The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-24 00:00:00

with the object of the war, with its origin, and finally
who were the parties that were to pay its expenses. Ile
fuund from the papers of that day that no less a person
than the Chairman of the East India Company had
plainly intimated to the Court of Proprietors that be
looked to the Government to pay the expenses of the
invasion of Afghanistan. It was to be expected that
when the administration of Indian affairs was removed

from Leadenhall•street to Downing-street Indian wars
11 would be carried on for European purposes ; but it might •
be said that wars were carried on for European objects ! •
during the administration of Lord Wellesley, when that
series of brilliant achievements took place which consoli-
dated the Indian empire. But at that time England Wes .
at war with France, and France made war in
India ; but in the present instance England ...,:'
was at war, and had no European adversary• se..4y
W ith regard to the origin of the war, it was strange that ,frani
the late Government, who were so chary of imparting need!
information to the country, should have expressed them- ---;0-01
selves so openly upon this subject. With regard to what
!i0 ail!
all parties were agreed, it was not necessary to make any ,no
,e
explanation. But he supposed that in. announcing the ese!
I success of Cauznee, Right lion. Gentlemen opposite could s eilet
I not refrain from explaining the causes of taking this .:stitsei
• step. And ' t_e those Members who made this explanation 44
i were entitled, from their position in the late Government •i•4'''. 'end
• in relation to India, to guide the opinions of the House .. neJe
'.F Commons. The Right Ilon. Gentleman the Meinber e• Poiled
for Nottingham, then President of the Board of Control, "t ~,o6
•
on the occasion when the w4ll`, anks cf the House were voted '1 Of
I to Sir John Keane, an occasion when there was a prelisni- 0
! nary understanding that, .no allusion whatever was to be
.I.inece°
made relative to the policy of the war—the Right Him- e: ;01.1
Gentlornam. at the conclusion of his speech, lost in the
~. t stP'
excitement of the moment,. and intoxicated with thee,' Al
trinutph—the Right Hon, Gentleman asked permission of 1010
the House to deviate from the general understanding, no of,
and to be permitted to congratulate the House en. thol9 v
i great result obtained. The great result was, of course -, ,Eta
I 1 the great cause which originally impelled it, What Was `,,0 b6';
that congratulation of the Eight Hon. Gentleman? He 'oe er3l
I told them that the consequences of that great success' e
Isti
were, that we were no longer in danger of having e ei0973
war' declared by. Burmah—that we were in no!"Anitti
danger of . an invasion of Nepaul—that danger ',,, 09;
a hich had threatened the tranquillity of Ilindoostan
The House would, in the first place, be somewhat stir- ez, n
prised when they recollected that the invasion of the • 09",
South Eastern border of the empire was an invasion of :„,„ •7",
the country that lies to the North Western district.-- -...en,
I(Laughter.) The tyrant of Burmah menaced India, and•s'ossi
the Indian Government ordered an army immediately to .:° 0'
invade. Affghanistan. If the .Emperor Napoleon bade
i given as a reason for his invasion of Moscow the insur
rection of Madrid, he would. have given a reason much nre,
more germain to the matter than the reason of the Rightlf,
Hon., Gentleman. The.same objection applied to the se,"e; ail:
cond reason -of the Right lion. Gentleman. The secona,:rees'
reason was the menacing attitude which occasioned hni este
. *anxiety; that was the phrase used by the Indian Gtsserw4:"4
meat, The menacing attitude of Nepaul which eaus:ed±. oiiii
the anxiety_of the Indian Government, had caused.thenn,,,
!to send 50.000 net ii in another direction. If George the' S 1
Second had given as a reason for the battle of Minden_ .1011
that he wished to keep the Highlanders in cheek, ik;sl.s
would have been as good a reason as the Right BO' ~.4,'L
Gentleman's. Could anything be more inconsistent tliatts.o4
for the Minister of England to come forward and say' ri Ai
that India was in a most dangerous position; that the in-seofi
trigues of the native Princes were dangerous and must he`
otiij
baffled ? The Right Honourable Gentleman, followed'eefi
by another Member of the Cabinet, whose splendin't'iseia
1 abilities entitled him to attention on all occasions,',• nea„,
and more particularly on the present occasion, seeing jent,
that he had been a Member of the Council of India.-- '/e
the Right bit. Gentleman apologised for. breaking '',';it,S
through that general understanding of the policy of the';lel)
House; but stimulated, no doubt, by the circumstance °`.,„o to
a hat he, called the glorious triumph at Gliuznce, he, ';:orei
could not help congratulating his Lordship. What did: ;d
the Right Hon Gentleman say ? He came forward, he elf)
said to reiterate ; he assured the House that the repro-
„rod',)sentations which had been made with respect to thei
native States were perfectly correct. He thought that,- efelfe
in order to prevent Nepaul presentpresentinga menacing eat' .47/ •
tude it would be necessary to cross the Indus and invade • el.
