§ HER MAJESTY'S Message considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§ HER MAJESTY'S Message read, as follows:—
387§ "VICTORIA R.
§ "Her Majesty being desirous of conferring a signal mark of Her favour and approbation on Major General Sir Henry Havelock, Baronet, K.C.B., for the eminent and distinguished services rendered by him in command of a body of British and Native Troops in India, and particularly in the gallant and successful operations undertaken for the relief of the Garrison of Lucknow, recommends it to the House of Commons to enable Her Majesty to make provision for securing to Sir Henry Havelock a pension of One Thousand Pounds per annum, for the term of his natural life.
§ "V. R."
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI rise, Sir, to perform a duty which is most gratifying to myself, and which I trust, nay, I am sure, will he equally gratifying to the House,—that is, to propose a Resolution in accordance with that intimation of the wish of the Sovereign which has just been read from the Chair. It is almost unnecessary, I am persuaded, that I should say a single word in order to recommend a Motion to the House in favour of which I am convinced every hon. Member will be only too glad to vote. It was said by Mr. Canning that India is a land fertile in heroes, but the fact is that India is a land fertile in those events which give to British subjects the opportunity of displaying those great and heroic qualities which abound so much among the inhabitants of the nation to which we have the happiness to belong; and among those who have of late had an opportunity of distinguishing themselves, few have been more fortunate than Sir Henry Havelock, and none have better availed themselves of that fortune. Sir Henry Havelock is not a soldier of yesterday. He has served with great distinction in almost all the operations which of late years have been carried on in India. He served with distinction during the operations in Burmah, and with equal distinction in Affghanistan. Wherever, in short, British troops have been called upon to act for the honour, dignity, and interests of their-country in India, there Sir Henry Havelock has been known to hold a prominent 388 and distinguished position. As regards the late operations in India, to which the Resolution which I am about to propose more particularly relates, Sir Henry Havelock has had the good fortune in the short space of two months to gain nine victories over a force numerically very superior to his own, and in the course of those brilliant operations not only has he defeated the enemy nine or ten times, but he has taken, I behave, seventy pieces of cannon. The two men who in the late operations in India have gained the greatest and most signal military successes are Sir Henry Havelock and Sir Archdale Wilson. Of these two Sir Henry Havelock belongs to the Queen's Service, and it was therefore for Her Majesty to recommend to this House to take into consideration what grant should be bestowed as an acknowledgment for his services. General Wilson, on the other hand, belongs to the service of the East India Company, and the East India Company claim as a right to themselves the privilege of doing for Sir Archdale Wilson, as a reward for the capture of Delhi, that which Her Majesty recommends this House to do for Sir Henry Havelock, who is an officer in her own service, in reward for his distinguished services at Cawnpore and Lucknow. Her Majesty has conferred upon both of these distinguished officers the dignity of a baronet, and she has also conferred upon them that other distinction which I believe is dearer to a soldier than any title he can receive—I mean that military order which is an object of the utmost desire and ambition, and the greatest stimulus to exertion to every soldier. It is, however, usual in cases of this description for the Sovereign to invite Parliament to partake in a duty which is most agreeable to the Sovereign, and which can be no less agreeable to Parliament—I mean that of acknowledging and rewarding the distinguished services of her officers. I must also add that, although Sir Henry Havelock and Sir Archdale Wilson have so greatly distinguished themselves, we must not forget, while we are commemorating their actions and rewarding their services, that there are others who. although they have not perhaps had the same good fortune of having the opportunity afforded them of performing such specific actions as have fallen to the fate of those two officers, are 389 still well worthy of having their services recorded. In recording the exertions of Sir Henry Havelock we must not forget the chivalrous conduct of Sir James Outram. That gallant officer, when he joined the force under Sir Henry Havelock, might, from his superior military rank, have assumed