§ MR. CRAUFURDsaid, that he had given notice of a question which he meant to put to the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs on the subject of this despatch; but, as the hon. Gentleman was not in his place, he would defer the question.
§ MR. SPEAKER(having received an intimation from the Ministerial bench) said, that the hon. and learned Gentleman might put his question.
§ MR. CRAUFURDsaid, his question had reference to the despatch recently sent to the French Government. It had been reported that the draft of the reply to the despatch of Count Walewski was submitted for the approval of the French Government, or that at all events a communication took place between the two Governments for the purpose of settling the terms in which the despatch should be couched. [Cries of "Question!" and "Order!"]
§ MR. SPEAKERI considered, when I requested the hon. Member to put his question, that he had stated as much as the Orders of the House would permit, in the way of preparatory information.
§ MR. CRAUFURDsaid, he would endeavour to confine himself to the Rules of the House; but he wanted to point out certain dates upon which his question was founded. The papers which had been laid on the table of the House, bore certain dates. It would be in the recollection of the House, that on the 2nd of February it was announced to both Houses of Parliament that the Earl of Derby had undertaken to form an Administration. ["Order, order!"]
§ MR. SPEAKERThis does not appear to me to be necessary to lay ground for the question which the hon. and learned Member proposes to ask.
§ MR. CRAUFURDThe first despatch which I have before me bears date on the 24th February. ["Order, order!"]
§ MR. SPEAKERThe hon. and learned Member can only ask the question which appears upon the Paper.
§ MR. CRAUFURDsaid, he would therefore beg to ask whether the despatch of the date of the 4th day of March, addressed by the Earl of Malmesbury to Count Walewski, was submitted formally or in substance either to the French authorities in Paris, or to their representatives in England, for the purpose of ascertaining the opinion of the French Government thereon before the official presentation of that document to the French Government on behalf of the British nation?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERIt is, Sir, hardly fair of the hon. and learned Gentleman to address this question to my hon. and learned Friend the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, because he must know that if there were the slightest foundation for his gratuitous assumption on this matter it could not be within the cognizance of my hon. and learned Friend. There is on the part of Her Majesty's Government the utmost inclination to deal frankly with the House of Commons with regard to our foreign policy, but I must put it to the House whether they think that questions of this kind ought to be sanctioned. I should not have said another word in answer to the question of the hon. and learned Gentleman, had he not, though very irregularly, gone into some comparison or calculation of dates, from which he would seem to infer that, from the interval which elapsed, there must have been some unusual, I may say some surreptitious communication with a foreign Government. But if the hon. and learned Gentleman, before he asked questions of this great delicacy, would have taken a little trouble to inquire into the circumstances, he might have found some sufficiently valid to account for that apparent delay in the date of the Secretary of State's Despatch. In the first place it was of course necessary that before a Despatch of that importance was transmitted by the Foreign Secretary he should have the advantage of deliberation with his colleagues. It was also necessary that it should be submitted not formally but complete and entire to Her Majesty, and Her Majesty was at that time at Osborne. There was such a state of weather that for forty-eight hours no one could cross the Channel. Under those circumstances the apparent delay in the transmission of this Despatch might easily have been accounted for by the hon. and learned Gentleman; but having noticed those circumstances, which I hope will be satisfactory to the 327 House, I must again protest against a class of questions which can produce no advantage to the public. If we were to apply to misunderstandings and misconceptions in private life the spirit in which the hon. and learned Gentleman wishes to deal with pub-lie transactions, I do not think that the peace of society would long be preserved.