§ MR. DISRAELI—The House will hardly feel surprised if, in the present state of public affairs, before we go into Committee of Supply, or discuss any of the Motions of which notice has been given, I make some inquiry of Her Majesty's Government respecting the present condition of our Indian empire. It is only a few years since we were involved in a war which, if not of unexampled magnitude, was of an importance seldom equalled in our history—a war in which this country made great sacrifices of blood and treasure. By that war the public debt and the taxation of the country were considerably increased, and some of the best lives of our fellow-citizens were lost in that encounter. Still the nation never for a moment murmured at those great sacrifices. The country was enthusiastic, and Parliament was unanimous in supporting Her Majesty and Her Majesty's Government in the late war with Russia. But I believe that both the people and the Parliament were greatly induced to take the high line of conduct which they pursued on that occasion because they believed that the policy of Russia had a tendency to endanger our Indian empire. Well, Sir, no sooner had peace been proclaimed, and happily proclaimed, between Russia and England, than we found ourselves involved in another war—a war with Persia. For a long time the cause of that war was unknown, and its object, to say the least of it, perplexing. Still, the country and Parliament submitted with forbearance to the want of information which then prevailed upon the subject, because there was a general impression that the relations between Persia and England were of a nature difficult and delicate; that the interests of our Indian empire were involved in a right appreciation and management of those relations; and that the independence 537 of Persia must be maintained in order to form a barrier between our rivals and our Indian empire. Well, Sir, the last document which completed the peace between this country and Russia has only recently been signed; the ratification of the peace between this country and Persia has been only recently laid on the table; and then, we found ourselves involved in a third war—a war with China. It could not be said that the Chinese could invade our Indian empire; it could not be said that it was necessary to maintain China as a barrier between our rivals and our Indian empire. But it was said to be of the utmost consequence that we should not permit for a moment the slightest indignity or supposed indignity to be endured by our flag in China, because it was of the first importance that the reputation of England in all Eastern countries should be maintained inviolate, otherwise our Indian empire would be endangered. Influenced by this policy, and by these reasons, the majority of the House, and perhaps of the country, have contentedly been involved, within the last five years, in three great Eastern wars, because, however great the sacrifice, however great the exertions necessary, however great the call upon our resources, there was a general opinion that nothing should be shunned or spared when the safety of our Indian empire was at stake. Well, Sir, after all these exertions and sacrifices, we now find the existence of our Indian empire is indeed imperilled—not by the action of any foreign powers, whose movements both as regards place and time would require a considerable interval to elapse before they could take effect upon our position, but our Indian empire is now endangered, not by the manœuvres and machinations of our declared foes, but by internal enemies, in a form that we could not possibly have expected. We learn, within the last eight-and-forty hours, that the ancient capital of Hindostan is no longer in our possession. And in whose possession is it? It is in the possession of our insurrectionary and rebellious troops. Surely this is a position of affairs which creates a necessity for this House to demand from Her Majesty's Ministers that they should throw some light upon it, give us some information as to its causes, and, above all, tell us what they propose to do at this emergency. Sir, the information that has reached us within the last twenty-four hours communicates the 538 most important events that have occurred, certainly in my public life—and, I should think, in that of most present. Whatever may be the various views and emotions which hon. Members of this House, or the country generally, may entertain and experience at this intelligence, I am quite sure there is one predominant sentiment to which all others, however important, must be subordinated, and that is a determination to support the Sovereign and the Government in all those measures which so grave and critical an emergency may require. I am quite sure that the spirit of this country is so high, its resources are so great, that there is nothing the people are not prepared to endure, no expenditure which they are not prepared to incur, and no effort which they are are not prepared to make, in order to maintain that empire which it is the boast of this country so long to have possessed, and which is one of the chief sources of our wealth, our power, and our authority. But, if I have not imperfectly expressed the general feeling of the House, I hope it is not unreasonable in me to inquire of Her Majesty's Ministers whether they are prepared to respond to these sentiments in a manner congenial—whether they are prepared, in a manner adequate to the occasion, to carry these feelings into effect. I think, Sir, we should not be doing our duty if we