that my hon. and learned Friend has not the smallest intention--I judge
so, at least, from his speech--of bringing anybody before the Committee
to attack or defend the policy of the Government in the war which then
unhappily took place. Nor do I suppose it is intended to arraign anybody
for a policy that sacrificed at least 20,000 human lives--20,000 lives
of the subjects of the Queen of England. Nor is it intended to inquire
how far the loss of more than 15,000,000_l_. sterling by that
policy has affected for all future time the finances and the
circumstances of the Government of India. These are crimes--the whole of
that policy is a crime--of a nature never to be answered for. No man can
accurately measure it. No Committee of this House could adequately
punish those who were the perpetrators of it. No, Sir, my hon. and
learned Friend has not the slightest idea of going back twenty years for
the purpose of bringing the noble Lord, or any one else who may be
guilty of that great crime, to the bar of public opinion by this
Committee.
But it is worth while that the House should know whether the Government
in whom it placed confidence at that time, and in whom the Queen placed
confidence--whether that Government was worthy of their confidence, and
whether any members of the Government of that day are members of the
Government at this day. It is worth while knowing whether there was and
is a man in high position in the Government here or in India who had so
low a sense of honour and of right that he could offer to this House
mutilated, false, forged despatches and opinions of a public servant,
who lost his life in the public service. Conceive any man at this moment
in India engaged, as many have been during the last three years, in
perilous services--conceive that any man should know that to-morrow, or
next week, or any time this year, he may lay his bones in that distant
land, and that six months afterwards there may be laid on the table of
this House by the noble Lord at the head of the Government, or by the
Secretary of State for India, letters or despatches of his from which
passages have been cut out, and into which passages have been inserted,
in which words have been so twisted as wholly to divert and distort his
meaning, and to give to him a meaning, it may be, utterly the contrary
to that which his original despatch intended to convey. I cannot
conceive any anticipation more painful or more bitter, more likely to
eat into the heart of any man engaged in the service of his country in a
distant land.
It is admitted, and the noble Lord has not flatly denied it--he cannot
deny it--he knows it as well as the hon. and learned Member for
Greenock--he knows it as well as the very man whose hand did the evil--
he knows there have been garbling, mutilation, practically and
essentially falsehood and forgery, in these despatches which have been
laid before the House. Why was it refused to give the original
despatches when they were asked for in 1842 by the hon. Member for
Inverness-shire (Mr. H. Baillie), and when they were asked for at a
later period by the hon. Member for Sheffield (Mr. Hadfield)? Why was it
that the originals were so consistently withheld? That they have been
given now I suppose is because those who were guilty of the outrage on
the faith of Parliament thought, as twenty years had elapsed, that
nobody would give himself the trouble to go into the question, and that
no man would be so earnest as my hon. Friend the Member for Greenock in
bringing the question before the notice of Parliament.
My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield (Mr. Hadfield) informs me that
it was the noble Lord the Member for King's Lynn (Lord Stanley) who
consented to the production of the original despatches when he was in
office. I was not aware of that fact; but I am free here to tender him
my thanks for the course which he took. I am sure he is the last man
whom any one would suspect of being mixed up in any transaction of this
kind, except with a view to give the House and the country full
information with regard to it. I say, then, avoiding all the long speech
of the noble Lord, that the object of the Committee is to find out who
did this evil thing--who placed upon the table of the House information
which was knowingly false, and despatches that were actually forged--
because if you add to or detract from, or so change a coin, or note, or
deed, as to make any of them bear a meaning contrary to its original and
intended meaning, of course you are guilty of such an act as I have
described, and that is precisely what somebody has done in the
despatches which we are now discussing. I say an odious offence has been
committed against the House, and against the truth; and what we want to
know is, who did it?
Now, will the noble Lord be candid enough--he does not think there is
anything wrong--he says there is not much--it is very trifling--that Sir
Alexander Burnes's opinions are not worth much--supposing it to be so--
for the sake of argument, let me grant it; but if it is a matter of no
importance, will the noble Lord be so candid as to tell us who did it?
When Lord Broughton was examined before the Official Salaries Committee
some years ago, he, as the noble Lord is aware, said that he took upon
himself as President of the Board of Control at the time the entire
responsibility of the Affghan war. The noble Lord now at the head of the
Government was then a member of the India Board, and so I believe was
the noble Lord the Member for the City of London. But the noble Lord at
the head of the Government was also Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Now,
I do not think I am wrong in supposing that this question lies between
the noble Lord the Prime Minister and Lord Broughton, once a Member of
this House. This thing was not done by some subordinate who cannot be
found out.
