The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

■ if 124 Hy Lords and Gentlemen, A r lract6ings zn Varliamcnt. OPENING OF THE SESSION. PARLIAMENT was opened on Tuesday last by Royal Commission. The Lords Commissioners entered the charn her at two p.m., and took their seats upon the Woolsack. They were,—the Lord Chancellor, the Eari of Harrowby, the Duke of Argyll, Earl Spencer, and Lord Stanley of Alderley. The Commons haying been summoned, and their presence announced, the LORD CHANCELLOR, after the formal reading of the Royal Commission authorising the opening of Par liament, proceeded to read HER MAJESTY'S SPEECH. We are commanded to assure you that her Mnjesty has great satisfaction in recurring again to the advice and assistance of her Parliament. We are commanded by her Majesty to inform you that difficulties, which arose in regard to some of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris, delayed the complete execution of the stipulations of that treaty. Those difficulties have been overcome in a satisfa3tory manner, and the intentions of the treaty have been fully maintained. An insurrectionary movement which took place in Sep tember last in the Swiss canton of Neufchatel, for the purpose of re-establishing in that canton the authority of the King of Prussia as Prince of Neufchatel, led to serious differences between his Prussian Majesty and the Swiss Confederation, threatening at one time to disturb the general peace of Europe. But her Majesty commands us to inform you that, in concert with her august ally the Emperor of the French, she is endeavouring to bring about an amicable settlement of the matters in dispute, and her Majesty entertains a confident expectation that an honourable and satisfactory arrangement will be concluded. In consequence of certain discussions which took place during the Conferences at Paris, and which are recorded in the protocols that were laid before you, her Majesty and the Emperor of the French caused communications to be made to the Government of the King of the Two Sicilies, for the purpose of inducing him to adopt a course of policy calculated to avert dangers which might disturb that peace which had been so recently restored to Europe. Her Majesty commands us to inform you that the manner in which those friendly communications were received by his Sicilian Majesty was such as to lead her Majesty and the Emperor of the French to discontinue their diplomatic relations with his Sicilian Majesty, and they have accordingly withdrawn their missions from the Court of Naples. Her Majesty has directed that papers relating to this subject shall be laid before you. Her Majesty commands us to inform you that she has been engaged in negotiations with the Government of the United States, and also with the Government of Honduras, which she trusts will be successful in removing all cause of misunderstanding with respect to Central America. Her Majesty has concluded a treaty of friendship and commerce with Siam, which will be laid before you. Her Majesty commands us to express to you her regret that the conduct of the Persian Government has led to hostilities between her Majesty and the Shalt of Persia. The Persian Government, in defiance of repeated warnings and in violation of its engagements, has besieged and cap tured the important city of Herat. We are commanded by her Majesty to inform you that a British naval and military force despatched from Bombay has taken possession of the Island of Karrak, and of the town of Bushire, with a view to induce the Shah to accede to the just demands of her Majesty's Government. Her Majesty has seen with satisfaction that the naval and mili tary forces employed on this occasion have displayed their accustomed gallantry and spirit. Her Majesty commands us to inform you that acts of violence, insults to the British flag, and infraction of treaty rights, committed by the local Chinese authorities at Canton, and a pertinacious refusal of redress, have rendered it necessary for her Majesty's officers in China to have recourse to measures of force to obtain satisfac• tion. Those measures had, up to the date of the last accounts, been taken with great forbearance, but with signal success as regards the conflicts to which they had led. We are commautlel to inform you that her 3lnjesty trusts that the Government of Pekin will see the propriety of affording the satisfaction demanded ) and of faithfully fulfilling its treaty engagements. • A full report of the noble earls speech will be fount is the Supplement. SATURDAY, approval of the principal Governments of Europe. With regard to the Persian war, it was very far from being the groundless quarrel which the public seemed quite to believe. The capture of Herat, a city of much importance, and surrounded by a ter ritory of unexampled fertility, was one which could not be regarded with indifference when such a con quest was in direct violation of previous agreements with this country, and threatened at once the neutra lity