The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-01 00:00:00

miserable position of snbmissivelyand obsequiously follow-
ing in the wake of France, instead of standing in the manly
attitude of complete equality with her, and acting in
friendly and honourable concert with her both in arms and
in council. (Hear.) I hope and believe, therefore, that
I her Majesty's Government will be able to give the reports
on this subject the promptest and most uncompromising
contradiction. (Hear.) My lords, it has also been stated
that the brave garrison of Kars, day after day, and week
after week, watched, but watched in. vain, for the arrival
of succour—for provisions, ammunition, and money—
which they had repeatedly applied for to ,her Majesty's
Ambassador at Constantinople. I have the very highest
opinion of the services that have been rendered to his
country by Lord Stratfo-d do Redcliffe ; I have had the
opportunity of testifying in the most unmistakeable man-
ner my sense of the value of those services ;and I cannot sad
will not believe, until I have had the most indisputable evie
deuce of it i i writing, that ho has so far forgotten what he
weed to his Sovereign and her ally
as to treat with neglect,
and even with contempt., repeated and urgent applications
made to him for aid by British officers, who were encoun-
tering the greatest difficulties and supporting the severest
privations to uphold the honour of tl.eir country's arms.
Doubtless my noble friend the Secretary for Foreign At.
fairs will feel it to be his duty to lay, at the earliest mos
meat, upon the table of both houses of Parliament a state.
meat of all the circumsteeces that relate to this disastrous
abandonment of Kars. Let the blame lie where it may,
-
this country has a right to know on whose shoulders it
properly rests. (Hear.) It will not do to cast it upon this
or the other pasha. (ilear.) It will not do to attribute it,
for instance, to the dilatoriness of Selim Pasha., who hay
nog tt his command a force of not more than 10,000 or
12,000 men, exercised, I believe, a very sound discretion
in maintaining his position at Erzerouni, instead of mules,.
vouring to relieve Kers in the face of a very superior
'force. We must know to what we owe it that we allowed
this advanced position to be occupied--a position which
had already been so fortified as to be rendered impregnable,
or nearly so. We must also be informed how it happened
that for long months before it was invested, while commu-
nications were still open, while money was abundant, and
while the means of transport ware easily attainable, no
measures ware taken to relieve that fearless and gallant
garrison which, as has since been ascertained, were invin-
cible except by famine. My lords, I do not hesitate to
is ert that there is a prinea facie case of grievous charge
atainsk her Majesty's Government for neglecting to see to
tl e provisioning and supplying of Kars while the commas
nications were open, and I cannot but think that it will
require some ingenuity to show why, even after the com-
munications were closed, no effort was made to break
through the line of the besieging army. I have heard the
remark made, that the first great blunder of the campaign
was the concentration of all our forces before Sebastopol.
Into the discussion of that question I will not now enter,
but I may be allowed to ask if of the troops • before that
mighty fortress not one man could have been spared,
where was the Turkish Contingent of which we last ses-
sion heard so much ? (Hear, hear, hear.) During the dis-
cussion on the Foreign Enlistment Bill last year, we
were repeatedly told that what we wanted was not
soldiers who would require six months' training,
but officers and men who were already pi e-
p kred, amid disciplined for every service of war, and
who would be available in a very short period for any
purpose fe: which we could possibly require them. (Hear,
hear.) Parliament sanctioned last year a very consider-
able loan for the purpose of securing the disciplined ser-
vices of such a body. What has become of the men who
were raised under the Foreign Enlistment Act? What
has besomo of the money that was procured under the
terms of that loan ? What has become of the Turkish
Contingent which, having been embodied slowly aid
tardily, was sent at last to a point where they could do no-
thing for Kars? How are we to account for the imprison-
ment of 30,000 or 40,003 men at Eupatoria, where they
wore powerless for the relief of the distressed garrison and
of no possible advantage to the common cause? (Hear,
hear.) Your money, which lay unemployed, might have
been employed to the provisioning of Kars and to the
adopting such measures as would have prevented the
enemy from surrounding it ; but no effort was made to
provision it until it was beleaguered by the Russian army,
nor after event was any attempt made to relieve it. (Hear.
