§ Order of the Day for the consideration of THE QUEEN'S Message of Yesterday read.
§ Message read.
§ EARL GRANVILLEMy Lords, pursuance of the notice which I gave yesterday, I rise to perform a very agreeable duty—to submit to your Lordships a proposition which will, I believe, meet with your entire and unanimous concurrence—namely, that we should thank Her Majesty for the gracious Message which has just been read, and that we should assure Her Majesty of our readiness to concur in enabling Her Majesty to make provision for securing to Sir William Fenwick Williams a pension of £1,000 per annum for the term of his natural life. I stated yesterday, after giving notice of this Motion, that Her Majesty had also been graciously pleased to announce Her intention of conferring upon General Williams a Baronetcy under the style and title of Sir William Fenwick Williams of Kars. I believe your Lordships are aware that General Williams is an artillery officer in Her Majesty's service. I understand that he was placed in the Royal Artillery Academy at Woolwich by the late Duke of Kent, and, without being able to specify exact dates, I may state that he was sent out in early life on special service to Ceylon, where for about nine years he discharged the duties of an engineer. In 1843 General Williams was appointed by the noble Earl on the benches below me (the Earl of Aberdeen) a Commissioner for examining into the boundary between the Turkish and Persian territories, a work of very great hardship and difficulty, in which he was occupied about nine years, four of which were actually passed under canvass. During that time the life of General Williams was 239 frequently in great danger, and he was also exposed to the deadly diseases which are incident to the localities which were the scene of his labours. A noble friend of mine, who is not now in the House, told me the other day with some pride—pride which I could easily understand—that previous to the appointment I have just mentioned, his gallant father, Lord Vivian, was the person who selected Captain Williams, as he then was, to be sent out to instruct the Turks in artillery practice,—an arm in which they have shown, during the late war, that they have not neglected the lessons of their European instructors. General Williams, from the peculiar experience he had gained in these services, was selected by the noble Earl near me, (the Earl of Aberdeen), and by the Secretary of State for Foreign affairs, to go out as Her Majesty's Commissioner to the Turkish army in Asia, and I think the event has proved that a more fit appointment has scarcely ever been made. General Williams appears to have arrived at Erzeroum in September, 1854, and a few days afterwards he reached Kars. The events of the memorable defence of Kars are well known to your Lordships, and although the military operations at Kars and at Silistria cannnot fail to give us the highest satisfaction on account of the valuable services which were rendered at both places by English officers, yet painful occurrences took place during the fourteen months of General Williams's command at Kars which I shall not recall to your Lordships' recollection. Such a retrospect would, I think, be most inappropriate on the present occasion, and I am the better enabled to avoid that retrospect because the whole question relating to those occurrences, and the parties to whom blame attached, has been incidentally discussed in this House, and has been debated in the other House on a specific motion upon which a Vote was taken. I am, therefore, relieved from the necessity of entering into questions relating to the British Government or to the British Ambassador; and still more should I think it unbecoming to point out any deficiencies which may have been thought to exist on the part of our Allies, the Turks. With regard to the merits of General Williams himself, I have felt very strongly the danger of exaggerating those merits. Even during the last two years, when exaggerated blame has been attached to persons both living and 240 dead, we have seen reaction in proportion to the previous exaggeration; and there is the same danger that in the case of a person who should be selected for the popular idol for the moment, any exaggeration of praise may be followed by a corresponding and still more painful reaction. Having consulted all the evidence to which it was in my power to refer, referring to this subject—the official letters of General Williams, the book of Dr. Sandwith, one of his associates, and the popular accounts of the siege contained in the press—I am bound to say that I have failed to discover any ground for that sort of discriminating criticism which might give additional weight to the praise I wish to bestow. At the commencement of General Williams's correspondence there appears to be a tone which, if we had not known that it was so completely justified by subsequent events, might have appeared a little querulous. Those events put any such criticism completely out of the question. There is only one point with respect to which I conceive that General Williams has not exhibited the greatest qualities of a commander, and that is entirely owing to his not having had the opportunity of showing what are his powers of manœuvring a large army in the field. But in respect to the other qualifications of a distinguished military leader, I must say that to his possession of them the amplest testimony has been borne. In considering the career of General Williams I could not help thinking of a celebrated passage which occurs in the work of a great French historian of the last war, and which has before this been quoted in reference to one of the greatest military leaders whom this country has produced. Entering into a consideration