§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHMy Lords, I was in hopes that it would not be necessary to draw your Lordships' attention, even for a single moment, to the lamentable events which have recently taken place in India; but more recent accounts, which I only perused last night, 1394 have given so grave a character to the mutinies which have occurred in that country that I cannot consistently with my duty abstain from asking a question of the noble Earl who represents the Government in this House. Such of your Lordships as have attended to the recent accounts from India must have read with much regret and pain the account of the mutiny of the 19th Regiment at Berhampore; you must have watched with great apprehension the march of that regiment to Barrackpore and its disbandment, under circumstances of the most perilous character, in the presence of five other native regiments. You must have looked with apprehension at similar appearances of mutiny in the Madras and Bombay armies. But that which has most alarmed me, and which gives a more serious character to all these appearances of insubordination, is that which has only come to our knowledge within the last few hours. I read in the latest accounts from India, that between the 16th and 25th of April there were seven incendiary fires at Umballa, and that the 3rd Regiment of Light Cavalry were in open mutiny at Meerut. How it can be possible that a regiment having no more than 400 sabres could for one half-hour be in a state of open mutiny in the cantonment of Meerut is what I cannot comprehend. At that station there is, I believe, a force of fifty-four guns forty-two of European and twelve of Native artillery; there is a regiment of European cavalry, the Carabineers; a battalion of the 60th Regiment, Queen's troops; and two regiments of Native infantry. The officer who commands that division had the means of putting down any mutiny in half an hour. Open mutiny is open war, and it is to be met only as open war carried on by an enemy in the field. I cannot but think that there must have been some strange misrepresentation and exaggeration in the accounts which we have received from Meerut. I have, however, looked most carefully into all the statements which we have received as to these mutinies in the Bengal Presidency, and I can come to no other conclusion than that the source of all that discontent and mutiny is the apprehension that there is an intention on the part of the Government to interfere with the religion of the natives. It is impossible to come to any other conclusion. Now, what has the Government done to put an end to that erroneous impression? 1395 When the 19th Regiment was disbanded at Barrack pore there was, no doubt, a passage in a long official paper emanating from the Governor General in Council, and read to the soldiery, which was to the effect that no one could pretend that the Government had at any time endeavoured to interfere with the religion of the people; but I cannot find that any notification has been made, as it should have been, at the quarters of every regiment and throughout the country, of the determination of the Government to adhere to its ancient policy of respecting the feelings and prejudices of the natives. I see no trace of there having been any general notification to that effect. It has been left entirely to the officers at the different stations to make any such notification as they should think fit under the circumstances. When the regiment was disbanded at Barrack pore, General Hearsey addressed it in terms which it is impossible to surpass in reasoning or in eloquence; and he afterwards addressed the whole of the native infantry at that station, and I do not recollect ever to have read at any time or in any history, attributed to any general in command of an army, or to any statesman who had to administer the Government of an empire, any oration more thoroughly reasoning, or more completely eloquent and convincing than the speech of General Hearsey addressed to the army on that occasion. And what should the course of the Governor General have been? Ought he not with his own hand in three sentences to have communicated to the whole country his cordial concurrence with everything which General Hearsey had said, and should be not have made his concurrence with that speech as public as the speech itself was necessarily made throughout the country? I am convinced that if the Governor General had pursued that course we should have heard no more of the incendiary fires at Umballa, nor of the open mutiny at Meerut. But that course was not taken; and although I absolve the Government of India, as a Government, from any intention to interfere with the religion of the natives, I must say that there have been of late—and daily increasing of late—circumstances which were calculated to excite in the minds of the natives great apprehension upon that subject. I saw in a newspaper which I read yesterday the names of colonels, and of six or eight important persons in the civil administration of the country, high in office, mentioned as being 1396 connected with missionary operations; and to my great astonishment—I can scarcely believe it now to be true, though I saw it distinctly stated in the papers—that the Governor General himself, Lord Canning, largely subscribes to every society which has for its object the conversion of the natives. My Lords, the Governor General of India can do nothing in his individual capacity. He cannot separate himself from his public character as Governor General. He is essentially the Government of the country. No one looks to anybody else. There may be others who think that they are of importance; but they are not. The only man looked to in India is the Governor General. It is not in India alone, but more particularly in India, that it is generally understood that if a man at the head of the Government earnestly desires anything, it is his intention to enforce his desire and to effect his purpose. I deem that fact of these subscriptions of Lord Canning, the Governor General of India, to societies having for their object the conversion of the natives, if it be true, to be one of the most dangerous things which could have happened to the security of our government in India. We must maintain that government as we have acquired it, by acting on the principles of Ackbar; but we cannot maintain it by attempting to act on the principles of Aurungzeb. You may depend upon it that if persons holding high office in the Government of India, and, above all, at the head of the Government, are permitted to act on this principle, and to indulge their own personal feelings—I do not doubt but they may be acting from conscientious motives—for the purpose of changing the religion of the people, you will see the most bloody revolution which has at any time occurred in India. The English will be expelled from India; and, expelled from that country, they will not leave behind them a dozen sincere converts to Christianity. The question which I wish to put to the noble Earl opposite is, whether instructions have been sent or will forthwith he sent to India, directing the different Governments to make known at every station of the army throughout the country, that the Government will for the future, as in times past, protect all its native subjects in the undisturbed exercise of their religion?
