The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-27
THE EvGLSH G0rERNRENr AM n rREA.
TY QUESTION:

-
In the House Of Commons ON the night of the lth Of
March, Nh. horsman asked the Under Secretary of State
foT Foreign Affairs whether the treaties which subse
quently b the treaty OF Vienna have been concluded be-
tween the Emperor OF Austria and the different soyereigns
OF Italy, and having reference 10 the Internal govern.
ment of their dominions on their military occupation bv
Austrian troops, had been communicated TO the British
government. and whether there were copies OF them ia
the Foreign Office and, If the answer be In the anirma-
tive, whether there was amy objection 10 lay them before
Parliamentf
MIR. Seymour Fitzgerald, in reply to the honorable gem
tleman viii say that, as a general rule, 1t is never the
practice OF the government TO lay any copies OF treaties
on the table that are made between foreign powers, un-
less they are communicated directly by those foreign
powers for our information but If he will permit me 10
answer his question a little more in detail, / will do so.
Az regards the treaty OF Vienna, it is not necessary TO
lay that on the table of the House, because it is a treaty
TO which we ourselves are parties, and any honorable
gentleman can see IL e he will only refer to the library OF
the House.
The next treaty which would come under the question
OF the honorable member is a treaty which is believed
to have been made between Austria and Tuscany on the
18th of june, 1916. We have no official knowledge of
this treaty whatever, but it is printed in the Austrian
collection of treaties, and may be seen by any gentleman
IN the library of this House. The next is a treaty be-
tween Austria and Naples. OF that, again, we have no
copy in the Foreign Office we have no knowledge OF 1t,
although with reference to a portion of it we did receive
some information at the time from our ambassadors bnt
1t is referred to in the Morning Chronicle of the 10th of
October, lS4S, and, so far as l am aware, the substantial
and important part is there. There is another treaty be-
tween Austria, Spain, and the Italian duchies, but chat
again has been laid on the table of the House, and it is
published in the State Papers. With reference to the
next treaty that comes under the question, there is one
between Austria, Sardinia, Tuscany, Lucca, and Modena.
This has reference to the territorial limits of the duohies;
it has already been laid on the table in 1913, and is in
the first part of the parliamentary papers on the affairs of
Italy, page 25T.
The next treaty referred to is one of very considerable
Importance between Austria, Parma, and Modena. 1t is
a treaty which gives to Austria a right of passage for her
troops in case either of hostilities or disturbances, and
puts her under the obligation of interfering in case of in
tcrnal disturbances in the ducbies. 1t has been deemed
of such Importance that it wa, laid on the table Of the
house in lS4s, and it is in the blue book it was again
laid on the table Of the house in ls49, and it will be
found in the second part of the Parliamentary Papers,
page rs. There are some other treaties; but they have
reference rather to commercial matters, and do not come
strictly within the description of the honorable gentle
man. One between Austria, Parma, and Modena was
laid on the table in 1856. There is q supplemental treaty
between Austria and Modena which has reference only to
the navigation of the Pc. There is a treaty from Austria
and Tuscany of the 18th of May, 1850, but that was
rather temporary in its nature, and had reference to the
occupation Of the Tuscan territory by Austrian troops
during the disturbances, and provided for the evacuation
of the territory, which has since taken place. There is
no other treaty which comes under the question, and the
honorable gentleman will, therefore, see that the House
is already in possession of all the papers, with the ex-
ception only of those of which we have no official knowl-
edge.
I'm the same n1pnl Mi. Holsman, with reference TO the
question which he had previously asked on the subject of
these treaties, suggested the ~propriety of rcpfinting those
which had already been printed, in order that they might
be made the more accessible to the public. With respect
to the treaties which had not been officially communicated
to the government, they were now official documents,
and, being public property, he saw no reason for not pre-
senting them, except upon the plea that their publication
would be p%rejudical to the public interests.
Mr.. S. Fitzgerald said the government had already at
various times given a number of the papers to which the
right honorable gentleman had referred and in reference
to the two most important ones, he had already stated
that they were laid on the table of the House in l84S and
l849, and were to be seen in the library of the House.
With reference to the earlier treaties, government had no
official document whatever they had not been commu-
nicated to them in any official form. With reference to
the treaty of Vienna, it contained other stipulations, and
he thought it would be a very inconvenient thing to
bring in a document Of that extreme length when only n
small portion of it rel ated to tho matter in hand.