lost a moment before making this inquiry of the Government. I should be glad, therefore, to hear tonight that, whether as regards their power or their promptitude, those measures will be taken which are calculated to vindicate the honour and the authority of this country, and to maintain our interests in India. I think, Sir, that is the first and paramount inquiry which, under these circumstances, we are bound to make of Her Majesty's Government; and I think it is one on which we have a right to expect a full and frank communication. But, I should not be performing what I deem to be my duty as a Member of this House, if I paused here, and rested satisfied with such an inquiry alone. I think we have a right to expect from Her Majesty's Government that they should tell us tonight what, in their opinion, is the cause of these great disasters. This calamity has not been of a sudden nature; there have been, and for no inconsiderable period, dark rumours from India, which have made men anxious and thoughtful. There has been an occurrence of many perplexing 539 incidents in that country, which, no doubt, cannot have been lost upon the attention and consideration of men charged with the responsible duty of administering the affairs of an empire. I want, therefore, to know not only what, in the opinion of the Government, has been the main cause of these calamitous events, but whether they were forewarned? I wish to know whether, in their opinion, the cause is political or religious, whether it has originated in the maladministration of our affairs, or in some burst of fanaticism which ought, perhaps, to have been foreseen, even if it could not have been prevented? I wish to know what has been the general nature of the communications received by the Government from the highest Authorities in India, military and civil, upon this subject? I wish to know whether it be true or untrue that, months ago, the highest military Authority in India warned Her Majesty's Ministers of the unsatisfactory state of our army there? I wish to know whether there have been placed before the Ministry statements and complaints that our army in India is under-officered? I wish to know whether it has been represented to Her Majesty's Government that the habit of employing our regimental officers in civil and diplomatic services, without substituting men of equal experience and rank in their places, has exercised an injurious influence upon the discipline and the spirit of the army? I wish to know whether the civil and the military Authorities of India have been in accord, as to the information they have given, and the representations they have made—whether the highest civil Authority in India is not agreed with the highest military Authority there in the policy which he recommended, and the views which he wished to enforce? I would even ask of Her Majesty's Ministers whether the Governor General of India, at this moment, has expressed his willingness to resign the high office which he held? These are questions which, I think, under the circumstances, Her Majesty's Ministers should not shrink from frankly meeting. I have refrained from entering into any controversial question. If it be necessary that the Government of India should be brought under the consideration of this House, no doubt a fitting opportunity will be offered for doing so I have confined myself to asking questions which, I believe, anxiously occupy the public attention at this moment, which appear 540 to me to be proper and fair inquiries to address to the Government, and to which I trust I shall receive a frank and full reply. I would presume, before I sit down, Sir, to make only one observation on the state of India. No one can, for a moment, shut his eyes to the extreme peril to which, at this moment, our authority is subject in that country; but I cannot say, little as my confidence has ever been in the Government of India, that I take those despairing or desperate views with respect to our position in that country which, in moments of danger and calamity, are too often prevalent. I would express my opinion—an opinion which I have before expressed in this House—that the tenure by which we hold India is not a frail tenure; but, when we consider that that great country is inhabited by twenty-five nations different in race, different in religion, and different in language, I think it is not easy, perhaps it is not possible, for such heterogeneous elements to fuse into combination. Everything, however, is possible; every disaster is practicable, if there be an inefficient or negligent Government. It is to prevent such evils that I think the House of Commons is performing its highest duty, if it takes the earliest opportunity after the intelligence has arrived—intelligence which has produced great alarm in the capital of Her Majesty's empire—of inviting Her Majesty's Ministers frankly to express to Parliament what, in their opinion, is the cause of the great calamity that has occurred—and, above all, what are the means which they intend to take—and at once to take—in order to encounter the peril before us, and to prevent the evil consequences which may be apprehended.
