The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-28 00:00:00

their apprehension that it would prove a burden open that the question whether it is a military mutiny is one
iof primary importance. (Hear, hear.) Is it a
military- property in some cases amounting almost to coefisca-
Con, the sum really obtained from it had not yet ex- ,' mutiny, or is it a national revolt ? Is the conduct of
needed a fourth of the expected amount. (Hear, near.) I the troops the consequence of a sudden impulse, or is it
He might add that there had only been throe cases in the result of an organiied conspiracy ? The house must
which any dispute as to the meaning of the act had been feel that upon the right appreciation of that issue the
Carried into the courts of law, and all the decisions had greatest of a',l questions, namely, the measures which the
been for the Government. (Hear, hear.) Government ought to adopt, or Parliament ought t )
After a few observations from the Earl of DERBY and sanction, entirely depends. (Hear.) The measures which
the Loan CHANCELLOR, may be adequate for a military mutiny will not be ade-
The petition was ordered to lie upon the table, quate to cope with a national revnlt. Tne measures
REGISTRATION OF LONG LEASES (SCOT. which may be perfectly competent to deal with conduct
LAND) BILL. I 1 which is only the consequence of sudden impulse will be
This bill was read a third time and passed, totally insufficient to deal with conduct which is the
THE DUBLIN MAIL. consequence of combination, long matured, deeply laid,
In answer to Viscount DUNGANNON, and extensively ramified. (Hear.) I apprehend that
Earl GRANVILLE said that an arrangement had the right understanding by this lieuse of the cause of
been come to for the conveyance of the mail between the present state of affairs in India is a primary piece
London and Dublin. He could not state what would be of knowledge without which we cannot undertake to sup-
the time occupied by the sea passage—the Government port any measures that are brought forward for the pur-
bad nothing to do with that—the contract bein,, fur the pose of putting an end to the disorders which there exist.
whole distance ' • but he believed that it would be about I will, therefore, tc-right pr,sume to address you upon
three hours and 45 minutes. two points—l will ask you first to inquire what are the
REFORMATORY SCHOOLS BILL. cause: of the present state of affairs in India; and when
This bill wag read a second .ime. you have arrived at a general conclusion on that point
INCLOSURE ACTS AMENDMENT BILL I will ask you to inquire what are the proper measures
This bill was read a third time. under the circumstances which should be adopted.
COMMON INCLOSURE BILL.
These are the two points to wbicb, with your kind in-
This bill was read a second time. dulgence, I will call your attention to-night, it being
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS BILL. in opinion that they are inseparably connected, and
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY moved tbe second read- that unless we arrive at ajeet conclusion with respect to
log of this bill. It was, he said, originally brought into the cause it is totally impossible for us to adopt any
the other house of parliament by Sir S Northcete, and sufficient remedy. (Hear.) Itns not my intention to-night
after the dissolution was taken up by Mr. Adderley. to trouble the house with any lengthened description
The bill was entirely voluntary. Schools were to be of the condition of the Bengal army. I apprehend
founded by private liberality, and they would then be that whatever may be the variety of opinions on other
entitled to receive grants from the Privy Council, Powers subjects no great difference can exist with regard
were given to arrest children found begging who were to this—that the condition of the Bengal army,
On the high road to crime, and to place thorn in these both as regards discipline and disposition, has been for
schools, acid to make the parents responsible for their some time, and was at the time of the revolt, highly
support. unsatisfactory. The house has upon that subject very
'
Lord BROUGHAM expressed himself in favour of ample materials on which it may frm its (Tilden,.