of the various and complex qualities which are necessary to form a great commander, the passage to which I allude points out the necessity that such a man should not be alone a general, an engineer, and a geographer, but that he should be well versed in human nature, adroit in the management of men, possessed of qualities which would enable him to act as a Minister of State, and endowed with the versatility which would place it within his power to descend from the performance of those high functions to the discharge of the duties of a commissary's clerk. Now, taking these conditions for the formation of a great commander, as set forth in the passage to which I have alluded, I think I may say that General 241 Williams will be found to have complied with them in a, remarkable degree. I have referred to his services at Ceylon at a time when he was acting as an engineer in a tropical climate; I have stated that when laying down the boundary between the Turkish and Persian territories he found an opportunity of displaying his eminent powers as a geographer;—it is impossible to read his despatches, written under great difficulties—it is impossible to observe the manner in which he dealt with persons placed in high authority—it is impossible to note the vigour of the measures which he took in organising the defence of Kars, and in provisioning that fortress, objects which he accomplished in an incredibly short time—without feeling that he was gifted with some, at all events, of the most important qualities which tend to form a great Minister of State. And when your Lordships bear in mind that he had only the assistance of Mr. Churchill in discharging the business of the commissariat, I am sure you will not be disposed to deny him the capability of descending to the performance of the duties of a commissary's clerk. Regarding him as a man conversant with human nature, I do not think it is possible to find an instance in the late campaign in which—the difference of class and religion which prevailed among those with whom he had to deal being taken into consideration—any man has proved himself superior in that respect to General Williams. The principle upon which he acted seemed to be this; when he discovered a really efficient man, and one whom he could trust, to place in that man the most implicit confidence. To those whom he found to be incapable, he was as hard as iron. In the case of those masses whose necessities he was bound to consider, he showed the greatest amount of philanthropic interest which it was possible to exhibit. And I must say that one of the most remarkable instances of the influence which by the force of his character he was able to exert over all who happened to come in contact with him, is the co-operation between the Christians and the Mussulmans which by the intellectual energy which he exhibited he had the good fortune to effect. I am happy to have it in my power to cite this instance, because I look upon it as an auspicious omen of the good which is likely to result of that hatti-sheriff which the Sultan has now so liberally granted in the case of his Christian subjects. If anything 242 were wanting to complete our sense of the reputation which General Williams has acquired for himself, it would be found in the respect and courtesy with which he is treated by a generous foe. My noble Friend at the head of the Foreign Department took occasion, a few evenings ago, at a banquet in the City of London, to read a letter from General Williams, in which that gallant officer warmly describes the kindness which he has received at the hands of General Mouravieff, and the exceeding humanity which was displayed by the Russian commander, not alone to the English, but also to the Turkish soldiers, whom the fate of war had made his prisoners at Kars. For my own part, I must say that I hardly know of any circumstance more calculated to create a kindly feeling between two great nations which have just ceased to wage war one against the other, than the fact that one of the British officers whose actions have won for him the highest distinction in the military history of the last two years, has been treated with kindness and respect by that general who, during the same period, was the most fortunate of the commanders in the service of the Russian Emperor. My Lords, having said thus much of General Williams, I may observe that I do not think I should be pursuing a course which would be acceptable to that gallant officer if I were to pass over without comment those who were associated with him in the glorious struggle in which he was engaged. One of those was Colonel Lake, who, in the part which he played in that struggle, exhibited not only great energy, but the most admirable skill. It is scarcely within my province to offer an opinion upon such subjects, yet I may say that I have been informed by those well qualified to speak upon such a point, that Colonel Lake's system of fortifications was of the most admirable and effective description; that they were such as to render Fort Lake itself absolutely impregnable; while the other forts were so constructed, that they could not by any possibility be attacked without exposing the assailants to the most destructive fire. It was but the other day that I saw a statement to the effect, that General Williams had designated the gallant officer of whom I have just spoken as the Todleben of Kars—a complement the highest and the most graceful which, in my opinion, could be paid him. Another officer who is deserving of the greatest commendation is Captain Thompson, who 243 was seriously wounded in the early part of the struggle, who, in consequence, returned to this country in ill health, but who only remained ten days—scarcely time to embrace his