, 1866-06-12

put OH IOT u ClLne, UuG Iney VIII CoHe1
and for those consequences [ hold Her
Maiesty's Government to be responsible.
(Hear, hear.)
Earl RUssELL.-My lords, I must say
q few words with respect to the speech
which my noble friend has addressed to
your lordships. I never heard it laid
DOWN. know not whether anybody laid
it down, but certainly Her Majesty's
Government did not-that this country
was not to interfere where the peace of
Europe or the interests Of justice might
require. What I said was that if neither
your honour nor interests were concern
ed you must consider long and with
great deEiberation before you enter into a
war. If you enter into q war merely for
the sake of preserving the general bal
ance of power, without your interests or
honour being involved, you ought to sec
whether you are not likely 10 produce
much more evil than you are likely to
remedy. My noble friend, on the other
hand thought we ought to go to war
wherever we could. [ differ entirely
from my noble friend, and I certainly
cannot accept his report Of the conduct
of Her Majesty's Government. (Hear,
hear9
The Earl of DERBY never heard q
more gross misrepresentation than has
been made by the noble earl. (Hear,
hear.) He represents the noble earl on
the cross benches earl Grey) to have
laid down that it was not q question
whether Germany or Denmark was in the
right, and also that he desired to enjoy
the opportunity of dragging this country
into a war. Nothing could be more
different from the language of the noble
earl, whose language was this-and |
entirely concur with him-that you had
laid down that the action of the German
POWerS IN the affairs OF Denmark was a
wrong and a robbery (hear, hear) ; that
there was no question as 10 which was
in the right or which in the wrong; that
the aggression was on the part of Ger
many On inoffensive Denmark, or, at all
events, that the offence of Denmark was
slight as compared with the wrong of
the German Powers; and having done
all this, and having gone to such an en-
tent that the PrusSian Minister told you,
in answer to one of your threatening and
~braggadocio dispatches, that it was a
declaration of war, when Denmark de-
pended on your moral if not your materi-
al support, then you took an opportunity
of Withdrawing from the contest which
you had yourselves encouraged, and
abandoned the ally whom you had led by
by your encouragement TO maintain her
W rights. (Hear, hear)
Earl RUssELL.-I must say, in explain
alton, we maintained with regard to the
engagements which Denmark had enter
ed into with Austria and Prussia that
Denmark had given cause of complaint
to both these Powers, and we advised
her TO set herself right by fulfilling
punctually those engagements. Den
mark was recommended to do that, but
she determined to resist and refused to
comply with the advice of Her Maiesty's
Government. We again urged that
course subsequently, upon Denmark, and
Lord Wodehouse was sent to Copenha-
gen with the view of prevailing upon the
Danish Government to do so. The Dan
ish Government still refused. We urged
upon the German Powers that there was
still an opportunity of setting the matter
right, and that they were bound not to
60 to war until thew had exhausted every