§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he has any means of correcting the information he has already given as to the arrest and reported release of two Officers of the Sumter at Tangiers; or whether he is aware that they were marched down to the beach and there embarked in a United States frigate, and carried away as prisoners?
§ MR. LAYARDsaid, he was not able to give any information in addition to that he had already given. He had stated that the two gentlemen in question landed at Tangiers from a steamer, and that the United States Consul, hearing that two American citizens were on shore, asked 1231 the Moorish authorities to give him the aid of troops to arrest them. Under the convention between the United States and Morocco, he had power to call upon them to give him such assistance. The Moorish authorities asked no questions, not knowing that the persons in question were political refugees; they sent the Consul armed men, and the two gentlemen were arrested. He believed, as his hon. Friend had said, they were put in chains and confined in prison. He had nothing official except by telegraph. A message received two or three days ago stated that these gentlemen had been released; and he had no doubt that the information was of a much more recent date than that which his hon. Friend had quoted from the newspapers. He had no reason to disbelieve the information that had been conveyed to the Government.
§ Main Question put, and agreed to.