THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government will consent to lay upon the table of the House the Papers in the Foreign Office relating to the claims of Mr. Jackson on the Russian Government? In making the brief statement which would explain this case, he regretted to be called on to say anything which would imply the slightest doubt of the good faith of the Russian Government in its dealings with British subjects; because he must see that in all his experience of transactions in which the Russian Government had been mixed up, either while he was residing in Russia as a public servant, or at any other time, he had found that Government to act in a most just, proper, and, he would add, liberal manner. The consequence of such a policy was that Russia was able to obtain the advantage of British capital, enterprise, and skill whenever she required such assistance. Naturally attracted by such circumstances, Mr. Jackson had entered into a contract with a Russian company for the construction of a certain length of railway, and embarked large sums in carrying out that contract. However, when the contract came to an end he found himself in a dispute with the company, from whom he demanded a sum of money which they refused to pay. Mr. Jackson had no claim, and did not pretend to have any claim, again3t the Russian Government; but, inasmuch as that Government had guaranteed the means of completing the railway, and made itself responsible for the payment of a dividend to the shareholders, no matter what might be the profits of the line as a mercantile speculation, when the company repudiated his claim he applied to the Russian Government to stop its pecuniary assistance to the line until his claim should have been inquired into and satisfied. The justness and fairness of that claim had been admitted by persons of the highest respectability and denied by none, and Lord Napier, our Minister at St. Petersburg, had made representations on the subject to the Russian Government. The reply of the latter was, that if Mr. Jackson failed to obtain justice from the 975 company he should go to a Court of Law. That would be a very good answer in such a case in this country; but any one acquainted with the proceedings of Courts of Justice in Russia would see that in an action at law a British subject would have very little chance in one of those courts against a powerful Russian company. Moreover, there were technical difficulties in this particular case. He thought there had been something like a denial of justice to Mr. Jackson; and believing that it was desirable to have the papers before their Lordships, he asked his noble Friend whether he would produce them?
§ EARL RUSSELLsaid, it appeared to him that Mr. Jackson's claim was a private one, in which Parliament could not properly interfere, and that there would be no public advantage in laying the papers on their Lordships' table. He thought that when Mr. Jackson was entering into the contract be ought to have taken care that he would be able to make good his claim against the company. He now complained that there were certain sums of money owing to him, and he had applied to Her Majesty's Government to interfere with the Government of Russia. Her Majesty's Government bad given orders to our Ambassador at St. Petersburg to interfere so far as his good offices might go. The answer of the Russian Government appeared to him to be a reasonable one. They said they were hound to pay interest to the shareholders of the company, and that they could not do otherwise except by order of a Court of Law; and in order to make good his claim Mr. Jackson was referred to legal tribunals of the country. This seemed to him (Earl Russell) the proper course to take in questions of this nature. Under these circumstances, he must decline to produce the papers.