A variety of questions were asked in the House of
Commons on Thursday about the war, but the answers were in the main formal. Mr. Gladstone, in reply to Mr. Horsman, stated that Russia and Austria used their best efforts to stop war, that he had no reason to believe in a secret treaty between Denmark and France, and that negotiations between France and Prussia for mutual disarmament were carried on through Lord Clarendon, but that he was precluded from divulging them. The Premier, however, evaded replying to one question which Mr. Horsman had asked, namely, whether Prussia had not withdrawn Prince Leopold in consequence of English representation, thus losing Spain as an ally, and referred him to the forthcoming "Copies of Correspondence," and left another totally unanswered. This was whether Russia had or had not in a written despatch accused the Emperor of the French of departing from "the general understanding by which, in honour and good faith, he ought to have been bound." The omission is significant and important.
Previous page
