§ THE EARL OF HARDWICKEventured to hope that the noble Lord the Secretary for War would forgive him for following up the question he had asked him the other evening. The noble Lord stated that certain despatches would be speedily published; and he now wished to know when the noble Lord intended to give those despatches to the public—the more particu- 2027 larly as every hour seemed to thicken the plot in China. It appeared that our authorities had been compelled to receive assistance for the protection of English subjects at Hong Kong from a distinguished nation—the French—for whose assistance they must always feel grateful. It was certainly very painful for Englishmen to feel that they were obliged to seek the assistance of a foreign nation, however great and distinguished, for the protection of British subjects. He did not say that that statement was true, but he was anxious to know what the public had a right to know—whether at the present juncture of affairs the British subjects in that part of the world were in jeopardy, and whether the recent state of affairs in China was something like, he would not say defeat, but great difficulty; and whether the English had, to a certain extent, been obliged to receive assistance from a foreign nation.
§ LORD PANMUREsaid, that what he had stated the other evening was that he had received despatches from Colonel Dunlop, stating that certain operations had taken place in the neighbourhood of Canton, and that some casualties had occurred, a return of which had since appeared in the Gazette. He had also stated that he received a communication respecting the manner in which a company of infantry had acted in the performance of an important duty in which they were engaged.