Lords Sitting of 20 May 1858

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS.—la Stamp Duty on Passports.
2a Chelsea Hospital (Purchase of Lands).
3a Protection of Female Children; Consolidated Fund (£11,000,000); Stamp Duty on Drafts.

OUDE.—LORD CANNING'S PROCLAMATION.

  RECEIPT OF DESPATCHES.
  THE EARL OF DERBY: I think it right to inform your Lordships that in the course of this morning there have been received from India despatches of considerable importance, containing among other things, the recommendations of Sir James Out-ram with reference to the Proclamation upon which so much discussion has taken place, and also Lord Canning's reasons for issuing that Proclamation in the form in which it has appeared. Under ordinary circumstances I should have thought it doubtful whether papers containing a discussion upon matters of policy between two high officers of the Crown in India ought to be laid on the table; but, as I find that these despatches have been already laid before the Court of Directors, and considering that the course which Lord Canning has pursued has been the subject of great comment, I think it would be most unjust to that noble Lord that there should not be laid before Parliament in his own words and language the grounds and the reasons which induced him to issue that Proclamation. I wished to have been able to place these papers before your Lordships in the course of this evening; but they are actually being copied out at the present moment, and therefore it will be impossible to lay them on the table until to-morrow.
  EARL GRANVILLE: To-morrow I understand the House adjourns for Whitsuntide holidays, and the papers will not therefore be in the hands of Members before the adjournment. If the noble Lord would now move that these papers be laid on the table, they might be in the possession of Members in the course of tomorrow.
  THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGH: That course is one which is very frequently pursued, and I think it is of the highest importance, and is absolutely necessary, that the House of Commons should be in possession of those papers before they divide to-morrow.
  THE EARL OF DERBY: I believe they will be in the possession of the House of Commons before the division takes place; and I can assure your Lordships that I have not the slightest wish to prevent them from being immediately laid before Parliament. If your Lordships wish that I should go through the fiction of now laying on the table papers which I have not yet got, I have no objection to do so. I will now move that there be laid before this House copies of any despatches that may have been received to-day from India, containing the grounds on which Lord Canning thinks he was justified in issuing the Proclamation. I have not the precise terms in which the Motion should be couched.
  THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGH: I can supply those terms. The Motion should comprise, first, a letter from the Secretary of Sir James Outram, to the Secretary of the Governor General, dated the 8th March, on the subject of the Proclamation; next, the answer of the Secretary of the Governor General to the Secretary of Sir James Outram, dated the 10th of March; and last, the letter of the Governor General's Secretary, dated March 31.
  THE EARL OF DERBY: I beg to move, then, that these papers be laid on the table.
  Motion agreed to.
  House adjourned at half-past Five o'clock, till To-morrow, Twelve o'clock.