The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

Tilt Pnt SS, JULY 4, 1857.

must either leave en imposing force to protect the exten•
sive cantonments at Meerut, Umbellah, anti other places,
or, as the force moves away from Urnballah, their canton•
ments will be burned down behind them. And we know
that no European troops can stand in the full blaze of an
Indian sun without shelter. This is with me a cause of
great apprehension, and no doubt it occasions serious con-
sideration in the minds of the Government. It is not
only at Meetut and Delhi, but in the Punjaub at Feroze•
pre, and in every part of Bengal, that this disposition to
mutiny exists. I regret to say that if fear at the present
moment we cannot with safety rely on the fidelity of any
of the regular regiments of the Bengal army. Upon the
irregular force I trust we can rely. I hope, too, we may
depend upon the artillery ; though one battery, it appears,
has been seduced, or threatened into joining the mutineers.
I know we may rely implicitly on the Ghooikas. I live
we may also depend upon the fidelity of the native princes
whose territories border upon Delhi. The Government,
we find, have drawn European troops to Bengal, very
prudently and properly, from other presidencies ; but in
doing so, they have left Madras and Bombay almost
without the protection of a European force. We know
not what may be the result if the danger should spread ;
but I trust that the Government will look at it in its full
extent. I trust they will remember that we are really in
the position of being compelled to raise every effort the
country can make to maintain if not to recover that great
empire of the East. But how does the case stand? We
have since the war been reducing the army and the navy,
and have now to meet this formidable difficulty and pro-
vide for the safety of the country with a very reduced peace
establishment. We have in the Chinese waters all that
disposable naval force which ought to be left at home for
the security of our own shores even in the midst of pro-
found peace. But the whole of the naval force available
has been despatched to Ciiina to carry on the contest
between Sir John Bownng and Commissioner Yeh.
Besides that, six battalions have been withdrawn from
India for the same purpose, and I believe it will be found
that those six battalions are totally inadequate to effect the
objects of the Government.
The noble earl then remarked upon the not im-
probable effect this outbreak in India might have
upon the policy of Persia, called upon the Go-
vernment while affording India every support not to
neglect the safety of England, and concluded by
a•;ki;tg what measures her Majesty's Government
intended to adopt for the purpose of reinforcing our
army in India, and placing us at home in that state
of security we occupied during the last great war.
Lord GRANVILLE replied that, before the arrival of
the recent news, 10,000 men, consisting of four fresh
regiments and reinforcements for regiments already
serving in India, had been placed under orders for
embarkation. Since that news arrived, four more
regiments had received the same orders, making in
all about 14,000 men. With regard to the position
of affairs in India, the Government had every reason
to be satisfied with the energy and determination
displayed by the lieutenant governors of the districts
in which attempts at mutiny had occurred, while,
with regard to the Governor General himself, letters
had been received from him in which, while discuss-
ing the events which had taken place with all due
gravity, be spoke so cheerfully of the ultimate result
as to inspire the Government with the greatest eon
fidence. As to the home measures of protection, it
would be a manifest impropriety on his part to go
into detail as to any measures the Government might
think it advisable to introduce for strengthening the
military forces of the country at home. " The noble
earl may depend upon it that they will take the
course which they think right, and that in no spirit
of exaggerated alarm ; hut with due consideration of
all the circumstances, they will take such steps as
may appear to them necessary under the circum-
stances."

Lord BROUGHAM asked the state of the Indian
funds, Lira HARDWICKE suggested that the
troops sl,ould be sent out overland, and the subject
shortly dropped.

LORD PLUNKET AND THE "

Lord DONOUGHMORE called the attention of the
house to a breach of privilege committed, as ho
alleged, on Lord Plunkrt by an article in the Ex
a miner newspaper. The noble lord read the article
at length.
Lord GRANVILLE could not regard the article in
the same light. He thought the house would not
gain by perrelual collisions with the press.
Lord DERBY thought the article in question most
coarse and scandalous :

The auth, r of the article in question showed not only
an entice absence of gentlemanly teeling, but gross igno
ranee of the history of those of whom he had written. He
said that the late Lord Plunket owed everything to the
Liberal party. That was simply untrue, for he owed every-
thing to his own great powers and abilities ; and he could
only say that he wished that no one of their lordships
would ever be less deserving of the honour of a coronet
than Lord Plunket. But it was assumed that, because
that noble lord received favours from a Government of the
same politics as that now in office, and because a peerage
w as conferred upon him by them, not only he. but his son
after him, was bound to sacrifice hie conscience and vote
with the successors of a Government which thirty years
before gave a peerage to his father, under the penalty of
being accused of ingratitude and of forsaking all the obli-
gations of party. It showed no small ignorance of party
obligations, and was pushing political gratitude to the very
utmost, to say that, because the father got a peerage from

a Government representing certain political opinions, his
son was to be the slave of all Governments professing the
same principles.

