The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-17 00:00:00

Speech of the King of the French. He only required that
that precedent should be followed in the present instance;
and he therefore moved an Address to the Crown for ex-
tracts from, and copies of certain correspondence between
the French Ministry and the British Government.

Earl GREY—If the documents for which the Noble
Duke had moved were laid upon the table, the House
would readily believe him when he stated that they would
he found to contain nothing derogatory to the Noble
Duke's Government, or to the honour of the country.
To the manner in which the Noble Duke had brought
forward the subject, and to the facts be had stated, he
(Earl Grey) had nothing to object; on the contrary, he
felt it his duty to confirm those facts, and it was possible
that that confirmation might supersede the necessity
of laying upon the table the papers which the Noble
Duke was anxious to obtain, and which, he (Earl
Grey) contended, could not be produced without inconve-
nience. He had heard the speech of the Noble Duke with
great satisfaction—the principles it enforced met his ready
assent—he acknowledged the importance of good under-
standing, and even of a union with France, and he ad-
mitted that the value of that union must depend upon the
fact, that it was consistent with the honour and interests
of the country. The honour and interest of Great Britain
Iressitzrhad-esated-on a.former occasion)--ahould be the first
object of every Ministry, and if it could be shown that be
(Earl Grey) and his colleagues had neglected them, then,
and not till then, should they be open to condemnation.—
(Cheers.) When the Noble Duke warned him not to
maintain the union with France separately, be admitted
the correctness of that line of policy, for it was of the
greatest importance to maintain the connection between
England and France without diminution of the good un-
derstanding with the other powers of Europe. Hitherto
it had been so preserved, and sure he was that -foreign
States had received no just cause of complaint against
Great Britain.—(Cheers.) The Minister of this country
had acted firmly and decidedly, and the result had been
the preservation of the national character, and the national
interests. He now came to the particular object of the
Noble Duke's motion. The high authority of the speech
of the Minister of France, he (Earl Grey) did not dispute,
but he reminded the Noble Duke, that it did not appear in
that authentic and official form which would render it a
fit subject for a Parliamentary motion. He need not en-
ter into much argument to show that nothing could be
more inconvenient, nor more likely to lead to unpleasant
consequences, than to make speeches delivered in the
Chambers of France or in the Parliament of England the
subject of quesrion and dispute on either side of the water.
He (Earl Grey) stood in this difficult situation : he could
not he called upon to explain the speech of the French
Minister, and at the same time it was not expedient for him
to make any harsh comments upon it. He might, how-
ever, say, that he had looked over- the correspondence
to which the Noble Duke referred both before and since

