The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING; FEBRUARY 4, 1857.

was for the interest of the Powers assembled at Paris that
a protest. should be made against the system which pre-
vailed. The Government of the Emperor and the Govern-
ment of this country acted in concert together, and deter- •
mined to present a note to the King of Naples, stating that 1
acts of grace and amnesties should be made, which would
betoken a change of Government. The answer to this I
note was to the effect that we were to mind our own basi- '
• nese. But still we hoped that, upon reflection, the King
might be induced to alter his decision, and that he would
adopt another system of policy, and more in accordance
with his own interests. After the despatch was received
in answer to the protest against the system which pre- !
vailed, the two missions were desired to withdraw. I
think no one can say the two Governments of France and
England were not acting within the limits of their legiti-
mate rights. No one can say that England and France
could not protest against a system of Government so
fraught with evil. In the change which we desired we
had no wish for a change of Ministers. (Hear, hear.)
There is an act of amnesty which has been communicated
to all the Governments of Europe. This amnesty is in-
tended for all who wish to avail themselves of it, and who
have promised submission to the Government of the coun-
try. Moreover, a convention has been signed by the King
of Naples for the removal of all political prisoners, of their
own freewill, who may desire to emigrate, to New South
America. •I do not attach much importance to these acts :
they may, or they may not, be symptoms of a better sys-
tem ; but what I do attach importance to is this, that I
believe every one of the great Powers of Europe has ap-
proved of the course pursued by the Governments of her
Majesty and of the Emperor, and has thought it to be the
best and the most likely to be effectual. I trust the King
of Naples will not continue to believe that he is not amen-
able to any human tribunal, and persevere in standing
alone, thinking himself right, and that all the rest of the
world are wrong. With respect to the negotiations be-
tween the if nited States and England, the noble earl was
perfectly right in the observations he made. There is, I
hope, no reason to doubt that the treaty will be realised,
and I think your lordships will see that it entirely fulfils all
those points to which your attention has been particularly
directed by the noble earl. The two treaties are in noevay
connected with each other. The United States treaty merely
refers to the Mosquito territory. With respect to the disput e
about Ruatan, which was supposed to belong to Honduras,
we have mate that island over to Honduras, admitting her
sovereignty in connection with the railway which is about
to be made, and which, I believe, will turn out to be the
really right and practical mode of connecting the two
oceans. On both sides of the isthmus there are magnifi-
cent harbours, and all the maritime Powers of the world
who avail themselves of this communication might take a
fair exception to an island, almost at the entrance of it,
being in the hands of any other Power. It was therefore
placed under the suzerainty of Honduras, who is bound to
give it up to no other Power. I believe, when these trea-
ties are laid before your lordships, they will fully answer
the objects which both Governments have in view, and I
think, from the manner in which it has been received
by the United States, that it will be the means of prevent-
ing any future misunderstanding between the two na-
tions respecting that country. I agree with the noble
earl opposite, that we have no interest whatever in
Central America beyond what he mentioned—that is to
say, for free transit across the isthmus, and I can in the
future contemplate no possible reason why there should be
any difference of opinion between us and the United States.
With regard to Persia, before I make any observations as
to the state of our relations with that country, I must beg
to express my satisfaction at what fell from the noble earl
in respect to the rupture of our diplomatic relations. I
wish to say a very few words about what led to this rupture,
and I would particularly ask your lordships, until the two
or three days elapse before which the papers will not be in
your hands, to dismiss from your minds much that has been
said and written upon the subject, and more especially as
to the supposed connection of a lady with the breaking off
of our diplomatic relations—a lady who was the wife of an
individual who was, and had long been, under the protec-
tion of the British mission, and as such was acknowledged
by the Persian Government. The design of the Persian
Government was to coerce the British Government into
giving up their protection of this individual, and to place
him in the power of his unrelenting enemies, and with that
view the wife was taken away and imprisoned. Mr. Mur-
ray naturally protested against so very unjust and arbi-
trary an act ; but while the Persian Government admitted
the right of the man to our protection, they at the same
time claimed a right to prosecute and imprison the wife.
When Mr. Murray remonstrated against such conduct he
was exposed to fresh insults ; but when I tell your lord-
ships that I have received from Mr. Murray the most
solemn assurance, given on his honour as a gentleman, that '
in the steps he took he was not actuated by any improper
motive, I am sure your lordships will believe that there is
not a shadow of a foundation for the accusations against
him. (Loud cheers.) I felt it due to an absent servant
of the Crown, who has been unjustly maligned, to take
this the earliest opportunity of vindicating his character.
Having waited in vain for the explanation he was led
to expect, he was compelled to suspend his relations
and leave Teheran. (Hear.) For this he was much
blamed ; but he did perfectly right ; for if he had remained
he would hare been in the position of an unprotected tra-
veller, and might have had to rehoist his floc, in order
to demand reparation for fresh insults ; and this stop
again would perhaps have led to an accumulation of
other affronts. He therefore properly determined that the
Queen's representative should not be exposed to this igno-
miny, and exercised a wise discretion in leaving Teheran ;
but I beg your lordships to bear in mind that this rupture
of our relations was not the cause of the war. We cer-
tainly effected that in the course of time, and upon reflec-
tion Persia would see that it was to her interest to remain
on good terms with this country. She has been greatly
indebted to England, and, above all, she knew we were no
longer at war with Russia. We had no doubt, therefore,
that there would be an honourable settlement of these dif-
ferences. and that we should be able to resume our friendly
relations ; but the case assumed a very different aspect
when we found Persia adopting acts of hostility towards us
for the purp,se of carrying out her never relinquished de-
termination to possess herself of Herat. We made repre-
sentations to the Persian Government on the subject. I
will react to your lordships the letter which I wrote to the
suzerain on receiving information of the movement which
Persia was making towards /ierat :

"Foreign-office, Jaly 11, 1856.
"The undersigned, &e., ha the honour to recall to the re-

collection of Sedr Azins the articles of agreement, respecting
Herat, which were concluded in the month of January, 1853,
between his Excellency and Lieutenant-Colonel Shiel, then
her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten-
tiary at the Court of the Shah.
"By those articles the Persian Government engaged not
to send on any account troops to Herat, unless when foreign
troops invaded Herat, that is, troops from the direction of
Cabool or Caudahar, or other foreign country. In the event,
too, of troops being sent in that case, the Persian Govern-
ment engaged that the said troops were not to enter the
city of Herat ; and whenever the foreign troops returned to-
wards their own territory, the Prussian troops were imme•
diately and without delay to return to the Persian soil.
The Persian Government also engaged not to interfere in
any way whatsoever in the internal affairs of Herat, such as
in taking possession, or occupying, or assuming the sove-
reignty, or in governing, unless in so far as it interfered
during the lifetime of Yar Mahommed Khan. The Persian
Government also engaged to abandon the pretensions and
demand for the coinage and the Khthek, or any other mark
whatsoever of the people of Herat, being subjects or under
the Government of Persia.
" The British Government have been informed that since
the beginning of the present year Persian troops have not only
invaded the territory of Herat, but have laid siege to the city
of Herat, and have interfered in the internal affairs of Herat,
and that the movements of troops in different parts of Persia
indicate a determination on the part of the Persian Govern-
ment to persist in its aggression on Herat, and in its disregard
of solemn engagements contracted with the British Govern-
ment.
" Such conduct on the part of Persia is considered by the
British Government to constitute an act of open hostility
against Great Britain ; and the object of the undersigned in
now addressing the Sedr Azim is to make known to the Per-
sian Government that, unless reparation is promptly made by
it for this breach of engagement and this act of hostility,
and unless the Persian troops are forthwith withdrawn from
the city and territory of Herat the British Government will
adopt such measures as a regard for its own honour, and its
own interests may prescribe, and will hold itself absolved from
any responsibility for the consequences of those measures,
however disastrous to Persia they may prove.
" The undesigned, dze. " CLARENDON."
To this letter I received an unsatisfactory answer. It did
not even allude to Herat, but treated the matter as a per-
sonal dispute between the Persian Government and Mr.
Murray, and said it would be all settled by the Persian
Ambassador, who was on his way to Paris. Her Majesty's
Government then thought that I should write more in
detail upon the grievances we complained of, and I thou
addressed a letter to the Persian Minister of Foreign
Affairs [A noble lord here made a remark which
vas not heard in the gallery.] The answer I received to
my first communication was extremely vague—l am sorry
I have not got it with me—saying the disagreement was a
personal one between the Persian Government and Mr.
Murray, making no allusion whatever to Herat, bat say.
ing any matter of difference would be settled by the am-
bassador, who was going to Paris ; and on October 10 I
addressed this letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs :
" The undersigned, &c., had the honour to receive on the
25th of Sept. the letter which the Sedr Azim, Prime Minister
of his Majesty the Shah of Persia, addressed to him on the
17th of Aug., having reference to the letter which the under-
signed addressed to the SedrAzira on the 11th of July on the
subject of the proceedings of the Persian Government in regard
to Herat, but containing no answer to that letter.
" Her Majesty's Government had hoped that the letter of
the undersigned would have elicited from the Pertian Govern-
ment a distinct assurance that the Government would at once
desist from the enterprise which it had undertaken against
Herat, in violation of solemn engagements entered into with
the British Government is former times, and in defiance of the
often expressed determination of the British Government not
to tolerate any interference on the part of Persia with the
States of Affghanistan, and not allow the extension of the au-
thority or the territory of Persia in that quarter. Her Majesty's
Government had hoped that such assurance weuld have been
given, and would have been followed up by the immediate
withdrawal of the Persian armies from the Affghan territory,
and by complete reparation for the insults which had been
Government offered to the British in the person of the Queen's
Envoy, and which have led to the withdrawal of the British
Mission from Persia.
I f all this had been dons, her Majesty's Government would
have been enabled to replace,
on a:friendly footing, its rela-
tions with the Court oftbe Shah.
" Her Majesty's Governmentbave been
demandeddisappointed in
atc in the
these hopes and expectations. The redress
communication made by the British Ambassador
tinople to the Persian Charge d'Affaires in thatßerlitz:iislle.
month of June last, for the insult offered to the
Mis-
sion, has not been afforded, the reparation required in the
note of the undersigned of July 11, for the disregard shown
by Persia of her engagement as to Herat has not been given
but instead of this, vain excuses and pretexts of delay have
been put forward, and her Majesty's Government have been
told to expect satisfaction from the result of a negotiation, the
conduct of which the Persian Government pretends to have
confided to an ambassador some time since appointed by the
Shah to the Court of France.
" But, in the meanwhile, the Persian Government has not
been content to let the questions in dispute remain without
further aggravation. The insults which occasioned the with-
drawal of the British mission from Teheran have, since that
period, have been followed up by other insults to the British
Government, which of themselves call for ample reparation.
" The insults to which the undersigned here more particu-
larly refers are the prohibition of intercourse by subjects of
the Shah with her Majesty's consul at Teheran • the violation
of the engagement to pay Seyd Abdoolah, a British subject,
an allowance which he was to receive as a commutation for a
portion of his claims on the Government of Persia; the attempt
on the part of the Sedr Azim to possess himself of the water
long since assigned to the British Mission for its use as its
summer encampment ; the interception of the supplies of
water ordinarily assigned to the British Mission in Teheran ;
the refusal to enforce the punishment of parties who commit-
ted a violent assault on one of the servants of the British Consul;

