The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

legislating for the government of India at this time was
that it would weaken the Government of India in the
opinion of those in India who ought to look upon it as
most powerful. (Hear, hear.) But what is the condition
of that Government now that it has been condemned by a
majority of 140 or 150? Who can suppose that the East
India Company will exercise any influence in India when
the House of Commons has condemned it as incompetent
The Directors of the East India Company must feel like
corpses—(laughter)—they must be conscious of being
dead men ; and I should suppose that their greatest
anxiety is to get their burial over as soon as possible, and
that their obsequies should be consummated in the most
decorous and even in the most splendid manner.
It being a positive fact that we must have a new Go.
vernment in England for India, that its construction will
not admit of any long delay, and that the moral influence
of the existing East India Company was destroyed by the
vote of the House of Commons, we feel it to be our duty
to lay a measure before Parliament. But we are not going
to take up the measure of our predecessors--that was one
of the most objectionable and inefficient measures that
was ever introduced in Parliament; but we are going to
deal with the question of the Indian Government in a very
different spirit. This is not the occasion, and it would be
the height of impropriety in me to enter now upon details
which mast be reserved for Parliament and which will
very soon be before the world, but when our measure is
brought forward I shall appeal with confidence to public
opinion to decide upon the comparative merits of our
scheme and of that of our predecessors, which was con-
demned, I must say universally, even by those who voted
against Mr. Baring's amendment.

I hardly know, gentlemen, whether there are any other
subjects of that urgent and instant importance which
would justify me in trespassing much longer on your
time. LDr. Lee.—The ballot.] The ballot is only a
measure, and not a principle. It is a part of that great
subject of parliamentary reform on which, of course, it is
my intention, with your permission, to make a few observa-
tions. (Cheers.) The subject is not one on which I can
feel any difficulty in addressing the electors of Bucks,
since on these very hustings last year I made some obser-
vations on the subject which you listened to with great
indulgence, and since then I have addressed my consti-
tuents in the northern part of the county, when I took
leave to lay down some principles and to offer some facts
which have been very acceptable, not only to my own con-
stituents, but to the country at large. It is a subject
upon which we have conferred so often, and to which I
have given so much consideration, that it never for a
moment entered into my mind to leave this table without
offering my opinion upon it. (Cheers.)
Let us revert for a moment to the years 1832413,
and let me ask you what was the cry then when
the Reform Bill was under discussion? There was
a great many persons who disapproved that
measure. 1 myself—though my opinions were nut
of much consequence—then disapproved of it. 1
thought it a great party manoeuvre which, if successful,
would place the Whigs in power pretty well for the term
of my life. But so great was the enthusiasm in favour of
the bill that no person then could open his mouth in criti-
cism upon it with safety to his life. A great many men
took objections to the principles on which the bill was
founded and to the methods by which its ends were to be
worked out, but nobody would listen to them in the House
of Commons. The cry was, " The bill, the whole bill, and
nothing but the bill "—and I believe no one was louder
in that cry than my learned friend Dr. Lee. (Loud
laughter.) The learned doctor always criticises any change
in my opinions with much equanimity, but he is never
charged by me with those remarkable gyrations which be
himself has exhibited. I won't say that he is a " most
vile antithesis," because the epithet is odious, and I have
a great respect for my learned friend—but that be is a
remarkable antithesis all will agree. (Laughter.) I
should like to remind those gentlemen who bawled "for
the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill," that the
ballot was not in it. (Cheers.) What was the next stage
then in public opinion as to the Reform Bill ? After a
certain time pnblio opinion began to grow a little sober
on the subject—the Conservatires, that is to say those
who were formerly the Tories, who had been reduced to
about 140 after the Reform Bill, began to increase
considerably in numbers under the leadership of a
very able man—and then the Whigs began to suspect (that
there was a chance of the Tories coming back to power.
What did they do ? They immediately raised a cry—
" Oh, the Tories must never be allowed to come back to
power, for they are not sincere ; and if they do get back
to power they'll be altering the Reform Bill." lam sure
the learned doctor was very much alarmed about that.
(Laughter.) It was in vain that Sir R Peel, speaking for
the Conservative party, offered a solemn and reiterated
assurance that the Tories—however mach they bad op-
posed it, however injurious in many respects and unsatis-
factory in more they deemed it—gave to the Reform Bill
a sincere adhesion that they accepted it as the basis of
their public and political conduct—they declared in the
face of the nation that they would act in the spirit of that
reform, that they would not seek to tamper with or to
alter its provisions. But no, for ten years the Tones
were kept out of power because they were not sincere re-
formers, and because if they were admitted to power there
would be the greatest danger of their attempting to alter
the Reform Bill. I, along with every other member of
the party with which I act, have always looked upon that
as a solemn compact given by Sir R. Peel that we should
adhere to the settlement (made by the Reform Bill. Still
I never changed my opinion about that bill ; and though
J did think that a subject of such magnitude was dealt
with in many respects in a way not entirely tins orthy of
it, yet I believed then, I believe now, and everybody
pretty
well agrees with me, that there was in the concoction of
that bill a greater number of jobs than in any bill ever in-
vented; and that, although its superficial and nouuma