Page:Karl Marx - The Story of the Life of Lord Palmerston - ed. Eleanor Marx Aveling (1899).pdf/78

 72 interferes with our commerce, I call upon the Government of this country [which country exists in appearance somewhat beyond the limits of all the world] to punish the aggression." Accordingly, he wanted to know "if the British Government had acknowledged the Treaty of Adrianople?"

The noble lord, although pressed very hard, had ingenuity enough to make a long speech, and

{{dhr]} Mr. Roebuck states that, before allowing the Vixen to proceed to Circassia, Mr. Bell had applied to the noble lord, in order to ascertain whether there was any impropriety or danger to be apprehended in a vessel landing goods in any part of Circassia, and that the Foreign Office answered in the negative. Thus, Lord Palmerston found himself obliged to read to the House the correspondence exchanged between himself and Mr. Bell. Reading these letters one would fancy he was reading a Spanish comedy of the cloak and sword rather than an official correspondence between a minister and a merchant. When he heard the noble lord had read the letters respecting the seizure of the Vixen, Daniel O'Connell exclaimed, "He could not keep calling to his mind the expression of Talleyrand, that language had been invented to conceal thoughts."

For instance, Mr. Bell asks "whether there were any restrictions on trade recognised by His Majesty's Government? as, if not, he intended to send thither a vessel with a cargo of salt." "You ask me," answers Lord Palmerston, "whether it would be for your advantage to engage in a speculation in salt?" and informs him "that it is for commercial firms to judge for themselves whether they shall enter or decline a speculation." "By no means," replies