The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-04 00:00:00

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bh
3eaaiT.adndi,ies.o w(nHe eel
aiit.:, (
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'fliers
Buell proteetior. But supposing the law to leteei) 114 ': ::7"'" elwrsei
toirpe
poling the Ceit.e, to have been ten Limos ai Wl.o4aiii A ' .?"'''.; i
have been--eupeo tiles their in cite to have beeteesetra!* es ,
aril repeneed --I say the comas Hat has been fteltec.by:ectk , 7 ,
rapreeentat ive there is one which I fully expectett-tesliave-e
itiimonentt,hi:eti t•ea
thisd•A.
of being praised, and described as marked by great for-
bearance.
was carrying a man in the Chinese waters who was
theis nno (gcneels.
charged, and justly charged, with acts of pirace. He was
seized ; the cis w were seized with him. Upon the demand
of the British consul the Chinese authorities offered to
surrender the crew, retaining the man seized for perjury.
I say that in that case, whatever might be the inadequacy
of the reparation whatever the inadequacy of the satis-
faction offered—it was a case in which the British repre-
sentative ought to have received back the man, to
have exert seed his dissatisfaction at the inadequacy of
the reparation, and before ho Proceeded to acts of violence,
to have applied for orders to the Government at home.
(Hear.) Instead of that, what does he do? He takes upon
himself to enter upon hostilities of the most aggravated
11 etescription. (Hear.) He not only destroys and demolishes
the forts, with very little resistance from those unfortu-
-1 nate Chinese, but he goes a step further, and in the exer-
eise of that ferbcaratice so much lauded by her Majesty's
Ministers—(bear) —in a time of p ace—for DO war had been
lesally proclaimed—l believe witheut notice—by his own
authority, Without the sanction of the Crown, he proceeds
to order the admiral upon the station—to do what ? You
took groat credit, in the time of the late war, for your
humanity in sparing Odessa. (Hear.) You were told that
that town was full of military stores and the munitions of
war. ‘. No (you said), it is contrary to the usage of civil-
ised nations to destroy a commercial town." Yon pushed
the principle of humanity I think too far. You spared
iel essa ; you would not bombard Odessa even in the height
of a war in which the poweis of this country were taxed to
the uttermost. (Hear ) While here, in a little petty war,
undertaken without the sanction of the c own, without any
legal declaration of war, you not only destroy the forts, but
you bombard a peacee hie town, and commit indiscriminate
slaughter—(hear)—a town with which you have had no
i elationebut those of commerce—a town which could afford
no support to your enemy—a town the destruction of which
is an act of signal cruelty, and au act almost as destructive
of your own pecuniary and commercial interests as of thos
of the Chinese. (Hear.) Theu lam told that this bom-
bardment of a peaceful town, under an unlawful war, not
deularsd by the crown, not having the sanction of the mi-
nisters of the crown, is an act of signal forbearance on the
part of the authorities there. (Hear.) Upon this trans-
action I would fain draw a veil, and await the beneficial
results that are to ensue. At all events if those results are
to flow, they have, perhaps, been the real object of the
hostilities; and-then you ' have gone to war upon a false
-pretence: (Hear.) But Ido not believe that you will gain
by it. I doubt very much whether such a treaty wilt be
the result as will benefit or increase your trade, which,. as
we have been told by the seconder of the address, has in-
creased to such au extraordinary extent in the last few
years. If you want to cultivate good relations with these
people, and to oeercome their reluctance to receive outside
barbarians and treat them as friends, certainly to burn
their houses over their heads and indiscriminately massacre
them is not the way to do it. (Hear.) I have now gone
through the topics of the speech. It is not my intention
to move any amendment, or to interfere with the unani-
mity of the house in adopting the address, which I presume
will be so framed as to allow us to do so. Bat while I re-
joice in the prosperity of the country announced by her
Majesty, and which with some exceptions I believe to be
a correct representation of the case, I cannot but see in the
foreign policy of this country—which I lament to see occu-
pies so large a space in the speech —another illustration of
that meddling spirit and that desire of uncalled-for
interference with foreign countries which have so often
characterised the proceedings of the noble viscount at
the head of the Governmeut, which cannot raise
our character or procure us friends among foreign coun-
tries, and which— if anything can do it—will interfere, by
its perpetual disturbance of our commercial relations, with
that which, I trust, will long be the growing and increasing
prosperity of our commerce. I cannot approve of the
course pursued by the Government ; but I forbearexpress-
ing any positive opinion on any of the questions I have ad-
verted to, because that opinion may be, I trust it will be,
modified by the papers which her Majesty's Government
will lay before Parliament. (Hear, hear.)
