The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-24 00:00:00

Now, observe ! You have the authority of the great, st

. ...,
statesmen who ever lived in this country—of Lord Chat-
ham, of Mr. Fox, of Mr. Ponsonby, Lord Wellesley,
and Lord Grey—fot insisting on the right of Par.
.. . . . . . . ___

liamert to make inquiries into military and naval opera-
tions, which inquiries might, moreover, affect the executive
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functions of the Government. (Hear, hear.) Two of these
motions, the one moved for by Mr. Fox in 1782, and the other
by Lord Wellesley iu 1813; were not motions for inquiry at

the bar of the house, were not motions for a committee ofthe

whole house to take into consideration the state of the nation,

but they were motions for committees to make inquiry, that
inquiry extending to all the circumstanees connected with the
naval and military operations down to the very period when
those committees were nominated. (Hear, hear.) Well, then,
having shown you that upon principle you are entitled to in-
quire, having shown you that this principle has been repeat-
edly recognised by high authority, the next circumstance you
have to look to is simply this—whether the circumstances of
the present case are sufficient to justify inquiry. Sir, after
the numerous arguments and observations we have bad iu
this house upon that point, I think it would be almost a work
of supererogation to say anything on this subject. It has
been remarked upon by the greatest authority in this house,
it has been recognised by every member in it, that whether
you have inquiry, or whether you forbear to inquire, the cala-
mities which have befallen our army are heartrending and
(Hear, bear.) Now, if these calamities are so
great as to be called' heartrending," I am sure they are of a
nature to justify inquiry. (Hear, hear.) But if, in addition
to this, they are inexplicable, it throws upon you almost the
necessity of instituting an inqui7, iu order that you may be

able to solve the mystery in which these " inexplicable " dis-
asters are shrouded. (Hear, hear.) The circumstances of Cie
present case, therefore, will, I think, be admitted on all
hands to justify investigation, but then comes the next point
—whether you ought to institute this inquiry by a select com-
mittee, or conduct it at the bar of the house and before a
committee of the whole house. Now, nothing is easier when
you want to avoid an unpleasant subject than to say that
some other course would bo better than the course propgsed
in reference to it. I feel confident if any one had proposed that
you should institute an inquiry into the state of our army
and the conduct of the war departments which have had to
administer to the wants of that army before a committee of
the whole house, you would immediately have been met by
these forcible objections : that the whole business of the
country would be stopped by such a proceeding; that evi-
dence must be taken, examinations must go on, cross-exami-
nations must be allowed on the part of any and every mem-
ber in this house who chooses ; and that you could neither
conduct the operations of the war nor any other business with
any prospect of advantage or success. (Hear, hear.) Now
in principle there can be no reason why you should not refer
this matter to a select committee. A select committee is
nothing more nor less than a delegated authority from this
house to certain of its members to act for it, when it would
be inconvenient fur it to act as a body. (Hear, hear.) Re-
member, also, that one great objection always taken to an in-
quiry before the whole house,. in addition to the objection
that it puts a stop to public business, is that in point of fact
it becomes so inconvenient to go ou with an investigation
conducted in this way that it is really a good mock of getting
rid of the inquiry altogether. (Hear.) More than this, you
cannot fail to observe that you must either exclude all stran-
gers from this house, or allow the proceedings carried on here
o be published ; and I can conceive nothing more inconvo-
about or more 'dangerous than to say that theSe proceedings
shall be published from day to day ; that evidence partially
taken shall be partially known ; that a pre-judgment of the
case shall therefore take place, and that the result of the in-
quiry shall be canvassed in a manner which takes away from
this house its deliberative judgment upon the circumstances
which are ultimately to be submitted to it. (Hear.) For Al
these reasons--though I grant that there are difficulties with
reference to a select committee-- I think it is preferable to re-

