ing, as it does, all the most important questions involved in these negotiations in just the same state of uncertainty, hesitation, and vacillation as they have presented for so long a period, without expressing my regret at listening to such an unsatisfactory statement from a British Minister. This prolonged uncertainty is almost an equal evil to the avowed hostility of Austria; and therefore, however important it may be for us to lose no substantial prospect of obtaining a satisfactory peace, I trust that Her Majesty's Government will take care, that in depriving us of the advantage of knowing what are the definitive views and policy of Austria, we shall not be kept in doubt as to their vigorous exertions for the prosecution of the war, and that they will not suffer themselves to be diverted by these protracted, and almost hopeless and illusory negotiations. members of the present Ministry had clung | consider would be detrimental to the public to the hope of peace longer, perhaps, than service, yet I could not hear the explanathey were reasonably justified in doing, tion which he has offered us to-night, leavyet, that they had, at all events, gained one great and important advantage from their singular forbearance, patience, and long-suffering-namely, that they had secured, both as to active measures and as to negotiations, the co-operation of Austria, and probably of Prussia also. Well, two years have elapsed, and, according to the statement of the noble Earl to-night, what does that co-operation amount to in the pursuit of which your vigour and enterprise were altogether checked, and for the sake of which you adopted a dilatory course of policy, which must greatly aggravate the misfortunes and calamities of war? At this moment, my Lords, Prussia is excluded altogether, and even stands in an attitude of scarcely doubtful hostility to the Allies; while, on the other hand, Austria, for whose support you have sacrificed so much, is now effectively an ally of Russia, and opposed to the policy of the Western Powers, for she still affects to entertain a hope that every means of negotiation is not yet exhausted, and she proposes by further attempts at negotiation, to continue -and no doubt with the same results the same system of perpetual procrastination and delay which she has pursued for the last two years. My Lords, we are now in the midst of the second campaign, and it is a matter of the utmost importanceit is, in fact, the essential groundwork and basis of all our future operations-that we should precisely know in what position we stand, not only towards Prussia-for that is already pretty clear, I think-but towards Austria likewise. This knowledge must have the greatest influence, not only upon the course we should take in negotiation, but upon the military operations of our army. It must have the greatest effect upon our conduct and plans to know whether or not we are to reckon on the hostility, the neutrality, or the active and cordial co-operation of the power and resources of Austria; and every day and hour that passes without our coming to a full and distinct understanding with Austria, and without our really knowing where we are and how we stand, seriously aggravates our difficulties, enormously increases our expenditure and our risks, and gives a proportionate advantage to our common enemy, Russia. Therefore, my Lords, although I do not wish to press the noble Earl to make any statement which he may THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE: My Lords, it is not possible for Her Majesty's Government to afford the noble Earl opposite the information which he not unnaturally wishes to gain, with a due regard to the public interests. I trust, however, that they will be enabled to furnish it soon; but after what has fallen from the noble Earl I cannot refrain from saying, on the part of the Government, that, although they have had a desire-a desire which, indeed, it was their bounden duty to entertain-to secure the co-operation of Austria, nevertheless they have not been induced, from any vain hope of securing that important advantage, to delay the immediate making of those military and naval preparations which are essential to the proper conduct of the war. Undoubtedly, no expedient has been left untried in the endeavour to obtain that degree of cooperation from other Powers which we had a right to expect from them; but during the whole course of the negotiations, up to the Conferences which lately took place at Vienna, certainly not a day has been lost in the advancement of those military preparations and efforts which might bring the war to a conclusion; and while I maintain that it is our duty to avail ourselves of every fair chance of effecting so desirable a result as a great European peace, I equally hold that up to the last moment we ought to relax none of our exertions for prosecuting the war with energy and spirit. With the protocols about to be laid upon the table, your Lordships will receive an account of the arguments, the discussions, and all the collateral transactions by which the agreement, based upon those protocols, was accompanied. Undoubtedly, when they are laid upon the table, a good opportunity will be afforded for the consideration of the negotiations which have taken place, with reference both to the past conduct of the Government and to the future policy of this country, having in view the continuance of the war, if it should be necessary, in order to prevent the recurrence of those unfortunate misconceptions which have thrown Europe into the state in which it is now placed. THE EARL OF MALMESBURY: My Lords, as I ventured the other evening to express my humble opinion with regard to the propositions made to Russia in the hope of bringing