The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-23 00:00:00

KR. E. P. BOUVE.RIE, M.P., AT
KILMA.RNOCI.

(Abridged from the Glasgow Mail.)
On Thursday the Right Hon. E. P. Bouverie,
M.P. for the Kilmarnock district of burghs, ad-
dressed a numerous meeting of his constituents in
the George Inn-hall, Kilmarnock.
Mr. BOUVERIE-111 the last 18 months three
events have occurred in this country, all of very
great magnitude and importance. I refer first of
all to the revolt in India—in that immense posses-
sion of ours on the other side of the globe, and of
which we have since seen the origin, and, I would
hope, have seen nearly the close. The second
event, not, perhaps, equal in importance, but of
great importance to the people of this country, and
to a commercial and manufacturing community
such as you are, is the commercial crisis, which
occurred about 12 months ago, almost unexampled
in,its severity, and fatal in many cases in its con-
sequences. The third event, more particularly of
a political character, affecting the interests and
opinions of the constituencies of this country, is
tho change of Ministry, which occurred at the
beginning of the past session of Parliament. Now,
first of all, with regard to the revolt in India. I
do not purpose at all to attempt to awaken in your
breasts those feelings of horror and distress which
were excited in this country 12 months ago by the
accounts received from week to week of the atroci-
ties committed upon our unoffending countrymen
and countrywomen in India. There has been a
tendency of reaction in respect of those atrocities
visible in the public mind latterly, almost leading
people to disbelieve that such things could have
taken place at that time. Now, I have no doubt,
with regard to these narrations, and which curdled
our blood, that exaggerations and misrepresenta-
tions were used ; but still I do believe that there
was a stab-stratum of fact and truth in many of
those dreadful stories which fully justified the pub-
lic feeling which arose at that time with reference
to those events. But lam not going to enter into
that topic. The great dramatist has put the words
into the mouth of a very wicked woman, but still
it was wise philosophy that Lady Macbeth ad-
ministered to her murderous husband when he
began to lament over the cruel and murderous deeds
he had done :-
6, Things without remedy should be without regard ;
What is done is done."
Therefore I don't propose to enter into that branch
of the subject. Let us hope that these awful deeds,
in respect of which many a heart is still bleeding,
and many a home still desolate—that these things
will be forgotten, and, as much as we can, buried
in oblivion. But there are things connected with
these events which, I trust, never will be forgotten
by the people of this country. I trust the daunt-
less courage which our countrymen exhibited, the
heroic resolution which they showed in the most
trying circumstances at that time, in that country,
will never be forgotten by ourselves or our descen-
dants; and let me assure you that, as far as I can
,judge, I believe no brighter page will ever be found
in the history of this country than the account of
the way, inlwhich that handful of our fellow-coun-
trymen in that country, taken by surprise, scattered
throughout an enormous territory, not only faced
the tide of revolt, but drove it bac'h and suppressed
it, showed, in the capture of Delhi and in the de-
fence of Lucknow, that no odds were too great nor
disadvantages of position too numerous to over-
whelm their dauntless resolution, or to destroy that
British vigour and energy that were exhibited
there upon a stage, I trust, to all the world for all
time. (Loud cheers.) All sorts of causes have
been given as the reason why that great revolt sud-
denly broke out. lam not going to enter into a
discussion now as to these causes--this is not
the time and place for such a discussion—but I will
say this, that it appears to me, as a plain man, that
we sufficiently account for that event when we
reflect that we had in that country an enormous
mercenary army, whose sole allegiance to us was
based upon their belief in our power ; and when
that army, which we had petted and pampered—
an army which, I believe, had grievances which
had not been redressed, and whose allegiance was
based upon the fact that they believed we had the
power, at any time, to repress any outbreak
that might burst forth. Well, our might in India
rested upon our European troops—upon those of
our countrymen who were out there—and whose
invincible courage displayed itself recently in so
unmistakable a way. These troops were few as
.compared with our large mercenary army. That
mercenary army believed and felt that our power
was gone—their allegiance hung by the slightest
thread-3,nd, on the first temptation offered, they
revolted against our authority. In point of fact,
we discovered, what was known before by many,
that we were sitting upon a barrel of gunpowder,
and the wonder is that the spark which ignited it
had not blown us up long before. I trust we shall
gather wisdom from the experience we have had,
and not have a recurrence of such an awful event
again. The practical result of our proceedings in
Parliament is, that we have spent a great portion
of time during last session in considering how India
was to be best governed. That is a problem of the
greatest difficulty, which scarcely admits, in the
circumstances, of a satisfactory solution. What
have been the appliances we have had hitherto to
control and govern this vast extent of territory ?
