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

• some trumpery statemen.ts taken from newspapen, ads-
ing also that he believed diem. He was ready to defend
the conduct of the Indigo Government
; and if the
charges he had brought agahast Lord Auckland could be
substantiated, as he was sure LheY could not, that Noble
Lord was deserving of the seii.erest punishment wh.;ch
Parliament or the country coult i inflict. He charged
‘he people of India
t
him with aggression and mjustie '.• He charged hint',:
moreover, with issuing a manifesto
and to the people of Europe, which w
...\s put forward in
order to mislead.—(Hear, hear, from Lord John Russell.)
He begged leave to tell the HO4l. Gentlenvm that that
was mot the case. The Governor-General was as inca-
pable of setting his hand to a document, which was put
forward for the sake of misleading on any point:, espe •
cially on a point of such importance as that to yvhic h the
Hon. Gentleman alluded, as any public man in ,Ea rope.
—(Hear, hear.) Those were charges which no+ Hon.
Member of Parliament should make lightly; they 'were
charges which no Member had a right to make, UM: ass
he could bring such proof as would carry conviction wit h
it to any and every impartial mind. He contended um:,
that document, which had been so characterise& far fronts
being intended to mislead, stated nothing but what was;
true; and that had the Governor-General of India wished,
by anything like exaggeration, or by anything like xen-
plification, to justify his proceedings, he would lurve
issued a doCument of a very different character from thaw
which he had issued in 1838. He felt bound to say thus
much in defence of the late Governor-General—a man,
he would take the liberty of saying, let his successor he
whom lie might, who would not be surpassed in the excel-
lence of his administration.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon.
Gentleman said, that in the expedition to Affghanistatt
a fault was committed which any boy at Sandhurst would
have been able to avoid. That was a very new disco-
very. What was said by the Duke of Wellington in the
House of Lords, when speaking of the mode in which
the operations had been carried on ? The Duke of
Wellington passed the highest eulogium upon the
mode in which those operations had been conducted,
and not only upon the mode in which .the operations
were conducted, but upon the preparations which were
made for the whole of the campaign; and the Duke of
Wellington took the opportunity of declaring that he
formed that opinion not only from public documents, but
from private sources with which he was conversant.—
(Hear, hear.) Now he must call the attention of the
House to the time at which these charges were made.—
(Ikar, hear, from Lord John Russell:) He spoke ott
that occasion under the greatest possible disadvantage—
the disadvantage which arose from the statement of the
two HOll. Gentlemen opposite, that- 'there was no diffe-
rence of opinion as to the policy which had dictated the
expedition and the disasters by which it had been at--
tended. He deplored those disasters as much as any
man.—(Hear, hear.) He had the good fortune to watch
their great services, and he bad hoped to see them arrive
at the highest point of their profession—an honour and
an ornament to the country.—(Hear, hear.) It was ne-
cessary that the House should judge why this accusation
was made now, when there were other opportunities of
making it. There was a despatch of Lord Auckland's so
far back as 1838, and the subject of an army being sent
to the west of the Indus was alluded to ' • and.
so far from being made an object of attack, that
the Duke of Wellington only said he looked upon it with
the greatest anxiety: Why,ao be sure ; but if the ob-
ject was one of such a heinous nature as was represented.
it was the duty of individuals to bring it under the con-
sideration of either House of Parliament. Again, on Marcia
8, when some papers were asked for, he said that an aug-
mentation was required in the Indian army, in order that
no person might be taken by surprise. , Again, in the
Queen's speech in 1840, the subject was distinctly alluded
to, and it was scarcely made the object of remark in the
other House of Parliament. In the House of Commons
the Right Hon. Gentleman had said he should like to see
the papers—a very wise and proper observation, but cer-
tainly not a condemnation ; and oathat occasion, in nei-

ther House of Parliament, had there-been one word ut-
tered in condemnation of the war. There had been af-
terwards another opportunity. He (Sir J. Hobhouse)
had moved a vote of thanks to the Governor-General and
to the General commanding in chief; and the officers of

