§ SIR HARRY VERNEYsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the British Government has guaranteed to Prussia the portion of Saxony united to her dominions by the Treaty of Vienna; and whether, in case Prussia should now engage in war, that guarantee would be upheld? He should also like to know whether there is any truth in the report contained in the papers of that morning, as to a Despatch which was said to be a reply to one addressed to the Court of Vienna by Earl Russell on the German Question?
§ MR. LAYARD, in reply, said, it was well known that, by the 17th Article of the Treaty of Vienna, this country, in conjunction with Austria, France, and Russia, had guaranteed to Prussia that part of Saxony to which the question of his hon. Friend referred. In the event of war breaking out, it might be the duty of Her Majesty's Government to consult the Governments of the three Powers with whom they were united in the guarantee, with the view of ascertaining what course they proposed to take in the matter. He could not inform the hon. Baronet what the result might be of that consultation. There was not, he might add, a word of truth in the statement made in the papers of that day in reference to the despatch to which his hon. Friend had alluded.