§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Conference of the Ambassadors and Ministers of the Courts of France, the United States, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, which in his Circular Despatch to Her Majesty's Ministers at these Courts, dated 11th February, 1860, he proposed should be held in London in the months of May or June of that year, to consider what measures can be taken to check the increase of the Slave Trade and finally provide for its total abolition, was held, and if not held in consequence of the refusal to attend such Conference by any of the above-mentioned Powers, whether he has any objection to state which Powers so refused, and on what reasons they based their refusal?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLwas understood to state, in reply, that the Power which refused to attend the proposed Conference was the United States, and that in consequence of that refusal it was not thought expedient to proceed further in the matter. The Papers would be laid on the Table in a few days, and the House would then see the reasons upon which the Government of the United States based their refusal, as well as the precise answer which was given to them.