CHAPTER VI. GREAT MUTINY IN INDIA-Discussions in Parliament on that subject -The Earl of Ellenborough, on the 9th of June draws the attention of the House of Lords to the state of affairs in the East Indies-His Speech, and Earl Granville's Answer—Mr. D. Kinnaird moves Resolutions in the House of Commons with respect to Grievances in the Administration of India-Speeches of Mr. Vernon Smith, Sir E. Perry, Lord John Russell, Mr. Mangles, and other Members-The previous Question is moved and carried by 119 to 18-On the 29th of June the Earl of Ellenborough again makes a Statement in the House of Lords, and offers various suggestions as to the Measures required in the alarming position of affairs in India-Lord Granville offers Explanations on behalf of the Government-In the House of Commons Mr. Disraeli addresses a series of Questions to the President of the Board of Control-Speech of Mr. Vernon Smith in answer-On the arrival of further news from India, Lord Ellenborough again presses the Government with inquiries and suggestions -Speeches of Lord Granville and of Lord Melville-Lord Palmerston in the House of Commons gives an account of the Measures determined on by Government-Debate on the best mode of transport for troops to India-Preference given by Sir Charles Wood to sailing ships over steam vessels-Unfortunate result of that decision-On the 29th of July Mr. Disraeli makes a formal Motion on the Administration of India, which he introduces in a long and elaborate Speech-Speeches of Mr. Vernon Smith, Sir E. Perry, Mr. Whiteside, Mr. Mangles, and Lord John Russell, who moves as an Amendment an Address to the Queen, expressing the resolution of the House to support the Crown in quelling the rebellion -Lord Palmerston and other Members-After a Division negativing by a great majority the adjournment of the Debate, Lord John Russell's Amendment is carried, nem. con.-Debate in the House of Lords on East Indian Administration, on the Motion of Lord Clanricarde.-THE WAR WITH PERSIA-Mr. Roebuck moves Resolutions impugning the conduct of the Government in regard to the hostilities with Persia-The Chancellor of the Exchequer vindicates the War and the Government — Speeches of Mr. Baillie, Lord Bury, Mr. Danby Seymour, Lord John Russell, Mr. Walpole, Mr. Vernon Smith, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Palmerston and Mr. Disraeli-The Motion is negatived by 352 to 58 The Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes a Vote to contribute one moiety of the expenses of the Persian War in aid of the East India Company-After a desultory Debate, the Motion is agreed to.-EMBODIMENT OF THE MILITIA-Lord Panmure moves a Bill to give the Government powers to embody the Militia during the recess of Par liament-The Earls of Derby and Hardwicke taunt the Government with their vacillation on this subject-Earl Granville replies to the charge-On the Third Reading of the Bill in the House of Commons a general Debate ensues on the military preparations and measures in India-The Bill is passed. IN night the report of the incendiary fires at Umballah and the telegraphic message respecting the mutiny of the cavalry at Meerut. "I read," said the noble Lord, N another part of this volume will be found a narrative of that sastrous military insurrection in the East Indies which forms the most prominent event in the history of the present year. The first" in the latest accounts from India, intelligence of the outbreak reached this country at the commencement of the month of June, and excited a profound feeling of anxiety and alarm, although it was not until some time afterwards that a sense of the full importance of the calamity penetrated the public mind, and the imminent danger which menaced the Empire with the total loss of our vast possessions in India was adequately realised. The public feeling on the subject found, as might naturally be expected, an echo within the walls of Parliament, and, as intelligence of the increased diffusion of the mutiny reached our shores from time to time, questions were put to the Ministers, and discussions raised from time to time in both Houses, regarding the events which were now beginning to absorb all other topics of interest in the public mind. One of the first to notice these matters in Parliament was Lord Ellenborough-a nobleman who had paid peculiar attention, and had had special opportunities of gaining information with respect to Indian affairs. On the 9th of June the noble Earl invited the attention of the House of Lords to the mutinies of which such alarming accounts had recently arrived. He said he should not have done so had he not read on the preceding that between the 16th and 25th of fere with the religion of the natives. It is impossible to come to any other conclusion. Now, what has the Government done to put an end to that erroneous impression? When the 19th Regiment was disbanded at Barrackpore, there was a passage in a long official paper emanating from the GovernorGeneral in Council, and read to the soldiery, which was to the effect that no one could pretend that the Government had at any time endeavoured to interfere with the religion of the people; but I cannot find that any notification has been made, as it should have been, at the quarters of every regiment and throughout the country, of the determination of the Government to adhere to its ancient policy of respecting the feelings and prejudices of the natives. I see no trace of there having been any general notification to that effect. It has been left entirely to the officers at the different stations to make any such notification as they should think fit under the circumstances. When the regiment was disbanded at Barrackpore, General Hearsey addressed it in terms which it is impossible to surpass in reasoning or in eloquence, and he afterwards addressed the whole of the native infantry at that station, and I do not recollect ever to have read at any time or in any history, attributed to any general in command of an army, or to any statesman who had to administer the Government of an empire, any oration more thoroughly reasonable, or more completely eloquent and convincing than the speech of General Hearsey addressed to the army on that occasion. (Hear, hear!') And what should the course of the Governor-General have been? Ought he not, with his own hand, in three sentences to have communicated to the whole country his cordial concurrence with everything which General Hearsey had said, and should he not have made his concurrence with that speech as public as the speech itself was necessarily made throughout the country? I am convinced that if the Governor-General had pursued that course we should have heard no more of the incendiary fires, nor of the open mutiny at Meerut. But that course was not taken, and although I absolve the Government of India, as a Government, from any intention to interfere with the religion of the natives, I must say that there have been of late-and daily increasing of late-circumstances which were calculated to excite in the minds of the natives great apprehension upon that subject. I saw in a newspaper which I read yesterday, the names of six or eight colonels, and of important persons in the civil administration