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

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 5, 1857.

the currency of this country ought to be established.
(Hear, hear.) Now, I say without any hesitation that of
these three important subjects the one that is bound up
in the discussion of this Act of Indemnity is the most
important. ( Hear, hear.) You may regain an empire you
have lost, you may alter and not improve the constituent
body of this house—(a laugh)—but a currency established
upon just principles is in its application the most general
influence that can possibly affect society. ( Hear, 'near.)
It touches all classes, ar.d men who are dull and insensible
to imperial grandeur or even to political rights have a very
nice and fine interest in the decision we may come to on
this transcendently important question. ( Hear, hear.) I
say this is a subject on which her Majesty's Ministers
ought to have made up their minds. (Hear, hear.) Are
her Majesty's Ministers going to stand by the Bank
Charter Act of IS-14, or are they not? (Cheers.) That
is really the question which the country wishes them to
answer. If they are going to stand by the Bank Charter
Act of I shall myself hesitate before I can agree to
the Bill of Indemnity, because I do not think they were
then justified in departing from the letter of the law. If,
on the other hand, they are not going to stand by the Bank
Charter Act—if they have a policy—if they come forward
and tell us they are prepared to make amendments in that
act because they are convinced they are necessary, and did
not hesitate at a moment of suffering and emergency to
recommend the suspension of the law—then, I say, we
must not be scrupulous about this Bill of Indemnity, but
grant it without reserve or reluctance, and wait with re-
spect for the propositions which her Majesty's Ministers
are going to make. ( Hear, hear.) But if, after all the
country has gone through, we are to do exactly that which
we were doing before these difficulties and dangers anti all
this vacillation occurred, it appears to me that we should
forfeit the confidence anti respect of the country. ( Hear.)
And if indeed the noble lord wants to lay a good ground
fur an extensive measure of parliamentary reform, I think
he could have no better than to be able to say that the
representatives of the people met in consequence of the
summons of the Sovereign to consider a great emergency,
and that they could do nothing but follow the same fruit-
less, bootless ceremony that we wore pursuing before the
late events occurred.

Mr. Disraeli then referred to our foreign relations,
and, alluding to the paragraph in the Royal Speech
which declares that our foreign relations are ami-
cable, said

The paragraph is as follows :—" The nations of Europe
are in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace, which no-
thing seems likely to disturb." Now, several of my friends
have put upon this passage an interpretation that may be
correct, but which I, taking a more hopeful view, can
scarcely suppose to be accurate. They seem to think that
an expression of regret is conveyed in that paragraph—( a
laugh)—as it the noble lord (Palmerston) had said, " I
have done all I could, but we are still at peace. (Laughter.)
For the first time lam completely foiled. I have done
my best, but the turbulent and aggressive policy has failed.
We are in for it, and we are all at peace." (Continued
laughter and cheers.) I perceive that this interpretation
is accepted by the house. But there was a considerable
chance of tranquillity in our foreign relations, and I entered
into that belief; but about a month ago, when Parliament
had been prorogued to the Greek Kulends, and just when
her Majesty's Ministers were going to violate an Act of
Parliament, there occurred a great anniversary, which in
this country is not only of social but political importance,
and as such is appreciated by all parties. The occasion is
one when all the heal men of the country attend, and
which, during the absence of Parliament, affords an oppor-
tunity for the Minister of the Crown to give that informa-
tion which in a free land like this ought to be imparted
to the people. The right hon. gentleman who is at the
head of the magistracy of the City is a member of this
house, and fortunately sits on this side of it, and he will
correct me if lam inaccurate. When the noble lord at-
tended that anniversary, I own I shared the pervading
alarm that we were about to be involved again in those
difficulties in which we have generally found ourselves
under him, and from which he has the skill and is so
proud to extricate. us. An appeal was then made by the
noble lord to all the belligerent passions of the country
with that eloquence and emphasis which the noble lord
always employs. Since that memorable speech of old Sir
Harry Dundas, delivered during the revolutionary war,
when he declared that one Eng.ishman could beat three
Frenchmen, and which was recorded afterwards as a statis-
tical fact—(a laugh )—I hardly know any speech which
has produced so great an effect, and which was more cal-
culated to animate the heart of a country on the eve of
being tried by exigencies of the most perilous character.
It was quite clear that it was a Sovereign, and one appa-
rently of no mean order, who must have meditated war,
and some thought even the invasion of the country. That
it was a Sovereign of no mean order there could be no
doubt. It was clear there had been an Emperor who
had threatened us, and the people of England, seeing no
further than their noses, could not make out who it could
be. The Emperor of Russia, they supposed, might have
had enough of it, and so they thought it must be the
Emperor of the French. But the speeches of to-night
have dissipated that belief. If there be a king who is
going to make war upon England, it must be the noble
lord's old friend the King of Naples ; and if an
emperor is going to invade our territory, it must
be the other friend of the noble lord, the Emperor
of China. I will not stop a moment here to
remark upon the situation in which our plenipotentiary
in the Chinese waters is now placed. (" Hear," and a
laugh.) Still, one regrets that that deep and eternal
stain upon the. lionceir of the flag of England" has not
been washed out. (Hear, bear.) When that ruffian and
miscreant" still presides over the city of Canton—and I
MU surprised to find he still holds that office, notwith-

1175

standing the invectives of the noble lord from the hustings
of Tiverton—l can easily perceive that the quarrel in
China has served some one else besides Commis-
sioner Yeh. (Cheers.)

