§ SIR WILLIAM HUTTI wish, Sir, to ask my hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government have received from Lord Cowley a copy of the very significant letter said to have been addressed by the Emperor of the French to M. Drouyn De Lhuys, and to have been read by M. Rouher in the French Legislative Chamber; and whether, if a Copy of that document has been received, Her Majesty's Government will lay it on the table of the House?
§ MR. LAYARDSir, the letter to which my right hon. Friend alludes was a letter addressed by the Emperor to his Minister, to be communicated to the French Chambers. It has since been published in the Moniteur, which is the official organ of the French Government. A copy of that letter so published has been, as a matter of course, forwarded to the Foreign Office by Her Majesty's Embassy at Paris; but it would not, I think, be proper or consistent with practice to lay that letter before Parliament.
§ SIR WILLIAM HUTTI now ask my hon. Friend, Whether Her Majesty's Government have received official information that the Emperor of Austria has declared war against Prussia?
§ MR. LAYARDUp to the time of my leaving the Foreign Office this afternoon no such information had been received.