The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-22 00:00:00

~~ Ireland be relieved from one•balf of the expenses of the annual revision of the valuation. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said he could not assent to a change that would affect the Consoli dated Fund without more considert.tion than he bad been yet able to give to the subject, and Mr. GROGAN withdrew the motion. On the order for the second reading of the Weights and ' , Measures Bill, moved by Mr. JOHN LOCKE, Mr. HORSFALL moved to defer it for six months, observing that the change proposed by the bill would produce a complete revolution. This amendment was seconded by Mr. PAGET. The bill was opposed by Mr. Adams, Mr. M'Cann, and Mr. Kirk, and supported by Mr. Bass and Sir J. Shelley. Mr. HENLEY advised the house not to go on with this bill, which, he said, would not secure uniformity, and the attempt to settle the details would be most embarrassing. Mr. LOCKE defended the bill. Upon a division, the amendment was carried by U 2 to $4 ; so the bill is lost. Pule house, after some further business, adjourned at five minutes to one o'clock until Thursday. HOUSE OF LORDS-THURSDAY. SIR JAMES OL-TRAM AND LORD CANNING. The Earl of DERBY announced that important de spatches had that morning been received from India, including Sir J. Outram's recommendations in reference to the proclamation in Oude which had been the subject (if so much discussion ; and also Lord Canning's reasons for issuing the proclamation iu the form in which it appeared. Under ordinary circumstances he should have thought it doubtful whetheripapers containing a discussion between two officers of the Crown in India on matters of should at present be communicated to Parlia . but as the despatches had already been laid the Court of Directors, and as the course by Lord Canning had excited great comment, would be most unjust to him not to place before Parliament, in his own language, the reasons that 4uced him to issue the proclamation. The papers be laid on the table on Friday. .arl GRANVILLE remarked that the house adjourned tomorrow for the holidays, and if the papers were • communicated before the time stated there could no discussion upon them. ,fter a short conversation, The Earl of DERBY, in order to insure the delivery papers as early as possible, made the formal motion for their production, which was agreed to. Their lordships then adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS-THURSDAY. MR. V. SMITH. . V. SMITH, in reply to Sir D. Norreys, said the „e Government had not determined on the line of policy to be pursued towards the landowners of Oude. In answer to an inquiry by Mr. DILLWYN, Mr. BAILLIE read a despatch relative to the sup• pression of the mutiny and disarming of the 21st Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry at Kurrachee September, 1857. Lord PALMERSTON, referring to the remarks made the non production of the private letter from Canning to Mr. V. Smith, dated the 6th of earch, read an extract from that letter, and from a Previous letter of the 20th of February, as well as a letter of Lord Granville on the subject of his private correspondence with Lord Canning, which contained, said, nothing of real importance, and the prin . parts of which he (Lord Granville) read (as he stated in the House of Lirds) to Lord Ellenborough. Mr. BREAM asked whether the two letters were all t had been received from Lord Cunning by either .r. V. Smith or L or d P a l merston concern i ng pu b l i c affam relating to India? Lord PALMERSTON replied that four letters had received of the respective dates of the sth and . of February, and the 6th and 17th of March. COMMON LAW PROCEDURE ACT. This bill was read a second time, and the Chan ' Amendment Bill was read a third time and passed. ADJOURNED DEBATE ON TILE INDIAN nEspATett. The debate was iesumed by Lord tionEawn, who hupported the original !notion. Lord Canning, ho contended, had only carried out the policy declared Lord Dalhousie, when he announced the annexe -. of Dude; he was pursuing that policy when the mutiny broke out. With regard to the proclamation, reserved, he said, his right to pronounce an opi• upon it until all the facts were before him. The despatch, its tone and tenor, he strongly con• ernned. But it had been published, and not only iblished, but it was always intended for publics , for it had been avowed that it wus meant to he satidote to the people of India against the procla• ' B ti"n of Lord Canning. lie dwelt upon the effects lisa s°wing publicly th e p o li c y o f the, Governor. general, and of proclaiming that the possession of nude had been acquired by fraud and violence, and called upon the Government to state what was reierence been the Lord Cana iu the fora circumstat whetherlpi high office policy 81101 ment; but before tin taken by it would 1 ParHeinen induced hi would be 1 Earl Gn tomorrow not commi be no disc After a The Eal of the pap motion for Their la 13 Mr. V. late Govei policy tot In Ansa Mr. By pressiou a Regiment in Septem Lord P, upon the Lord Can March, 1-* previous 1 letter of I correspon be said, cipal part stated in Mr. 13n that had I Mt V. Si effeim rel Lord I been rece 20th of F This bi eery Anil passed. ADJOUI The dr supporter colitentlei 1 1' Lord Lion of 0 mutiny b, he resery mon upoi despatch, denmed. aublishk tion, for i an smith, mation 0 1 of disava 'eneral, (J ude hal he called .. ,~„ ,~,,,,,~,;,.Cn t7ITr THE PRESS, MAY 22, 1858. their policy on that subject. The amendment, which Was to he supported by Government, he observed, forbore to give an opinion upon the proclamation without further information, yet the Government, without such information, had pronounced such opinion, and a censure upon the conduct of Lord Canning. Mr. BRIGHT, after declaring that there had teen no arrangement between the Secretary to the India Board and himself