Adverting to affairs in India, Mr. Disraeli, passing a
glowing eulogium upon Havelock and Wilson, and
upon the "intrepid Nicholson and the fiery Neill,"
said, " What these men have done cannot be calcu-
lated until some time has elapsed. What has been
neglected to be done by others can only be estimated
when some months also have passed away."
Alluding then to the total unpreparedness of the
Government at home and in Calcutta to meet this
terrible rebellion, acknowledged at length in the
Royal Speech as " a widely-spread revolt," Mr. Dis-
raeli observed that in the course of his remarks last
year he had pointed out the annexation of Oude as
a primary and proximate cause for the insurrection.
Ministers ridiculed the notion. "But I ask the house
now, are they of opinion that the annexation of Oude
had nothing to do with this widely.spread revolt?"
He complained of the ambiguity of the paragraph in
the Speech from the Throne which recommended
the affairs of India to the earnest consideration of the

house, and called for a frank avowal of the intentions
of the Government with regard to the future admi-
nistration of India:—

This is no trifling matter. Is it the intention of the
Government to legislate for India? Is it their intention
to propose a new form of administration for that country ?
We have heard a great deal about the double Government
and its evils. In l&3 a noble friend of mine made a
motion, not asking you to condemn the double Govern-
ment, but asking the Ministers not to establish that double
Government, without previous inquiry. I can hardly
believe, therefore, that, having established the double
Government, her Majesty's Ministers in IRO, after all
these great events, are only going to do that which my
noble friend recommended in 1853. Everybody knows
the evils of a double Government, Its weakness is con-
tained in the very phrase itself, but the faults of the double
Government have not been particularly displayed in the
recent transactions. (Hear.) lam not aware that any
one has alleged that that form of Government has been the
cause of the recent events in India. What has occurred
in India has been produced by policy—by the conduct o f
those who had the government of India. It has not been
an affair of administration, it has not arisen from the mode
of taxation, nor from the way in which justice has been
administered, at least not primarily and particularly; but
in the first instance by policy, aggravated by the great
neglect of those who are responsible for the Government.
I am not at all aware that the double Government is par-
ticularly responsible for these great calamities ( though I
trust we shall find out at some time who is responsible for
them )—( Hear, hear)—but really if the double Government
is to be abolished I, for one, should hesitate before I
agreed to commit the powers which it still possesses to
the hands of those who in the exercise of their present
amount of power have shown neither discretion, sagacity,
knowledge of what was going to happen, nor readiness at
devising remedies for evils after they had happened.
(Hear.)

On the subject of Parliamentary Reform, the
scheme of which must, he thought, be perfectly
matured in the Cabinet, he urged Lord Palmerston
to introduce the bill forthwith, before the Christmas
recess, in order to afford ample time for its considera-
tion :

I do not expect that he should solicit the immediate
and precipitate decision of Parliament upon it; but I say,
let us have it introduced at once, and let us have the ad-
vantage of the Christmas recess and during the holidays
of becoming acquainted with its provisions —( Hear, hear )
because nothing is more unwise, and nothing can keep
public feeling in a more fretful state, than the constant
idea of a Parliamentary Reform Bill being held over the
heads of the people of this country. ( Hear, hear.) We
want to know, if there are to be changes in all the most
important of all our institutions, what those changes are
to be. That is a feeling which is not confined to this side
of the house, or to what is called the Conservative part of
the country; but I should think that all men must be of
the same opinion, and that all must feel the great impor-
tance, now that we have a Reform Ministry, a Reform
Minister, and a Reform Bill, that we shbuld have the bill
at once. t Cheers and laughter.)

Lord PALMERSTON, in a jocular tone, defended the
course pursued by the Government in the commer-
cial crisis, though he admitted no Government ought
to do what Ministers had done without grave reasons
congratulated the house upon our " friendly ";
foreign relations ; and, referring to the heroic
deeds of our commanders in India, announced
his attention, at an early day, to bring down a
Message from the Crown upon the subject.
The Address was then agreed to, and the house
adjourned at a quarter to eight o'clock.

Mr. FJX and Mr. Biqa were introduced, and took
the oaths and their seats for Oldham and Middlesex.
On the motion of Mr. HATTER, new writs were
moved. for Harwich, Paisley, the Eastern Division of
Kent, the Northern Division of Northamptonshire,
and for the borough of Thetford.

1176

NOTICE OF MOTIONS.
Mr. Hz.knLast—That he would on Tuesday next submit
a resolution, " That the principle of unlimited liability in
joint-stuck banks enforced by the present law gave them a
species of credit dangerous to their character and inju.
noes to public credit."
Lord Joas RUSSELL—That, on Thursday next, it was
his intention to move that this house do resolve itself into
a committee of the whole house, to consider the oaths of
allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and also to consider
the disabilities of our Jewish fellow-subjects.
Mr. \V. WILLIAMS—That, on going into committee of
supply ou the army and navy estimates, he would move
that those estimates be referred to a select committee.