The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-09 00:00:00

which suffered so severely and behaved so heroically,
although a certain proportion of the officers obtained
promotion by death, there were six lieutenants who had
derived no advantage from their services, and who had,
in fact, nothing to point to except the labours they had
undergone and the wounds they had received. Of these
six officers three had returned to this country ; one with
a broken leg, another with a ball still unettracted from
the back of his head, and another in a state of confirmed
paralysis, arising from fever and cholera. Ho would not
express any opinion as to the rewards which these officers
should receive—he felt bound to state he knew nothing
of them personally, and had only repeated what he had
heard with regard to those gallant men. He would not
follow the noble baron through the details into which he
bad entered, but would only express his hearty and cordial
concurrence in the thanks proposed to be voted to the
officers and non-commissioned officers of the army and
navy, nor would he repeat again the expressions he had
before used in honour of the illustrious dead who had not
survived to receive their thanks. He would turn to another
which he was rejoiced to find had been at length
though somewhat as an afterthought, by her
introduced,subj,ct,
Majesty's Government—he meant the proposed expres-
sion of the gratitude of the house and the country to
those civilians who had so nobly come forward. He recol-
lected that in the speech from the throne were the words
" Many civilians who were placed in circumstances of
extreme difficulty and danger, displayed the highest
qualities, many of them such as would have done honour
to veteran soldiers." When commenting on the speech
it happened that he inadvertently omitted 1• mention
those services ; the omission did not escape the watchful
eyes of his In tie friend the President of the Council,
who in his reply spoke of the gallant services of those
civilians, which he, nnlikethe noble earl opposite, could
not omit. He (Earl Derby's) surprise was therefore so
much the greater, when he read the vote of thanks, to
find no acknowledgment of those services. He had de-
termined to supply the deficiency, and had prepared an
which he hod interded to submit to the
house, until he found that the noble baron bad antici-
pated him ; he intended to propose to add at the end of
the third paragraph words borrowed from the Queen's
Speech, extending the thanks to those who had dis-
played qualitiestlsat would have done honour to veteran
soldiers ; he would, however, notiohject to the words
proposed by the noble baron ; he did not know whether
that noble lord considered it would have been injudicious
to select any man from amongst the civilians ; he had
gone through the names of the military officers, but
when he came to the civilian he passed on abruptly, and
although there were many of them whose names were
fairly entitled to be mentioned with approval, he was
sure any one who had studied the events would not
think it too great an honour for such men as Yenablea
the indigo planter, who, when the authorities had de-
serted the station at Aaimgur, almost alone, with only
the assistance of his own ryote, maintained himself for
six weeks. Again, there was the name of Gubbins, an
undistinguiehed name, but borne by a distinguished
man, who by his influence and character kept down the
mutiny in his district. There was Boyle, the civil engi-
neer, who headed the little garrison of Arrah, and there
imitated or set the example to the defenders of Luck-
eo cv—for what he did on a small scale was not unworthy
to rank with the defence of Lucknow. Again, there
was Mr. Moneas, who, by a splendid act of insubordi-
tion, disobeyed an order, and maintained himself at
Gyot, and eveutually carried away with him a very large
amount of treasure which had been abandoned. There
might, perhaps, be more question about the next name,
that of lir. Taylor, the commissioner at Patna ; but he
at all events bad a just perception of the magnitude of
the danger, and displayed more energy and ability than
the Government. With regard to the military officers
selected, no language he could use was too strong, no
encomium was beyond the merits of those who had
justly earned their thanks, whether of those who still
survived, or of those who had gone beyond the reach of
human praise or censure. Ho could not join so unhesi-
tatingly in the first part of the vote. He regretted it
had been introduced, but he could not take on himself
the responsibility of dividing or suggesting to the house
not to pass it, at the same time he felt bound to enter
his protest against it. If a vote of thanks was the high-
est honour Parliament could bestow it ought only to be
bestowed on those whose merits were recognised by the
uniform acceptance and voice of the country. He should
be sorry to see the time when either the House of Lords
or House of Commons should pass a vote of thanks as a
mere personal matter in consequence of the position of
the parties ; the honour ought to be restricted closely,
nay severely, to those names and those services which
the unanimous voice of the country had recognised.
The Duke of ARGYLL thought it would be a subject
for general regret that matters of difference had been
introduced into a diccuseion of such a nature. However,
he would venture to submit that the responsibility of
raising those differences did not rest with the Govern-
ment. It would have been absolutely impossible to
have thanked some of the civilians who bad aided in the
suppression of the mutiny, and to have omitted all men-
tion of the heads of the presidencies, without indirectly
casting a censure upon those functionaries. However,
it was not upon any such negative ground that he
meant to justify the thanks to Lord Canning. He
had taken the grea4est pains to man:tine into the
charges brought against the noble lord, and he
would venture to affirm that every one of them—
urged, be it remembered, chiefly through the instru-
mentality of the Indian press—had broken down. In
the first place. it was stated that in the early period of
the mutiny Lord Canning had done nothing to pacify
the sepoys on the greased cartridge question. Now the
blue-book placed it beyond all doubt that within forty.
eight hours after the discontent had manifested itself,
LordCanninghad anorderismed that thesepoys should be
allowed to grease the cartridges with their own material.
