The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-14 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—(YIsTnRDAy.)

The SrEAKER took te chair at 4 o'clock.
SAND WICH ELECTION.
The SPEAKER announced the abandonment of the
Sandwich election petition.
rRivArE BUSINESS.
The Lords' amendments to the Australian Agricultu-
ral Company Bill were considered and agreed to.
ROYAL ASSENT.
The SPEAKER acc)mpauied by various members of the
the boule attended the House of Lords to hear the
by commission to several bills
r ty.il assent given
(See Lords.)
GALWAY ELECTION.
Mr. CLIVE, chairman of the Gel ?Fay election com•
mittee, reported that Mr. O'Flahert3 was not duly
elected a member of the house, and they declare the elec-
tion void.

ORDER OF THE BATH.
Lord HOTHANI save notice that on going into com-
mittee on Civil Contingencies, he should call attention to
the officers of the army appointed to be members of the
Order of the B.►th, and request that at their death the
order should not be retained.
SUEZ CANAL.

Mr. DARBY GitiFFITfIS gave notice that on the
17th of July, he should call the attention of the house
to the proposed construction of a ship canal across the
Isthmus of Suez.

JEWISH DISABILITIES.
Mr. DILLWYN gave notice toat on Friday next, he
should move a resolution, that the words on "the true
faith of a Christian" should be omitted from the oath to
be taken by persons who did not consider the words
binding on their consciences.
INDIA.

Mr. DISRAELI, in consequence of the contradictory
statements current respecting India, asked her Majesty's
Government if they had any authorised information to
give the house relative to the insurrection in India f
He also asked the noble lord at the head of her Ma
jesty's Government whether it was their intention to
lay on the table any papers relative to the details of the
present state of India ?
Lord PA.LMERS'rON said be did not feel surprised
at the right hon. gentleman putting t;iis question to her
Majesty's Government, after the accounts that had gone
forth to the public relitive to int lligence recently re-
c3ived from India, but he (Lord Palmereton) had only
to state that her Majesty's Government had only re-
ceived a telegraphic • communication conveying very
nearly, though in different words, the same information
that was known to the public, and unt:l the arrival of
the mails to-night or tomorrow, he could not add fro
that information. Thee outline 'of that emumu-
nication was first the unfortunate less of the Comman-
der-in-Chief, and secondly that the disaffection which it
was at first supposed bad existed only in a few regi-
ments appeared to have spread to a large extent amongst
the Bengal army. A large number of the Bengal troops,
as stated in the despatch, bad been dispersed to their
homes, and, on the other band, the troops that
had remained faithful bad had, with the • t•sh
troops, an encounter with the mutinee-,t under
the walls of Delhi, which bad been '
withinha dbcompleteeetnh
e taken,
wsuaclese saso; we
fdthtehTanl:tls::2 x attended with
pieces of cannon
~„,neoes bad taken refuge
euern, which were not regular

fortificationv, but upright wall, witlout any of the de-
fences which fortifications gave to towns. It was anti-

cipated that the t .wn would be immediately assaulted,
and the house could easily anticipate the result of that
assault. When the dispatches arrived, ber Majesty's

Government Toull be rea.iy to lay at onc3 before Par-
liament such portions of them as woul f be cal-
culated to give to the house and the public

'ull information as to the course of events.

There

might, however, be in those despatches many circutn-

stances it would be essential for the public service not

:o make public, but the house might rely on her Ma-
,,,sty's Government laying on the table of the house such

Lutemotion aq would put them and the public in posses-

sion of the actual state of India up to the time of the
leaving of the despatches. (Hear.)
Mr. DISRAELI said that his application referred to
despatches received before the occurrences mentioned-
He did not wish to limit his iequiries to the pro.
duction of papers giving a narrative of events that had

occurred within the last few weeks, but rather to the an

ticipation of such an outbreak. He had now to make a
more precise inquiry of the Government indirectly con-
nected with India, viz., whether the noble lord had re-

ceived information that the Governor of Herat had

sworn all-glance to the Shah of Persia—that it had
been accepted, and that he had been empowered to coin
money at variance with the treaty of peace that had
been laid on the table of the house. (Hear, hear.)

