The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-24 00:00:00

ended from the public mink* mei Neetteal Sam office he
had no personal difference with tb elebe lord, who might
still have in his poesestion a lettereed by him (Mr.
Urquhart) to tie noble lord, him in grateful
terms. Feeling strong in his convictivm e had, instead of
seeking (se had been some years age tweeted by Lord
Stanley) a committee with a view to redress his personal
wrongs—he had sacrificed his own interests to promote a
great national object—that of rescuing the country out of
the bands of the noble lord, by showing that he had used his
power to surrender this country to the bitterest foe of the
human race. Still the noble lord could not charge him with
any personal difference with him. Alter he (Mr. Urquhart)
bad left ofilce, he had addressed the conclusions to which
his mind bad been brought, by careful and anxious c
sidtration, to the Foreigreoffice, even after the noble
lord bad charged him with falsehood ; but which
the noble lord denied when the matter was named
in the house by Sir Stratford Canning. Whatever
might be the opinion of the house, or the vote to which it
might come on this question, he defied that vote or opinion
to restore the noble lord to the position in which he stood,
hefore the speech of the hon. and learned member foe
Youghal. (Luud laughter.) Tie: charges against the noble i
lord had always been set aside, because one mention would
not suffice to arrive at the bottom of the matter ; but now
fur the tint time it was before the house, and if proceeded
with, it would be proved that whatever the noble lord had
done or leR undone, one thing was certain, that the course
of the noble lord had been to increase the power of the
Czar, and to diminish the interests and the character of
England throughout Europe. Some sears ego a noble
lord, then the member for alnyletione (Lod Teigumoutb,
we believe), declared that in Ib3G, " Lord Pulmerstou had
exhibited England in the character of a bully and a coward
—tyrannical and oppressive to the weak—time-serving and
truckling to the powerful." But since that period the
noble lord showed himself tyrannical to the powerful—
France not being excepted;—and now in 1848 he lent his
country to the designs of Russia, which would ulti-
mately triumph in Europe. Fur this the measures of
the motile lord bad been successfully directed and employed.
lie was prepared to prove (and if he failed in proof he would
bear any censure the house chose to iutlict) that in the
treaty with Turkey there had been a change made in its
stipulations, with a view and for the effect of serving the
interests of Russia in Turkey. Ile was possessed of dome
meets so minute and conclusive, that no body of men
could hesitate as to the conclusion to which they ought to
arrive. lie did not seek to bring forward any political
dogmas, but matters of fact, which he alleged to amount to I
a crime. He app. aled to the house, as the grand inquest of
the uation, to go on with an inveatigition, for which ample
grounds had bean laid. The charge was loel against a
minister of the crown, and it was the duty of the house, as
grand inquest, to have it thoroughly investigated and pro-
perly decided ups. He wished to th.d that the charges
might prove to be false—("hear,' and a laugh)—that he
was a visionary. But he had no fear, txeept for his
country's fete. Tice motion, he was reminded, was not, as
he had thought, for a committee of inquiry—(a laugh)—it
was a motion for papers—in other words, a preliminary stage
to an inquiry. Ile appealed to all p inlet in the house to
content to that preliminary stage, and proceed to an inquiry,
which was imp atant, Loth as regarded the honour of the
minister, and the character and integrity of the country.
Lord 1). STUART moved the adjournment of the debate,
but—
Lord PALMERSTON rose and said—l trust that in what
I have to say I shall exercise such a eJminand of temper as
is fitting fur the respect I owe, and which I ought to owe,:to
this house. (Hear, hear.) I will, in the observations I am
about to make, avoid the use of laugua6e which, I think, is
only disgraceful to those who select it—disgraceful as being
at v iiiance with the rules of this house, with the courtesies
of society, with the practice of gentlemen, and 1 shall cer-
Minty not diegracu myself by alluding to such expresaioas
brought intg use on tho present occasion. (Cheers.) I
must, however, be permitted to repel, in terms the meet
comprehensive, in language the most posi:ive and complete,
the charges of every kind and description which the hon.
nod learned gentleman (Mr. Ansley), and toe hon. member
for Stafford (Mr. Urquhart), have beeight and asserted
against me this day. (Loud cheers.) li it we re not out of
the respect due to the house and to what I feel as a public
man to be due to the country—if this was merely a question
between myself and those two hon. members—l very
much doubt whether I should eondeseeng to make
any reply or even to contradict or disprove their
assertions. (Leud cheers.) Not only do I repel with that
indignation, scorn, disdain, and contempt, which are the
only appropriate sentiments a man in my position caa ex-
press, the charges—the false and unfounded charges—dis-
played Agaillit me, but I declare to the house, that if it be
the pleasure of the house to institute an inquiry into the
whole of my public conduct, from the firs: day on which I I
entered into the public service of my country down to the
rninufo at which I am now speaking, there is not a public or
official document in the records of toe Foreign-Once—there
is not a private sod confidential document in my own pos-
session—which I would not reedily, and with pride, submit'
to the examination of a commitice formed ex elusively and
entirely of my political opponents. (Hear, hear.) liming
said thus much on the general matter in question, I hod it
must iliflicult, (tom the diffuse catalogue of whit eta to which
the hon. and learned gentleman has adwrtcd, to compass my
answer within the limits which, on the present occasion
(looking at the hour which has arrived), the rules and
orders of the house allow use. 'l'he hon. and learned gentle-
man has delivered a speech, mode up of such a jumble of
frets—miareptesented facts—of perverted statements, and of
user:ions of things which never took place, that
it resembled more the images presented by a
,leidoseope out of order than anything else that could be
presented to the vision or 60SCs of a )olitical or public man.
t Rear," and laughter.) The hon. and learned gentleman
has gravely quoted those who are now no more, and before
1 proceed to go through the sta.:meats he has made, I feel
it due to the character of a man for whom I had the greatest
esteem and personal friendship-1 mean Mr. Deckhouse—to
%indicate him from the unfounded calumny which has been
east upon his memory by the host. and learned gentleman.
