§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If the Government is yet in possession of any information as to whether the changes now proposed in the settlement of Cuba include any measure which shall fulfil the Treaty obligations of Spain, by the enfranchisement of the slave population?
§ MR. BOURKE, in reply, said, that the attention of the Spanish Government was called a short time ago to the question of the enfranchisement of slaves in Cuba, which seemed a more correct definition than that of the hon. Member's Question, because all the Treaty engagements of the country related to the Slave Trade, and not to the enfranchisement of the slaves in the Island of Cuba. The hon. Member was 447 aware that Her Majesty's Government had frequently pressed the matter on the attention of the Spanish Government, and they continued to do so. They did so, as he had already informed the House, in a despatch of the 27th of March last, to our Ambassador at Madrid. An answer was given to that communication by the Spanish Government; but as he did not think it would aid the object which all desired to bring about if he were to give the substance of the answer, he trusted the hon. Member would be content meantime with the assurance that the matter was receiving the anxious attention of Her Majesty's Government, and would continue to do so.