§ MR. DISRAELISeeing the noble Lord the Member for the City of London in his place, I will take this opportunity of 1282 making an inquiry with respect to a statement which the noble Lord made on Thursday night, in his speech upon a subject of great importance, and which has created much sensation. The noble Lord was understood on that occasion, in accounting for the expedition to the Crimea, to state, that one of its principal causes was the refusal of Austria to cross the river Pruth. The noble Lord will, perhaps, allow me to inquire of him what his authority was for making the statement which he did on that night?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLMy authority is my general recollection of the communications which had at that time passed between the Government of Austria and that of Her Majesty. It was not a request immediately by the Government of this country, asking Austria to cross the Pruth, but a series of communications with regard to the operations which Austria was ready to undertake, in causing the evacuation of the Principalities by Russia. There was subsequently a communication to the effect that the Austrian army being in the Principalities, in case the armies of the allies should enter the Principalities for the purpose of crossing the Pruth, the Austrian army would remain in the Principalities, and allow the passage of the allied armies through their posts for the purpose of crossing the Pruth. What I stated was only from my general recollection, but the whole of the correspondence produced in my mind an impression that they were not prepared to cross the Pruth.
§ MR. DISRAELIThe noble Lord will excuse my having made an inquiry of him on a subject of such great importance; I could not know that the noble Lord spoke merely from memory, but, as the subject is one of such very great importance, I may he permitted to inquire of the noble Lord the First Minister, if he will state whether it is in his memory, under the circumstances to which I have referred, that Austria refused to cross the Pruth, and that one of the reasons for the expedition to the Crimea was that refusal on the part of the Austrian Government.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONIt is impossible to answer questions taken piecemeal from a long course of negotiations between Her Majesty's Government and one of the Sovereigns in alliance with Her Majesty. All I can say with regard to myself is, that I always thought that the Crimea was the place where the most 1283 effective blow could be struck at the preponderance of Russia in the Black Sea, and, if there had been no other reasons whatever in favour of the expedition, that reason alone would, in my mind, be amply sufficient for the expedition.