fez. the matter to such a committee, limiting the inquiry, if
necessary, in such a manner as not unduly to interfere with
naval or military operations. But then we are met with the ob-
servation—" Why not have limited the inquiry at the time
you granted this committee ? Why have not the inquiry. by
means of a commission instead of a committee ?" The answer
is, I think, obvious. Inquiry was a duty. It was for this
house to insist upon an inquiry, but if that inquiry was at-
tended with disadvantages in the form in which it was moved
for, it was incumbent on the Ministers of the Crown to advise
the house how that inquiry should be limited and qualified ;
and having so advised it, and then the inquiry should go on
under these limitations. (Hear.) Now; when I addressed the
house before I remarked that this was the duty of the Minis-
ters of the Crown, and independent members could do no
more than either assent to Jr dissent from the inquiry, unless
prepared to take upon themselves the responsibility which
belonged more properly to the Executive. I cannot here help
taking notice of an observation often made both out of doors
and in Parliament, but ono which seems to me totally un-
called for, and which I trust will not be repeated here, as it
is, I consider derogatory to the character of this house. I
have heard it said that this house is now upon its trial, that
responsible government is now upon its trial, that representa-
tive institutions are now upon their trial. I agree in the ob-,
servation, -but I deny the inference. (Hear ) This house is
upon its trial, and what it has got to answer for upon that
trial is, whether it will insist upon all its former rights and
privileges; or whether it will now abandon them when in-
quiry is so imperatively needed. (Hear.) Responsible Go-
vernment is undoubtedly that which we ought all of us to up-
hold to the utmost of our power, and we ought to take care
that in upholding it we are not trenching in any way upon
those executive functions of the Crown which are necessary to
its efficient working. What is the. very esseuce of responsi-
bility ? is literally to mete out approbation. to the Minis-
ters when they act wisely and do right, and to pass censure
on the Ministry when they are wrong. These are the life and
soul of responsibility. They are the very springs by which
responsible Governments are put iu motion ; they are the
correcting power, by means of which that motion, that
action is kept within clue bounds, and by which it is
directed to wise and beneficial ends. (Cheers ) Take away
the controlling power of this house, take away its approba-
tion or its censure, and you take away all checks upon public
• men and all stimulus to public exertion.. This is the way in
which, indeed, you will injure responsible Government, and
the representative institutions of the State; you will injure
it if you abandon that one high privilege and duty of this
house. (Hear.) I for one cannot but think that, injustice to
those who still form that gallant army before Sebastupel, you
ought to inquire into these complaints ; in justice to those re-
lations and friends who have suffered loss either from misma-
nagement or by unfortunate occurrences, you ought to grant
an inquiry; and I must also add that, in justice to your-
selves, in justice to the generals commanding, and in justice
to every party, you ought to separate the innocent from the
guilty, the capable from the incapable, and that you ought
to express your approbation of the one, and you ought to
visit the other with your censure and your punishment.
Mr. GLADSTONE—It is impossible to magnify the im-
portance of the question which the items on this occasion
has before it; not to mention the fact that three persons
who having recently stood, under peculiar circumstances,
in the position of responsible advisers of the Crown, and
having felt- themselves compelled by an absolute sense of
public duty to separate from their colleagues, all of whom
they esteemed, and with whom they agreed, are desirous to
make a statement of their motives for having so separated
from them. It can be but rarely that the patience of the
house san be so severely taxed by a series of personal ex-
planations; and, for my own part, I could have been glad,
agreeing as Ido in every particular with the observations
and statements made by both. my right hon. friends, to rest
satisfied with those statements which they have so male,
were it not that the question which led to our resignation is
one of deep political and constitutional impOrtance, and that
our individual fates—wholly in themselves insignificant—
are mixed up inseparably with matters of the greatest in-
terest to the nation. As far as I myself am concerned,
perhaps I may be permitted, without leading the house too
tar back—inasmuch as we are (as it has been observed) in a
chronic state of crisis, and as it is difficult- to separate the
events of the last few days from those which preceded them
within a very short period—to allude in one or two sen-
tences to the first series of events in this crisis, and to the
position in which my name has appeared before the public.
In that early stage, when Lord Derby received a commission
from the Crown, an offer was made by Lord Derby to my
right hon. friend the member for Wiltshire and myself, toge-
ther with the noble lord now First Lord of the Treasury, to
make a Government. That matter has been explained in
many various forms. I received, first, from my noble friend,.
the present Prime Minister, his statement of the communica-
tion. Some time after there appeared a different version of
it from a statement made by a noble earl iu another place ;
and, lastly, after a multitude of explanations serving rather
to confound than enlighten, I heard a third statement from
the right hon. gentleman the member for Buckinghamshire,
delivered in this house, so much varying as to the nature of
that communication, I will not say, from what had been said,
but from what had been understood, that I venture to assure
the house (I don't know whether it has much historical inte-
rest), that at this day I am in ignorance of what was really
the offer made to myself by Lord Derby. (Cheers and laugh-
ter.) But, however that may be, I wish tho house to be
aware of the Part "which I took in that matter, and as my
share iu that communication remains in writing, and has been
alluded to both in this house and in another place, perhaps I
may be permitted to read a short letter I addressed to Lord
Derby, conveying my answer to the message from him.such
as I then understood it. In that answer I have expressed the,
opinion, that the best thing'that could have happened for the
country, under the circumstances of the late crisis, brought
about by a vote of the House of Commons, would have been,
that Lord Derby himself should have been in a position to
form a Government from his own adherents. (Hear, hear.)
I maintained that opinion with reference to the circum-
stances of the country, which required that the groat ques-
tion of peace of war should be dealt with without reference
to any other questions, and I did hope and did believe that I
should have bad the pleasure of affording my humble assist-
ance to Lord Derby in an independent position to that end ;
and that, instead of being asked to adopt a proposal which, I
believe, is fraught with mischief to the country, we should
have substituted for it some mode of inquiry into the causes
which have led to the calamities we all lament, that would
have been more effectual, more constitutional, and more sa-
tisfactory both to Parliament and the people. (Hear, hear.)
, However, the letter I wrote to Lord Derby was in these
terms.:— . . . _ -

