In the debate on the Address, Mr. Horsman in the
Lower House and Lord Houghton in the Upper urged the Government to con- sider seriously the proposal for a European Conference on the Roman question, both of them assuming that the Emperor has proposed it with a view of obtaining external support for his own personal wish to withdraw from the policy of intervention. Lord Derby said explicitly that Her Majesty's Government would be most happy" to second the appeals of the Emperor to restore peace, and to secure Italy against further occupations," and would be delighted "to be able in the slightest degree to relieve the Emperor of the French from a difficulty, in return for the cordial friendship and the good-will which he has always exhibited towards this country ;" but the question was as to any reasonable chance of doing this. In the first place, we do not know what the Emperor does wish in the matter. In the second, as Lord Stanley pointed out very ably, a Conference without a plan, nay, even without a reasonable hope that the plan will be agreed to, is a mere waste of time. "A Conference is an excellent machinery for giving a formal and solemn ratifi- cation, for, as it were, taking note of a decision which has been already come to ; but when there is a wide and fundamental divergence not upon questions of detail, but upon questions of principle, I own I am not sanguine enough to hope that the mere fact of bringing a certain number of Ambassadors and Ministers to meet in the same room and discuss a question, will be the means of putting an end to those divergences." That is like all Lord Stanley says,—at least sound sense.
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