The Earl of CLARENDON—My lords, I cannot but ex-
press my regret that the noble earl opposite should so far have
departed from that practice which he so much eulogised—
and that he should not have abstained from a discussion of
questions relating to our foreign policy, and that, in the ab-
sence of information which will shortly be laid before the
house, he should have dwelt at such length, and with so
much vituperation, upon the acts of the Government. The
objects of the noble earl would have been better served,
and he would have better adhered to the practice of Parlia-
ment, if lee had waited for those papers which will in a
short time be in his hands. It is impossible for any one
who listened to the noble earl's speech not to have' felt the
want of those papers, containing, as they would, informa-
tion of which, at present, their lordships were not in pos-
session. Before I proceed to offer some observations upon
what has fallen from the noble earl, I must express my
agreement with him in what he has said as to the import-
ance and propriety of not permitting any word of disre-
spect or bitterness of feeling to fall from your lordships
against the great Powers with which we were so recently
at war—and it is not my intention, nor was it the inks'.

tion of my noble friend who moved the Address, and no
member of your lordships' house will, I hope, so far forget
what is due to the dignity of this country. My lords, with
respect to the differences which took place in the -execu.
tion of the Treaty of Paris, they arose in consequence of
there being only one " Bolgrad" marked upon the maps
and that Bolgrad was to be retained by Russia, because it
was the chef vine, or capital, of the Bulgarian colony.
The line which was drawn out for the boundary was but a
mere deflection, to accede to the wishes of the Russian
plenipotentiary, and did not in any way interfere with the
objects which the Conference had in view ; and, in fact, of
so little importance was it thought, that to have refused
would have been nothing but a discourtesy. (Hear, hear.)
Nothing more was heard upon the subject. until the boun-
dary commissioners had arrived.in the neighbourhood, and
there the Russian commissioners claimed a right to draw a
line south of another Bolgrad, or a new Bolgrad,, which
had not been heard of before, because that was the Bol-
grad; but this Bolgrad was not only not known to the
Congress, but had it been ceded to Russia, it would have
given her an importance, and would have enabled her to
defeat the objects of the treaty. This Bolgrad was not
known to the Conference at Paris, but Russia proceeded in
her claim to this town, and she was told that if this Bolgrad
had been ceded, as it turned out not to be the capital of
the country, she had no right to profit by the error. A great
deal of correspondence took place between this country
and Russia, and it was asserted that she had no claim to
the New Bolgrad, and one which the previous contracting
parties would not agree to give Russia, because it would
bring her in connection with, and give her undue power
on, the Danube, and would cut off a portion of Moldavia;
and further, it would, so far from settling any question,
only be the means of giving a fresh impetus to new diiii-
culties. It was quite clear that the new Conference would
not settle the matter, and the only plan, therefore to adopt
was, to use a phrase, to make &settlement of it out of eaurt.
