LORD BROUGHAM,after giving notice that, on Friday next, he would submit a resolution to their Lordships against the adoption of any measures which, directly or indirectly, were calculated to encourage the African Slave Trade, said, he would take that opportunity of asking a question of the noble Marquess with respect to the proceedings in Gallicia, and the confiscacations in that province of the estates of the nobles. He had great hopes, he might say sanguine expectations, that, as regarded one of these confiscations—of the property of his very old and very dear friend, Prince Czartoryski—the accounts which he had heard would prove to be in the result untrue. He would appeal to the justice and generosity of a just and, generally speaking, humane Government, and to the disposition always found in the Austrian Government not actively to enforce intolerance, for the defence of the Prince; and in his case he (Lord Brougham) hoped there would be no exception to the general mildness of their rule. The ground taken was on the address of Prince Czartoryski to his countrymen in Paris; but which was no ground at all, for the Prince used only those words and those expressions which, in his situation and under the circumstances, he had used, and was justified in using, for years past. He had said that he felt sorrow for the fall of Poland, and gave voice to a hope that a few years would witness the restoration of its independence. He could not, in the position which he filled among his countrymen, have addressed them in any other language; he could not have returned a sharp answer; and there could be no doubt that at the time he so spoke he disapproved as entirely as he (Lord Brougham) disapproved of that insane and inexcusable attempt which had recently been made by the Poles to shake the Austrian Government. There was in this country a great degree of sympathy for the Prince; and it would be very satisfactory if the noble Marquess now, or on a future day, could inform their Lordships as to the truth of what had been stated.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEconcurred in all the sentiments and feelings which his noble and learned Friend had expressed with that forbearance and delicacy which an allusion to such a subject required; and he concurred most especially in what had been said relative to the for- 1362 tunes of one of the first families in Europe—elevated not less by rank than it was illustrious for virtues which had been displayed alike in prosperity and in adversity. So much he felt bound to say; but with respect to the question as to what information might be in the possession of Her Majesty's Government on this subject, he would, before giving a reply, beg leave to communicate with his noble Friend the Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
§ House adjourned.