§ EARL DE LA WARRsaid, he wished to put a Question to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, of which he had given him private Notice. He desired to know, Whether the noble Earl had any information to communicate to the House with regard to the truth of a Reuter's telegram declaring that Sir Augustus Paget, Her Majesty's Minister at Rome, had signed a protocol assenting to the fortification of Assab by the Italians?
§ EARL GRANVILLEMy Lords, there is now a very laudable competition to afford the public early informa- 1637 tion. The only inconvenience is that the information is not always of a perfectly accurate character. The report to which the noble Earl has alluded is absolutely without foundation.