HC Deb 12 May 1885 vol 298 cc361-2
MR. SEXTON

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, If his attention has been drawn to the following telegram, dated yesterday, from the Exchange Telegraph Company's agent at Rome, published in The Pall Mall Gazette, and other journals, last evening:— I yesterday had shown to me Mr. Errington's credentials to the Vatican. They are signed by Lord Granville, and are in the form of letters commending Mr. Errington to the favourable consideration of the Secretary of State to his Holiness. The recommendation reads like an official introduction from the State Department of Queen Victoria to the State Department of the Pope, and has been acted upon by Mr. Errington as de facto establishing diplomatic relations between two Powers; and, whether any such credentials as those described were furnished to Mr. Errington?

MR. GLADSTONE

When the hon. Member put the Question to me yesterday my recollection about the letter was rather vague; but I have made it my business to inform myself about the matter. I find that it is now nearly four years ago that Lord Granville addressed a letter to Mr. Errington, in which he told him that if he went to Italy he would go there as a person of whom the Government had a high opinion with respect to his competency and trustworthiness. Mr. Errington carried that letter with him, and no doubt mentioned it in a judicious manner. What the letter is the hon. Gentleman quoted from the other day I have no idea. It does not appear to me to at all correspond with Lord Granville's letter to Mr. Errington, and could hardly be treated as fulfilling in any way the description given of it by some papers in Rome. Lord Granville, besides giving this general testimony to Mr. Errington's ability, high character, and trustworthiness, did also inform Mr. Errington that he might perhaps make some use of him for the purpose of making some representation on matters connected with the interests of the Queen's subjects abroad in regard to questions important to their interests.