the principle of the bit. The house is now familiar with the fiery criticism of the
The Earl of DERBY said be should probably not be lamented Napier. (Hear, hear.) I have no doubt every
present when the bill was in committee, and he there- expression which he used is uppermost in the minds of
fore now called attention to an extraordinary provision those whom I address. The country has been recently
in the interpretation clause, that a person who had had favoured with the calmer reminiscences of another dis-
an order of affiliation made upon him should, for the tioguished Indian general—Lord Melville. There exists
purposes of this bill, be deemed the father of the child, in a pamphlet, no doubt familiar to many members, the
(A laugh.) concurrence of a distinguished and perhaps one of the
This bill was then read a second time, rising of Indian officers—Colonel Jacob—who does not
The Militia Ballots Suspension Bill was read a second agree with Napier on any other subject. It appears to
time. me that I should trespass unnecessarily on the time of
The Public Health Act (Aldershot) Bill was read a the house if I entered into any minute details or brought
second time, numerous proofs of the conclusion to which I suppose a
The report of amendments on the Portland Harbour vast majority of the house has arrived. Since the time
Bill was brougbt up and agreed to. when General Napier wrote those confidential and
THE AUSTRALIAN MAIL SERVICE. rapid descriptions of the state of the Bengal army, since
The Earl of HARDWICKE postponed a notice he Lord Melville had per•onal experience of it, since
had on the paper renetive to this subject until Monday Colonel Jacob published that pamphlet, it has been
next. acknowledged that the condition of the Bengal army
Their lordships then adjourned at 25 minutes past has not improved but deteriorated, and that the griev-
sev en. ances, or the alleged grievances, of the S Toys, instead
of having diminished, have perhaps increased. (Hear.)
I think the house:will feel it unnecessary for me to enter
into the question whether that army was over or under
officered. I think that the house will agree with me
that it is unnecessary to prove that, if under-efficered,
those officers who remained were inexperienced, ignorant
of the language of the country, and too frequently con-
temptuous of its usages. I think the-house will agree
with me that it is unnecessary to enter into the question
of the pay, the pension, the furlough of the Sepoy,
his foreign service or general service. And there is
one reason which above all others induces me not to
enter into any details upon this branch of the ques-
tion, because I am persuaded (and I shall offer facts and
arguments in support of my opinion) that the conduct of
the Bengali army in revolting against our authority was
the conduct of men who were not so much the avengers
of professional grievances as the exponents of gereral
discontent. (Hear, hear) I shall show, or endeavour
to show, to the House to-night that our Government in
India of late years has alienated or alarmed almost every
influential class in the country. (Hear, bear.) I shall
show, or endeavour to show, to the House to-night, that
the mutual suspicions and prejudices between rival
religions sled different races, which were the cause of se-
gregation between powerful classes in that country, have
of late years, in consequence of our policy, gradually dis-
appeared, and for them has been substituted an identity
of sentiments, and those sentiments, I am sorry to say,
hostile to our authority. (Hear, hear.) I shill have to
show to the House how these feelings have led to com-
munication between classes who never communicated
before. I shall have to show to the House how comi
Implication under such circumstances led to conspiracy.
I shalt have to show to the House how the most power-
ful native class in India, the army, which has been dis-
ciplined by our energy and exertions, was at last drawn
into the vortex ; and I shall show to the House that
for a considerable period of time the state of India was
one of menacing combustion, and all that was wanted
was the occasion and the pretext. (Hear, hear.) I shall
show the House how that occasion was aft rded, and
bow that pretext was invented. But before I touch
upon that point, although it is not my intention to-night
to refer to many documents, there is one passage
in a most important Indian State paper to which I
ought to advert. The house is familiar with a minute
that was laid on our table in 1856 ; it is, in fict, a
history of the government of India by the late Governor-
Generid. It u)ns,Fs's of 45 pages and 180 paragraphs. '
It touches upon every theme, one would suppose, that
eight years of energetic government supplted, or that
could occur to either hou io of Parliament. Here we
are t 4,1 of the kingdoms that under the government of
Lord Dalhousie were added to the British crown. No
subject is too high or too insignificant to escape notice.
We are informed not only of annexations of territory,
but of the establishment of railroads and electric tele-
graphs. Nothing is omitted, except the subject upon
which we require information. When the intelligence
of the military revolt arrived I was anxious to refer to
this most important Indian State paper, and to have the
opinion of the late Governor-General on the state of the
Bengal army and the Indian army generally when he
retired from his long vice-royalty. He has given us 45
pages and 180 paragraphs, but to my surprise, when I
examine them, the Indian army never appears. (Hear,
hear.) There is no staneet which can possibly
interest us, or no incident of inspertance which
did occur, that is not -here commemorated ; but
the state of the Indian army I could not di -
cover. At last, to my great surprise, I found
in paragraph 151 a reference to the condition of the
European soldier. Ho was not the soldier upon whose
condition I wanted information ; but still that para-
graph was at the moment of some comparative interest.
