§ MR. VERNON HARCOURTasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been directed to a letter addressed by Mr. Fish to Mr. Bancroft Davis, dated October 22, 1872, and recently published by the State Department at Washington, in which it is declared that the positions maintained by the English Arbitrator in expressing his dissent from the decision of the majority of the Tribunal "seem all to be available in a possible future of the United States;" and, whether Her Majesty's Government will lay a Copy of the above-mentioned Letter upon the Table of the House, and of any Communications which Her Majesty's Government may have made to the Government of the United States in respect of it?
MR. GLADSTONESir, Her Majesty's Government are aware of the existence of the paper to which the Question of my hon. Friend refers. It has not been communicated to them officially by the Government of the United States, and I am therefore not able to lay it on the Table of the House. 171 I need not say, we have no communications of our own to produce in relation to it.