The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-21 00:00:00

The hall was densely crowded, and on the mem-
bers making their appearance they were greeted
with loud and prolonged cheering. Mr. Rowse,
solicitor, presided.
Mr. R. P. COLLIER on rising was received with
applause. He explained his oft repeated views as
to the desirability and advantage of members of
Parliament yearly meeting their constituents and
explaining their votes—a course which wa3 bt com-
ing popular. He was happy to say that both he
and lts colleague frequently sat on the same
benches, and as frequently voted on the sum) side
but of course there were times when their views
differed, but he believed that in the main their
opinions were in unison. He was perf,ctly well
aware that at the present time the attention of those
who comprised the meeting—in fact, the whole
country—was almost wholly absorbed i❑ Indian
affairs ; but at the same time he reminded them that
their attention ought not to be wholly abstracted

from what occurred at home, for it:woul.l ba a

double grievance and a double calamity if those
affairs were allowed to interfere so greatly with

their home affairs. He should make no further
apology, therefore, for adverting to the affairs of
the past session, but at once proceed to them. He
then detailed seriatim the measures which had been
adopted, and commented thereon ; after which he
referred to the measure far the emancipation of the'
Jews, which was passed in the House of Commons
and rejected by the House of Lords—a measure
respecting "which the Liberal of Plymouth were
nearly unanimous on, and it was a rag of religious
intolerance which ought to ba swept away. (Ap-
plause.) He adverted briefly to Parliament.rry
reform, and, while they were about that, they
might as well reform their Indian administration
—(hear)—but he believed this would de ,end on
the people, and if the people desired it the Govern-
ment would be compelled to follow their voice, and
if the people desired it it would be done. (" Yes,
yes !") With regard to the Indian affairs he did
not pretend to have access to any peculiar infor-
mation which others did not po-sess, and were it
not for his standing in the position of their repre-
sentative he shouldnot occupy their time by speak-
ing on the subject. The question of India was one
which must be brought before the House of Com •
mous, and be dealt with in the shape of legislation,
therefore constituents had a right to inquire of
their representative what course he intended to
pursue. (" Hear," and applause.) This great cala-
, mity, the details of which were so horrible and
heartrending, might tend to beneficial results ; he
believed, in fact, it had already led to a highly
beneficial result—that of awakening the attention
of the people of England, and at last seriously
directing their attention to Indian affairs. The
conscience of the country had been raised to the
awful importance and responsibility which at-
tended the government and direction of about
200,000,000 of human beings. When addressing
a. large assembly he liked to speak the truth,
whatever might be the consequences, and he
stated without hesitation that the English
people were to blame in not looking after and at-
tending properly to their Indian affairs. England
had acquired a large empire by what might ibe
termed haphazard. It had been acquired by no
principles ; they did not know bow they got it ;
they had got it by a series of events which the most
daring romance-writer would hesitate to make the
groundwork of a novel—so strange a fiction was it.
It had been obtained haphazard and been governed
haphazard; it had been used as a digging for the ex-
traction of so much gold ; it had been to make for-
tunes, and there had been an immense amount of
jobbery and corruption. The Goiternmeut had not
been so bad twit might have been, or yet so good as
it might be. It bad not been exactly wicked, but
it hadbeen a carelep, self-seeking, low, unprincipled
huckstering government. Still the w,rst form of
European government was much better than the
best native rule. After referring to the state in
which India was formerly governed by the native
princes, and the cruel and bloody wars so frequently
waged against themselves with so much fury, he
said that, in the first place, it was desirable to as-
certain what was the nature of the revolt ; second,
what were the sauses of it ; thiro, on what prin-
ciples ought it to be dealt with ; and, fourth, how
were they to prevent its recurrence and maintain
permanently the Indian empire I These were the
questions which presented themselves ; and he
should make a few observations on them. What
was the revolt? It was merely a military mutiny,
and not a popular insurrection. They must distin-