with reference to the proclama tion, observed that he should have been content to leave the question to be decided upon the speeches of Mr. Cardwell, the mover of the resolution, and the Solicitor• General, the latter of which was, he said, an exhaustive argument, and contained a complete and satisfactory answer to ail the charges brought against the Government. The resolution eluded the real question; but, if carried, the people of Oude would regard the vote as an approval of the procla mation. The proposal in the resolution was disin genuons ; it was an attempt to lead the house into an unfortunate dilemma. All admitted that the people of Oude were not mutineers, or rebels, or enemies ; yet the proclamation would produce, not a political, but a social revolution in that country. The extinction of the proprietary right in the soil would apply to more than 40,000 large landholders. He believed that the proclamation sanctioned this whole sale confiscation, and that the resolution sanctioned the proclamation ; that it would be so read in India, and that this would be one of the most unfortunate declarations that ever went from this country to India. After noticing the various sums of money which we had at different times received from the territory, amounting in all to thirty millions and a half sterling, besides "salaries, pensions, and emolu ments of every kind to the Company's servants," the hon. member pointed out that when her Majesty's Government first announced their disapprobation of the proclamation they were warmly applauded by the Liberals, and that it was not till the" fatal influence " of party was brought to bear upon them that any difference of opinion became visible. Of the terms in which Lord Ellenborough's despatch was couched, Mr. Bright said : The noble lord the member for the City ought to be very forbearing, for he lives in a house as brittle as any of as. When the noble lord gets his pen in his hand it is impos sible to say what he will not write and send forth to the public. I have known him, for example, write a very extraordinary letter which he, no doubt, intended to be very proper in its phraseology—it was to a bishop. I am not at all anxious to deal severely with the noble lord; but when he wrote to so holy a man as a bishop, at least one might have expected him to avoid sarcasm and invective; and yet he dealt out invective against six millions of his fellow-subjects in a manner which was very mischievous to the peace of the country. But I could tell the noble lord of another letter, in which, it is true, there was not much sarcasm, but there was an amazing amount of invective of a most unpleasant nature, written Lot to a pro-consul ten thousand miles away, but written to a noble lord filling the most difficult and itnportant office in the Home Govern ment of the kingdom. The noble lord transgressed yet further ; for in the most needless manner, and when nobody asked him, he published that letter, which for a long time tended in a serious degree to weaken the hands and damage the character of the noble lord the member for Tiverton. After expressing his regret at any necessity for hurting Lord Canning's feelings, but declaring that one servant of the Crown must be treated like another—Lord Canning like Sir J. Bowring—and that we must not have low caste men and high-caste men in the public servants—low-caste men whom everybody may trample upon, and high caste men whom nobody may criticize—the hon. member con cluded a very eloquent speech in the following remarkable language : And now a few words about the party aspect of this motion. I hope I am slandering nobody in this house when I say that there is quite as much anxiety for place as there is zeal for the good of India in this motion. If this despatch had been published three months ago, when we were all sitting on that side of the house, I think it very probable that men who now speak against it would hive pronounced it a noble despatch, containing noble senti ments expressed in noble language. But there has been during the last two month• a sort of growing irritation, particularly on this side of the house. There has been a feeling that no ingenuity has been able to disguise that if the Government remained in office to the end of the session there might be some difficulty in removing it ; just RS a tree, when recently planted, is easily polled up ; but if you let it strike its roots into the earth ; if, in short, you leave it for a year, the strongest man will not be able to get it out again. Hon. gentlemen opposite know that I differ very widely from them, and at no very distant day they may find that out by some act on my part of severe hostility. But I put it to the house whether they are aware of the feeling out of doors? Take, for example, gentlemen who come up from the country as deputations to the Go vernment, and see whether the judgment those deputations form of the manner they are received by the late and present Government is not, without exception, all one way ? Ido not say that that is any great matter; but I make the observation for the benefit of gentlemen who sit on this side of the house, and who may have to receive deputations again. Take again their conduct in this house. 'VDU may say, " They are a weak Government—they are obliged to be civil ;" but I would maintain that every Minister ought to be civil to the bowie ; and what I am prepared to assert .