the refusal to recognise the right of property of her Majesty's
Government in the British Consular residence ; the expulsion
from Asterabad of a person in the employment of the laritish
Mission; the publication in the public paper under the con-
trol of the Government of Persia of injurious statements as
regards the British Government ; and. lastly, the direct incen-
tive held out to fanaticism to irritate against British subjects
the conduct pursued at a former time, when the city of Tehe-
ran witnessed the massacre of the representative of a foreign
State by an infuriated mob.
" All these transactions are publicly known throughout the
Persian capital, and unless the redress demanded for them
shall have been given, and shall have been made as publicly
known, it will be impossible for a British Mission to reside
with security, still less withhonour, at the Court of the Shah.
" But even these transactions are of less account than the
wanton disregard by the Persian Government of engagements
to abstain from any interference in the internal affairs of He-
rat, and from any attempt to occupy, or take possession, or
assume the sovereignty or government of that province.
• There are indications, indeed, that before the British Mis-
sion retired front Teheran, intrigues were on foot to promote
the views of aggrandisement which Persia has continually en-
tertained in the direction of Herat. Persian forces were col-
lected on the frontier of that State; and, as if more distinctly
to evince the hostility of Persia towards Great Britain, even
at this early stage of these transactions, the Persian Govern-
ment selected for the command of these forces an officer high
in rank, and nearly connected with the Royal family, who had
then lately rendered himself notorious by grossly indedent lan-
guage applied by him to the Sovereign of England at a public
entertainment given to members of the Royal family by the
Vizier of Teheran.

" From that period the operations of the Persian forces
have been pushed forward with unabated perseverance
against the city and in various quarters of the territory of
Herat; language of defiance against Great Britain has been
openly held by the Persian Government, and the demon-
strations have been made of the intention of t e Persian
Government rather to engage in conflict with Great Britain
than to concede the just demands of the British Government,
the Persian Government appearing to wish to display to the
Persian people its indifference for the friendship of England,
and its conviction that Persia has nothing to fear from the
just resentment of Great Britain.
" But the British Government can no longer passively sub-
mit to the insults and wrongs which it has received from the
Government of Persia. An expedition, destined for Persia,
is now about to leave the British territories, and whatever
may result to Persia from this measure, which her Govern-
ment has wantonly provoked, the responsibility thereof will
rest on tho evil counsellors of the Shah, who have led his Ma-
jesty to countenance insult and injury towards Great Britain,
and to violate the solemn engagements of an international
compact."
Herat stands on the immediate confines of Persia and
Affghanistan, and is entitled from its position to be, and
has always been, considered as the key of Affghanistan.
Placed as it is, in a plain of unparalleled fertility, the
Shah of Persia, 14 years ago, when he was besieging the
place, maintained there an army of 40,000 men, and its
valueas a military station is the more apparent, as the coun-
try on the east and west is comparatively barren. There is
also to be found here an abundance of clay of a tough de-
scription, which is peculiarly available for the purposes of
fortification. Herat is altogether a most important plac
for military'operation, and an enemy once in possession o
it is completely master of the position. Every Govern
ment of this country has desired that Affghanistan should
be protected, and it clearly cannot be protected if Herat
remains in the power of Persia. I believe the Russian
Government and the whole of the Russian people are unde
the belief that their destiny is to go forward, to conquer
and to hold new territory ; but, I believe, as the noble lord
has said, that there is no disposition whatever upon the
part of the Russian Government to go to war with us on
this question. Our communications with the Russian
Government have been frank and friendly. I believe we
will not-go to war, and that it is the interest of both that
a neutral and independent country should form a division
between the two territories. (Hear.) But there will not
be such a country if Persia occupies Herat; because, in
holding that place she will be able, perhaps, not to conquer
Affghanistan by force of arms, but through the mere cupi•
dity of Affghan chiefs, to take possession of that Power.
We are not like Russia in that part of the world ; our po-
sition there is entirely dependent upon our character, our
prestige, our supposed resolution to defend our rights at
every risk. If we induce the Persian Government to enter
into solemn engagements with us, and then permit her to
violate them witkimpunity, depend upon it we shall sac-
rifice that reputation which we have always enjoyed. And
it is to support that reputation and that prestige for moral
force that her Majesty's Government has been compelled
to go to war with Persia, but in the full confidence that in
so doing we shall deserve and obtain the support of the
whole country. I have said so much as to the causes
which led to the war with Persia, and though by no means
able at the present moment to state what may be its
issue, I may say that the Persian ambassador has within
the last few days solicited an interview with Lord Cowley
at Paris; and at that interview expressed the desire of
his Government to re-establish peaceful relations with this
Government, stated that he had full powers to negotiate,
and wished to know the conditions upon which it might be
done. Her Majesty's Government has not hesitated to re-
ceive these overtures, and if we find the powers of the
Persian ambassador equal to the circumstances, I have no
doubt we shall enter into them, and that they will lead to
a successful issue. We have no wish whatever to be at
war with Persia, or to injure her; all that we want is a
sufficient guarantee that any relations we may enter into
with that Power shall be fulfilled. I must express my
entire dissen t from all that has fallen from the noble earl
opposite (Earl of Derby) with respect to the Chinese war.
I think there is not the slightest doubt that the course we
have pursued has received the full assent of the country.
With respect to the lorcha, I believe she was to all intents
and purposes a British vessel. It is perfectly true that
her registry expired four or five day s before the attack was
made by the Chinese ; but, my lords, this fact does not
the less render her a British vessel—it certainly con-
ferred no authority on the Chinese to board her. The
noble earl then read the ordinance of the Colonial-office
with reference to the registry of foreign ships showing, that
the act of registry entitled a vessel to British rights for a
year from tho date of such registry, and providing that,
should the registry spire while the vessel was at sea, it
was to be renewed immediately upon her return to port.
The noble earl then continued—That, my lords, was just
the position in which the Arrow found herself upon enter-
ing the port of Canton, three days after her registry expired.
Earl GREY— Was that communicated to the Imperial
commissioner ?

£he Earl of CLARENDON--It was, and the Imperial
commissioner made no objection to the fact at the time.
It'could hot be said that the Arrow was a national vessel,
because, in the first place, the word lorcha was not of
Chinese, but of Portuguese origin ; and, in the second
place, she had, in accordance with the ordinance regula-
tions, her name painted in large characters, Roman letters,
on her port.
The Earl of MALMESBUftI"---"Wh.it wss the date of
the registry'
The Earl of CLARENDON—The 3.1 of March, 1855.
The day she was boarded she was in possession of a British
register, and had the British flag flying. The Chinese
went on board to claim one man out of a crew of Li, who
was suspected of piracy. They carried off 12 out of the 11
to make sure of thislone. The master of this vessel, an
Englishman, protested against the seizure of his crew, and
immediately made it known to the consul. The consul
applied to the officer who took the men off, but was threat-
' ened with 'violence if he persisted. Application was next
made to the Chinese commissioner, which, like every other
application, was treated with contempt. lie, however, sub-
sequently sent the men back, but the consul very properly
refused to receive them, and demanded that they should be
restored to the vessel from which they were taken, because
it was very well known that, if he accepted anything less
than he had demanded, it would have been regarded as a
triumph, and have led to fresh insults. The British au-
thorities were not disposed, however, to do more than was
absolutely necessary. They demanded that an apology
should be made —arequest which was treated with contempt.
The matter was then placed in the admiral's hands, and
all that he did, in order to mark his sense of the disregard
of our representations and the violation of treaty
rights, was to take possession of one of the war junks of
the Chinese Government. Before even that course was
' adopted, he took the precaution to have the opinion of the
Queen's Advocate at Hong Kong as to the legality of the
proceeding. The Queen's Advocate was very decided upon
that point, and the junk was taken. The Imperial Com-
missioner determined not to make any apology, and abso-
lutely refused to hold any direct intercourse with the ad-
miral, or any officer in her Majesty's service. The admiral
then proceeded, not as the noble earl (Earl of Derby) says,
to the destruction of Canton city, and indiscriminate
slaughter of the inhabitants, relying upon the misinforma-
tion of which he (the Earl of Derby) has given frequent
evidence in the course of his speech ; but to the taking of
one fort after another, at each step still offering the Impe-
rial commissioner the opportunity of making an apology.
There was, my lords, no indiscriminate slaughter • but, I
say that the non-access to the authorities at Canton has
been the cause of the quarrel, and of our determination
to enforce the observance of treaty rights, which we had
suffered to remain too long in abeyance. The Chinese
system not only impedes all direct transaction of business,
but compels our merchants to conduct their transactions
through alien and dishonest agents ; they can get no satis-
faction for the infraction of treaties, which are constantly
occurring, and the general feeling there is that, so long as
strangers are kept out of Canton, so long will all improve-
ment, social, political, or commercial, be impossible. The
continuance of the system at Canton leads to ever-recurring
riots and disturbances at the four other Chinese ports which
ate open to us; and for that, if for no other reason, Canton
should be placed on the same footing as the others. My
lords, there is one remarkable feature connected with these
transactions—namely, that although upon many other
points the different representatives of other countries dis-
agree, they have been unanimous in their opinion that the
course pursued by theßritish authorities at Canton was just
and necessary, and that it, sooner or later, must have conic
to this. The greatest cordiality prevails between the other
nationalities at Canton, including the Commodore of the
United States. I can only hope that in this, as in former
instances, the assertion of our rights, and our standing up
for our Sag—which is, my lords, our only protection ,
in that country—will not only be successful in obtaining
what we demand,. and the recognition of those rights, but
a great extension of our commerce with that country.
(Hear, bear.)

