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

MR. R. P. COLLIER, M.P., AND M . JAMES
WHITE, M.P. AT PLYMOUTH.

On Monday evening Mr. R. P. Collier and Mr,
Jame 3 White, the members for this borough, ad•
dressed their constituents in the hall of. the Me-
chanics' Institute.

The hill 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 was becern-
ing popular. He was happy to say that.both he
and his colleague frequently sat on the same
benches, and as frequently voted on the same 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 perfectly well
aware that at the present time the attention of those
who comprised the meeting—in fact, the whole
country—was 'almost wholly absorbed in 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 would be 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 b 3 swept away. (Ap-
plause.) He adverted briefly to Parliamentary
reform, and, while they were about that, they
might as well reform their Indian administration
—(hear)--but he believed this would depend 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 d one. (" 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 should not occupy their time by speak-
ing on the subject. The question of India was one
which must be brought before the House of Com-
mons, 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 t 3 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 rot know how they got it ;
they bad 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 Government had not
been so bad as it might have been, or yet so good as
it might be. It had not been exactly wicked, but
it hadbe en a carslev, self-seeking, low, unprincipled
huckstering government. Still the wt.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 will. so much fury, he
said that, iu the first place, it was desirable to as-
certain what was the nature of the revolt ; second,
what were the sauces 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 ? These were the
questions which presented themselves ; and he
should make a few observationeon 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 abandoned, 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 merohanti, 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 groat risk. If
the people had been against then 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 Mattomedana
and Hindoos would cut their own throat 4. All the
European States had expressed their indignation at
the unheard-of barbarities, and all continental
newspapers—with one or two villainous exceptions
—had sympathised with England. With respect
to the second question or inquiry—" What was the
cause of this mutiny ?" 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
had been warned by Sir C. Napier, but bad 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 mutiny.
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 prohibited
them from interfering witn the Sepoys, and bad
themselves abstained as much as passible 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. Re
then quoted instances of the ridiculous attention