§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYrose to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he could, without inconvenience to the public service, give the House any information with respect to the 923 nature of the protocol which had been recently signed by England and the four great European Powers, in relation to the affairs of the canton of Neufchatel; or if there was any objection to lay the protocol itself on the table of the House?
§ The EARL of MALMESBURYsaid, that all which he could at present conveniently state in reply to his noble Friend was, that such a protocol as that to which he had alluded had been signed. As, however, negotiations were now pending upon the subject of that protocol, it would not be proper for him to enter into any details with respect to it, nor could he at present lay it upon the table of the House.