• I E is this—and I ask every man who sits on this side of the house whether it was not so—that civility was a quality that was unknown to the late Government. Then take another point, and this is one that is worth consideration. I ask those who sit on this side of the house, and especially those below the gangway, to look at the heritage of foreign troubles which the present Government found on their accession to office. Three months of what was going on with regard to the Conspiracy Bill would have landed this country on the very verge of a war, if not an actual war, with France, and that the present Government have avoided by no concession which has been injurious to the honour of England. Take again the question that has agitated the publio mind with regard to Naples. So far as a Government could act, this Government appears to have acted with judgment, as the noble lord (Lord John Russell) has admitted himself. They have heard of meetings and discussions, and of language of a most unpardonable character used, in what it is the fashion now to call the heat of debate. At all events, there has been something going on in No. 11 that might break up that powerful confederacy, which went to storm the 'Treasury benches, and replace the late Govern ment. I believe that it was intended that there should be a desperate attempt to make a change at all events before Whitsuntide. That was a resolution which had been come to long before anybody knew anything about this despatch of Lord Ellenborough. But this appeared to be a fine opportunity of defending an absent servant of the Crown; and altogether to afford an excellent pretea on which to ride back to office. Now, I don't speak to Whigs, or to those who have been in office, or wish to be there; but I will speak to those who call themselves In dependent Liberals, and who bate come here with en honest desire to serve their country as members of the House cf Commons. It is supposed that the old Govern ment will come back, or something like the old Govern ment. There was great dissatisfaction at that old Go vernment, and no pledge has been given that its conduct in future would be better or different than it was before. There have been no new professions made and no new policy intimated. There have not even been any new men placed before the public for high office if a new Cabinet should be formed. There have, on the other hand, been newspapers greatly in the interest of this ex- Treasury bench, which have in the most unblushing manner printed articles evidently from the pen of some body who knew exactly what was wanted to be done. for example, while we were engaged in Committee-room No. 11, a gentleman—l don't know that I need mention him, because the house knows perfectly well all the circum stances of the case—but that gentleman took an active part in the proceedings, and nobody could be more indig nant at what has been done than he. Well, this gentleman hes actually been designated for office if the present Go vernment goes out and a new one cornea in. Another gentleman, who made a speech and I think moved or seconded a resolution, is held up in precisely the same manner. There has been hung up a glittering bait before the Independent Liberal members: it has not been exactly said who snail have it, but they are all expected to look at this glittering bait. But this is not all—these are not all the arts that have been employed. Gentlemen who have been sitting below the gangway for many years, and are of the most independent character, have received those wonderfully beautiful engraved cards inviting them to grand parties at great mansions. Not later than Friday last these invitations were scattered much more widely than has ever been usual, but no doubt with a discrimina ting hand. (Loud cheers, and a cry of " Absurd !") No doubt it is very absurd, and that is why I am explaining it to the house. If these words had with them a note, stating why they were sent, it would be something like this :—" Sir,—We have measured your head and your soul, and we know "—or rather believe, for they don't know—" we believe that yon will give up everything for the sake of this miserable temptation." If I could see these men taking the course which is said to be adopted by the great horse-tamer I should not complain ; for he appeals to the nobler and more intelligent instincts of the ani mals which he undertakes to cure ; but they appeal to in stincts which I am sure every hon. member would repo. diate. If they succeed, what sort of a Government shall we have? Of course I am as anxious for a Liberal Government as any man can be, but I cannot believe that in the present position of things a Liberal or a solid Government can be formed. We have heard, and the whole country has been struck with wonder to hear, that two eminent statesmen have actually dined togother. Well, I am glad to hear of those two statesmen being engaged to dine together without any hostility. I will say nothing about the viands of which they partook, or of the beverage which they infused into the loving cup. One of our great poets tells us that Nepenthe is a drink of sovereign grace. It was devised by the gods to subdue contentions and to soothe the passions ; but it was given only to those aged ant: wise men who had retired from the turmoil of life and were preparing to take their position amongst the ancient heroes in a higher sphere. The loving cup could not at any rate have been filled with nepenthe, because these ancient and wise statesmen still cling to this world, and mix, with all the ♦igonr and fire of yonth, in the turmoil of the parliamentary arena. I believe that such a Govern ment as is now proposed would be the worst of coalitions. It would be beard upon insincerity ; it would not be an advantage to the country; and therefore I urn not crixiona to see it constituted. I ask the house, are you prepared to overthrow the Government for this question, which the right hon. gentleman has put before us in such ambiguons terms? Are you ready to overthrow the Government without hearing the views upon which a new one would be formed? Are 31.11 ready to throw the counVy into the turmoil of a general election at a moment when the people of this country are only just slowly recovering from the effects of the most tremendous commercial panic '" which they have ever passed ? Are they - wough ne to