Afighenistan. But that was not all. He said he had to ' !
melee a special communication to the House, founded
. upon his oven observation—it might be called private and
confidential, but he. felt bound to impart it to the lions'
There was something particular, he said, in India. There •
was a looking forward to something. A restlessness--0
something founded on the fact that the authority of En g'
land was on the decline ; and a looking forward to sem°
authority to usurp its place. The star of England was
about -setting there. That was the declaration of 6
Minister of the Crown—that was the reason for crossing
the Indus, fee' invading Affghanisten, and for the seizure •
of Ghuznce. Perhaps the Right Hon. Gentleman would
say whether our star had paled since Ghuzin e bad been
re-captured.. They had been told by Burke that their
empire in India was an empire of opinion. 'ant the India • I
of that time was not the India of the present day. Fa' •
_ baps he wished to. convey to the people of this country . ,
an impression that the natives of India obeyed us from "t" ne 'e•
superstitious belief of our superiority in arts and arms.
.49
• But we have, since that time, become more powerful, and '44 :
the people of India more enlightened. He believed that 7ei '
in no country were the elements of our power more 'J'
nicely scanned, or subjected to a more rigid scrutiny as .:eile_i
to how that power was exercised. If their power vvasl"eel,A
founded only on a confidence in the natives in our star'', , OS
if we held India on that tenure alone, he should despair SO ;jt
of holding the country fin• any duration of time. But it -"ft
should be recollected that India was not one nation, but an ~
assembly of different countries, divided from each other 'e%
by -religion, customs, manners, and, wider still, hi -
language. He instanced some of the former reverses of n.
the British arms in India, at Mysore and Bhurtpore',i.„ '
which he contended had not affected British influence in--:i
other parts of the Empire. If ever they lost India, they :-,iio?'
would lose it by a financial convulsion, a condition which!! nti
'such wars as the present were calculated to bring about. • -!!:
Now, they held India first by civil service, the most in; ie
telligent, and the best organised which had ever existed
.-•
• in modern time ; they held India, secondly by her arm)'
one of the most numerous and best disciplined prohal
which had ever existed. The third element of their Se•
tenure was that of law, which they themselves introsluer'',;eo4
in India, by which forty millions of inhabitants sesi°..
were interested in the maintenance of Or 'at oS
rule ; the power that possessed the valley of thee . •
Ganges would always command Hindostan. The fife
"
element in our power was the system, by which not t - • • •
single native Prince could possibly communicate wit 'i •
I any other. There was. in fact, a complete isolation °,
Indian States ; and not merely were the States isolate°9
but there was a segregation of the races, which fa-
voured an important cleMent in our tenure of Indi:',
He could not believe that our Indian empire waa '-
danger ; he could not believe that one, two, or evtli
three defeats would endanger our power. A defeat in
: India would have no more influence upon our Po‘`,..eier
than the defeat of Walcheren or Buenos Ayres. '`b
j did not look to the intrigues of the native Princes with
any fear. Look at the case of the Raja of Sattar''
I who had intrigued with the Portuguese at G ea, and stip,'"
. land for the invasion of India with 30,000 troops. 1•1°
believed the Right Hon. Gentleman was the 00
l''hll.
man in England who believed that statement. '''' •
was a specimen of their intrigues. The Right Hon'
I Gentleman had dethroned him ; the Right Hon. Gen;
tleman , had insulted his ambassadors ; the Rig'''.
