§ SIR CHARLES DOUGLASI wish Sir, to put a Question with reference to the Frankfort Diet, and the proposition Her Majesty's Government made thereto in case of a conference taking place. It appears from the usual sources of information that a contradiction has been received of that statement, and I beg leave to ask Her Majesty's Government, What are their views with regard to that matter?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONHer Majesty's Government originally proposed to the Diet, as well as to other Powers, that there should be a Conference, but that proposition fell to the ground, because it was founded on the establishment of an armistice. Latterly, the British Government proposed to Austria and Prussia a Conference without an armistice. France and Russia concurred in that proposal, and the Government now wait for an answer from Denmark, and defer any communication with the Diet until they see their way to a Conference.
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, that the noble Lord made a statement the other evening as to the answer he expected to receive from the Diet to a proposal forwarded to them, and the noble Lord gave the House to understand that the Diet was so divided into two camps, which he characterized by rather an unusual phrase, that no answer had been received to the communication, which the House was undoubtedly led to believe had been recently made to the Diet on the part of the British Government.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI must, Sir, have mis-expressed myself if I led the noble Lord and the House to understand that a recent communication had been made to the Diet. No recent communication has been made to the Diet founded upon our late proposal of a Conference without an armistice. What I stated was just the fact, that, with regard to any proposal to send a Representative to a Conference, a certain number of States who were parties to the Treaty of 1852 should be invited to be represented at it, a large proportion of those States being of opinion that the integrity of the Danish Monarchy should be maintained.
§ MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDI would beg, Sir, to ask, Whether we are right in understanding that a direct proposition was made by Her Majesty's Government to the Diet of Frankfort to agree to a Conference, founded on an armistice; and whether we are right in understanding that a direct reply was made to that proposition?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI cannot charge my memory with the exact nature of the proposition to the Diet, or where the Conference was likely to be held. We asked them to send somebody to attend that Conference, as some of the Powers were anxious that the Diet should send a Representative. A difficulty has been felt as to the selection of the person. Two gentlemen have been named, and one of them was Baron Beust, but no determination has been come to.