The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-26 00:00:00

'which he could form a Government suited to the exigencies
of the times. (Cries of " Oh, oh," from the Opposition,
and cheers from the Ministerialists.) What has happened
since then to enable those gentlemen to present themselves
with more confidence before the country, and to offer to
take charge of the great interests of England? I leave the
house and the country to determine that question of pre-
ference between them and us. This at least I will admit
in their favour, that, judging from the speeches of the
right hon. gentleman the member for Buckinghamshire and
the hon. and learned member for Enniskillen, I think, not-
withstanding the very different opinion expressed by the
noble lord the member for Lynn, that if this house and the
country were to transfer the conduct of public affairs to
their hands, we have a pledge that to the best of their
ability they as ould carry on the war with as much vigour
as we have done, and for the same objects for which we are
contending. I see no difference in that respect between
their proposition and the course which we are determined
to pursue, and therefore the appeal which they make to the
house to transfer the conduct of the Government from us
to them is not founded upon any censure of our policy,
bet simply upon the assertion that they could with more
capacity than us carry on the same system of policy of
which they approve ; for in fact their resolution—setting
aside "the ambiguous language and uncertain conduct"—
is a vote of appobatiou of the Government. (A laugh.)
But there is another alternative open to the house. I allude
to the right hon. gentleman the member for Oxford Uni-
versity, and those who are going to vote with him for the
amendment of the hon. baronet his colleague in the repre-
sentation of the University. That is a party who repu-
diate the notion of approving peace at any price, but a
patty that, at all events, would be ready to accept peace
upon conditions which I think, and which the people
think, dishonourabl to the country and dangerous to
the future interests of Europe. (Loud cheers.) I venture
to say, without any disrespect to those gentlemen—
some of whom I have good reason to hold in the highest
respect, and where talents are well known to the house
and the country - that i a Government were now formed
of their party, I think not one of them would b 3 re-elected
to sit in this house. (Cheers and laughter.) I say, then,
the choice lies between the two sides of the house, and I
contend that we have done nothing to forfeit that good
opinion which the hon. member for Aylesbury was pleased
to say was formed of the present Government when first
constituted. We were supported by the good opinion of
the country because it was thought we were going to pro-
secute with vigour that war which the country has una-
nimously declared to be just and necessary. We have
adopted every possible means for that purpose ; and I con-
fidently expect that the result will show we have not been
undeserving of that confidence with which the country
hailed our advent, and that we shall be able to realise the
just expectations which the nation has formed. The fate
of war and of battles is in the hands of a higher Power.
It is not for men to command success ; they can only do
everything in their power to obtain it. That we have
done. In a cause which we consider to be just, necessary,
and honourable, we confidently place our trust in a higher
Power. If we succeed we !kali have the satisfaction of re-
flecting that our sucaps has been brought about by the
perseverance with which, without proclaiming from day
to day the different steps we have taken, we have laboured
to achieve it;. while if, on the other hand, we should fail
—a contingency which I will not permit myself to antici-
pate—we shall at least have the consciousness of feeling
that our failure was not owing to any want of diligence or
exertion on our part. lam persuaded that, whatever may
be the decision of this night as to the relative merits of
parties here—whatever may be the decision- of this house
as to where the power of the executive Government shall
reside—l am confident that the country is in earnest in
the war in which we are engaged, and that the people of
England will give their support to any Government that
will honestly and with energy execute the will of the
British nation, while they never will sanction any Mi-
nistry which will abandon its allies and desert that

policy which has Ceeniursued up to this moment in '
deference, not merely to the principles of justice, and
to a sense of the national interests and honour, but
in accordance with the will and feelings of the country.
Therefore, so far as the best interests of the country are
concerned, I look with comparative indifference to the re-
sult of this motion. I feel that, in whatever hands the
Government may be placed, the will of the people must
and shall be obeyed. (Cheers.) That will is, that Eng-
land, having engaged in a just and necessary war, in con-
cert with our great ally and neighbour, France, it must
and shall succeed • and lam confident that, although it
may be the duty Of the Government to exhaust the means
of negotiation as far as they can be pursued with honour,
the people will never give their support to any adminis-
tration that should, in expectation of the success of those
negotiations, abandon the performance of its duty in the
preparations of the means for war. We have not shrunk
from that duty. I defy any man to accuse us with justioe
of such a dereliction of duty. lam persuaded that events
at no distant period will show that, in claiming from this
house and the country a vote of approbation of the man-
ner in which we have performed those great duties which.
devolved upon us, I am not overstepping the limits of the.
facts, and that it is without justice we have been accused

of shrinking in any degree from those exertions which the
country has expected at our hands. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. DISRAELI--Sir, if I were under any necessity of
callinc, evidence to vindicate the propriety of the conduct
which I have pursued and the justice of the course which I
have taken, it would be the speech to which I have just
listened—(cheers)—from the noble lord, who has positivey
informed us that, in the fulfilment of his duty to. carry
on with effect the war in which this country is engaged,
he warns us not to be dissuaded from the course which is

before' us by any hope or prospect of any negotiations.
Is this the Minister who only ou Monday last—(Opposition
cheers)—evaded every inquiry—who to every question that
was urged, I will not say shuffled, for thst may not be a
Parliamentary word, and I certainly do not wish to use it,
though arose to my lips in the heat.of d.bate—(laughter)—
but who certainly used every artifice of language—that the
House of Commons should not obtain from him a sin-