and independence of Atighanistan, both of which were necessary to the security of our Indian empire. The noble earl then entered into some detail of the chief incidents which led to a declaration of war, and in the course of which he read a despatch addressed to the Persian Government, dated July 11, com plaining of the advance upon Herat in violation of the agreement, and to which on September 25th an unsatisfactory reply was received. On that day the order for the expedition to the Gulf was despatched to Bombay, and on the 10th October Lord Clarendon replied to the Persian note, threatening hostilities if redress for the grievances complained of were not granted. On the Ist of November war against Persia was proclaimed. The conduct of Russia in the present dispute had been" frank and friendly " I believe the Russian Government and the whole of the Russian people are under the belief that their destiny is to go forward, to conquer, and to hold new territory ; but I believe, as the noble lord has said, that there is no disposi. tion whatever upon the part of the Russian Government to go to war with us on this question. Our communications with the Russian Government have been frank and friendly. I believe we will not go to war, and that it is the interest of both that a neutral and independent country should form a division between the two territories. He regretted much to hear the terms in which Lord Derby had spoken of the conduct of the English authorities in China. The course which had been taken there was one which had only been resorted to when all other steps failed—when, in fact, the refusal of the Chinese to hold communication with our offi cials had left the latter no other remedy. Non-access to the authorities of Canton had been the origin of the quarrel. The course pursued by the British authorities had been just and necessary, and he had no doubt but that we should ultimately obtain our demands. Earl GREY said he could not characterise the war with Persia as other than unjust and impolitic. Upon the showing of the Government, exhibited in the proclamation of war by the Governor-General on the Ist of November, he was prepared to prove the war indefensible. The violation of a, agreement existing between this country and Persia was made the ground for a war, but he would ask their lord ships whether a war would always be vindicated upon the ground that an engagement had been broken ? The whole discussion must turn upon the nature of the agreement. Its substance is, that Persia engages not to invade Herat. Now, I want to know what principle of the law of nations authorises one independent country to take upon itself to dictate to another what course it shall pursue in its relations with other States? Persia might have had a legitimate cause of quarrel with her neighbour. I saw it stated at a public meeting the other day by a zealous missionary who has laboured long and faithfully in those countries that the original ground of dispute between Persia and Herat some years ago was, that the people of the latter place, with the connivance of their Government, persisted in making plundering excursions into the Per sian territory for the purpose of carrying off its inhabitants and selling them as slaves. If that be so, nobody can doubt that such outrages constitute the most valid excuse for war. I am quite ignorant of the facts of the case on this point; but it may be that good cause for war against Herat has been given to Persia; and I totally deny that we have any right to dictate to independent States in what manner they shall vindicate their rights, and punish the invasion of them by their neighbours. Yet such, in fact, was the right claimed by this country in the quarrel between Persia and Herat, without our Government even taking the trouble to ascertain which was in the wrong. If it was the bugbear of Russian influence which our Government professed to dread, the late war showed to every man of sense the groundlessness of such a plea. But granted that a Russian invasion of India was not far distant, the very policy we were following out was just that to hasten such an event : If you are afraid that Russia will wield against you the power of Central Asia, what is the first thing you ought to endeavour to secure? Why, you should first of all be on good terms with Persia; you should endeavour to make Persia so strong and powerful that it would not be likely to WI under Russian ascendancy. Now, let any man tell me whether the war which we have now commenced is not calculated in every way to play the game of Russia, not of England, and to create a state of things in Persia favour. able to those designs which you so gratuitously impute to the Czar. You want to be on good terms with Persia. Are you likely to conduce to this object when you arrogantly claim a right which you would never dream of insisting on in the case of any European power—when you say that Persia shall not pursue, without your permission, that policy which she thinks fit