. . .
Earl GREY agreed with the noble earl opposite (the Earl
Derby) as to the desirability of their lordships being una-
nimous in voting the Address at the beginning of the ses-
sion ; there were, however, occasions upon which men must
act from higher matives than mere courtesy, and the pre-
sent, in his opinion, was one of them. He found in the
Address so ably moved and seconded by his noble friends a
passage relating to the Persian war, in which he felt he
could not concur ; and as it was his intention to move an
amendment upon it, he would confine his observations ex-
clusively to that point. The paragraph to which he referred
virtually assumed the policy and justice of the war, and it
made the house assure her Majesty that it participated in
la?,r regret that the conduct of the Persian Government had
led to hostilities between her Majesty and the Shah of
Persia, sia, and assuming that the Shah was entirely to blame.
referenceAddres to that point, he could not agree with the
pasrotvoisTrfyorin
Address. He had, however, another objection. It made
Inc?reference to the conduct of her Majesty's Government
support
ep7atr withoutadvising
(Hear.) He could not re
carrying
just or politic. The violation the
be-
tween this country her Majesty to
the
not gtrroution
war, but he would ask their loarwdsal::
r and advice of her Parliament.
and
Persia
of an agreement existing present war as being either
made the ground for a
thatthat an ipsdwhethera war would
Withoutreference between nations
halawdabyese be
br vindicateden ?
every breach of engagement,
na-
ture of that engagement justified a war to the
en-
tirely upon the magnitude of the interestst'depended
the possibility or otherwise of obtaining redressinvoilved' ani
means. (Hear, hear.) If such were not the case,
he need hardly point oat to their lordships that there
would be afforded a constant pretence for the en-
croachment of powerful States upon their weaker
neighbours. Such a policy bad indeed been a sub-
ject of reproach against Russia, and in India a similar

accusation had been preferred against this country.
If Parliament was not prepared to give up its rights, then
he would say that it was their duty to censure the conduct
of the Government in this respect if they were not to set
aside, as obsolete and of no avail, a century and a-half of
Parliamentary Government. He said the Government,
by the course they had pursued, had justly incurred the
censure of Parliament. It was with these views he was
now about to move an amendment to the Address. He
had endeavoured to convey that censure in terms of the
greatest moderation, and he would now proceed to read it.
The noble earl concluded by reading his amendment as
follows :—" Humbly to inform her Majesty that, while we
deplore that occurrences and tranactions have led to hosti-
lities between her Majesty and the Shah of Persia, we also
consider it our duty to state our regret that, when the ser-
vants of the Crown gave orders for an invasion of Persia by
a British force, they did not advise her Majesty to sell her
Parliament together, so that Parliament might have an
opportunity of giving any advice that upon such an occa-
sion might be required."
Earl GRANYILLE—I cannot help thinking that the
plea put forward by the noble earl the mover of the Ad-
dress, who in his first speech has given such great promise
that he will be a future ornament to this house, and by the
noble earl who so ably seconded it, of not going too deeply
into questions put into the Queen's Speech, is a most wise
and judicious course. I cannot but think when you have
gone deeply into those questions, without having had time
to read the papers which, in a very short time, will belaid
before your lordships, you cannot avoid conversations
which can only be contradicted by the opposite party.
With regard to the point urged by the noble earl (Earl
Grey), as the cases belli of this expedition against Persia,
thenoble earl thinks that the whole of this ca sus belli de-
pends upon certain engagements made between the Shah
and this country. Now, I believe that, under certain cir-
cumstances, when any one nation breaks off engagements
which it has made with another nation, that of
itself would form a ensue belli. and I hold that
in this case there was reasonable grounds for a
military demonstration. If the noble earl had only
waited for the papers he would find that not only the pre-
sent Government, but also that of my noble friend oppo-
site (the Earl of Derby), did intimate to the Persian
Government that, in case the Shah persevered in his de-
signs upon Herat, that would be esteemed a casus elli.
The noble earl objected strongly to the sort of engagement
entered into by this country and the Shah, and said such
engagements were perfectly inconsistent with European
law. It appears to me the noble earl is quite wrong. Are
there no cases in which aggression against another power is
made a cases belli by the nation which has engaged to pro-
tect that power ? I believe one of the most approved cases
of this sort is tie engagement entered into between France
and England to protect Sweden from any invasion. The
noble earl might not perhaps approve of that guarantee,
but there was not the slightest objection to it by either
Houses of Parliament, or the country. The noble earl says
the first aggression against Herat was unjustifiable, but I
must say that the noble earl's opinion was not shared by
the noble earl the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The
noble lord has brought furward the bugbear of Russia in-
terfering in India. I, for one, am not inclined to attach
much importance to the possibility of Russia pursuing an
aggressive course at a long distance from home. I am the
more justified in this opinion from recent events, and I be-
have it is the unanimous desire of the members of the Rus-
sian Government that this matter should be arranged as
soon as possible. Herat, my lords, has long been consi-
dered a place of great importance, and the sine qua nen of
a war with India. I ask, therefore, what would be the
consequence if Russia were allowed to make it her strong-
hold ? The noble lord says that it is in its finances the In-
dian Government will be attacked; and I ask them if Herat
is not the very place where troubles and alarms could be
best fomented to disarrange the finances of India ? The
noble lord next proceeded to a point on which he always
speaks with great force, namely, the justice of the under-
taking. Now, if any war be justifiable, it is that under-
taken in self-defence, and if we can assume in the present
war danger, either direct or indirect, to our own territo-
ries, that consideration will be sufficient to constitute the
question one of self-defence. Who, he asks, are the aggres-
sors ? He says the English Government. I deny it. The
Persians are the aggressors. (Cheers.) The noble lord then
went on to the question of whether it was to be considered
an Indian or a home war. It is in my opinion more Indian
than home. The noble lord, too, complains of the illegality
and unjustifiable character of the proceeding, because the
war has not been regularly proclaimed ; but if he will look
to other wars, the Affghan and Chinese wars for instance,
undertaken while he was himself a member of the Cabinet,
he will find that there was no such thing as a royal procla-
mation. Indeed, the best authorities upon international
law mention that the proclamation is not necessary at all.
It was not necessary as regarded the power of waging war,
and is merely done out of courtesy to the enemy. The
only persons at all interested in it are the neutrals, to
whom it is a notice that they may not expose themselves
to injury from either of the belligerents. I do therefore
think that her Majesty's Government should rather
be considered as having followed the usual course
than of having adopted a new one of their own. The noble
lord, too, has observed in his speech that her Majesty's
Government should have summoned Parliament earlier,
and submitted the whole question to their consideration.
Now, my lards, with regard to the expense of hostilities,
the noble lord says it will not be borne by the Indian Go-
vernment ; but I would remind the noble lord that the
salary of our Minister b.t Teheran is in part paid by the
Indian Government, so that he is as much in the Indian
as in the home interest ; and I may tell the noble lord that
her Majesty's Government has pledged itself that Parlia-
ment will contribute for the conduct of the war whatever
may be fairly borne by this country. I would request,
too, the noble lord to remember another fact, which is
this. During the last sessionof Parliament a distinct inti-
mation was given by the right hon. gentleman the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control that such an outlay might in
all probability be required. The noble lord shakes his
head. It is, I admit, no reproach to him not to have read
the reports of the proceedings in the other house of Parlia-
ment ; but if he thinks fit to bring this subject forward
again to him the papers relating to it are in your lordships'
hands, I shall be ready to meet him upon it. But Ido not
think he is serious in pressing on this amendment before
the papers are laid on the table of your lordships' house,
and after the intimation he has received from the noble
earl that there are negotiations on foot for the settlement
of the question, which may be prejudiced by a hostile vote,
The Earl of DERBY had no objection to agree to the
Address, if it did not pledge the house to any opinion upon
the justice of the question.
Earl GRANVILLE remarked that the house in it only
thanked her Majesty for the information with respect to
I the war.

Earl GREY—The Address is drawn in this form—that
we regret that the conduct of the Shah of Persia has led to
hostilities, whereas I say it is not so—it is the conduct of
her Majesty's Government which has brought them about.
Earl GRANILLE—The noble lord is confounding two
distinct paragraphs.
Lord BROUGHAM said be hoped and trusted that it
would be found, when the whole matter came before their
lordships, that they—or rather, he ought to say, their
agents in the East, and especially in China—had not been
picking a quarrel for the sake of obtaining an advantage.
(Hear, hear.) Upon no point which had occupied atten-
tention—he alluded to the affairs of Naples—did he think
that they had done either too much or too little; but he
wholly approved of the Government not having gone fur-
ther in the matter. He would protest, not against the
conduct or the principles of the Government, but he would
protest against what appeared to be a prevailing notion
out of doors—a notion amongst many, who were led away
by their feelings rather than by their judgments—that it
was the vocation or mission of this country to interfere
or meddle with the internal affairs of foreign countries, to
restrain the conduct of foreign Princes, and to direct the
proceedings of others. H felt that it was not the
vocation, or mission, or any part of the vocation, or
mission, of this country to propagate constitutional
government an over the world. (Hear, hear.) He
might lament that the people of other countries had not
the! same incalculable benefits which the people of this
country enjoyed; he might lament that other countries
had Princes who committed acts which all would con-
demn ; they might be of opinion that, even if those Go-
vernments abstained from such conduct, even if they
granted amnesties—and in this he did not allude to the
Emperor of Austria, but to a Sovereign more south in
Europe—that those amnesties, though extended to vie-
tines of oppression, would signify little, so long as those
lunhappy subjects did not enjoy constitutional govern-
ment. To remonstrate, however, was as far as they could
I go, and not one hair's breadth farther ought they to go
for the purpose of procuring for those nations better insti-
tutions than those which they unhappily possessed. Eng-
land had no more right—no more vocation—to plant
parliaments all over Europe, than the French Conven-
tion of November, 1792, le-ad to surround France with
republics. Of the Speech from the Throne it could not be
said, as was once said by a King's gardener, namely,
"that they might look at everything and touch nothing."
He would shortly refer to the excitement which now
prevailed over the country in reference to the in-
come tax. He had been asked to preside at a meet-
ing, and to exert his iniluence against this tax. He
had on a former occasion done his duty in showing that this
tax ought to he modified, so as to make distinctions in its
assessment. It might now be said that the necessity fur
this tax had not yet ceased ; but he had a full recollection
of another period—that of 1816—when he bad not the
honour of a seat in that house, but when he and his la-
mented friend Mr. Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, led
an attack against the income tax. The estimates had been
prepared at the beginning of the session in the usual way,
and the Government promised the utmost economy con-
sistent with the public service ; but la short and decisive
campaign took away between 14,000,0001. and 15,000,0001.
from the supply, and subsequently the Chancellor of the
Exchequer decided to take off the war malt tax, about
3,000,0001. more, making together 18,000,000/. reduction.
The new estimates had to be prepared upon the principle
of " cutting your coat according to your cloth." Thin never
was a time when an amendment of the law was more want-
ing. That some change was necessary in the mode of dealing
with prisoners was proved by absolute experience, and if
something were not done soon, a very considerable increase
of our police force would be required. He trusted their
lordships would attend to the representations which bad
been made by the conference on mercantile law, bece.use
they were the result of experience acquired by the mercan-
tile classes, who suffered in .zoneequence of the defect of
the existing laws. (Hear.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR said he wished to detain the
house a few minutes in consequence of what had fallen from
his noble and learned friend, He thought their lordships and
the country had a right to know what it was the Government
contemplated in the nature of law reform. In her Majesty's
Speech law reform was ine.icated very vaguely, and that was
done intentionally, because he felt the force of what had
fallen from his noble and learned friend, that great promises
in the Royal Speech of numerous projected reforms were,
unfortunately, too generally followed by very little per-
formance. In directing their attention to the measures of
law reform which were most called for, it occurred to the
Government, and himself in particular, that the reform of
e4wrpashetahre)_sunbojteetontlyhatondeameacnoduendi
tthheeirEcficlresstiasattitecanluCono_ur(hts
of the importance of the subject itself, but because
it was a question which, from whatever cause, had been taken
up unsuccessfully by every successive Administration for the
last 25 years, and therefore it had always been an obstacle ou
the threshold of every law reform. On that day week he
should call the attention of their lordships to the subject of
those courts, with the view of introducing three bills—one to
reform the testamentary jurisdiction; another to reform the
laws of marriage and divorce ; and the third on subjects of a
more ecclesiastical character, touching discipline and matters
of a cognate nature. In the other House of Parliament a no-
tice had been put on the votes that vary evening, by his learned
friend the Attorney-General, of his intention to introduce a
bill altering the law with regard to gross breaches of trust,
of which two or three instances of late had staggered the pub-
lic. Their lordships were aware that, some three or four years
ago, a bill was introduced for the registration of the transfers
et land. It did not meet with the approbation of the other

