§ MR. WHALLEYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with reference to the relations between our Government and the Sultan of Zanzibar, Whether his attention had been called to a letter which has appeared in the public journals from His Highness the Sultan, and read by Dr. Badger at a meeting of the Society of Arts, on the occasion of Commander Cameron's lecture last month, expressing his, the Sultan's wish to co-operate in the construction of a road from the coast to the interior, and offering all the assistance in his power for the maintenance and use of such road through his dominions; and whether, in the event of such work being taken in hand by private enter-prize, Her Majesty's Government would be prepared to recognise and support such effort, either by the grant of a Royal Charter or otherwise?
§ MR. BOURKE, in reply, said, that while the Government were desirous of seeing communication opened up between the coast of Zanzibar and the interior, they did not think it expedient to give their support to any particular scheme of that nature.