The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-15 00:00:00

duced. That omission, I need not say, was not intended to
imply any disapproval of or any want of respect for that gal-
lant officer, whose services in India are too well known to
need any eulogiuni from me. He has three times already
received the thanks of Parliament for distinguished ser-
vices ; but on this occasion his name has been intentionally
omitted. Although for a short time that gallant general
did hold the nominal command of the army shortly after
the lamented death of General Anson, and although in
that capacity, I doubt not his services at Calcutta in con-
cert with the Governor-General were of signal advantage
to the country and promoted the public service, yet from
the short period during which he held that high command
he had not an opportunity of appearing personally in the
field at all. Moreover, I beg your lordships to recollect
that the vote of thanks which I am now proposing is not
a vote of thanks for the whole of the services in India, but
it is a vote for those services which have occurred within
the last 14 or 16 months, and which have not yet been ac-
knowledged as the previous services have been by a formal
vote of Parliament. (Hear, hear.) Now, my lords, the
services rendered by Sir Patrick Grant I need not say were
included in the last vote of thanks, and upon that
ground alone, and upon no other, it would be impossible
for me to include his name in the present vote of thanks.
But there is another noble lord, the governor of another
presidency, who has contributed most largely, most bene-
ficially, and most effectually to the suppression of the mutiny.
(Cheers.) Services hardly even second to the exertions of
Lord Canning himself, and which were of the greatest bene-
fit and advantage to the country, were freely and liberally
bestowed by Lord Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay.
(Cheers.) My lords, it would appear that that noble lord—
whether or not from his greater knowledge of India I cannot
say—formed a more correct opinion than others of the dan-
ger with which India was threatened, and, with his cha-
racteristic promptness and readiness, he took upon himself
a responsibility which did not properly belong to him.
(Hear, hear.) To his active and energetic mind is
mainly owing the arrival of those reliefs which
reached India at a moment when reliefs were most
urgently demanded. From that time to the present the
noble lord has been unceasingly active. He has devoted the
whole of his energies to the suppression of the revolt and to
the maintenance of tranquillity in that portion of the
country over which his presidency extends. He has grappled
successfully with every emergency as it arose. He has not
only applied himself diligently and laboriously to the putting
down of the revolt in his own province, but he has also 'most
carefully and most sedulously supported the general scheme
and plan of the Governor-General and the Commander-in.
Chief with regard to operations over the whole of India.
My lords, her Majesty has been pleased to say, and I at the
same time had very great pleasure, of communicating to the
noble lord her Majesty's intention, that whenever this
revolt should be brought to a close, her Majesty would
mark her sense of his services, not indeed by giving him a
seat which he has already in your lordships' house, but by
adding to his dignity as a representative peer that of a peer-
age of the United Kingdom. (Cheers.) Although I have
not yet had time to receive from Lord Canning any answer
to the communication which I had the satisfaction of mak-
ing to him at the same time as I did to Lord Elphinstone,
the last mail has brought me from Lord Elphinstone a
grateful acknowledgment of the honour which her Majesty
has been pleased to bestow upon him, and at the same time
an expression of opinion, in which I think he will stand
alone, that the honour conferred far exceeded his deserts.
(Cheers.) I hope that noble lords connected with the mili-
tary service will not consider that I am treating them with
disrespect, or that I am improperly postponing the consi-
deration of their claims to the public thanks of Parliament,
if, following the order of the resolutions which have been
placed upon your lordships' table, I first refer to those
civilians who have distinguished themselves by their
services during the period of this revolt. The first
name to which I have to call your attention is one thins
which none is better known or more highly honehred in
India. Two illustrious brothers have borne that name with
the highest credit, and with the noblest distinction.
