THE EARL OF AIRLIE, in rising pursuant to notice to put a question to Her Majesty's Government upon this subject, said, that a rumour had, at the time upon which he put his notice upon the paper, prevailed to the effect that the demand for compensation in the case of the engineers, Park and Watt, which had been made by Her Majesty's Ministers upon the Government of Naples, had been refused. That report, however, it appeared, turned out to be premature; and he might observe, that he had seen it stated with considerable satisfaction in the public prints that, in answer to a communication from the Government of Naples, the Government of this country had sent out a peremptory demand for compensation in the case in question. Now, he trusted that was the fact, and that the noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs would deem it to be consistent with his duty to corroborate the statement to which he referred. From the papers which had already been laid upon the table of the House in reference to the subject of the Cagliari, he thought a great want of courtesy had been displayed upon the part of the Neapolitan Government; but he begged altogether to deny the justice of the charge which had been made against him by the noble Earl the Secretary for Foreign Affairs a few evenings before, to the effect that he had made it a ground of complaint against Her Majesty's Ministers that they had not gone to war with Naples. He had simply meant to say, upon the occasion alluded to, that Sardinia had made demands upon the Government of that country which she would not, in all probability, have made had she not relied upon the support of England, and that she conceived we were bound to lend her our moral support, so far as her claims were consistent with reason and justice and in accordance with international law. When the fitting opportunity arrived he trusted to be able to show that, so far from desiring to embark in a war with Naples, he was of opinion that the best 1849 course for the preservation of the peace of Europe which could be pursued was that by which a speedy settlement of the question at issue between the two countries could be obtained. In conclusion, he should ask the noble Earl the Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether a final answer had yet been returned by the Neapolitan Government to the demand which had been addressed to it by Her Majesty's Government for compensation on behalf of the engineers, Park and Watt?
§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYIn reply to the question of the noble Earl, I have only to say that we have not yet received the final answer from the Government of Naples to the demand we have thought it right to make; but we shall probably receive it in the course of the week.
§ House adjourned at Eight o'clock, till To-morrow, half-past Ten o'clock.