§ MR. OTWAYwished to repeat a question he had put to the noble Lord at the head of the Government last Session, when he received a reply, which he had considered satisfactory at the time, but which in the event had not proved so satisfactory as he had imagined. It related to certain refugees from Moldavia, who had left that country in consequence of the troubles of 1848 and 1849. All refugees except these had been allowed to return; those who had been compromised on the side of Turkey, as well as those who had been compromised on the side of Russia. But these thirty, or about thirty, gentlemen who had never been brought before any tribunal, or accused of any offence but that of sympathising with a cause with which the whole British nation was known to sympathise, were not allowed to return to their country. He was happy to hear that we had now very friendly relations with Austria; and as he conceived there could no longer be any objection to the return of those gentlemen to the country from which they had been so arbitrarily expelled, he trusted Her Majesty's Government would be prepared to use their influence, that gentlemen whose respectability—certainly that of one of them, M. Bratiano—was known to the noble Lord at the head of the Government, might no longer have his name posted on the frontiers as that of one who must not set foot on his native soil.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONsaid, he did happen to know M. Bratiano, who was a very intelligent and highly repectable person, and he believed the other gentlemen to be quite as fully entitled to consideration. The affairs of the Principalities were in a train of settlement; the Austrian troops had already begun to evacuate the territory; the Divans were about to assemble to take into consideration the measures they would recommend as most required for the advantage of the country, 2429 and he had not the slightest doubt that the very respectable gentlemen alluded to would in a short time return to their homes. Of course, the British Government, as far as they had any influence, would be happy to exercise it in behalf of persons so deserving. The question, however, was merely a question of time, and not a question as to whether or not these gentlemen should be permitted to return.
§ The House adjourned at half-after Two o'clock till Saturday.