HC Deb 14 February 1853 vol 124 cc83-5
MR. DISRAELI

Sir, with reference to the question of which I gave notice on Friday, relating to a speech delivered by the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control, who, I am sorry to hear, is unable to attend to-day, I would, if it were more convenient to the Government, and would be considered more fair to them, mention generally the subject of our relations between Her Majesty's Government and the French Government before going into Committee of Supply on a future day, and thus give them an opportunity for more explanations than the present occasion would probably allow. But it is according to what may be the wish of the Government that I shall shape my course.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL

My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Control is unable to attend from indisposition; but as the right hon. Gentleman has given notice of his intention of putting the question to-day, I think he had better proceed with it at present.

MR. DISRAELI

Of course I cannot have the slightest objection to do so. I do not know whether it is necessary for me to call the attention of the House to the paragraph alleged to have been contained in a speech recently delivered at Halifax by the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control to his constituents. I read it the other night. If it is considered requisite by the House, I will read it again. The right hon. Gentleman bad occasion to speak with reference to the conduct and motives of the present Emperor of France, and in so doing he used these expressions:— Take our nearest neighbours. Such a despotism never prevailed in France, even in the time of Napoleon the First. The press gagged—liberty suppressed—no man allowed to speak his opinion—the neighbouring country of Belgium forced to gag her press—no press in Europe free but ours, which, thank God! he cannot gag. And hence his hatred of our press, that it alone dares to speak the truth. I wish to inquire, and I hope to receive an answer from the noble Lord, whether that is an accurate and fair report of the sentiments that were expressed on that occasion by the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control?

LORD JOHN RUSSELL

Sir, the right hon. Gentleman, in alluding to this subject the other night, stated that my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Control had taken occasion, in a speech delivered by him at Halifax, to advert to our foreign relations, and to say that, on speaking of France, my right hon. Friend said so and so—reading the words which he has repeated this evening. Now, in the first place, I think it necessary to state that what my right hon. Friend said was not in a speech upon the subject of our foreign relations, to which he was not adverting at the time, but he took occasion in the course of his speech to the electors at Halifax to argue the question of universal suffrage and parliamentary reform generally, and used such illustration as he thought appropriate to that subject. There is a very great difference between using an argument upon the subject, and going over our foreign relations and speaking of France in the manner which the right hon. Gentleman suggests. But I thought it necessary, after what the right hon. Gentleman had said to this House, to call upon my right hon. Friend, and I have since received a letter from him on the subject, which with the leave of the House I will read, as it contains a far better explanation than I can pretend to give of my right hon. Friend's own impression on the subject. He says— I am sorry to hear that any expressions reported to have been used by me in addressing a meeting of my constituents at Halifax should have been understood as offensive to the Emperor of the French. I cannot pretend to say whether I did or did not use the precise words contained in the reports of my speech, but it is very possible that, speaking as I was, without any premeditation, in a meeting of that kind, an incautious expression may have escaped me. I was pointing out the advantages of temperate and well-considered reform, as contrasted with more violent and precipitous measures, and, in proof of this, I referred to the events of the last few years in neighbouring ceuntries, where the temporary success of the extreme revolutionary party had led to the establishment of arbitrary power, and in France that this had been carried to an extent unprecedented in the time of the first Emperor, and with the consent of the French people, who had on two occasions, voting by ballot and on the principle of universal sutfrage, sanctioned the course pursued by the President and Emperor. I expressed no opinion on the conduct of the Emperor, or indeed of any one, though I cannot conceive that an English Minister is to be precluded from adverting to what he understands to be the state of things on the Continent; but I can say, with the utmost sincerity, that in doing so, nothing could be further from my intention than to use any words which could be considered as offensive to the Emperor, and I regret that any expression should have fallen from me on that occasion on which such an interpretation can have been placed.

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