QUESTION. (Hansard, 4 March 1859)

§ MR. HORSMAN
said, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Treaties which subsequently to the Treaty of Vienna have been concluded between the Emperor of Austria and the different Sovereigns of Italy, and having reference to the internal Government of their Dominions or their Military Occupation by Austrian Troops, have been communicated to the British Government, and whether there are copies of them in the Foreign Office; and, whether there is any objection to lay them before Parliament?

MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALD
said, that as a general rule it had never been the practice of the Government to lay upon the table Copies of Treaties that were made between Foreign Powers, unless they were communicated directly by those Foreign Powers for the information of the Executive of this country. Perhaps, however, the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Horsman) wished him to reply more in detail, and he would do so. With regard to the Treaty of Vienna, it was not necessary to lay it upon the Table of the House, because it had been printed, and any hon. Gentleman who wished to refer to it could do so in the Library. The next Treaty that would come under the question of the right hon. Gentleman was a Treaty admitted to have been made between Austria and Tuscany on the 12th June, 1815. Her Majesty's Government had no official knowledge whatever of that Treaty; hut it was printed in the Austrian collection of Treaties, and might also be found in the library. The next Treaty was one between Austria and Naples. Of that again there was no official copy in the Foreign Office; though, with reference to some portions of it, they had received such information as put them in possession of its nature and character. In the Morning Chronicle of the 10th October, 1848, would be found what, as far as Her Majesty's Government 1275 were aware, was the important part of that Treaty. There was another treaty between Austria and Spain and the Italian Duchies. This was a State Paper to which Great Britain was a party. It had been laid upon the Table, and would be found printed amongst other papers of a similar, character. The next Treaty to which the right hon. Gentleman's question had reference was one between Austria, Sardinia, Tuscany, and Modena; that also had been laid upon the Table. It was produced to the House in 1848, with the first part of "Affairs of Italy," page 237. The next Treaty was one of very considerable importance. It was one between Austria, Parma, and Modena, and gave Austria a right of passage of troops, and put her under an obligation of interfering in case of internal disturbance in the Duchies. That Treaty was of such importance that it was laid upon the Table of the House in a blue-book in 1848, and again in 1849, in the second part of the papers on "Affairs of Italy," page 78. There were some other Treaties which had reference merely to commercial matters, and which did not strictly come under the question of the right hon. Gentleman. There was one between Austria and Modena laid upon the Table in 1856. A Supplemental Treaty between Austria and Modena had reference only to the navigation of the Po, and did not come under the notice of the right hon. Gentleman. There was then a Treaty of the 7th of May, 1850, between Austria and Tuscany; that was only a temporary one, and had reference to the temporary occupation and the subsequent evacuation of the Duchy by Austrian troops. There were no other Treaties that came within the class for the production of which the right hon. Gentleman inquired. Hon. Members would, therefore, see that the House was already in possession of all the Papers asked for by the right hon. Gentleman, with the exception of those of which Her Majesty's Government had no copies.

§ MR. HORSMAN
said, that with reference to the question he had put to the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, he would suggest whether it would not be for the public convenience that there should be a reprint of the Treaties already presented, and that a Supplemental Return should be made of Close Treaties which had not been presented, but which were in the possession of the Foreign Office. He would now give notice of his intention to move for the production, in one document, of those Treaties 1276 which had not been communicated to the House, together with a reprint of such Treaties as were already in its possession, but which were not accessible to Members of the House without considerable trouble and inconvenience, and not accessible at all to the general public.

MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALD
said, the Government had already at various times given a number of the papers to which the right hon. Gentleman had referred; and, in reference to the two most important ones, he had already stated that they were laid on the Table of the House in 1848 and 1849, and were to be seen in the Library of the House. With reference to the earlier Treaties, Government had no official document whatever; they had not been communicated to them in any official form. With reference to the Treaty of Vienna, it contained other stipulations, and he thought it would be a very inconconvenient thing to bring in a document of that extreme length when only a small portion of it related to the matter in question.