the command, but, with that delicacy of feeling which is ever the concomitant of true courage, he nobly abstained from doing so, and placed himself as a volunteer under the orders of General Havelock, because he thought that the man who had gone through such difficulties and dangers, and who had made such great exertions to relieve Lucknow, ought not to be deprived by the arrival of a superior officer of an atom of glory, but that he ought to be left to finish that which he had so well begun. The list of those who have gained distinction in this unfortunate and calamitous war is a numerous one:—Wilson, Havelock, Greathed, Eyre, Salkeld, Home, the last two of whom we can only deeply regret, for as they lived so they nobly died in the service of their country; Nicholson and Neill, two officers whose loss the country must most deeply deplore. Then, again, we have Sir John Lawrence, who, although not engaged in active military service in the field, yet by his energy, by his powers of administration, by the manner in which he developed and organized the civil and military resources of a province, which was supposed by those who at one time professed to be authorities upon the subject to be our weak point, but which has turned out to be our strong point, has performed great services to his country, and those services will no doubt be done justice to when the time arrives for taking a general review of the career of all those engaged in the conduct of operations in the East. Then, again, we have General Wheeler, who also, placed in a position of the utmost difficulty and danger, nobly did his duty, but lost his life in the service; Chamberlain, Cotton, Edwardes I might add to this list;—in fact, there is hardly a single officer who has not been called upon in the course of these events to perform any duty who has not acted in a manner which would entitle his services to be enrolled in the annals which record the military fame of his country. At present, however, my duty is to confine myself to the case of Sir Henry Havelock, and therefore I will not trespass longer upon the attention of the Committee, but 390 will at once, Sir, place this Resolution in your hands.
§
Moved to resolve—
That the annual sum of One Thousand Pounds be granted to Her Majesty, out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to be settled upon Major General Sir Henry Havelock, baronet, K.C.B., for the term of his natural life, to commence from the 7th day of December, 1857.
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONSir, I hope I may be allowed the great satisfaction of seconding the Resolution which has been proposed in terms so just and so appropriate by the noble Lord. I most entirely concur with the noble Lord in the belief that there can be no difference of opinion as to the propriety of the step which is now proposed. I think, on the contrary, that upon all sides and among all parties in this House there can be but one unanimous feeling of cordial concurrence in the proposal of the noble Lord. If there be, indeed, any Member of this House who feels any doubt as to the proposal of the Government, I think that that doubt will be as to whether the present proposal is sufficient to meet the desire of the public and the feelings of the House with regard to the acknowledgment due to those distinguished officers. I heard with great pleasure the manner in which the noble Lord coupled the names of Havelock and Wilson. The distinction drawn by the Government as to the pensions to those officers is of course, under the circumstances, perfectly correct; but there is no distinction, I will venture to say, in the gratitude we owe, and which, in common with all the public, we feel to those distinguished men. I think that, considering the climate, the time of year, the number of battles fought, and the distance marched, the march of General Havelock with his devoted band of heroes deserves to be recorded among the most brilliant achievements that shed lustre on our military annals. Nor less conspicuous, although of a different character, were the services of General Wilson and his heroic force before Delhi. Placed upon the heights before that town, he had to contend not only against the dangers and difficulties of the climate, but also against incessant, almost daily, attacks of an enemy greatly superior in number. We should bear in mind also one circumstance which the noble Lord omitted to refer to. The enemy with whom General Wilson had to contend were not only superior in number to the 391 force under his command, but they had also the advantage of that discipline which we had taught them, and they were armed with the very weapons which we had put into their hands; and although the relative superiority, man to man,—and a wonderful circumstance it is—of the European