MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDsaid, he understood the noble Lord at the head of the Government to state on the previous evening, that the noble Lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs would lay the Commercial Treaty with France, which had been lately ratified, on the table of the House on Friday. Since that time what appeared to be the contents of the Treaty had been published in a foreign journal, and had been copied into the London newspapers. After what had fallen from the noble Lord, he would not urge the immediate production of the Treaty, were it not that while the possession of no information on the subject might be inconvenient to those engaged in trade with France, the possession of information, imperfect and, perhaps, more or less inaccurate, would be likely to lead to very serious inconvenience indeed. He would, therefore, like to ask the noble Lord, Whether he can inform the House, whether the version of the Treaty given in the morning journals, 610 and by them universally accepted as accurate, is substantially accurate or not?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLI cannot say that I read with any attention the report of the Treaty given in the papers. No doubt it is partially accurate, but I do not think a Commercial Treaty of that kind, containing many complicated provisions, can be properly understood by the House and by the country unless they were in possession of the Treaty itself. I propose to lay it on the table, by Her Majesty's command, on Friday next.