about a peace, and to state my regret at the probability of a peace having been diminished by the nature of those propositions, I will not now make any observations upon that subject. But I think there is some discrepancy between the statement which my noble Friend has made to-night and that which he made in answer to me about a week ago. I then understood, both from what was stated by my noble Friend and from what passed in another place, that Her Majesty's Government and the French Government, supported by Austria, and of course by Turkey, had proposed to Russia two alternativss-one, the limitation of her fleet in the Black Sea, and the other the neutrality of that Sea. To-night my noble Friend confined himself to a statement that Russia had not accepted the propositions which had been made to her. THE EARL OF CLARENDON: I said that the plenipotentiaries of Russia had refused to accept a proposition which we thought that country might have accepted with honour to herself, as well as another proposition by which the Black Sea would have been made a neutral sea. THE EARL OF MALMESBURY: My noble Friend is correct in saying that he described the plan suggested to Russia as one quite in unison with her dignity and honour; but he did not state what the first alternative was. I want to know whether it was that the Russian fleet should be limited. THE EARL OF CLARENDON: Yes. it is as I understood; Russia had the choice of two alternatives, and refused them both. With respect to the papers which my noble Friend proposes to lay on the table, I hope he will not confine himself entirely to the protocols drawn up at different times by the various parties, and I am encouraged in that hope by an expression used by the noble Marquess. For nearly a year we have had no official knowledge of any papers relating to this important subject, although at different times we have received information from the public prints, in which I believe many very elaborate diplomatic documents have been correctly copied. Among them are some very able ones emanating from my noble Friend, which cannot, of course, have been obtained from the Foreign Office, but were probably taken from foreign newspapers. In one of those papers my noble Friend has given his interpretation of the four points, or rather of the third point, which, as your Lordships are aware, is one that may be argued upon and explained in various ways, according to the opinions and interests of different parties. I believe I am correct in saying that a very clear statement has been published of what my noble Friend intended by the third point, and that there afterwards appeared an interpretation, if not exactly the same, yet similar in most respects, by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. It would be very satisfactory to the public, considering that no papers have been communicated to us since the beginning of last year with respect to this question, if my noble Friend would add to the different protocols as many as possible of the diplomatic documents that have passed between him and the Court of Russia, and those documents would also greatly assist your Lordships and the other House of Parliament in understanding and taking a correct view of the protocols. THE EARL OF CLARENDON: I hope, after the description my noble Friend has given of the despatch which he has attributed to me, that it was my despatch; but I have no knowledge of such a despatch ever having been published, I never saw it or heard of it, and certainly I never communicated it to any one. To the best of my belief, the intention expressed by the plenipotentiaries that sat at the Conference upon the first day of their meeting, that their proceedings should be kept secret and nothing that passed should be 27 {COMMONS} Telegraphic News from published, has been very strictly acted upon. I cannot at this moment undertake to say what papers will be laid upon the table besides the protocols, but any papers necessary for the clear understanding of them will be produced, and I think my noble Friend will learn a great deal more from those protocols than he imagines. House adjourned till To-morrow. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Thursday, May 3, 1855. MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS.-1° Infants Marriage. 2° Sunday Trading (Metropolis); Dissenters' Marriages; Cinque Ports. 3° Income Tax. BLOCKADE OF THE WHITE SEA QUESTION. MR. COLLIER said, he begged to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether instructions had been issued to blockade the ports of the White Sea, and, if so, when the blockade would be instituted? SIR CHARLES WOOD said, he had not the least difficulty in answering the question of his hon. and learned Friend, and he hoped his answer would be more successful in making known the intentions of the Government than an answer which he had given more than a month ago to a similar question from the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mr. Sandars). He was asked upon the 27th of March if it was intended to establish a blockade of the White Sea, and he then stated that as soon as the seas in question were free for the ingress and egress of vessels it was intended to establish an efficient blockade, and to make it from the first effective. The vessels to be employed in blockading the ports of the White Sea were now ready, had received their orders, and would proceed to their destination as soon as it was practicable from the state of the ice to approach the ports they were ordered to blockade. TELEGRAPHIC NEWS FROM THE CRIMEA -QUESTION. MR. WHITESIDE: Sir, I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, since the laying down of the telegraph, any despatch has been received by the Government from the Crimea by telegraph which has not been communicated to the public? SIR CHARLES WOOD: I hope, Sir, the Crimea Question. 28 the House will clearly understand that the Government, in reference to communications made to them by the admirals and generals in the Crimea, must obviously, for the good of the public service, exercise the most complete discretion as to what intelligence they will communicate to the pub. lic. They may obviously receive intelligence which it would be most improper to communicate, and I wish it to be distinctly understood, in consequence of the numerous questions which have been put upon this subject, that the Government feel it to be their duty to reserve such intelligence as they think ought to be reserved. They will, as I promised the other night, communicate to the public any intelligence of interest of which it is not desirable that the Government should retain the exclusive knowledge. It is true that a telegraphic despatch has been received which was not communicated to the public, but it simply asked a question about the movement of certain vessels. In point of fact, the substance and purport of all the intelligence of public interest which, up to this time, has been received by telegraph, has been communicated to the public in the answers which have been given in this House. MR. ROEBUCK: I dare say, Sir, it will be in the recollection of the House that this day week I put a question to the noble Lord at the head of Her Majesty's Government, in reply to which the noble Lord told me that orders had been sent to Lord Raglan to make daily reports to the Government, by telegraph, of the state of affairs in the Crimea. The question I now wish to ask the Frst Lord of the Admiralty, in the absence of the noble Lord (Viscount Palmerston), is, whether any report of any kind has been received from the Crimea by means of the telegraph; if so, whether there was somebody able to read it; and if that be the case, whether any portion of it can be communicated to the public? SIR CHARLES WOOD: I do, Sir, not quite understand the question of my hon. and learned Friend, but I have stated already that the substance of every telegraphic despatch received since the telegraph wires were laid down has been communicated to the House. MR. ROEBUCK: Then I would ask my right hon. Friend whether a further telegraphic despatch will be sent to Lord Raglan, requiring him to send some information to this country? COMMISSIONS IN THE ARMY QUESTION. COLONEL NORTH said, he begged to ask the hon. Under Secretary for War if it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to grant that part of the return moved for by the hon. Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Layard), which requires, in each ease, since the commencement of the war, the reasons to be given for which such commission was granted without purchase? MR. FREDERICK PEEL, in reply, said, that, according to the only interpretation he could put upon the words of the Motion of the hon. Member for Aylesbury there would be no objection to grant the return asked for. He understood that the hon. Member desired to know the reasons why commissions were given without purchase, and the only answer that could be given was, that they were given without purchase, either because the original holder of a commission died, or on account of the augmentation of the various regiments, and the consequent creation of new commissions. The hon. Gentleman did not ask why commissions granted without purchase were given to particular officers, and indeed it would be impossible to enter into the reasons why one individual officer had been preferred to another in granting a commission without purchase. SERGEANT BRODIE, OF THE ENNIS KILLENS-QUESTION. MR. OWEN STANLEY said, that the public had been given to understand that a most disgraceful circumstance had recently occurred between two officers of the Enniskillens at Canterbury. Many disgraceful tricks had been played, and at last one challenged the other to fight a duel. The two officers went out for the purpose of fighting a duel, when Sergeant Brodie interfered, and was immediately put in arrest by the adjutant of the regiment. He was confined under arrest for a week, and in the meantime an inquiry took place in private in Canterbury. The result of that inquiry was sent up to the Horse Guards, and it was understood that a reprimand was subsequently sent down to Sergeant Brodie, directing him to be released from the confinement to which he had been subjected during the week, assuring him that he had transgressed his duties in the course he had taken, and stating that a repetition of such an infraction of duty would militate against him in his future career. He (Mr. Stanley) now begged to ask the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for War, with no feelings of hostility towards any person, but with a view of obtaining correct information as to the transaction, if it was true that Sergeant Brodie, of the Enniskillens, was placed under arrest for preventing a duel being fought between two officers of his regiment-Cornets Baumgarten and Evans; if Sergeant Brodie was reprimanded for his interference by orders of the Commander in Chief; and if there was any objection to place before the House copies of the charge preferred against Sergeant Brodie, and the terms of the reprimand sent from the Horse Guards? MR. FREDERICK PEEL, in reply, said, he had been informed that it was not the case that Sergeant Brodie had been placed under arrest for preventing a duel, but that he had been placed under arrest for behaving disrespectfully to one of the officers of his regiment. As, however, he was engaged at the time in trying to prevent a duel, that circumstance was considered a palliation