The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

they had come forward and expressed what I am
sure is their own honest and sincere conviction, that,
with the best intentions, a hasty and ill-judged step
taken by the plenipotentiary bad involved conse-
(=noes which he would be the first to regret and
had been the last to contemplate ; that they could
not altogether vindicate the course he had pursued,
but that allowance ought to be made for the diffi-
culty of the position in which he was placed, and
concluding with an intimation of their intention to do
that which they have done subsequently, to send out
another plenipotentiar:. with full powers, if not to
supersede, to override the authority of that official,
and to bring the affair to the earliest conclusion
possible ; I will venture to say that that declaration
on the part of the Government would in this and the
other house have put an end, if not to all discussion
and debate, undoubtedly to any chance of an adverse
division. (Cheers.)

But what was the course of the Government'
Here is the proposition—that the papers, as they lie

before us, do not justify the conduct of the officials.
Her Majesty's Government join issue, and declare
that, in their judgment, the papers do justify the
conduct of tho officials. They compel us to say
" Ay " or "No ;" and yet it is quite obvious that,
towards the conclusion of the debate, some change
came over the spirit of the dream of the Government,
because, towards the end of it, their supporters said,
"After all, it is very hard that the Government here
should be held responsible for what has been done
by the officials there, of which they had no previous
cognisance, which was done without notice to them—
which was done on the other side of the world ; and
it is very cruel to make them responsible for the
conduct of their agents." It was not we, or the
other House of Parliament, but they who made
themselves responsible for the conduct of their
agents. (Cheers.)

And here let me warn the Government. However

magnanimous it may seem, however grand it may
sound, to say that on all occasions a public servant—
more especially an absent public servant—is to be
defended, you ought only to carry that as far as is
consistent with justice. (Hear, hear.) You may
carry it even as far as is consistent with indulgence ;
but when it comes to the point that by the indiscre-
tion of a public servant the country is plunged in
a war, the expenses of which are not to be calculated
and the horrors of which are not to be told, then, I
say, if that public servant is to receive the support of
the Government to the extent of insisting on dis-
solving Parliament if Parliament does not concur
with him, you are giving a most exorbitant premium
to imprudent conduct, to hasty actions, and to want
of a due sense of their proper responsibility to every
gentleman you employ in every part of the world.
(Loud cheers.) But if you considered the conduct
of your agent so entirely blameless—if you thought
the papers quite justified his prudence, and showed
him to be the fittest man to conduct affairs of that
kind, why supersede him? (Hear, hear.) I know not
whether the determination to send out that super-
seding officer was come to before or after the division
of the House of Commons, but in either case it
affords to the majority of that house ample vindica-
tion for the vote to which they came. (Hear.) If
it were the intention of Government previous to that
debate to supersede Sir J. Bowring, in the first place
they ought frankly to have sail so, which would have
put an end to the discussion; and, in the next place,
it argues a foregone conclusion in their minds that
the papers did not justify the conduct of Sir J. Bow-
ring. (Hear, hear.) If that intention were only
formed after the decision of the House of Commons
had shown what was the opinion of the representa-
tives of the country, I say the House of Commons
performed a signal service in compelling the Govern-
ment, by their vote, to do that which they ought to
have done voluntarily. In either case the vote of
that majority is amply justified, if only by the fact
that, having vainly attempted to vindicate his con
duct, the Government proceeded to supersede Sir
ohn Bowring. (Hear, hear.)