§ MR. CARTWRIGHTasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in view of the statement, reported in The Times of July 5th, as having been 676 made in the Spanish Cortes, to the effect that the Spanish Government had notified its dissent from the terms of the Protocol of December 1, 1883, Whether that statement is accurate; and, whether he is in a position to give the House information as to the precise state in which the question of a commercial arrangement between England and Spain is at present?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEAs stated in Earl Granville's despatch to Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Madrid, printed in the last Parliamentary Paper published on the subject, the two Governments agreed that the Protocol could not be discussed in the Cortes until the Winter Session, or the clauses respecting the alcoholic changes be submitted to Parliament before April, 1885. The Spanish Government at the time this agreement was come to announced that they had certain objections to formulate against the terms of the Protocol. The Note containing these objections reached the Foreign Office yesterday, and is now under consideration.