hear.) These, my lords, are momentous matters and well
deserve the serious consideration of the country. I hope
that they will obtain the attention. they merit, and that we
shall have such an explanation of this apparent neglect on
the part of the Government as will redeem them from the
deep imputation which now rests upon them—of haying
sacrificed a gallant army, abandoned an important post,
and permitted the occurrence of a calamity, which, though
thanks to the heroism of that devoted band it has not yet
dimmed the lustre of our arms, has not given to the
enemy a cause of exultation, and tilled the heart of the
British nation with the most painful emotions. (Loud
cheers.) I have deemed it within my province, as a mem.
ber of yowl ordships' house, and I have thought it a part
of my Parliamentary duty, to express myself thus freely,
frankly, and unreservedly upon the past ; but there is a
limit beyond which it would not be wise for me to go.
(Hear, hear.) lam sensible that it would be unsafe, un-
wise, and injurious to the public interest for me to sayers
single word either with regard to propositions which may
be under discussion, or with reference to those terms and
conditions on which, as I believe, peace might be
fairly and honourably concluded. I entirely con-
cur with the noble lord who seconded this motion
that it is in na degree desirable that we should entertain
any views or contemplate any objects more extensive than
those which at the commencement of the war were sub-
mitted to our consideration by the noble lord the Secretary
for Foreign Affairs. (Hear, hear.) I am far from giving my
sanction to those exaggerated opinions and somewhat uto-
pian projects which, as I understand, have obtained the
approval of a noble friend of mine on the opposite benches,
nor can I at all commend the idea that the war should be
continued with a view to the relief of oppressed nationali-
ties. (Hear, and a laugh.) I trust that your lordships will
view the question in the same light—(hear, hear)—and
that you will not give any tmch extension to the character
and purpose of the war. If I remember aright, the noble
lord at the head of the Foreign Department laid it down
that these were the objects of the war—to secure effectually
the integrity and independence of the Turkish empire, to
include that empire as a component part of the great Eu-
ropean system, and to take ample and decisive measures to
curb the unjust ambition and to repress the territorial age
gressions of -Russia. These the noble lord the Secretary
for Foreign Affairs intimated to be the objects of the war.
With these effectually secured by the terms of a treaty, I
profess that I shall be satisfied; with less than these, se-
curely obtained, neither I nor, as I think, the country will
over be contented. (Applause.) With regard to the details
of these arrangements I forbear to say a word. Nay more,
I am prepared to give her Majesty's Government this as-
surance, that during the course of the deliberations now
about to be entered on I will myself carefully abstain—
and I will impress on all with whom I have the slightest
influence the necessity of refraining from making any corn.
meats, suggestions, or observations which can have the
effect of unnecessarily embarrassing the Government in the
conduct and management of the negotiations. (General
applause.) It may be gratifying to the self-love of this or
the other House of Parliament to believe that in matters
of this kind they are to be the constant and daily ad.
visers of the Sovereign and the Minister ; but I have not
so read the history of our country, nor do I so in.
terpret our constitution. The prerogative of peace and
war rests with the Sovereign, and with the Sovereign
alone; but that privilege and prerogative of the Sove-
reign is exercised by the responsible Minister of the Crown.
Ile to whom that great duty is confided has power to bind
and tie down the nation, inasmuch as he is intrusted, or
supposed to be intrusted, with the confidence of time Sove-
reign and the country. 're him is committed the conduct
of affairs, and he is in a position to bind irreversibly both
the Sovereign and the corn day. Such is the part which
the constitution assigns to the constitutional Minister of
the Crown, and the duty of Parliament, I humbly submit,
is not to interfere injuriously- And mischievously with the
discharge of that duty, but to Allow the Minister to pur-
sue without impediment that 'sours(' which he may think
most consistetit with the end tobe attained. When the
Minister has performed his task' it becomes the duty of
policy
he Parliament to
pursuedosignife- itsnn dapopfrotri or condemnation of the
;measures he has takene
to give effect to that policy. (AinPlause.) This, lam
wall aware, is not the popular doetrerie of the day, but it
is the theory of the constitution, and will be the evil if in
practice we depart from it. (Hear, hear.) Therefore,
though I grieve to say that I cannot entertain for the Go.