I
Honourable Gentleman had treated him ill , --)
manner which Mr. Hastings never equalled.— (U"''
Could anything be more preposterous than the WI ! •
that Portugal should intrigue with with the Rain °L
Sattara; for the purpose of putting him on the throe °
India? Yet that preposterous idea had cost ono of the
most, enlightened of the native Princes his throne. Ili'
Ambassadors had been treated with insult. It vas n,
°t
the intrigues of Asa and Nepaul, which was now rota' I
1 ced to a few mountain tribes, and of the native Prinees'
that our India difficulties were owing, it was to the cool'
1 plicated state of society in the military and civil services'
which we had created in those countries, and whicw
finally we should be unable to raise revenue sufficient 't„
maintain. He knew that formerly there was the greees
-est difficulty in getting the House to pay attention. tev
these subjects. But the House would now pay attentioP este,
to this. The - Income-tax would make them do that...llo se 'jeti,i
(Opposition cheers.) The Income-tax, to quote t, stly
words of Lord Bacon, came home to every man's bos°lA 4 sr)
It would make gentlemen look to the causes which 114 e 'Koff
occasioned so many markets to be disturbed duringottei
,;eittii,'•
last ten years. Up to 1837, the demand for British. I vrae ,0" e -
in the Indian market, had increased one-third. ioa.,,Ari
the Affghan. war, however, the demand had lessenedin, re elt,i 1..
the price of British goods in the Indian market had falle e'. i‘!"!
The drain that these wars had caused in India had lief: nrO;,•!..'
productive of a fall in prices, which bad produced theell'e •.•
most ruinous effects. His firm belief was that the curet
of India consisted in the fact that the currency did no, . • -,
rt present property ; that trade with Afightini's, t!A.
which it had been the object of the mission of Stir be
Burnes to encourage, had been completely sacrificeuntie •
the expedition. The House had a right to inquire 10, j
that mysterious war, for no cause had as yet been assig.ceee •
for it. It was absurd to say that the Affghan Chi' ••,
were in treaty against them; and if they wanted a tt_ts.,
tier against other States what better could they &Zia('
than the one they possessed already, when 030 R s
e u en' - '''t/.,
2,000 miles of unoccupied territory between teel, tee
,'3' /rs 4
any other great State? But the Noble Lord had sale! le - is:
lalec ett in
explanations of Russia were satisfactory on the 54
;1 iiii
Lord PALMERSTON—Assertions. Noble ef4,4
Mr. D'ISRAELI—He was glad to hear the e stile •,`,,osp_H
Lore! say so. It was known the .Noble Lord was "%lir
,';;V" i
to Russia. ' One circumstance had occasioned this he
~:,0 . a
—that was the siege of Herat. He wished, beforenne ;og
sat down, to impress upon the House one point._
I!'.',Lb -e,t, fei4
ten years this country had not been able to contend.inoi 0.
:, ~,i4 nit
what was called its foreign policy ; that policY;34e Ss,"
v. hick our foreign commerce depended. It was sofa fl !;‘, . i
that those who said so much about our foreign come
aces -,,eiefil
should forget our foreign policy. The Noble 1401,6,,Z ses'A
system was one which might be for a moment sucffreeesetellf
which might take Ghuznee, but must eventually ",, or; -:. 040
dered futile. He commenced war by
duties as regarded fbreigu Powers, and 1-,e ternnreant ! so/
war by a violation of their rights. He hoped the ;D:_l/4"0,,,, -
,aO3O ,
lion. Gentleman at present at the head of tier 31aJe'lee ~ Of
4 4
Government, would not follow such a oeuree• nail ~,,,,011
a neglect si_litee .
,114 0
might be our progress in civiiiiatione.- reform as g!.s.n.lie : on,
our euminercial tariff, and multiply our political rigt."-'o.ere • ses les
was quite certain that the days of our authority ore; ',afire.
numbered, and that the date of the decline of tt.,uysettes,legel
pipe might already be ascertained. He had great, r . nes
.i.„ ell, •
sure in seconding the motion of his Hon. Friend.
eeinot,tet!'elo ''
Sir J. C. HOBHOUSE must deny that the atn,„;finee. 0, de il
India were ever neglected in that House front 10",;00 -7i6d
once to them, but from a very proper diffidenceod if e ll
Members respecting their knowledge of thenn
~. pedals
,sit{
they were not discussed more temperately, and suatt_,' tot $l/1
.o.j:fij
knowledge than by the_lion. Gentleman who 1-1_ n J wore * eSo
down, he thought the time of the House would bell, ire , „id „el
than wasted, by entering into such discussionsr,ti:_estee; • • efio'n,
had entered into matters not connected with A f nt
::ti`eb be • 1- 0 md,
loTashia,dresriedfeenrtreodf - ttohesoßnolearpdaerftscoofntbriosl
;contodltleata,"„il.paecure.a,eo °#
him of dethroning the Raja of Sattara, and 'fer—