The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-17 00:00:00

SUSPENDED WRITS.

Mr. STANLEY wished to ask Lord John Russell
if he intends to bring in any bill to amend the represen-
tation of the borough of Barnstaple, previous to the issu-
ing of a new writ, or to disfranchise the 255 electors
who have beau proved before the Commissioners to have
been bribed at the last election ?

Lord J. RUSSELL replied in the affirmative.
THE WAR QUESTION.

Mr. DISRAELI wished to ask the noble lord the
member for the City of London a question bearing upon
our diplomatic relations with France. The house was
no doubt aware that a letter had appeared in the public
prints purporting to have been addressed by the Em-
peror of the French to the Emperor of Russia, and appa-
rently with the sanction and confidence of this country.
lie wished the noble lord to inform the house whether
the letter was authentic, and, if so, whether any com-
munication had taken place between the Government of
France and her Majesty's Government relative to the
letter, and if it had been transmitted to the person to
whom it was addressed with the sanction of her Majesty's
Government ? (Hear, hear.)
Lord J. RUSSELL in answer to these questions,
stated in the first place, that he had every reason to
believe that the document alluded to, and as published
in the Moniteur, was an authentic document. With
regard to the second question, he should state that
her Majesty's Government had received a communi-
cation from the Government of France, stating that the
Emperor of France thaught it desirable that he
should make a last appeal to the Emperor of Russia
in an autograph letter to terminate the unfortu-
nate dispute between Russia and Turkey so as
to prevent future hostilities. The reply of her
Majesty's Ministers was, that they had no objection to
such a step being taken, provided the terms proposed to
the Emperor of Russia were in conformity with those
proposed at the conference of Vienna. A copy of the
letter was communicated to her Majesty's Government
at the time its sanction was asked, and they suggested
certain modifications in the letter, which were after-
wards adopted before it was despatched to St. Peters-
burg, though he should add, that her Majesty's Go-
vernment had no opportunity of receiving the letter in
its amended form before it was transmitted. Her
Majesty's Government were, however, responsible for
the substance of the letter as it had been printed, though
he could not go the length of saying that they approved
of every word and phrase that appeared in it, but he had
no hesitation in saying that they entirely approved of
the step which had been taken by the Emperor
of the French, and they hoped it would ultimately be
attended with success. No answer had been received to
the letter at the time the last information was de-
spatched from Paris.

Mr. BENTINCK said a paragraph appeared in a
morning print of this day, which professed to come from
Vienna, and which was to this effect :—" Austria con-
siders the armed intervention of the Western Powers
in Turkey as dangerous, but she has full confidence in
the loyalty and rectitude of the Emperor of Russia, and
she thinks it necessary to take the necessary step of
securing her frontier." Now he wished to ask the noble
lord if the Government had received any information to
the same effect ?

Lord J. RUSSELL conceived that this was one of
those reports which were constantly being conveyed by
the electric telegraph, but for which no authority what-
ever could be given. He could not be answerable for
these telegraphic messages, the majority of which were
false, though occasionally some of them might be true.
(Hear, hear.)
ATTORNEYS' CERTIFICATE DUTY.
Lord R. GROSVENOR wished to state, before the
house proceeded to the business of tho day, that he had
been instructed by the Law Society, to say that, in the
present state of our foreign relations, it was not their in-
tention to introduce a measure for the repeal of the At-
torneys' Certificate Duty. (near, hear.) He there-
fore should not ask leave this year to bring in such a
measure. (Hear, hear.)
REPRESENTATION OF THE MINORITY.

Mr. BRIGHT wished to put a question to the noble
lord the member for the city of London, a question with
regard to the noble lord's proposal for allowing the
minority to be represented in the house. The
proposal appeared to him to be something like letting
the last an the race win ; but he wished to know
if the noble lord intended to apply the system to the
city of London. He wished also to know whether the
noble lord intended to make any proposal that in case
the 'members of the minority died the minority should
be represented by his successor. (A laugh.)
Lord J. RUSSELL said a clause would be inserted
'in the new Reform Bill to extend the system to London.
The City returned four members, but the electors would
only be allowed to vote for three out of the four. He
could not answer the second question.