the notice, and that the statement in the speech of M.
Casimir Perier was not correct. He was not sure that
the passage read by the Noble Duke positively bore the
construction put upon it; and if he (Earl Grey) admitted
that France did aid the Belgian revolution, it certainly fol-
lowed as a consequence that the Ministry of that country
had been guilty of a breach of good faith. He doubted if
it were the intention of the French Minister to say more
than that the revolution having broken out in 13,Igium,
his Government had acted upon the principle it professed,
of protec,ing the revolution so far as to prevent the inter-
ference of foreign Powers to suppress it. He (Earl Grey)
bad no hesit.tion in subscribing implicitly to the statement
of facts made by the Noble Duke. The French Govern-
ment not only did not profess to encourage, but expressly
disclaimed all interposition. The whole correspondence, as
the Noble Duke bad stated, was conducted in an amicable
spirit; and if it were not presumptuous in him (Earl Grey)
to say so, he might add, that the proceeding was high .y to
the honour of the Government of the Noble Duke. Not
only was there no evidence of intention to interfere but the
evidence was most complete that on an application to the
Government of the Netherlands for military assistance from
this country it was immediately and at once refused. If
any 'imputatiois were intended against the British Go-
vernment of that day, the Noble Duke could not be more
anxious to repel it than he was. In the course of the
correspondence, although anxiety was expressed that there
should be no intervention of foreign force, there was
nothing in the way of menace on the part of Great Bri-
tain. Farther, he begged leave to remind the Noble
Duke that the words of the French Minister were very gene-
ral, and did not seem directed against this country. A re-
ference to all the circumstances of the case chewed that the
production of the papers was objectionable ; they related
oely to the part this country had taken, and if laid upon
the table it might be urged by the French authorities, that
farther and more extensive disclosures were necessary
to set the matter in its true light. The inference to be
drawn from the speech of M. Casimir Perier was that,
the steps taken by the French Government had prevented
an armed interference with Belgium ; and while on one
one side it was urged that a dread of the power of France
had kept foreign States in check, it might be answered on
the other that those foreign States had disregarded all
threats, and had been guided only by the principles by
which they had always professed to be governed. Be-
tween the two who was to decide ? The production of
the papers required, without many others, would not settle
the point, while it would provoke discussion. He might
add, also, that the correspondence, as the Noble Duke
must be aware, contained many matters that it would be
inexpedient to expose at present to public comment; and
although the Noble Duke on this account had required
only extracts of some papers, he had moved fur the whole
of others. It would likewise be urged, perhaps, by the
French Minister, that what had been laid upon the table
was only the commencement of a long correspondence, the
whole of which was necessary for the ascertainment of
the true merits of the case. With regard to the supposed
precedent in which the Noble Duke had said that he (Earl
Grey) was concerned, he must remark that he had moved
for a single document to explain a passage in the speech of
the King of France, which was itself an authentic and
official paper, and not like the speech of the Minister,
perhaps unauthorised and incorrect. He begged to add,
that he had once set a precedent directly opposite to that
alkich the Noble Duke now wished to establish, and the
Noble Duke had himself supported him in it. The French
Minister had made a speech containing a mis-statement of
facts ; but instead of moving for papers to contradict it,
he had merely alluded to it in the course of an address to
the House. He trusted after what he had said, that the
Noble Duke would feel satisfied that his own and the re-
putation of the Government of which be bad been the
head was as secure as if the papers moved for had been
produced ; and he would repeat, once for all, that the cor-
respondence showed that there was no pretence for saying
either that Great Britain bad herself entertained the inten-
tion, or encouraged it in others, to interfere in the affairs
of Belgium with an armed force, or that the French Go-
vernment had made representations which induced other
States to desist from such an enterprise.—(Cheers.)
The Duke of WELLIN GTON—If he were not even satis-
fied, which lie was, he assurgd the Noble Earl that his de-
claration, that to produce those papers would be inconveni-
ent to his Majesty's Government would alone be enough to
induce him to withdraw his motion, and he would, there-
fore, with leave of the House, do so.—(Hear, hear.) At
the same time he must address a few words to the House.
It was true, then, that the speech to which he bad
alluded was but the speech of a Minister in one of
the Chambers, but it was also true that it had appeared in

a manner and in a shape in which no speech of any Minis-
ter of this country had ever been circulated. When the
Noble Earl had come down with the documents respect-
ing the French King's speech, it was true he had done so
by the King's command, but there was also another an-
swer to that speech in a letter written by the Prince of
Orange on his leaving this country in January. Having
said thus much as to the documents, be would now say one
word as to any threat having been held out in any quarter.
On looking over all the correspondence of the time, it
would be seen that this Government had been not only on
terms of friendship with the French Ministry, but also
with the Ministers of all the Allies in EuroVe ; and if there
had been any intention hostile to France, or any jealousy
felt in France of such intention, the Government here
must have known it.

PLURALITIES BILL.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY moved that their
Lordships should go into Committee on the Pluralities Bill.
Lord SUFFIELD did not wish to see the priviledge
taken away which the chaplaincy to the Peerage con-
Jerred, and which he knew to be untol in rnaty respects.
Tha Bill was a delusion both as io what ought to be done
and what ought to be left undone. This delusion, ~f
course, he did not lay to the charge of the Most Reverend
Prelate, but to that of those who had been his advisers
with respect to the
present Bill. The provision against