COLONEL NORTHsaid, he rose to ask the President of the Board of Control whether it was intended, either by Her Majesty's Government or by the East India Company, to propose the grant of a pension to Major General Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, K.C.B., for his distinguished services in the defence of the Residency at Lucknow. He had delayed any allusion to this subject until the last moment, hoping that the Government or the Company would 2353 have rendered any such step on his part unnecessary, by themselves, recognizing the services of General Inglis; and it was with pain and regret that he asked the question now, convinced as he was that it would have been far more gratifying to the feelings of this distinguished officer if any such recognition of his services had been spontaneously made by them. He (Colonel North) would not do the House the injustice to suppose that the events of the siege of Lucknow and its heroic defence had passed from their memories. Viscount Canning, in his general order of the 9th of December, 1857, had done justice to this heroic defence, and had spoken of Brigadier Inglis in terms of the highest praise. He might refer to the despatches of Sir J. Outram and Sir C. Campbell to show the high sense which they entertained of the services which had been rendered by the magnificent defence made by the garrison of Lucknow, and their admiration of the gallantry and ability which had been displayed by Major General Inglis, its commandant. The three most remarkable events connected with the contests in which we had been recently engaged, and those which excited the highest admiration, were the defence of Kars, the defence of Lucknow, and the relief of that band of heroes, who had formed its garrison by Sir H. Havelock. The defence of Lucknow had lasted for no less a period than eighty-seven days, and had resulted in saving to the Indian Government no less a sum than twenty-four lacs of rupees, thirty guns in position, an immense amount of ammunition, the jewels of the King, and, above all, in the preservation of the lives and honour of a large number of our countrywomen and their children. Major General Inglis had conducted that defence to a successful issue, and had, moreover, retained the responsibility of the command of the garrison, even after it had been relieved by Outram and Havelock. Now, what reward, he would ask, had been conferred upon him for services such as these? The gallant defender of Kars, as a reward for what he had done, had been made a general officer, a Knight Commander of the Bath, a Baronet, had in addition received a pension, and was at the present moment Commandant at Woolwich. That gallant officer, he was ready to admit, merited all the honours which a grateful country could confer upon him, while Sir H. Havelock, who had also performed most distinguished services for England, and who had relieved the 2354 garrison at Lucknow, had been made a general officer, a Knight Commander of the Bath, a Baronet, had received a pension, had been appointed to the command of a regiment, and had received a command in India. Brigadier Inglis, however, whose conduct had been spoken of in terms so flattering by Sir J. Outram and Sir C. Campbell, who had prosecuted a "magnificent" defence to a successful issue, had up to this moment received merely the honour of being made a Knight of the Bath and a general officer. He held, it was true, also at the present moment a command in India; but what, he would ask, was the cause of his being present in England at this moment? It was the state of his health, which had become considerably impaired, and what, under these circumstances, would be likely to be the result of his return to India, whither he (Colonel North) believed he was about to proceed towards the close of the year? He would not be able to endure the climate of that country, and must, therefore, in all probability, return to England as a general officer, with £400 a year. In consequence of his having been removed from the command of the 32nd Regiment, and promoted to the rank of a general officer, he (Colonel North) believed that Major General Inglis was placed in a worse position than he had occupied before. As colonel of the 32nd Regiment he might, if his health had failed him, have exchanged into a regiment on home service, or to one which was on duty in a more favourable climate. He could also very easily have retired from the command of the regiment by the sale of his commission. Owing to his promotion, however, he would have great difficulty in disposing of his commission as a general officer. He should, under these circumstances, put it to the House whether in their opinion Major General Inglis had received a sufficient reward for the very distinguished services which he had rendered to his country? That gallant officer was, however, but a single instance of the pecuniary loss which promotions sometimes entailed. Colonel Lake, who had been the right-hand man of the hon. and gallant Member for Calne in his defence of Kars, furnished another example. That distinguished soldier had been removed from the East India Company's service to the Queen's, and that removal had, in a pecuniary point of view, been 2355 his ruin. He found that, as an Engineer officer, there was no employment for him in our service, whereas if he had continued in the service of the Company he might have had an appointment of not less than £1,600 a year. True, he had been made an aide-de-camp to the Queen; but he might have received that honour and remained in the Company's service. With regard, however, to Sir John Inglis, he (Colonel North) was confident that there was not a man in the country who would not rejoice to find the Government rewarding him in a manner that was commensurate with the value of his services. For his part, he did not see why the same honours should not be conferred upon hint that had been awarded to Sir H. Havelock.
