Well, my Lords, but the question comes as to what, at the end of the Conference, is our position, and what will be our course?  And without intending, or being able to pledge, the Government in case of contingencies which have not arisen, I think it is due to Parliament and to the country—­especially at this period of the Session—­to declare what is the view which the Government take of the position, the duty, the interests, and the future policy of England.  My Lords, with regard to our honour, I conceive that in honour we are in no way engaged to take part in the present war.  Although it has been stated to the contrary on the part of Denmark more than once, there has been at no time any pledge given on the part of this country or Her Majesty’s Government promising material assistance to Denmark in this contest.  Three times Her Majesty’s Government during the period I have held the seals of the Foreign Office have endeavoured to induce Denmark to accept propositions which we regarded as favourable to her interests.  In 1862 I made propositions to her, but those propositions were rejected.  When Lord Wodehouse went to Denmark, he and the Russian Plenipotentiary proposed that Denmark should repeal the Constitution which she had concurred in but a few days before; but she would not at that time receive the proposal.  We believe that, if she had consented to the arbitration which we proposed in the Conference, the result would have been as favourable to her as, under the circumstances in which she was placed, she could have expected.  My Lords, I do not blame Denmark for the course she has thought fit to pursue.  She has a right—­I should be sorry to reproach her in any way in her present state of weakness—­she has an undoubted right to refuse our propositions, but we on our side have also a right to take into consideration the duty, honour, and interests of this country, and not to make that duty, that honour, and those interests subordinate to the interests of any foreign Power whatever.  My Lords, our honour not being engaged, we have to consider what we might be led to do for the interests of other Powers, and for the sake of that balance of power which in 1852 was declared by general consent to be connected with the integrity of Denmark.  My Lords, I cannot but believe that the Treaty of 1852 having been entered into, if there had been at an early period—­say in December or January last—­if France, Great Britain, and Russia, supported by the assistance which they might have counted upon receiving from Sweden, had declared for the maintenance of the Treaty of 1852—­the succession of the King of Denmark might have been established without difficulty, and might have been peaceably maintained, and that the King and his Government would have remedied all the grievances of which his German subjects complained.  I believe the King of Denmark would have found it to his advantage to grant to his German subjects that freedom, those privileges, and that self-government