23 MARCH 1878, Page 1

Lord Derby closed the debate in a speech in which,

after denying the reports of differences between himself and the Premier, he stated the precise position of the negotiations. Her Majesty's Government, on the 13th inst., had asked, " Whether the communication by the Russian Government of the Treaty in its entirety to the Powers shall be treated as placing the whole Treaty before the Congress, in order that its relation to existing treaties may be examined and considered by the Congress." He had no wish to render nugatory all the effects of the war, as the Duke of Argyll had said, but desired to give a European sanction to the new European settlement which must now supersede the settlement of 1856. The submission of the whole of the Treaty of San Stefano was essential to that end.