The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-02 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS--(YESTBRDA.Y).
Their Lordships did not assemble this evening, in con-
sequence of its being Ascension-day.

HOUSE OF COMM° NS. --(YESTERDAY.)
The SPEAKER. tlnk the chair at the usual hour.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The Dewsbury, Batley, and Hecknaondwike Water
13111 and the Scarborough Water Bill were severally
read a third time and passed.
EAST KENT RAILWAY.
On the motion of Mr. BROTHERTON the order for
the committal of the East Kent Railway Bill was read
and discharged, the bill having been withdrawn.
IMPERIAL HOTEL COMPANY BILL.
On the motion of Mr. BROTHERTON the order
foi the committal of the Imperial Hotel Company Bill
was read and discharged, the bill having been withdrawn.
THE CHARGES AGAINST. MR. AITKIN.
Mr. COWAN asked when the papers and correspon-
dence relating to charges preferred by Governor Ken-
nedy against Mr. W. N. Aitkin, late colonial surgeon
at Sierra Leone (for which an address was voted on the
26th of May last) were likely to be laid on the table of
the house ?
Mr. J. BALL said the papers would be laid on the
table next week.
POSTAL COMMUNICATION WITH IRELAND.
Lord NAAS asked whether it was intended to make
any alteration in the present mode of conducting postal
communication in the north of Ireland ?
Mr. WILSON said he presumed the question related
to Ballymena, Coleraine, and Londonderry ; difficulties
bad existed with respect to the line of railways iv that
part of Ireland, but they had been overcome, and an im-
proved postal communication would commence on the
9th inst.
Captain L. VERNON asked when the vacancy of
Colonel Commandant in the Royal Engineers, caused
by the death of General Wright on the sth of March
last, would be filled up ?
Mr. F. PEEL said it was intended to fill up the
vacancy. The Commander-in-Chief had not yet made
his selection. .
CA: DUNNE asked when the Land Transport Corps
would be disbanded I
Mr. F. PEEL said the subject was under the consi-
deration of Government.
THE CRIMEAN INQUIRY.
Mr. PALK asked the Under-Secretary for War
whether the examination already taken before the court
of inquiry now sitting, and presided over by Sir• Alex.
Woodford, would be laid upon the 'table of the house,
and when ? and whether her Majesty's Government con-
templated any measures for the more efficient organisa-
tion of the Medical and Hospital Staff, and of the Com-
missariat, or whether it was intended to reduce those
departments to the same peace establishment which was
found so inefficient at the breaking out of the war ?
Mr. PEEL said by the warrant constituting the
Board of General Officers, they were to transmit their
report to the Horse Guards ; but nothing bad yet been
sent from the board. It was, of course, intended to
reduce the army in consequence of peace, but it would
be maintained on a secure footing.
Mr. LIDDELL asked whether the attention of her
Majesty's Government had been called to the refusal of
the Spanish Government to refund to the firm of Messrs.
Clementson (Newcastle-on-Tyne) the amount of the ex-
cess of duties levied at Tarragona in October last upon
a cargo of iron shipped by them to that port ; and
whether, after the repeated remonstraLces that had been
addressed by Lord Howden to the Spanish Government
upon the subject, her Majesty's Government were pre-
pared to take steps to insure the payment of the money,
and to protect British merchants in future from the ex-
torbious of the Custom-house authorities of the Spanish
ports ?
Lord PALMERSTON said the subject alluded to
had occupied the serious attention of the Government
et home and her Majesty's Minister at Madrid. The
justness of the demand had been admitted by the
Spanish Government, and they had promised that the
overcharge should be repaid. That promise, be was sorry
tosay, had not been fulfilled. The noble earl the Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs had been in communication
with the Spanish Minister on the subject, but it was
perfectly well known that Spain was not the first of the
powers to recognise any pecuniary claim. (Hear, hear.)
The Spanish Government had not shown that prompti-
tude which they ought to have done on the subject, but
hon. gentlemen might rely that every exertion in
this or similar caves would be used to obtain the fulfil-
ment of all just demands.
THE DANUBE.

Sir H. WILLOUGHBY asked whether the First
Lord of the Treasury would lay upon the table of the
house any plan describing the proposed boundaries on
the north of the Danube between Bessarabia I
Lord PALMERSTON said the boundary was so clearly
laid down in the treaty of peace that with the aid of a
good map it could be traced. The boundary
bad not yet been laid down, on that ground but a com-
mission was about to go out to do so.
