§ VISCOUNT STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFESeeing my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his place, I take the liberty of putting to him, though I have been unable to give Notice, a Question which seems to me all-important in the present state of affairs on the Continent. It was stated this morning in one of our most influential public journals that a Treaty has been proposed between the two belligerent Powers, of a nature which must be of the deepest possible interest to this country and to Europe at large. I therefore feel fully justified in the course I have taken, and I think it would be satisfactory to the country at large to know whether it is the fact or not?
§ EARL GRANVILLEMy noble Friend has only been able to give me Notice of his Question since he entered the House; but I am bound to say that even if he had given me a rather longer Notice my duty would have prevented me from giving at the present time more than a very short answer. I am not informed whence came the document which appeared in The Times this morning; but I am not surprised that my noble Friend (Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe) should regard it as a very important document. I can only state the conviction of Her Majesty's Government that, after the announcement of the alleged existence of such a draft of a Treaty proposed between France and Prussia, the Governments of both those countries will be induced immediately and spontaneously to explain to Europe all that concerns this matter.