Mr. Hennessy asked the Government a very embarrassing ques- tion
yesterday week about the "miming despatch" to St. Peters- burg. He affirmed that Lord Russell had sent to St. Petersburg a despatch embodying his declaration at Blairgowrie that Russia had forfeited her right to Poland under the Treaty of Vienna, and that England would henceforth regard the Russo-Polish part of the Treaty of Vienna as non-existent, that Lord Napier had received this des- patch, that he had been " advised " both by Prince Gortachakoff and Count Rechberg not to present it, and that after the receipt of that advice it had been recalled by telegraph from home. That was substantially the charge which Lord Palmerston "dodged." He said it would be as reasonable to expect the Government to produce a despatch before it had been approved by the Cabinet as before it had been presented—that cases of sent but withdrawn despatches were by no means unfrequent,—and that, in spite of the eagerness of the Poles for such a declaration by England, he thought it would be most impolitic to tear up the only document by which England reserved any international right to interfere with the
treat1nent of the Poles. Mr. W. E. Forster afterwards attempted, but failed, to draw out some further admission. Of course, what the country wants to know is not whether or not the Government changed their mind at the last moment, but whether such a con- version was effected by the kind anxiety of Prince Gortechakoff and Count von Bismark for English interests.