Mr. FRENCH asked whether the islands of the
Danube would he restored to Turkey t
Lord PALMERSTON s.id the islands at the mouth
of the Danube had been excluded from the Russian
boundary. They would of course belong to Moldavia.
THE FIREWORKS.

Mr. T. DUNCO MBE said he had been requested to
put a question to the first Lord of the Treasury ; it was
whether be would state when the metropolis was to be
entertained by the display of fireworks which the Home
Secretary had provided for them ? (Laughter.)
Lord PALMERSTON said it would take place on the
Queen's birthday.
THE ORDERS OF THE DAY.
On the motion that the adjourned debate takes prece-
dence of the other orders,
Mr. DUNLOP complained of the injustice they would
inflict on the business of the house, and particularly of
private members, in delaying their proceeding with their
bills. He thought it absurd to prolong the debate on
the fall of Kars, the question having been virtually de-
cided by the division on Tuesday night. This debate
was continued -merely to allow certain honourable
members to make speeches, which would in all proba•
bility be improved by delay, and reserved for another
oceasion.
Mr. MALINS also made a similar complaint.
Lord PALMERSTOJ said he had no control over
the course the house should pursue on this occasion.
FALL OF KAItS.

The debate upon this subject was resumed by
Sir E. B. LYTTON, who spoke as follows : —Afier what
has just taken place with respect to the postponement of
orders of the day, I feel that I ought to assure
the house, and more especially 'those hon. gentlemen
whom my motion for the adjournment •f the debate on
Tuesday last may have inconvenienced, that when I rose to
make that motion I was totally unconscious it would have
been opposed by the noble viscount at the head of the Go-
vernment. In making it I had no particular wish of my
own to gratify, for I would willingly submit to have been
silent ; and I may say it is not now my intention to oc-
cupy the time of the house at any considerable length.
But I was pressed to move the adjournment of the debate
by hon. members who were desirous to prolong the die-
etissinn, and whose wish I considered to be entitled to re-
spect. I naturally thought, casting a glance upon the
benches opposite, and seeing that gentlemen who are accus-
tomed to adorn our debates had notes yet expressed their opi-
nions upon this important subject, although they were to
some extent arraigned ; seeing, also, that we had only one
address from a Cabinet Minister—the right 'non. gentleman
the Chancellor of the Exchequer—and that at an hour
when the house was so empty that very few gentlemen
could have profited by listening to his elaborate and able
defence of the Government and to the very iateresting
memoir of the Turkish loan by which that accomplished,
distinguished, and historical critic endeavoured to relieve
the dreary chronicle of the decline and fall of Kars; seeing
all this, I naturally thought that when I ro-e at haV-past
twelve o'clock onTuesday night to move the adjournment
of the debate, that motion would be acceded to as a matter
of course—(Hoar, hear)—and I certainly was never more
surprised than when I found that, for the second time in
my life, I had occasioned a degree of angry excitement—
whether real or well simulated I know not —in the case of
the noble viscount at the head of the Government, which
for a moment almost overcame his habitual urbanity. I
feel that the beat proof I can now give that I am not dis-
posedto abuse the privilege by which I am allowed to ad-
dress the house, at the expense of other hon. gentlemen,
will be to condense as much u possible the observations
shall have to make, to refer as little as I can to the nowfal
fa-
miliar extracts from the blue books,
to what may be a fair reply to the
arguments
and to confine myself
hon. gentlemen opposite. My hon.,uraents employed b y
friendeu.ii the member for
Aylesbury told the house that heo
better defence for the Government than
tmhake a much
de
for themselves. But it appeared to me thatenay had
hdomf
the
defence he did make rested on an exaggerated
estimate
the charges which are brought in this case. My h °of
friend, with the candour of a good advocate, eereitt, ;
ed
that the Government had committal very serious
mis-
takes; but added that lie thought it would be nn-
fair to assert that the fell of Kars was solely ettei-
butable to a want of energy and foresight on their parts.