§ EARL GRANVILLEMy Lords, I have always been the first to express my admiration of the strong feeling of public 1397 spirit by which the noble Earl is actuated, and of the sincerity with which he advocates anything which lie conceives to be of advantage to our Indian empire; but I do think that he has acted on this occasion somewhat without consideration, and that the remarks which he has just made must have a mischievous tendency in India. Certainly, they can have no good result; and I do think that there is considerable inconvenience in bringing questions before Parliament based merely upon telegraphic information, There is no doubt that this great application of science is attended with this inconvenience—that it is impossible to rely upon the exact truth of any information which is forwarded merely by telegraph. No information connected with the statement made by the noble Earl having reached the Government, except by telegraph, it would be unwise of me to say how far I believe a great deal of that statement to be exaggerated. What astonished me was the attack made upon the Governor General by the noble Earl in the remarks which he made—remarks in which I entirely concur—as to the sacrifice of the really important interests of the country in what may be termed misguided attempts to proselytize the natives. I believe—although himself a sincerely religious man—there is no man more likely to act with judgment in every respect on these points than Lord Canning. I do not speak so much from my knowledge of the noble Lord as from the public and private letters which I have had the advantage of reading on these very points. I do not know whether he has subscribed to any missionary society, or under what circumstances such subscriptions may have been made; but I know that he has to deplore rumours which have been circulated of the most unfounded and ridiculous character, and which will gain some strength by the attack made upon him by a person of the eminence of the noble Earl. Amongst other reports it has been said that the Governor General left this country under a pledge to Lord Palmerston that he would do his best to convert the whole of the native population of India. I mention this just to show the character of the reports which were spread abroad on this point. As a personal friend of Lord Canning I rejoice that, from what I hear, the whole community of Calcutta has been struck with the firmness, judgment, and courage, which he has shown in dealing with the 1398 beginning of these mutinous proceedings. I may mention—for it shows what is my noble Friend's opinion on these points— that the first time he exercised his veto on a Bill of the Legislative Council was on account of a clause inserted in the Bill— it was in a Police Bill—which he conceived affected in some degree the religious feelings of the natives. I am glad that my noble Friend has had this opportunity of publicly testifying his opinion of the importance of abstaining from all attempts to interfere with the religion of the natives. I entirely concur in the eulogium which the noble Earl has pronounced on the speech of General Hearsey. That officer addressed the troops in their own language, I believe, in a most eloquent and forcible manner, and with a degree of feeling which seems to have had a great effect on them. I know that Lord Canning had a great admiration for that speech, He has called the attention of the Home Government to it, and to the merits of General Hearsey; and the charge of the noble Earl, therefore, on this point falls to the ground. My answer to the question with which the noble Earl concluded is, that the Government think that Lord Canning has acted with admirable judgment in abstaining from making any such notification as that suggested by the noble Earl. Such a notification, issued when the mutiny was threatened, would have appeared to be some sort of acknowledgment that it was a change in the policy of the Government, whereas it ought to be as patent as possible that it is, and always has been, and therefore always will continue to be, the policy of the Government to afford the greatest possible protection to the natives in the exercise of their religions rights. The course taken by Lord Canning has been more judicious than that pointed out by the noble Earl. The Government approve his nut having issued any such notification, and no instructions have been sent to India such as those suggested by the noble Earl.
