The Press. — 1857-10-24 (London, England)

LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE WINCHCOMB AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.  Southern Delabere, October 16, 1857. Gentlemen,—l much regret my not being able to attend your Annual Meeting to day, the more especially as I was desirous of speaking to you upon the subject nearest my heart—the war in India—and of urging you to assist, as you and all country gentlemen and farmers can, most powerfully, in bringing the country through the difficulties in wl,ich it is involved. Not having the opportunity of addressing you otherwise, I now write to you. As to the war itself, I need say but little. As to the conduct of the Ministers and of the Indian Government in this emergency, I shell say nothing. I must soon have ample and more proper opportunities of saying whatever I may think upon that subject. Gentlemen,—You may not hare looked into all the details of what has taken place in India, but you must know this—that we have there a great war forced upon us by rebels who would deprive all our countrymen of their lives, and England of an empire—that where we placed our confidence, we have been met with treachery—where we acted with kindness, we have encountered murder— murder, not directed only against men by whom resistance might be made, and from whom wrongs might have been feared; but extending equally to unoffending, helpless women—to the children at their knees, and to the infants at their breasts. Bat, too often, where death has been inflicted with torture, it has been a refuge from the horrors before wit• neased and endured. We have seen there, in almost every instance of mutiny, one general deliberate design, not only to deprive us of the dominion we have so long held with honour, but to place ns, as a people, under circumstances of outrage and of indignity, which, if we submit to them, must render us, in the eyes of all living men and of all future generations, a despised and degraded race. Will you submit to this? You will say you never will—you will have redress and vengeance. We will say nothing about vengeance—that belongs only to a Higher Power; but to punish crime so signally as to deter all hereafter from its commission, and to vindicate one sovereign authority—this is no doubt our right, and it is our duty—and you will say you will not be found wanting in the performance of it—but, then, what will you do? Depend upon it, it is not enough to sit quietly at home and to pay taxes, nor to go to public meetings and pass resolutions expressive of sympathy with the sufferers and of indignation against their destroyers. You must do more than this, and I will tell you what you can do—what none but those who are in your position can do equally well, and what you now all ought to do for the honour of the country, and for your own. You have heard of the great reinforcements of trenps which have been recently sent or are now going out to India. You have been assured that we shall have there a larger army than we had in the Crimes, and I dare say you expect from the exertions of this force early and complete success in the war. Every thing that the noblest of soldiers can do has been done, and will be done by ours in India ; and they have now a general who knows well what war is—the lions are at last led by a lion—but be assured that this is not a sudden temporary danger to be repelled by sudden temporary exertion. What at first was a mutiny is become a revolution ; to restore civil authority is more difficult than to repress military resistance, and it requires more force to occupy than it does to subdue. Be assured that the military institutions of this country, managed as they now are, are insufficient permanently to supply the number of men required to reconquer what we have lost, and to hold our empire hereafter in security.