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

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e"gee--N
do not believe teat colonial legislatures leo,74litet
such protection. But supposing the law ,cerrett,
po3ing the Chirese to have been ten times ac tziong eislithee
have been—supposing their insults to have been aggravated
and repeated—l say the course that has been taken by oar
representative there is ono which I fully expected to have
heeid disowned and censer,fd by the Government, instead
of being praised, and described as marked by great for-
bearance. (Hear, heer.) Thera is no question that this
Arrow was carrying a man in the Chinese waters who we*
charged, and justly charged, with acts of piracy. He was
seized ; the crew 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 expressed his dissatisfaction at the inadequacy of
the reparation, and before he 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
description. (Hear.) He not only destroys and demolishes
the forts, with very little resistance from those unfortu-
nate Chinese, but he goes a step further, and in the exer-
cise of that forbearance so muoh lauded by her Majesty's
Ministers—(hear) —in a time of p •ace—for no war had been
legally proclaimed—l believe without 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 great 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." You pushed
the principle of humanity I think too far. You spared
Odessa ; you would not bombard Odessa even in the height
of a war in which the powers of this country were taxed to
the uttermost. (Hear ) While here, in a little petty war,
undertaken without the sanction of the • town, without any
legal declaration of war, you not only destroy the forts, but
you bombard a peaceable town, and commit indiscriminate
slaughter—(hear)—a town with which you have had no
relations but 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 an act almost as destructive
of your own pecuniary and commercial interests as of thee
of the Chinese. (Hear.) Then lam told that this bom-
bardment of a peaceful town, under an unlawful war, not
declared by the crown, not having the sanction of the mi-
nisters of the crown, is an sect of signal forbearance on the
part of the authorities thdre. (saar.) Upon this trans-
action I would fain draw a veil, and await the beneficial
results that 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 will 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 an extraordinary extent in the last few
years. If you want to cultivate good relations with these
people, and to overcome 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 Apeech. 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 presumes
will be sa framed as to allow us to do so. But 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 Government, 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 a 1-
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 brit ex-
press my regret that the noble earl opposite should so far h ave
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 each 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 he 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 inten-
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 ville, 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.
therb 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 diffi-
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 asettlement of it out of came.
The Emperor of the French proposed a plat; 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. Russia 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 month of the Danube,
the Porte attached great importance to those islands at the
delta of the Danube. All the protocols recording the acts
ef 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. (Hear, hear.) I next
come to the question of Neuchatel. and I agree that those
men who embarked on that reckless enterprise of the 4th
September—an enterprise which contained within itself ne
one single chance of success—(hear)—were influenced by
the purest motives, and were stimulated by the feelings of
loyalty.. (Hear, 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 ef a question
in which we are not directly interested. I should
deeply regret that any expression of mine, or any imr
prudent utterance of opinion, should mar the success
. of
thesenoble
earl negotiations.
has
whatever;
and
did a suspension of the settlement of. the q
1832, to which the
alluded, he
settled protocol nothing of
de facto Government
should do, because so long as the
becamefor the difficalt it
re-
mained in Switzerland the more .
did not in any way settle that which it was intended it
by himself, and for
the obtain a peaceable recognition of- its
the other powers
claims. The only result the Conference could have would
King of Prussia to settle the question
be to authorise the King of Prussia to coerce the Swiss.
It wee, found that it was not probable that the Neuchate-
lois would recognise the claims of the King of Prussia, and
settled noble
earl
th
therefore, if the Conference had been called together, it
eagganineset.
'y Government,t to the charge
that made i
tb by
e the
could only have been to authorise measures of force ; but
tion, the most direct and unqualified contradiction. If he
had said that measures have been taken for the Royalist
prisoners to be sot at liberty, the noblehave
earl would have
been correct ; but we could give no such instructions
to our representatives ' • that was a matter of which Switzer.
land itself could alone be the • jud e
g If the prisoners were
locally under a Government • which they thought illegitis
mate, yet having been eight ear
had no right to re iort to insurrectionYstindear nits protection, they
, d by bloodshed and
civil war destroy its authority. Such acts
must of coarse be
submitted to judicial investigation ; and we could not call
upon the Confederation to set these wen unconditionally at
liberty. It was, however, thought that the King of Prussia
might be able to induce the Confederation to forego
what was plainly their right with respect to these prisoners.
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 wo 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 wo 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. (Hears hear.) No such promise was
made ' - nothing was said by us, except as to the money
which Sardinia required to enable her to mend her army Us
the East. I say we were justified in using the laugusg*
we held at Paris. We should have been liable to Pub cen-
sure if, as representatives of the great Powers of Europe at
the Paris Congress, we had omitted that opportunity of
calling attention to the state of Italy, and had refrainedt
from protesting against the state of her Governments ; but
I entirely agree with what the noble earl stated, that iter
inexpedient and dangerous for any one State to inte if e
with the condition of another State ; but, if ever there was
an occasion for departiug from a general rule, that was the
one, and the exception was justified by the then state of
Italy. (Hear, hear.) It was for the interest of humanity'
and for the advantage of the people of that country, and it