§ In reply to a question from Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY,
§ The EARL of MALMESBURYsaid that the treaty to which the noble Lord alluded was first negotiated by Her Majesty's late Government. A difficulty arose respecting the interpretation of that part of the treaty which referred to the duty upon salt, but that difficulty was got over; then came another difficulty as to the object of the negotiation—a difficulty which had arisen in the Belgian Chambers. The Belgian Chambers had altered the tariff on the articles mentioned in the treaty, from what the tariff on those articles was when that treaty was first entered into. The consequence was that the advantages which we expected to accrue from a negotiation were quite neutralised, and the whole spirit of the treaty was altered. For those reasons the late Government delayed the ratification of the treaty, and in that state of 775 suspense Her Majesty's present advisers found it upon coming into office. The present Government found it impossible to advise Her Majesty to ratify the treaty; but they took measures to have the tariffs placed on the same footing, both in the spirit and the letter, as they stood when those negotiations first commenced. The Government, in effect, drew up the treaty upon exactly the same terms as Mr. Labouchere had originally presented it to Belgium. Whatever advantages the English Government then expected from the treaty, which had not yet been ratified, would be thus obtained. The treaty was now about to be ratified. He expected it would be ratified before the 10th of this month; and he believed that, both in the spirit and the letter, without giving any opinion as to the merits, its provisions generally would remain identical with that treaty which was first negotiated by Mr. Labouchere between the Belgian and British Governments.