The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-17 00:00:00

of the late Mr. Canning. It was impossible to say bow
long the present Government might remain in power, or
how long the Conservative party might have to perfurin
the duty of an Opposition, but it ought not to be forgotten
that the functions of an Opposition were extremely
important, and Conservatives ought not to be depressed
because they were not in office. If they wanted power
for the mere sake of place and patronage, they did not
deserve to have it, as their great duty was to watch over
the interests of the country.

The CHAIRMAN having given " Church and State,"
and " The Army and Navy,"
The VICE-CHAIRMAN (Mr. Youngman) gave " The
immortal memory of the great Duke of Wellington,
and may our officers return from the East with the
same laurels as he gained in his Campaigns."
Sir S. BIGNOLD in reply, made a most interesting
announcement. He said :

A work is now in the press, and will in a very few weeks
be published, containing all the original papers of the
Greet Duke during his Indian campaigns. The work will,
I am sure, be absorbingly interesting to every British
subject when it meets the public eye. It is edited by the
present duke, and will be inscribed to her Majesty the
Queen. The present duke was in Norwich lately, and
some sheets came down during the week for correction.
One of these I had the pleasure of reading, and it was a
treatise upon the resources, trade, and state of the popu-
lation of Bengal, now in a state of mutiny. The obser
vations and deductions of the duke's great and master
mind will, I think, be greatly prized when the public
have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with them.

The health of " Sir Samuel Bignold and the Con-
servative Members of the Town Council " having
been proposed amidst loud cheers, Sir SAMUEL Bin-
NOLD returned thanks, and in the course of his
speech made the following remarks upon India :

I cannot help thinking that, with the warnings we have
had for many years past, and especially within the last
three or four months of the outbreak, the Government, if
they had fulfilled their duty, would, instead of thinking
about their own places, and occupying themselves in
getting a Parliament to suit their purposes, have turned
their attention to sending out the 20,000 troops in March
which they sent out in June, and which might no doubt
have got out in time to have prevented the occurrences
which have taken place. But the Government did not do
so ; they were otherwise engaged, although in March there
were reports upon reports of the insubordination which
had appeared. What did that indicate but a state of feel-
ing in India which ought to have induced the Govern-
ment immediately to send out troops ? They had them
in this country, because the moment the pressure comes
out they ko, a thousand in a ship. Lord Palmerston, the
head of the Government, was a leading member of the
Cabinet which " drifted " us into a war with Russia. He

was a Secretary of State in that Administration. You all
know that every Cabinet Minister is as responsible as the
Prime Minister for the acts of the Government of which
he is a member. Lord Palmerston, I say, was a member
of the Cabinet during the whole period of the Aberdeen
Government, during that period when this country
" drifted," as they termed it, into a war with Russia. He
is at the head of affairs when we get into a war with
Persia; he is at the head of affairs when we get into an
embarrassment with China; and he is at the head of
affairs when we get into a mutiny in India. Yet everybody
says on all sides, "Oh, we must support Lord Palmerston."
The time is coming I think when some change must take
place, and the sooner it does take place, so that we have a
little more energy and foresight in the administration of
the affairs of the country than has been displayed during
the last four or five years, the better for the interests
of all of us.