The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

CHINA-ADJOURNED DEBATE.

The adjourned debate was resumed by
Mr. WARREN who rose and said that, as one of the
representatives of the people, he was anxious to express
his sent ments on the momentous question on which the
verdict of the house was fairly challenged, and in doing
so he should endeavour t 3 display that calm and diTas--
eionati temper which befitted the discussions of a great
deliberate assembly. The motion which had been read
from the chair was now disembarrassed of that second
branch to which the hon. member for Cardigan (Mr. L.
Davies) had referred ; and, consequently, the hon. mem-
ber and all who agreed with him were at liberty to vote
on the general question embodied in the resolution. He
(Mr. Warren) soletnely assured the house that he
utterly disclaimed being to the slightest extent influenced
by party considerations. That mighty mouthpiece of
public opinion, the Thnes newspaper, this morning said
that it happened in the progress of these debates in
both Houses of Parliament that noble lords
and honourable gentlemen came to conclusions
and expressed opinions somehow or other marvellously
in accordance with their political inclinations. That was
not the case with him. (Laughter.) This time last year,
and before be obtained a seat in that house, he publicly
stated that he intended to offer the noble viscount (Pal-
merston) a guarded but generous support while sustain-
ing the immense responsibilities under which he then
laboured. That pledge he had kept. He had never given
a factious vote against the noble lord ; nor would he do
so at this moment. But when he found that her Ma-
jeaty's Government had deliberately identified themselves
with and ratified the serious transactions now under in-
vestigation, it became a matter of infinite consequence
that there should be no mistake as to the judgment of
both Houses of Parliament. In her Majesty's gracious
speech at the commencement of the session the occur-
rences at Canton were thus spoken of :
"Her Majesty commands us to inform you that ants of
violence, insults to the British flag, infraction of treaty
rights committed by the local Chinese authorities at Can-
ton, and a pertinacious refusal of redress have rendered it
necessary for her Majesty's officers in China to have r,..
course to measures of force to obtain satisfaction."
Now, the house and the country had before them in the
ponderous blue books the materials by which to arrive at
a clear decision on the merits of the case. He would not
go so far as the hon. member fur the West Riding, and
say that these documents were garbled, but would assume
that they were fairly put together for the purpose of giv-
ing all the necessary information, and the impression
which they made upon him was that the whole affair of
the Arrow had been a pretext for the purpose of carrying
into effect long cherished designs. If that were so, then
the responsibility of her Majesty's Government became
very serious, for it could not be supposed Sir J. Bowr-
ing would have ventured to say, write, and do what he
had unless he had been perfectly certain that he was
acting with the full concurrence of the Government, and
that what he had done would be approved at home. The
legal part of this question, he contended, had been com-
pletely disposed of by the Luminous and unanswerable
speeches of two noble and learned lords in another place.
Another noble and learned lord, who had spoken there
in defence of the Government, indicated that he had very
considerable misgivings on the legal aspects of the case,
and the Lord Cnief J ustice, who was present at the de-
bate, was completely silent, from which it might be
augured that he had nothing to offer against the argu-
ments of Lord Lyndhurst and Lord St. Leonards. In
1840 we were on the eve of hostilities with China, and a
resolution condemning the conduct of the Government
was moved by the right hon. barb. the member for Cir-
lisle. In the debate on that motion the late Sir R. Peel
used the following language :
" I beg the house to remember that, although no mes-
sage has been sent down to the house it appears from.
the distinct and intelligible declaration of two Ministers of
the Crown that we are on the eve of hostilities with a
country which, in point of population, exceeds that of all
the continental countries of Europe."