But the resolution before the house does not say that
the fall of Kara was owing exclusively to a want of
energy and foresight on the part of the Government ; if it
did, it should not have my support. Tho question is, whe-
ther, among other causes, a want of energy and foresight
on the part of her Majesty's Government did not contri-
bute to that result. The correspondence laid before the
house shows that a difference of opinion had prevailed be-
tween the English Government and the English ambassa-
dor at Constantinople from the month of Sept., 1854, to
the month of Sept., 1855, as to the amount of support to be
given to the English commissioner in Asiatic Turkey. Now
that commissioner had bees sent out not only to report
upon the state of disorganisation to which the Turkish
army in that quarter had been reduced, but also to use all
the means at his disposal for the purpose of ameliorating its
condition; and this blue book all goes to show that the
English Government and the English ambassador between
them failed to place at the disposal of that commissioner
any adequate means for the fulfilment of his mission. The
Government itself took great pains to publish that fact.
The blue book showed that from the 11th of Jun., 1853,
to the 21st of November, a few days before the fall of
Kars, little or nothing had been sent to that city by the
Government, except a few ball-cartridges. My hon. and
learned friend the member for Enniskillen referred in terms
which seem to use too severe to the statement of Lord Cla-
rendon, that "the neglected garrison of Kau would at

MPERIAL PARLIAMENT least have the satisfaction of knowing that their sufferings
' troubled the sleep and repose of the Turkish Ministers,who,
in default of all ordinary measures of relief, never ceased
to pray for their safety and snceess." But the question
arises whether there are not other bliuisters besides those
of Turkey whose " sleep and repose" those sufferings might
have disturbed, and in whom that neglected garrison might
have inspired not only the piety ofprayer, but the humility
of repentance. (Hear.) Now my hon. friend the member
for Aylesbury dwelt with great praise on the despatches of
Lord Clarendon; and my hon. and learned friend the At-
toruey-General said that these dispatches were a sufficient
proof in themselves of the energy and the honesty of her
Majesty's Government. My hon. and learned friend asked
what more the Government could do than that which they
had done ? Well, in much of the praise that is given to
these despatches, I most cordially concur. I think that
many of these despatches of Lord Clarendon are most ex-
cellent ; I will go further, and say that if despatches or, in
other words, it letter-writing could have saved Kann Lord
Clarendon would have saved it. (" Hear, hear," and laugh-
ter.) But if the Government ought to have been aware of
one thing more than any other, it is that despatches or
letter-writing were wholly insufficient alone to effect that
purpose—(hear' hear)—and the inventive genius of. her
Majesty' nneinisters might surely have devised some other
mode of provioing for the defence of Kars and the security
of Asia. It is perfectly true that Lord Clarendon did
faithfully report to Lord Stratford all the complaints of
General Williams—complaints that he wanted cavalry,
that he wants , gunners, that he wanted artillery-men,
that be wanted reinforcements, that he wanted ammuni-
tion and provisions ; and, above all, that he wanted
money—(hear, hear)—and Lord Stratford vary fully
explained that for all these purposes the revenue and re-
sources of the Sultan were totally inadequate. He also
stated very lucidly the reasons why the corruption and
peculation which had been the habit of Eastern Govern-
ments for generations could not be reformed in a
day, or in anything like time sufficient to enable Tur-
key to provide for the defence of Kars. There is one
important feet. which comes out of this mass of correspond.
ence with which the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor
of the Exchequer has wholly failed to grapple, and that is,
that if any moderate sum of English money had been
placed at the disposal of the English commissioner in good
time, notwithstanding all the vices of Turkish pecula-
tion and corruption, a sufficient amount of ammunition
and of provisions might have been thrown into Kars, in
defiance of the Russian blockade. (Rear.) How did Kars
fall at last ? It fell from no superiority of force on the part
of the enemy, for at the time of its capture there was a
greater proportion of force in the garrison than in the be-
sieging army. Every one knows that Kars was conquered
by fanatic. The blue book tells us that the Russian
general would have raised the siege when Omer Pacha
entered Georgia, if be had not learned from an Armenian
spy that there was only a fortnight's provisions in the gar-
rison. And yet, while England was cheerfully taxing her.
self to the utmost to save the empire of the Sultan, not
one shilling of our money went to the aid of General Wil-
liams, who wee holding that fortress on which, in the opi-
nion of her Majesty's Government, and of Omer Pacha,
although not of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the safety
of the Turkish capital depended. Let me remind the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, who seems to have doubts upon
that point, that General Simmons, in a despatch to Gen.