house, but at the suggestion of the committee to which it was
referred, her Majesty was advised to issue a royal commission
to inquire into the whole subject. That commission had been
in existence three years and had not made their report ; but
he had reason to know that they would in all probability do
so very speedily, and he had had communicated to him the
drafts of two bills which had been prepared on the foundation
of that report, the object of which was, after the manner of
the Irish Incumbered Estates Court, to give a Parliamentary
title to everybody. He would not pledge himself as to the feasi-
bility of the plan until ho saw the report in detail ; but the
Attorney-General and Mr. Walpole, who had taken an active
part in the commission, were very sanguine upon that point.
He did lot think it right to wait proposing a reform until
the report was produced, because he held that to make a re-
form, though it might be small, was always advantageous
if in the proper direction ; and the Attorney-General, sup-
posing he was returned to the other house, would on an early
day introduce a measure to greatly simplify the law with re-
gard to mortgages. He would not go through the several other
Smaller matters to which the attention of the Government
had been directed; but there was one other subject which had
very much engrossed his attention, and was of very consi-
derable importance. Since 1854 there had been a commis-
sion for consolidating the statutes of the realm. Nobody
who had not directed his attention to that subject could con-
ctive the practical difficulties which beset every attempt that
was made towards the 'accomplishment of this object ; but
they had succeeded in consolidating all the criminal statutes
of the country, and it would be recollected that he laid the
bills on the table on the last day of last session. It occurred
to himself and several members of the commission that it
would be better not to ask their lerdships to pass them until
they had been submitted to the learned members of the board
in Ireland, with a view to see how far other Irish statutes
could be incorporated and consolidated. It had not yet been
decided in what form they should be introduced. He would
not say more at present than that the matter was under the
consideration of the Government, and that in one form or
another those bills would be shortly laid before the house, On
an early day he would ask them to allow him to refer to a
select committee the second report of
,the statute law com-
mission. At the same time, a similar motion would be made
in the other house with the same object. The reference to
the emmittee would be with regard to the fact that the con-
solidation of the statute law would be imperfect unless better
means were provided than exist at present for improving the
language and manner of current legislation. The difference
of language in the statutes occasioned a great deal of confu-
sion, and to meet this and other objections, what her Ma-
jesty's Government would in due time propose would be the
appointment of an officer whose duty it would be to report
upon every bill which was introduced to alter the law—to
report what the existing law was, and how far and in what
respects the proposed bill would alter it ; and further, that
after a bill had been through committee, it should, if the

house thought proper, be referred to him, and he world state
what alterations had been made in it in committee, and how
far they altered the tenets of the bill. It would also be suck
an officer's duty to make improvements, with a view to the
improvement of the language, so that the language of the
statutes would become clearer, less verbose, and more in
harmony with the general language of the day—(hear, hear)
—he would have to collate and classify the statutes. He
(the Lord Chancellor) also had to announce that his right
hon. friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department
would introduce a measure on secondary punishments.
(Hear.) After these announcements, he trusted that their
lordships would not think the Government had been idle
during the recess on those important measures.
The LORD CHANCELLOR then put the Address.
The house divided, and the numbers were—
For the original Address
Against it l2

Majority
The amendment was therefore lost.
Their lordships then adjourned at 11 o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-(YESTERDAY).

The house resumed shortly before 4 o'clock. There
was a full attendance of members.
NEW MEMBERS.
The following members took the oaths and their seats :
Lord Henniker, for East Suffolk ; Viscount Castlerosse,
for the county of Kerry ; Mr. Bailey Cochrane, for La-
narkshire ; and Mr. Langworthy, for Salford.
NEW WRITS.
On the motion of Mr. HAYTER the following new
writs were ordered to be issued :—Greenwich, in the
room of Mr. P. Rolt, who has accepted the Cnil ern
Hundreds ; Hertford, in the room of the Hon.
Mr. F. Cooper, who has accepted the office of Vice-Pre-
sident of the Committee of Privy Council for Educa-
tion ; Limerick county, in the room of Mr. Monsen,
who has accepted the office of President. of the General
Board of Health ; Aylesbury, in the room of Sir R.
Bethel!, appointed to be Attorney-General ;
in the room of the Hon. S. Wortley, the Solicitor-Gene-
ral ; Southampton, in the room of Sir A. Cockburn,
appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas ;
Newport, in the room of Mr. W. Biggs, who has ac-
cepted the office of Chiltern Hundreds ; Clow:eel!, in the
room of Mr. J. O'Connell, who has accepted the office
of Clerk of the Crown of the Hanniper in Ireland ; and
Dumfries, in the room of Viscount Drumlanrigg, who
has succeeded to a peerage.
On the motion of Mr. M. SMITH, for West Kent, in
the room of Sir E. Filmer, deceased ; Brandon Brigg, in
the room of Viscount Bernard, who has succeeded to a
peerage.

necessity of granting such reform as the advanced posi-
tion of the people required, remarking that it was
better to concede necessary improvements rather
than thwart them, and have to yield to agitation
and pressure from without. After some further remarks,
the bon. baronet concluded by moving the Address.
Sir A. AGNEW, Bart., seconded the Address. He
congratulated the house that Russia bad been unable to
estrange the Emperor of France from this country in
settling the disputed points of the treaty, and
that those difficulties had been so amically
and properly settled, that the Danube was now, what it
ought to be, the great high way of commerce for the
whole world. After referring to the paragraphs i❑ the
Royal Speech relative to Neuchatel, Sicily, Russia.
and China, the honourable baronet said that the
conduct of the Government was deserving of the support
of the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) Returning to
the domestic policy of the government, he said that it
was satisfactory to know that the people of this country
would support the government in keeping up our military
and naval establishments to a❑ efficient state rather
tha❑ that we should rely on a militia, a thing so die
tasteful to the country, and sink thereby into a third-
class state. In conclusion the hon. baronet urged on the
house the necessity of supporting Lord Palmerston, who in
the hour of England's difficulty had come forward and
placed her in her proper position amongst the nations of
the world. (Hear, bear.) All that remained for the
country to do was to support the policy indicated in the
Royal Speech. (Hear, bear.)
The SPEAKER having read the address, and put the
Iquestion,