SIR WALTER FARQUHARsaid, he was glad that his hon. and gallant Friend had with so much ability brought under the consideration of the House the services of that most distinguished officer Sir J. Inglis. The House ought, of course, to be careful how they trenched upon the prerogative of the Crown in interfering with the recommendations of the executive Government; but he could not help recollecting that on a former occasion, when the services of that distinguished man, Sir Henry Havelock, were brought before the House by the noble Lord the Member for Tiverton, who proposed that a pension of £1,000 a year should be settled upon him, many hon. Members stated that they did not think that was an adequate remuneration for so great a man; and the feeling of the House was so unanimous against the grant of so small a remuneration, that the noble Lord yielded to it, and willingly, and he must say most gracefully, came forward on a subsequent occasion to propose that £1,000 should be settled upon Sir Henry Havelock for life, and that the pension on his death should pass to his most gallant son. And more than that, when the country had occasion to lament the loss of that valuable life—when that gallant man fell, borne down by fatigue, by action, by exposure, by over-strained exertions of body and mind, £1,000 was also settled upon Lady Havelock. That generosity on the part of the Government was hailed throughout the country with universal satisfaction; and he was confident that the country would be delighted to hear that it was the intention of the Government to recommend that a pension be settled on Sir J. Inglis. He held in 2356 his hand an extract from a despatch written by Sir J. Inglis to General Havelock, on the 25th of August, which showed more clearly than any words which he could use what was the condition of the garrison of Lucknow at that time. He had seen the original of this most remarkable document, the smallest possible scrap of paper, which was carried to General Havelock by a cossid after that General's first retirement from Lucknow. He (Sir W. Farquhar) had had himself the satisfaction of taking it to Lady Chelmsford, the mother of Lady Inglis. Every word of it relating to Lucknow was written in Greek, for the purpose of preventing the information reaching the enemy should it fall into his hands; the rest was written in English. He would take the liberty of reading the extract, which was as follows:—
You must bear in mind how I am hampered; that I have upwards of 120 sick and wounded, and at the least 220 women and 130 children, and no carriage of any description, besides sacrificing 23 lacs of treasure, and 30 guns of all sorts. In consequence of the news, I shall soon put the force on half rations, unless I hear again from you. Our provisions will last us till about the 10th of September. If you hope to save this force, no time must be lost in pushing forwards. We are daily being attacked by the enemy, who are within a few yards of our defences. Their mines have already weakened our post, and I have every reason to believe they are carrying on others. Their 18-pounders are within 150 yards of some of our batteries, and from their position and our inability to form working parties we cannot reply to them, and the damage done hourly is very great. My strength now in Europeans is 350, and about 300 Natives, and the men dreadfully harassed, and owing to part of the Residency having been brought down by round shot many are without shelter. Our Native Horse having been assured, on Colonel Tytler's authority, of your near approach some twenty-five days ago are naturally losing confidence, and if they leave us I do not see how the defences are to be manned. Since the above was written, the enemy have sprung another mine, which has given us a great deal of trouble and caused some loss.'In giving praise to this distinguished man he wished it to be distinctly understood that he did not at all mean to detract from the praise due to the illustrious Sir Henry Lawrence; for it was owing to his precautions that the garrison were able to hold out at all. But Sir Henry Lawrence died on the 4th of July, and Mr. Banks, who succeeded him, was killed on the 22nd. From the 22nd of July till its relief the whole responsibility of the lives of the men, women, and children, and the garrison of Lucknow, devolved upon Sir J. Inglis. By God's mercy, he (Sir W. Farquhar) had 2357 been permitted to see his son, who was lying prostrate with fever and wounds at Lucknow, and who lamented that on that account he was not able to do the hard work which others did, nor to be so useful as he could have wished, but who was ready to lay down his life to save those who were intrusted to his care. He had heard that son recount with his own lips in glowing terms what others did in defence of the garrison of Lucknow. He told him, with the highest pleasure, of the undaunted courage, unceasing vigilance, and heroic endurance of that noble garrison. It was due to that commander, who, by his energy, ability, and courage, gave so splendid an example to the garrison, that some great compliment should be paid to him by the country for which he had suffered and fought. He trusted that the Government would listen to the recommendations of his hon. and gallant Friend. The highest authority in "another place"—no less than the Prime Minister himself—had stated that the defence of Lucknow by Sir John Inglis was one of the most remarkable of modern times.