The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-20 00:00:00

THE WORKING CLASSES.

Mr. SLANEY moved a resolution :
That it is expedient to establish a standing committee,
or unpaid board or commission, to consider and report
from time to time on practical suggestions likely to be
beneficial to the working classes.
The ground of bis motion, he said, was that pre-
ceding inquiries had not worked out an effectual
remedy for the evils to which these classes were
exposed. He pointed out what be considered to be
the main causes of the alteration which had taken
place in their social circumstances, and he urged
the advantage of having a tribunal, not fluctuating
with every change of Governxient, which could oiler
practical suggestions for the benefit of the working
classes.
Mr. ESTCOURT observed that Mr. Slaney bad not
given any sketch of the plan of operations he pro-
posed to adopt, and he was at a loss to conceive what
was the practical measure be had in view.'lie
scheme proposed was one of mere vague benevo-
lence, destitute of practical applicability.
The motion was withdrawn.

OF SEPOYB.

Mr. Brut called attention to the treatment of the
mutinous sepoys and other insurgents in India, and
moved for a series of papers relating to the sub
ject. He deprecated the severity now exercised
towards the mutineers, and then proceeded to
examine the cause from which, in his opinion, the
mutiny primarily originated. Much fault, he thought,
lay at the door of the English authorities, and their
conduct, especially in Oude, did not justify the em-
ployment of the stern means of retribution which
were said to have been adopted.
Mr. H. BAILLIE declined to reopen the general
question regarding the Indian mutiny. He ad-
mitted the principle that extreme severity towards
the nation would bo equally unjust and impolitic,
but expressed his conviction that no excesses of that
kind had actually been committed. Bengal was
now under martial law, carried out entirely at the
discretion of the commander-in•chief, and he read
some rules issued by Lord Canning to show how
careful be had been to restrain all intemperate acts
of vengeance. The papers asked for would, with
some reserve, be readily granted.
Mr. VANSITTART hoped that the house would not
be led away by false notions of humanity. He
did not hesitate to say that, in his humble opinion,
the system of conciliation had been carried too far
in India. To the treacherous Hindoo, to the blood-
thirsty Mahomedan, and to the plundering Mahratta
conciliation meant fear, concession inability to com-
mand, and clemency was to be repaid on the very
first opportunity by the infliction of the most inex-
pressible horrors and devilish torments that the
human mind could conceive on poor unoffending
women and helpless children. (Oh, oh !)
Mr. C. BUXTON supported the motion, insisting
that a stop should he put to the "reign of blood" in
India. Abundant proofs were afforded that the
humane proclamations of Lord Canning were disre-
garded, and it was incumbent upon the house to sup-
port him by some definite expression of its opinion.
Mr. Buxton then read extracts from many published
letters of officers in support of his argument that the
natives were now punished with death in India upon
the most trivial grounds. The principle of punishing
simple disaffection to our rule with death was acted
on in all quarters. In Onde, " all those who," in the
words of Sir Colin Campbell, " had set aside their
allegiance," were being put to death ; and in Hin-
dostan Proper we are acting on the same principle.
Again, the Rajah of Bullubgbur, who had saved the
lives of Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Roods, and many other
Europeans, had been hanged because, as he pleaded,
tinder the compulsion of the rebels, and from mere
terror, be had given them aid, and joined with them.
Let no one, then, talk about our severities being
aimed at murderers alone. He bad demonstrated
that what we were now executing for was distinctly,
not for murder, but for " setting aside their alle-
giance ":
Yes, that was the expression Sir Colin Campbell used—
' setting aside their allegiance." He remembered how our
blood boiled within us when but some twenty-five of the
Hungarian leaders were consigned to the gallows. What
a harsh thing we thought it of the Pope and of the King
of Naples merely to keep in prison those who tried to
overthrow their power ! And, turning to our own history,
what names stank most foully? Were they not those of
men who, after all, did but enforce the law against
traitors ; and those, traitors, not to foreign conquerors, but
to their lawful king? And could it be that we, wbo were
so horror-struck at such deeds when done by other
men and in other times—could it be that we English-
men, who had felt so warmly for every people that bad
risen to dash aside a foreign tyranny—oonld it be that we,
who took such a delight in a spirit of independence, who
loved freedom so dearly, who paid so tender a reverence to
human life—could it be that we, at this day, were encum-
bering the reputation of our country with memories
bloody and terrible as the memories of Taunton and of
Culloden ? Yes, that was so. That was literally and ac-
curately so. It was the case, and at this very day we were
laying waste village after village with fire and sword, that
we were hanging multitudes in cold blood, on the sole
ground that they had set aside their allegiance. He did
implore the house to record that night its emphatic will
that such butcheries should cease. lie was aware that he
should be roundly abused for using such strong words.
But be did feel from the very bottom of his heart that not
merely in doing these deeds in India, but in not lifting up
out voice against them here at home, we were involving
our country in a crime worse than the crime of mutiny;
in a (Time that would be the ruin of our fame ; in a crime
that would make our remonstrances with such grants as
the King of Naples seem a humbug and a sham; in a
crime that would bnitalise our own character; of a crime
that would stir up the deadly hate of the men in India, and
would thus cut away the only groundwork on which our
away over them could repose—the groundwork of their
esteem and love. By acting thus we would be staining not
alone our glory, but our souls, with that darkest and most
awful stain—the stain of innocent blood. (Cheers.)

Mr. It. MANGLES eulogised the moderation of
Lord Canning, and declared that the tales of indis.
criminate hangings and shootings of natives by Eng-
lish troops were based upon newspaper exaggeration.
He professed a similar disbelief respecting tile ac-
counts of sepoy atrocities.

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