Mr. DISRAELI—I confess, sir, that when I listened to
the address of the hon. mover, who to-night spoke with an
ability, which, from the mode in which he addressed you
on a former occasion, I confess did not surprise me—(hear,
hear)—l was sometimes inclined to suppose that the hon. '
gentleman had been furnished with a copy of the Queen's
Speech different from that in my possession, and which
until then I supposed to be an authentic document ; be-
cause the hon. gentleman informed us that her Majesty's
Speech delivered to us by the Royal Commissioners this
day contrasted very favourably withthe Addresses from the
Throne which we have listened to for the last two or three
years ; that this Speech conveyed to us the gratifying in-
timation that her Majesty had received from all the great
Powers of Europe assurances of their continued friendship
and goodwill. But that is not an expression which I
could find to-night in the copy of the Speech placed before
me. The Speech, moreover, promised to the people of this
country, as I caught from his lips, a reduction of taxation.
That is a promise which unfortunately has been omitted—
hoar)—l am afraid, from some sinister motive, from the
copy for which until this moment I was grateful to
the distinguished personage by whom it was distri-
buted. The Speech also quoted by the hon. mover
held out, as he informed us, assurances of measures of
domestic amelioration, but that also is a promise which is
not held out in the Speech before us. It has been said that
a Queen's Speech is not on the whole so instructive and
improving a document in general, as an expression of opi-
nions and statement of facts coming from such a quarter,
and attended with such imposing circumstances, might na-
turally be expected to be. But, sir, when I heard the
Speech read to-day by the Royal Commissioners, and of
which I supposed this to be an authentic copy, it seemed
to me that there was a great deal in that Speech to set
the people of this country a-thinking, and to produce a
very great effect upon their minds. It is hardly a year ago
since we were under the idea that we had terminated a
great struggle, and that the termination of that struggle
had laid the foundation of a prospect of peace more fa-
vourable on the whole than had ever been offered to this
country sincelBls. Let the house for a moment recal to
its recollection, the circumstances under which the treaty
of Paris was concluded. Our foe, who had been deemed
so powerful, and who had actually proved himself to be
so powerful, had been baffled in the projects of aggran-
disement he had attempted to accomplish. It is said that
the late Emperor of Russia declared that he would not ac-
cede to terms of peace of any sort until he had lost his last
man and expended his last rouble. The position of the
Russian empire is in fact similar to what was conveyed by
this expression. Greatly as the sinews of war of that em-
pire were exhausted, men were still more wanting. Yet
although he was utterly discomfited and defeated, our foe
retired from the contest with dignity, and without that
sense of humiliation which was generally supposed to be
exhibited. Many persons at last believed that circum-
stances were favourable to peace. Russia kad failed in the ,
object attempted to be carried into effect by the late Empe-
ror. In the tomb of the Emperor Nicholas that policy was '
interred. The death of the Emperor, and the heroic defence
of Sebastopol, terminated that policy, and permitted Rus-
sia to see the termination of that policy with some feelings
of respect. But the very fact of the termination of that
struggle was conclusive to show that the policy was ,„,t
humiliating to Russia —it was an additional argument that
the sincerity of Russia was not to be questioned. But even
in France and Austria, whilst a great war was being prose-
cuted, great public works were in progress, the employ-
ment and distribution of capital occupied the attention of
Governments, and the state of the tariffs was eagerly in•
quired into and discussed. But what was the condition of
our own country ? Were we in a situation competent to
engage in any fresh war ? We were founding an immense
colonial empire, of an extent unknown in the history of
mankind, of illimitable dimension, and inexhaustible re-
, sources. We had a career open to our fellow-citizens which
exceeded even the excitement and the enterprise of war,
without the calamities of that state of existence. Under
these circumstances any man would have said that there
' was a more solid foundation and a more reasonable pros-
pect of permanent tranquillity than has ever been offered
to the country since 1815. This is hardly a year ago. I
want to know why we have been disappointed in our ex-
pectations ? If that is a sound view, the country has a
right to expect that, as a consequence of such a state of
affairs, her Majesty's Ministers would have weaned the
minds of the people of this country from the excitement of
war. I want to know how it is that, instead of a speech
from the Throne holding out such a prospect, we have a
speech full of war and rumours of war ? The whole speech
consists of references and allusions to foreign transactions,
with very slight exceptions, and all these are transactions
of peril and calamity. There is a very curious circum-
stance, and I must allude to it, not merely as leading to the
result I wish to put before the house, but because it has
been brought before us in a most marked manner in her
Majesty's speech—uamely, that almost on the very day
when the treaty was signed by our ambassador at Paris,
when the ink that signed it was not dry, the seed was
sown by that very negotiation of new troubles and
, difficulties in Europe. Almost before our embassy
had left, and after the treaty of peace was signed,
the negotiators reassembled, and the English nego-
tiator was driven to grant the very terms which
he had denied to Russia more than three years before. It
is a very remarkable circumstance that this happeued only
a few days after the treaty was signed. The treaty was
signed on the 30th of March, and on the Ist day of April
the seed was sown for the commencement of future diffi-
culties in our foreign relations. A prolific crop has ap-
peared ever since, and in two instances the result has been
absolute warfare. All those circumstances are of so recent
occurrence, and every gentleman is so familiar with their
details, that it is quite unnecessary to enter into a weari-
some analysis of the affairs referred to in her Majesty's
Speech. Let me recal to the recollection of the house, as
succinctly as I can, what occurred in reference to our in-
terference in Italy. It is not necessary now to atop to in-
quire what were the representations of her Majesty's Go-
vernment by which the adhesion of Sardinia was obtained
to the grand alliance. I do not stop to inquire whether
her Majesty's Government engaged herself morally, if not
legally, that they would terminate the then existing state
of affairs in Central Italy, and which had been shown by
a paper by Count Cavour, now upon the table of the house,
was subversive of the equilibrium, if not fatal to the inde.
pendence, of Sardinia itself. I remember that, in March,
when Lord Clarendon went to Paris, Count Cavour, the
distinguished Sardinian Minister, placed himself immedi-
ately in communication with the English Minister, and
n-
quested to know what steps were to be taken in order
that Sardinia should receive her reward for the great and
heroic efforts which she had made in the recent contest,
and how the independence of Italy wen to be minuted. The
peace was signed on the 30th of March, and on the Bth of
April, in consequence of a statement delivered in by
Count Cavour, Lord Clarendon, having induced the
French Minister formslli to open the affair, made that
remarkable state7aseut which appears in the protocol,
and is a re;
worltletion of the State paper of the Sardi-
ni"llrnieter. There the noble lord points to the abnor-
mal of Central Italy, occasioned by its occupation
by foreign troops—especially by those of Austria—to the
not euly abnormal, but thoroughly exceptional, state of the
kingdom of Naples, which created a condition of things an
absolute interference with which was not only, his lordship
said, out right, but our duty. (Hear.) This was in the
spring; and the house will recal with vividness what the
situation of this country then was. It is of the utmost im-
portance that they shonld do so. This country was expect-
ing
to reap the fruits which might be expected from the
termination of a successful war, and the treaty of peace
then concluded. Yet, in consequence of the steps taken by
her Majesty's Government, no sooner was the Turkish-Rus-
sian difficulty at an end but an Italian difficulty appeared,
and attracted the earnest attention of this country and of
Europe. (Hear.) How was it possibleft, the
vrhni the
people
to
require the consideration of domestic subjects
public mind was excited by questions ofimjpendingwar—
when the Government of this country wits impressing upon
the public mind of Europe that a great struggle was about
to take place in Italy ; that the time had
patronage of thead at length arrived
when she was to be regenerated under the
great Powers of Europe—when you knew that it became a
question whether we should wake in the morning and find
that an English fleet was in the Bay of Naples. (Cheers.)
of affairs in Italy and the
So serious had become the aspect
temper of the public mind upon the subject, that one of the
most distinguished members of this house, the noble lord
the member for the City of London, felt it his duty tobring
its consideration before this house, when he very properly
made the protocols of the Treaty of Paris the foundation of
his motion. Observe that the agitation of the Italian diffi-
culty commenced in the spring, and the spring and the best
put of the summer were occupied by it. It becamea question
of speculation what might be the consequence of the con-
duct of the noble lord opposite (Lord Palmerston) and his
Government in entering into the obligations imposed by
the protocols of the Congress at Paris. Sorra found fault
withthe noble lord for his apparent rashness, whilst others
gave him credit for the liberal spirit he displayed with re-
gard to Italy, and especially to the occupation of Central
Italy by the Austrian troops. It then became a ques-
tion whether war might not again occur on a great scale,
and whether the Austrian army which had not been ex-
hausted in the Crimea could successfully contend with the
armies of France, exhausted as they were by their heroic
struggles in the recent contest, in which they had gained
so many triumphs and so many laurels. (Cheers.) We
expected that the King of Naples was to be coerced into
submission and the adoption of measures of concession—
we expected to see a French army and an English fleet
occupying the centre of Italy. But will it be believed that
all this time—nay, that at the very period when Lord
Clarendon was listening to the representations of Count,
Cavour, in which he impeached the very existence of Aus-
trian rule—that when he was unable to extricate himself r
from some fatal engagement made to Sardinia when the
treaty of peace was signed—will it be believed that at that
very time a second treaty was in existence, guaranteeing to
Awitria the whole of her Italian dominions ? (Opposition
cbebre.) I do not say this as any slur upon Austrian skill.
I admire the admirable adroitness, I may say the skilful •

