Having disposed of the matter of Greece, I now come to the wider range which was taken last night by the Right Honorable Baronet, the Member for Ripon.[15] That Right Honorable Baronet took, I think, a proper view of the question before the House, because the resolution which has been proposed is not confined to one particular act of her Majesty’s Government with regard to foreign affairs, but does fully involve and open the consideration of all the topics to which the Right Honorable Gentleman adverted. I agree, however, with those honorable gentlemen who have contended that the resolution does not imply an absolute and entire approval of every act that has been done by the Government; and, indeed, it would be unreasonable to propose such a vote to the House: because it could hardly be expected that so large a number of men, possessing different degrees of information, holding different views, and not knowing exactly in all cases what have been the grounds upon which the Government have acted, though they may approve of the general principles which have guided the conduct of the Government, should implicitly approve of everything we may have done. The Right Honorable Baronet was justified in taking that larger range into which he expatiated last night; but I must be allowed to set him right as to the first point upon which he touched. He stated what was quite true, that when he was a member of Earl Grey’s administration, he concurred with me in many acts of foreign policy of which I was the organ, which involved very active interposition in the affairs of other countries. He instanced the negotiations in regard to Belgium, and its separation from Holland. He has done justice to the views which guarded the Government of that day, in their opinion that the independence of Belgium would be a measure advantageous to the peace, present and future, of Europe. But, then, he says, that case was different from the acts of the present Government, because every step in that affair was taken with the concurrence of all the five Powers who were parties to the negotiation, The Right Honorable Baronet said that there were, to be sure, some things which went beyond mere negotiation; there was the siege of Antwerp, and the embargo laid by us upon Dutch ships. He had concurred, he said, in both measures; but were those measures steps taken with the full consent of all five Powers? Were those acts measures of such description that they rendered it quite impossible that the friendly relations of this country with other Powers could be disturbed thereby? The Right Honorable Baronet must, I am sure, recollect that Austria, Russia, and Prussia dissented from those measures; that in consequence thereof they withdrew for a time from the conference, and that a Prussian army was collected near the banks of the Meuse, the presence of which rendered it necessary for the French to send a very large force to Antwerp, much more than was required for