That any man, eve n though he only knew Mr. Backhouse
by name or reputation, could venture to accuse that gentle-
man of a lie is a mutter which! neverexpected to hear stated
before a company such as that now asseaulded in the house.
(Hear, hear.) II ever there was a man of honour, truth,
perfect sincerity, and kindness of heart and mind, that man
was the late Mr. Backhouse. Ile was as independent in
mind and character as he was honest and upright in disposi-
tion, and he wan as incapable of perverting and concealing
the truth out of regard to any man whatever as he was
incapable of spontaneously stating that which he did not
believe to be strictly and accurately true. (Cheers.)
I shall not follow the hon. and h armed gentleman through
a record of those events which he has touched upon, and
which took place before I was born (" hear " and a laugh),
because whatever may have been their bearing upon his view
of those complicated transactions, I do not feel that the re-
sponsibility for those events rest.. officially upon myself.
(Bear, hear.) I shall therefore say no-hing shout Lord
George Gordon'a riots, neither do I think that I am much
called upon to defend any other transactions which may
have taken place anterior to my official birth. (Hear, hear.)
The hon. and learned gentleman has dwelt upon circum-
stances which occurred in the years IS2B and 1829, when I '
dal not hold the office I have now the honour to fill, and he
seems to have one fixed notion, viz. that it hie been my lot
to have acquired the knowledge and the possession of some
magical powers by which I have been enatiled since 1830 to
sway the minds and to govern the conduct of all mankind,
and to direct the affairs of the whole w (" hear" and a
laugh), add he hascontended that the purposes for which
I have exercised the Aladdin-lamp sort of faculty has been
the abasement of England and the extension
of the power and influence of Russia. In answer,
let results speak for themselves. Is England
now a province of the Russian empire ? Is Russian
influence paramount in this colliery, or is it in the ascendant
in Europe? (Cheers.) Now the first event upon which
the hon. and learned member has founded a distinct charge
against me was the use of a civil expression by a Russian
ambsasador, in a despatch addressed to his own court in
1829, with regard to *speech I had made, either on the
subject of the affairs of i'ortugal or the affairs of Greece—l
forget which—but the hon. and learned member said that
because the Russian ambassador, in 1829, wrote to his go-
vernment at home that I had made a good speech, this was
conclusive evidence that I was a traitor. I feel assared that
no man will, on that ground, charge the hon. and learned
gentleman with being a traitor. (Cheers, and laughter.)
True, I had the misfortune of making a speech which drew
upon me the secret-approbation and tl.e good word of the
then Russian ambassador ; but surely to that approbation I
was no party, nor can I be chargeaba: with it. (Hear, hear.)
But then the hon. and, learned member stated that I had
approved of the conditions contained in the treaty of Adria-
nople, which, in his opinion, were injurious to the interests
of Turkey.
Mr. ANSTEY—I spoke not of the treaty, but of the de-
claration of war which preceded it.
Lord PALMERSTON—That was so ; but it was because
the hon. and learned member had not got up his pert very
accurately, and no doubt he had since discovered what was
the fact, because I corrected the hon. and learned member
the moment he had expressed his opinion on that point, and
told him it had relation to the declaration of war and not
to the treaty of Adrianople. Of the conditions of the treaty
I said nothing, but I am prepared to justify the opinion I
have before expressed on the subject of the declaration of
war ; and I repeat that, in my opinion, Russia had well-
grounded cause for a declaration of war with Turkey. Tur-
key had no doubt violated treaties with Russia—had com-
mitted acts which were inconsistent with the engagements
into which she had entered; and I thought then, as I think
tow, that Russia on that occasion had just grounds for war
with Turkey, who had been pushed on in her career by
evil adviser*. Of the declaration of war I did approve ; but
I never said that I approved of the conditions of the treaty
of Adrianople, which was concluded at a time when I was
not in office. On the contrary. I think the conditions
of that treaty were hard and unfair as between the two
parties. They were conditions imposed by the con- I
queror in a war in which Turkey had been worsted. ;
'the hon. and learned gentleman said that Lord Aberdeen
had protested against it. Undoubtedly there had been a
despatch from-Lord Aberdeen stating the grounds upon
which the then British government disapproved of that
treaty ; but the hon. and learned gentleman, when he said
that the government had declared it would not acknowledge
the treaty as part oaths law, was not borne out by the his-
torical fact.
Mr. ANSTEY—AII I said was that this country had pro-
tested against the treaty.
Lord PALMERSTON—Yes, but protesting mann a
treaty does not affect its validity. (Hear, hear.) The hon.
and learned gentleman next stated that the government of
which I was the organ had subjected Persia to the dominant
influence o; Russia. Why, the ascendancy of RUMiAII in
fluence in Persia dated from the peace of 1828. when the
unsuccessful result of the war with Russia led to a treaty by
which a large portion of the Persian territory was sur.
rendered to Russia, and the natural consequence of this re-