HC Deb 27 May 1864 vol 175 c720
MR. BAILLIE COCHRANE

said, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether a despatch, dated the 15th of May, from M. von Bismark to Count Bernstorff, has been communicated to Her Majesty's Government? That despatch contains this passage— The Government of the King considers itself, in accordance with the declaration of the 31st of January, entirely free from all the obligations of the Treaty of London of 1852, and justified in discussing any other combination independent of that treaty. This despatch concludes with the words "This and nothing else, can be the task of the Conference."

MR. LAYARD

said, in reply, that the despatch had not been communicated officially to Her Majesty's Government, and the only knowledge they had of it was from our Ambassador at Berlin, who had sent them a copy taken from a newspaper.