§ MR. HENNESSYsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Russian Government recently 1654 applied to Her Majesty's Government for information respecting a Polish Refugee named Abicht; whether Her Majesty's Government complied with that application, and afforded information to the Russian Government; and whether this Polish Refugee is the individual referred to in a Letter of Earl Russell, dated Foreign Office, February 14, 1863, as "a person lately arrested in Poland as a political agent"?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONNo application of any kind, Sir, has been addressed to Her Majesty's Government by the Government of Russia upon the subject of of this man Abicht; and, of course, no answer or communication of any kind has been made by Her Majesty's Government to the Government of Russia on the subject. The history of this person was this:—In a despatch of the 11th January, from the Acting Consul at Warsaw, Her Majesty's Government were informed that a certain number of persons had been arrested, and that among them was a man of the name of Abicht, who, it was supposed, had been engaged in treasonable enterprises. OH the 14th the Acting Consul wrote to us that Abicht was found to have been travelling with a British Foreign Office Passport, under the name of Brett, and that that Passport had been viséd and signed by different authorities on the way to Warsaw. Thereupon an inquiry was made at the Foreign Office, and it was found that a Passport had been issued to a person named Brett. Examination was made, and it was found that in July, 1861, an application was made by a Mr. Leverson, residing in St. Helen's in London, for a party of the name of Brett, whom he described as his confidential clerk, whom he wanted to send on business of his to the Continent, and that he was to go in company with another confidential clerk whose name I do not remember. Well, Mr. Leverson was asked by the letter to which the hon. Member refers, written by Lord Russell, how it happened that the Foreign Office Passport granted at his recommendation to his confidential clerk, Brett, should have fallen into other hands —had, in fact, got into the hands of the man Abicht, of whom the Foreign Office knew nothing whatever. Mr. Leverson replied from Paris that he thought the inquiry had better be addressed to Mr. Brett. Accordingly a letter was written to Mr. Brett, asking to know how his Passport got into other hands. But up to this time 1655 Brett had not answered. He had a defective memory, no doubt; and not having duly posted up in his mind that the letter required an answer, he omitted to make any reply to that communication.