mother—when he started in a crippled state for Kars. I am told that Captain Thompson held the eastern portion of the fortifications of Kars in a manner beyond all praise, and that he contributed greatly to the success of the engagement by opportunely bringing up some heavy guns, and by a flank movement of some riflemen which he ordered to be executed in anticipation of instructions subsequently issued by the general in command. There is also another gentleman, whose name will not soon fade away from the annals of English military history—I allude to Major Teesdale. I have been informed that that gallant officer, only twenty-three years old, and of so boyish an appearance as to make his appointment to a position of great responsibility seem almost ridiculous—has had the highest testimony borne to his merit, while acting in the absence of General Williams, as commissioner at Kars. He was in that capacity consulted upon matters of the greatest importance and the minutest detail by grey-headed generals of the Turkish army. My Lords, I scarcely know of anything more characteristic of that courage, that humanity, and that modesty by which English officers are so much distinguished, than the fact that is recorded by Dr. Sandwith in his interesting book, that he, as well as the other companions of Major Teesdale, learned for the first time, from the lips of Russian officers, the circumstance that they had seen that young and heroic soldier jump over the walls of the fortifications amid a shower of bullets, to rescue a Russian officer from death. I am glad to be able to mention, in connection with the names to which I have already called your Lordships' attention, that of a civilian as one of the heroes connected with the defence of Kars. The individual to whom I refer is Dr. Sandwith, who found himself placed in a position of great difficulty at the head of an hospital —filled, as has been said, with attar of roses—but which could furnish nothing that would be of any real service to an army in the field. He, however, in spite of enormous difficulties, put that hospital in a state of order which might afford a model for similar establishments nearer home, while, with a talent which appears to have belonged to him in common with 244 all his English companions, he acquired an influence over his Turkish assistants which stood him in good stead. I am not, of course, surprised to learn that he readily exposed himself to danger in the field in the discharge of his duties, because that has been done in almost every instance by those gentlemen connected with his profession who were attached to the army in the Crimea. We ought, however, I think, to extend to him the tribute of our admiration for the zeal which prompted him during more than one dreary month of the siege of Kars—notwithstanding the ample excuse afforded him by his multifarious civil occupations for declining to undertake any further duty—not to shrink from that distressing night work to which the necessity of having European eyes upon every exposed point in the fortifications rendered it necessary that he should subject himself, and not to shrink from it too at a time when the severity of the cold was such, that even the running streams passing through the town were frozen into solid ice. I have now mentioned to your Lordships some incidents which go to prove that, while men may make themselves glorious with the sword, it yet requires a pen in other hands to make them famous. These brave gentlemen will, no doubt, reap the reward of their gallant conduct while continuing to pursue the path of honour and utility in their several callings; yet I feel convinced that they will regard the compliment now paid to General Williams as reflecting some of its lustre on themselves. Before 1 sit down I cannot forbear from saying a word—although it forms no part of my present task—in recognition of the aid rendered to our countrymen by the foreigners with whom they were associated. Great praise is due to General Kmety, whom, as he is not likely to be recompensed by his own country, I should be the more loth to omit to name on this occasion. I have already observed that there are reasons why I should refrain from adverting to the conduct of the Turkish Government; but no such considerations of delicacy need prevent me from expressing what I believe to be the unanimous opinion of your Lordships in regard to the behaviour of the Turkish soldiers, than whom no troops have evinced in a higher degree the military virtues of courage, patience, sobriety, and frugality. A striking evidence of this was seen in the fact that, in the midst of famine these brave men guarded the provisions of the 245 army under the enemy's fire, and rather than touch the food intrusted to their charge preferred to die of hunger at their posts. My Lords, having briefly stated the reasons why I trust you will unanimously concur in this Motion, I have now only to move that—
An humble Address be presented to Her Majesty to return Her Majesty the thanks of this House for Her Majesty's most gracious Message, informing this House, "That Her Majesty is desirous of conferring a signal Mark of Her Favour and Approbation on Major-General Sir William Fenwick Williams, K.C.B., for the eminent and distinguished Services rendered by him as Her Majesty's Commissioner At the Head Quarters of the Turkish Army in Asia, and particularly in the gallant Defence of Kars;" and to assure Her Majesty that this House will cheerfully concur in enabling Her Majesty to make a Provision for securing to Sir William Fenwick Williams a Pension of £1,000 per annum for the Term of his natural life.Agreed to, Nemine Dissentiente; and the said Address ordered to be presented to Her Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.