§ MR. O'REILLYasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it is true, as stated in a German paper, that the German Government in January, 1874, and also after the accession to office of the present ministers, proposed to the English Government to address the Belgian Government upon the subject of what was called the Ultramontane agitation in the latter kingdom; if so, if these communications of the German Government were in the form of despatches, or verbal; and, whether he has any objection to state the substance of the reply, if any, of Her Majesty's Government?
MR. DISEAELISir, the hon. and gallant Gentleman has inserted a very necessary word in the Question since it was first printed on the Notice Paper—namely, the word "also." The Question is—
To ask the First Lord of the Treasury, whether it is true that the German Government in January, 1874, and also after the accession to office of the present ministers, proposed to the English Government to address the Belgian Government upon the subject of what was called 1213 the Ultramontane agitation in the latter kingdom; if so, if these communications of the German Government were in the form of despatches or verbal?"—I understand by inserting the word "also," the hon. and gallant Gentleman refers to two different communications which he assumes to have been made by the German Government. With regard to the first inquiry—namely, whether, in January, 1874, the German Government proposed to the English Government to address the Belgian Government on the subject of what was called the Ultramontane agitation in the latter kingdom, and, if so, whether those communications were made in the form of despatches or verbally, I would inform the hon. and gallant Member it is true that Prince Bismarck felt compelled to make a strong representation to the Belgian Government on the subject of what he styled the conspiracy carried on in Belgium between the Ultramontane party, consisting of refugee Jesuit priests, and Roman Catholics in Germany. That was in the month of January, 1874, and he suggested, through the Ambassador of Germany, that Her Majesty's Government should support those representations. The Secretary of State of the then Government replied to that suggestion in conversation to this effect:—That it was the desire of the Government that no cause of difference should exist between Germany and Belgium; that the Belgian Government had always shown itself exceedingly prudent in its foreign relations and cautious to avoid any just cause of offence to its neighbours; and he expressed a confident hope that Prince Bismarck would not press the Belgian Government to go beyond whatever limits were imposed upon it as the Government of a Catholic country with free institutions. That was the answer given by Lord Granville, the then Secretary of State, to the proposition made by the German Ambassador to join in the remonstrance to the Belgian Government, in consequence of what the hon. and gallant Gentleman has called the Ultramontane agitation. This was the only communication which, as far as we know, was made to the late Government. It was not made by despatch; it was made in conversation; and it was an oral communication. I now come to the second part of the Question, which 1214 is, whether since the accession of the present Government to office, which would be immediately after January, any similar application had been made by the Government of Germany, either by despatches or in interviews, such as I have referred to, and I have to inform the hon. and gallant Gentleman that neither in interviews nor by despatches have any such propositions been made to the present Government.