The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-28 00:00:00

LORD CARNARVON ON GOVERNMENT
POLICY.

On Saturday last, the Earl of Ct4nlrvon met his principal
tenants in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire at Teversale,
near Mansfield. A military band played on the village green,
and there were many signs of rojoicing at his lordship's visit
after an absence of many years. A dinner was giv,3n In the
school-room, and the clergy aid local gentry were present,
besides about 100 ef the tenantry. In the coarse of an after-
dinner speech, the noble Earl referred at length to the
foreign policy of the Government, beginning with the Preaty
of Berlin, which, he said, ought not to be called a Treaty of
Peace, for every hour justified his former observation that it
did not contain the elements of a really permanent peace.
Turkey was crumbling to. pieces as fast as possible. The
state of our finances required the greatest possible caution
on the part of the Government. Thiswas a very questionable
time for our interference in Afghanistan, when on all sides
there were rumours of possible war in that State. Much
more than war, however, he dreaded the conquest or occupa-
tion of Afghanistan. The following is an extract from his
lordship's speech :

• , . . "This last year has been a very expensive
year for the country. When originally this Govern-
ment, of which I was a member, came into office, I
think, if I recollect rightly, the income tax stood at
2d. in the pound. We were obliged to add another
penny, which made it 3d. This last year my
right hon. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has
been obliged to increase that by another 2d., and it
now stands at sd. Well, I find no fault with that. I
was a party to a great deal of that increase; and the
state of Europe was so critical in the early part of the
year that I cannot blame any Government for making
the necessary preparations for putting the country in
a position of safety and of honour. But at the same
time an income tax of sd. in times of peace is a very
large sum to pay; and if in order to bear the ex-
pense of bad bargains or of questionable liabilities
we are called upon next year to increase the in-
come tax beyond scl. in the pound, I think my rieht
hon, friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will find
himself in danger of losing his very well deserved
popularity. (Cheers). I say it has been a very ex-
pensive year. We have exceeded our income. We
have incurred debt. We have not paid the debt as
we have gone along. We have accepted liabilities;
and those liabilities are of such a nature that they
grow as they remain on our hands. We are not in
truth paying our way as we go which I think is the
true and sound principle ef finance. And though
there may be palliations and reasons given, owing to
this being a very exceptional period, I still say it re-
quires the greatest possible caution on the part of the
Government that finds itself in such a position. But
then, after all, let us remember, if finance is the key-
stone of trade, foreign policy, on the other hand, is
the keystone of finance. The question of high or low
taxation at this moment bears in a very great degree
upon the course of the foreign policy which is adopted.
Now, I have always been a strong advocate for full
and effective armaments. I look upon them as
necessary, not merely for the honour and the credit
of the country, but as the best and the only in-
surance which you can have at a time when Europe is
eaten up with large armies, and nations go to war with
each other on a colossal scale at a week's notice. In
the same way. I have always been the advocate for a
dignified policy, which secures credit and honour
abroad, and enables Englishmen to walk with erect
heads amongst the other peoples of the world. (Cheers.)
But at the same time we must not, to use a very
homely proverb, "ride a willing horse too far." There
are limits to everything; there is reason in eVery-
thing. Fireworks are very convenient and very fine,
and sometimes they are very desirable, but they ought
to be displayed only occasionally, and if fireworks are
let off every day in the year there is some risk that the
house itself will be burnt down. (Laughter.) I re-
member that that very wise King, Leopold of Belgium,
once said to the late Emperor Napoleon when he was
at the height of his prosperity and power "Nothing
could apparently affect him or hurt him if he would
only 'remain quiet." Unfortunately the Emperor
Napoleon felt himself constrained to go on from one
surprise to another, and from one adventure to another ;
and the result, as we know, was the loss of his own
Crown and the temporary collapse of his own country.
I do not say that that applies to the present state of
things, but the moral of course may be drawn. I
should be very sorry indeed, feel;ng every good dis-
position towards the Government. I should be ex-
tremely sorry if they allowed the country now to think
that they were eng-ged upon a sensational and a rest-
less policy—that we were scrambling from peace to the
probabilities of war. (Cheers.) There is one other and
a very practical question which I will for a moment
allude to to give point to these remarks, and it is this.
I have always noticed that when India becomes -very
prominent in the public mind, it generally leads to
some trouble. Now, during the last two or three
weeks we have heard a great deal about India. Ido
not pretend to know what precisely is passing—none
but her Majesty's Government can tell that—but
one or two things are very distinctly to be seen. The
first is, that we were making a very great and a very
important change in our policy as regards all those
great Indian feuclatoiy princes who own large armies.
We desire apparently to take these armies, more or
less under our control, and virtually to absorb them in
our empire. Well, it is a very natural wish. On the
other hand, it is equally natural that the Indian princes
object to beim!: stripped of this power. I do not say
that Her Majesty's Government may not be right in
their desire to consolidate those armies; but I do say
this, that it is a very delicate, a very diffieuit, and a
very hazardous task to undertake. It should be under.
taken not only with the greatest precaution, but at a
time when we are satisfied that we shall not be met
with serious difficulties. Now, what is the time that
is taken for it? To any mind a very questionable one,
because whilst this operation is going on we see reports I
on all sides of possible war in Afghanistan. Now, what
