HC Deb 08 March 1864 vol 173 cc1653-4
MR. HUNT

said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, For an explanation of a passage which occurs in a Despatch from Lord Napier to Earl Russell, dated January 6, 1864 (No. 644 of the Papers on the Affairs of Denmark, &c), in which the following language is attributed to Prince Gortsehakoff:— The four Governments, that is, England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, happily now thinking and acting in harmony on a question still more important than that of Holstein and Schleswig, ought not in this matter to be split into two camps opposing each other.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

I rather conclude that the question to which Prince Gortsehakoff alluded must have been the decision of these Governments with regard to the invitation to attend a general European Congress. There was no other question to which he could have referred, or upon, which any concord was established. If the hon. Gentleman, means to inquire, as I suppose he does, whether there was any combination of these four Powers against France, I assure him there is no ground whatever for any such supposition.