§ MR. RYLANDSsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether there is any foundation for a statement which appeared in the "Daily News" of Tuesday last, to the effect that Mr. Layard was 650 aware of the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, and spoke to M. Mercier on the subject before the action of the French Government in the matter, but did not communicate this important information to the Foreign Office until it had learnt it from other quarters?
MR. OTWAYreplied that the first official notification of the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern that came from Mr. Layard was on the 9th instant; but the candidature had been a matter of notoriety before. He might state that on the 11th of May Mr. Layard, in a despatch, spoke of the probable candidature of a Gorman Prince, and stated what he thought would be its effect upon the relations between France and Spain.