POLAND.—QUESTION. (Hansard, 9 February 1863)

§ MR. HENNESSY

said, he wished to put to the noble Lord at the head of the Government a Question which he put to him during the Debate on the Address, but which was not then answered. Upon that occasion he called attention to the state of Poland, and to the treaty obligations into which England had entered with respect to that country. He had also asked the noble Lord whether it was the fact that during the Crimean war certain overtures were made by Austria to the allies with reference to Poland, to the effect that the latter country should be restored to independence, and whether the noble Lord would allow the papers on that subject to be laid before the House. He had asked those questions in two preceding Sessions, but had received no answer, and he then repeated them for the fourth time since he had been in the House. It was of the utmost importance at that juncture that the facts should be accurately known. Poland was in a state of insurrection. The people of that country had been driven to revolt by outrages unparalleled in these times. It was surely, then, their duty to ascertain whether, on more than one occasion, England had the opportunity of helping Poland and had neglected that opportunity. In 1831 Austria and France took a lively interest on behalf of Poland, and France, urged by Austria, then represented to the English Government the desirableness of assisting Poland, but the noble Viscount refused to interfere. He would remind the House that despatches concealed from Parliament for the last thirty years had only recently been published. So strongly did he (Mr. Hennessy) feel on the subject, that he would take the liberty of submitting on an early day an Address to the Queen upon it, and in order that the noble Viscount might be in possession of the scope of that Address he would take the liberty of slating that it humbly represented to Her Majesty that certain treaty obligations had been incurred by England and other Powers with reference to Poland, and that 193 those treaty obligations had not been fulfilled by Russia; that those treaty obligations were set forth in the first fourteen articles of the Treaty of Vienna; that the Emperor of Russia in 1815 undertook, amongst other engagements, to restrict the public appointments in Poland to Poles; that for many years past not one of those engagements had been fulfilled; that a breach of the solemn engagements thus incurred between England and Russia had recently been described by Her Majesty's First Minister in these words— The course which the Government of Russia has adopted towards Poland is a complete and decided violation of the Treaty of Vienna. The stipulations of that treaty were broken almost as soon as concluded. Perhaps the greatest violation of a treaty that has ever taken place in the history of the world was that which occurred in the case of Poland. The Address then proceeded to state that for some years past the people of Poland had borne with exemplary patience that deliberate violation of their national rights; that while their pacific endurance had attracted the admiration of Europe, it seemed to have roused the worst passions of the Russian Government; that, owing to an accumulation of outrages and cruelty unparalleled in these times, the kingdom of Poland was now the scene of a devastating conflict between the troops of Russia and the people who had been driven to desperation. The Address then humbly submitted to her Majesty that these facts urgently demanded the interposition of England in vindication of her own public faith and solemn engagements, and that steps should at once be taken to enforce the treaty obligations which this country had incurred in respect of Poland.