" Downing-street, Jan. 31, 1855.

" My dear Lord Derby,—Lord Palmerston has communi-
cated, tu.me the wish you have been so good as to express,
that, in common with him and with Mr. S. Herbert, I should
become part of the Administration which you have horn
charged by the Queen to form. I also learn fl•om him tit it
he is not of opinion that he could himself render you useful
service in that Administration, but that ha would have every
disposition to give you the best support in his power, and he
has just left me with the announcement of his intention to
write to you an answer to this effect."

I may, perhaps, here interpolate an explanation, that my
noble friend (Lord Palmerston) did not, at the moment when
he made the announcement to mc. of Lord Derby's wish, in-
form me that he did not think that he himself could accept
the offer made to him. It was at a later period, when my
noble friend made some further communications to me, that
he thus expressed to me that opinion. My letter proceeded
thus :

I think it only remains to me to reply in similar terms.
Any Government, owing its origin to the late vote of the
House of Commons, and honestly endeavouring to do its
duty, must have peculiar claims to support in connection
with the great national interests involved in tile question
of war and peace. On public grounds lam dispesed to
believe that the formation of a Government from among
your own political connexions would offer many facilities at
this moment, which other alternatives within view would not
present ; and, unless When my opinions might no leave me a
choice, it would be my sincere desire to offer to an Adminis-
tration, so constructed under you, au independent Parlia-
mentary support."
(Loud cheers.) That is the close as well as the beginning of
my communication with Lord Derby. But I j)ouud to say
that I so far agree with the opinion expressed the other night
by my right hon. friend the member for Midhurst, with r,2-
spect to coalitions, that I believe the best thing Oat could
have happened for the country, considering the state to
which Parliament had actually arrived, was that an attempt
should be pot paade to form a Governmotit under I•ord