wisdom, with which she managed, throughout the whole
of the late struggle, to conduct her affairs and secure her
position in Italy without entering into the contest.
Lord PALMERSTON—With what Power has that
treaty been entered into?
Mr. DISRAELI—The noble lord asks me with what
Power it was entered into. With the only Power which
Austria dreads ; for a guarantee was given from France
to Austria that her Italian possessions should be gu rr it--
teed, and that guarantee was not only sanctioned by the
noble lord, but was made by the advice and at the special
instance of his Government. (Cheer s. ) Thie secret treaty
is not denied, though mentioned now for the first time.
" What Power ?" said the noble lord. It is not the Power
of England that crosses the Alps, that threatens Austria in
Italy. It is that Power which, according to the noble lord
and his Minister, was to be his main support in the great
plan for the emancipation of Italy. (Chet re.) Read the
protocol in which Lord Clarendon made the memo-
rable statement about Italian rights, now that I h eve
given you the key note. You will then und. r-tand the
haughty contempt with which Count Buol listened to the
noble lord, and the scoffing deriwon of Baron Hubner in
listening to the representations of the English Ambassador.
When the Austrian 'Ministers had a guarantee of all the
Italian dominions of their Sovereign in their pockets, what
did they care for tbe representations brought forward with
so much pomp in the House of Commons, and on account
of which the noble lord claimed the support of the Liberal
party of this country? Now, what has happened in conse-
quence of this imposture upon the credulity of the country?
What have you done for the benefit of hely ? I remember
urging upon the Government of this country not to inter-
fere at all unless it interfered actively. (Hear.) We have
had protocols, State papers, acid speeches in Parliament,
but what have we done ? what has happened in Italy ?
fruitless assassinations, unsuccessful insurrections, and the
death of many excellent and some brave and distinguished
men ; the aggravation of every former evil, and the exagge-
ration of all former misgovernment. (Hear, hear.) You
denounced and you threatened the King of Naples, and
the King of Naples treated you with contempt; because,
when menaced by such a Power as England, he naturally
turned to his friendly neighbour Austria, to whom he no
doubt said, "I regard the friendship of Austria, and I can-
not bring you into a dangerous collision with the great
Western Powers, who are determined to bring about a re-
volution in Italy by all possible means. If we are to have
a French .army cussing the Alps, and English fleets in
Italian waters, I do not wish to bring you into any serious
difficulty. But my independence as a Sovereign is threatened.
What am I to do?" Said Austria—" Ease your wind of
any embarrassment, for se French array will cross the Alps,
except to maintain my authority and to guarantee my do-
minions. (Laughter.) You will have no French troops or
English fleets here. They are my best friends, and have,
given me the title-deeds of my estate. You, there-
fore, as an independent Sovereign, vindicate your
rights." (Hear, hear.) The King of Naples followed
that advice, and how far the policy of the noble lord op-
posite has benefitted the interests of the Liberal party in
Italy, or tended to the amelioration of Italian society, I
will now leave the house to judge, It is often said that the
noble lord (Lord Palmerston) is remarkable for getting the
country out of difficulties, but it always in reality happens
that those difficulties are created by himself. His conduct
on these occasions resembles the Rhine, which never reaches
the ocean, but vanishes in a mud bank. (A laugh.) It is
in this way that he extricates himself from difficulties of
which he himself is the creator. Well, at the end of the
summer it was thought that her Majesty's Government,
taking advantage of the peace just terminated, w sold have
taken steps to reduce the military expenditure of the coun-
try ; that they would be in a condition, when Parliament
met, at once to enter into the great struggle for economi-
cal and administrative reform with spirit and vigour, and
which hail been ushered in with so much promise. I awoke
one morning and found that, although the Turkish diffi-
culty was settled, and the Italian difficulty was settled or
had disappeared suddenly, we nevertheless had not been
at peace, but had simply enjoyed an armed truce, and that
we were about to be involved iu a great war—a war on a
grand scale—under circumstances of great disadvantage.
and without that generous and disinterested ally who had
hitherto acted with us. When Parliament was prorogued
I left our usual place of meeting with the idea that the
French alliance was the great foundation of the policy of
the noble lord at the head of the Government, and that on
that alliance we were to rest. But I found about the let
1 of Sept. that there never had been a real peace ; there had
only been an armed truce, and welwere going to war with
Russia again without the assistance of our ally—(hear)—
to encounter Russian diplomacy awl French perfidy,
and that the contest would be of a very alarming character.
Here was asain another difficulty, a Russian difficulty;
but on this point it is quite unnecessary for me to enter
into any details, because honourable gentlemen are per-
fectly familiar with them I may say that I wish
there may be no misconception as to what I consioer, and
the house will consider, to have been the legitimate object
of the late war with Russia. When the subject was first
discussed in 1854, I then said I thought no peacp would be
satisfactory to the country which did not secure the inde-
pendence of the Black Sea and the freedom of the Danube.
(Hear, hear.) Two years afterwards, when the wildest no•
tions on the subject of the war and on the terms of peace
were afloat, when you were told nothing but the dismem-
berment of the immense empire of Russia would satisfy
, Europe, I took the liberty of laying down the far more
moderate terms upon which peace might be, in my opinion,
and ought to be, secured; and they involved these two
great points—the independence of the Black Sea and the
freedom of the Danube. (Hear, hear.) And I say frankly
and freely to the noble lord that if he found in the month
orSeptember the country was to be deprived of one of the
prime objects for which it had made such enormous and
costly sacrifices of blood and treasure, it was the duty of
the noble lord—never mind what was the cause—oven at
the risk of another war, to obtain his object. (Hear, hear.)
I do not see how he could have faced this house or the
country, unless with a view of announcing that his object
had been accomplished. The noble lord, however, had to
communicate to us that ono of the most important objects
of the war was lost to us. I give the noble lord full credit
for his intentions ' • but then the question naturally arises—
Why were we on the point of losing the fruits we so richly
deserved ? I hear a great deal of Russian maps and Rus-
sian duplicity, and of French maps and French duplicity ;
but I hear nothing of English maps and English know-
ledge of the subject. Nobody denies now that this town of
Bolgrad was unfortunately left in the possession of the
Russians. Never mind what was the spirit of the treaty;
so far as England was concerned, she was determined to
have the freedom of the Danube secured, and Russia pos-
sessing Bolgrad, that freedom was not secured. Why, then,
was it retained ? I am told that the Russian Minister be-
haved very ill—wicked Baron Br unow had taken care of his
own country—(laughter)—ungrateful Baron Brunow had
thus acted after all the hospitality he had received in Eng-
land—(l aughter)—and had not done for Lord Clarendon
that which Lord Clarendonought to have done for himself.
(Renewed laughter.) Now, that is the real state of the
case. When it is a blunder of our own negotiator which
has occasioned the whole confusion, I don't see the advan-
tage of turning round upon our late foe and present ally,
and 4.. teasing one of duplieity, and the other of breach of
faith. Lord Clarendon was not pressed for time in the
negotiation of the treaty, because he found time to recom-
mend interference in the affairs of the kingdom of Naples,
and he also found time to interfere with the liberty of the
press throughout Europe. Lord Clarendon went to Paris
to obtain the independence of the Black Sea and the free-
dom of the Danube, and he omiteed to obtain one of those
important objects for which he was so sent. Was it from
want of information? That is the most charitable cou-
clueion. With regard to want of information, we have an
Ambassador at Constantinople who may have his fail-
ings, but nobody will deny that he is e man of great ability
and great experience, and he is surrounded by a diplomatic
staff possibly the most able that surrounds any Minister.
In addition to this we have consul it establishments
throughout all the provinces of the Turkish empire, and
throughout the Principalities in question. One would
therefore suppose thet our diplomatic and consular sources
of information would have furnished Lord Clarendon with
sufficient knowledge, at least to have obtained that which
was the object of the war and the object of negotiation.
Lord elarenion had also all the archives of the Foreign
office in Downing-street, which be ought to have found
prepared for him before he went to Paris. But it is a per-
feet libel on the diplomatic service of the country to sup-
pose that if information had been sought it would have
failed. All the insorma.tion might have been obtained by
means of railways and the telegraph. Was it not worth
their while to avail themselves of those means of informa-
tion ? The freedom of the Danube was no slight point it
was the very pith and essence of the whole negotiation,
the cause of the quarrel, and the cause of the treaty—(hear,
he:,r)—and yet out of this condition of affairs -out of this
almost unprecedented blunder of our own plenipotentiary,
an excitement is got up, so that the people of Engiand,
who in the spring or the summer expected they were going
to war about Italy, now thought theyi were going to war
again with Russia; and yet we are told this was enjoying
the blessings of peace. In this way the spring, the summer,
and the autumn had been occupied. A greatlidunde
made by the chief head of our diplomacy himself. (Hear.)
throw)
It is not made by any poor devil whomioniv eprr,oapne
improperly
ysapyr promoted atecdtabdywaiftohromuterinmstruscttfonYs°u,uoo(ri hw can
had
been
kept
iu his position out of good feeling. Yoinuideitye'rrained that the
chief of our dionaatists—one of the principal Ministers
se
of the Queen—one of the leading membersaurethat which you are of the ''abinet,
should go to Paris in order to
determined to achieve. this •
He commits that awful mistake ;
but it is not discovered,e
and he returns to country, and
with laurels. The blunder is at length discovered
ins
crownedthemo
most natural way possible ; but instead of our turn-
ing round and saying—" Let us understand each other ;
give us that which is the spirit of the agreement," in the
most conciliatory manner ; instead of that, every means
are used to lash up the passions of the people of England.
You would suppose that instead of one of the Ministers
making a great blunder, our late foe and present ally were
trying to deprive us of the fruits of our victories. The
noble lord (Viscount Palmerston) goes down himself to the
groat capital of industry and peace, amongst many of the
most eminent members of the Peace Society—the absence
of one of whose members (Mr. Bright) in this house I sin-
cerely deplore--(hear)—and the noble lord excites them to
that pitch of enthusiasm, that even the Peace Society half
draws its sword ; and he then says, " see what a people I
have to govern—backed by their opinion, I am resolved
that I will have this treaty executed." (Hear, hear.)
If it had been executed, we should have lost everything
for which wo were struggling.
(Laughter.) The noble
lord excited the
passions of the people until the whole
of the country were prepared to go to war with Russia
again ; and you might have had an income tax of 20 per
cent.—and why? Because Lord Clarendon made that
blunder. (Laughter.) Now, see in what an absurd posi-
tion a man must be placed who is wrong. What was the
end of all this blundering? Understand that from the
first Russia was never in a position to struggle. Russia
would never have consented to a peace if she had not been
in that state which rendered the continuance of the straggle
impossible. The noble lord tells the people of Manchester
to have confidence in him, and he uses all those arts of ex-
citement of which he is a greater master than any Minister
since the days of Lord Bolingbroke, He will have the,
treaty, and there shall be no conference. At last it oozes
, because he had
were
held, and they
out that there are to be conferences at Paris ' • but not to
be presided over by the Minister France
been perfidious. Well, conferencesterof France. (Laughter.)
were presided over by the Mionly
in-
stead of that they were
obliged to meet and agree that it
The conference was to ne nisa
matter of form; but
was not the desire nor the wish of the English Minister
so
expressed.
Russia said, " We
that the treaty
• August, when the difficulty was
offered you a conference in n
shoild be
first discovered, and before it was known to the world. As
OU, it could only be rearranged by
conference ;" and
says, " Let us have compensation
for giving up Bolgrad.
the treaty was against .y
in
'ow, if Bolgrad did not belong
to Russia, why give "
Russia any compensation ? Althougii
summer, and autumn, you
(Hear.) During h
peacto,owseparrioegnot rea,eing the fruits of ileac .
but difficulties in your foreign affors.
in a period of
have had nothing
All those
difficulties were created b 1 her Majesty's Minis-
ters' who have extricated us somehow or other from them ;
and because they have done so they consider they are en-
titled to our confidence, as the only men who understand
how to manage foreign politics. But eight months have

