On Friday, June 16, the Earl of ELLENBOROUGH
moving for Returns of the Miscellaneous Estimates from
1838 to 1853, sharply commented on the enormous
increase in the various items,—especially objecting to
the expenditure for education, which does not improve
the people, and for the promotion of science and
practical art; and he insisted on the necessity for economy
now that we are engaged in a great war.—The Duke of
Newcastle, and after him the Duke of Argyll, defended
the votes for educational purposes; and Lord Brougham
showed the fallacy of concluding from criminal statistics
that education has been injurious to the people. The
motion for returns was not opposed.

On Monday, June 19, Lord LYNDHURST drew attention
to the Memorandum relative to the Eastern question
lately transmitted by the Cabinets of Vienna and Berlin
to their Envoys at the Germanic Diet. That document
had never been officially published in England, but its
tenor was sufficiently known to justify criticism.
Comparing this memorandum with the protocol signed by
the representatives of the Four Powers at Vienna on
April 9th, and that paper again with previous protocols,
he was led to the conclusion that the maintenance of
the status quo, the preservation of the old territorial
limits of Europe, including those of Russia as well as
Turkey, was assumed to be a fixed principle for any
future arrangement of the pending difficulties before
war was declared by the Western Powers against Russia,
and had never been disowned since the occurrence of
that eventuality. That Austria would make peace upon
those terms he gathered from the terms of the
memorandum to be indisputable; and he apprehended that
England and France would be entangled into the
necessity of accepting the same imperfect and
unsatisfactory solution. Contending that the ambition of
Russia required more vigorous measures of repression,
and must be checked and nipped at various points, even
at the cost of infringing the territorial boundary of that
empire, the noble lord remarked upon the condition to
which the navigation of the Danube had been reduced,
and insisted upon the expediency of freeing the channel
of that river from all obstructions, whether natural or
political. On the side of Circassia, also, he considered
that a barrier might easily be raised against the
encroachments of the Czar, by interposing a free people
between his dominions and those of the Porte. In the
Principalities, again, the protectorate established by
Russia had been made the subject of a boast by Count
Nesselrode, as giving her the key of the position against
Turkey; while Count Lieven had actually indicated the
means of turning that position to account for effecting a
swoop upon Constantinople before any of the Western
Powers could interfere. Lord Lyndhurst then traced
through various negotiations, and in the despatches of
Nesselrode, Metternich, Pozzi di Borgo, and other
diplomatists, the symptoms of a steadily aggressive
policy on the part of Russia, and of the reiterated efforts
made on her part to involve Austria and Prussia in
complicity with her designs. He then enforced the
necessity of providing some material guarantee against
the continuance of such dangerous enterprises. No
treaty that could be contrived by way of guarantee was,
he urged, worth the paper on which it might be written.
Russia would not be bound by treaties. The history of
that country for centuries had presented a tissue of
fraud, duplicity, trickery, and piracy. Citing many
recent instances of grasping ambition and Asiatic ill-
faith on the part of the Czars, he declared that no
reliance could be placed upon the most solemn
professions which they could give to Europe for their future
behaviour. Some material pledge and mortgage must
be exacted while we had the power, as a collateral
security, and among the possessions whereon such
pledges might be levied, the noble lord referred to the
Black Sea fleet and the provinces conterminous with
the Turkish and Austrian frontier—The Earl of
CLARENDON remarked upon the irregularity of a
discussion founded upon a state paper, of which English
politicians bad no official cognisance, and whose import
many of their lordships had then learned probably for
the first time. Referring to the memorandum alluded
to by Lord Lyndhurst, he declared that it resulted
from, and embodied, negotiations having reference
merely to German interests, and that the status quo
mentioned in it related only to certain inter-Germanic
arrangements for the free navigation of the Danube,
without involving in any degree the question of
greater territorial divisions of Europe. Dismissing
the memorandum as possessing in reality much less
importance than had been assigned to it, and abstaining
from any attempt to determine the value of Russian
assurances, the noble earl addressed himself to the
question of the Austrian alliance. That power, he
contended, could not be neutral; her danger from
Russian ambition was far greater than our own; her
aid in the contest was most important to us; and
although her co-operation with the Western Powers
had been delayed, for reasons to which he briefly
alluded, there were good grounds for believing that
it would now be afforded with vigour and sincerity.
Some of these grounds he deduced from the terms
agreed upon by Austria when consenting to the late
protocol, from the fact that the Vienna cabinet had
placed troops at the disposal of the Porte, in order to
subdue the insurrection in Montenegro; that Austrian
ships had aided in putting down the Greek rebellion,
and that the Austrian army would soon, if it did not
already, amount to 300,000 men. He did not believe
that Austria had any intention of concluding peace
with Russia on the terms suggested by Lord Lyndhurst,
which he further declared would be utterly unacceptable
to England and France. The power of Russia
had proved dangerous to Europe, and must be
curtailed. Mere repression would lead only to a hollow
security, unworthy of all the sacrifices that had been
already made in the conflict; and nothing but some
result sufficient to fetter and cripple the enemy could
be considered satisfactory.—The Earl of DERBY went
back to the memorandum, whose phraseology he
analysed, and urged that it strictly bore the
interpretation given to it by Lord Lyndhurst, and bound
Austria and Prussia to accept peace whenever Russia
simply consented to evacuate the Principalities. He
rejoiced to hear the ministerial announcement that no
such terms would be accepted by England, feeling
assured that the British people would repudiate so base
and dishonourable a result in exchange for their efforts
and their money. The peace of Europe must be
secured from Russian ambition, some of the past con-
quests of Russia wrested from her grasp, the Black Sea
no longer suffered to remain a Russian lake, nor the
Danube a Russian river.—The Earl of ABERDEEN said,
that neither the government nor the country now
required any stimulus to urge them to an active
prosecution of the war. The war had from the beginning
been defensive, and engagements entered into strictly
with the view of preserving Turkey from encroachment,
might possibly read somewhat obscurely when the
contingencies seemed to include the invasion of Russia.
Austria being an independent power, could not be
compelled to proceed further in the contest than she
had already undertaken to do; but on the other hand
the Western Powers were not bound to accede to any
Austrian disposition for peace. Denying that Europe
suffered much real peril from the ambition of Russia,
he pointed out that even towards Turkey, since the
treaty of Adrianople, Russia had interfered only for the
purpose of protecting the Porte from a rebellious vassal.
War, he urged, should be waged merely for the sake of
peace, though not less vigorously on that account, and
should be terminated at the first moment that peace
became possible on a just and honourable basis.—A few
remarks from Lord Beaumont terminated the discussion.

On Thursday, June 22, the Marquis of CLANRICARDE
complained of a Breach of Privilege in a return which
had been laid upon their lordships' table. On the 7th
of April last Earl Grey moved for copies of
correspondence relative to any additions made to the
department of war and colonies, and also with regard to any
changes in the transaction of business relating to the
administration of the army. On the first part of this
motion the return was brought down to the 7th April,
the date of the motion; but on the second the very first
paper was dated the 9th of May, and, in the shape of a
letter from Sir C. Trevelyan, it was a complete reply to