(Cheers.) One of them, unhappily, is no more. He has
fallen in the active service of his country—fallen, unfor-
tunately, too early to receive an intimation of the thanks
which his Sovereign and Parliament were prepared to be-
stow upon him. The other still survives; and I rejoice to
think that Sir John Lawrence, who has arrived in this
country within the course of the last few days, will have
returned in time personally to know the appreciation of his
services entertained by the country and by Parliament—
(cheers)—that he will be enabled, as a member of the Indian
Council, to give the benefit of his experience and advice in
the management of important and arduous duties ; and that
he will see how heartily Parliament appreciates that de-
voted attention to the public business which he ever dis-
played, and that firm courage and dauntless resolution with
which, with the very insufficient means-at-his disposal, he
met and sternly put down every appearance of disturbance
in a district but newly acquired to the British empire—how
by the very terror and awe inspired by his name, and by
the respect due to his character, he not only altogether sup-
pressed every symptom of revolt in that wild and newly
acquired district, but made his word law throughout that
country, and made that country another England, pouring
forth its supplies and reinforcements for the purpose of
quelling the dangerous mutiny now happily extinguished.
(Cheers.) Another distinguished man, likewise occupying a
civil capacity, has been referred to on a former occasion in
terms of great praise by my noble friend the noble earl be-
low the gangway (the Earl of Ellenborough)—Mr. Frere,
the Resident in Scinde. (Hear, hear.) Perhaps the task
of Mr. Frere has not been so arduous as that of, Sir J. Law-
rence, inasmuch as he succeeded to a province in which
much had been done to tranquilise and settle the minds of
the people, and to : establish the blessings of a good and
stable Government. But to Mr. Frere must be
due the credit of having maintained and supported that
system of Government, and of having preserved in that
province the most entire and unbroken tranquillity while a
great portion of India was in a state of disturbance and re-
volt. (Hear, hear.) In naming another civilian permit me
to say that, although the duties performed and the services
rendered by these officials are not of the same brilliant and
dazzling character as those rendered by the military, yet
that they are not less essential to the good Government of
India. (Hear, hear.) Our hold upon India must no de-
pend solely—although it must mainly—upon our military
forces, but the hold maintained by our military power must
be strengthened and supported by the respect and esteem in,
-which those are held who exercise almost unbounded autho-
rity in the distant provinces of India. To Mr. Mont..
gomery, the Commissioner of Oude, is due the
highest amount of praise for the manner in which during
the last year he has administered the civil Government in
that province. (Hear, hear.) Following immediately on the
suppression of the revolt, by his judicious and wise and
humane measures, with her Majesty's proclamation in his
hand, and making the best use of the promises of mercy
there held forth, by his justice and conciliation, and by
tempering mercy with firmness, Mr. Montgomery suc-
ceeded to a great extent in restoring tranquillity to a country
newly subdued and in which angry feelings had been ex-
cited. Under such circumstances the speedy return to tran-
quillity reflected the highest credit upon that civil autho-
rity which had the chief conduct of affairs. (Hear.) I may
mention here, and I hope that the announcement will be
received with satisfaction by your lordships—that in con-
sideration of the services of Mr. Frere and Mr. Mont-
gomery her Majesty has been pleased to direct that there
should be conferred upon them the civil knight comman-
dership of the Order cf the Bath; and I think your lord-
ships will be of opinion that that distinction has never
been conferred more worthily. (Cheers.) To one more
civilian it is necessary that I should refer, and that is to a
gentleman who has been charged with a most arduous and
delicate duty—Sir Robert Hamilton, who has been agent to
the Governor-General in Central India. It is difficult to
form an adequate idea of the importance attached to the dif-
ficult and delicate service which such persons had to per-
form. It is the duty of the agent of the Governor-General ac-
credited to the several native states to watch with the most
unremitting vigilance every symptom which in the slightest
degree threatens a variation from their allegiance or a falling
off in friendship on the part of those States ; to be ready to
confirm the wavering; to stimulate those who are disposed
to hang back ; to keep in awe those who might be inclined,
if their saw a favourable opportunity, to deviate from
their allegiance; to watch with the most anxious jea-
