LORD BROUGHAMwished to call the attention of Her Majesty's Government to what he considered a very serious matter at present; and he was the more anxious to do so, because he found that it had already been noticed in the French National Assembly. He alluded to the extraordinary—no, he would not say extraordinary—but the very important step which had been recently taken by the Russian Government, namely, that of marching a large military force into the provinces of Austria. Russia, as Russia, had no interest in Austrian Poland, that is, in Gallicia, or in Hungary, or in Transylvania. Nevertheless, the information derived from all the accounts and private letters received from the scene of war, and also from Vienna, was to this effect, that the Russian armies were marching in three columns by different routes into Hungary and Gallicia. Possibly, they had not yet reached the centre of those countries, but they had very nearly done so, if their Lordships could trust the accounts in the public papers. He, therefore, asked his noble Friend the President of the Council whether any communication had been made to our Government by Russia, of the purpose and intention of the Russian movement into the Austrian dominions? He had no doubt that that movement was entirely with the consent of the Austrian Government; but that was no solution of any doubt which might arise as to the right of one country to interfere by force in the affairs of another, even with the consent of its Government. For 473 instance, suppose that Austria were to agree to make a cession of Hungary, Transylvania, and Gallicia to Russia—a measure which would disturb the present distribution of power in Europe—we should have a perfect right to complain and protest against it; and the consent of the Austrian Government would not deprive us at all of the right of complaint and protest. No one felt greater anxiety than he did to see Austria, the ancient ally of this country, and our best and most faithful friend on the continent of Europe, in entire and tranquil possession of all her rightful dominions. He made this inquiry of his noble Friend without the slightest suspicion that any Government was acting a wrongful part, whilst it was sustaining the existing distribution of power in Europe, was preventing violent changes from being made, and was putting down those reckless agitators who were now covering Europe with their follies and their crimes.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEwas understood to state, that as far as the matter of fact was concerned. Her Majesty's Government had no intelligence of the entrance of the Russian troops into the Austrian provinces. He was not certain that there was even accurate information as to their entering into any portion of the Austrian dominions.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEobserved that it was perfectly true that there had been very considerable movements in the Russian army on the Austrian frontier, indicating future action in the direction of Austria. How far the fact of a military force of one Power, co-operating with the military force of another in its own dominions and with its own consent, was a fit subject of apprehension to other Powers independent of both, was not a point on which he was then called upon to come to any decision. He must, however, state, that he did not consider any such co-operation of the forces of two Powers to preserve tranquillity in the dominions of one of them, to be analogous to the case mentioned by his noble and learned Friend, namely, the possible cession of a portion of its own territory by one country to another.
LORD BROUGHAMwished it to be distinctly understood, that he did not express any disapprobation of the Russian Government lending its aid to Austria in sup- 474 pressing the disturbances in her dominions.