§ MR. HORSFALLsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether there is any truth in the reports which appear in the French Papers of an arrangement restricting the discretionary powers of the Plenipotentiaries in China, and ordering them to negotiate at Canton, Pekin, or elsewhere?
MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDsaid, he had to inform the hon. Member that there was no truth in the statement contained in the French papers that any arrangement had been made restricting the discretionary power of the Plenipotentiaries in China. Those Plenipotentiaries had full discretionary power to negotiate either at Canton, has they had hitherto done, or to proceed to the North in order that they might have more direct communications with the Chinese Government. The step which the British Plenipotentiary had recently taken in proceeding North appeared to him to be most judicious, and he hoped that that step would lead to an early termination of the differences, at which Her Majesty's Government, in common with the rest of their fellow countrymen, would sincerely rejoice.
§ MR. G. A. HAMILTON moved that the House at its rising adjourn till Monday.