The Emperor of the French proposed a plan which was
agreed toby the several parties, end which wasbyno means
making the concession supposed by the noble earl, because
both Bolgrads now remain to Moldavia, and the objects of
the treaty are fulfilled. Riudia is not, as the noble earl
asserts, any nearer the Danube than before, but she ob-
tains a small concession of territory on her Bulgarian
frontier. The territory conceded by Russia was altoge-
ther conceded to Moldavia, but as Moldavia has no ports
or ships to maintain order at the mouth of the Danube,
the Porte attached great importance to those islands at the
delta of the Danube. All the protocols recording the acts
of the Conferences which met at Paris, not to arrange these
matters, but to confirm what had been previously ar-
ranged, will shortly be laid upon the table of this house,
and will be accompanied by an explanatory map, showing
clearly what has been done in the way of concession. I
rejoice to say that the termination of the Conferences has
given satisfaction to all parties. (Rear, h3ar.) I next
come to the question of Neuchatel. and I agree that those
men who emoarked on that reckless enterprise of the 4th
September—an enterprise which contained within itself no
one single chance of success—(hear)—were influenced by
the purest motives, and were stimulated by the feelings of
loyalty. (Rear, hear.) Ido net wish to enter into any
details upon this subject, as negotiations are now going
on ; and I should be extremely sorry to allow any word
of mine to interfere with the settlement of a question
in which we are not directly interested. I should
deeply regret that any expression of mine, or any im-
prudent utterance of opinion, should mar the success of
these negotiations. The protocol of 1852, to which the
noble earl has eluded, settled nothing whatever ; it onlyn
caused a suspension of the settlement of the questieonn,e,a d
did not in any way settle that which it was intmodaireit.
should do, because so long as the de
e on of its
the other powers to obtain a pe
oc oe
el de htahvee
Swiss.
cjiu es)o3 difficultle"he it
ehGobig:nevcseearmlilte
ace for the
niKainigeodf moreirnrSaswsiitazteorlasentatltehtehe
renter
be to authorise the King of Prussia
that it was not probable that the Neuchate-
It was found
claims. The only result the Coancfe.
therefore,
lois would rfectohgencisoentfhwe.ecnicaeimhsaodf the s King of
d thgePrussia, r and
could only have been to authorise measures of force ; but
Ihave to give to the charge made by the noble earl against
her Majesty's Government, that it had settled the ques-
tion, the most direct a;nlidtbheuarnttqywu,aats:a:mendaocotbtlenertreoadafrwlichwtiicoohnuis.dwlihtfazhveree.
had said that measuresebehctoahuveledjbugedeigvnee. taken for the Royalist
nolf
tshuechpriinsosntreursct
wereions
naeesrwtenment which they thought illegiti-
mate,i
lltpboircuieoasdaluolnirycotersureersPulrferdtcoceoetsrebu;naeldtoasbeatouitivvot
yet having been eight yeare under its protection, they
had no right to re3ort to insurrection, and by bloodshed sad
civil war destroy its authority. Such acts must of course be
submitted to judicial investigation • and we could not call
upon the Confederation' to set these' men unconditionally at
liberty. It was, however, thought that the King of Prussia.
might be
ableplainly
their
righttoinduco withth e
respectConfederatione th ese top r a
of forego
what was .
The King of Prussia made known to the Emperor of the
French what• his intentions were. But for our part, we ab-
stained from giving the Confederation any assurance what-
ever. We merely suggested to the Swiss Government
whether their interests might not be better promoted by a
liberation of those prisoners, and we united our efforts with
those of other Powers to bring about a settlement of the
question. Yet we made no " pledge"— we gave no " assur-
ance" whatever—nor did we encourage the Swiss Govern-
ment to resist the claims of the King of Prussia. The noble
earl has condemned both the language and the motives of
the Congress. He says we held out hopes to Sardinia that
we have not fulfilled—that we promised uncertain advan-
tages if she joined us. This is the first time I have heard
of that in my life. (Hear, hear.) No such promise was
made nothing was said by us, except as to the mosey
which Sardinia required to
enable her to send her army to
justified the East. I say we were in using thei .anguer
we held at Paris. We should have been liable to just cen-
sure if, as representatives of the great Powers of Europe et
the Paris Congress, we had omitted that opportunity of
calling attention to the state of Italy, and had refrained
from protesting against the state of her Governments ;.b4
I entirely agree with what the noble earl stated, that it is
inexpedient and dangerous for any one State to interfere
with the condition of another State ; but, if ever there was
of
an occasion for departing from a general rule, that was the
one
Italy. and the exception was justified by the then state
y. (Hear, hear.) It was for the interest of humanity'
f that country, and it
and for the advantage of the people o