guish between the two. The truth could not be con-
cealed, for if it had been a popular insurrection, a
rising of the whole natives of India in a mass against
the Government, we could no longer have main-
tained our Indian empire, and India would have
had to be ab indened, and we should not again have
set foot on its shores. It was essentially a military
mutiny. The mercantile classes in India, such as
the bankers, the merchant., the shopkeepers and •
traders had, fortunately for us, nothing to do with ,
it. Some of the native population—and to their
honour be it said—sheltered fugitives from the un-
heard of barbarities which were being perpetrated
by the Sepoys, and this they did at great risk. If
the people had been against them they could not
have held India ; but, on the other hand, if the
whole of the people had been with us, the mutiny
would have been almost impossible. The muti-
neers were not to be confounded with insurgents in
a popular cause fighting for liberty or -under a ban-
ner. If they gained the victory the-Mahomedane
and Hindoos would cut their own throat.. All the
European States had expre'sed their indignation at
the unheard-of barbarities, and all continental
newspapers—with one or two villainous exceptons
—had sympathised with England. With respect
to the second question or inquiry—" What was the
cause of this mutiny 7" Now, here he confessed
himself in a great degree at fault, as full informa-
tion on this subject was not possessed ; but it was
somewhat strange that a. mutiny of this sort, so
long in preparation—for so it appeared it was—
should have been so exceedingly well organised as
to escape the notice and observation of the Indian
Government; and he could not but think there
was shortsightedness somewhere, and that there
was a little routine and red tape. The Government
bad been warned by Sir C. Napier, but had not
attended to the warning. It had been said that the
indiscreet zeal of the missionaries in propagating
the Gospel had been the cause of the mutius.
This he entirely discredited, and did not believe
there was any foundation in it. They could not
disguise from themselves that the Christian faith
had made but small progress in India, for he had
been informed that all the converts in Bengal
amounted to 10,000, and in Madras 40,000. Now,
the outbreak had taken place in Bengal, and not
in Madras where the greatest number of converts
were made, and that did not look as if the mission-
aries had had to do with it. There was this consi-
deration,—the Government had confined the
efforts of the missionaries, and had prohib.ted
them from interfering witn the Sepoys, and bad
themselves abstained as much as possible from
interfering with their religion, although the
suttee had been abolished and other barbarous
rites and ceremonies of a similar nature. In ab-
staining from interfering with the religion of the
Sepoys, they had carried their abstaining principles
so far as to be subversive to military discipline. He
then quoted instances of the ridiculous attention
and subserviency paid to the high cute Sepoys, and
proved his argument that it was subversive of mili-
tary discipline. He understood that the average
number of Europeans in the presidencies were in
Bengal lin 24 • in Madras, 1 in 16 ; and in Bom-
bay, lin 9. Now, he could not help thinking
this disproportion was too great. Although Delhi
had been fortified, and extretnecare taken in supply-
ing it with stores, &c., still there was the grievous
oversight that there were no Europeans to take care
of it. The third question was, " How was this re-
volt to be dealt with?" On this point there could
be no serious difference of opinion, for he believed
every Englishman whom he might address would
agree that England must put forth her whole
strength and energy for the purpose of putting it
down with a high hand. It was absolutely necessary
to restore the prestige which we have lost, and show
nations that we are not to be insulted and offended
with impunity and without returning a severe and
just punishment. In fighting for our Indian em-
pire we were, in fact, fighting for our own empire,
for there were those on the continent envious of
England's greatness who were found to say that her
sun was declining, and if we failed to put down
this mutiny would say that we bad lost our native
energy ; that our country was on the wane ; there-
fore, let them fight abroad, or else they might have
to fight at home.. It was with satisfaction that they
saw their soldiers had not deteriorated. The men
who were fighting under Havelock were as valiant
as those who fought under Wellington: The Eng-
' lish troops had not only beaten the Indian., but
had beaten those very Sepoys Nyhorn they had them