§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, pursuant to notice, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, as stated lately in the public prints, M. Thouvenel has informed the representatives of those 251 powers who signed the Treaties of Vienna, that, as soon as the cession of Savoy shall have been sanctioned by the "universal suffrage of the inhabitants," and ratified by the vote of the Sardinian Parliament, France will take possession of those provinces, submitting only subsequently a limited part of the question to the consideration of the proposed Conference; and, if so, whether the Secretary of State intends to consent to the taking possession by France of the neutralized provinces of Savoy, until a Conference or Congress, or other joint diplomatic action, shall have previously determined on the whole question, of the manner in which due consideration for the independence of Switzerland, requires that the provinces placed in a state of peculiar and exceptionable neutralization by repeated Treaties, shall be ultimately disposed of. The subject of the annexation had arrived at a stage when he apprehended negotiation was almost illusory, and might was about to take the place of right. As far as could be learnt from the public sources of information, the French Emperor was about to take absolute possession of the neutralized provinces of Savoy; and, that done, he would then graciously condescend to submit for discussion to the proposed Conference some secondary matter, which would not at all affect the question of the disposal of those provinces. He disclaimed any intention to impute blame in the matter to the noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs or to the Government; but he must say it appeared to him that the expectations in connection with it which the noble Lord had held out to the House had, up to this point, in every respect, been disappointed. Notwithstanding that all along the House had shown a disposition to place confidence in the noble Lord in dealing with the question, the hopes in which he had indulged from time to time as to a satisfactory settlement of it remained entirely unfulfilled. He by no means underrated the difficulties by which the question was surrounded, but as the efforts of the Government appeared to have very little force, he thought those efforts should be supported by an expression of opinion on the part of Members of the House generally. The despatches of the noble Lord asserted the true principle of the neutrality of Savoy, as settled by the Treaty of 1815 and the necessity of securing the independence of Switzerland as against France, by transferring to Switzerland the provinces 252 comprised in that neutralization; but it appeared that while he had been negotiating and writing despatches, the Emperor of the French had been acting, and had turned a deaf ear to all the noble Lord's remonstrances. If they considered the illusory and unfair manner in which the subject of the annexation had been put to the popular vote, it was not to be wondered at that in the larger towns of the country, where French cafés and gambling-houses abounded, such as Chambéri and Annecy, the valleys of which inclined towards the French territory, the inhabitants might be favourable to a union with France. He did not, however, believe that such was the feeling of the inhabitants generally. If the two valleys of the rivers Dranse and Arve running down to the Lake of Geneva were to be taken possession of by France, the aggression could not be too much reprobated. France was entering on a course that would lead it to the Lake of Geneva, and, if it once got there, that lake would be covered by French gunboats in less than three months, and Geneva would be cut off from the rest of Switzerland. If our alliance with France was worth anything, it should be an alliance that would give us influence with France on such questions as these; but, if it meant nothing more than submission to that Power, we were better without the alliance. There had been joint expeditions with France against China and other places; but if such expeditions are made use of by France only as a school for her navy, and as a means of learning our naval tactics, the fewer we have of them the better. He had been struck with an observation made in the Prussian Chambers, by the deputy for the city of Berlin, when speaking of the position of Prussia and the other European Powers with reference to the Savoy question. After referring to Russia as engaged at home, and Austria as meditating vengeance on Italy, perhaps on Germany, he said England had almost made up her mind to sell her birthright for a mess of pottage in the shape of a treaty of commerce. He (Mr. Griffith) was very far from objecting to the most complete realization of free trade between ourselves and France, but it should not be purchased at the price of our complete independence on matters of the general policy of Europe. If this question was to be redeemed from the sphere of excellently written despatches, and debates in that House, England must take a higher stand than she had hitherto done, other- 253 wise she would become a mockery to every country in Europe.
MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDsaid, it appeared to him that the question of the hon. Gentleman was far too important an one to be discussed in an incidental or desultory manner. But there was one other question which, perhaps, the noble Lord would be kind enough to give the House information upon. He should be glad to know whether the House was to understand that it was finally arranged that this question was to be referred to a Conference of the Great Powers; and, if that were so, whether it was arranged what Powers were to be parties to the Conference; and, further, whether the information received was correct, that Prance had made a proposition to the effect that the question to be referred to the Conference should relate only to what means should be adopted to secure the neutralization of particular provinces in Savoy for the future, and that question should be raised by the Conference that might lead to what the French Minister called the dismemberment of Savoy. He wished to know whether any other propositions were to be submitted to the Conference. He begged to remind the noble Lord that he had asked him a few evenings ago a question which he was then unable to answer. He hoped that the noble Lord would be kind enough to give him now an answer to that question also.