§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether there is not in the Papers on Danish Affairs, a Despatch from himself to Sir A. Paget, of date of the 30th of November, 1863, to which an Answer is returned by Sir A. Paget, from Copenhagen, dated the 1st of 1336 December, 1863, and how he accounts for so rapid an Answer, if the transmission of the first Despatch was not by telegraph?
§ MR. LAYARDsaid, in reply, that the House well knew that the hon. Gentleman was a great traveller, who liked to test his opinions on foreign affairs by local investigation, and he had, therefore, no doubt the hon. Gentleman found it impossible to go from London to Copenhagen and back again in twenty-four hours. He could assure him there was no Messenger in the Foreign Office who could perform the journey in that time. But the mystery was easily explained. He understood the hon. Gentleman to ask him whether it was the custom of the Foreign Office to give telegraphic Despatches. Nearly all Despatches to our representatives abroad were sent in cipher, and there would be an end to all communications between the Foreign Office and its agents abroad, if they presented those communications as literal transcripts of the cipher. The House would understand, that if the Foreign Office published their Despatches as they were sent they might as well have no cipher at all. The precaution was therefore always taken of stating in another form, in a subsequent Despatch, the substance of the telegram. It was on this account that sometimes a Despatch to a distant mission was dated one day, and the Answer the following day.
§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHWas the Despatch of the 30th of November a telegram or not?
§ MR. LAYARDThe substance of that Despatch was sent by telegram, not the Despatch itself. As I stated, it would be impossible to send to Copenhagen and get an answer back in twenty-four hours except by telegraph.