§ CORRESPONDENCE.—QUESTION.
§ MR. DISRAELISir, I am unwilling to press Her Majesty's Government unnecessarily or unfairly with any inquiry respecting the Geneva Arbitration; but the right hon. Gentleman at the head of the Government will, I am sure, recollect that on last Tuesday week my right hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford (Mr. G. Hardy), on my behalf, preferred an inquiry of a distinct character upon that subject. He asked, Whether Her Majesty's Government would undertake that there should be no further proceedings before the Arbitrators of Geneva until the Indirect Claims were given up by the Government of the United States? The right hon. Gentleman then said he declined to answer that Question until after the receipt of the Despatch, which was then hourly expected. We have since had information that the Despatch has been received by Her Majesty's Government, and I venture now to make an inquiry, which I believe the public feeling demands—namely, Whether the right hon. Gentleman, being in possession of the Despatch, will now give a direct answer to the Question, which, as I have said, was asked by my right hon. Friend?
MR. GLADSTONEThe Question, Sir, of the right hon. Gentleman has anticipated a statement which it was my intention to make. There is just one very slight inaccuracy in the recital of the right hon. Gentleman which I wish to correct. I think he said—I do not know whether intentionally or not—that I had already stated we were in possession of a Despatch from America in answer to Lord Granville's Note of the 20th of March. That is not so. What I said was that we had just learnt that the American Minister was in possession of the answer, and that he had not been able to inform us precisely when it would come into the hands of Her Majesty's Government. That is not the state of facts now. A copy of the Despatch was received by Lord Granville yesterday afternoon from the Minister of the United States, and it has been considered by the Cabinet to-day. And, Sir, as far as the contents of that Despatch are 106 concerned, there is nothing in the Despatch that would have led us to ask, or that would have warranted us in asking, for further forbearance on the part of Parliament in withholding the Papers of the Correspondence which has taken place from immediate publication. There are, however, known to us grounds for the hope that a settlement of the entire matter may be arrived at of a character which would be satisfactory, as we are well assured, to both countries. Under these circumstances, we trust that Parliament will approve our postponing for a short time, on the specific ground which I have now stated, the production of the Papers. I do not venture to specify the number of days over which this postponement should extend; but I have no doubt the delay will be very short.