QUESTION. (Hansard, 11 August 1857)

§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

I am not surprised, Sir, that the right hon. Gentleman should have asked the question which he has just addressed to me, for statements have recently appeared in the newspapers which must have excited some anxiety in the public mind. There has been a misunderstanding at Constantinople, not arising, as the right hon. Gentleman imagines, upon a question of the union or non-union of the Principalities, but from a difference of opinion which prevailed in regard to the regularity or irregularity of the elections which have recently taken place in Moldavia. The right hon. Gentleman is aware that by the Treaty of Paris there were to be chosen in the two provinces Representative Assemblies, which were to take into consideration the wants and wishes of the people in regard to their internal organization and arrangements; that there were to be Commissioners appointed by the Six Powers to be in the Principalities during the period of the elections and of the subsequent deliberations, and that when the assemblies should have expressed their 1389 wishes and the Commissioners should have made their Reports, both wishes and Reports were to be submitted to the Congress at Paris, which was to reassemble for that purpose, but not constituted in the same manner as before composed of the resident Ministers in Paris. The Congress so composed—the Turkish Rpresentative being present—was to deliberate upon the representations and Reports so submitted to it, and, in concurrence with the Sultan, to come to an agreement with regard to the future organization of the Provinces. The Porte, in the execution of those engagements, issued a firman directed to the Governors of Wallachia and Moldavia, setting forth the manner in which the elections were to take place. Questions arose as to the interpretation of certain parts of the firman. The firman had been settled by the unanimous consent of the representatives of the Six Powers acting in concert with the Turkish Government. Certain explanations were given afterwards—on the 30th or 31st of May—by the Turkish Government in regard to the firman. Those explanations were sent to the Commissioners at Bucharest, and they were to be transmitted to the Governor of Moldavia to be applied not only in Wallachia but also in Moldavia, in as far as they were applicable, considering certain local differences which existed in the internal arrangements, constitution, and laws of the two Provinces. What, however, with the confusion of telegraphic messages, and what with irregularities on the part of those who ought to have transmitted these documents,—I am speaking now of the officers of the Turkish Government—the elections in Moldavia took place without reference to the authoritative interpretation of the firman. Then arose a general opinion that the Moldavian elections were hot in accordance with regularity and law, and that if the explanations which had been given of the firman had been strictly acted upon, the result of those elections would have been different from what it actually was. Representations to that effect were made to the Ministers at Constantinople, and four of them—that is to say, the French, the Russian, the Prussian, and the Sardinian—separately, and without acting with the English and Austrian Representatives, called upon the Turkish Government to annul the Moldavian elections, and to have the electoral lists revised, in order that the elections might take place over again. The Porte 1390 felt that this was a demand which, applying to matters that had been treated in common by the Six Powers, ought not to come from four alone, and they declined, therefore, to comply with it, saying, however, that if the same request were made by the Six Powers, the matter would be placed in a different position. Misunderstandings followed on all sides, and the result was that the French, Russian, Prussian, and Sardinian Ambassadors either hauled down their flags or were about to suspend diplomatic relations with the Government of the Sultan. The recent visit of the Emperor of the French to Osborne, accompanied as he was by his Minister for Foreign Affairs, gave the English Government an opportunity of coming to a full understanding upon these matters with the French Government, and the conclusion we arrived at was, that there were undoubtedly sufficient primâ facie grounds of irregularity—not proved, but still founded upon the prevalent opinion that it would be desirable for the interest of the Porte itself that the electoral lists should be revised, and brought into conformity with the firman and the interpretation, which had been given of that document, and that the elections in Moldavia should take place over again upon the list so revised. We have reason to believe that the Austrian Government is disposed to concur in that course, and under those circumstances we are convinced that the Sultan, not feeling that his dignity and independence will be at all compromised by yielding to representations made by the whole of his Allies, will take the course which will be recommended to him—namely, that of annulling the recent elections, having the electoral lists properly revised, and ordering the elections to take place again at the end of about fifteen days upon the lists so amended and revised. I am glad to say, therefore, that there is no ground whatever for any apprehension lest a difference of opinion between the English and French Governments may lead to an interruption of that harmony and good understanding which have hitherto prevailed between the two countries.