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

also heard it said again and again, " Take care of your im-
ports, and yourexports will take care of themselves." N ,
in ten months of 18.55 our exports amounted to 78,087,4311.
That was an enormous, perhaps an inflated amount of
commercial business; but in 18.57, during the same space
of time—ten months—your exports, that unvarying test of
national prosperity by which we are to measure the happi-
ness and welfare of the manufacturing community, have
increased to 106,000,0001., being an increase of 28,000,0001.
within two years in the single item of exports. Has there
been a corresponding increase in the happiness and com-
fort of the operatives, in the wealth of the manufacturers,
in the wellbeing of all persons engaged in those branches?
We are told that with this increasing amount of exports
there has been a constantly increasing and almost over-
whelming amount of distress. Large as our exports have
been, yet they have not kept pace with our im-
ports. In the course of three years our exports have
been 308,000,0001., while our imports have been
no less than 468,000,0001., showing a balance of
159,000,0001. against us in those three years. Well,
if your imports have exceeded your exports, you must
have been driving a very profitable trade, and must have
the advantage of having about 159,000,000/. in your
pockets. But the trade has not been so profitable as you
seem to imagine. Let me, in the first place, ask you
whether all your imports have been paid for? ( Hear,
hear.) We have in the course of the period to which I
have referred, in consequence of the inequality which pre-
vailed between the amount of our exports and our imports,
sent out of the country something like 84,000,000/. in the
shape of bullion—(Hear, hear)—and if we happen at this
moment to be in a state of indebtedness it is not solely
because the amount of our exports has been so large, but
because our imports are encouraged by the Legislature
in a degree which is out of all proportion to our exports.
(Hear, hear.) If that be not the cause of the commer-
cial distress which now prevails, I should wish to know
from her Majesty's Ministers to what, in their opinion,
that distress is to be attributed, and what it is which
has rendered necessary the immediate interference of
the Legislature in order to restore confidence to the
public. ( Hear, hear.)

Lord Derby then proceeded to speak of the rebellion
in India, entering into a most minute detail of the
gradual rise and development of the mutiny from the
first individual caws of insubordination to the aecu-
initiation of horrors at Delhi, and exposing the utter
and hopeless ignorance of the Government in deal-
ing with these events. He greatly blamed the con-
duct of her Majesty's Government in not sending
reinforcements sooner, and, when at last they did
despatch a tardy aid of troops, in sending them by
the long sea voyage, though the Sultan, in July, had
granted a firman for their passage overland, the
Pasha of Egypt had offered his own carriages and
horses to convey them across the htliinu4, the
Emperor of the French had offered to allow the
passage of any numter through France, and the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company offered to tlie
Government in July to make arrangements for the
passage of troops from Alexandria across the Isth-
mus, by which they could have been transported
from ship to ship within twenty four hours, and
they offered the use of their steamers, which they
stated were capable of carrying 500 men at each
tip:—
If troops had been conveyed by that route across the
Isthmus, they would have arrived at Bombay or Point de
Galle in six or seven weeks; and, consequently, troops
despatched from this country at the end of June or the
beginning of July would have reached India by the middle
of August. The Government, however, declined all these
propositions. They refused to avail themselves of the
offers of the Sultan, of the Pasha, of the Emperor of the
French, and of the Peninsular and Oriental Company.
They relied upon their own means .and resources—and
what happened? After a time matters became more
serious, and, towards the latter end of August, application
was made by the Government to the East India Directors,
who had from the first been anxious to forward troops by
the overland route, to arrange with the Peninsular and
Oriental Company the very bargain which a month be-
fore her Majesty's Government had declined. The East
India Directors, in concert with the War-office and the
illustrious duke (the Duke of Cambridge), who I am sure
was from the first anxious to provide for the despatch of
reinforcements, undertook the arrangement.
Lord Derby then related a fact which, as the noble
lord stated, sounded so incredible that it was difficult
to believe it :

I ask to be contradicted by the Government if they are
able to contradict me, but should they do so I promise to
bring forward incontrovertible evidence to prove it. Some
considerable time after the arrangements to which I have
referred, the right hon. gentleman the President of the
Board of Control somewhat surprised the agent of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company by a letter, in which he
asked him if some plan could not be arranged by which
troops could be sent to India by means of the steamers of
the company. Well, my lords, the gentleman to whom
the letter was addressed read it over, and then examined
the seal and scrutinised the signature to see it' it could
possibly be a hoax, but finding that it was a genuine pro-
duction, he wrote back to say, " You ask if it can be done ;
why, it is being done and has been done fur a considerable
time, wider the authority of the Government." I ask
your lordships if it is not inconceivable that the President
of the Board of Control, himself a member of the Cabinet,
should write and ask if it was possible to organise a scheme
when that scheme had been in full operation for a consi-
derable period under the sanction of the Government?
(Laughter.) I ask you if, with such instances, the country