The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-14 00:00:00

LORD DERBY'S SPEECH.

rid of the income tax, and if we do not wish to see
it incorporated into our system of taxation, we must,
in the years between this and 1860, apply ourselves
•igorously' and rigidly he such a system of economy
and of reduction in ear expasditare as is coasiAent
with the attainmentdf that objectotnd se as; Se reader
it possible to square your balance of revenue and
expenditure.
But, my lords, it is quite obvious that the expen-
diture of this country, with respect to the nature and
extent of your warlike establishments, depends upon
the system of policy, and more especially upon the
system of foreign policy, that is to be pursued: by
the Government. ',Cheers.) If you determine that
that policy shall be one of respect for the indepen-
dence and for the rights of foreign nations—of
studious abstinence from interfering with the purely
internal concert's of other countries—of an anxiety
to avoid by every possible means a language, tone,
and temper which shall show you ready to substitute
in case of fancied insult and injury a tone of menace
and braggadocio for that of reason and conciliation—

if you are slow to take offence and ready to]accept
explanation and reparation, when it is offered in a
friendly spirit—if you do this I have no fear, in the
present condition of the world, and with the general
feeling that prevails in nearly all foreign nations,
that we must be prepared to keep up large war
establishments in time of peace. But it you proceed
upon an opposite policy, and are determined to
meddle in the internal concerns of other countries—
if you attempt to dictate the mode in which they shall
deal with their own subjects, and interfere with them
when the interests of your own subjects are not con-
cerned—if you threaten and bully, and use the l anguage
of menace to those who, although weak, are too proud
to listen to you, when you tell them how to behave
towards their own subjects—if you adopt such a
course of conduct, I take the liberty to tell your
lordships that you must keep your establishments
upon a war footing—that you must be prepared to
back up every petty quarrel in which you may be
involved, that you must be ready to provide on the
shortest notice for a war that may spread over the
whole face of the world. And, my lords, above all, if
you lay down this formidable and dangerous princi-
ple, that your subordinate officers in every part of
the world shall have the power at their discretion of
committing this country to a war—if you lay down
the further principle that, right or wrong, after they
have done those acts clicy must be approved by the
Government—and, further still, that, those acts being
thus approved by the Government, it is beyond the
competence of Parliament to take cognisance of those
transactions, with the view of condemning them, upon
pain of being charged with a factious combination
against the Government, then, my lords, you may
give up the idea of reducing your army, you must
hold yourselves armed cap-it-pie for the fight, and
you must be ready to plunge into the horrors of war
in every part of the world at the discretion of men
proud of their brief authority, and ready to make the
most of the confidence of the Government at home.
And this, my lords, leads me to the peculiar cir-
cumstances under which an appeal is to be made
to the country. Your lordships need not appre •
bend that I am about to enter into the merits
of the China war, or to examine the legality
of the proceedings of Sir J. Bowring, or the prudence
of the steps he has taken. I am going to assume
for the present that the whole of those steps were
legal ; but I desire to point out to your lordships the
position in which this country is placed by the
adoption of these assumed legal proceedings of Sir
J. Bowring. It is no little inconvenience, and no
slight public evil, that in the month of March, just
at the commencement of the session, and when the

House of Commons were about to commence the
business of the country, we should be interrupted in
our proceedings by a dissolution of Parliament--a
dissolution that creates the greatest possible incon-
venience both to public and private affairs, and which
involves not only the loss of time of the dissolution
itself, but that further loss of time caused by the
arrangements consequent upon the meeting of the

