§ EARL RUSSELLI wish to ask the noble Earl opposite, Whether he has received any further information as to the reported execution of the Emperor Maximilian, and whether it is intended to postpone the Review appointed for to-morrow?
§ THE EARL OF DERBYWhen I came down to the House this evening there had not been received by the Foreign Office any authentic information with regard to the fate of the Emperor Maximilian; but from the accounts which have reached us from every quarter, I am sorry to say there is hardly any ground for the hope that that catastrophe has been avoided. I am afraid there is too much reason to suppose that the life of the Emperor Maximilian has been taken. The circumstances, to say the least of it, are so doubtful, and the probability that this crime has been committed is so great, that Her Majesty thinks that it would not be right—indeed, that it would hardly be decent—to proceed to hold the Review to-morow. Consequently Her Majesty, prompted by her own feelings, and out of respect also to the feelings of those connected by relationship with the Emperor Maximilian, has determined to postpone the Review. I trust, however, that it will not be postponed for any lengthened period. Her Majesty is well aware of the disappointment which must be felt by so many persons owing to the postponement at the last moment of a display which would have given universal gratification, and I trust that at no lengthened period the Review, which has not been abandoned, but only postponed, will be held.