§ MR. W. EWARTsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether the subjects of the State of Monaco, having been admitted by the French Government to the same privileges of trade and shipping as the people of France, British subjects are not also, under existing Treaties, deemed to be entitled to the same privileges?
§ MR. LAYARD, in reply, said, it was true that by a recent arrangement the inhabitants of the small principality of Monaco had been admitted by France to the same privileges of trade and shipping as the people of that country. When that arrangement was entered into, Her Majesty's Government thought it right to state to the French Government that they could not accept it as a precedent, and if any other Power under "the most favoured Nation" Clause insisted upon having the same rights and privileges as French subjects, Her Majesty's Government would also insist upon them. Considering, however, the smallness of the State of Monaco, and its peculiar geographical position, Her Majesty's Government did not at present consider it necessary to take any step. We had no "most favoured Nation" Clause with respect to navigation; but he might add that no Power which had one had thought fit to commuuicate with the French Government on the subject of this treaty.