The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-27 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—TVESDAY, Nur•. 26.
Tag Ifut•sc of LORDS sat for only a few mi-
stake yesterday. and transacted no business of
importance.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TI:ZSDAY, Nov. 26.
IN the Huuss of COMMONA Sir it. PALMER
ObtßiDeq.l lea% e to bring in a bill to amend the law
relating to the save of reversions in the Court of
Chancery.
Mr. H t-os.isx reintroduced his bill of last
mum .n to alter and amend the laws relating to turn-
pike fruits ; and Mr. SHERIDAN his bill to compel
rail". ay c.,ii,•)anies to establish some means of cont-
Munication hetween guards and passengers.
Tl house having resolved itself into committee
of supply.

The it. 'IAN...Jaws of the EXCHEQUER moved a
vote of credit for the Abyssinian expedition.
In the of August, when, in fact, so far as
business vi.is ceiicerned the house had ceased to
saiemble, they received information from the
reside::t at Aden, that the King had rejected the
ultimattiii., and they conceived it was their duty to
support the honour of the country by sending_ an
expedit.i..n. They had not expended one shilling
which ha-: nut been voted and appropriated by par-
lament, and it was because those votes and appro-
priati..t.i v:ere exhausted that they now came to
parliament to ask for assistance and to support
their policy. Assuming that the war was carried
en tin about the month of April, about
which time it would be expedient that our troops
should leave Abyssinia, he believed it would be
neeenar.. to incur an expenditure of about three
millions and a half, which, if they were called,
upon to replace the troops taken from India, would
be increased by about 300,000/., making 3,800,000/.
in an ; but of this only 2,000,0001. would be re-
quired in the present financial year, and be con-
cluded by moving that a vote be agreed to for that
amount.

Mr. IA .IYE observed that this war had com-
menced without notice to the House of Commons,
and he charged the government with having in-
duced the hone to believe that they were not
going immediately to take any decisive steps
against King Theodore, and that having created
that impression they never ceased making prepara-
tions for war, and that they only communicated
the fact that they were going to war at the moment
of the prorogation of parliament. And not only
had they treated the house in this unconstitutional
manner, but they had acted directly against the
proviaions of the act of parliament for the settle-
ment of the government of India. He could ima-
gine no more humiliating position for the house to
be in. They could not allow the expedition to be
porilled ; they were compelled to vote the money,
and thereby impliedly to sanction an expedition on
the propriety of which they had not been consulted.
Lord STANLEY said this was en expedition which
no government would have determined upon if
they had not been impelled to it by absolute neces-
sity:

lqo minister could desire to deprive himself of the
time or means of promoting thou financial reforms which
we so leech desire ; no minister would wish to incur the
inevitable unpopularity of increase! taxation, and least of
allow atiy government be capable of willingly taking upon
itself the risk and responsibility which must necessarily
belong to any campaign carried on in a remote and distant
country. (Cherra.) It is quite unnecessary, I think,
is disclaim any idea of permanent occnpution, protection,
or of oonqueet : we have quite as much territory already
as we wish to hold, or as we can safely hold. (Hear, bear.)
Ido not think Abyssinia is precisely that part of the
world which England would covet es a possession. (Hear,
Isar.) No, air, this work comes to us as a duty—as a
duty not of all agreeable, but an one which has to be
undert&:en, and which, neither in honour, nor injustice to
those engaged in the service of the crown, nor with any
due con.:4erstin to our interests in the East, could we
have left unperformed. (Cheers.) It is from this point
of view that we believe it will be considered by the public.
At the stage we have already reached it is not a matter of
much practical importance to discuss the question whether
or not it was wire in the first instance to enter into diplo-
matic relations with Abyssinia. That is a matter on which
lam not called to elm'ses any opinion. The thing was
done long before her Majesty's present advisers, or any
person, I believe, now sitting in this house, were respon-
sible for the conduct of affairs. The first Abyssinian con-
sulate dates from the year 1848. I neither praise nor
blame its establishment, but I am bound to my, in justice
to these by whom that step was taken, that even if it be
considered unnecessary and unwise to have sent a consul
to Aby.,inia. I do not think the results which have followed
were then within reasonable expectation. King Theodore
was then known as an able and ambitious sovereign, some-
what unscrupulous, and ureter of life ; but that appa-
rently insane mixture of suspicion and violence which now
seems to characterise him hail not then developed itself,
and I do not think could have been reasonably expected to
have done so. Nor do I wish to discuss at any length the
causes which ledto thedetention of CaptainCatneron. Indeed
although I have read what has been published on these
matter., and heard many opinions upon them, and thissubject
has necessarily been a good deal in my thoughts, I am
bound to say that all the results at which I have been
able to arrive are of an exceedingly negative character. It
may be that Theodore himself would be puzzled to say by
what acts, or aeries of acts, his feelings of suspicion and
jealously were first excited. It may be that his mind was
poisoned by some of the numerous European residents at
his court, and the majority of whom were on bad terns
with us ; it may have been that he lis‘l listened to stories
which were untrue, and accusations which were baseless ;
it may be that the intercourse which Captain Cameron
held with the native tribes, or the mapicioa or idea of
his having influence with the Egyptian government, first
awakened the hostile disposition of the Kiog ; it may be
that there is something in that story we have all heard of
about the letter which was never answered—lhear) it
may be- and I for my part lean to this as probable among
many of the least improbable of the solutions—that
Kinf Theodore had expected, from the friendship offered
by bogie-rid, somethir.g very different from what we in-
tended to offer. (Hear, hear.) We proposed merely
friendly intercourse and commercial facilities; he may
have expected alliance and active aa.istaoce in what ha.
been the tavola ite project of his life—a ertuisda against
the Turkish power. (Hear, helm) If he entertained that
idea, however unreasonable the expectation may seem to
03, it may offar sonic explanation of his conduct. It may
be, again, that the original detention of the prisoners was
a mere act of caprice, for which no intelligible reason can
be assigned ; and that since that time he has detained the
prisoners, not so much in enmity as being afraid to re-
it.... them, because he may imagine that if he let them
gobs would lose all the hold he now possesses on Euglnnd,
and might l e visited with punishment besides. (Hear,
hear.) All these suppositions are more or less plausible,
and capable of being supported by argument, but which,
or whether any of them, is the true one is more than I can
pretend to say. The materials for deciding Cast question
are before the public, and everybody must be left to form
his own conclusion upon them. But I think that that is
not a question which is now practically urgent. If King
Theodore bad bad a grievance either against the envoy or
the British goveninient, and had made that grievance
known in the ordinary and rational manner, we should
have been able to explain it away if it were ill founded, or
to remove it it there were grounds for it ; but when he
himself has not at any period from first to last conde-
scended to tell us what is his cause of complaint, I do not
think we have any need toconjecture its nature. In the next
place, I think that in dealing with an uncivilised monarch,
tt mint be plain that if on the one hind his complaint la
against the government, he ought not to have punished an
innocent man ; and if on the other Land what he has to
complain of relates to the personal conduct of the envoy,
the obvious and natural remedy would be to refer the
matter to the government by whom the envoy was sent
out, whose business it would be to take cognizance of it,
sad, if nommen y, to have punished him. (Cheers.) I say
this became' I have seen of late some attempts, though but
few, to represent the detention of Captain Cameron as, if
not perhaps justihable, at least capable of explanation and
excuse. lam bound to say that I can see no such explana-
tion or excuse ; but if this were for argument's sake ad-
mitted, what, I ask, is to be said about the case of Mr.
Balsam I (Hear, hear.) Mr. Raman gave no offence ; be
held out no hopes of assistance from the British govern-
ment ; lie negotiated with no native tribes ; his sole object
was to procure the liberation of Captain Cameron ; and
yet, although the King has used towards him the most
friendly language, be nevertheless remains in prison with-
out a prospect of rescue unless by the means
which it was necessary for us to adopt. Well,
Mr, when the present government came iuto
power fourteen months ago we found this state of things
existing, and we had to consider what was necessary
to be done. There were those even then, and among them
like men who knew Abyssinia best, who said, " Negotia-
tion is of no use ; nothing except force will attain the
result you want." The event has proved this to have
been correct; hut it was not our wish—and I hope the
committee will be of opinion that it was not our duty—to
act on that theory, unless we could say with confidence
that all other means had failed. (Cheers.) Our first step was
to consider whether we should send out a third mission,
and nodoubt there were volunteers ready to have under-
taken that hazardous and bonourabas service; but after
the failure of the two former missions, I felt that to send
out a third, similarly composed, on the same errand would
have been only to have exposed valuable lives to needless
risk and to h ire increased the number we should ultimately
have to rescue. What we did, therefore, was to employ
an agent we found ready to our hand—Mr. Flail, a Ger-
man misaionary, to whom reference has been made. He
had enjoyed for some time the friendship of the King ; he