of his offence, and he was released without any further notice being taken of his disrespectful conduct. So far as he (Mr. Peel) was informed, no charge had been made against Sergeant Brodie, and no reprimand had been sent down from the Horse Guards. THE INDIAN ARMY-QUESTION. MR. OTWAY said, he had observed in the Gazette on Tuesday last a notification to this effect-that, to avoid all doubt in future, Her Majesty had been pleased to order that officers serving in the Indian army should take rank in all parts of Her Majesty's dominions and in all parts of the world with the officers of the Royal army. He wished to ask whether, in consequence of that notification, Her Majesty was now empowered to command the services of the officers of the East India Company in any part of the world where the Crown and the country might deem their services advantageous; and whether officers in the service of the East India Company were at this moment eligible to posts and offices in Her Majesty's army? MR. VERNON SMITH said, he thought it was perfectly well known that Her Majesty could command the services of officers of the Indian army in any part of the world, even before the memorandum referred to by the hon. Gentleman was issued. The object of that memorandum was simply to regulate the rank and prece dence of officers of the Indian army, with | by the appointment of Sir Roderick Murrespect to which some doubt had existed. chison. Sir Roderick Murchison was fully As the whole question of the state of the competent for the office, and a memorial Indian army would be brought before the had been presented in his favour, signed House on a future occasion by an hon. by almost every distinguished man conMember, perhaps the answer he had now nected with science. given would be considered satisfactory. COLONEL DUNNE said, he wished to know if, by the order just issued, officers of the Indian army were to have command over Her Majesty's troops in this country? MR. VERNON SMITH said, if Her Majesty chose she had a perfect right to employ officers of the Indian army in this country. THE SARDINIAN CONTINGENT QUESTION. LORD WILLIAM GRAHAM said, he begged to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the commissariat supplies for the Sardinian Contingent were to be furnished gratis, or whether the expense would be deducted from the amount of the loan? VISCOUNT PALMERSTON said, it was originally intended that the Sardinian Contingent should provide themselves with stores, and take charge of their own commissariat. With that view they had loaded two large vessels with provisions to last a considerable time, but one of the vessels had unfortunately been burnt very soon after it left the port, and the loss of the stores it had contained would, he apprehended, render the Sardinian troops dependent upon our commissariat stores for a portion of their supplies. But whatever they derived from our commissariat stores they would pay for, as they would for supplies which they might have procured by other means, and the cost would not be added to the amount of the loan. MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY— SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE said, he begged to ask what arrangements were intended to be made in connection with the department of science and art, and particularly with regard to the Museum of Practical Geology, in consequence of the death of Sir Henry de la Beche? VISCOUNT PALMERSTON said, the loss of Sir Henry de la Beche would, of course, be deeply felt by the institution, as well as by science and art generally. It was, however, the intention of Her Majesty's Government to fill up the vacancy NATIONAL EDUCATION-QUESTION. SIR JOHN PAKINGTON said, he was desirous of putting a question to the noble Lord at the head of the Government in reference to the present position of his (Sir J. Pakington's) Bill on the subject of education. He had been informed that the noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies did not intend to proceed further with his Bill until the sense of the House had been taken upon that now partly discussed, and he (Sir J. Pakington) believed it was the intention of the right hon. Member for Manchester (Mr. M. Gibson) to adopt the same course in reference to his Bill. He (Sir J. Pakington) was somewhat unwilling, after the great courtesy already shown him, to make any further appeal with regard to his Bill, but he thought the House would feel, after the extent to which public attention had been called to the subject, that it was desirable to resume the debate upon it as early as possible. He therefore hoped, upon public grounds, that the noble Lord would be good enough to fix an early day for resuming the adjourned debate. VISCOUNT PALMERSTON said, he could assure the right hon. Baronet that the Government were fully impressed with the great importance of the subject to which the question of the right hon. Gentleman referred, and also of the importance of resuming the adjourned debate as early as was consistent with the pressing and urgent business of the House. But, having communicated with his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he feared that matters of urgency, in point of time, connected with the supplies of the year, rendered it impossible to accommodate the right hon. Baronet with any Government day before Whitsuntide. SIR JOHN PAKINGTON said, he would then beg to ask if the noble Lord could fix the first Government night after Whitsuntide for the adjourned debate? VISCOUNT PALMERSTON said, he would give the right hon. Baronet the earliest possible day after Whitsuntide. In answer to Mr. HADFIELD, LORD JOHN RUSSELL said, it would be very inconvenient, the House having gone at some length into the discussion of |