§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYsaid that, although a friend of Lord Canning's, he did not regret that this matter had been brought forward by his noble Friend (the Earl of Ellenborough), On the contrary, he thought that as the noble Earl opposite (Earl Granville) had told them that the most unjustifiable rumours were in circulation respecting the feelings and opinions held by the Governor General of India with regard to the religious condition of 1399 the natives of that country, they were deeply indebted to his noble Friend (the Earl of Ellenborough) for having afforded the Government an opportunity of contradicting such rumours. The noble Earl opposite said we ought not to take for granted the truth of all the statements transmitted by the electric telegraph; but the rumours respecting the Governor General of India on this subject did not rest on such despatches only. He had seen it stated in letters from India that Lord Canning had subscribed to a missionary association having for its object the conversion of the Natives. Their Lordships were perfectly aware how religious a man Lord Canning was, and they also knew that he was a man of calm judgment and great caution. If, however, he had been led by his conscientious and religious feelings to join any association of the kind described, he (the Earl of Malmesbury) would not hesitate to say that, considering the position in which he stood, he had committed a very great error. The noble Earl did not exaggerate the effects likely to have been produced in India had the Governor General subscribed to such associations; for those persons who were engaged in conscientious and estimable exertions to convert the inhabitants of India would scarcely be able to refrain from giving themselves strength and power and importance by quoting his name in their intercourse with the people, and the population of India might be tempted to identify Lord Canning with the missionaries themselves. Knowing, however, Lord Canning's caution and judgment, he could not believe that he had been guilty of so imprudent an act as to mix himself up personally with these associations; and, as a friend of Lord Canning's, he could not, regret that the noble Earl opposite had had an opportunity of contradicting the rumours that were in circulation.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHwished to explain that having seen a statement with respect to Lord Canning, the Governor General of India, having subscribed to these societies—a statement so astonishing that he could not believe it— he thought it right at once to bring the fact under the notice of the Government, because he felt deeply that it involved a question affecting materially the security and stability of our Indian Empire.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEagreed with the noble Earl that it was 1400 impossible to overrate the importance of this subject. It was of the utmost importance that the conduct of Lord Canning in this matter should stand unimpeached until some specific facts were brought forward to which an answer or explanation could be given. One in his high position should hold himself aloof from any such associations as those which had been referred to. Indifference in such matters, in his public position, was one of the first duties of his Government, nor should he in any degree, or by any act of his, give countenance to such reports as seemed most unaccountably and mysteriously to have prevailed in India. He begged their Lordships to suspend their judgments till they had distinct information as to what were the specific associations and societies to which Lord Canning had subscribed. They would not be prepared to say that he should subscribe to nothing in India, or that the Government should define at once to what he should subscribe and to what he should not. But this he had to say, from not one only, but from repeated communications, both private and public, recently received from Lord Canning, that there was not a man in England—not even the noble Earl himself—who was more aware of the danger of countenance being given to such movements than he was. From day to day he had a full sense of the danger before his eyes, and he showed the greatest anxiety that it should not be possible for any one to deduce from his conduct the inference that he would be guilty of such a charge as the noble Lord had brought forward, Having the strongest public and private friendship for Lord Canning, he was yet prepared to state that if by any error or mistake of judgment—which he did not believe, and which he would not believe without proof—Lord Canning had so acted as to give countenance to such a belief as the noble Earl inferred, he would no longer deserve to be continued in his office as Governor General of India.
§ EARL GRANVILLEThe noble Earl has just furnished me with the source whence be derived his information—it is from an Indian newspaper—and it seems to me nothing can be more vague. For anything that appeared to the contrary it might be some scientific society, many of which had religious objects in view.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHsaid that what had fallen from the noble Marquess 1401 was perfectly satisfactory. He had said that if it were the fact that the Governor General had subscribed to any societies having for their object the conversion of the natives he ought to be removed from the office he held, and thus all danger arising from the error would be completely removed.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEwas understood to dissent from this interpretation, he was quite satisfied that Lord Canning would be able to justify anything he had done, and that no subscription he had given would be found to have the tendency that had been ascribed to it.