Williams, says that the Government informed Omer Pacha
that if Kara should fall, there was no force to prevent the
Russians marching directly on Constantinople—(hear, hear)
—and Omer Pacha credited that information. I think
that evidence chows that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
might have placed himself in more confidential communi-
cation with the noble lord the Secretary for War ; and
then, perhaps, he might have told us with that unvar-
nished severity of candour with which he so often tells us
very disagreeable truths, that he was about to raise so
many millions for the vigorous prosecution of the war, but
that such had been the energy and foresight of the united
cabinet' that they had pre-determined that not one six-
pence of the money was to go to the relief and defence of
that fortress which commanded the great key of Asia Mi-
nor. (Hear) " But," said the right hon. gentleman the
other night, "if Kars is lost, what then ? Why," says the
the right hon. gentleman, " the easiest military operation
would be all that is needed to recapture it." (Hear, and
laugh.) Now let ma appeal to him, not as a military
author ity, but as a Chancellor of the Exchequer, and let
me ask him whether he does not think, as a matter of
pounds, shillings, and pence, that it would be much
cheaper to save than to recapture it? (Hear, hear.) The
right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
alluding to the statement that he might himself have
come down to Parliament and asked expressly for a
sum in aid of Kars, said that be could make no such
aoplicatien because the sum required was so small.
The right honourable gentleman seemed to think that et
would be beneath the dignity of a Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer to ask the house for so contemptible a sum as
100,000/. or 200,000 L Now it appears to me that the
question of dignity, in such a case, depends not so much
on the amount of the sum to be raised, as on the purpose to
which it is to be applied. Dr. Sandwith tells us that if
Gen. Williams had had the absolute control of the commis-
sariat Kers would have been saved. But if the Govern-
ment Lad placed a sum of money at his disposal, that cnn-
trul he must necessarily have acquired. If no money, how-
ever, was to have been given expressly for the defence of
Kars I want to know how it was that the Turkish
loan had been deferred until August, although the
Goverment had long before been aware, from the in-
formation furnished to them, by their own ambassador,
that the pecuniary resources of Turkey had been ut-
terly exhausted? lion. gentlemen opposite may say
that any objection of that kind comes with a bad grace
from gentlemen who opposed that loan. Now, that may
be a very good House-of-Commons argument, but it is
not an argument for common sense. I was not myself
in the house at the time, as I had paired off during the
latter part of the session. But I think that if I bad been
here, 1 should have voted for the Turkish loan, and I must
observe, that in looking at the debates, I find the principal
objection urged to the proposal was made, not to the loan
itself, but was made on account of the form of our joint
guarantee with France. I will appeal to the candour of
the noble lord opposite, and I will ask him whether he
really thinks that if he had come down to the house, and
said that pecuniary :lid of that nature was absolutely ne-
cessary for the security of Kars, and that without it the
honour of the British name must be tarnished in the East
—I will ask him whether he really thinks from the expe-
rience he bad already acquired of hon. gentleman on this
side of the house, or even of those hon. gentlemen *be
were warm advocates of peace, that, however they might
have urged their objections to the form of the loan, they
would have pressed their objections to a hostile division?
(Hear, hear.) I say that either by a direct grant, or by
means of a Turkish lo ,n, or—and that would have been the
best and simplest mode of all—by sending money to your
commissioner himself, expressly for the purpose of being
employed in the defence of Kira—l say that by aoy one
of these modes that city might have been saved. (Hear,
hear.) But when Lord Ellonb)rough, in the month of
Aueust, called the attention of the House of Lords to the
distressed state of Kars, and the neglect of the war in Asia,
Lord Panmure replied, that Turkey. in that quarter, was
well able to defend herself. (Heir, hear.) Turkey able to
defend herself ! That was the statement of Lord Pan-
mine, in the teeth of the information contained in those
despatches which have been published for the purpose of
showing how dcfeuceless Turkey was at that very lime;
and the statement was made on the very same day—
namely, the 3d of August—on which Lord Clarendon, in a
despatch to Lord Cowley, sail it was clear that without
assistance the whole Turkish force in Asia must be de-
stroyed or captured. (Hear.) And was it becoming in
my hon. friend the member for Aylesbury, who scarcely
ever addresses the house without making some com-
plimentary allusion to his own peculiar frankness, ho-
nesty, and straightforwardness—(a laugh) - was it becoming
in him, not only to excuse, but to eulogise that assertion
of Lord Panmure, on the express ground. that it was a
falsehood? Can he eulogise a British Minister who deli-
berately deceives Parliament and the country, in order
that he might, at the same time, endeavour to practise a
hollow deceit on the Russian General besieging Kars?