A second statement was, that no order had been issued
to stop the use of the greased cartridges. Why, here
again, upon the same authority, it was made manifest
that within forty-eight hours after the discontent was
shown, Lcrd Canning forwarded a telegraphic communi-
cation to every station in India, directing that the car-
tridges should no longer be used. True, capital punish.
ment was not inflicted upon the mutineere at Barrotekpore,
for capital punishment could not be inflicted upon two
whole regiments, however the next highest penalty that
could be inflicted upon them they received. Then it was
said that it was only upon the instigation of Sir Henry
Lawrence that the 34th Regiment had been disbanded.
Now, the blue-book before them showed beyond all
doubt that three or four days before the recommendation
had been received the order for disbanding the regiment
had been issued. As far the alleged refusal of Lord
Canning to accept the services of the inhabitants of Cal
cutta, his answer was, that the statement was not true
and the parliamentary papers had shown it. Lord
Canning's policy was to repress panic, and though, in
answer to the address of the French residents, he might
have spoken of a " kr curs 'less panic," yet in other parts
of the papers before them it was made manifest that at
that very date be was issuing telegraphic messages to
all the governors throughout India, urging them to pre-
pare against the common danger. Undoubtedly, in the
first instance Lord Canning did refuse the offer of the
Sovereign of Nepaul to send a force of three thousand
men into the province of Behar and Lower Ranee].
But it was the opinion of the wisest men in India that
Lord Canning was amply justified in refusing the offer
of a foreign power made under such conditions.
Subsequently, when the same Sovereign offered to
send troops into the provinca of Oude, the offer was ac-
cepted, and he thought the thanks of the country wore
due to Jung Bahadoor for the services which ho had
recdercd us in a moment of teed. As to not disarming
the Dinapoor garrison, the truth was Lord Canning was
unable to spare a man for the purpose, and it would have
been in the highest degree incautious to have directed
troops from the relief of Lucknow for the purpose. Lord
Cannitighs conduct had been disparagingly contrasted
with that of Sir John Lawrence in the Puejaub. Now,
the fact was, in the province of Lower Bengal there
were no less than 29,000 native troops, and to meet these
Lord Canning bad only 2,360 Europeans, whilst in the
de4
sire to
to face 42,000
to disparage the ser-
vicesbut he felt bound to make
show that it was impossible
Pnt halattnti jy aeouftbrsoitorhp John
statementro.
nviti
neLer e,a,hrwladr2dee,
rn4n2ctoo:
for Lord Canning to have made the same energetic dis-
play in Lower Bengal as had been made in the Punjaub.
He thought that much of the feeling against Lord Can-
ning was ascribable to a notion prevailing in this coun-
try that the outbreak had been long intended, and that
it ought to have been foreseen. As for the credit of
having directed the China expedition to India, he thought
the credit of that might be shared between Lord Canning
and Lord Elgin—the one had suggested it, and the other
bad acted upon the suggestion. In conclusion, be would
only say that it was his sincere belief that amongst those
to whom they owed the salvation of India, Lord Can-
ning would deservedly holdthat place which was allotted
to him in the vote of that evening. (Hear.)

The Duke of CAMBRIDGE said that on such an
occasion it was highly desirable that the house should be
perfectly unanimous,
and he felt it to be incumbent on
him to express his con cnrrence in the sense of the
distinguished gallantry and great merits of our army.
(Hear, hear.) He was enabled to assure them that
the utmost cordiality existed between the Governor.
General and the distinguished Commander-in-Chief in
India, a cordiality of which every do-patch from the
Commander-in-Chief repeated the strongest assurance.
(Hear, hear.) He thought it but justice to testify
to the extraordinary seal of tbat distinguished com-
mander, who did not take two days but only a few hours
to decide upon accepting the command, and in less than
24 hours was ready to take his departure. In reference
to the withdrawal from Lucknow, ho said it was almost
unprecedented that such a force, encumbered with sick,
wounded, and every sort of encumbrance, should retire
without the loss of a single man, the enemy actually
tiling on the position our troops hail occupied,
as if they
were still there. But the merits of Sir Colin Cemphell
were not new to lei,
they had been exhibited during a
long career of distinction. In reference to Sir J. Out-
ram, he spoke in the highest terms of the manner in
which that gallant officer feel conducted the operations
under his command ; and, though senior officer of his
grade, gave the credit to a junior officer, whom he con-
sidered entitled to that distinction. He lamented that
the name of Sir 11. Havel. ck could not be joined to the
list of those to whom their thanks were to be awarded,
as he was now beyond their praises. (Hear.) It was
but the other day that they had awarded to that distin-
guished officer their separate thanks, and little did they
think that big life would so soon be sacrificed. (Hear.)
It was impossible to appreciate too highly the gallantry
and endurance of those brave officers, any false move on
' whose part would have ruined our empire in the East.
Great responsibility had also rested on some officers who,
till then but little tried, had been placed in important
posts ; and we had the satiifactien of seeing that they
had conducted the operations committed to them to a
satisfactory issue. He next referred ti Sir H. Inglis,
who had so distinguished himself in that 87 days' defence
in which every officer and soldier, natise as well as Eu-
ropean, Lad actually been on duty
every day, actua'ly
shouldering muskets under abrisk and fevers tiro, and the