Why, there have been something like 900 paid civil
servants, and something like 30,000 European
troops, officered by about 5,000 or 6,000 European
officers. These arc the whole appliances we have
had to govern that country, and it would have been
impossible to have done it with the success which
we have hitherto done without the immense moral
superiority which our habits, character, and reli-
gion give us over the races in India. That supe-
riority we still possess ; but it is obvious from the
result of the mutiny, that for the present at least
we must have a larger European Power than
hitherto to control that people. Our occupa-
tion of India must be simply a military one. I
believe at present there is something like 100,000
of our troops in India. The ordinary calculation
with reference to the waste of European troops in
India I believe is annually that 10 per cent.
are disabled by death, disease, or age ; therefore,
it is easy to calculate that to keep up an army of
100,000 men—setting apart all questions of re-
placing old regiments by fresh ones—we must be
constantly sending, every year, a supply of 10,000
soldiers, which our people, I think, will not be
prepared to do. On that ground, apart from the
consideration of the climate, I do not think we can
contemplate retaining our possession of that vast
dominion for an indefinite time. There is one ques-
tion connected with this subject which I wish to
say a few words upon. We must, if we are to re-
tain our empire even now, respect the religion, pre-
judicies, superstitions, and feelings of the inhabi-
tants. I pass now to the second topic upon which
I purposed to address you—the commercial crisis
which twelve months ago happened throughout
Scotland and England. Now, you know the evil
effects of such an event—how, all of a sudden, trade
is at a standstill, the public works are closed, and
your men are standing idle in the market-place,
seeking employment but finding none ; how there
is a lack of employment for those who are able and
willing to work; how no man whose capital is
sunk in trade is certain that he may not be a beg-
gar the next hour or day. You know these are
the circumstances which attend upon those com-
mercial storms, and which it appears, from modern
experience, occur every ten or twelve years. Now,
this question of commercial ci i ie is connected with
a subject about which moi e nonsense has been writ-
ten and spoken, and a greater amount of practical
blundering c ommitted, than on any subject that has
ever occupied the attention of the Legislature—l
mean the currency, question, or the laws that relate
to money, which is the ordinary medium of ex-
change in this country, and the standard of value.
No doubt it is an intricate and complicated ques-
tion. Now, Ido not think it is in the power
of Government to prevent the recurrence of such
disasters, and certainly it was not the way to
accomplish this by putting restrictions on banks.
Of
course, if bankers act recklessly, locking up their
money in schemes that do not pay, then, of
course, like all other imprudent people, they must
suffer, and their shareholders be brought to ruin.
You have seen an example' Glasgow of this in • but
no direct laws could make the managers of such a
bank prudent in their advances to commercial con-
cerns ; so that it is inevitable, when a commercial
storm comes, tha
t disastrous events must:follow.
(Hear, hear.) Now,holding these views—not new
on my park--I shall resist any proposal' made to
put further restrictions upon the banking onera-
tions of this country.
(Cheers.) I believe it was a
great evil, the restriction of '1845. Cheers. I
I
now proceed to the third subject—the
his change: of
Government. When Lord Derby friends
assumed the reins of power, the an
difficulty arose that
there was a Government in power with only a mi-
nority of the House of Commons at its back. Now,
the practical working of our constitution is this :
We have a Minister and his colleagues who exer-
cise the executive authority of the Crown, who
conduct the ordinary administrative business of the
country ; we have a House of Commons, and a
House of Peers, which fills up all great public ap-
pointments—which exercises, in fact, all the prero-
gatives of the Crown in name of the Crown, and is
backed by a majority of the House of Commons.
That is the modern theory and practice of our con-
.
stitution, which has been found to work advanta-
geously for the interests of the country. But a
change has now taken place. The Ministry we
have got now are not backed by a majority of the
House of Commons; and Lord Derby and his col-
leagues started with dialbulties. How haTe they