§ MR. T. HUGHESasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If the Government have received notice of an Order lately issued by General Ferrer, in the absence of Captain General Valmaseda, in the Island of Cuba, prohibiting Chinese from passing from one place to another and from leaving the Island; whether it is true that the British Consul, in conjunction with the Consuls of France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Denmark, have protested against this and previous Orders as practically reducing the Chinese to a state of slavery; and if he will lay any Communications the Government may have received on this subject upon the Table of the House?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELD, in reply, said, the Order referred to as issued by General Ferrer had been received at the Foreign Office. No protest had been made either by the British or any other Consul against that or any other order as tending to reduce the Chinese to a state of slavery, but a copy of the Order had been or would be sent to Mr. Layard, at Madrid, for earnest remonstrance with the Spanish Government. He was afraid, however, he could not at present undertake to produce any Correspondence on the subject.