take from the Crown and give to Parliament the better. That is a presumption in the Liberal mind; it may be sound, it may be right; I do not discuss it. But I must point out that what is now proposed is to take a power which we now possess, in a form theoretically irregular, but practically effective—to take this power out of our hands and divide it with another Assembly. … Such a change ought not to be made sub silentio. … I do not see any good cause for touching the Treaty-making power at the present moment.'—Hansard, Parliamentary Debates (1890), cccxlvii. 753, 761, 764, 765, 766, 767, 768.
5
Opinions of British Foreign Secretaries on publicity and responsibility in the conduct of foreign policy:
(1) Lord Palmerston, February 25, 1864:
'Her Majesty's Government are responsible to this House to give every information as to any communications which may take place with foreign Governments with regard to our foreign policy, but it is not our duty to state to this House what changes may have been made, or intended to be made, from time to time before or after a despatch may have been communicated to any of our Ministers abroad.'—Hansard, Third Series, clxxiii. 1103.
(2) The Earl of Clarendon, May 8, 1866:
'Of course, we have always been ready to answer any inquiry that might have been addressed to us. … There is now little of that secret diplomacy which in former days so much prevailed. There is on the part of every Government—such is the power of public opinion—so great an anxiety to appeal to it and obtain its support, that despatches of the most important character and entailing the gravest consequences are no sooner delivered than they are published; and the telegram secures that there shall bay no priority of information.'
(3) The Marquess of Salisbury, June 30, 1890, in reply to the Earl of Rosebery who had asked, whether it was true, as reported in a recent telegram, that the right of fortifying the island of Heligoland was to be subjected to restrictions:
