The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-08 00:00:00

by the late Cabinet. The best provision, I repeat, has I
been made to meet the difficulties which might arise in
the event of any accidental, unforeseen, or unfortunate
vacancy occurring in the office of Governor-General. I
i
. do not fear, Ido not wish t. We could not have done
otherwise than we have done. It was impossible for
any Government desirous of seeing the administration
of India conducted in a spirit of clemency as well as of
justice. desirous of conciliating as well as of subduing
. a people, not to express its opinion in the proper terms
with respect to an act confiscating the whole proprie-
tary rights of the people of Oude. (Loud cheers.)
Earl GREY—I must point out to your lordships that
both the speech of the noble earl who has just sat down
and that of the noble earl at the head of the Government
have been addressed, not to the question raised by my
noble friend as to whether it was proper at this time
publicly to declare the severe censure pronounced by
her Majesty's Ministers upon the whole policy of
Lord Canning in respect to Oude, but, on the con-
trary, to the totally different question, whether that
policy in itself was right or wrong—whether the pro•
olamation which had been published was a proper
proclamation, and whether the Government have
done their duty in expressing their disapproval of it.
(Hear, hear.) On the last question, my lords, lam net
- able t 3 give any opinion whatever. We have not bef re
us the information necessary to enable us to decide
whether Lord Canning has done right, or whether he
deserves to be censured. (Hear, hear.) I can quite
understand, however, that her Majesty s Government,
being io possession of far more information than we now
have, may possibly have thought fit to disapprove the
• proclamation issued by the Governor General, and even
to write a very severe despatch in condemnation of what
has been done, But, then, is it right that that censure
should be publicly proclaimed I. (Cheers.) My lords, I
cannot forget that Lord Canning during the time he has
held the government of India has shown great moral
courage and firmness in maintaining the principles of
justice and the policy of clemency at a period when the
public mind was highly excited and not disposed to give
the consideration which was due to calmer counsels.
(ileme,hetiv.) I cannot forget tbat Lord Canning braved
the virithent calumny to which he was exposed by ad-
hering to his duty in this respect amid every discourage-
ment. Therefore, I say, in the first place, you ought
not to believe that Lord Canning has now departed
from the principles on which he has hitherto acted until
you receive the mo-t conclusive evidence on the subject,
until you have had an opportunity of examining all his
explanations of the grounds on which he has procee 4ed,
and of making up your minds that Lie has been in error.
But, even if you are convinced that he hos done wrong,
you are bound to believe that it is an error of judgment
only that he has committed. (Cheers from the Minis-
terial benches.) No man can doubt that it is Lord
Canning's desire and anxiety to act in a spirit of justice
and humanity ; and if he has done wrong it is
his judgment, not his moral sense, that has
been at fault. (Hear, hear.) That being so, what.,
I ask, was the duty of her Majesty's Government ?
No doubt, if they thought him in error, fully
te explain to him the grounds of that opinion, and to
direct him to modify, if requisite, the course he was about
to adopt, I have not a word to say against the strongest
. instructions which they might have felt a right to issue
on the subject But then when that despatch had only
just gone out, was it necessary to publish to the whole
world that this was the view taken ot his conduct by the
Government ? (Hear.) The noble earl opposite sayt,
" What were we to do It was very indiscreet to come
and ask the Government a question on the subject, but
when the question had been put to them they could net
help answering it." (Laughter.) My lords, that is quite
a new light in whicn to nlaee the duties of a Minister.
I can only say that when I bad the honourof sitting on that
bench as a Secretary of State I made it a rule i orariably
to refuse to answer the simplest question, even though I
knew perfectly well how to answer it, if it were put to
me without notice. I said, " No, I never will answer
you without notice. Your question may be very simple;
but if you are once allowed to establish the practice of
coming down here and asking me without notice any
question you think fit, then the fact ot my declining to
answer one when I have answered another will she w that
the question is embarrassing." (Hear, and a laugh.)
But, nay lords, Igo further. Even suppooiog that her
Majesty's Government have had the fullest notice be-
f n-ehand, is it to be said that they are under a positive
obligation to answer a question ot this kind, though to
do so is injurious to the public service ? (Cheers.) I have
always understood that a very different course has been
pursued. It more than once fell to my lot, when
holding the seale of the Crlonial-office, to have que,-
tions put to me as to my intentions respecting mat-
ters upon which I had been in c rrespondence with
. the Governors of part:cular colonies. But I never
then thought of replying that I disapproved in every
sense of what had been done. I was accustomed
to say the subject is a difficult one, and cotnniunica-
lions are still goirg on with regard to it ; we hare
not yet been able to form a decision, and it would not
be expedient for the nubile service to say more at pre-
sent. (Hear, hear.) Now, am I to be toll, my lords,
that because an indiscreet question is aiiked in the House
cf Commons that is an excuse for a Minister to give an
indiscreet answer ? (Lend cries of " Hear, hear.") I cos
recognise no such excuse—(hear, hear)—for the more
indiscreet the question the more di-tinctly is it the duty
of a Minister to refuse to answer it. (Hear, hear.) From
my experience of both Houses of Parliament I am per-
suaded that ;f, in answer to such a question in either
House of Parliament, her Majesty's Government had
said Lord Canning has hitherto deserved our full coefi-
donee, and we see no reason for withdrawing that con-
fidence ; the proclamation which has been adverted to is
at present the subject of correspondence between us and
Lord Canning, acid we Awl take care most attentively
to consider the who'e of the circumstances of the case,
and see that justice be done, and the house shall in due
time be informed as to what has been done—l am per-
suaded, I say, that if the Government had adopted that
course, there would have been no disposition upon the
part of either House of Parliament to press the question
upon them. (Heir, hear.) I have never in the whole
course of my experience seen that course adopted by a
Government without being at once admitted by Parlia-
ment. (Hear.) Why, that very course had been adopted
by the present Government in reference to the Cagliari.