ie army of the Indus. Un that occasion not one single
word had been said condemnatory of the policy of the
war. The Hon. Gentleman had, as regarded his (Sir J.
Hobhouse's) speech on that occasion, misrepresented him.
He (Sir John Hobhouse) had said, and in so saying he
merely repeated the opinion of Lord Auckland, that our
success in Affghanistan was calculated to produce a great
moral effect in Asia and in India. He had never said,
as the Hon. Gentleman had represented, that it would
produce a great moral effect in Europe. He had said it
would produce a great moral effect in Asia. On that
occasion the Right Hon. Gentleman seconded the mo-
tion, and not one word condemnatory of the policy of the
war was uttered in either House of Parliament. Shortly
afterwards came the discussion on Sir John Yarde Bul-
ler's motion of want of confidence, and during the whole
of that discussion only one allusion had been made to
the Affghan war, and that had been drawn from the
Noble Lord opposite by a taunt of his (Sir J. Hob-
house's) Right Hon. Friend (Sir George Grey), that no
one had dared to allade to the Affghan war. Now, if
that war had been all that the Right Hon. Gentleman
had described it to be, it ought to have held a conspi-
cuous place in the charge brought against the late Mi-
nistry to justify the vote of want of confidence. The
Noble Lord had said that no credit was due to the then
Government for that war, that the credit was due alone
to the Indian Government, and now it,,was attempted to
throw all the responsibility on the Indian Government.
But if the Governor-General was to blame he was not
to blame alone. It was not the policy of the Gover-
nor-General only, it was the policy of_the late Govern-
ment. A despatch had been written by' himself, with the
assent of his colleagues, which had crossed at sea
Lord Auckland's despatch, announcing the advance upon
Affghanistan, in which the late Government announced—
and it was remarkable that, without any personal com-
munication with each other, having only access to the
same documents, the Government in London and Lord
Auckland at Simla should have come to the same con-
clusion—in which it was announced that in the opinion
of the Government the moment had arrived when a
movement across the Indus had. become necessary to
the safety of the country. On the: opening of Parlia-
ment in 1841 not one word was said.ki either House
of Parliament relative to the Affghan war. Shortly af-
terwards Lord Keane's pension had come under discussion,
and on that occasion a most remarkable debate had taken
place. The Right Hon. Gentleman now at the head of
the Government, had paid some compliments: to the
Noble Lord, and had eulogized the very importtust ser-
vices he had rendered, but at the same time he bad
given it as his opinion that, as those services had hew
for the benefit of the East India Company, that Com-
pany ought at least to pay half the pension—on which
the Hon. Member for Beverley (Mr. Hogg) had replied,
that the Affghan war had been entered into for European
objeets, and that, therefore, the country ought to pay
Lord Keane's pension for his services. Such had been the
statements of the Hon. Director. That was the opinion of
the Hon. Member for Beverley. No man on that occasion
said that the war was either unwise, impolitic, or unjust;
and, further, he did not think that any one had believed it
so. No one had then foreseen the reverses which had since
taken place. That strong opinion to which he had re-
ferred, was the more valuable, because the Hon. Gentle-
man (Mr. Hogg) was the very party who had seconded
the vote of censure of the late Government in China. No
such disapprobation, however, was manifested by him
of the course taken by the Government in India. Again,
the Court of Directors, at a meeting of their body,
passed a vote of thanks to Lord Auckland, for the
sagacity and vigour with which he had planned the
expedition in Affghanistan, and the manner in
which he had provided for its successful issue. That
vote was passed nemine contradicente. Let him ask what
had occasioned the change of opinion relative to the ex-
pedition ? Ile trusted that change was confined to a few
individuals, and that the sentiments of the country at
large were not altered by the unforeseen disasters which
had followed. Further, he would tell those gentlemen
who now condemned the policy in which the expedition
had its origin, that the expression of their disapproba-
tion came too late; that they should have seen the impro-
priety of the course taken by the Government before
they could judge of it by its results. He confessed the
late disaster, he deplored it, but he contended that it was
strictly a military disaster, and had nothing to do with
the policy. lie denied what the Hon. Member had stated
as to its being irrecoverable. He hoped that by the ex-
ertions of the present Governor• General, even now, as he
was addressing the House, that disaster had been repaired.
The Hon. Gentleman had referred to the defeat of Colo-
nel Monson, which was as great in the amount of the
loss of life as the present. Sir A. Wellesley, communi-
cating it, stated that it was not greater than he had ex-
pected, that he would defend the gallant officer's charac-
ter from obloquy, and concluded by stating it to be but
of a temporary nature. The Hon. Gentleman had also
referred to another defeat, the defeats before Bhurtpore.
Lord Lake failed three times before Bhurtpore; with a
loss of 2,223 men, exclusive of officers ; and when he at
last succeeded, and the Peerage was given him, he said
that the honour was mingled with regret, occasioned by
the recollection of the disasters which had occurred.
Still those disasters were considered, by Sir Thomas
Munro, as proving the good qualities of the Bengal
army. He did not think it necessary to enter into other
difficulties, such as those which occurred in the Burmese
war, in which 20,000 men were employed ; the results
did not satisfy the people. Again, in the war in Nepaul,
it was not till after two, years' hard fighting, that a
peace was concluded, and that an incomplete one.
With respect to the policy of this measure, which the
lion.' Gentleman had arraigned without a proper atten-
tion to facts, he considered that that policy was to be
looked upon in a totally different point of view from that
in which it had been regarded by the Hon. Gentleman.
The full exposition of that policy was to be found in the
papers_ presented by himself and his Noble Friend to
Parliament. The real question was whether the inter-
fmr
oe
iaetr
se
,va
s countryto bbe eitivr
tieien
itssceossnifiointeosf oaf
fir'ieernsltyapnodlio_eurr,
or of one that was manifestly hostile to us; it mGuesnttleesm'enan-
tually have been in the hands either of a power which
was friendly to Great Britain, or of a power from which
had
ed
onewas
t oobr two questions,eapprehetd to whi
ch he would fur-
nish an answer. The Hon. Gentleman had asked whether
the war was undertaken after full consideration and on
just grounds. He answeerd, on the fullest consideration;
as to the justice of the grounds, of course that was a
matter for the Hon. Gentleman's consideration, and that
of the House. The Hon. Gentleman had asked whether
the proper authorities were consulted; and he begged
leave to state that the proper authorities wete consulted.
The Hon. Gentleman did not appear to'be aware that the
reason why Sir Henry Fane had left the 'army was,
that being employed in a sieg.e, he did not con-
sider the command was one oraefficient importance.
for himself. Now, with respect to the queStion of policy.
The Hon. Gentleman was aware that in 1836 a compli-
mentary mission was sent by his Noble Friend on the
part of his Majesty congratulating the Shah of Persia
on his accession to the throne. Mr;„Ellice, a gentleman
unconnected politically with the .Gommment, was
*Med with that minion. Very oliiktly after the