The cases•were exactly parallel,e xcept that we were now
actually at war, and both cases showed how just was the
remark of the hon. and learned member for Sheffield, that
the coutrcl of Parliament over the exercise of the preroga-
tive of declaring war was a complete farce. We were
now actually at war, and the question for the House of
Commons to decide was whether we had a just cause of
quarrel. The Government had the assistance of two
eminent lawyers in that house, one skilled in equity
and the other in common law, and he would challenge
them to show that we had either equitable orlegal
grounds of quarrel. The Attorney-General would not
need to be reminded of the maxim of his courts,
" Ile who wants equity must do equity ;" but where
was the equity of our proceedings I (Hear, hear.)
The Solicitor-General was well acquainted with criminal
law, and knew that the question of guilt or innocence
was one essentially and purely of intention. rictus non
facit mum, mai mew sit rea; and the question was, what
was the intention of Sir J. Bowrin2. in dirAnting O.)
proceedings w hich are now the subject of discussion ?
He thought the correspondence indicated most distinctly
that Sir J. Bowring had seized an opportunity to assert
a right for the purpose of saying that it had been vio-
lated, and then exacting a bloody revenge. (Hear.) He
(Mr. Warren )disclaimed all intention of reflecting upon
the naval and military services, and he gave full credit
to the Government and to the noble lord who was at its
head for their generosity in supporting a public servant
who was called upon to discharge a most harassing and
responsible duty in a distant region ; but by ratifying
his acts the Government became responsible for his po-
licy. The house was ignorant of the secret instructions on
which Sir J. Bowring was acting, but they must presume
tie would not have ventured to pursue such a course if
ho bad not relied upon a complete indemnity from 'the
Government. They were sternly and severely scruti.
nising the conduct of the Chinese, as if they were a re-
fined European nation, but he would ask whether the
Chinese bad not reason to charge upon this enlightened
Christian country the guilt of corrupting the morals,
ruining the health, and destroying the eternal happiness
of the Celestial empire ? He wished to extract thisgreat
question from the meshes of mere commercial significance
and importance which some hon. gentlemen sought to
involve it. Commerce was certainly of vast' importance,
but was it to be placed in comparison with the mainte-
nance of public morality and the preservation of the na-
tional character. (Hear, hear.) He had no sympathies
with the peace-at-all-price party, for he thought the
attitude of this country ought to be that described in the
line :

"Lovers of peace, but not afraid of war."

If, however, they endeavoured by war to accomplish a
sinister object he believed they would draw down upon
their heads the retribution of the whole civilised world.
In the language of Shakspere :

" Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just ;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."

The question was to which of these categories they must
refer the transaction now under discussion, and, in his
opinion, the papers upon the table failed to establish any
satisfactory justification for the violent measures resorted
to at Canton. He was ready to support her Majesty's
authority, so far as it was wielded by the Government,
whenever it was exercised honestly and advantageously
to the country, but, as in the present case he could not
come to that conclusion, he felt it his duty to vote for the
resolution of the hon. me.ober for the West Riding.
The LORD-ADVOCATE would endeavour to state as
briefly and charly as he could the grounds upon which
he thought the motion ought not to receive the sanction
of the house. The sentiments so strongly expressed last
night by hon. gentlemen who supported the resolution at
all events commended themselves to every generous
mind, and he was not surprised that they bad produced
considerable effect upon the house. Although he had
himself been carried away, to some extent, as the tide
of eloquence rolled on, he felt that they had travelled
Ptoeai°ets with
a great i
somewhat too rapidly over difficult and dangerous
ground. It was quite true that the topics upon which
heard so much last night were most important in
they
the considerationnatio
n
respectthisn due ure.
quity, its civilisation, and its enormous population—the
regard which ought to be entertained by a strong Power
towards one of comparative weakness--the prevention of
mischievous intermeddling which might plunge this
Country into war without sufficient reason—the faith of
treaties—the maintenance of the great principles
international law and justice all these were topics
deserving careful consideration. There was, however,
another side to the picture. They must not
con-
sider the question of individual justice toomit to
been entrusted with great authority ina those
d who had
the world. They ought to be careful how theydistant part
ed
of
men who were not only absent, but who notcdonemt
he
means or the opportunityof defending a
themselves. Great
consideration was due to a representative of this country
who was obliged to act in serious emergencies .without
the possibility of receiving instructions from the borne
Government. (Hear.) Much independence of action
was necessarily entrusted to plenipotentiaries, and so
thug as they WOO not proved to have done wrong it was
the du y of the Government and the country to supiort
tl- ern. (near.) Although it was 4 rmostt
in unfortunate,,,a r with
circumstance that they sheubt be_i:.vrdt4t;etyl to those who
Cuina, they ought not to negltct th 1
were entrusted to their protectron. lie must wars hon.
s
t.c7ithis nature, if they did
n .t
gentlemen that, in diseu-sion
were
accurately dcalieg
make sure that theyas,aid sa,d done in that house
with the facts,
;wiiiiitywto the national interests which it
might occasion ''''" r" remedy. (Hear, hear.)
cv, uhi be impossitte to Re was
the aub.xim quoted by the noble member
ready to acici't
r. don—" Let us be just, and fear
not"
for the City of -.-" Jo .dnotspeak
—(cheero--- .
hut he . i
was tb lotofpublic in •
divides'', for it e servants time
country that they must qoreetitnes submit to injustice ;
but Mille • • ace to indiv4:uels In such circumstances wag,
nevertheless, a national calamity. It often happened that
indi,iduals suffered severely from discussions in that
house in c,in_equence of imperfect information, and that
through them the public service suffered also. On this
point he would make no further observations, but would
proceed to call,the attention of the house to the more
immediate question before it. There were two questions
before the house—one was whether the proceedings o
Sir J. B iwrinl: and his coadjutors were according to in
ternaticLal law ; the otter was whether, suppol,itg they