(Hear, hear.) My hon. friend, in the course of his ad-
drear,
compared himself to a dog at a race course —(a
laugh)—who was shunted at hem both sides until the race
began, when he was whistled off, for fear he might throw
down a favourite. Now that remit:de me of a well-known
canine saying—that "Brag is a good dog, but that Hold-
fast is a better." I believe that on our side of the coarse
we shall always be willing to follow Holdfast ; but lam
afraid we must leave it to the other side to offer to Brag
more enticing attractions. (A. laugh.) I will touch
upon another point which, though it did not directly
affect the fall of Kars, will show what WAS the bias in the
mind of the noble lord the Secretary for War, a hich, I
think, did affect the fall of Kars. No sooner had the Eng-
lish commissioner arrived in Anatolia than he informed the
Government that 10,000 or 1'4,000 persons had perished for
want of proper medical assistance in the hospitals. He
then asked for medical relief, and the Duke of Newcastle,
who, whatever might be his faults, was always ready to
listen to the claims of humanity, directed that an inquiry
should be instituted for the purpose of ascertaining whether
the Turkish Government would permit a few English army
surgeons to be sent to superintend the hospitals at Kers
and Erzaroune. That inquiry having led to no effectual
result, Lord Clarendon, with equal humanity, forwarded,
through Lord Wodehouse, to Lord Panmure, in the month
of April, a despatch from Gen. Williams, and a medical re-
port from• Dr. Sandwith, and suggested to Lord Panmure
whither it would not be advisable to send out some surgeons
to the Turkish army. Lord Panmure replied " that be did
not see much prospect of being able to send medical aid to the
Turkish army in the province of Anatolia; but he would
endeavour to do so to a limited extent, as soon as he had
provided for the army of Omer Pacha and the Turkish
Contingent." Now I will venture to say, that if the noble
lord had inserted at that period an advertisement in the
-Times newspaper, offering a good remuneration to young
surgeons for their services in Anatolia, he would have re-
ceived applications by the hundred in reply. I remember
that at the time I myself wag asked by several young stir-
geons to aid them in obtaining employment in the Crimea.
The English Government complained that the Turkish au-
thorities did not attend to the representation of their, com-
missioner, and 'yet when he made a request directly to
themselves in a matter over which they had absolute con-
trol, the noble lord the Secretary for War treated that re-
quest with as supreme an indifference as any pacha in the
East. While you attempt to throw all the blame in this
case on Turkish mal-administration, do not forget that that
mid-administration, with all its Orientallanguor and all its
constitutional vices, did great things before you sent your
mighty aid to its defence in Asia. Do not forget that on
the Danube it had gallantly coped with the whole might
of Russia. What was the aid which you sent to Turkey in
Asia, and what has been the result of that aid ? You took
'2.0.000 Turkish soldiers into your pay • but when these
()Mime were urgently wanted for the relief of Kars, not a
man of them could move. (Hear, hear.) I clo not attempt
I must tetlweTLord Stratford de Redcliffe's neglect in this case.
and adhere tockeil)
havebhaeard so mach already upon that score that
will not allow us
n the generous practice of this house,
at
who is not present°t:
true constitutional principle which
saddle all our blame on a diplomatist
poses of the Geyer-era
.eneftend himself. It may suit the pur-
glect, but it should be re
constantly to complain of his ne-
have thought proper to retain him
that they themselves
in his office. I will not
undertake to censure them for
denetcit ability, and I must
Redcliffodobt, a man (re doing. Lord Stratford de
• leave to them theft esponsibiLtymelen
dut the house
constitu-
of retaining him in the service of the State'tiF., on the policy
would not hold to the principles of the English
tion if, while they attack the agent, they alowitot ?nese un-
censured the men by whom he was employed.
singular circumstance that although Lord Stratfordaavlecsor3dr
in language the most pointed to be informed what was the
extent of General Williams s powers, and how far it was
thought desirable by her Majesty's Government that his
• commands should be obeyed, without reference to any
doubts as to their expediency, no answer seems ever to
have been returned to that question. (Hear, hear.) But
it may be said that such was the surpassing energy of Ge-
neral Williams, that in spite of every difficulty, and by
his own individual exei Cons, he succeeded in provisioning
Kars for four months. Yes, but General Williams stated
in his despatches that if within the four months aid did
not come to him the only perspective of Kars was