Mr. Courtney, M.P. for Liskeard, has given notice that on
the 23rd of March he will draw the attention of the House of Com- mons to the Treaties of Guarantee of 1856, and will move a reso- lution that the conduct of Turkey has entirely relieved this country from all obligations at whatever time contracted to maintain the independence and integrity of the Ottoman Empire. If Mr. Couitney could carry such a resolution, he would be most wise in moving it; but as he cannot, in the present condition of parties, is it quite wise to commit the Government afresh to these Treaties of Guarantee, by making an opportunity on which they will think themselves compelled to contend for these Treaties? Lord Derby has done a good deal towards whittling away our obligations under them; and the recent Conference, in which Austria and France joined England to press demands on Turkey which Turkey refused, may fairly be regarded as discharging any honourable obligation to France and Austria which we might otherwise have had under the Tripartite Treaty. Is it quite judicious, then, to create artificially an occasion for committing the Government afresh to any of those engagements, now rapidly losing all force, contracted by us in 1856?
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