v eo rvne mr
eei
gn
n h
t sentimentsthoonsoeurs them, a
and
df
whichconfi confidence
majority of thee with which the
Sovereign
country is not disposed to withhold from them, I am,
nevertheless, prepared to give them an assurance that, as
far as I am concerned, they shall be vexed with no wanton
interference, and with no vexatious comments, with no
unnecessary questions, and that no impediment shall be
offered to the course of their proceedings until they shall
have brought us to one of two issees—a durable and hot
nourable peace, or renewal of a just and necessary „tar.
(Loud applause.) One of the noble lords who have already
spoken used the words " resumption of hostilities," and I
find that her Majesty speaks in a similar tone. The pas
ragranh in the Royal Speech run thus
" In conducting those negotiations I shall be care-
lelttetrsrust wouldtha
care-
ful not to lose sight of the objects for which the war was
undertaken ; and I shall deem it right in no degree to
fmewet.rust, above all
relax my naval end military preparations until a satisfac-
tory treaty of peace shall have been concluded.
I confess that the alterationaeoafr.)a
have been much more satisfactory to
grant a
situspisennsi,otn theo hostilities.intention of the Govertement to
We want the arly Months
which suchl immense pre-
perations.
to secure the abdeveanntagmaedse.for(
things, that the Government will consent to uo_ _
armistice
by sea. I trust, indeed, that the Government will consent
to no armistice whatever. An armistice of any descrip-
tionrviceable to the enemy. In the Cis only se rimea it
affords hen the opportunity of moving his forces from
point to point, of reinforcing and provisioning Sebastopol;
while we ourselves, having now the command of the
get no advantage whatever from the armistice, but, on the
contrary, are tied down to the places we actually occupy.
Let there be no armistice. I trust that before six months
are expired, her Majesty's Government will have settled
the question of peace or war. Russia desires nothing more
than the meads of enabling her to recruit her forces. The
next paragraph in her Majesty's speech is expressed in ra.
tiler a singular tnannerebut although I do not mean to
quarrel with it, I cannot help noticing the geographic.al
character of it. It is this, "Although the war in which I
am engaged was brought on by events in the south of Eu.
rope, my attention has not been withdrawn from the stateof
things in the north, and, in conjunction with the Emperor
of the French, I have concluded with the King of Sweden
and Norway, a treaty containing defensive engagements
applicable to his dominions, and tending to the preserva-
tion of the balance of power in that part of Europe." With
regard to the treaty entered into by this country with
Norytay and Sweden, I believe from what I can collect
troth public information that it is one of a satisfactory
ptharacter. (Hear.) It is of a very satisfactory character
'as 'regards Sweden and Norway. As far as I understand
that treaty, it is this--that we enter into a treaty with
them-swot much in the manner I should do were Ito nn.
•
dertake with my neighbour who resides within a short dts.
tance from me, that I should join him in the expense of
watching and guarding his house, if he
_would promise me
not to let the burglar in at the back degrdof (ear, arc]
laughter.) I might, were I to have asight
that
thanby
the treaty,
perhaps learn that it went further probably
some secret article which it contained. (Hear.) The
house will excuse me if I do not attach so tench importance
to the other treaty with Chili, and on which so much stress
has been laid. But whilst her Majesty'a mind was engaged
in her geographical
inquiry relative to the north and the
south, it would have been more
satisfactory to me behave
been informed of what impression had been made on her
Majesty's mind with reference to the east and west. (Hear.
acid laughter.) I should have liked to have heard her •
Majesty's opinion on the four points of the compass, parti-
cularly with reference to the balance of power in the East. •
as that of the North. (Hear.) It strikes me en soniethir g
irregular, that no sort of notice should have been taken or
our -foreign relations with other friendly Powers than
those in the North. (Rear, hear.) I should like to have
heard something about Herat and the Cabinet of Wash-
berms more
.pptciiAlly a§ our rolati9u§ with the OW of