MR. GLADSTONEI may, perhaps, take this opportunity of completing the reply which I made to a Question put to me by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Buckinghamshire (Mr. Disraeli), on Friday last, which at the time I stated I was not in a position to answer. The reply of the Government of the United States to the communication of Lord Granville dated the 3rd of February, is dated the 27th of February, and was placed in the hands of Lord Granville on the evening of the 4th of March. The reply of the American Government is couched in courteous and friendly terms. It does not come up to our view, and in the opinion of the Government, it requires an answer which, indeed, the Government of the United States appear to anticipate and to invite. The despatch, or letter as I believe it should be termed, containing this reply on the part of the Government will, as we hope, be sent by the American Minister in time for one of his usual modes of communication with his Go- 128 vernment—that is to say, on or before Thursday next. I understood the right hon. Gentleman to put a Question as to the mode in which the Government of the Queen were disposed to deal with the despatch of the American Government, in respect to laying it or not before the two Houses of Parliament; and I have to say that it would not, in our opinion, be consistent with the public interest that the incomplete correspondence which has passed should be laid before Parliament at the present time. With regard to the apprehension which he appeared to express, and which I may likewise interpret as part of his Question, that it would be a matter of necessity for Parliament to deliberate on the subject of the Treaty of Washington, with respect to some decisive issue before the 15th of April, I have to observe that it would be premature to assume at the present stage that there will, of necessity, be any interruption on or before that date of the proceedings contemplated by the Treaty. As to the production of documents, both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States—which, as the House is aware, occupies a peculiar and authoritative position in regard to the ratification of treaties—both bodies have, as we understand, declined to call on the President for any information as to the tenour of his communications with the British Government. We also hope and anticipate that the House of Commons will, under existing circumstances, exercise similar forbearance. We shall, on our part, be most desirous to give any information we possess to Parliament at any time the public interests may permit. But I have to add that while, on the one hand, we continue to be most anxious to maintain the character of the Treaty of Washington, we, on the other, I trust, shall not be found to have failed in that sense of the state and nature of the case which the honour of this country may demand.