The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-13 00:00:00

MOLDAVIA AND WALLACHIA.

Lord C. HAMILTON moved an address to her Ma-
jesty for a copy of the treaty concluded by his Majesty
the Emperor of Austria with the Sublime Porte, on the
14th of June, 1354, relative to the military occupation
of the above Principalities. He campleined that owing
to long-established habit, unless her Majesty's name ap-
peared as one of the high contracting parties, no treaty,
however important it might be to the general state of
Europe, or however it might affect British interests, was
printed unless some member of that house went through
the process of moving an address for that purpose. It
was to that point he wished to call the attention of the
house, becaue treaties which were of much importance,
and in actual force, were not to be found in the library.
The object in making the motion was to get over a pre-
cedent which existed, according to whisk no treaty was
printed unless moved for a private member. Tile last
official statement of treaties was published in 1830, and
there was no more recent list in the library for members
to refer to. There were several other treaties which
ought to be printed for the convenience of members,
and he hoped the Government would give attention to
the subject.

Lord PALMERSTON—I suppose my noble friend
having made his statement, will hardly press his motion,
because the treaty to which he refers has been already
laid before Parliament. (A. laugh.) With regard to the
general question, I apprehend the case to be this—that
the Government lays before Parliament all treaties, it
being fitting that Parliament should know what engage-
ments the country has entered into ; but, with regard to
engagements entered into with other Powers between
themselves, we have no official knowledge of such, and
therefore they.are not laid before Parliament. If a par-
ticular treaty is concluded bets een two foreign Powers,

and it is thought to be one that by its nature bears in
some degree upon the policy of England, a member
moves for it, and application may be made for it to that
foreign Government, and it may then be had officially
and laid before Parliament. But what I apprehend my
noble friend to mean is that all European, or rather all
international, documents and engagements of general
interest should be collected and placed in the library.
Wtl', if it is thought fit to make arrangements for that
purpose, and assign a remuneration too parson responsible
for doing it, it might be useful to those gentlemen who
may wish to consult those documents. But that will he
a question for the house to determine, and my noble
friend is aware that there is now a periodical collection
made and printed for sale, containing all the documents,
not merely of treaties, but every European document of
general interest, and made up in volumes for each year ;
and a very large number of volumes are now published.
This is a work of great labour and research. Those
documents are collected from all sources —foreign news-
papers, and the ac's of foreign Governments—and it
takes a considerable time to collect them with accuracy.
With regard to the other question, if the house thinks it
worth while to charge any responsible person with the
duty of coil, c jug, for the use of members, all treaties
and documents of international operations, I do not ap-
prehend that the Government would be at all opposed
to such a step. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. DISRAELI—I think the house must feel obliged
to my noble friend (Lord C. Hamilton) fur bringing the
matter before them. There is a want of many docu-
ments of international interest in our library, but I am
sure my noble friend tn,eant no censure upon the gentle-
man who now manages the library, for I believe no
one could discharge that duty with more ability and ac-
. .

curacy. (Rear, hear.) What my noble friend says is,
that the collection at the Foreign-office is made with
ample knowledge and proper research, and in every way
satisfactory, except one, and if our representations were
made'to the Foreign (Alice that there should be a little
more energy employed in the production of the valuable
collection of documents there, they should all have the
information which it was eo desirable to possess. (Hear.)

&fr. VANCE disclaimed any intention of placing
himself in antagonism with the hon. member fur
Westmeath, but at the same time he begged, in reply to
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to state that he had
never proposed his colleague toserve on any committee,
and he hoped that his hon. colleague would now with-
draw his motion.

The motion was then withdrawn, and the remaining
names were agreed to.

Tee Commons Enclosure Bill and the Royal Marine
Forces Bill were read a second time.

The house adjourned at 12 o'clock.

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