§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYI beg leave to put to my noble Friend the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs a question, of which I have given him private notice, in reference to a subject which deeply interests this country, and, I may say, the whole of Europe. All your Lordships 1208 have, no doubt, read the accounts which arrived this morning from America, and must have learnt with pain and with some astonishment that a civil war has broken out between the Secessionists in that country and the other States of the Union. Fortunately, up to the date of those accounts, no blood, hardly any, had been shed, and too much praise cannot, I think, be bestowed upon the commander of the fleet engaged in the transaction to which I refer for abstaining from entering on a useless contest which could only envenom the spirit of both parties. It is impossible, however, my Lords, that a struggle such as that which seems now impending in America—a struggle so unnatural, and calculated, I may add, to prove so fatal to the parties concerned in it—it is impossible that such a struggle should not produce a reverberation throughout the rest of the world. I may further observe that no country on this side of the Atlantic is, perhaps, more likely to suffer from the civil war which threatens the United States than our own; for, altogether apart from those feelings of regret with which we must witness the breaking out of strife between persons belonging to the same family as ourselves, and kindred to us in language as well as in blood, our political and material interests are deeply involved in this unhappy schism. That being so, I cannot but believe that Her Majesty's Ministers, feeling upon this question with all Her Majesty's subjects, have already done their utmost by officious means to bring about some arrangement by which so dreadful a calamity as that of which I am speaking may be averted. I, therefore, wish to ask my noble Friend the Under Secretary of State, What steps the Government have taken with that object; whether they have made any attempt to prevent the quarrel between the different States of the American Union from coming to a bloody issue; what hopes they entertain of succeeding in so laudable an endeavour, and whether they have invited, or are in correspondence with any other European Government with the view of obtaining their assistance in seeking to put a stop at the outset to a civil war, of which, if once fairly commenced, it will be impossible to foresee the end?
LORD WODEHOUSEMy Lords, need scarcely assure my noble Friend that the Government, in common with him, and I feel confident with every one of Her Majesty's subjects, have learnt with the 1209 deepest regret the intelligence of the dissensions which have taken place in the United States. We have also received with the utmost concern the accounts to which my noble Friend has alluded, informing us that those dissensions have brought that country to the brink of civil war—if, indeed, civil war may not be said to have already broken out. In answer to the question what steps have been taken by Her Majesty's Ministers to avert this great calamity—for a great calamity it undoubtedly must prove to be not only to the Americans themselves, but to England, which is so closely connected with them by the ties of kindred—I have to state that, after the most mature deliberation, the Government came to the conclusion that it was not desirable that this country should intrude her officers or counsel on the Government of the United States. However great the interest which we may feel in the welfare of her people, and however anxious we might be to rescue them from the misfortune which appears to he impending over their heads, we yet thought that a great and independent nation might not welcome advice given with respect to her internal affairs, if that advice were proffered without being solicited. The instructions, therefore, given to Lord Lyons were, that he should on every fitting occasion express the earnest desire entertained by Her Majesty's Government that the differences which prevail between the Northern and the Southern States should be arranged. He has not, however, been instructed to give, either officiously or officially, any counsel or advice to the American Government, unless such counsel or advice should be asked for by the contending parties themselves. That is the answer I have to give to the question of my noble Friend. It naturally follows that Her Majesty's Ministers have not been in communication with any foreign Government as to any steps being taken of the nature of those to which he has alluded.