§ THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURYI beg to give notice that on Friday next I will move a Resolution condemnatory of the publication of the late despatch to the Governor General of India. I will put on the Notice-paper to-morrow the precise form of words in which I mean to bring forward that Resolution.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHI propose, for the convenience of the noble Earl, and of your Lordships generally, that the despatch shall be laid on the table in extenso. I may as well, perhaps, take this opportunity of explaining to your Lordships the accident by which the House of Commons got the whole of that document, while a portion of it only was laid before your Lordships. It was originally intended that it should be communicated entire to both Houses, and the hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Board of Control had taken a copy of it with him for the purpose of presenting it to the House of Commons. But at a later period of the day, and just before the House met, it was understood between my noble Friend at the head of the Government, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and myself, that extracts only should be given, as we considered it inexpedient that certain passages should be made public. But this arrangement was adopted too late, for the Secretary of the Board of Control had already laid the whole despatch before the House of Commons. I will also take this opportunity of removing a misunderstanding which appears to prevail on the other side of the House with respect to the communication of a copy of the despatch to a Gentleman in the House of Commons. The circumstances are these:—the noble Earl 324 opposite (Earl Granville) having put a Question relative to this despatch, a copy in extenso was privately communicated to him; and as he would naturally communicate it to his friends, it was thought only fair that the hon. Gentleman who has also put a Question on the subject in the House of Commons should have a similar opportunity of making the document known to his friends. That is the whole history of that portion of the transaction. I believe the noble Earl must have got his copy first, because the same messenger took both copies, but went to the noble Earl's residence first; and as the hon. Gentleman in question had left the residence to which I had directed his copy, I understand he did not receive it until three or four hours after the noble Earl received his.
THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDEHas the noble Earl got in his office any other despatch on the subject to which the omitted paragraphs relate, addressed by him to the Governor General? If any such despatch exists will he have any objection to lay it on the table?
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHThe noble Marquess will recollect it is the usage of this House to give notice of questions. I shall answer the question to-morrow.
§ EARL GREYWill the noble Earl also state to-morrow whether all the information in his possession on the subject is before us; and whether there is any further explanation from Lord Canning bearing upon this Proclamation than that contained in the papers to be laid before us?
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHI regret to say there is not. Though that letter was sent on the 3rd of March by the Governor General to Sir James Outram at Cawnpore from that hour to this we have heard nothing from him on the subject.
§ EARL GREYThen you have only received a draught of the Proclamation from the Governor General; you have not received the Proclamation as published?
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHWe only gather incidentally from some of the papers that the Proclamation has ever been published at all. We have no information whatever from the Governor General on the subject. He has been silent for nearly a month with respect to that Proclamation.
§ EARL GRANVILLEWithin the last minute I have been informed by my noble 325 Friend sitting near me (the Marquess of Lansdowne) that the right hon. Gentleman lately at the head of the Board of Control (Mr. Vernon Smith) received a private letter from the Governor General, in which he states that he thought this Proclamation required an explanatory despatch, but that owing to the great pressure of business he had not been able to send this explanation. I will not pledge myself that these are the exact words used, but that is the substance of the communication which I understand has been received.
THE EARL CF ELLENBOROUGHI was quite unaware until now that any such communication had been received by the right hon. Gentleman.
§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYI cannot help observing that there has been considerable difference between the conduct of Mr. Vernon Smith and my noble Friend opposite (the Earl of Clarendon) who preceded me at the Foreign Office. Since I have had the honour of holding the post I now occupy my noble Friend opposite has sent to me all the private letters he has received bearing upon matters of public interest since his retirement from office, and I take this opportunity of thanking the noble Earl for having done so. A period of as much as two months may elapse before a change of Administration becomes known in our distant possessions in India, and if private letters arc received by a Minister who had relinquished office, containing information with reference to important points of foreign or Indian policy, I consider that it is the duty of the late Minister who receives such letters to communicate them to his successor.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEwas understood to say that the letter referred to was not received, as he understood, until after the document had been, as he thought, most improperly communicated to the public.
§ THE EARL OF DERBYasked, if the noble Marquess could state the exact date at which the letter was received?
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEsaid, he did not know the exact date.
§ THE EARL OF DERBYThe Proclamation to which allusion has been made having appeared in The Times of Thursday last a question was put in the other House as to the conduct of the Government with reference to that Proclamation. I understand that a private communication has been received by Mr. Vernon Smith 326 from Lord Canning, of which we have now heard for the first time, and which I should have supposed should have accompanied the draught of the Proclamation. I wish to know from the noble Marquess whether that letter, containing a promise of a subsequent explanation, was not received before five o'clock on Thursday evening? Am I to understand that that private letter had not been received until after the time at which—most improperly in the noble Marquess's opinion—the statement was made to the House of Commons? I wish to ask the noble Marquess whether he can state with full certainty that the letter in question was not received by Mr. Vernon Smith until five o'clock on Thursday last?
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEreplied that, as he understood, the letter was not received until after the communication had been made to the House of Commons, and until after the Proclamation had been published in the newspapers. Copy of the Letter from the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Governor General of India in Council, dated the 19th of April, 1858, ordered to be laid before the House.
And the Copy of the said Letter was laid before the House at a later period of the evening.