The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-07 00:00:00

word more, except to thank your lordships for the man-
ner in which you have listened to Fee.
Lord PANMURE—With reference to what has occur-
red, I wish, on the present occasion, only to explain ene
point. The noble earl says that the correspondence ought
to have been laid on the table of your lordships' house
long ago. I have stated that lay reason for not pro-
ducing the correspondence was this—that the noble earl
was on his passage to this country, and that when he
arrived in this country, if he desired that they should
be placed before the house and the public, no man would
less stand in his way than I should. I thought that it
was just to the noble earl to let him arrive in this
country, and express his opinion on the subject. This
was my only reason for withholding the correspondence.
I now hold it in my hand for the purpose of laying it

upon the table.
The Earl of LIICA.N was understood to move that
the papers should be printed.
---- •

TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

Lord BERNERS moved for the returns of lead and
other articles contraband of war exported from the dif-
ferent ports of G reat Britain and Ireland to foreign ports
since the declaration of war ; and of the imports into
Great Britain and Ireland of Russian produce in neu-
tral vessels during the last year. The noble lord said
that he moved for these returns in consequence of the
representations which he had seen in the public papers,
that not only were munitions of war sent from this coun-
try to Russia, but that these munitions of war were autho-
rised by the Custom-house and higher authorities. Ho
did hope, for the credit of the Government and the
honour of the country, that this statement would be con-
tradicted by the noble lord opposite. He must, how-
ever, say that he had used his utmost endeavours tod
in
the truth of this paragraph, which appsae
a morning paper. He had traced the paragraph, and
found that the author of it was the editor of a paper at
Hull. The paragraph in question was as follows :
" Shipments of Lead to St. Petersburg.—Last week 50
tons were shipped from Hull, via Memel, to be taken
thence overland to Russia. We understand that the
Custom-house authorities refused to pass the lead, as an
important munition of war, but that a telegraphic mes-
sage was received from London authorising them to for-
ward it, and it was accordingly done." He (Lord Ber-
ners) trusted that the person in the Custom-house or in
the Treasury, be he of high or low rank, would be called
to account, because he bad acted contrary to the interests
of the country, if not to the law of the land. It was
highly necessary that the country should not be charged
with the exportation of munitions of war, as well as with
sending large quantities of gold. The editor at Hull also
stated that he could name several shipments of lead
during the summer to Memel up to the 30th Nov., when
they were prohibited by the order in council. The head
of a large firm in Liverpool mentioned in their report
that shipments of lead had taken place to Memel, and he
found also that another firm stated that the exportation
of iron had considerably increased during the last year.
The question of allowing the exportation of munitions of
war from this country to foreign countries certainly in-
volved important questions and interests, and he trusted
that he might be allowed to ask her Majesty's Govern-
ment for an explicit avowal of the commercial policy
which they intended to adopt both towards the nations
with which this country was at war, and towards those
nations with which it was at peace. Tallow and flax had
also greatly increased; and there was an increase of
wheat during the first eight months of the year, from
1,600,000 to 3,000,000 quarters. It was a most mis-
taken policy which induced Admiral Dundas to destroy
the forts of Odessa and preserve the wine and oil in
store ; for the Russians had been enabled to fall back
upon Odessa, there to recruit their strength and harass
our forces in the Crimea. He bad but one other re-
mark to make as to the proportion of Russian pro-
duce received by Great Britain. It appeared, from the
last reports to which he had access in the library of
their lordships house, that Great Britain received from
Russia 9,600,0001. worth of their exports, being equal
to 38 per cent. of their whole produce, that France rc-
ceived 8 per cent., and Turkey 5 per cent.; that, in short,
the allies received more than half the whole exports of
Russia. Was it not, therefore, the duty of this country
to cripple, as far as possible, the traffic with Russia ?
The noble lord then moved for returns of lead, and other
articles contraband of war, exported from different ports
of Great Britain and Ireland to foreign ports since the
declaration of war; and of the imports into Great
Britain and Ireland of Russian produce in neutral ves-
sels during the last year. He asked for the last return
because, though the exports from Russia had been less,
those from Prussia, the German States, Holland, and
Belgium had enormously increased.
Earl GRANVILLE, who was very indistinctly heard
in the gallery, said he had no objection to give the re-
turns moved for under certain modifications. With re-
gard to the export of lead from this country to Russia
he had to state that at the beginning of last year, and
before the beginning of the war, there was a proclama-
tion prohibiting the exportation from this country of
arms, ammunition, and naval and military stores.
When the war was declared it was resolved to limit the
prohibition to three classes of article:, viz., (1) arms ;
(2) gunpowder, saltpetre, and brimstone ; and (3) ma-
rine boilers and engines. In the month of October, in
consequence of information received, additional restric-
tions were imposed upon blue lias and upon cement. It
was with very great doubt that this order was made, be-
, cause a prohibition against the import of lead to Russia
could hardly be of any use, for the lead that went to
Russia came almost entirely from Spain, and passed
through Prussia and other neutral states. From infor-
