The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-15 00:00:00

--- seas related to us? The President of the Board of Control got up and told us that the Governor-General of India wrote in high spirits; and the right hon. gentleman is now irritated because the conduct of Lord Canning is criticised. lam not disposed to speak of Lord Canning with any severity. He has had little experience in India, and is little responsible for the state of that country. I believe it to be a fact that he has displayed no ordinary energy in the present state of affairs. It is some consolation to see that there is anybody who dis plays energy, and therefore do not let us grudge to him the credit which that noble virtue should command. (Hear, hear.) But no one can deny that Lord Canning was caught napping, and that his first measures showed him to be irresolute and vacillating, from no moral defect, hut from the position in which he was placed. I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that Lord Canning is very little responsible for the position of affairs in India ; but he is surrounded by men who have created that position of affairs which has resulted in such disaster—( Hear, hear) —they are the very men who have been the private councillors during the last ten years, and they are the very men whose conceit and arrogance have endangered the Indian empire. \Ve must not repose, then, with con fidence on Lord Canning when the Council of India is composed of individuals who are the prime criminals, and who ought to be called to account for the present state of affairs. \Ve must remember that the Governor-General of 1 ndia is Lot an isolated individual, and that when we criticise his policy we criticise the policy and conduct of those who, as it were, have been bred arid born in that very system which has broken up with—l will not say such fatal—but with such humiliating and disastrous conse quences. (Hear, hear.) With these general views I am of opinion that the noble lord has altogether from the first underrated the state of affairs in India, and I cannot agree with the noble lord— although I should not have introduced the subject—in his views of the disposition of the European powers. I should have treated the subject abstractedly: I should have said that I could only suppose that the great powers of Europe would behave, probably, at a moment of danger anti etowittoney to England, as the great powers of Europe have believed before. ( A laugh.) What is the state of affairs? What has happened within the last few days ? What was it that induced me to make the inquiry of the noble lord to-night about the strange proceedings that have happened at Constantinople? (Hear, hear.) Why, if it hal not been for the absorbing interest which the state of India commands, you would have had a much more agitated Parliament about what has taken place in Constantinople than about what has occurred in India, while out of doors, no doubt, you might have excited much moro public passion and feeling than at present. All this, however, is now hushed over, and though I was told to•night, and have heard with great satisfaction, that those circumstances will lead to no estrangement between Eng- land and France, I only understand that that is so because the noble lord has renounced the whole of his policy, and has, in a manner which I think must astonish everyone, absolutely agreed that all that arrangement by which he has been agitating that part of the country in so unsatisfactory a manner for a very considerable time must at once he cancelled and blotted out from the record of his political deeds:—We are in a position of perfect and complete alliance with France because under the pressure of circumstances we have entirely changed our policy . (Cheers.) Yet the noble lord says that there is nothing in the disposition of any European power which ought to occa sion us the least annoyance. Sir, 1 would not trust the dis position of powers more than the disposition of individuals. When men are in great estate, possessed of all the accidents of fortune, and living in the sunshine of perfect prosperity, they have a great many friends who have confidence in them, who admire them, who compliment their courage and their pluck and their power; but when the hour of disaster comes, when we lose our fortur.e and our high estate, when we are supposed to be in great perils and difficulties, it is astonishing how those individuals will walk on the other aide of the way and pass us unnoticed, or, if we appeal to them for character and support, how they wilt either refuse to know us, or will say something probably that will be to our disadvantage. (Hear, hear.) Sir, I have more confidence in the spirit of this country—so high as it is at present, and in its resources— so ample as they now are, if wisely administered, than I have at this moment in any European alliances, or in any policy which would depreciate the real dangers that we have to encounter in our own dependencies. t Hear.) We must meet those dangers with stern, unbending courage. Onr resources must be upon a greater scale than they have yet been stated in the expansive project of the Government. Etch week, indeed, they seem to take a more serious view of the situation ; but the original vice of the mean and small conception with which the intelligence of these dis asters was first received still is impressed upon all their plans. They are not large. enough, or deep enough, or comprehensive enough. If we get into a third campaign, which will be the inevitable consequence of our not avail ing ourselves of the resources of the country in a proper manner, depend upon it we shall be on the eve of a great disaster for England. At present it is my solemn convic tion that if we make up our minds thoroughly to combat the difficulties which we have to encounter, we must bring an irresistible force into India before eight months are over, and we must accompany that irresistible force with some announcement of a policy which 150,000,0000 f people may rally round with confidence and hope. So acting, it is my conviction that we may emerge from