with regard to her near neigh bours ? Is it likely to promote good feeling between Eng land and Persia when, without any proper proclamation of war, you invade her country, slaughter her troops while THE PRESS. Gentlemen of the House of Commons, Her Majesty has directed the estimates for the ensuing year to be laid before you. . . They have been prepared with every attention to economy, and with a due regard to the efficient perfor• mance of the public service at home and abroad. My Lank, and Gentlemen, Her Majesty commands us to inform you that bills will be submitted to your consideration fur the consolidation and the amendment of important portions of the law ; and her Majesty doubts not that you will give your earnest at tention to matters so deeply affecting tho interests of all classes of her subjects. Her Majesty commands us to recommend to your con• sideration the expediency of renewing for a further period the privileges of the Bank of England, the conditions imposed on the issue of bank-notes in the United Kingdom, and the state of the law relating to Joint-stock Banks. Her Majesty commands us to express the gratification which it affords her to witness the general well-being and contentment of her people, and to find that, notwithstanding the sacrifices unavoidably attendant upon such a war as that which has lately terminated, the resources of the country remain unimpaired, and its productive industry continues unchecked in its course of progressive develop ment. Her Majesty commits with confidence the great interests of the country to your wisdom and care, and she fervently prays that the blessing of Almighty God may attend your deliberations, and prosper your councils for the advance- ment of the welfare and happiness of her loyal and faith ful people. The Earl of CORE, in rising to move the Address, briefly referred to the final adjustment of the Eastern question. The objects of the war had been attained, the independence of Turkey secured, and the whole question settled in a manner "calculated to raise the position of England." This satisfactory result was mainly due "to the firm, un swerving, and fixed line of policy maintained by her Majesty's Government." His lordship mentioned in terms of congratulation the failure of the Neuf chatel insurrection, the evidences at length given by the King of Naples of some concessions towards his unfortunate prisoners, the settlement of the Central American question, and the conclusion of a treaty with Siam. With respect to our relations with Persia and China, the Earl of Cork referred the unfortunate ruptures with those powers to a series of long-continued acts of subterfuge and evasion upon questions of redress, and with respect to Persia, to the violation of the treaty by the seizure of Herat. He trusted that the i esult of the capture of Bushire would be a renewal of amicable relations with Persia. With China, although we might regret finding ourselves in open hostilities with that power, they had resulted from acts of insolence and obstinacy ; and it was, he thought, obvious that it would have been establishing too dangerous a principle to permit any " infringement of a treaty " by a people disposed like the Chinese to ascribe moderation to fear. The noble lord then cursorily alluded to the prosperous state of the British empire, and concluded by moving an Address in answer to the Speech from the Throne, of which it was nearly a counterpart. The Earl of AMIE seconded the Address, and re capitulated the various points touched upon in her Majesty's gracious Speech. The Earl of DERBY then rose.• The Earl of CLARENDON was sorry that Lord Derby had not adhered to the usual practice, and refrained from any allusion to foreign topics until he was in possession of the full information which would shortly be laid before the house. Had ho waited for those documents it would have saved him from the erroneous impression he appeared to enter• tain with regard to the Bolgrad and Neufchatel questions. With respect to the latter, neither the English nor French Government was concerned in any way with the resistance with which the Swiss Government had met the demands of Prussia. He did not wish to enter into details on the question, as negotiations were still going on : But for our part, we abstained from giving the Confedera• tion any assurance whatever. We merely suggested to the Swiss Goverment whether their interests might not be better promoted by a liberation of those prisoners, and we united our efforts with those of other powers to bring about a settlement of the question. Yet we made no " pledge " we gave no " assurance " whatever—nor did we encourage the Swiss Government to resist the claims of the King of Prussia. With reference to Italy, it was indeed true that her Majesty's Ministers had taken advantage of the Paris Conferences to consider the ques tion of the state of that country, but the course which they had adopted in conjunction with the Emperor of the French had met with the cordial I I