of the country high in office, mentioned as being connected with missionary operations, and to my great astonishment-I can scarcely believe it now to be true, though I saw it distinctly stated in the papers-that the Governor-General himself, Lord Canning, largely subscribes to every society which has for its object the conversion of the natives. My Lords, the Governor-General of India can do nothing in his individual capacity. (Hear, hear!') He cannot sepa rate himself from his public character as Governor-General. He is essentially the Government of the country. No one looks to anybody else. There may be others who think that they are of importance, but they are not. The only man looked to in India is the Governor-General. It is not in Eng land alone, but more particularly in India, that it is generally understood that if a man at the head of the Government earnestly desires anything, it is his intention to enforce his desire and to effect his purpose. I deem that fact of these subscriptions of Lord Canning, the Governor-General of India, to societies having for their object the conversion of the natives, if it be true, to be one of the most dangerous things which could have happened to the security of our government in India. We must maintain that government as we bave acquired it, by acting on the principles of Ackbar; but we cannot maintain it by attempting to act on the principles of Aurungzebe. You may depend upon it, that if persons holding high office in the Government of India, and, above all, at the head of the Government, are permitted to act on this principle, and to indulge their own personal feelings-I do not doubt but they may be acting from conscientious motives-for the purpose of changing the religion of the people, you will see the most bloody revolution which has at any time occurred in India. The English will be expelled from India; and, expelled from that country, they will not leave behind them a dozen sincere converts to Christianity. The question which I wish to put to the noble Earl opposite is, whether instructions have been sent, or will forthwith be sent, to India, directing the different Governments to make known at every station of the army throughout the country that the Government will, for the future, as in times past, protect all its subjects in the undisturbed exercise of their religion." that the remarks just made would have a mischievous tendency in India. No information respecting the mutiny at Meerut had reached the Government except by telegraph, and it was impossible to rely entirely on the accuracy of information so forwarded. He was astonished at the attack made on Lord Canning. He did not know whether Lord Canning had subscribed to any missionary society, but he knew that the most unfounded and ridiculous remarks had been circulated-such as that Lord Canning had given a pledge to Lord Palmerston that he would convert the whole population. Lord Canning's first exercise of the veto was to arrest a police bill, because it might affect the religious feelings of the natives. Had he issued a notification like that recommended by Lord Ellenborough, he would have appeared to acknowledge that there had been a change of policy. The Government entirely approved of his course. The Earl of Malmesbury said he could not believe that Lord Canning had mixed himself up personally with those missionary associations. The Marquis of Lansdowne asked the House to suspend its judgment until it had more specific information. He was prepared to say, from repeated communications, both public and private, from Lord Canning, that there was not a man in England— not even the noble Earl himself— who was more aware of the danger of countenance being given to such movements than he was. From day to day he had a full sense of the danger before his eyes, and he showed the greatest anxiety that it should not be possible for any one to deduce from his conduct the in Earl Granville said he thought ference that he would be guilty of such a charge as the noble Earl had brought forward. Having the strongest public and private friendship for Lord Canning, he was yet prepared to state that if by any error or mistake of judgmentwhich he did not believe, and which he would not believe without proof-Lord Canning had so acted as to give countenance to such a belief as the noble Earl inferred, he would no longer deserve to be continued in his office as GovernorGeneral of India. Lord Ellenborough said that what had fallen from the noble Marquis was perfectly satisfactory. He had said that if it were the fact that the Governor-General had subscribed to any societies having for their object the conversion of the natives, he ought to be removed from the office he held, and thus all danger arising from the error would be completely removed. The subject then dropped. About the same time the subject of the administration of our Indian dominions was brought under the notice of the House of Commons by Mr. Kinnaird. The hon. member moved two resolutions, to the effect that there is reason to believe that the administration of the lower provinces of Bengal does not secure to the population the advantages of good government, but that the mass of the people suffers grievous oppression from the police, and the want of proper administration of justice; and that it is desirable that Her Majesty's Government should take immediate steps with a view to the institution of special inquiries into the social condition of the people, and to ascertain what measures have been adopted in consequence of the oppression under which a large proportion of the inhabitants of the Lower Provinces are now said to be suffering, more especially with reference to the system of landed tenures, the state of the police, and the administration of justice. In support of the resolutions, he dilated upon the alleged oppression, misery, suffering, and debasement of the ryots of Bengal, whose condition was, he said, deteriorating, owing to the nature of the tenures, the tyranny of the zemindars, the inefficiency, abuses, and corruption of the rural police, and the defects in the administration of criminal justice, respecting all which matters he read much documentary evidence. The motion was seconded by Mr. Dunlop, who cited additional documents. Mr. V. Smith said he did not wonder at the thinness of the House (of which Mr. Dunlop had complained) upon a motion for inquiring into a subject upon which inquiry had been carried to the utmost, and a motion, too, which was not of a practical nature. The speech of Mr. Kinnaird was almost a continued chain of extracts from papers; and Mr. Dunlop's was of a similar character, proving that inquiry was unnecessary for obtaining information. that the East Indian Government was answerable for the mischiefs He denied complained of. The chief allegations, he observed, were the deficiencies of the police and of the administration of justice, and the answers to these allegations were contained in papers already presented to the House, extracts of which he read. Questions connected with the land tenures of India were beset with difficulties. With respect to the police, inquiries. were being instituted by the Government, and remedies for ascer |