The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-18 00:00:00

POLAND.

Mr. GRIFFITH rose to 4. inquire of the First Lord of
the Treasury as to the existing state of relations between
Russia and Sweden on the subject of Poland." He appre-
hended the answer of the Russian Government would be
that the amnesty had answered all the claims which the Go-
vernment of this country were justified in demanding from
Russia. That appeared to be also the opinion entertained
in a neighbouring country, which was more enthusiastic tie
the subject. In the meantime cruelties were being perpe-
trated against the Poles, which increased the animosity be-
tween them and their oppressors. The hon. member quoted
extracts from various documents, and referred to the rigours
exercised byßussia over the Pules, and the determination of
the latter to reject the amnesty, and insist upon the restora-
tion of Poland according to the extent of its original fron-
tiers. The sympathy of the Swedes for Poland was as great
as that of the people of this country ; and therefore anything
that the Swedes might do in furtherance of the cause of
Poland would excite the animosity of Russia : and no op-
portunity would be lost on their part for finding a cause
of quarrel with Sweden. He said he had been favoured
with a letter received by a member of that house from
his brother, who was located in Sweden, dated March 26,
which stated that 20,000 Norwegian and 40,000 Swedish
soldiers had received orders to march towards Finland.
THRONE OF GREECE.
Lord H. LENNOX, who had given notice of his inten•
tion to ask a question of the First Lord of the Treasury re-
specting the recent election of Prince William of Denmark
to the Throne of Greece, said he had addressed his question
to the First Lord of the Treasury in consequence of the
answer he received from the Under Secretary for Foreign
Affairs. On Monday he gave notice of some questions to
the Under Secretary with respect to the election of Prince
William of Denmark. He also forwarded to the Under
Secretary full details of the questions he intended to put.
During Tuesday he was at the house, but he received no
intimation from the hon. gentleman that it would be incon-
venient to the public service to answer his questions. He
therefore rose at the usual time and put his questions.
The Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, not meaning
doubtless to be guilty of discourtesy, replied that the
only answer was that he would give no answer to his
questions. Whereupon feeling, as he would admit, some-
what snubbed, he told the hon. gentleman and the house
that he would put his question again the next day, in the
hope of getting a more satisfactory answer. The hon, gen-
tleman, however, told him it would be useless to do so as he
would receive the same answer; that there was no answer,
and that it would not be for the benefit of the public ser-
vice to make a statement on the subject. The hon. gentle-
man was, of course, cheered by hon. members on the Minis-
terial Benches, and he (Lord H. Lennox) left the house
half convinced that he had been guilty of an indiscretion.
What then was his surprise to find that, 48 hours after-
wards, in another place, the interests of the public service
gave way, and that the noble lord the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs gave full and ample details of everything
that had taken place. That noble lord did more, for he put
up the President of the Council to give further information
and to answer a noble earl, and thus official intimation was
communicated by two members of her Majesty's Government
to another assembly which had been denied 48 hours before
to the House of Commons. He did not regard this in the
the least as a personal question,
but as a matter affecting
the house itself. (Cheers.) He asked the question of
which he had given notice on Monday, not with the wish
to interfere with the election of Prince William, but because
he had reason to know that the conduct of the Foreign-
office had been so precipitate as
to peril the very object
which the Government had in view. (Hear.) Pleasant as
it usually was to be contradicted by the noble viscount, yet
that pleasure would be denied to him in the present instance,
because he was in a position to assert that when the tele-
gram was despatched to Mr. Elliot, asking the Assembly to
offer the Crown of Greece to Prince William, it was stated
that the Government did so with the authority of the King
of Denmark. That statement was true; but that authority
was given conditionally on the consent of Prince Christian
and Prince William being also obtained. And when this
telegram was despatched, not only had Prince William not
given his adhesion, but no longer age than yesterday he
was still offering innumerable objections to the negotiation.
He believed that when the King of Denmark and
Prince Christian learned that the National Assembly of
Greece had proceeded to the election of Prince William
they were extremely surprised, and that Prince Christian
was summoned to Copenhagen to explain to the King of
Denmark how the matter had been brought about. The
whole thing was such a mere matter of conversation and
private gossip that the accredited Minister of the Crown of
Denmark in London had up to the period of the offer never
even received a communication that the candidature of
Prince William was on the tapis. He should not have put
his question at such length had it not been for the manner
—the unseemly manner, as it seemed to him—in which all
information was denied him on the plea of inconvenience to
the public service, while it was willingly accorded by two
Ministers of the Crown in another place. (Hear, hear.)
Lord PALMERSTON—My hon. friend the member for
Devizes will excuse me if I do nut follow him into the dis-
sertation upon which he entered with regard to the Polish
question and the matters connected with it ; but I will an-
swer the question which he has put upon the paper with
regard to the relations now subsisting between the Court of
Sweden and the Court of Russia. Her Majesty's Govern-
ment are not aware that anything has interrupted the good
relations between those two Governments. But, of course,
the hon. member and the house will feel that we do not stand
here to answer for that which may be passing betweenforeign
Governments. (Hear.) As far as we know, there is no reason
to suppose there is any unfriendly feeling between the two,
The noble lord who has just sat down, I think, made an un-
fair charge against my hon. friend the Under Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. The noble lord seems to have
overlooked the distinction between the nature of a question
and the nature of an answer. It is quite possible that a
q uestiont
to give
enuont be indiscreet,
vtoit.L
(aughter,) No blame though it may be very
at-
tachesin-
discreet
to the noble lord for the question he put to my hon.
friend (renewed laughter), but some blame would have at-
tached to my hon. friend if ho had gone into those details
which were involved in an answer to the question. Now,
the noble lord has mistaken what passed in another place,
because, if he will look back to the record he will see that a
noble friend of mine in answer to the question put to him
entered largely into detail, yet he was reminded afterwards
by another noble lord that he had entirely evaded the ques-
tion. (Much laughter.) That is a course which is often fit
and becoming to adopt when questions are put to which it
would be indiscreet to give a direct answer. And, there •
fore, the noble lord will excuse me(renewed laughter) if I
do not tell him all that has passed in regard to communi-
cations which have taken place with respect to the election
of Prince William of Denmark to the Crown of Greece. But
this I will tell him that her Majesty's Government lid not
act with the precipitation which he ascribes to them, and that
they made no communications to the Greek which they were
not authorized to make. The actual election of Prince
William at Athens was so entirely the result of the impulse!!

of the moment that it was a surprise to the Ministers of the
Greek Government. The Assembly met, and an inde-
pendent member got up and proposed that they should elect
Prince William. It was known that Prince William had
been mentioned as the person who would become a candi-
date ; and the Greek Assembly were so anxious to come to
a decision in reference to the accession to the throne that
they elected him by a cclamatien—not on the proposal of
Ministers, but on the motion of an independent member.
The noble lord will excuse me if 1 do not tell him the exact
state of the communications now going on, but I have good
reason to hope that the election which has been made by
the Greek Assembly will be completed by the acceptance of
Prince William and those who are answerable for his deci-