LORD STANLEYbegged the indulgence of the House while he corrected a statement, or rather the impression which would be produced by a statement, which had fallen yesterday from the late First Lord of the Admiralty. That right hon. Gentleman had stated that the British Admiral commanding in the Pacific had sent a ship of war to the Lobos Islands. Having already received communication on the subject, he (Lord Stanley) had felt it his duty to make inquiry, and found that a ship had lately been sent, not to those islands, but to the Guayaquil river; the captain had, indeed, orders, if time allowed, to look in at the islands, and report what was going on there; but the object of his mission was totally different. He might take that opportunity of quoting an expression used by the Admiral, who stated that in his view, the Lobos Islands were as much an integral part of the Peruvian Republic, as the Scilly Islands were of Great Britain
SIR FRANCIS BARINGexplained that what he had stated was, that the ship of war had been sent to the islands, not for the purpose of taking possession of them, but simply for the protection of the British trade there.