gle expression which should give au indication of the
po-
liey of the Government, or the resolution at which they
had arrived on the great question of peace or war. (Hear.)
Is this the Minister who only on -..)londay last would not
sanction a motion that was to be brought forward by the
member for Manchester, that „would have given an
opportunity to the house to offer, after a proper discussion,
an opinion upon the practical results of recent negotiations
which he had placed upon the table ? Is this the Minister
who has declined over and over again to move that addrass
to his Sovereign which I say as a real Minister of the
Crown, and as one pretending to lead this honso; and the
opinion of this country, ho ought, in the first instance,
most sedulously to have proposed ? Is this the Minister
who for, I will not say weeks, but months, has boon
the object of suspicion and distrust of the country,
because no one—(cheers)—could for a moment believe that
there was auy earnestness in the intention of the Govern-
ment to carry on the war ; and who deprecated in this

house, in every instance, that inquiries, oven inquiries
(hear, hear)—on the subject should be made, lest they
should interfere with the course of delicate negotiation ?
(Hear.) Is this the Minister who only on Monday last pre-
vented the discussion to which I have referred on the
ground that negotiations might possibly be taking place
even at that moment, or might occur at any moment, and
who this night assured us that negotiations could not take
place, although his own colleague but a few days before
had informed us that the brother Minister whom he had
left at Vienna was perfectly authorised to pursue negotia-
tions. (Hear.) Sir, I say that what has occurred in this
debate not merely on the part of the noble lord, but the
speech which we have just listened to, has fully vindicated
the course which I have taken, and will justify the motion
I have made in the eyes of the country. (Hear.) But only
last Monday night there was to be no discussion in the
House of Commons on this groat and absorbing subject.
Sir, I gave this notice, and there is not a shade of opinion
in the house that does not immediately, in the form of an
amendment, offer multiplied evidence that every person
in this house, and every section of opinion, wish and feel
it their duty to express their opinion definitely
upon the subject. Those who believe that peace
might have been obtained upon the conferences that
were held—those who believe that the war has not been
prosecuted with sufficient energy—those who, I was going
to say, have confidence in the Government—but no amend-
ment of that kind has been proposed —(hear and laughter)
—but those who wish to have confidence in the Govern-
ment, all those representatives of opinion in this house
have preferred amendments which are to be placed in the
hands of Mr. Speaker. Every amendment that has been
proposed is a just vindication of the resolution I have pro-
posed ; and, whatever may be the fate of that resolution,
it has at least elicited this great good—that we have ob-
tained something defini(e at last from her Majesty's Minis-
ters. (Hear.) The noble lord for some time pursued that
course of observation from ancient habit which for a long
period he has been in the custom of addressing the house
on the subject of the existing war, merely to avoid any
allusion to the future, scrupulously to shun any expression
of his opinion, but carefully to enumerate all the more
elaborate catalogue which he gives of the means which a
parvenu is in the habit of taking to recommend himself
to his mistress. " I have a house in town, I have a house
in the country, a fine gallery of pictures, a well-stocked
wine cellar"—(Cries of " Oh, oh," from the Ministerial
benches, and counter cheers from the Opposition.) In
that way the noble lord for some time has informed us of
his Sardinian Contingent to assist the army in the Crimea,
a medical department which has been placed on the best
footing, and those various other things which he has so
often recounted. But the noble lord felt that the time
was come when this was not sufficient; he felt the time
had come when he must speak explicitly respecting the
intentions of the Government with regard to peace or war;
and the noble lord has at last made a declaration which he
has refused on every other occasion to make. He has
made declarations perfectly inconsistent with all the in-
timations that he favoured us with on Monday and on
preceding nights. The noble, lord now stands forward
as a Crown Minister, who will be satisfied with nothing
but that achievement, the obtaining of which was per-
fectly inconsistent with the negotiations which he has
been carrying on during the last few months. (Hear,
hoar.) Then, sir, I am told that ambiguity of lan-
guage and uncertainty of conduct are expressions which it
would
be difficult for me to prove. (Hear, and laughter.)
Why, the whole course of this debate has entirely esta-
blished the accuracy of theie phrases. Not a member has
risen, whatever views he may have taken, whatever policy
he might recommend, united with the noble lord in the
council, or severed from former connection, who has not
made use of these very words. Every remark and argu-
ment has only proved how accurately I selected important
incidents of the past. "We have a fleet in the Baltid,"
'
says the noble lord • " we have a fleet in the Black Sea,
we have a medical department, we have a commissariat
store, we have many other establishments of which we
may be proud." The noble lord reminds me always in
these expressions which described the language of her Ma-
jesty's Ministers as ambiguous and their conduct as uncer-
tain. I need not go to further evidence than that which
has recently passed under our eye and sounded in our ears.
What language can be more opposite to that which the
noble lord expressed than that which the same noble lord
has just now uttered? (Hear.) What conduct can be
more contrasted than that which the couictry(yHnohuoeata,drp:rrihore,evaaeshrioda.n)sl
saeurecithihobeueiscreomre
to believe he was pursuing only a week ago, and that which
there ‘tvheraet
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not
oti
Ambiguity
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gentleman
s language,i sto be
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o o
ahissnc
addressed
dfn
conductleuscs
ioe
vg
ea
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failed tleoculsethooludslevotrhdesV
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their councils were divided on the question of peace or
great
wsteirlletnhoetrei
war. That was felt to be a groat calamity at that difficult
period. We all knew that we were governed by men of
abilitysen-
timents ;
magni-
tude. How were we met then ? We were told that thee
suspicions were without foundation ; that those were imp:-
tations nwausumisoonreutphoann aa
which the imagination of faction alone could make.
What has not occurred since then to demonstrate the accu-
racy of our suspicions ? What light has not this debate
thrown upon the distracted councils of 12 months
ago, when
the Parliament of England was called on todecide upon' this
important question? And who can refuse to attribute to
that want of union in the councils of the Queen the feeble,
uncertain, and ambiguous conduct of this war, and the
iecleTietothnoe fty thath