HC Deb 25 February 1864 vol 173 c1066
MR. ROEBUCK

said, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the Government are willing to produce the following Correspondence:—All letters that have passed between the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Sir Henry Bulwer, since the 1st day of January, 1860, on the subject of the Suez Canal; all Correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Ottoman Porte since the 1st day of January, 1860, on the same subject; all Correspondence that has taken place between the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and our diplomatic and other agents in Egypt on the same subject, since the same date; and all Correspondence that had taken place between the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Pacha of Egypt on the same subject, from the same date. Since he had placed the Notice on the Paper he had ascertained that he had made a mistake in the date. The period he intended was the accession of Said Pacha to the Pachalic of Egypt, in 1854.

MR. LAYARD

I beg, Sir, to state that the papers for which the hon. and learned Member has asked are connected with very important and delicate negotiations, not between this country and foreign Powers, but between two foreign Powers. Therefore it would be very unfair towards the parties concerned, and very injurious to the public service, to produce the papers. When the negotiations are concluded, of course the papers will be laid on the table of the House.