mation just received from Lord John Russell, it would
appear that Prussia had renewed her promises on the
subject of contraband trade passing through her do-
minions, and had expressed an intention of rendering
more effectual the means in her power of preventing
such traffic. As to what were the intentions of her Ma-
jesty's Government with reference to neutrals, the Go-
vernment had no intention of changing the orders in
council originally made. He believed that, if there were
any two points on which the Emperor of Russia relied
more than on others for the successful prosecution of
the war, it was that England and France could not
remain together in an unruffled alliance, and that we
should get into quarrels with the principal neutral
states of the world. It was quite clear that it was a
wise course to make to neutrals the concessions that
had been made. Not a single observation had been
made upon it in their lordships' house, and only one
in another place, where also the hon. and learned gen-
tleman who made it was totally unsupported. He could
safely say, with regard to the returns of the Beard of
Trade, that the principal articles of commerce had won-
derfully decreased. He would not go back to the orders
issued during the last war. The practice of that period
if now adopted would not have prevented Russian pro-
duce from coming to this country, because, by the very
simple process of selling it to a neutral, the right of
stopping it might be evaded. The noble lord had quoted
a series of figures to show the little effect produced by
the blockade. He had not been able to follow the noble
lord very clearly through his observations ; but he could
safely say, with regard to the return of last year, taking
both the increase and the decrease, that the average
amount of the imports of the principal articles of Russian
commerce had decreased. There had been a marked de-
crease in every one of the articles. He was not aware of
any article of importance in which the decrease was less
than 40 per cent., and in some cases it was as much
as 60 per cent. There was no doubt that, in the Black
Sea, the Baltic, and the White Sea, the blockade from
various causes had not been so effectually and con-
tinuously carried on as it might have been. However,
the blockades, such as they were, had certainly effected
serious damage to Russian commerce. The Russian
manufacture of cotton goods bad formerly been so cre-
ditable as seriously to threaten our own. One result
of the blockade had been entirely to stop that Russian
manufacture by stopping the imports of fuel. The trade
of Russia bad also been seriously diminished by there
blockades, as was seen by an article recently published
in the Revue des Deux Mondes, written by an eminent
French ex-Minister of Finance, describing the disastrous
effect of the war on the finances of Russia, and the dan-
ger of the expedients to which the Russian Government
had been reduced in order to meet those financial diffi-
culties. That article was so severe that a semi-official
reply to it came back from St. Petersburg, and that re-
ply began by the admission that it was incontestable that
the Russian cotton trade was in a state of suffering. The
noble lord was therefore mistaken in supposing that the
blockade had been totally ineffectual, or that we were
inflicting a maximum of injury on ourselves and a mini-
mum only of injury on Russia. The real effect of the
blockade was that, while we deprived ourselves only of
our Russian trade, we deprived Russia of almost her
entire trade.
In answer to seine further observations made by Lord
BERNERS,
Earl GRANVILLE said that certainly the importa-
tion of Russian articles was increased last year, but the
amount of those articles coming from Russia and Prus-
sia was very much decreased.
Lord COLCHESTER did not clearly understand whe-
ther 01, not the export of lead was now prohibited ; but
he thought the noble earl had not explained why, when
the export of nitre was prohibited by the orders in coun-
cil, the export of the material for making balls were not
prohibited at the same time. He thought that if the
present policy of England with regard to neutrals were
carried out under all circumstances it would not be felled
to answer. In countries like France, Spain, or the
United States of America, where there was a vast extent
of seaboard, there could be no effectual blockade if trade
were allowed in neutral vessels.
Earl GRANVILLE made some observations, which
were totally inaudible in the gallery.
The Earl of HARDWICKE said it appeared to him
that, from the very commencement of the war, the naval
power of this country had been neutralised. When the
votes of thanks were passed in their lordships' house, he
took occasion to observe sarcastically that, now that votes
of thanks were given, they would hear no more of the
non-blockade of the Black Sea. There was a mystery
in reference to the Black Sea. He believed the de-
foaeeirocotuehrtsiontfehooSielebbainlasolis
tcottknoe
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do
by
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but
there
ete beenrhGeeo mainly maintained in s( on-
sequence of that non-blockade. He would say no more
e
the war, nothing dvwie dar
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en
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ithni ac
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booefnnt hot enh
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had more tended to strengthen the
blockade had h
powers of the enemy than the manner in which the
After seine furtdrone gone about.
the motion, as mo-
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ItLAND.
e The Bishop of EXETER then rose
copy of any case and questions proposed by
Government to the Irish law officers of the Crown
the year 1852, relative to the construction of thestatuitne
10th Geo, IV., cap. 7, sec. 26 ; with the answers to the
same by the said Irish law officers. Also, copy of any
case and questions proposed by her majesty 7.
Government to the Irish law officers in the
last and present years on the construction of tho said

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