Lords Sitting of 18 May 1852

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS. — Reported. — Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; Protestant Dissenters.
3a Bishopric of Christchurch (New Zealand; Disabilities Repeal.

THE WAR WITH AVA.
The EARL of ELLENBOROUGHsaid, that seeing his noble Friend at the head of the Government in his place, he wished to repeat a question which he had put a fortnight ago, with respect to the production of papers relative to the war with Ava. He hoped that his right hon. Friend at the head of the Board of Control would by this mail have received despatches which would enable his noble Friend at the head of the Government to state whether or not he was
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prepared to lay those papers on the table. He wished also to ask a question of the noble Earl with reference to a reflection which had been cast upon the conduct of General Godwin, the officer appointed to command the expedition. It had been imputed to him that, through his appointment, a delay had taken place in the sailing of that expedition. Now, he (the Earl of Ellenborough) knew that this was destitute of foundation, for he knew that General Godwin, being then at Umballa, received by express on the 18th of February orders to come and advise with the Government at Calcutta. He arrived at Meerut on the 23rd, and he then travelled for ten successive days and nights, reaching Calcutta on the 2nd of March; having made a journey of 1,000 miles in ten days, under difficulties, arising from the badness of the roads and the heat of the climate, of which few in this country had any idea. It was not until the 14th of March that the wing of a regiment required to join the expedition arrived at Calcutta, nor until a subsequent period that the 43rd Regiment arrived there; and it was not until the 24th of March that the troops were ready to sail. It was, therefore, impossible that the appointment of this officer to the command, could have delayed the sailing of the expedition. So far as he was able to judge from the information of which he was in possession, the appointment of that officer was a very proper one, for, as he was practically acquainted with the country, and had attained distinction there, he was likely to carry on the war with more advantage than a person who was totally ignorant of the locality. He did feel it very hard upon an officer serving his country to the best of his ability, at a great distance from home, and in the command of an expedition employed upon a most arduous service, that at the very commencement of that service his character should be thus maligned and misrepresented as that of a man unfit to command. Notwithstanding his own conviction and knowledge that no delay did arise in consequence of the appointment of that officer, he should be glad to have from his noble Friend at the head of the Government an assurance (if the despatches just received enabled him to give it) that no delay in the sailing of the expedition to Ava had actually been caused by the appointment of General Godwin.
The EARL of DERBYsaid, that he had no doubt his noble Friend who had just addressed the House was better acquainted

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with the details of the circumstances to which he had referred, than any Member of the Government except the head of. the department to which the despatches were addressed. Despatches had been received at the India House the day previously, but they had not yet reached the Government. In consequence, however, of his having received from his noble Friend notice that he intended to put this question, he (the Earl of Derby) had ascertained that the Governor General made no complaint of any delay having taken place in the sailing of any part of the expedition; and he was sure that no blame could attach to General Godwin, because the whole tenor of the despatches was in the highest degree commendatory of the conduct of that officer. With regard to the other question, as to the information we have received from Ava, although the Government had not heard that the King of Ava had positively refused to make us any reparation, yet we knew that he had sent no answer to our message, and there was too much reason to fear that hostilities had commenced. The despatches which had been received should be laid on the table of the House in the course of a few days.

THE BISHOPRIC OF CHRISTCHURCH (NEW ZEALAND) BILL.
The BISHOP of OXFORD, in moving the Third Reading of the Bishopric of Christchurch (New Zealand) Bill, said that he did not like that that Bill should leave their Lordships' House, taking as it did from his right rev. Friend the Bishop of New Zealand a portion of his diocese, without there going forth from that House a voice which might reach to him in his sphere of labour and self-denial, and might express to him the interest with which his course in his diocese was remarked here, and the admiration which was felt for the unusual efforts he had made for its good administration, and for the spread of the Gospel around, and might show him that he was here at home sympathised with and appreciated. When he went out to that see, he undertook no ordinary task. He was placed on an island in which his diocese was divided into seven different districts, inaccessible by any mode of conveyance except by sea; and, as he had then no ordinary means of transit by sea, he had to pass over from one side of the island to the other on foot, often arriving at the place of his destination worn out in body, and sometimes with his clothes torn
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from him; and this he did undeterred by the fact that he had to cross rivers over which there were no bridges, and where there were. no boats to take him across. He had, however, accomplished his vocation by the utmost sacrifices of labour, of toil, and often of danger. When he had brought his diocese in these islands into something like order, he undertook the work of endeavouring to spread through the countless islands around him some knowledge of that true faith of which he was the chief minister. It was mentioned by the noble Lord the late Secretary for the Colonies a few evenings previously that by some sort of mistake there had been put into his patent some extraordinary degree of latitude, which brought his diocese almost up to the Sandwich Islands. But his right rev. Friend had, so far as was possible, given practical effect to what was no doubt a mistake. He had founded a college in the island of New Zealand, to which he had brought from the different clusters of islands around it those youths who were trusted to him, in order that, after receiving in New Zealand an English and Christian education, they might go back to their heathen friends, to be the means of disseminating the principles of Christianity and civilisation. He had also undertaken to act as captain of the ship in which he sailed, and practically to navigate it; and he conducted with his own hand these operations, that he might not draw on any resources which might be spent in other ways. He had exposed his life (very recently indeed) to the greatest possible risks, that he might more effectually perform this, his labour of love, and he had been prospered in it in a way and to a degree which gave us a promise that from New Zealand, as a centre at the other side of the earth, there should go forth the healing influences of Christianity; through all those groups of islands which were sprinkled over the Antipodes. As it had fallen to his lot to conduct this Bill through that House, he thought it due to his right rev. Brother that there should go forth to him such an expression of sympathy as might cheer him in his often lonely and unappreciated work, and might convey to him the assurance that at home, in that as well as every other assembly of his countrymen, he met with sympathising hearts who could appreciate his efforts.
The BISHOP of LONDONexpressed his cordial concurrence in what had fallen from the right rev. Prelate who had just ad.

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dressed the House, in praise of the zeal, and energy, and devotedness which had been displayed by the Bishop of New Zealand. He thought those who had read the correspondence which had passed between his right rev. Friend and Her Majesty's Government, and the different religious bodies in this country, would be inclined to adopt the conclusion at which he (the Bishop of London) had long since arrived —that if this country wished to consolidate our connexion with our distant colonies, and to secure the continuance of their affection towards the mother country long after that connexion should have ceased, and they should have become independent States, we could not adopt a wiser course than to send out such men as Bishop Sel-wyn and others (for he was not the only colonial bishop whose conduct was deserving of the highest eulogium) to found and consolidate those Churches by whose medium the principles which it was the work of the Church of England to teach, might be wisely diffused and disseminated through these distant dependencies. Such men as those to whom he had referred knew that they best discharged their duty to their country while they were faithfully, zealously, and with great self-denial fulfilling the duties which they owed to the great Head of the Church whose delegated stewards they were.
Bill read 3a, and passed.
House adjourned to Friday next.