MR. VERNON SMITHI rise, Sir, readily to respond, as far as the occasion will permit, to the call of the right hon. Gentleman, and certainly no one can feel the least surprise, considering the grave intelligence which has come from India, that a gentleman occupying so prominent a position in public affairs as the right hon. Gentleman should make some inquiries respecting the state of that country from Her Majesty's Government. In what has fallen from the right hon. Gentleman I have little to gainsay or to contradict, with the exception, perhaps, of the observation that the Russian war was conducted entirely for the security of our Indian empire. Sir, the Russian war was not conducted entirely for the security of our Indian 541 empire. If it had been we should still be waging it; because I believe that if any persons were sorry for the conclusion of that war, they were the residents of India and the Indian Government. They would have wished that Power to have been infinitely more thwarted than it was, and to have been beaten infinitely further from the approaches to the Indian empire. The right hon. Gentleman asked the Government what advices they had received from India, and what preparations they were about to make to put an end to the evils occurring there; and the right hon. Gentleman added, in a manner befitting the occasion, and which did honour to himself, that the House of Commons would be prepared to place at the disposal of Her Majesty any means whatever that might be required for that purpose. Her Majesty's Government have been fully alive to that, and, feeling confidence in the House of Commons, they have immediately decided upon sending out reinforcements of European troops to India; but, as the right hon. Gentleman has asked the question, perhaps it would be satisfactory to the House that I should state with the utmost frankness, and with something of detail, what those reinforcements are. I am now speaking in the month of June—but by the middle of next month, I hope—the transports being provided—that there will sail from this country nearly 10,000 men. Those forces were partly in preparation before: 7,690 of them consist of reliefs and recruits to the Queen's army, and the complement of the East India Company's recruits brings up the whole number to 9,940, or, in round numbers, 10,000 men. But that is not all. The House is probably aware that under the Act of Parliament the Government has no right to provide more than a certain number of Queen's troops for India without the application of the Court of Directors. The Court of Directors immediately upon receipt of this intelligence determined to make such application; and I need scarcely say that if they had not done so, the Government would have called upon Parliament to give them fresh powers for the purpose. The Court of Directors, however, willingly came forward, and they have applied for 4,000 fresh men, so that I hope that in the course of a very short time 14,000 European troops, partly reliefs, partly recruits, and partly additional troops will be on their way from these shores to India. I hope that the House 542 will not be carried away by any notion that we exaggerate the danger because we have determined upon sending out these troops. It is as a measure of security alone that these troops are sent out. And, Sir, with respect to the danger to be apprehended, I must quarrel with the expression made use of by the right hon. Gentleman. I cannot agree with the right hon. Gentleman when, after summing up the possible dangers that might occur, he tells us that our Indian empire is "imperilled" by the present disaster. I deny that assertion. I say that our Indian empire is not "imperilled," and I hope that in a short time the disaster, dismal as it undoubtedly is, will be effectually suppressed by the force already in that country. I need not detail to the House the transactions which have taken place, because every hon. Gentleman has read in the journals of the day a pretty faithful narrative of them; but I might say that I am proud of the manner in which the Indian service have acted. I think that no better example could be found in civil life than that which was set by Mr. Colvin in Agra and the two Lawrences in Oude and the Punjab, and the Governor General has expressed his delight and satisfaction at having to act with men of such sound and vigorous judgment. Everything that can be done is being done in India, and troops have been already marched up to surround what the right hon. Gentleman calls the ancient capital of the Moguls, the city of Delhi. Luckily the outrage has taken place there, because it is notorious that Delhi may be easily surrounded, so that if we could not reduce the place by force we could by famine. But I have no doubt that it will be reduced by force immediately that a man of the well-known vigour of action of my gallant friend General Anson, who now commands the army of the North, appears before the walls of Delhi; and, at the date of the mail leaving, we had advices that General Anson would shortly be before the town with an ample force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Unfortunately the mail left on the 18th ultimo, and I cannot, therefore, apprise the House that the fort of Delhi has been razed to the ground; but I hope that by the next mail we shall receive intelligence that ample retribution has by this time been inflicted on the mutineers who occupy that city. The right hon. Gentleman proceeded to inquire what were the causes of the disaffection, and he dwelt upon a good many of them 543 which have been circulated in different quarters of society; but when he asks whether the Government has been advised of those causes and has failed to remedy them, I can only say that no application has been made from the local Governments till now for an increase of force, and I may add, that the remedy which is always suggested for every evil is an increase of the