lousy every symptom of wavering, and every indicaiton
of intrigue, in which I need not tell your lordships every
Oriental is a great proficient; to watch and counter-
manoeuvre those intrigues ; to keep tranquillity unbroken ;
to overawe some, and to persuade others—those are duties
requiring most delicate and most careful management, and
those are the duties which throughout these troubles in
Central India have been performed, and successfully per-
formed, by Sir Robert Hamilton. His name consequently
appears in the vote which I have the honour this night to
propose. (Cheers.) In turning from the civil to the mili-
tary branch of the service, and in asking your lordships to
give the thanks of the house to those gallant officers
whose names are contained in the resolutions upon the
table, I am aware—and I rejoice that it is so—that I shall
not have to call your lordships' attention to any cir-
cumstances of such deep and thrilling interest and of such
painful excitement as those which were commemorated on
the last occasion when a vote of thanks was proposed in
this house. We have had, thank God, during the last year,
or year and a half, to record no such horrors as the mas-
sacre of Cawnpore, no such atrocities as those that were
committed before the siege of Delhi. We have not had to
watch with that painful anxiety with which, day by day,
during the progress of that memorable siege, we waited to
see whether it was possible that success could crown efforts
made with means so disproportionate to the opposition,
which they had to encounter. Nor have Ito relate to your
lordships the painful interest with which we received, mail
by mail, the accounts of that marvellous advance of the
lamented Havelock. We have not had to speculate in
agonising suspense over the probable fate of the garrison of
Lucknow, or to thrill with satisfaction at their first and
temporary relief, to have our hopes again dashed by the
news that the!garrison was still beleaguered, and at length to
have them crowned with satisfaction by the announcement of
the final and completereliefofthat heroic garrison. (Cheers.)
From objects of such thrilling interest, from events occa-
sioning such deep unxiety, the statements which I have now
to make to your lordships will be altogether free. It will re-
late, indeed, to occurrences with regard to which the public
expectation has been aroused ; but that expectation can
scarcely be said to have taken the form of anxiety, for since
the earlier days of the period to which I am about to refer
one unbroken shamof success has characterised our arms—
success engendering confidence, and to such an extent that
the slightest check has been regarded rather as an unlooked-
for disappointment by the public than as what might bo
anticipated from the nature of the struggle in which we
have been engaged. (Hear, hear.) Happily also the period
to which I refer has not been marked by that lamentable
loss of distinguished lives which characterised the early
period of this revolt. (Cheers.) Doubtless many have
fallen who have left a fearful gap in their own families and
private circles—many who, if they had been spared, might
have risen to the greatest' eminence, and have held the
highest stations in the public service; but of those who
have filled a place in the eye of the country there are com-
paratively few who have been cut off during the present
year. Three there are, to whom your lordships will permit
me to refer, by whose premature death the country has
sustained the deepest loss. Mention has been already
made in this house, but this is an occasion on which
that mention may well be repeated of the distin-
guished services of the late lamented Sir William Peel.
(Cheers.) To a bravery which almost verged on rashness,
to a determination which bordered on the heroic, he joined
those high qualities of frankness of disposition, openness of
manner, cordiality of feeling and great private virtue which
endeared him to his own friends and these who imme-
diately surrounded him as much as his public character
entitled him to the respect and admiration of his country.
(Cheers.) Two others there were of a somewhat dif-
ferent character, in whose premature death India at all
events, has sustained a most serious loss. I allude to
two men, both of them model chiefs of irregular form',
which they themselves had formed and disciplined
from among tribes and natives who had not long be-
fore been our enemies, over whom by their valour, their
rigid discipline, and at the same time by their careful
attention to their real wants, comforts, desires, and even pre-
judices, they had obtained an influence which was all but
marvellous, and which enabled them to lead their troops so
formed and disciplined into any danger and into any con-
flict with as much confidence as if they had been British
soldiers. (Hear, hear.) One of these men has met a soldier's
death, the other unhappily has sacctiulbgd. under 109F§