thus been wasted. (Meer, hear.) There was a chance of
yr American difficulty before Parliament was prorogued.
Fortunately Parliament was sitting, and the House
if Commons got hold of that difficulty, and it was
put out of the way. Then we had the Italian difficulty,
then the Russian difficulty, and the whole year was wasted.
However there was still time. with energy, with great
-xertions, and with great ability, for the Government to
have put their house in or ler, and the House of Commons
,eera prepared and desirous ta reap the fruits of the late
atnaggle and to enjoy the blessings of peace. But no sooner
was Bolgrad safely in the possession of the noble lord, no
sooner was the Isle of Serpents relieved from the presence
of the few unfortunate Russian riflemen who were on it,
than there was another difficulty, and one of a most menac-
ing character. A German prince, at the head of a great
only, is going-to-invade neutral Switzerland. The Em-
rieror of France, although his motto on ascending the throne
vas, " the empire is peace," ant that he had maintained
hat principle throughout, had a right, under such circum-
lances, to march a French army to the Rhine. Here was
difficulty to which all the others seemed of inferior im-
portance. Well, what were the Swiss doing? I believe
that originally a more simple difficulty never existed, or
one that _could be more easily ariansed. What was the
conduct of Prussia? The King believed that his honour
was grievously offended, and every men is the best judge
of his own honour. What rrid he do under the circum-
st-mces? He did what every private gentleman does in a
similar case. Instead of taking a hostile or bullying posi-
tion the King puts his affairs in the hands of a friend,
and the friend he solicits is one who be believes, from his
character and position, will have great influence with the
swiss people. That appeal I highly approve of, and for
that course I think the King of Prussia is entitled to the
respect and esteem of society. The Emperor of the French
responded to the appeal in a spirit worthy of the occasion,
and was entirely successful. Instead of seizing the oppor-
tunity, and permitting the King of Prussia to invade Swit-
zerland, the Emperor of the Freech used all the influence he
popsessed to terminate the dissension, and did it in a way
which vindicated the honour of the King of Prussia and
removed the difficulty in the political system of Europe.
The circumstances happening at a dead time of the year the
quiestion of Neuchatel would never have become a great
public question had it not been for the Government of the
noble lord. From the moment the Swiss authorities con-
sented to adopt the course recommended by Fiance, the
English authorities counselled a different course. They
said, this is not a case in which you can take a conciliatory.
course. The eyes of Europe are upon you, and you have a
ereat duty to perform. The King of Prussia is taking a
course which Europe cannot approve of or view without dis-
satisfaction. Reject his proposals and raise your standard,
round which all Europe can assemble. The Swiss authori-
ties followed that friendly and conciliatory advice, and all
Europe was convulsed. We wire on the eve of seeing an
army of perhaps 100,000 men in vatting Switzerland in con-
sequence of the conduct of the English Government, and it
might have led to consequences with regard to France which
the house could easily foresee. But fortunately, although
the Swi,s are celebrated for patriotism, they are equally
remarkable for prudence ; and, when we come to the last
moment—before the first gun is fired—the prudent feelings
of the Swiss prevail, and they are determined to ascertain
from the Government of the noble lord what is the nature
of the assistance upon which they can rely. They had
perhaps heard of the Neapolitan assassinations, the Sicilian
insurrection, and they had perhaps heard of the Paris pro-
tocols, and of speeches made in the House of Commons,
sympathising with free nations and with the liberal cause.
They therefore naturally said—what are you going to do
for us, now that a moment of trial is about to commence?
We do not expect you to send her Majesty's Guards to
Basle, as you did to Gallipoli, but there are other means of
assisting us besides sending troops. We are not very rich;
we are a republican people, and, if you leave us alone, sa-
tisfied with very little ; but England is very rich. Eminent
as your people are for their valour, they are still more ce-
lebrated for their wealth. You have at this moment ex-
traordinary resources at command ; gelden galleons from
Australia crowd your ports, and you have also the advan-
tage of a war taxation at a time of peace. (Laughter.)
Let a few et Limbs fall from the rich man's table. (A. laugh.)
The n ble lard was the. friend and pupil of Canning, and be
had au admirable councillor and friend on the occasion. I
give you sixpence, saiu the noble lord • I—, and the
house knows the rest. (Laughter.) We live in the age of
telegraphs. The Swiss telegraphed to Paris and accepted
the terms offered them by the Emperor ; there was thus of
end of the Swiss difficulty, and that was our Christmas-
box. (Laughter.) The whole year during which we had
enjoyed those blessings which have been enumerated, and
which fully justified the exhibition of fireworks in the parks
—during the whole year of peace we have had nothing but
rumours of war, and a conviction on the part of the people
of this country that we were on the verge of great struggles
in Italy, on the Danube, and on the Rhine, and that those
scenes where the utmost human valour and skill were dis-
played were on the point of being renewed. Under such
circums:,ances it was very natural to hear it said, what was
education, or what were secondary punishments, compared
with the struggles which were impending, and the slaugh-
ter which might follow. During these moments of tran-
quillity in Europe, which a wise Government would have
seized to develop the commerce and assist the energies of a
nation —in the midst of circumstances which held out a
promise of peace such as has never been exceeded in the
present century, at such a time as that the energetic, com-
mercial, and over-taxed people of England, diverted from
their own affairs, and distracted by the rumours which pre-
vailed, are reconciled to this condition, and actually became
enthusiastic admirers of the noble lord (A. laugh.) Because
iu the midst of these dangers, and in the perilous state of
Europe, the noble lord was the man who could save them.
It made one admire the tact, and skill, and daring of the
noble lord, to see him foster these difficulties upto a certain
point, and still avoid explosion. He believed thenoble lord
understood Europe well. had he been sent to Paris to nego-
tiate the treaty, he would not have fallen into the Bolgrad
blunder, for he had had more official intercourse with
Europe than any man living. So adroitly had he managed
all these difficulties, that he converted them to his OW°
Praise, and actually made them the basis of a claim to the
gratitude, and au appeal to the people of England, "In
Parliament," says the noble lord, they may corns and ask
me what lam 'going to do about Parliamentary reform ;
shall refer them to a late noble colleague of mine on that
subject." (Great laughter.) They will get up a question
about Administrative reform. The noble lord will answer
them, as Richard 11. answered Wat Tyler, " What do you
want? lam an Administrative reformer." The noble lord
haveersian twhaer.gretautetsatrediwffieccuoltmye
will have no difficulty in admitting what we desire, but we
shall
duty of the Hone of Commons to initnqo
But, unfortunately, Canton blazes, and we are committed to
the e
t,o)
hfr
ethbeusret deferring
h e difficulties
stitihe that
tni sothl
considerationiaet upon
pe anor
of our
utihraetwl
h extorting
(a)what
is
sar yt
tzroeetsrutehlat...
effect
sous for these perpetually resulting difficulties ? The
necessity
alea
people.i tid underom es t ef
For myself,
cannot understand why we should go to war with Persia--
that vast, weak empire, which stands between us and another
European Power, which is predoMinant in that part of Asia,
end which we cannot destroy without finding ourselves face
to face with our late antagonist, Russia. Indeed I believe it
is Russia in the disguise of a Persian, with a long, black Per-
sian cip on, that we are now at war with—our late invete-
rate, inexhaustible foe, whom we so entirely destroyed and
baffled in the achievement on the Black Sea, and who did not
attempt to conceal his exhaustion. As to that exhausted foe,
we now find all at once that he is powerful and possessed of
treasures unknown, ou the side of Persia. I remember the
invasion of Affghan. (Hear, hear.) I took a part in the
debates of that time, and I remember with great familiarity
the documents which were laid on our table on that oc-
casion. All that we have heard about the papers now Is
from the mover or the Address, but in the Royal Speech r
find no promise of then,. If we are favoured with the
Papers connected with this war, I shall examine them
with considerable suspicion and care, and if I see that
certain papers are not produced which ought to be produced,
I will move that they be referred to a select committee, to
take evidence on those points which ought to be elucidated.
If it shall turn out, as I believe it will turn oat, that Russia is
more anxious for peace between Persia and England than
England is for war between herself an.i Persia—if it turn out
that Russia has spared no efforts to bring about peace, and
has even counselled Persia to surrender that great and long'
coveted prize, the city of Herat, I shall then be tempted to
think that it is your policy and expediency to have that third
campaign in Persia which was not prosecuted in the Crimea,
and which, on that account, I have often heard deplored bi
the pupils of the noble lord's school, If that be the case, I
would have you consider the position in which the noble lord
will place this country, and the effect such a proceeding ors
his part may have upon the commerce and taxation of this
country, and the posit.on which it will occupy in Europe.
From what I see, I think it possible that the Persian difficult/
will be settled ; but it will be settled by the agency of that
very Power against which every means has been taken
throughout to convey a false impression • but it will be found
that Russia was the friend of peace, ratherwar. The Chinese difficulty remains, rather than the cause et
but upon it I will make
but one observation. The question of China appears'to me t°
be iu the same catalogue with Persia. You cannot avoid the
conviction that what has taken place in China has not beet'
the consequence of the alleged pretexts laid before us ; it le
the result of what has been received from home—and that,
too, from home some time ago. If that be so, is it not the
duty of the house to consider whether there be any means
of controlling the system which is being pursued, and
which is fraught with so much danger to the country
Are we to be always in difficulties in our foreign relations?
There is a great complaint at the present moment of the
burthens of taxation; and one particular tax which ie
being levied at present, and that peculiar tax is intimately'
connected with the subject to which I have been calling the
attention of the house. Ido not wonder that the people
should object to a war taxation in the time of peace : but I
am told that it is necessary to submit because our foreign
relations are in a state of Bush extreme difficulty and embar-
rassment. I answer, that those are the very circumstances
under which to make an abatement from our present taxa-
tion, for in a time of peace, if a sacrifice were necessary to
free us from the consequences of an old struggle, although
that struggle had been carried on in a spirit of extravagance,
I should in that case move for a financial committee—l should
m
have explanatory accounts submitted to that financial corn"
ittee—l should have that extravagance and lavished misuse
of the public funds exposed—l should consider what it is that
the public wants, and then take the course which circura"
stances justified. But when I find a time of pease conterue
poraneous with a state of semi-war, with the fitting out of
expeditions and the sending of fleets to different quarters of
the globe, then I am obliged to consider whether this war
taxation is root required for circumstances very different front
those of a time of peace. I think we ought to look into the
consequences of the blunder made by Lord Clarendon when
fleets were, sent to the Black Sea; it could be easily esti;
mated, and it would be very instructive to see in a conyenio
form what the consequences were of a want of geography o'
the part of a Secretary of State. (Laughter.) My own opi-
nion is, that the time is arrived when it would be well
prevent, curb, and control the power of the Minister who 31,
pursuing a policy such as I have sketched to-night, and Inc.
as I believe to be very dangerous to the interests of tb',
country. But we have a still graver question to consider;
touching the eight or nine millions which the Governinel'
are new levying, for there is an agitation throughout thi,
country in which
points have been raised of a grave and ee.
during importance. They are questioning the very nattre.
of the tax; the principles on which it is founded; the co
nf
sequences upon our interests and property of this speciosa%
taxation ; and the exemptions, if any, and to what degarl°o
they ought to be made in levying this tax. These are grave
questions, which the right hon. member for the Univere.,lo
of Canabri 'ge introducel his act in 1853 in order to settle
for ever. That was no insulated financial measure, but '4
important part of the financial scheme which he then breour,
forward. There were at that time too parties in the bons
each sufficiently powerful to have greatly embarrassed first
tear, and both united, to have defeated him, In t?!'etiao
pace, there were those who thought there was no serious
solution of the difference between capitalised and pl'e.ialfese.
incomes. No doubt that opposition was founded in tt by
ings of human nature. Opposition, however, was silenced
.1
the explanations afforded by the right hon. gentleman, aThe
consider that a compact was entered into. (Ghteer
dht
supporters of that opinion were the supporters o_f theas'c't,..
hon, gentleman on that occasion, and, as far as ! of the
cerned, I offered as little opposition to the proposition
mother
is also
right hon, gentleman as possible. But there