European force. The right hon. Gentleman has referred, inter alia, to the withdrawal of military men for the civil service. That has been the habitual custom of the Indian Government for a long series of years, and has never been disapproved of; but whenever a regiment is called into action on foreign or domestic service, it is the duty of all military men who are engaged in the civil service immediately to join their regiments. Another cause, and a very delicate one, is the alleged interference with the religion of the Native troops. There certainly has arisen of late an impression among the troops that there was to be a general conversion of the Natives to Christianity; and the feeling of insubordination, as the right hon. Gentleman is aware, broke out first in the 19th Regiment, with the refusal of the men to bite the new cartridges, which were supposed to be greased with an animal substance which they abhor. Those and other causes have concurred, particularly in the Bengal army, to produce results which are undoubtedly deserving of the deepest consideration, but I am not aware that they have even been brought so prominently before the Government as to justify a charge of neglect against the Government for not having applied a remedy to them. No doubt the Bengal army is the one chiefly animated by this kind of disaffection, owing partly to the higher caste of the Sepoys enlisted in it, and partly to other causes which will require and will receive the most anxious and careful investigation at the hands of the Government. The right hon. Gentleman alluded to some other matters which I had rather that he had omitted, such as an alleged difference between the Governor General and the Commander in Chief. I am quite aware that a rumour of that kind has been bruited about in private circles, but of my own knowledge I know nothing of it. In their communications with me, however, I have always heard those Gentlemen speak in the highest possible terms of each other, and I am not aware that there are such 544 differences between them as might not be allowed between all men acting together in public life without endangering private friendship. Then the last question which the right hon. Gentleman asked was, whether the Governor General had not offered his resignation—whether, in fact, he had not actually resigned. Resign in such a crisis as this! Why, Sir, I should imagine that there is no one less likely to allow such a thought to enter his head than my noble Friend Lord Canning, and I am happy to state, that neither on this occasion, nor on any previous occasion, has my noble Friend tendered his resignation. Lord Canning has behaved in this emergency with the vigour and judgment which I should always have anticipated. His letters show no want of calmness, no lack of confidence. He says that he is certain that he shall be able to put this revolt down, and he adds, that when he has done so he shall turn his mind to ascertaining the causes which have led to it, and the best means of remedying them, as far as lies in his power. There has been no lukewarmness on his part, no backwardness, no shilly-shallying. His letter breathes that calm confidence and self-possession which best become a noble and generous mind. I have no hesitation in prophesying that my noble Friend will prove himself perfectly equal to the occasion. He may be surrounded in Calcutta by persons who entertain fears, but he has invariably reproved them; but when people talk of the panic which exists in India, the best possible test of that, probably, is that delicate barometer of the state of public feeling—the funds. They have not been disturbed, and I believe that the Company's paper remains in exactly the same state as it was before these occurrences took place. The right hon. Gentleman is aware that to enter into too much detail would not be wise on the present occasion. I could, if it were necessary, detail to the House every spot at which troops are quartered, and every arrangement which has been made thereon, for the fullest information has been sent home as regards the Punjab, Bengal, and all other parts of India. Suffice it to say, that there will be European troops in India equal to any emergency, and, as a proof of the truth of this statement, the House need only turn to the conduct of the troops during the Persian war—troops whom General Outram described to be in as fine a condition 545 as any troops in the world. On the arrival of some of those troops at Bombay they were immediately shipped to Calcutta, thence to be conveyed in boats up the Ganges to the vicinity of Delhi, if affairs there are not brought to an earlier conclusion. I am not aware of anything else respecting which I have not offered as frank and sincere explanation as possible on the present occasion. As regards the allusion to the existence of danger in the present state of things in India, I do not believe that any danger does exist further than what must arise from any outbreak which may happen periodically in India from fanaticism or other causes, to be put down as surely as the present outbreak will be. Therefore, I anticipate no danger to our Indian empire, but I can express no surprise or objection that the right hon. Gentleman, under the existing grave circumstances in India, and considering the loss of life which has taken place, accompanied by horrors I should be sorry to detail, should have brought the subject under the notice of the House, and called for an explanation, which I hope I have tendered, however imperfectly, with all frankness.