The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-04 00:00:00

•
enough to make men think. A month later we bad news
of a considerably mutiny in different parts of It dia—that
showed concert. In fact, there was evidence of concerted
conspiracy throughout the country. If the Government
had given their minds to the consideration of the danger,
instead of affecting'the surprise of children, if they bad
only been awake and alive to what was passing, the evil
might have been much lessened, and the Government might
have had their resources ready to meet the peril. Might
it not have been supposed that the condition of Oude must
be one of danger? And yet Oude was left without a
trustworthy soldier. lam not going into the question of
Indian administration—l am only pointing attention
to the policy which loft Delhi garrieoued by sepoy yegi-
mente—l am discarding the great question, confining
myself to the proof of the validity of the principle
which, in vain, I endeavoured to force upon the
conviction of the Government. No; Oude was left
without soldiers—not the slightest attempt was made to
send up troops from Calcutta. Onde was neglected for the
reason that had been confessed and expressed by the Minis-
ter who followed mein the debate which took Owe on India
in the late session—that (hide had nothing to do with the
question of the Indian mutiny, and that it was absolutely
absurd to suppose that any insubordination could prevail.
At last the Government imbibed the conviction that the
empire was in danger. After the expiraeion of weeks and
months, and after questions put in this house, and despe-
rate efforts made to expose the true state of the ease, the
desired result was arrived at, and your eyes opened to the
greatest emergency that ever occurred to this c( >t s try You
took those measures which the publie voice had forced upon
you, and sent reinforcements to Calcutta. But what then
was the state of India? You had the North-West Pro-
vinces in insurrection, and the whole of your communica-
tion was cut off between those provinces and Calcutta; and
this because you had neglected to think of Oude and the
contiguous provinces. (Hear.) All your communica-
tions were cut off. Even now Lucknow remains in a condi-
tion of extreme peril. But that is not all. You will soon
have an immense army in Calcutta, and you will have to
provide means of getting troops up the country. But now
you have an army you have no means of carrying your
troops .5 p the country, because you counted upon obtain-
ing those supplies which formerly yon obtained from Oude.
It was from Oude you obtained your moans of transport
during the Affghanistan war, and those means are not now
at your command. If you had anticipated that, you might
have obtained from Madras 20,030 bullocks by means of
which the army might have been moved. Bat you did not,
and you have now bat 700 bullocks, the common parcel
delivery companies' stocks of the country at your com-
mand, which are not sufficient to move more than a single
battery, and all this arises from the circumstance that you
neglected to ascertain the cause of the revolt before you de-
vised the remedy to put it down. (Hear.) I must now fora
moment draw the attention of the Government to that
paragraph of her Majesty's Speech which says " the affairs
of my East Indian dominions will require your serious con-
sideration, an 1 I recommend them to your earliest atten-
tion." Now, I cannot doubt that her Majesty's Government
will explain what this paragraph means. Under ordinary
circumstances, I certainly should have supposed that her
Majesty's Ministers had measures of great importance of a
legislative character to propose to Parliament in reference to
India, and that they felt it their duty to take the very
earliest opportunity to call attention thereto. But we live
in such a remarkable age of confidential communications,
and official and semi-official statements, that, to prevent any
misunderstanding upon this head, I think the house is en.
titled to ask her Majesty's Ministers to take the earli st op-
portunity of explaining what their intentions really are on
this point. It is quite impossible that her Majesty's Govern-
ment is going to treat India the s me as the Bank Charter,
and refer it to a committee. If that is their intention, the
only measure to be pas=ed this session will be a reform bill,
(A laugh.) But lam sure they cannot mean to tre it India
iu hat way, and I hope therefore, as they thought it right to
advise the introduction of this paragraph into her Majesty's
Speech, that they will now inform us of its meaning. The
paragraph would otherwise appear to be a compromise para.
