The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

742

calm the population and at the same time inquire into
their grievances and attempt to battle their manteuvres and
conspiracies? Why, the people of India, who for a long
series of years, as I have endeavoured to show tonight,
and l think not unsuccessfully, had been preparing for an
outbreak, found that as soon as a struggle in Europe had
ceased Asia was made the scene of war in mare than one
quarter. (hear, hear.) The most powerful class of
Maliumedans—the Shiites—heard that you were going
to make war upon an Oriental monarch and that monarch
the bead of their religion. There was nothing in that in•
telligence which tended to remove their disaffection, and
before they bad recovered from it they found there was
war in China. The condition of India in 1856 has been
shown to you by Lord Canning, in what may be called
a wail of lamentation over the state of our Indian empire
and the paucity of troops at his disposal. Nevertheless,
at that very period troops were sent to Persia and to
China, and the Madras army was told that it must garri-
son Vega. At the time when it was the policy of England
to soothe and tranquillise India, and to remedy the Brie•
vances occasioned by feeble government, our Ministers
had the hardihood to raise the torch of war in every
direction throughout the East. (Hear, hear.)

I am told that only 5,000 men went away, and 5,000 came
or are coming back. Do you think that the nations of
India count your troops upon their fingers? They know
that your troops are going away ; they hope that you may
have to send more; and deciding broadly upon these facts,
they do not inquire how many are going or how many are
coming back; it is sufficient for them to know that you
have war in Persia and in China, and that your European
troops are gradually leaving the great peninsula. That
being the state of the case, the time being ripe, the
occasion being offered—offered by the Government of
England—a pretext only was wanted ; and a pretext was
soon found. Your cartridges greased in a manner to out.
rage their religious belief—men lost their caste by serving
the power which they had so long obeyed. I will not go
into the question as to whether the cartridges complained
of are the same as have always been used, as we have been
told is the case. I did not suppose any one will after this
discussion suppose that because the cartridges were be.
lieved to be or were pretended to be believed to be greased
with pig's fat or cow's fat that that was the cause of this
insurrection. (Hear.) I hope at least that the rising
generation in pa►liamentary life, who are now entering
upon their career amid occurrences which will furnish
ample materials for long discussions during many years
in this house—that they will not too hastily accept such
superficial ideas. I can assure them that the rise and fall
of empires are not affairs of greased cartridges. (Hear,
hear.) Such results are occasioned by adequate causes
and by an accumulation of adequate causes. (Hear,
hear.) I have now, sir, endeavoured imperfectly, lam
aware, to sketch the causes which 1 believe to have led to
the present condition of our Indian empire. I have
omitted many things, and many of importance, from an
effort to avoid over!oading the subject with details, and 1
know I have subjected myself thereby to many oh.
servations in reply, which I might have avoided, had it
not been for an anxious apprehension of trespassing too
long upon the attention of the house. But I hope at least
I have conveyed to the house with clearness the general
positions I wish to establish—( Hear, hear)—by which I
do not seek to gain any fleeting party triumph, but that
after well and deeply considering and properly discussing
this subject we may arrive at some safe conclusion for our
future guidance.

The right hon. gentleman then discussed the means
which the Government ought to adopt to meet the
present emergency

A mere military mutiny may be met by a mere military
effort. But if, on the contrary, what we have to deal with
be an insurrection favoured by the great mass of the popu-
lation, our measures must, as I think, be both in nature
and degree different from those of which we have had an
intimation from her Majesty's Government. Looking
open this as a national revolt, I cannot arrive at a belief
that the measures announced by the Government, merely
military measures, are adequate to the occasion. (Hear.)
I should doubt whether they were adequate for a mere
military mutiny, but under no circumstance, did I believe,
as the Government appear to believe, that this is a mere
military mutiny, would I presume to offer any strong
opinion upon their conduct. If when a mere military
mutiny is to be put down the Government cannot be
trusted wtth the settlement of the amount of force to be
applied and the means by which success is to be achieved,
what confidence could be placed in them at all ? Therefore,
if I agreed that this was a military mutiny only, evert if I
was of opinion that the force they recommended was not
sufficient for the occasion, I should leave the responsibility
to them, and if they failed in their object from want of
means Parliament would be able to exact a due account.
But, concluding, as I do, that this is a national revolt, I
do not think that the means announced by the Govern•
ment are adequate to the occasion. Let us consider what
are the means with which the Government intend to save
our empire. We heard at first of 14,00 t) men to be sent
out, but nearly onelialf of that amount consisted of reliefs.
Some 11,000 of those men are to fill up the vacancies among
the European ranks in India; so that, although the total
number of troops to be sent out amounts we are now told
from 20,000 to 25,000, yet the additional force we shall
furnish will only be 18,000 or 10,000 men. Of that number
how many can be fairly estimated ever to appear in the
field ? Them will be the per centage of loss from the voy
age, the per centage of loss from climate, and the casualties
of warfare, even before actual war has begun. You cannot
expect that of those 14,000 or 19,000 men more than
15,000 fresh troops will arrive on the field in India. 'ro
my mind, our efforts should be on a much greater scale.
There should be not oniy an advance from Calcutta through
Bengal, but also an expedition advancing up the Indus,
and I am not certain that the latter is not the more impor.

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