the Cabinet of Vienna satisfaction for this gross violation of national right?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, that, although the hon. and learned Member had given notice of this question, he was not aware that he had intended to bring it forward on that day, and he was therefore not then prepared to answer it. He would make inquiries on the subject, and answer the question on a future day; but at present he believed that his noble Friend the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had no means of answering the question.