The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-20 00:00:00

The Right Hon. S. Herbert, attended the annual
meeting of the Wiltshire Agricultural Society at
Warminster on Wednesday evening, and in respond-
ing tothe toast of " The County Members," pro-
posed by the chairman, Lord Thynne, said he could
not help saying a few words on India. There had
been croaking expressions in some of the newspa-
pets that we were about to lose our Indian empire.
It had been said that if some hing happened—if
the Madras and Bombay armies proved traitorous
—and some of them, in spirit at least, had douo so
—and if the native princes turned against us, we
should lose India. From tee first to the last he had
said, come what might, turn against us who would,
he would never despair of British rule over that
country. But a rebellion having broken out, what-
ever its cause, it must be crushed—the imperial
power of England must be vindicated at any cost
whatever. He was proud not only of the army and
of the civilians in India who had shown such tact
and daring in dealing with disciplined hordes of
mu.ineers, but he was proud also of the caltnnees
and vigour whicla had been displayed by Lord Can-
ning,
complaints against whom had only arisen
among a certain section at Calcutta, because he
would not plunge headlong into measures which
they recommended. They had made statements of
Mr. Grant having liberated some of those who took
part in the atrocities of Cawnpore, and who had been
giveu into his custody by Gan. Neill, but he did
not believe a word of those statements, opposed as
they were to the dictates of human reason. Gen.
Neill and Mr. Grant were both in possession ofLord
canning's proelaenation, which said that to every
mutineer and every deserter the punishment was
death, and that if civilians got mutineers into their
hands they were at once to make them over to the
military. In the face of that proclamation he asked
whether it was probable that such a gallant man as
Gen. Neill would have made over any of the mis-
creants who me into his power, except for the pur-
pose of eaecutiou ? Why, the thing was absurd.
The atmosphere of Calcutta was rife with falsities,
and he had no doubt that many of these reports
were owing to that eeoessary and vigorous measure
of Lord Canning—the suppression of the press for
the time being. He would now say a word about
Geo. Havelock. (Cheers.) He had nothing to say
except in admiration and in praise of the manner in
which our troops performed their duties at Delhi.
It was a magnificent siege, and was marked
throughout by the greatest intrepidity. Of all the
sieges of India it was, perhaps, the most difficult of
accomplishment ; but he thought that the campaign
of Gen. Havelock had eclipsed everything. It should
be recollected that neither Wilson nor Havelock
had the slightest assistance from England. Whe-
ther right or wrong be would not say, our men
were !sent iu sailing ships, which had not arrived ;
for the first vessels heard of on the coast of Cey-
lon were steamers which started a month after the
sailing vessels had been despatched. The only
assistance our Generals had was the prestige of
troops arriving at Calcutta, which Lord Canning
procured from the Cape, from China, and elsewhere
but they were not in the field. As the march of
troops in India was only about 12 miles a day, it
took a month to get them up to Lueknow, and it
was Lore that they saw the peculiarity of Have-
po-ition. It should be remembered that Gen.
Havelock was no, in a portion of territory where
the native population, long under our rule, and
feeling its blessings, had he Id themselves aloof from
the contes , but he was in Oude, which was annexed
only a few years ago, where the people were fight-
ing, as they thought, for a kind of nationality.
There, too, every village was a fortress, and the
inhabitants were very skilful in the use of fire-
arms ; and having their blood up, and fighting,
as they considered, for a national cause, they
were very awkward customers. A hostile popula-
tion was at all times a great impediment to an army
in isolating their position and cutting off the sup-
plies. What, then, must be their admiration of
Havelock's nine days' campaign, clueing which his
force marched, not 12, but 16, 18, and 20 miles
a-day, and as nearly as possible fought an action
every two days ? It lead been said that Havelock
was no General, as he had never had the handling
of large bodies of men, bat to his (Mr. Herbert's)
mind it was the smallness of his force which made
the greatness of Lis exploits. He had shown, too,
that he could handle large bodies of men, for he
had disposed of 50,000 under Nana Sahib. (Cheers.
There were some prognosticetioes of evil befalling
Outrarn and Havelock's little band, but he con-
fe,sed he did not share them, and for this reason—
our men were so accustomed to success that failure
seemed impossible, and when we had met the, enemy
in the open, however great the disparity in num-
here, they had shown such a degree of cowardice as
almost to make one feel that they were incapable
of success. The loss in our ranks was still tremen-
dous, for climate and disease proved more frightful
kemies than man, and the gaps time occasioned
must be filled up. A great many plans had been
proposed for strengthening the army, and he be-
lieved there was a very popular feeling at one mo-
ment that all the drapers' shop:nen stould imme-
diately be sent out to India. (Laughter.) Now,
he confessed that he had never entertained any
great confidence in that class of men for soldiers.
He did not mean to say that if placed opposite a
battery they would not display the characteristic
bravery of Englishmen ; but what we wanted for
soldiers were hardy men. We must not have men
with white complezions, the nerves of a duchess,
and the simper of a lady's maid. (Laughter.)
That was not the stuff of which our soldiers should
he wade. Our army was now composel of the
very best class—of men who lived in the open air
and were hardened by great exercise. le• believed
the English peasantry could not do better than en-
-1 st. They had all of them seen men who had re-
turned from the militia, and he asked whether they
were not more respectful in their demeanour, and
whether they did not evince more self-respect in
their conduct than before they went out? (" Yes,
yes ") Very well. But he wautel t.) see a 1 irger en-
listment into the regular army. He had before him
a properly corrected return of the proportions of
the different classes who enlisted into the army in
England, Ireland, and Scotland, and he said that
England ought to be ashamed of itself. In each
I,ooe men in the army there were 647 husbandinee,
labouren, and servants of the best class, 294 me-
chanics, 51 ehopmen and clerks, and 3 of profes-
si ins, but what those professions were he could not
say. But what were the proportions in Eug.and,
Ireland, and Scotland ? Out of each 1,000 men
England produced 462, Ireland, 366, and Scotland
158. Now, according to the population of the three
kingdoms that was an enormous disproportion in
favour of Ireland and Scotland. It was said that
meet who enlisted got only ls. a-day, but I;e should
be able to prove that this was not true. When the
Government originally offered a bounty of 5/.
nearly the whole of it was got back for the man's
kit ; but that plan had very properly beau abolished,
and instead of the Government clieti Mg' the people
to er.Wst, this people now cheated the Go verunient,
for their pay was called a sidling a-day, when in
reaity it was much nearer two. In addttion to the
shilling the soclier was allowed a peany for beer
money, which made his wages 7s. 7d. a week. But
it was said eed. was deducted trout this for his tnead
and meat. Of course there was. Everyloly had
to submit to such a deduction from his income; the
man of 10,000/. a-year must pay h's butchet's bill,
and the labourer with a-week mustdo the same.
But look at the advantage couferre 1 upon the
soldier. For this 4id. he got a pound of breael and
three-quarters of a pound of meat, and this the
Government did not obtain for less than Cad. The
soldier, therefore, got an advantage of ls. 2d. a
week. Then, again, his cooking w's done, and he
had extra bread, coffee, sugar, and vegetables at
cost price. Compare that with the labourer, who
had to pay a large profit to th© shopkeeper. This