The subject is treated at length. The improvements
in barrack constuction, the improvements in the very i-
lation of barracks, the d ffsrencee in their altitude in the
hill country, and in the plain, are touched upon with a
solicitude which cannot be too much praised. Under
the same head—there being more than 20 paragraphs
devoted to such important topics—l find an incidental
notice of the native s)nlier in India. Here it is :
" The position of the native soldier in India has long
been such as to have hardly any circumstance of his condi-
tion in need of improvement,"
(A laugh ) I thought it right in speaking of the
condition of the Bengal army, and adverting to
the opinion of men like Napier, Melville, and
Jacob, that we shoul I have before us tlie statement
of the highest authority, an.l thcretore I base real
to the house that sentence from the minute of Lord
Dalhousie. (Hear, hear.) I now proceed to lay be-
fors the house the ri a'ons and facts that have induced
me to arrive at the co iclusion which I ha-re already
stated. Of late yeere a very groat change has taken
place in the government of India In old days, and for
a considerable time—indeed, until, I would say, the last
10 years—the principle of our government of India, if I
may venture to describe it in a sentence, was to respect
nationality. We often talk now of our conquest of
India, and sometimes we aro told that it is necessary to
re-conquer that country. The conquest of a country in-
habited by 150,000,000 men, in many instances of war-
like habits, could at no time have been an easy achieve-
ment. Its difficulty must certainly be increased to us
now after what hae occurred, and therefore I think it is
of some importance that upon this grave and common
idea of conquering India we should have as correct
opinions as circumstances justify. I deny that in a vul-
gar sense we have ever conquered India. We have taken
a part in the military operations which hive very fre-
quently been conducted upon a great scale in India.
Tne annals of our warfare in India are glorious. Our
arms have been victorious in many single fields and many
brilliant campaigns. We have often triumphed over
powerful Sovereigns, and banned most skilful and dan-
gerous confederacies. But we haveconquered India only
in the same sense in which William of Orange conquered
England. We have been called in by populations suffer•
ing under tyranny, and wo have entered those kingdoms
and principalities to protect their religion and their pro-
perty. It will be found in that wonderful progress of
human events which the formation of our Indian empire
presents that our occupation of any country was pre-
ceded by a solemn proclamation and concluded by a sa-
cred treaty, in which we undertook to respect and main-
tain inviolate the rights and privileges, the laws and cus-
toms, the property and religion of the people. Such was
the principle upon which ourlndianempire was founded,
and it is a proud as well as a politic passage in the his-
tory of Englishmen that that principle has been until late
years religiously observed. (Hear.) All our great Indian
statesmen-1 am not talking merely of politician,
who have gone out to undertake the government of pre-
sidencies, but of men like Malcolm, Metcalf, Elphinetone,
and Munro—have always upheld the principle of main-
taining the engagements we made in those proclamations
and treaties. Our empire in India was, indeed, founded
upon the old principle of divide et impera, but that prin-
ciple was put into action by us not with any Machiavel-
lian devices, but by merely taking advantage of the na-
tural and, if I may use the expression, spontaneous cir-
cumstances of the country in which we were acting a
part. There were in India so many independent States,
go many princes of different races, so many religions,
and even so many languages, that if you rigoreusly per-
Irdoaidtimetehadecmyornoanbbroinmeantntgioaedgnements it was totally impossible to
whichan
s
tas fa
fail
iyou.n
InWdially?
The two principacauseasnof the downfall of those dynas-
ties were—first,
secondly, that whea tire'
that they persecuted the people whom
their treasuries
of their religion ; and,
they had conquered
confiscated the land of the' chief
became empty they
came proprietors. England,
on the contrary,
.always
agpeomi
policy
fonuonttleod ta m per with
their land, and a solemn eng with a guarantee of
, their religion. It was by a
I principle that our power in India was establisulf e oda. Al,, that
our great Indian authorities, indeed, have found the
istenc s of independent native States to be a source not ex
oi
embarrassment, but of security to England. Tney have
looked upon them, to use the expression of one of the
most eminent of our Indian statesmen, as the " safety
valves "of our empire. The turbulent spirits of the
country were enrolled in their armies. Their mode of life

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—(YEsTaRDAy.)
The Sewall took the chair at four o'clock.
NEW MEMBER.
Lord A CHUROIIILL took the oaths and his seat for
Woodstock, in the room of the Marquis of Blandford.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The Lords' Amendments to the Midland Great West-
ern Railway of Ireland (Streamstown and Clara Junc-
tion) Bill were considered and agreed to.
The Eastern Bengal Railway Company's Bill, and
the Scinde Railway Company Bill were read a second
time.