lie could not recommend Lord Donoughmore to
press his motion.
Lord LANSDOWNE thought the step proposed
absurd. If their lordships were to take notice of
every article of this kind, they would be occupied
from Monde), till Saturday in every week.
Lord BROUGHAM was bound to say that a more
harmless, inoffensive, and meritorious individual than
the right rev. prelate in question he never met with.
It was said that his noble father owed much to the
Liberal party, but it was nothing to whet the Liberal
party owed to him, who was one of the most distin-
guished ornaments of his time and country.
The motion was ultimately withdrawn.

OF REFUGE.

Lord RAVENSWORTH moved for certain papers re-
ferring to the construction of the harbours of refuge
at Jersey, Alderney, and Dover :

His object was to direct the attention of the country to
these works before any further sum was expended upon
them, because he had been assured that they were utterly
useless, and that the money already expended upon them
had been absolutely thrown away.
The motion was agreed to.
Some other business was then despatched, and
their lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—MoNonv.
INDIAN REVOLT.

On the order for going into committee of supply,
Mr. DISRAF.LI rose to put a question to the Go-
verpment relative to the present state of our Indian
empire. After glancing at the war with Russia, the
hostilities with Persia, and our subsisting hostile
relations with the Chinese, he observed that we
found, after the great exertions made in these wars,
that our extensive Indian empire was endangered,
not by the machinations of apparent external foes,
but by an internal enemy ; that Delhi was actually
in the possession of our own rebellious native troops.
He asked for some information as to the causes of
this state of things, and what was intended to be
done in this emergency :

The information that has reached us within the last
twenty-four hours communicates, perhaps, the most im-
portant events that certainly have occurred in my public
life, and I should think in the public life of most of those
who are present. Whatever may be the various views and
emotions which the members of this house or the country
generally may feel at this intelligence, I am quite sure
there is one predominant sentiment to which all others,
however important, must he subordinate, arid that is a
determination to support the Sovereign and her Majesty's
Government in all those measures which so grave and
critical an emergency may require. lam quite ante that
the spirit of this country is so high, that its resources are
so great, that there is nothing they are not prepared to
endure, nothing they are not prepared to expend and exert
in order to maintain that empire which has been the boast
of this country for so long past, and which is one of the
greatest sources of our power, wealth, and authority.
The right hon. gentleman remarked that this
calamity had not been of a sudden nature, and that
he desired to know not only what in the opinion of
the Government had been the main cause of these
calamitous events, but to know from her Majesty's
Ministers whether they were forewarned :

I wish to know from her Majesty's Ministers whether,
in their opinion, that cause is politics' or religious ;
whether it has originated in the mal•adutiuistration of our
affairs, or in some burst of fanaticism, which ought
perhaps to have been foreseen, even if it could not have
been prevented. I wish to know from her Majesty's
Ministers what has been the general nature of the com-
munications which they have received from the highest
authorities, military and civil, in India on these subjects.
I wish to know whether it be true that, months ago, the
highest military authority in India warned her Majesty's
Ministers of the unsatisfactory state of our army in India.
I wish to know whether there have been placed before her
Majesty's Ministers statements and complaints that our
army in India was under•otficered. I wish to knew
whether it has been represented to her Majesty's Ministers
that the Indian Government had been in the habit of
employing the r .gitnental officers in civil and diplomatic
services without substituting men of experience and rank
in their respective regiments; whether that has exercised
any injurious influence on the spirit and discipline of the
troops. I wish to know from her Majesty's Ministers
whether the civil and military authorities of India have
been in accord with the information which they have
given, and the representations which they have mode;
whether the highest civil authority in India has not agreed
with the highest military authority in the policy which he
recommended and wished to enforce. I would ask even
if the Governer•General of India has not resigned the high
office which he held. These are the questions which, I
think, under the circumstances, her Majesty's Govern-
ment should not shrink from meeting. I have endea-
voured not to enter into any controversial matters, for if it
be necessary that the government of India should be
brought under the ccnsideration of this house, no doubt a
fitting opportunity for it will be offered. I have confined
myself to asking the questions which, I believe, anxiously