The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-12 00:00:00

TILE OONFERENCE.

Mr. S. FITZGERALD wished to pat the question to the
noble lord at the bead of the government of which he had
given petite. It had reference to the reply given by the
noble lord respecting the proposed conference on Danish
affairs, and, at the same time, to the statement made
by the noble lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs
in another place. TM noble toed at the head
of the government would recollect that oa Tuesday
last he stated that proposals had been made for • conference
oa Danish affairs, there being no cessation of hostilities in
the meantime, the only basis being the maintenance of the
independence and integrity of Denmark ; and, further, that
the proposal had been made with the concurrence of
Russia and France. At the seme time the noble lord at the
Mad of the Foreign-cdfloe, speakiag in another place, gave
an account of the present condition of affairs, not only in-
consistent with, but totally contradictory to, that mode by
the noble lord. The noble Seontary for Foreign Affairs
stated that there had been apropoiallaidbefonber Majesty's
government, which bed been communicated by them to the
Danish government, and that that proposal was that there
should be • suspension of hostilities, sod that the belli-
gerents should retain the positions they at present occupied,
conditional, however, on the acceptance by Denmark of
certain manta as bases, namely, • personal anion between
Denmark and the duchies, and an indissoluble union between
Sleswig and Holstein. At the same time, the noble lord
said that he had not communicated shoes facts to France
and Buena, as it would be necessary in the first inseams
to obtein the opinions of the belligerent powers.
He (Hr. Fitzgerald) seed hardly point out the in-
convenience of haring different information given in
the two house., sad in order to clear up the roisuodsr-
standing he should ask, on what bases had the proposal far
• conference been really made, whether it was to he un-
derstood that there was to be no cessation of hostilities, or
whether there was to be a aeration of hostilities coaditional
on the acceptance by Denmark of °erten points ; whether
the noble lord would commenicate to the house what those
points were, which by the two powers bad been
made conditional, and whether in the opinion of
her Majesty's government those points consisted
with the maintenance of the iodependenoe and ia-
togrity of Denmark! He wished further to know whe-
ther the noble lord (Palmerston) still adhered to his
statement that the proposal had bees made with the amen*
of France and Russia, or whether, as the odds lord the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs had stated, the points had not
been communicated to those powers.
Lord PALMERSTON—I am not at all surprised that in
so complicated a matter as the Danish question, and in
answers given to questions which I must my had much
better not been put, the bon. member shouM have been
led to mix up together matters which were
is themselves distinct. What I meant to state was
that we had vainly tried to obtain the consent of the UM-
, punts to an armistice as preliminary to • conference, be-
cause each perty insisted upon conditions to that armistice
which the other parties would not agree to. I stated, there-
fore, that her Majesty's government felt it to he so im-
portant that negotiations should be begun, that they pro-
posed there should be • conference without an armistice,
and that Austria Lod Prussia had agreed to the proposal,
but that from Denmark we had not as yet received an an-
swer. I stated that although we had good reason to believe
that France, Russia, and Sweden would agree to such
conference, no proposal had been made to them until we
knew that the belligerent. ware agreed. Until that agree
meat was obtained we felt there would be no use in gay
further. Then I stated that, inasmuch as England,
France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Swedes all concurred
in admitting the validity of the treaty of 1852, and in the
obligations which that treaty imposed to maintain the in-
dependence and integrity of Denmark, the powers, when
amembled in cordon/ion, would stand an that basis No
formal bases had, however, been because we bad
no knowledge that the t powers would
sgree to the conference. It would be hereafter,
when the conference met, to arrange the bases of discusioa.
That which my noble fried stated, sad which the hon.
member has mixed op with other mitten, was the opinions
which front time to time bad been expressed by different
parties, and which were well known. At different periods
of the negotiations Prussia has intimated its opinion that
there should be an administrative union between the two
Duchies, and that they should both be connected with the
rest of Denmark by the link of the crown. That,
however, was not • bases of negotiation, nor wee
it a point epos which the British government had
given an opinion, yea or no. All these points
would be discussed when the negotiations commenced.
but we knew that Denmark objected to such an arrange-
ment. Ido not apprehend that there is any substantial
difference between what I stated sod what my noble feud
stated, if the hon. member will look attentively at the
re-
pmts, which I have not as yet been able to do. My noble
friend and I are perfectly in accord as to the facie, and
therefore it is utterly impossible that we could have made
statements which were at variance with each other. (Hear.)