THE EARL OF CARNARVONrose to call the attention of the Lord President to a recent telegram contained in the patrie newspaper, to the effect that circumstances of a serious nature had taken place in the Seven Islands, that the Lord High Commissioner had been compelled to proclaim martial law, and that the troops were quartered in the market-place and streets of Corfu on the 30th. On the next day the Moniteur had a telegram to the effect that a collision had taken place between the military and the inhabitants at Zante, in which twelve soldiers and eight civilians were killed. He thought it highly improbable that these accounts could be correct; but he desired to know if Her Majesty's Government had received any information on the subject, and if so what steps had they or did they intend to take to remedy a state of things which was certainly, if true, very serious?
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, no information had been received by Her Majesty's Government as to what the noble Lord had referred to as being contained in the Moniteur. There was a telegraph to Corfu, and the Lord High Commissioners had instructions from the Government to communicate immediately by telegraph with the home Government, in the event of anything of an important character transpiring, and as they had received no telegram, he thought it highly improbable that there was any substantial foundation 1486 for the rumour. He might observe that the only colourable foundation for this rumour was probably to be found in the fact that some insignificant row had been occasioned by three soldiers at one of the islands.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Six o'clock, to Monday next, Eleven o'clock.