The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

MR. LAYARD ON INDIA.

On Thursday evening a meeting was held in the
County-hall, Aylesbury, for the purpcse of pre-
senting to Mr. Layard a handso:ne tea service, in
remembrance of the connection which he once had
with the borough of Aylesbury. The s''rvic3, which
consisted of a teakettle and stand, teapot, coffee-
pot, cream-jug, and sugar-basin, was ornamented
with Assyrian and Nineveh devices, emblematical
of the discoveries made by Mr. Layard in his tra-
vels. The whole of the set cost upwlrds of 1101.,
and was obtained from Messrs. Savory and Son,
Cornhil, London. On the teakettle was the fol-
lowing inscription :
" This tea service was presented to Au-ten Henry
Layard, Esq., by a few among the many friends he
made and left at Aylesbury, in token of their high
esteem for his independent character and personal worth,

of their strong sense of their honest and faithful services
in Parliament, and of their deep regret at parting with a
friend and representative whose name will live most ho-
nourably in the political and literary histoi y of his time.
—August, 1857."
In returning thanks,
Mr. LAYARD said,—All eyes are turned to what
is taking plane in India. lam not in Parliament,
and perhaps it is better that I should not be ; but
I cannot look at what is going on there without the
deepest dismay. The Government say now, "We
were taken by surprise ; we could not foresee it."
Well, if they really were surprised by an organized
mutiny of long standing, spreading from one end
of India to the other—if they knew nothing until
it actually broke out, then the Government has
been guilty of a degree of ignorance, of a neglect of
proper attention to duty, for which they deserve
to be driven from office. But I cannot believe
they were ignorant. If they were, they were the
only people in the country who knew or were sup-
posed to know anything about India who were
ignorant. There was my hon. friend Mr. D. Sey-
mour, the actual Secretary of the Board of Control
—he was chairman of a society called the ." Young
ludiAn Society," the object of which was to expose the
wrongs to which Indian subjects were exposed, and
which it wasbelieved must lead to revol t,ideas reme-
died. He went out to India to see what the facts of
the case were. He satisfied himself of the bad state
of our Indian subjects, and he came back as a great
Indian-reformer. Well, Lord Palmerston made him
Secretary of the Board of Control. What was that
for ? Either to get the benefit of his information, or
else to stop his mouth. (" Hear," and " That's it !")
I believe it was the latter ; a.: any rate, we have
heard nothing on India from Mr. D.snby Seymour
from that time to this. All the stories of the evils
inflicted on the natives, all the stories of native
princes who had been defrauded of their prs4essions
and had died from the ill-treatment inflicted on
them—all have disappeared. We don't want ven-'
geance, we want justice. Justice is more terrible
than vengeance, it is more true than vengeance,
more Christian than vengeance. (Hear, hear.)
Do not think that I would not punish ; but you
only complicate by vengeance—you punish by jus-
tice. (Hear, hoar.) I have had a great deal to do
with Easterns—not in the way that many gentle-
men have to do with them who go out with 3,000?.
or 4,0001. a year, and with Government autho-
rity to support them. I have live I alone among
Easterns, without a single friend neir me, and I
generally managed to deal with them. My maxim
was this :—Be as severe as you like, but be just,
and when once you have set your mind ou a right
thing never be turned aside from it. (Cheers.) No-
thing makes so strong an impression on the Eastern
mind as that justice which is irrevocable, and will
not be turned by time or circumstances. The East-
ern thinks he may commit a crime and go away for
four or five years, and it will be forgotten. I would
disabuse them of that. (Hear.) I would not let one
man escape who has been concerned in these massa-
cres. (Hear,) If it were 40 years hence 1 would
never take my hand off him as long as he lived.
But I would not advocate indiscriminatevengeance.
I could no more approve the slaughter of women
and children by ourselves than the slaughter of
women and children by these miscreants who have
destroyed our countrymen and their families. No
doubt what has taken place in India is horrible, but
are our hands clean ? From the very beginning our
empire was founded upon fraud. You remember
that treaty that was forged by Clive. We began
our rule with fraud and injustice, and from that
time our dealings with India have been fraught with
injustice, Well, you have heard a great deal about
Lord Dalhousie's good government. Well, Lsrd
Dalhousie finished by making enemies almost of the
British residents in India themselves. Nothing
could bo more extraordinary or unjust than the
act by which he suddenly reduced the interest upon
the loan from 5 to 411 per cent., thereby half ruin-
ing many of the Company's servants, and immedi-
ately afterwards issuing a new loan at 5 per cent.
That was nothing less than a direct act of fraud.
(dear.) It is not vengeance that we have to look
for in the present crisis. (Hear ) It is not the re-
conquest of India that is before us, but the recon-
stitution of an empire—(hear, hear)—the bringing
together those who govern and these who are
governed. (Cheers.) Hitherto you have done
nothing towards that objet`, nothing to re-
concile the feelings of the people of India to the
Government which rules them. (Hear, hear.)
If you tell them you are a peaceful, a Christian, and
a civilised nation, and you do not recognise the I,
rights of those who are not civilised and are not
Christians, but will take possession of their property
and their country, that would be honest; but you
must be prepared to carry out your doctrine by force.
But by practically acting upon that doctrine, while
pretending to respect the rights of the Indian people,
and professing a regard for their interest', you have
so weakened your moral power over them that the
whole country is against you. Well, you have now
to restore the whole Indian army—who is to do it?
Mr. Smith, of Cannon-row. You have to reform the
whole civil administration of India—who is to do it?
Mr. Smith, of Cannon-row. You have to reintro-
duce a system of government to reconcile opposite
races and hostile religions—who is to do it ? Mr.
Smith, of Cannon-row. (A laugh.) We want a man
of genius—a Wellesley or a Clive—and whom have
we? Mr. Smith, of Cannon-row. AAA who is Mr.
Smith ? Mr. Vernon Smith he is called—he is proud
of the name of Vernon. (Laughter.) He is a moat
excellent person, I believe, and one of the yell ow-
glove men of the Administration, and one who, no
doubt, in all that concerns personal appearance,th is s
an ornament to the Government, but he islipti t
man to refound the Indian empire, and that,is.w
we have to do. We have the East India Company
on the one hand and the Government on the other,
the Board of Directors undoing what the Board of
Control does, and the Board of Control undoing
what is done by the Board of Directors. Is it won-
derful that we find matters in such a chaos ? I say
it would be far more wonderful if we did not. Tilt,
only wonder is that the subject is not taken up more
fully throughout the country. I trust the time will
soon come when the country will rise as one man
and compel the Government to do something, not
only to reconquer our Indian empire, but to make
India an integral part of her Majesty's dominions.