this struggle, not with shorn powers, not with diminished lustre, but with that increased character which always avails to those who show their confidence in themselves, and who possess energies which they can use with effect. Then, sir, we may still hold India, we may still maintain our empire, and we may continue to enjoy those amiable dispositions THE PRE S S, AUGUST 15, 1857. of foreign powers in which the noble lord has so much confidence. (Loud cheers.) Colonel SYKES read extracts of a letter from Colonel Edwardes at Pesbawur, who stated that the mutinous soldiery had met with very little sym pathy from the people in any part of the country, and that the Hindoo sepoys were beginning to find that they were made tools of by the Mahomedans. He showed the extreme danger attending the slightest interference with the laws of caste, owing to the jealous susceptibility of the Hindoos upon this point. Lord Joni; RUSSELL referred with approval to the sentiment expressed by Mr. Bright in a printed com munication, as to the necessity of putting down the revolt in the first instance; and that then, having done so, we ought to turn our whole attention to remedying any grievances or any evils which might exist in India : That seems to me to be the right course to pursue. It may be, as the hon. and gallant gentleman who has just sat down says, that there has been a sudden impression amongst the troops of high caste that there was to be an attempt to induce them to do that which was contrary to their religion ; but I do not think that that alone was the cause of the revolt. I think it will be found that the movement was not so sudden. I should rather conclude from the steps which Lord Canning has taken in arresting one of the native princes that his opinion was somewhat different. I should rather think that there has been a general conspiracy to overturn the British power in India, and that, as one of the means of effecting that object, the conspirators endeavoured to inspire a belief against our troops that their religion was to be insulted, and that they themselves were to be defiled by the cartridges they would be required to use. In opposition, however, to the views of Mr. Dis raeli and Mr. Whiteside, Lord John Russell main tained that British rule in India had upon the whole been upright and humane as regarded the natives. As to the financial part of the question, his lordship expressed a hope that the directors of the East India Company would not hesitate to apply to the Govern ment for such assistance as they might require, and that the Government would not hesitate to ask the concurrence of Parliament. The apportionment of the expense could be afterwards settled. The subject then dropped. THE DANUBI.tN PRINCIPALITIES. Mr. DISRAELI : T think it will be more convenient that I should bring the inquiry respecting recent proceedings at Constantinople within the strict limits of a question. The house is aware that the Ambassador of France at Constantinople and the ambassadors of three other powers have struck their flags. and, I infer from that, have at least suspended diplomatic relations with the Porte. It is understood that this ex treme and violent proceeding is the result of a difference of opinion respecting the form of government to be estab lished in the Danubian principalities. It was understood at the time of the conferences at Paris that between France and England there was an accordance of opinion, and that both powers were in favour of a union of those provinces. It would appear now, however, that there is a contrariety of policy on that subject. I wish to inquire of the noble lord whether be can give any information to the house on this subject; whether there ia any prospect of an amicable settlement of existing differences on this head between England and France, or whether there is any apprehension of an estrangement of feeling, which all would deplore, between us and our much-cherished ally. Lord PALMERSTON I am not surprised that the right hon. gentleman should have asked the question which he has just addressed to me, for statements have recently appeared in the newspapers which must have excited some anxiety in the public mind. There has been a misunderstanding at Constantinople, nor arising, as the right hon. gentle man imagines, upon a question of the union or non-union of the Principalities, hut from a difference of cpinion which prevailed in regard to the regularity or irregularity of the elections which have taken place in Moldavia. The right hon. gentleman is aware that by the Treaty of Paris there were to be chosen in the two provinces representa- tive assemblies, which were to take into consideration the wants and wishes of the people in regard to their internal organisation and arrangements ; that there were to be commissioners appointed by the six powers to be in the Principalities during the period of the elections and of the subsequent deliberations, and that when the assem blies should have expressed their wishes and the com missioners should havo made their reports, both wishes and reports were to be submitted to the Congress at Paris, which was to reassemble for that purpose, not to re assemble in the same manner in which it sat before, but to be composed of the resident Ministers in Paris. The congress so composed —the Turkish representative being present—wss to deliberate upon the representations and reports so submitted to it, fuel, in concurrence with the Sultan, to come to an agreement with regard to the future condition of the two provinces. The Porte, in execution of those engagements, issued a firman directed to the Governors of Wallachia and Moldavia, setting forth the manner in which the elections were to take place. Questions arose as to the interpretation of certain parts of the firman. The finnan bad been settled by the unanimous consent of the representatives of the six powers acting in concert with the Turkish Government. Certain explanations were given aterwards—on the 30th or 31st of May —by the Turkish Government in regard to that firman. Those explanatious were sent to the commis sioners at Bucharest, and