new Parliament, and which will render this coming
even more unproductive of beneficial
measures than was promised us in the very meagre
programme of the Speech from the Throne at the
commencement of the present session. My lords, of
course that inconvenience enact be submitted to. I
shall be told that the Government having hat a
hostile vote passed against them, it became necessary
for them either to resign or to appeal to the countrv.
But, my lords, whose fault was it that a ques-
tion was ever raised involving the character or credit
of the Government? I am going very humbly to
offer my apology for your lordships' house and fJr
the House of Commons for having so far misunder.
stood the spirit of the Constitution as to believe that
it was within their competence to take notice, and,
having taken notice, to express an unbiassed opinion
upon the conduct of any official with regard to whose
proceedings the Government, by command of her
Majesty, had laid papers and documents before Par-
liament. I may be mistaken, but I certainly have
believed that when papers are laid upon the table by
her Majesty's Government, it is for the very purpose
of inviting an expression of the opinion of Parlia-
ment upon them. My lords, I conceive it cannot be
said that, in respect either to this or the other House
of Parliament, we have been anxious to interfere
with the discharge of the duties of the Executive, or
that we have interposed any obstacles in the way of
the exercise of those functions which properly belong
to the Crown. They have manifested, on the con-
trary, a degree of forbearance which I do not blame,
but which I venture to say is almost unparalleled.
(Hear, hear.)
What is the case with regard to the war in Persia?
A quarrel has been entered into, troops have been
despatched, war has been declared, an expedition has
been sent out, a fortress has been taken, negotiations
have been entered into, negotiations have been con•
eluded, peace has been made, and from the first to
the last, from the hour when the quarrel began to
the moment when I am addressing your lordships,
the House of Lords and the House of Commons have
not had one single scrap of paper or one single
official document which shows the object, the cause,
the intentions of the war, or the terms on which it is
terminated ; and the House of Commons, which
ought to furnish supplies upon an estimate of ex-
penses, are not likely to know anything about that
expense until they are called on to pay the bill
already discharged by her Majesty's Government.
(Cheers.) Therefore I say the House of Lords
and the House of Commons have displayed no undue
anxiety to interfere with the Government, or to
hamper or embarrass the Executive. (Hear,
hear.) But, when papers are laid before Parlia-
ment, it is an invitation on the part of the Crown
for Parliament to express its opinion on the subject-
matter of those papers, and, if we do not, we grossly
neglect our duty, as by tacit acquiescence we may be
assumed to sanction acts most repugnant to our
feelings, and in our judgments most objectionable.
(Hear, hear.)
What has taken place in this instance? Upon the
perusal of these papers a motion was made in the
other House of Parliament by a gentleman usually,
I believe, a supporter of her Majesty's Government,
and most undoubtedly wholly unconnected with the
Conservative party. That motion expressed on the
face of it—l forget the precise words—the opinion of
the House of Commons that the papers laid upon
the table failed to afford sufficient justification for
the officials in China. I gave notice and brought
forward in this house a motion varying in terms, but
entirely to the same effect ; and what was the course
pursued by her Majesty's Government in both
houses ? Why, to assume to themselves the whole
responsibility of the conduct and judgment of Sir J.
Bowring; to make themselves parties ;
to insist oa
being censured, or rather to insist that Parliament
should either forbear expressing an opinion or be
charged with a desire to censure or displace her
Majesty's Government. Now, I will venture to say
that if, instead of her Majesty's Government vindi-
eating to the uttermost the conduct of their agents,

they had come forward and expressed what I am
sere is their own honest and sincere conviction, that,
with the best intentions, a hasty and ill-judged step
taken by the plenipotentiary had involved conse-
quences which he would be the first to regret and
had been the last to contemplate ; that they could
not altogether vindicate the course be had pursued,
but that allowance ought to be made for the diffi-
culty of the position in which he was placed, and
concluding with an intimation of their intention to do
that which they have done subsequently, to send out
another plenipotentiar;. with full powers, if not to
supersede, to override the authority of that official,
and to bring the affair to the earliest conclusion
possible; I will venture to say that that declaration
on the part of the Government would in this and the
other house have put an end, if not to all discussion
and debate, undoubtedly to any chance of an adverse
division. (Cheers.)
But what was the course of the Government'
Here is the proposition—that the papers, as they lie
before us, do not justify the conduct of the officials.
Her Majesty's Government join issue, and declare
that, in their judgment, the papers do justify the
conduct of the officials. They compel us to say
"Ay " or "No ;" and yet it is quite obvious that,
towards the conclusion of the debate, some change
came over the spirit of the dream of the Government,
because, towards the end of it, their supporters said,
"After all, it is very hard that the Government here
should be held responsible for what has been done
by the officials there, of which they had no previous
cognisance, which was done without notice to them—
which was done on the other side of the world ; and
it is very cruel to make them responsible for the
conduct of their agents." It was not we, or the
other House of Parliament, but they who made
themselves responsible for the conduct of their
agents. (Cheers.)
And here let me warn the Government. However
magnanimous it may seem, however grand it may
sound, to say that on all occasions a public servant—
more especially an absent public servant—is to be
defended, you ought only to carry that as far as is
consistent with justice. (Hear, hear.) You may
carry it even as far as is consistent with indulgence ;
but when it comes to the point that by the indiscre-
tion of a public servant the country is plunged in
a war, the expenses of which are not to be calculated
and the horrors of which are not to be told, then, I
say, if that public servant is to receive the support of
the Government to the extent of insisting on dis-
solving Parliament if Parliament does not concur
with him, you are giving a most exorbitant premium
to imprudent conduct, to hasty actions, and to want
of a due sense of their proper responsibility to every
gentleman you employ in every part of the world.
(Loud cheers.) But if you considered the conduct
of your agent so entirely blameless—if you thought
the papers quite justified his prudence, and showed
him to be the fittest man to conduct affairs of that
kind, wbysupersede him? (Hear, hear.) I know not
whether the determination to send out that super-
seding officer was come to before or after the division
of the House of Commons, but in either case it
affords to the majority of that house ample vindica-
tion for the vote to which they came. (Hear.) If
it were the intention of Government previous to that
debate to supersede Sir J. Bowring, in the first place
they ought frankly to have sail so, which would have
put an end to the discussion; and, in the next place,
it argues a foregone conclusion in their minds that
the papers did not justify the conduct of Sir J. Bow-
ring. (Hear, hear.) If that intention were only
formed after the decision of the House of Commons
had shown what was the opinion of the representa-
tives of the country, I say the House of Commons
performed a signal service in compelling the Govern-
ment, by their vote, to do that which they ought to
have done voluntarily. In either case the vote of
that majority is amply justified, if only by the fact
that, having vainly attempted to vindicate his con
duet, the Government proceeded to supersede Sir
John Bowring. Hear, hear.)