The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

THE PEE S S, DECEMBER 5, 1857.

may not reasonably distrust the vigour, the intelligence,
and the energies of those by whom the efforts of her gal-
lant army in the East are directed? (Hear, hear.)
Now, wy lords, if the advice of my noble friend (Lord
Ellenburough) had been adopted, the offers of the Pasha
of Egypt accepted, and troops sent through Egypt in the
beginning of June, they might have arrived in Calcutta
towards the middle of August; while, as it was, the tirst
reinforcement which did arrive in India, with the excep-
tion of the troops detached from China and a small num-
ber of men from the Mauritius, was part of a regiment
which was sent out in the Gulden Fleece, a remarkably
quick ship, which made the passage in the extraordinary
short space of sixty days, but which did lint arrive until
the latter end of October. Now, my lords, look to the cir-
cumetances of that garrison upon which the interest of all
is painfully fixed ; look at the position of Lucknow and the
position of the relieving force, and tell me what would
have been the effect if those troops which arrived in Octo-
ber had arrived at the beginning, the middle, or even the
latter end of September. If they had so arrived the move-
ments of Sir H. Havelock would hive been perfectly safe
and secure, and not the slightest risk would have been run
by the garrison of Lucknow, with all its helpless women
and children, of falling into the hands of their brutal and
barbarous enemies ; but if, from the delays of the Govern-
ment in sending out troops that town should fall, upon
them will rest. the guilt and the shame of such a fearful
calamity. (Hear, hear;.
Lord Derby then passed a most glowing eulogy on
the conduct of the officers in India, who, alone, out-
numbered, and believing themselves abandoned,
nevertheless made head against the savage hordes
by which they were surrounded, and with their own
good swords had saved the Indian empire. He con-
sidered also the meed of punishment to be awarded
to all taken in arms against us should be " death ;"
but for those inhuman torturers and murderers of
women and children, he would condemn them, not
to death, but to a life of hopeless slavery, with the
brand of Cain upon their brows. After deprecating
any stimulus given to the troops for univeral ven-
geance against the natives, and pointing out the
danger of the interference by the Indian Government
in matters of religion with the natives, Lord Derby
prodetded to that paragraph of the Royal Speech
which referred to a measure of reform, and to which
measure, he said, he was prepared to give his most
anxious and serious consideration :

The new measure of reform is, according to my noble
friend, merely to correct some trifling defects or blemishes
in the Reform Act, to which that, like all other human
laws, is subject. If the new measure is to do anything
more than that, my noble friend knows nothing of it and is
not answerable for it ; but, as an old parliamentary
tactician, he had been asked to make this explanation. Be
the proposed alterations of the Reform Act large or small,
I say for myself, and for those with whom I have the
honour of acting, we are ready, if in the judgment of the
Government this is a convenient and suitable time for
introducing a measure of reform, to give it the most
deliberate, impartial, and dispassionate consideration.
( Hear, hear). If it will remove blemishes so much the
better—we are far from maintaining that the Reform Act
is free from blemishes ; and if it should contain improv. -
ments, we by all means are prepared to consider those im-
provements. But what I wish to impress upon the
Government is the advisability of introducing their bill at
the earliest possible period. A bill was announced two or
three years ago, and but for extraordinary circumstances it
would have been brought forward last session. I have not
the least doubt, therefore, that the Government are pre-
pared at once to redeem the promise held out in the
Speech from the Throne. None of your lordships can
imagine for a moment that the Government have been
dealing so unfairly with Parliament and the country as for
two years to have been dangling before our eyes the
prospect of a bill which is not in existence. lam sure the
bill is ready, and when it comes before us we shall have to
deal with it as the calm and deliberate expression of the
opinion of Ministers. Being the work of a united Cabinet,
and, as I have said, ready to be laid before Parliament,
do hope the Government will lose no time in producing it.
(Hear, hear.) Independently of the particular business
for which we have been called together at the present time,
some advantage will have been gained by this short
session before Christmas, if the Government take the
opportunity which it affirds of laying before us—not with
the view of proceeding at once to its discussion—the
measure of Parliamentary Reform which they have
announced, so that all parties may see how far the views
of Ministers coincide with their own, and may be able
during the recess to consider what course they ought to
pursue when Parliament reassembles in February.
Earl Gmoivir.LE, in reply, admitting the great
distress which Lord Derby had sta,ed to exist in the
manufacturing districts, and which he said his own
rivate information confirmed, defended the course
pursued by the Government in regard to the suspen-
sion of the Bank Act as a step which he declared
had only been taken when its urgent necessity had
been shown, and by which only the commerce of the
country had been saved from the most serious and
dangerous embarrassments. As to any change in
the Charter Act, Lord Granville observed :

I can only say that it is not the intention of her Ma-
jesty's Government to propose any change in that act; as
at present advised they do nut think it desirable to do so;
but they are anxious that the committee of the House of
Commons which sat upon the subject last year, and which
recommended that it should be reappointed in the present
session, should be permitted to consider carefully all the
additional circumstances which have occurred. At the