over the Native appears to be as great as it was in former times, before they had been disciplined by us, we must recollect that throughout this combat the Natives opposed to us have exhibited great skill and power in that important arm, artillery. If the authority of the Crown be shortly restored in India, as we must all hope it may be, I think we must look to the heroic valour of those gallant bands under Wilson and Have-lock as having been the primary cause of that result, for while those large reinforcements which the Government have sent out from this country to the East were lying becalmed upon the Equator or tossing about round the Cape of Good Hope, those two little bands, opposed to a force numerically stronger, succeeded in stemming that torrent by which the British power in India seemed in danger of being overwhelmed. I am glad that the noble Lord has done justice to the great and generous conduct of Sir James Outram. There never was an incident more honourable to a British officer or more clearly showing that generosity which so much becomes the soldier, than the order of the day issued by that distinguished man which we have lately had the pleasure of reading. When Sir James Outram arrived at General Havelock's position he had, as senior officer, a right to claim the command, but he did not wish that General Havelock should be interrupted in his heroic career, and therefore he relinquished the command of the force which relieved Lucknow. Let it be our earnest hope and prayer that the next intelligence we receive from India may confirm our expectation of the safety of that gallant band, and inform us that General Havelock has entirely succeeded in his great object, and that the garrison of Lucknow is entirely relieved from the imminent dangers which at present seem to surround it. Sir, while we pay just honour to the commanding officers, let us not forget the heroic gallantry of the troops who served under them. Nothing could exceed the difficulties and dangers encountered by the forces under General "Wilson and General Havelock, except the 392 distinguished bravery by which those difficulties and dangers were met; and I hope that I shall not be thought to encroach unduly upon the proper province of Her Majesty's Government if I throw out a hope that, considering how diminished by the fortune of war and the effects of the climate those two little bands now are—considering how few men still survive who have either gone through the entire siege of Delhi or have followed General Havelock from the beginning to the end of his marches—I cannot help entertaining a strong wish that it maybe deemed right and consistent with precedent by those who advise the Crown on these subjects that some distinguishing honour and reward should be conferred on the remnant of those gallant men to whom the country owes a debt of gratitude which it is impossible to overestimate or repay. With these feelings, Sir, I most heartily concur in the proposal made by the noble Lord, and I beg leave to second the Resolution which he has moved.
§ MR. BRISCOEremarked, that he hardly needed to say how cordially he agreed in all that had been said by the noble Lord and the right hon. Baronet; yet with great humility and every apology to the House he could not help making a suggestion, which he trusted would be favourably received. He wished to add a few words to the Resolution, and after the proposed pension of "£1000 per annum to Sir H. Havelock," to insert "and to the next successor to the title during his life."
§ MR. BRISCOEsaid, that he did not intend to move a proposition, but merely to throw out a suggestion for the consideration of the Government. It might not be generally known that Sir Henry Havelock was between sixty and seventy years of age, and that he had a son who had received the Victoria Cross. Under these circumstances, and considering the danger to which General Havelock's life was still exposed, as well as the nature of the climate, it would be a source of consolation to the brave old soldier to know that at his decease there would be some provision for his son; without which, indeed, the title would be a very inadequate acknowledgment of services the value of which no language could exaggerate. Sir Henry Havelock might 393 almost be said to have preserved to this country the empire of India. It would not be becoming to make any remark on the amount of the pension, which was certainly not large, considering the manner in which it had been earned. But if so deserved a mark of favour were made to extend to General Havelock's next successor, the House and the country would hail its proposal with acclamation. When the annuity was voted to Lord Gough, the sum fixed on was £2000, which was also to be paid to the two next surviving male heirs of that nobleman.