The Government produced a great portion of the papers
connected with that affsir, more, perhaps, than it was
spite di*creet to produce, but when they were asked fio.
still mere they said we are still in communication with
the Government of Naples and Sardinia, and it would
not be convenie,t, for the public service at present to
produce more papera. That answer was readily acquiesced
in by the house, and lam informed it was made on the very
carpe night that the indiscreet answer of which I sow-
plain was given to the question relating to this procla-
mation. I conceive that the Government committed a
grave f suit in ex,wessing the opinion that they disap-
proved in every sense of the policy of Lord Canning.
(Hear.) The noble earl oppo-ite has found fault with.
my noble friend near me (Earl Granville). He said,
" You complain of the despatch being in the hands of
persons not members of the Government, when it was
yourselves who asked for it ; but the noble earl forgets
Vett it was aftor the expressed censure of the G esterninent
that my noble frien .1 asked f •r the despatch, and I be-
lieve that had there heem no expression of an opinion
hoslil9 to Lord Canning he would never have a-ked for
that deepate'a at ad (Hear ) After an unertalified
censure upon the policy of Lord Canning had be-n
pointedly announced by the Government, all the friend.,
of Lord Canning were very raturally and very properly
de irous or seeing the terms is which that censure wes
couched and what were the grounds upon which it was
founded, and they hoped from an examination of the
despa•ch to discover that there was not sufficient ground
for any censure at all. I much regret what has oc-
curred, not on account of Lord Canning, although I
cannot but think that the manner in which Lord Can-
ning filed his high office in a time of extreme difficulty
and neder circumstances of a most deeply distreesioe
character—(hear)—the manner in which to P erf )rnteiil
duties suddenly and unexpectedly cast upon him—(hear)
—has entitled him to gr. Ater consideration than hasr)
been shown him. (Hear, hear.) It is not, however, on
account of Lord Canning that I so much regret what has
occurred ; but it is f n• the sake of India and tf this em-
pire. (Hear.) I am convinced that it is not for the
interest of India, nor of England either, that the govern-
ment of India should at this moment be placed in fresh
bands, or that L,,rd Canning, holding that high office,
should have his authority weakened and impaired by a
public expression on the part of her Majesty's Govern-
ment of censure of his policy. I confess, my lords,
Viet in all my experience the course which has been
adopted by the Government appears to me to be without
a precedent, and it is one of which I cannot help ex-
pressing extreme disapproval. lam utterly at a loss to
conceive what grounds can have induced the Govern-
ment to take such a course. What object could be
gained by it ? lam sure that the noble earl possesses
too firm a mind to shrink fro;n a temporary obloquy for
refasUg to give up Lord Canning. lam sure, also,
that he is not actuated by another motive which might
almost seem to have prompted such a coarse, but were
it not for the high character cf the nobl • earl one might
almost imagine that it was so. Circum.tances lead one
to believe that in the public mind, which some time
back went too far in favour of unsparing and indiscri-
minate severity, there bad been a react;on, and the gene-
ral feelicg would be hostile to a policy of extreme
severity, and it might be thought that a little
temporary popularity might be acquired f ,r a weak Ad-
ministration by the production of a despatch containing
some high sounding words and phrases with regard to
principles of justice and humanity. It might almost be
"(thought that the course which has been adopted by the
ernrnent was dictated by some such motive, but I,
y lords, reject such a supposition, and can only account
for it ground that it must have resulted from ex-
.-blatmeable inadvertence.
• The netanaiGtlAn agreed to.
THE ENGLISH
Viscount lIUNGA CHURCH IN PARIS.
his back to the gallery, I\Tcv°N' who,
from
"king with
ss most imperfecay heard, said
qaestiongleisfbProvidingteser,
3neeans of attending Divine
that the
wcrsbip fur Ea
9,600
pluersft,n.in Peri; amounting as
they did to nearly
of considerable
it'atortnr,inevtertoi n of the late
importance, and had oc;mpied tihWe
Government, who had, believed
andecision
upon the subject which the hostile vote of tilt
Commons prevented their nerrTing into effect, He vvi'eb:f
to be informed by the ouble earl Ina 6tuie.aly B.,„tcle
fer Foreign Affairs whether any communication bad
been recently made to him on this subject, sad whether
her Majesty's Government contemplated the adoption of
soy course respecting it.
• The Earl of MALMESBURY—I need not Ray that
this subject has occupied the attention of the Foreign-
office for some years. I regret to state that, although I
bad some hopes of bringing it t- a sucoeseful issue, I
should to entirely deceiving this house and the country,
so,d also my ceuottyunen in Paris, vvf.:re I to induce them
to believe that the lieute cf Coneineeleis likely to change