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

miserable position of submissieely and obsequiously follow.
ing in the wake of France, instead of standing lathe manly
attitude of complete equality with her, and acting iris
friendly and honourable concert with her both in arms and
in council. (Hear.) I hope and believe, therefore, that
her Majesty's Government will be able to give the report*
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
*ohm of the services that have been rendered to his
country by Lord Stratford 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 and
will not believe, until I have had the most indisputable evi•
deuce of it in writing, that he has so far forgotten what he
owed 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 sir country's arms.
Doubtless my noble friend the Secretary for Foreign Af-
fairs will feel it to be his duty to la,y, at the earliest mo-
ment, upon the table of both houses of Parliament a state-
ment of all the circumstances 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. (Hear.) It will not do to attribute it,
for instance, to the dilatoriness of Selim Pasha, who hav-
ing at 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 Erzeroum, instead of endea-
vouring to relieve Kars in the face of a very superior
farce. 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
wield the means of transport ware easily attainable, no
me: sores were 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
assert that there is a prima facie case of grievous charge
against her Majesty's Government for neglecting to see to
the provisioning and sup; lying of Kars while tho commu-
nications were open, and 1 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.) Daring 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 pre.
pared and disciplined for every service of war, and
who would be available in a very short period for any
purpose for 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 become of the money that eras procured under the
terms of that loan ? What has be•erne of the Turkish
Contingent which, having been embo lied slowly and
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 Enpatoria, where they
were powerless for the relief of the distressed garrison and
of no possible advantage to the common oauee ? (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, aro 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 au 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 having
sacrificed a gallant army, abandoned an important post,
and permitted the occurrence efa 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 filled the heart of the
British nation with the most painfal emotions. (Loud
cheers.) I have deemed it within my province, as a mem-
ber of your! ordships' house, sad 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 say or e
single word either with regard to propositions which maS,
be under discussion, or with reference to those terms eat'
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 no 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 scmewhat uto-
pian projects which, as I understand, have obtained the
approval of a noble friend of mine en the opposite benches,
nor can I et all commend the idea that the war should be
meta oral with a view to the relief ref oppressed nationali-
ties. (neer, end a laugh.) I trust that your lordships will
view the gee:Lieu in the earner light--;bear, hear)—and
that you will not give any such 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 thee r were the objects of the war—to secure effectually
the inta ray and independence of the Turkish empire, to
include that empire as a component part of the great Eu-
ropean system, and to take ample anti decisive measures to
curb the unjust ambition and to repress the territorial ag-
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 net I shall be satisfied ; with less than these, se-
curely obtained, neither I nor, as I think, the country will
ever be contented. (Applause.) With regard to the details
of these arrangements I for bear to say a word. Nay more,
I em 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 com-
ments, 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 de 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.
He 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 the Sove-
reign and the country. To him is committed the conduct
of affairs, and ho is in a position to bind irreversibly both
the Sovereign and the country. Such is the part which
the constitution :1831,711S 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 eourse which he may think
most consistent with the end to be attained. When the
bef
the
thdea ey;ilb nift
in
practice we depart from it.
it
is the
Minister has performed his task
(Applause.) This,
tThohids,utlyaolu
wof
Parliament to signify its approval or condemnation of the
policy he has pursued and of the measures he has taken
to e
aware,ivte
h effecteo isy r
of
not to
thethe thatpop ulpolicy.
aconstitution,r doctrine
and
ill
(Hear, hear.) Therefore,
though I grieve to say that I cannot entertain for the Go-
vernment those sentiments of confidence with which the
Sovereign honours them, and which the majority of the
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 f. their proceedings until they shall
have brought us to one of two issues—a durable and ho-
nourable peace, or renewal of a just and necessary war.
(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 pa-
ragraph in the Royal Speech run thus :
" In conducting those negotiations I shall be 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
relax my naval and military preparatienshntil a satisfac-
tory treaty of peace shall have been conclti dpd 1
confess that the alteration of a few letters would
have been much more satisfactory to me. I trust that
it is net the intention of the Government to grant a
suspension of hostilities.
for which
nth. early months
leto the An
enemy.ariei armistice • `have been made.
to secure the advantages for _ s eh immense pre-
( ear.) I trust, above all
parations
things, that the Government will consent to no armistice
trust, indeed, that the Government will consent
icelnofthaenyCrlmeserearipit-
bY s'a• • whatever.
affords him the opportunity of moving his forces from
point to point, of reinforcing ana.provisioning Sebastopol;
while we om•selves, having now the command of the sea,
ttioonnoisaronniliystrearvicoab
get no advantage whatever from the armistice, but, on the
contrary, are tied down to the places we actually occupy.
Lot there bo no armistice. I trust that before six months
are exnired, her Majesty's Government will have settled
the question of peace or war. Russia desires nothing more
than the means of enabling her to recruit her forces. The
next paragraph in her Majesty's speech is expressed in ra-
ther a singular manner, but although I do not mean to
quarrel with it, I cannot help noticing the geographical
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 withdrawnfrom the stateof
things in the north, and, in conjunction with the Emperor
of the French, I have concluded with the King of Sweden
anti Norway, a treaty containing defensive engagements
applicable to his domieions, 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
Norway and Sweden, I believe from what I can collect
ect
from public information that it is one of a satisfactory
character. (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
should do were I to un.
them very much in the manner I sir
h s
resides within short dertake with my neighbour who
him in the expense of
dis-
tance from me, that I should join
watching and guarding his house, if he would
door. promise me
not to let the burglar in at the back-(Rear, and
laughter.) I might, were I to have a sight of the treaty,
perhaps learn that it went further than that by probably
some secret article which it contained. (Hear.) The
if do not attach so
house will °mins° me I Much importance
to the other treaty with Chili, and on which so much stress
•
has been
laid. Bat whilst her Majesty', naiad was engaged
in her geographical inquiry relative to the north and the
south, it would have been more satisfactory to me to have
been informed of what impression had been made on her
Majesty's mind with reference to the east and west. (Hear,
and laughter.) I should have liked to have heard heir
Majesty's oninion 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 as something
irregular, that no sort of notice should have been taken of
our foreign relations with other friendly Powers than
those in the North. (Hear, hear.) I should like to have
heard something about Herat and the Cabinet of Wash-
ington, wore especially as our relations with the Shah of