§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, in the mediation with Brazil, care will be taken to secure some redress for Mr. Reeves, a British subject, who has been deprived of a large sum of money in a lawsuit with a Brazilian; whether Her Majesty's Government have received information from the British Consul of Rio of the recent dismissal of seven of the Judges of the same tribunals for corruption, not connected with Mr. Reeves's case; and whether any step has yet been taken to punish the Under Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, who wrote letters to the Judges asking them to vote against the Englishman, Mr. Reeves, and of whose conduct complaints were made by the British Minister, by order of Earl Russell?
§ MR. LAYARDsaid, in reply, that within the last two or three days, the Government had been officially informed that the Emperor of Brazil had accepted the mediation of the King of Portugal. It would be improper, and indeed, impossible, for him (Mr. Layard) to say what the exact terms of the mediation were, or how the relations between the two countries were to be restored; therefore he could not answer the first part of the Question. As all communication between the two Governments had for some time past been suspended, the Government had received no official account of the occurrence to which the second part of the hon. Gentleman's Question alluded.