§ ADMIRAL WALCOTTsaid, that as a member of the sister service he could not refrain from expressing their warm admiration of the brilliant achievements of these gallant officers in India. Indeed, he knew not which most to admire—the rapid marches and glorious victories of General Havelock; the magnanimous self-denial of General Outram, who scorned to deck his own brow with the laurels due to his comrade; or the siege, assault, and capture of Delhi, in all of which the same bravery—the same sublime heroism were displayed; nor would he omit from the bright catalogue the civil servants of the East India Company. The noble Lord at the head of the Government had described in terms so graceful, so spirited, and so appropriate, the services rendered by these brave men, that it would ill befit any other hon. Member to enlarge on this subject; but there was one topic on which the noble Lord had been silent that would awaken a generous response on the part of the House. No language that he could command could do justice to the heroism of those noble women who, triumphing over the natural weakness and timidity of their sex, stood unmoved amid threats that might well have moved the stoutest hearts, and with death staring them in the face feared it not until there was added to it the certainty of dishonour. With such terrors before their eyes they unhesitatingly sacrificed life, so dear to all, to escape what was far more repulsive, and, dying by their own hands, frustrated the savage—the demoniacal designs of the brutal miscreants who surrounded them. He had but one word more to add, in which he was sure that he would carry with him the feeling of his profession. He ardently wished that an opportunity might he given to the blue-jackets under the 394 gallant Peel of emulating the deeds of their brethren of the red-jackets.
GENERAL CODRINGTONsaid, he should be sorry if in that House, although they were so unanimous, some military man did not rise before the Resolution was passed, and he had waited in the hope that some other member of his profession would express those feelings which he was sure would always be in perfect unison with the sentiments of the House on such a subject. Nothing that we had read of in any former days exceeded the gallantry, the determination, and the constancy under extreme difficulty which had characterised the marches, the endurance, and the actual fighting of the column under General Havelock; and the same must be said of the troops before Delhi, who had to resist perpetual attacks, not only under General Wilson, but also under the first commanding officer who took up a position before that stronghold, General Barnard. General Barnard had the greatest difficulties to encounter, and his great services ought not, to be forgotten. He started in the midst of the revolt without preparation, and though many persons were against his moving his troops (as they had also been against General Anson's moving them) in the middle of the hot weather—which, as they all knew, tried the English constitution—yet he resolved to march on Delhi. When he arrived before that place, he found the enemy in possession of a most important position, and although heavy marching had wearied his troops, he attacked and carried that post, and it had been subsequently held by a small force against a powerful enemy until it was eventually made the means of securing the effectual capture of the rebel stronghold. General Barnard was attacked there no fewer than ten times in twenty days; and when that fact was borne in mind, together with the constant accessions of strength which the mutineers received in Delhi, it could not fail to establish the claim of that commander to the gratitude of his country, or to perpetuate the recollection of his name. It was owing to General Barnard's having maintained that position in the face of all these difficulties that General Wilson, when he succeeded to the command, was able to hold it. Indeed, so strongly did General Wilson feel the difficulties of his position, that 395 at one time it was positively a question with him whether, if he did not receive reinforcements, he ought not to retire to Kurnaul. For the final operations, which were crowned by the capture of Delhi, the credit was due to General Wilson; and nothing could be finer than the patience, the resolution, with which he waited for a sufficiency of troops and supplies, and the courage which marked the great achievement of the assault itself; while, on the other hand, nothing could be more painful than the loss of General Nicholson and his gallant comrades who fell in its accomplishment. To all these officers the House and the country owed a lasting debt of gratitude, as also to the officers who served under Sir Henry Havelock. General Neill having performed important services in the Crimea, where he held a high command in the Turkish Contingent hurried out to India when the late war was over. The valuable assistance he rendered to General Havelock, to whom he marched with reinforcements, and then shared in the operations for the relief of Lucknow, could not be too highly praised; and his memory would be long cherished by a grateful country. It afforded him the sincerest pleasure to join in the Resolution by which the distinguished services of General Havelock and General Wilson were to receive their due reward, and it would add to the nominal title of a baronet, now conferred upon them, to feel, that in the one case "of Lucknow," and in the other "of Delhi," could be written after their names. He was quite sure there was no military or naval man who would not feel the deepest gratitude to the House for the unanimity with which this proposal had been received.
