§ MR. BOWYERsaid, he rose to ask the First Lord of the Treasury the following questions—namely, Whether there is any truth in the report that the attention of the Paris Conference will be directed to the affairs of Italy; also, whether the Sardinian Government has suggested or requested that any and what matters of Italian politics may engage the attention of the Conference?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI am sorry, Sir, that I cannot give the hon. Gentleman any information on the subject to which he has referred. One of the very first Resolutions come to at the Conference was, that the proceedings which might take place from day to day should be known only by their results.
§ MR. DISRAELII, sir, also, wish to ask the noble Lord a question respecting the Conferences at Paris, the answer to which, however, I believe, will not violate the rule of which he has very properly reminded the House. The question I desire to put is one of a very important character, referring as it does to the relations between the Court of Berlin and the Conferences of Paris. Will the noble Lord be good enough to inform the House whether it be true that Prussia has been invited to attend the Conference, that she has accepted that invitation, and that two distinguished diplomatists, one of whom is a personage not less eminent than the First Minister of Prussia, are about to visit Paris for the purpose of attending the negotiations?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI am afraid, Sir, that I can only give the right hon. Gentleman an answer to his question exactly similar to that I have just given to the hon. and learned Member for Dundalk.
§ MR. DISRAELII beg permission, Sir, to offer a word in explanation. I, of course, do not object to the noble Lord refusing to answer my inquiry, but I cannot conceive that his reply to the hon. and learned Gentleman (Mr. Bowyer) at all applies to my question, which was one of a very different character from that of the hon. and learned Member. Therefore, I would request the noble Lord entirely to 48 decline giving me any answer, instead of offering me one which in no way refers to the interrogatory which I put to him.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI beg the right hon. Gentleman's pardon, but he asked me whether the members of the Conference have invited, or are about to invite, Prussia to join in the negotiations, and whether the Prime Minister of Prussia is about to go to Paris, in order to be present at the Conferences. My answer was, that I declined to give any information as to what the Conference are about to do, and of course it is not competent for me to state what the Prussian Prime Minister contemplates doing.