§ Viscount Melbournehaving moved the Order of the Day, and the message from the Crown brought down yesterday having been read, said: I beg leave to call your Lordships' attention to her Majesty's gracious message, and I feel perfectly certain that it would be unnecessary for me to state in detail the grounds and reasons on which her Majesty was advised to send down that message to your Lordships, or the grounds and reasons on which I shall move your Lordships that an address to her Majesty be agreed to entirely in concurrence with that message. When your Lordships recollect the services to which that message refers; when your Lordships recollect the unanimous vote of thanks given by Parliament for those services, and the houours conferred on those who rendered them, with the concurrence and consent of your Lordships and of the whole community, I apprehend that your Lordships will be inclined to ask rather why this proceeding has been so long delayed, than why it has been brought forward now. Into the reasons of that delay it is not my intention to enter, nor do I conceive it necessary: but I must say this much, that the delay has not arisen from any doubt whatever on the part of her Majesty's Government whether it were fitting and proper to mark 454 those services in the manner in which it is now proposed. Lord Kean is a soldier who has commanded her Majesty's forces in every part of the world, and having shown on all occasions the greatest talents, firmness and decision, he was selected for the high situation of lieutenant-general of her Majesty's army in India, and, by a concurrence of circumstances, intrusted with the command of the great expedition undertaken across the Indus—an expedition in the conduct of which, though he had great and almost unparalleled difficulties to contend with, he displayed a firmness, resolution, skill, and energy, which led to the most happy and fortunate conclusion. It is for these services that the honours already granted have been conferred on Lord Keane, and in consequence of which I am now about to move the address with which I mean to conclude, for your Lordships' sanction and concurrence. By the practice and usage of Parliament it is not for your Lordships to originate the measure to which this message refers; but I feel certain I am not anticipating too much when I expect your Lordships' unanimous declaration of your ready concurrence in those measures which will be necessary to signalize those services in the manner pointed out by her Majesty. The noble Viscount concluded by moving, that a humble address be presented to her Majesty, assuring her Majesty that their Lordships would cheerfully concur in such measures as were necessary to accomplish the object pointed out in her Majesty's message.
Lord EllenboroughI most cordially concur in this address, but I must express my surprise (and I think the noble Viscount admits the justice of my doing so), that it has been so long delayed, whatever be the cause. I entirely agree with the noble Viscount in thinking, that the honours which have been conferred have been most fully deserved, and in coming to that opinion I do not look solely to the brilliant exploit by which the noble Lord, in a remarkably short time, got possession of Ghuznee, however great the decision with which he carried that formidable fortress. What I regard with most admiration in his conduct is the fortitude of mind and character which enabled him to face the unparalleled difficulties he had to overcome in the long march where he was exposed to such hazardous passes as the Bolan. It is not so much where all men 455 share a common danger that the real scope of a general's character is displayed; it is when the sole responsibility for the fate of a great army rests on one man in the midst of difficulties and dangers. In that difficulty Lord Keane was placed, and from that difficulty he emerged with honour. My Lords, I look on the honours conferred on Lord Keane as not only conferred on himself, but on the gallaat army which he commanded. There may have been occasions equally distinguished for assaults of fortresses and the gaining of battles by the army in India, but, though its present success may have been equalled, it could not have been surpassed. And this I will say, that so far as I am acquainted with military history there has been no occasion where the whole body of a great army in the prosecution of enterprises so great, and of such continued difficulties, have displayed, in such trying circumstances, the highest military qualities to be found in any army—patience, endurance of fatigue, submission to privations, (and amongst these, the greatest of all, want of food and water), and a perserverance in every enterprise which the commander directed, or the necessities of the army imposed. Above all, this army has been remarkable for that perfect discipline and good treatment of the people of the country through which it passed, which enabled them to achieve the great objects they had in view, by preserving their own health and efficiency. These are the high military qualities which have ever distinguished the army in India, and which led my noble Friend (the Duke of Wellington), in speaking of it, some time back, to observe, that it came nearer to his idea of what a Roman legion was, than any army he had ever seen. No higher compliment could be paid any army, and I trust it will ever deserve it.
§ Address agreed to.