graph, as if somebody wanted to do something about India,
and that somebody else was not of the same mind, but that
her Majesty's Government nevertheless wished to introduce
into the Speech something to show that they were deeply
impressed with the importance of the subject, and had formed
some opinions upon it, but were not prepared Ito vindicate
the one or to justify the other. Is it, I ask, then, the inten-
tion of the Government to legislate about India ? Do they
intend to propose a new system of administration ? We have
all heard a great deal about the double government of India,
and a motion was made by a friend of mine in 1853 upon the
subject; but whatever the faults of the double government
may be, they have not been of late years, as I can remember,
brought prominently forward, and what has now occurred in
India has not been an affair of administration, it has not
arisen from the mode of taxation or from the way in which
justice has been administered in the country—these were not
its primary causes—butit has been occasioned by the general
policy pursued in relation to the affairs of India, and by great
neglect in those responsible for the government of that great
country. lam not aware that the double government can
be held responsible for those faults. We shall find out one day
who is responsible; but even if the double government is
to be absolutely abandoned, I, for one, am not prepared to
delegate their powers to those who hac • not shown the abi-
lity to to discern coming events, or to devise a remedy for the
evil when it arrived. No doubt, if any such measure is
brought forward, this house will give it every consideration,
but I cannot but express the strongest opinion that it is the
duty of her Majesty's Government to be most frank in tell-
ing us what they are going to do, whether they mean to re-
commend to Parliament to legislate for India, and to devise
a new government for I adia,and when they will be prepared
to lay the details of their own plan before Parliament ?
There is another important paragraph in her Majesty's
Speech. It says—" Your attention will be called to the
laws which regulate the representation of the people in Par-
liament, with a view to consider what amendments may be
safely and beneficially made therein." Now, it is not for the
house to be captious upon the conduct of a Government that
thinks itself obliged to deal at the same time with a variety
of important subjects. Hitherto it has been very usual to say
of a Government that they do nothing, and this complaint
has not unfrequently been the basis of ultimate wantof confi-
dence in an Administration ; but if we have a Government
which takes the oppositecourso, and insteadof doing nothing
does everything, it surely does not become us tobo captious.
lam then, perfectly ready to concede that the Government
have perfectly matured their plans upon the great subjects of
India and reform, and that when the session is more mature
we shall have them clu'y presented to our consideration.
But with regard to this measure of Parliamentary reform, I
trust that when it is introduced to our notice we shall find
that it has been devised in such a way as best to tend to the
public good, and not to increase the political influence of any
party of this house. I will express more than my hope ,
will express my belief, that it it not at the present day in
the power of any political com'sination to force such a mea-
sure through Parliament. (Hear, hear.) We are all much
more learned upon the subject of Parliamentary reform than
we were in the year 1832, and those who then bellowed for
the whole bill and nothing but the bill have since done penance
in public, and expressed their regret for pursuing a course so
detrimental to their own interests. Last session I moved for
certain returns relating to this subject which I thought would
assist gentlemen when they had to consider this question, and
I strongly recommend those returns to the consideration of
hon. members. They will find them to contain very accurate
and valuable information, and if that is acted upon in a wise
and proper spirit, the consequence will not be injurious to
those ancient institutions which gentlemen upon this side of
the house at least are anxious to uphold, (Heae, hear.) There
is another suggestion which I would make upon this subject.
Parliamentary reform is not a subject upon which this house
is called to legislate hastily. For the last five or six years
there have been members who have promised to introduce
measures upon this subject, and the noble lord at the head of
the Government, from the first day he took office, expressed
the perfect understanding of his Government upon the ques-
tion of Parliamentary reform. The noble lord was also to
have brought forward a bill upon this subject last year.
