§ MR. WARBURTONwished to be informed whether any inquiry had been instituted into the rumours formerly spread of the murder of the Sikh prisoners after the battles of the Sutlej; and, if so, what had been the result of the inquiry?
§ MR. FOX MAULEbegged to be allowed to state, that immediately after the attention of Government had been drawn to the subject he had directed letters to be written to the Commander-in-Chief of the army in India communicating the rumour referred to, and requesting him to make the most minute inquiry. The House would perhaps recollect that he had on a former occasion stated his strong belief that it was impossible that such a rumour should be well founded. That belief had since been fully confirmed, for letters had been received from Lord Gough, stating that he had directed a court of inquiry to be assembled in the regiment, and that before that court was called the individual said to have written the letter containing the information. He had stated that he 67 had written a letter mentioning that one Sikh had been put to death summarily, by Lord Gough, for springing a mine upon the British troops after the battle, when they were entering a village. There was, however, no foundation whatever for the report, that the prisoners taken in the battles of the Sutlej had been wantonly murdered in cold blood. It was a foul calumny and a most unjust aspersion, and he was glad that the subject had been mentioned, and that an opportunity had been thus given to him of stating, in the face of the House and of the world at large, that the report was nothing but a foul calumny on the British army.