The Express.
London, England, 1857-11-19 00:00:00

IiPSECH OP 818 ROBLIT PEEL AT TAMITORTH.

The ex-mayor of Tamworth, Mr. E. B. Hamel,
was entertained at • public dinner in that town on Tuesday
evening; the MAYOR (Mr. 8. Hanson) presided. Lord
Raynham and Sir Robert Peel, members for the borough,
were wart. In replying to the Mee of " the Borough
Members,'
Mr Resent Peet, who was received with loud applause,
mid k &robed upon him, as maim member, to make his
acknowledgments. After a few prefatory observations on
the Hal menneln wish the borough members were always
neelml ea enek merlons as the present, he expressed his
villiegnem he de enything for the equalisation of the poor
dentange, and improvement of the town, and
=l=e would out down 200/. towards • subscription
the immedying of the inconvenience canard to waffle by
lab Udder. Sir Robert than proceeded to say that there
wee sr& which was more honoured in the breach than the
sherennek es., the refraining from allusions to politics on
ease Mae the present ; but when he saw his colleague,
Ztd Swarm, there, and so many of his own constitu-
m% les Alt bound in justico to hire& sa well as to
Ilens as maks some anions to subjects relating to
tie este of public affairs. (Hear, bear.) His friend, Mr.
Knight, had alluded to the scream of their army, Baying,
sod justly saying, that they had fought me never soldiers
fought befens-•seisi brass such as were never resisted on
former essidene—diet ask realm was greater now than
ever—eed It wield be onweethy of him (Sir Robert) If he
did net mile ea ellneka be Ike edam; and give them what
were his Masemkew eased it an me of the representatives.
(Hear.) Tim he wenbi aq m • member of parliament, he
had Wowed Meg the this most serious and dis-
creditable tenteet—d ii, not in the way in which
England had need her amelse—but in the way in which
that contest bad been brought Meat by them who had the
government of India in that eennai. (Hear, hear.) They
were aware that on the 10th of May last Delhi Ina Mt
seized by the mutinous &pop ; that on the 10th June our
troops advanced to besiege that town. It was at the end of
June they received the information, and what did Mr.
Smith, of the Board of Control, any P He got up in the
House of Commons—he (Sir Robert) heard him with
his own sus—he got up and said, "We have received
• report of a mutiny In India, but it is nothing , it is one
of those perkdiml exordia* which occasionally excite the
natives of India." Now this so called animate that had taken
place had shaken our Indian empire from one end to the
other, and would they believe ft, that in three months it cost
the lives of more officers than perished during a similar
pelod in the hardest months of the Crimean war. (Hear,
hear.) No less than 270 offers had either ban massacred
or had died, or had fallen in the field —270 in three months.
That was certainly a greater proportionate loss than during
the severest trials in the Crimea. This blow came upon no
unexpectedly. Nobody In London had the least idea of what
we had to contend against. But he would give the F.:aver-
ment credit for the energy anddetermination with which they
proceeded to put a atop to the mutiny. Three days—and
this was the great merit of Lord Palmerston, for aged as he
was he posemeed • vigorous mind, a mind capable of appreciat-
ing events, and expressing itself rigorously in action—three
days after the news of the mutiny reached England, on the let
of July. troops were immediately ifeepatched to India. Before
the end of the month 13,000 British bayonets had left, and
before the lath of September, 40,000 left oar chores to re•
wage the blood of our murdered countrymen. The sending
of that 40,000 men was • stupendous undertaking, and the
might depend upon it that never in the history of the world
did any country send 40,000 men and maintain them 10,000
miles away from her shores. He declared that this mutiny
had rather raised, not diminished, the prestige of the Eng-
lish arms to an enormous extent. (Hear hear.) Besides
this great force, a number of regimenta which had served in
the Crimea, and also regiments from Ceylon, the Ceps, sad
China, proceeded to meet the government In India. But
here was the blame to the government. They sent theme
troops by way of the Cape, and =rely every sue knew who
had common sense that the best route to take would have
been aeries Egypt. They had the means, and yet they
did not a&S it. On the 26th of September an order went
out to the Duputy•Governor of Malta to send oat Iwo bat-
talions of the 37th Regiment across Egypt. Theme men,
numbering 400, actually from the time they disembarked
at Alexandria until the time they embarked at Suez,
only moved 24 hours. From Saes to Calcutta they
took 26 days—that was, from Malta to Calcutta they occu-
pied about five weep, or seven weeks altogether from Em-
land to Calcutta. When they compared this time with the
time it took to go round the Caps—for Sir Charles Wood told
them that to go round by the Cape occupied 130 dr. a by
ending reeds and from 76 to 86 der, by eteamers—n; body
could fail to see that It would have been far better to have
adopted this comes than to mend them At the Cape. (Hear,
hear.) It was there the government were to blame. They
ought decidedly to have taken this shorter route. Now, in
the Meditereaseth there was a fleet under the oonimand of a
man to whom from the beginning he had always had an
antipathy—hs meant Admiral Lord Lyons—. fleet which
kept raving about doing nothing. They read
in the papers bow Load Lyons went here and
went there, visited the Cheek *maid sad breakfasted with
him, and went about wing the beauty of the
Koury in this place and that, when those ships might have
keen carrying troops to India, Mend of showing off this,
the rained man who ever wore the British uniform—a man
who was showing himself ofl instead of doing genies to the
British nation. (Applanae.) When parliament met be
hoped it would =rider the great expellee of this fleet, which
bad been doing nothing but exhibiting Lord Lyons. The
expense was prodigious, and it was a monstrous abuse that
they should have mren or eight men-of-war there, with com-
manders who had been doing nothing except gog to attend
at bathwhich deputy-governors gave—(a laugh)—ae they
reed in them:wry He couldn't help looking at what had
beau said by several friends and ammeters of the government
from the beginning of this war. To see how, as soon as
parliamet was over, • member began in • place where
were excluded to allude to political events, and bow
Cwant on in • kind of gradual routine until he reached the
Prime Minister—(laughter)—how one man began to toady
Lard Palmerston here, and to abuse him there—was very In-
telehag. The ball opened with Mr. Bernal Osborne, his
colleague, and the secretary to the Admiralty a very witty
vivacious man, as everybody knew. Well, Mr. Gabon* went
to Dover, and addressed his constituents there. He made a
moat singular speech—he not only praised Lord Aber-
deep, praised Palmerston, but pineal everybody. (A
voice: "Ab, he's a clever fellow.") Yes, continued Sir
Bonn, be is • clever fellow, a monstrous clever fellow.
(Laughter.) Well, he showed his elevernms, but made a
most singular mistake notwithstanding. It was at a moment
when everybody was alluding to the outragein India—at
this moment Mr. Osborne said to hie constituents, talking of
violated women, and massacred children, " I am not respon-
sible foe this, I am not of your high caste Brahmins."
(Laughter.) This was • poor compliment to the government
of which Mr. Osborne we, • member. Another gentlemen
addreaed his constituents et sem:trey meeting. lie is • very
warm supporter of the government, and he said he wan not
irked of Lard Palmerston's once, but be was then. Ha mid,
" Lord Palominos, gentlemen, Is ono of the greatest ma le
England ; he gets op at six every morning and writes till
twelve—(al this was in the papers)-1 know it, be said ; oh,
I know It. He gees out shooting—mom of course for exercise
than amusement. I know it; sad while shooting he receives
the goverment despatches, takes.off hie bat, stepe aside,
and writes the merles while Potato is looking up partridges.
(Lind laughter.) He writes till twelve at night, and then
goes to bd. (Applause.) All this !appeared in the public
papers. Now they mats to the dinner which took place the