Under these circumstances, I think I am not asking too much
of tho noble lord when I ask him to lose no
time iu introducing his bill, that 'it may be laid
upon the table, and that we may have an opportunity during
the Christmas vacation and holidays of acquainting our-
selves with its provisions. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) No-
thing keeps the people of this country more unsettled than
this constant idea of Parliamentary reform being held over
their heads. (Hear, hear.) We want to know at once what
the changes, if they are to be wade, will be. You cannot
bring forward a Reform Bill affecting the political power in
the country and expect the bill to be passed like a bill of in-
demnity for violating a commercial Act of Parliament. If a
Reform Bill is to be brought in in the spring, and then you
are to have a long delay before its second reading can take
place, we shall either have a bill which is hurried through
Parliament, or their will be considerable agitation occasioned
on the subject. The Parliament and the country b •ing at
present very good-tempered on the subject, the time now
being favourable for a calm and candid consideration of the
measure, perhaps the noble lord will take an early opportu-
nity of introducing it to the house—(hear, hear)--perhaps ho
will name the day tonight. (Laughter.) We shall all be
perfectly prepared, on the reassembling of Parlament, at
once to enter into the case. The discussions may be warm
and even acrimonious, but they will be past and forgotten,
and the matter will be finished. But if that course is not
taken, I see great reason for dissatisfaction and Parliamentary
inconvenience. I trust, therefore, the noble lord will think
very favourably of this suggestion. I am persuaded that,
when he looks at the course which public business will pro-
bably take during this short session, it must be quite clear
that if he gets his indemnity bill as a matter of course,
which he will get if he gives a frank explanation with re-
gard to the suspension of the present Bank Charter Act,
there really will be very little business before the Christmas
holidays, and I do 'lst see, after passing that act, that the
time can be passed in a more profitable or agreeable manner
than in having from the noble lord the complete scheme of
Parliamentary Reform which is to be introduced. I must apo-
logise to the house for having troubled them at such length,
but on occasions of this kind one's observations must be
rather desultory. The topics, however, are very important,
an i in t-eating them I think we cannot do better than join
with her Majesty in praying that the blessing of Almighty God
will attend our counsels, (Cheers.)
Lord PALMERSTON—Sir, I congratulate the right hon.
gentleman who thinks himself more at home in this house
than he can be in any ether place, loading, as he does, a
great party—l congratulate him that he should come in the
height of good humour and anticipate the opportunity of
placing himself in that light in which he appears to so much
advantage. No doubt the right hon. gentleman's speech is
one —it is impossible that I can say otherwise than that it is
marked with that good humour and that plenitude of wit
which characterises all the right hon. gentleman's former
speeches. The right hon. member began by criticising the
course which her Majesty's Government have pursued in re-
gard to the prorogation of Parliament from the 4th of Novem-
ber, and not calling it together at an earlier period. The right
hon. gentleman thinks there were circumstances connected
with the commercial condition of the country in October
and in the beginning of November which ought to have I
ecl
to some different course being taken to that, we have pur-
' sued. Ho did not exactly state that, but he left it
of tobein-
ferred. There was nothing, however, on the 4th Novem-
ber which appeared to her Majesty's Government to call for
that course which we afterwards found it advisable to adopt,
and we therefore pursued the ordinary mode of proceeding—
we
prorogued Parliament to the usual period to which from
time to time it is prorogued. But the right hon. gentleman
seems to argue that, by having prorogued Parliament from
Nov. 4 to Dec. 17, we have preclude 1 ourselves from calling
it together at an earlier period, even if unforeseen events
should arise to make it necessary ; but the proof that such is
not the case is the fact of our being assembled in this way.
We know that if unforeseen events arose the constitution
afforded us as opportunity of assembling, and therefore there
was nothing in the course pursued which could in any way
have precluded us from having an earlier meeting if an earlier
meeting was required. The circumstances which led us to
recommend to the Bank the course which they pursued were
circumstances which cane suddenly upon us, My colleagues
and myself felt the state of public credit, the state of diffe-
rent beaks, and the state of commercial transactions, did
require that measure ; and if we had not adopted it I do
4 believe that very great injurr would have resulted, (Hear,