§ COLONEL ARBUTHNOTasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he will lay upon the Table any Correspondence which has passed between Mr. Wilson, late of Nantes, Mr. Clipperton, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at that place, Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador in Prance, and the Foreign Office relative 524 to frauds committed on the French Government by one Ferrand, in conjunction with a Swiss firm trading in Thread-needle Street; whether the Foreign Office has considered that part of the Report of Consul Clipperton, issued in the Blue Book of 1877, concerning
The Law relating to general liberty and freedom of action which can be exercised against any Englishman going to France;and, whether any action has or will be taken, as recommended by Consul Clipperton, for the establishment of a Consular Convention similar to that concluded between France and the United States in 1873, for the better protection of English subjects against arbitrary arrests and other inconveniences?
§ MR. BOURKE, in reply, said, he did not think any useful purpose would be gained by laying on the Table the Correspondence, seeing that there were no reasons whatever for any diplomatic interference on the part of Her Majesty's Government. As to the Report of Consul Clipperton, he had seen it; but it was dated 1833, and the substance of it given in the Question of the hon. and gallant Member was not accurate. He could not say at present that the advice of Consul Clipperton, that action should be taken for the establishment of the Consular Convention referred to, would be followed.
§ COLONEL ARBUTHNOTsaid, he had copied the words which appeared in the Question from the Blue Book.