§ MR. BENTINCKsaid, he rose to ask the President of the Board of Trade, Whether Her Majesty's Government have received any confirmation of a statement which has appeared in the public journals, to the effect that the Prussian authorities in Schleswig have extinguished all the Coast Lights in that locality on the shores of the Baltic; and, if so, whether British shipping will not be exposed to great inconvenience and risk in consequence of that proceeding; and whether, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, such a proceeding is in accordance with the usages of civilized warfare, in cases where the safety of neutral vessels is thereby compromised?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSON, in reply, said, the Government had no information as to the extinction of the lights in Schleswig to which the newspaper reports appeared to have referred; but they had received information of lights being extinguished in the Prussian port of Swinemunde. That information would have appeared in the Gazette last Saturday, but that it arrived on Friday night too late for insertion. It duly appeared, however, in all the London morning papers. With regard to the question put by the hon. Member as to the usages of civilized warfare, he hardly felt competent to give an opinion; but, so far as his belief went, it was, that belligerents usually protected their own interests in. the best way they could, without much regard to the interests of neutrals.