§ MR. JAMES WHITEsaid, as the Committee had been addressed by hon. Members of the military and naval professions, he hoped that, as a merchant, he might be permitted to say a few words. He regarded the pension proposed as a very niggardly one, and quite unbecoming the dignity of that House, when they considered the weighty obligations under which this country was to General Havelock. If he was not misinformed, General Havelock was now some sixty-three or sixty-four years of age. His life was exposed to great danger from the climate alone, independently of the other perils by which it was constantly menaced. He would put it 396 to any gentleman connected with an insurance office, what was the value of a pension of £1,000 a year under such circumstances. Was it worth two, three, or four years' purchase. He believed the highest estimate would be three years' purchase. The sum proposed was so utterly incommensurate with the services rendered by General Havelock, that the country must entertain a very mean opinion of that House when it found that to such a man so insufficient a reward was offered. At the same time he could not forget the fact that General Havelock had not the honour of belonging to any very noble family. He begged to say that those who had returned from a humiliating and degrading campaign in the Crimea had received higher honours than it was now proposed to bestow for glorious achievements which would adorn the annals of this country. These observations had been forced from him, and he would only say that he regarded the pension now proposed as very inadequate to the services performed.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI cannot allow the expressions which the hon. Gentleman has thought proper to use with reference to the Crimean campaign to pass unnoticed. The hon. Member must be in a state of entire ignorance as to what took place in that campaign. He must have forgotten the battles of Alma and of Inkermann—he must have forgotten those long months of privation, and danger, and difficulty, which nothing but the courage of Englishmen could have enabled an army to surmount—he must have forgotten that the army landed after having suffered most severely from cholera; he must have forgotten that, after having undergone privations for two or three months, not only destitute of those ordinary conveniences which are almost invariably seen in the tents of soldiers during a campaign, but the men without their kits, the officers without their baggage, the troops still performed their duty without flinching, and in a manner honourable to themselves and to their country. I think the hon. Member must have forgotten that the army, having commenced its career under such difficulties, closed that career in a manner which elicited the admiration of the officers of other Powers. He must have forgotten that the army—which had to encounter difficulties unexampled, I believe, in history—instead 397 of meriting the terms which the hon. Member, most improperly, I think, and so unlike an Englishman, has applied to it—having covered itself with honours, was, at the end of the war, in a state of perfect discipline, and performed services of which the country was justly proud.
§ MR. JAMES WHITEsaid, he wished to explain. God forbid that he should utter a word against the gallantry and indomitable courage of the army which served in the Crimea. He quite concurred in all the noble Lord had said in its praise. He should be unworthy the name of an Englishman if he said anything disparaging of British troops. He had referred to the campaign in a strategic point of view. He did not pretend to be learned in such matters, but he had spoken on the authority of German and French writers, who had criticised the tactics of the campaign. In the one campaign there had been success; in the other failure.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONI will take it, then, upon strategic grounds. The two armies in the Crimea—French and English—besieged a fortress behind which there was an army equal, if not superior, in numbers to the allied forces, amply furnished with all the matériel of war, with stores which had been accumulated during many years. The allies occupied a position of extreme difficulty, at a great distance from their own resources; they conquered; they took the fortress, which was considered impregnable; and instead of failing in a strategic point of view, they gained advantages which enabled the allied Powers to conclude a peace, by which Russia engaged in future not to keep any naval arsenal in the Black Sea, and instead of maintaining a fleet of eighteen or twenty sail of the line in that sea, bound herself to confine her naval force to ten small vessels for purposes of police and customs. I think my hon. Frieud—if he will allow me to call him so—on reflecting a little upon the results of that campaign, will see that not only as regards the bravery and endurance of our forces, but also as regards strategic results, the expressions which he used in a moment of warmth, and perhaps without much reflection, were unjustifiable.
§ MR. CROSSLEYsaid, he thought, considering the services of General Havelock, that he ought either to receive higher honours and no money, or that 398 if any pension was proposed it ought to be more proportionate to the eminent services which the gallant General had rendered to his country.
§ Resolution agreed to: to be reported To morrow.
§ House resumed.