Lord PALIIIERSTON said that with regard to the
first question, he could only say that her Majesty's Go-
vernment would endeavour to select, from the corree-
pondence relative to the unfortunate outbreak in India,
f.uch as was calculated to give every information on the
subject to the house and the country. If that was found
insufficient, and further information was requested, the
house would probably state what was wanted, and her
Majesty's Government would endeavour to suppy it. In
answer to the second question, the noble lord said
that her Majesty's Government had received
no information tending to confirm the report
mentioned by the right hon. gentle,nan. No doubt the
right hon. gentleman was aware that by the treaty with
Persia an agent had boon sent to Herat. That agent
had not yet arrived, but as soon as he had he would re-
port on the state of affairs there.
Sir J. PAKINGTON said it was stated in the ac.
counts that in the encounter before Delhi the mutineers
mustered a force of 7,000 men, and the British only
1,800, part of whom were sepoys, and, he asked if the
telegraphic communication confirmed that statement.
Lord PALMERSTON said that the telegraph com-
munication received by her Majesty's Government, gave
no details of that kind, but simply stated that an en-
counter had taken place—that 26 guns had been taken,
and the mutineers driven inside the ciely of Delhi. The
question had not been put to her Majesty's Government,
but he would state the general outline of what her
Majesty's Government had thought proper to
adopt. (Hear, hear.) Immediately on the
receipt of the unfortunate information, steps
were taken by the noble lord at the head of the
War Department with the Commander-in-Chief, to
select a successor to General Anson, as Commander-in-
Chief in India. An offer was made to S.r Cebu Camp-
bell of the command, which he immediately accepted,
and when he was asked how soon he would be able to
he with his usual promptitude replied to-morrrow
—(cheer ) —and, accordingly he left yesterday by train,
a telegraph communication being at the same time dis-
patched for the stoppage of the mails at Marseilles
which left London on Friday, until Sir C. Campbell
arrived there, so that not a single hour might be last in
his reaching his destination. (Hear, hear.) The house
was aware that 14,000 troops were under orders to pro-
ceed to India, and precautions had been made for meet•
ing any emergency. Lord Canning had, on his
own authority, written to Lied E'gin, which he
thought would meet him at Ceylon, requesting him, if
he could do so, to divert from its service part of the
troops now on their way to China. He (Lord. Palmer-
ston) had no doubt that letter had reached Lord Elgin,
who no doubt had complied with that request, her
Majesty's Government having made such arrangements
with reference to China as woull all iw of such a diver-
sion of the troops taking place.
Viscount GODERICH asked if it were true that the
Governor-in-Chief had appointed Sir Patrick Grant as
Deputy Commander-in-Chief in India.
Lord PALMERSTON was unable to answer the
question. He had only, as he said before, received a
telegraphic communication ; but it sometimes happened
that persons knew, or pretended to know, more than
the Government. (Laughter.)
In answer to a question from an HoN. MEMBER,
Lord PA.LMERSTOKsT said that there were 14,000
troops under orders for India, park of whom
had already embarked, and her Majesty's Government
would feel it to be their duty, as early as possible, to
embark a considerable addition of troops for India ; but,
of course, means must be taken, by recruiting, to supply
the gap that would be thus occasioned in the home
forcee. (Hear, hear.)
CHATIIAIII ELECTION.

The SPEIKER announced that the petition against
the return of the sitting member for Chatham had been
withdrawn.

DIVORCE,. &c., BILL.

Lord PALMERSTON stated that the Divorce, &c.,
Bill would acme before the house for a secJnd reading
on this day week.
TLIE PERSIAN AND ORINICiE WARS.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER gave
notice that on Thursday in C mimittee of Supply he
should move the e4irnates relative to the Persian and
Ch,nese wars. (Hear.)
Sir J. GRAHAM asked the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer whether he would lay on the table of the
hoop° the estimates of the East India Company
presented to the Government in February, containing a
rough estimate of the entire cost of the expenditure with
correspondence annrxed.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
two estimates had been made, one before the the war,
and one on its termination. He had no objection to lay
the latter on the table of the house on Thur,day neat.
THE ORDNANCE SURVEY.

In reply to Sir DENHAM NoRREYS,
Mr. WILSON stated the interpretation which the
offiler at the head of the ordnance survey put upon the
vote to which the hove had come on the subject of the
ordnance survey, was that those counties which bad been
begun on the 25-inch scale should be completed on that
scale, but that all unserveyed counties should be com-
menced on the 6-inch scale.
REINFORCEMENTS FOR INDIA.

In reply to Admiral WALCOTT,
Sir C. WOOD stated that the additional reinforce-
ments for India wotild be Bent out by acrew vessels, as
being quicker and more certain in their pa,sage3.