MR. M'CULLAGH TORRENSsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is true that the negotiations for a Commercial Treaty with Austria have failed; and, whether he is prepared to lay upon the table of the House the Correspondence on the subject?
LORD STANLEYStrictly speaking, Sir, the negotiations now going on between the Government of this country and that of Austria, are not negotiations for the conclusion of a Commercial Treaty, seeing that that treaty was concluded in 1865. The object of the present negotiations is as to the means of carrying into effect that part of the treaty which relates to the tariff dues, and it is not the fact, as stated by the hon. Member in his Question, that the negotiations have failed. Those negotiations are still going on. Certain propositions have been made by the Government of Austria, to which in their present form we do not think ourselves justified in assenting. We have stated to what points our objections apply, and the matter is still under discussion. When the negotiations are concluded I shall have no objection to lay the Correspondence on the 1449 table, but before then it would be unadvisable and unusual to do so.