The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

THE STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Lord GRANVILLE having moved that the house do
now adjourn,
Lord DERBY said he was surprised that the
Government should have allowed what was virtually
a new session to be opened without laying before the
house a summary of the state of. public affairs.
Certainly there were matters at home and abroad
calculated to excite tho gravest apprehension and
requiring the most anxious consideration. It was
true, indeed, that the monetary crisis had to a great
extent passed away, but great distress prevailed
among the labouring classes. Then, if we turned to
foreign affairs, what was our position in India?
Victories and successes bad been achieved, it was
true, by small bodies of British troops against large
masses of mutineers, but these successes had been
purchased by the loss of a long list of heroes, and
there remained yet a task of enormous difficulty to
be accomplished, and which would require double
the number of troops now in the field to accomplish
satisfactorily :
At this moment I do not believe Sir Colin Campbell, for
any one distinct operation, could muster 10,000 men in
arms; and I am morally certain that nearly double the
force now in India would not be too much to enable us to
re-establish our empire there, and to restore peace. Now,
I say, with inadequate means, even numerically, you have
to accohiplish this task ; but I must call your lordships'
attention to the manner in whick this 'number is main-
tamed in India. I have heard more than one officer state
it as his distinct opinion that the successes which we have
achieved in India would have been doubled, trebled, and
even quadrupled, if we had had at a sufficiently early
period an adequate amount of cavalry to make good tie
advantages we have from time to time gained. ( Hear.)
On every occasion on which we have fought against un-
heard-or majorities of the enemy and gained victories, we
have had no cavalry to pursue the fugitives. (Hear,
hear.) Again, we receive reports of the capture b-, our
troops of more guns than the enemy were said to have with
them in the first instance. This question of cavalry and
homes for the artillery was constantly pressed on the
attention of the Government by my noble friend on my
right (the Earl of Ellenborough). Now, what have been
Sent out? Yon have sent out a considerable number of
guns, but you have not bent out well-trained gunners, for
you had them not; nor hare you sent out horses or har-
ness, and the consequence is that your guns are utterly
and entirely useless. ( Hear, hear.) I well recollect my
noble friend ( the Earl of Ellenborough), when her Ma-
jesty's Government announced their intention of sending
out artillery, pressing the question whether their horses
were to be sent with them, but no answer was given to that
inquiry; and I have been told that to such straits are you
reduced in India for the want of horses, that a number of
three-year old mares have been taken into the service from
the breeding stud of the Company. (Hear, hear.) Again,
I would beg the earliest attention of your lordships to the
necessity of keeping up a continual stream of reinforce-
ment of the small army now in India. Now, even to
maintain that army on its present footing would require
1,500 a month, or 18,0110 a year. Ido not believe you are
raising recruits at that rate, and the men you are sending
oat are raw recruits—( Hear, hear)—mere boys, upon whom
disease will commit frightful havoc when they first land in
India. (Hear, bear.)

In this position of affairs, he should earnestly recom-
mend the Government to embody the militia for the
internal defence of the country, to send out to India