does that mean? Afghanistan, as every one knows here,
isle v ry large tract of country lying on the north-west
frontier of India, mountainous, impassable in places,
savage, occupied by a fierce, fanatical race, which has been
untamed for generations and generations past, and has
been brought up from father to son in the one sole occu-
pation of warfare. Afghanistan is best remembered
by Englishmen from the memorable war and the
greatest disaster our army sustained in modern days.
Some five or six and thirty years ago our English army
was cut to pieces in Cabul, on the Indian frontier.
That war is one of the saddest in some respects, and
one of the noblest in others. It is a war which in parts
was full of mismanagement and incompetence; and,
on the other hand, full of the most memorable dis-
plays of heroism that the English army ever can boast
of. There is nothing finer to my mind than the
part which Sir Robert Sale and his brigade played
in the advance on Jellalabad. It was from the
ramparts of that town, in the winter of 1849, that
one morning a single solitary horseman, bowed down
with fatigue and with anxiety, was seen advancing
across that plain. That solitary horseman was the one
man who had escaped from the wreck of the whole
British army. That terrible disaster—a disaster for
which there had been hardly any precedent at all,
and which, thank God, has fund nothing of a similar
nature since—that disaster was avenged and washed
out very speedily; but from that day to this the same
policy has been rigorously observed--we have jealously
avoided Afghanistan. We have had nothing whatever
to do so fir as entangling ourselves in its mountains
and its politics; and it has not been one Governor-
General, bat it has been a succession of them, who
have repeatedly laid down this as a rule—that the
policy of abstention is a wise one. Now, for the first
time, we are sending an army almost to the capital of
Afghanistan. It goes under the command of a very
skilful and experienced Indian officer, and it is a mis-
sion very powerful in point of numbers. I am not
sure that there is much advantage in that. One
might be inclined to say of the numeric el strength of
that mission, as was said of another army in the East
in ancient times, "that it was too large for a mission,
and too small for an army." But that expedition
goes, and goes, it is said, with stringent terms.
Now I deeply regret if the result of that. should
be hostilities. I do not know what the terms are
which Sir Neville Chamberlain is required to impose-
but I think war with Afghanistan would be, to
say the least of it, a most unfortunate disaster.
But if war is a disaster, the results of war, to
my mind, would be an infinitely greater disaster.
I dread much more than war the conquest or the
occupation of Afghanistan. I am satisfied that it
gives us none of the conditions which are essential to
military or political supremacy. If, indeed, we are
jealous of the influence and intrigues of Russia, if we
desire to meet Russia, it would be far better to meet
her in fair fight in Europe than to entangle ourselves
in such a theatre of war as Afghanistan. It can only
have the effect of playing the game of Russia, if that is
the reason which underlies the motive of this mission.
There have been of late rumours of some further action
in the East on the part of her Majesty's Government. I
know not what importance to attach to them. They
maybe the mere idle currents of air in the political atuao
sphere. But Lo say this most distinctly—that if even-
tualities of a more serious nature arise which may tax
our strength to the utmost to bear, n,,thing can be more
improvident and unwise than at such a moment to en-
tangle ourselves in an enormous difficulty of this nature,
and to take upop us an unnecessary burden. In this
county of Nottinghamshire wrestling used to be a very -
favourite pastime, but I apprehend that no Notting-
hamshire man would ever have weighted himself as
against his opponent ; and yet that is practicelly what
we are doine at this moment if 'we entangle ourselves
in this matter. I can conceive neither profit nor glory
to be gained from such a war • and I consider rather
that it would be a great misfortune and the result of a
very considerable error if allowed to take place. Don't
let it be supposed that a war of that sort could be car-
ried on in India and by Indian resources without the
help of this country, English finance, as I said, wants
careful looking after; but Indian finance is still less
equal to the strain. In India you have few sources of
revenue, and these few sources seem to have reached
pretty nearly their full power. You have an income
which is comparatively stationary, and you have an
expenditure which is growing. You have, as we all
know, famine, and great and exceptional calls upon
that revenue, and the used consequently for large re-
serves to be made ; and yet we have to contend, as a
matter of fact, with very frequent deficiencies. I can
only say that the result of all that, in my mind, is that
we and all Englishmen who take an interest in these
questions—and these questions are very important to
us, for they touch our purses and our homes in a
hundred ways—the one important thing for us to do is
to watch very carefully what is now going on. I need
not tell yon I have personally nothing but good.feel-
ing towards her Majesty's present Government.
Amongst them there were—l hope I may say there
are still---personal friends of my own. But I feel very
anxious at the course which has been lately pur-
sued. When I left that Government I left it because
I disapproved of the course that was then taken.
'When at the end of the Session I condemned the
Treaty of Berlin (and it was the first, and it is the
only, time that I have expressed censure)—when I
condemned that treaty I condemned it because I
foresaw that it would turn out exactly as it has turned
out; and now I feel anxious because we are undertak-
ing, as it seems to me, duties and obligations which it
is wholly beyond our strength to carry out. I think
in all these things it is a matter of little import-
ance which party is in office ; but this I do think
is of great importance that the Queen's Government
should be carried oa effectively, and for the safety
and for the honour of the country; and that I be-
lieve to be the real feeling that lies at the bottom of the
hearts and-minds of tine-tenths of the English people.
(Cheers.)

12,525 trout, weighing 8,238 pounds—not very far off
our tuna— were killed In Loch Leven during the past Reason.