party in this house, a very poweeul party, representing very
different interests, a party whose interests and whose honour
aught to be very clear to the House of Commons. By that
proposition they were placed in a very difficult Position, for
4 part of the scheme of the right hon. gentleman was the im-
position of a succession duty on real property. (Rear.) I
wish to state the case fairly to the right hon. gentleman the
Member for Oxford University. Ido not wish to have a dis-
elusion upon the merits and dements of the question now. I
,ill admit that the right hon. gentleman brought the matter
forward fairly, and was quite ready to defend the measure;
but allow me to observe that the position of the Minister of
the day to those on whomthe tax was imposed was intimately
connected with the settlement of the income tax. (Rear.)
That succession duty was greatly opposed in this house; some
of the propoSitions connected with it were rejected, some
Were carried by narrow majorities, but ultimately the measure
Was carrierby the votes of those who supported it, on the
- faith of the right hon. gentleman's promise that the income
taz imposed in 1853 should cease in 1860; that was the consi-
deration upon which they had supported the concession. N iw
if the plans ofthe right hon. gentleman had not been disturbed
by war two years ago, we should havd been paying a reduced
is ; but owing to that circumstance, those interested
ult real property had not enjoyed the benefit of the reduced
reaaaesement. Let it be remembered therefore that holders of
al property were being taxed to the amount of two millions
"-Year without receiving that equivalent to which they had a
right. When you disturb the settlement of 1853, observe
What a host of variotis and embarrassing questions in finance
You will raise. You will have the question of how you are to
deal with precarious and settled incomes ; and you will have
to deal with the case where entire exemption is claimed--a
ease which I formerly attempted to settle ; and you will have
e loud and bitter complaint against the burden of taxation
upon the holders of: real property, who, in addition to that
burden, have imposed up ,n them a succession duty. (Hear,
heat) You will thus have a series of questions which will
embarrass any Minister—the solution of which you will find
difficalt, if not impossible. (Cheers.) I think that the pro-
PertY and income tax places within the reach of the Govern-
ment those great resources which it possesses, and which, I
think, are in some degree the cause of the dangerous policy
Which they pursue ; resources applied in a way not to be de-
fended, and which I consider ought not to be 'granted.
(Hear.) I node' steed from the declarations of those officially
connected with her Majesty's Government, some in high
office, some in office not sufficiently high—(a laugh)—that it
is not the intention'of the Government to insist on levying
the whole of the revenue at present derivable from this
branch of revenue ;' but I think that upon that subject there
ought to be no ddubt. (Hear, hear.) I highly disapprove
of the present aptation of the public mind on the subject of
the income tax being allowed to continue. I highly object
to the question being postponed. I think it impolitic that
we should be called upon to wait a month, or perhaps
two months, before her Majesty's Ministers lay before us
their financial statement. Precedents are not wanting in
our history for moving the house at an early period of
the session on subjects of finance, and it is a proper a id
constitutional course. The committee of supply always
precedes that of ways and means, and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer makes ip demands on the House of Commons
according to
the wants and requirements of the country.
Wear, hear.) But, sir, I protest, for my part, that we are
not placed in a position readily to stop the supplies if we
wait for the financial statement. (Hear, hear,) It is, sir,
II; ray opinion, of the utmost importance, in the present state
of the Public mind, that we should come to an early decision
upon this subject., (Heir, hear.) It is due to the country,
it is due to ourselves, and I think it is still more due to the
Allaistry. (Cheers.) Let the Ministry know what the opi-
nion of the country is, and then they will know how to shape
their course, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer can devise
the means necessary for the public necessities, (Cheers.) I
Understand that some notice has been given by some hon.
gentleman on this subject. I think the matter a most im-
Portant one, and that it should be brought forward by some
(°lle who speaks the opinion of a large party in this house.
Cheers.) I think that the question ought to be brought for-
Ward early, though I think it would be an inworthy and au
Misatisfactory mode of dealing with it, to take it up in the
Way of moving an amendment to the Address. I think an
aPPortunity for its discussion ought to be given by her Ma-
jesty's Ministers, I should be perfectly willing if some other
n°l], gentleman who sits near me would have undertaken the
task; but, as it has been thought fit that I should take upon
lue the duty I shall seek the opinion of the house upon the
subject, and, I shall move for a committee of the whole house
eketo consider resolutions, of which I do not bind myself now
tate the exact words, but which will be to the following
ct --To express the opinion of this house that taxes which
ha vs been levied' in time of war, for the purpose of carrying
that " r, shall only be levied for a particular period ; and
t it is the ' opinion of • this house that the settle-
-1553 shall, in spirit, be adhered to. I can-
not but observe; sir, that if these resolutions be carried
We shall effect some advantageous changes in the financial
arrangements of the country, and shall give a beneficial
impetus to its interests. (Hear, hear.) Sir, I think it is 1
telt for Inc to express my opinion, that it is not advisable
that England should become a great tanmilitary
ns nation. (e are prepared to vote all ways d mea that are)
nece,
17 to support an effective army, but I am not in favour of
a n•lf military s stem. I am not afraid of expressing the
1 old-fashioned op nion, that a large standing army is opposed
to the liberties o a State. (Cheers.) I know that we must
have-troops, and we have an army of which, I think, every
nun has reason to be proud. I wish to see that army main-
tained in full efficiency. and I would have the militia placed
en a more effective footing. (Cheers.) It is objected that a
standing army cannot be dangerous in these days because it
is under the control of Parliament, but I prefer seeing the
array under the control of her Majesty than under the diree-
tion of the Parliament of England. There is danger in an
army whether disciplined or undisciplined. If undisciplined
it will beCome abandoned in its habits ;. if disciplined, it may
become an instrument for the oppression of the State. (Hear,
hear.) I care no.: what may be the form of government—
whether Royal, Imperial, or Republican. Wherever there
are 500,000 men in a State, highly disciplined, let a man
have authority over them, and that man is dictator. I hope
then, sir, that neither the glory of the late war, nor that of
ether wars in which we have been engaged—perhaps more
glorious—will lead the people of this country to sanction
treat military establishments. (Cheers,) I entertain the
conviction that the more you reduce the burdens of the peo-
ple, the greater will be the resources that you find placed at
your disposal. I.shall not on the present occasion ask the
house to express. their opinion on the topic to which these
resolutions refer, but shall give my support to the humble
Address to our gracious Queen. (The right hon. gentleman
sat down amid loud cheering.)

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that if the
advice of the right hon. gentleman opposite (Ur. Disraeli)
had been followed in the composition of the gracious Speech

which has been read to the house, and if it contained a

paragraph recommending the house to cuter upon a remis-

lion of taxation, and an adjustment of the burdens of the
State to the state •f peace which we had now happily reached,

he (the Chancellor of the Exchecuer) feared they should have
been told that such a general assurance was of no rain° ; that

they might have assumed it as a matter of course. It had not

been usual to make such specific statements as the right hon

gentleman desired in Speeches from the Throne. It had been
left to the discretion of the house when the estimat,?s had
been framed, with due regard to public necessities, to decide
en the ways and means necessary. He would confine himself
to the observations of the right hon. gentleman on the subject
of the income-tax, without following him in his wide digres-
sion into European politics. (Hear, hear.) He protested
against hon. members imputing to the Government such in-
tentions as had been adverted to by the preceding speaker.
They certainly had no design to establish a standing army,
dangerous to the liberties of the people. He must defer en-
tering into the details on the snbjeet of the army and navy
until the period when the question would come before the
house in the way of regular business, when it would be his
duty to make the statement for the coming year. He would,
however, remind the house that heavy expenses had been en-
tailed by the necessity of keeping up armaments after the
War was over. Last session the amount of taxation had been
axed by the house after mature deliberation. It was his
anxious wish to lay the financial statement of the ensuing
Year before the house at the earliest possible opportunity the
business of the house would permit. (Hear.) He believed on
some rare occasions the annual budget was stated on going
Into a committee of supply, but such was not the usual prac-
tice. The usual practice was to allow some progress to he
made in committee of supply, and to make the financial state-
ment in a committee of ways and means after the great esti-
mates had been laid before the house. His into tion was to
take the , earliest oppotkunity after the army and navy
estimates-toad been submitted to examination by the
house, to have made the annual financial statement to have
enabled
the house to judge of the probable expenditure of
the coming year, and also of the . with which
Government proposed toti, meet that expenditure. He trusted
that the nurse which
taking, before the remarkes of
Government had resolved upon
the right hon. gentleman the
member for, Buckinghatsh, l',:iiamtert be satisfactory to the
house ; and at all events
y tehr motion might be sub-
mitted for their consideration b
we right bon, gentleman,
or by any one else, that the house
of oantlad not come to any
definite resolution on the subject
thsetmfiated expendi-
until they had heard what might be the ax now in existence
pchut.eancial plans
ture of the ensuing year, and what were
of the Gover iment in order to meet that ex ',tare.
After a pause, no one rising,
The SPEAKER rose to put the Address, but had not got
through the first paragraph when
Mr. GLADSTONE rose in a very thin, house and thus spoke
—He confessed his reluctance to rise'at that moment. When
his right hon. friend had left his seat to follow what he must
call the comprehensive and remarkable speech of right hon,
gentleman, he did not suppose but that they would hear from
a Minister of the Crown sonic notice or some reply to those
very grave matters with which the earlier portion of that
speech was charged. (Hear.) It appeared to him inconsis_
tent with the respect duo to the house and to the country
that when a member of the house, and especially a member
who was supposed to speak the sentiments of many other
members, had, in debate upon the Address, questioned the
foreign policy of the Government in terms so grieve as had
been that night employed, that the Government should not
Vouchsafe one word of notice to these charges. He was not
aware when he entered the house of the nature of the discus-
sion upon which the right hon. gentleman was about to en-
ter, He did presume—and it was an act of presumption
on his .part—to catch the Speaker's eye imme•sliately
after the hon, gentleman, the seconder of the Address,
sat down ; and he did so upon so peculiar ground that he
..,,.. well knew that important considerations of finance were
at this moment agitating the mind of the country—
(ti,eTtrio'n hear)—which commanded the interest and at
of the members of cipate the right hon.gentleman
house, and he wished to anti-
. quer— knowing
that
th the Chancellor of the Exche -
•to be definite and r ore was one person especially bound
-,that man was the prompt in explaining his views, and that
of the p siti'dual
• consequence who now addressed them, in
rangement of 1853. ° (II" he occupied at the financial ar-
bound by ties of Public eart hear,)
duty, no less than by those of per-
restingHe considered he was
sonal honour, not to lose a
with the recognition he felthibeorneant in
acquainting the house
so
far
as
hem_ to snake of any obligations
• on him
il. House of Commons, and this waes Could
in
hon. justice do so in the
the reason why ht rose iu
perior nitlernau the member for
competition with the right
Buckinghamshire. At a
the Speech from the
Throne, almost from the first line two 'et,;:
nhtien to have adverted
' with our foreign policy, it was his inte e last, was occupied
gentleman, in the
to tome of these topic-, ; but the right
' • exercise of his privilege as a member entered upon a
ilLoneY of the Go-
must very wide field—had questioned the forei
vernmeut root and branch, and had niadgen
er
se
d which
them he
to
his regret that
must say, the honour of the Governmenptreerse'sqlng.i
notice and to reply to; and he must e.
yenatssailed.
'' • his right hon, friend the Chancellor of the
lehequer,
responsible advisor of the Crown, had omitted to defend thea
Government where it had been most formidabnil
Some of the allegations made against the Govern by the
right hon. gentleman were quite new to him. If he
stood the right hon. gentleman rightly he said that theurn cil
e w
SOM. instrument or compact by 'dick unknown to the Par'