they were to be transmitted to 791 the Governor of Moldavia to be applied, not only in Wel• lachia, but also in Moldavia, in as far as they were appli cable, considaing certain local differences which existed in the internal arrangements, constitution, and laws of the two provinces. What with the confusion of telegraph messages, and what with irregularities on the part of those who ought to have transmitted these documents—l am speaking now of the officers of the Turkish Government —the elections in Moldavia took place without reference to the authoritative interpretation of the firman. Then arose a general opinion that the Moldavian elections were not in accordance with regularity and law, and that if the explanations which had been given of the firman had been strictly acted upon the result of those elections would have been different from what it actually was. liepresen• tations to that effect were made to the ambassadors at Constantinople, and four of them—that is to say, the French, the Russian, the Prussian, and the Sardinian— separately, and without acting with the English and Austrian, called upon the Turkish Government to annul the Moldavian elections, and to have the electoral lists revised, in order that the elections might take place over again. The Porte felt that this was a demand which, applying to matters that had been treated in common by the six powers, ought not to come from four alone, and they declined, therefore, to comply with it, saying, however, that if the same request were made by the six powers, the matter would be placed in a different position. Mit).- understandinws followed on all sides, and the result was that the French, Russian, Prussian, and Sardinian ambas sadors either hauled down their flags or were about to sus pend diplomatic relations with the Government of the Sultan. The recent visit of the Emperor of the French to Osborne, accompanied as he was by his Minister for Foreign Affairs, gave the English Government an opportunity of coming to a full understanding upon these matters with the French Government, and the conclusion we arrived at was that there were undoubtedly sufficient prima facie grounds of irregularity—not proved, but still founded upon prevalent opinion—to make it desirable for the in terests of the Porte itself that the electoral lists should be revised and brought into conformity with the firman and the interpretation which had been given of that document, and that the elections in Moldavia should take place over again upon the lists so revised. We have reason to be lieve that the Austrian Government is disposed to concur in that course, and under those circumstances we are con vinced that the Sultan, not feeling that his dignity and independence will be at all compromised by yielding to representations made by the whole of his allies, will take the course which will be recommended to him—viz., that of annulling the recent elections, revising the electoral lists, and ordering the elections to take place again at the end of about fifteen days upon the lists so amended. I am glad to say, therefore, that there is no ground whatever for any apprehension lest a difference of opinion between the English and French Governments may lead to an interruption of that harmony and good understanding which have hitherto prevailed between the two countries. THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. Sir G. GREY, in reply to a question from Sir J. Shelley, stated that the Government intended early next session to bring in a Bill for the Reform of the Corporation of the City of London. SIR CHARLES NAPIER AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. Mr. H. BRUCE called attention to a statement contained in a return on tenures of land in East India made by the East India-house on the Isth day of June, 1837, with the view of refuting certain charges it contained as to the proceedings of the late Sir Charles Napier when Governor of Scinde, who was reported to have raised the price of corn unjustifiably to a famine price, in order to obtain high prices from the commissariat and the people. This was a most serious charge against the honour and conduct of one of England's most gallr.nt generals, and watt now repeated by the East India Company after Sir Charles Napier was dead and unable to defend himself. The answerof Sir Charles when the charge was first made the East India Com pany could not find—it was "lost:" but, fortunately, there happened to be in this country the officer who had served as collector of Scinde under Sir Charles Napier—Colonel Rathbone—who had made the fol lowing staternent:— Under the rule of Sir Charles Napier the Government share of the produce was taken in kind, and was stored in the Government granaries, as had been the case for ages previously in Scinde, and as had been the case till com paratively lately in some of the provinces of Bombay itself. The mode of realising the price was by publio sale, but the grain was nct sold at artificially high or famine prices, as the return made by the India-house untruly avers, nor was the market interfered with by the grain being drawn from the stores in the commissariat at a nominal price. When grain was drawn by the commis sariat from the Government stores it was charged for, not at nominal rates, but at the rates of the day as indicated by the price current of the place where it was drawn. The Government was debited in the military department and credited in the revenue department, as happens daily in England and in every other well regulated State where transfers of the kind take place between different depart ments under the Crown. The commissariat account of the period must be in existence, as must also the price currents of the several military stations at Scinde at which such transfers took place. A reference to these will show that the imputation contained in the return on the govern ment of the late Sir C. Napier in Scinde as to this point has no foundation whatever. Mr. WILT.OUGABY, in reply to the observations of the hon. gentleman, read the minute of Sir George Clerk, which had been drawn up in 1818 and printed