My hon. and learned Friend says it has been done with marvellous care,
and even with so much ability that it must have been done by a man of
genius. Of course there are men of genius in very objectionable walks of
life; but we know that the noble Lord at the head of the Government is a
man of genius; if he had not been, he would not have sat on that bench
for the last fifty years. And we know that Lord Broughton is a man of
many and varied accomplishments. And once more I ask the noble Lord to
tell us who did it? He knows who did it. Was it his own right-hand, or
was it Lord Broughton's right-hand, or was it some clever secretary in
the Foreign Office or in the India Office who did this work? I say the
House has a right to know. We want to know that. We want to drag the
delinquent before the public. This we want to know, because we wish to
deter other Ministers from committing the like offence; and we want to
know it for that which most of all is necessary--to vindicate the
character and honour of Parliament. Nothing can sink Parliament to a
lower state of degradation and baseness than that it should permit
Ministers of the Crown to lay upon the table, upon questions involving
the sacrifice of 20,000,000_l_. of money and 20,000 lives,
documents which are not true--which slander our public servants, and
which slander them most basely when they are dead and are not here to
answer. I do not believe that the Gentlemen of England in this House--
upon that side of the House or upon this--will ever consent to sit down
with a case proved so clearly as this is without directing the
omnipotent power and eye of Parliament into the matter. I say, seeing
the charge, seeing that the noble Lord was at the head of the Foreign
Office at the time, that the policy of the Affghan war was always
considered to be his, that the responsibility of this act must rest
between him and Lord Broughton,--I should not like to hold the opinion,
and I do not hold the opinion, that the noble Lord will object to a
Committee to inquire into a matter in which he is himself so directly
concerned.
* * * * *
CANADA.
I.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 13, 1865.
_From Hansard_.
[Delivered during the debate on Colonel Jervois' Report on the Defences
of Canada.]
I am not sure that I should have addressed the House on this occasion
but for the observations which have been made by the noble Lord. I think
he has been perhaps a little more frank in his declarations on this
occasion, and in pointing out the real thing which I suspect is passing
in his mind, and in the minds of very many Members of the House who have
made no statement of their own opinions during this debate. I hope the
debate will be useful, although I am obliged to say, while I admit the
importance of the question that has been brought before us, that I think
it is one of some delicacy. That it is important is clear, because it
refers to the possibility of war between this country and the United
States, and its delicacy arises from this--that it is very difficult to
discuss this question without saying things which tend rather in the
direction of war than in the direction of peace.
The difficulty which is now before us is this--that there is an
extensive colony or dependency of this country lying adjacent to the
United States, and if there be a war party in the United States--a party
hostile to this country--that circumstance affords to it a very strong
temptation to enter without much hesitation into a war with England,
because it may feel that through Canada it can inflict a great
humiliation upon this country. And at the same time it is perfectly well
known to all intelligent men, especially to the statesmen and public men
of the United States--it is as well known to them as it is to us--that
there is no power whatever in this United Kingdom to defend successfully
the territory of Canada against the power of the United States. Now we
ought to know that, in order to put ourselves right upon this question,
and that we may not talk folly and be called upon hereafter to act
folly. The noble Lord at the head of the Government--or the Government,
at any rate is responsible for having compelled this discussion; because
if a Vote is to be asked for during this Session--and it is only the
beginning of other Votes--it is clearly the duty of the House to bring
the subject under discussion. I think the Vote now is particularly
inopportune for many reasons, but especially as we have heard from the
Governor-General of Canada that they are about, in the North-American
Provinces, to call into existence a new nationality; and I, for one,
shall certainly object to the taxes of this country being heedlessly
expended in behalf of any nationality but our own.
Now, what I should like to ask the House is this--first of all, will
Canada attack the States? Clearly not. Next, will the States attack
Canada--I am keeping out of view England altogether? Clearly not. There
is not a man in the United States, probably, whose voice or whose
opinion would have the smallest influence in that country, who would
recommend or desire that an attack should be made by the United States
upon Canada with a view to its forcible annexation to the Union. There
have been lately, as we know, dangers on the frontier. The Canadian
people have been no wiser than some Members of this House--or than a
great many men amongst the richer classes in this country. And when the
refugees from the South--I am not speaking now of respectable and
honourable men from the South, many of whom have left that country
during these troubles, and for whom I feel the greatest commiseration,
but I mean the ruffians from the South--who in large numbers have
entered Canada and have employed themselves there in a course of policy
likely to embroil us with the United States--I say that the people of
Canada have treated these men with far too much consideration. They
expressed very openly opinions hostile to the United States, whose power
lay close to them.
I will not go into a detail of that which we are all sufficiently well
acquainted with--the seizing of American ships on the Lakes, the raid
into the State of Vermont, the robbing of a bank, the killing of a man
in his own shop, the stealing of horses in open day, and another
transaction of which we have very strong proof, that men of this class
actually conspired to set fire to the largest cities of the Union. All
these things have taken place and the Canadian Government made scarcely
any sign. I believe that an application was made to the noble Lord at
the head of the Foreign Office nearly a year ago, that he should
stimulate the Canadian Government to some steps to avoid the dangers
that have since arisen; but with that sort of negligence which has been
so much seen here, nothing was done until the American Government and
people, aroused by the nature of these transactions, showed that they
were no longer about to put up with them. Then the Canadian Government
and people took a little notice. Now, Lord Monck, the Governor-General
of Canada--about whose appointment I have heard some people complain,
saying that he was a mere follower of the noble Lord at the head of the
Government, who lost his election and was therefore sent out to govern a
province--Lord Monck, I am bound to say, from all I have heard from
Canada, has conducted himself in a manner very serviceable to the
colony, and with the greatest possible propriety as representing the
Sovereign there. Lord Monck has been all along favourable to the United
States, and I believe his Cabinet has also. I know that at least the
most important newspaper there has always been favourable to the North.
Still nothing was done; but the moment these troubles arose then
everything was done. Volunteers have been sent to the frontier; the
trial of the raiders has been proceeded with, and possibly they will be
surrendered; and the Canadian Chancellor of the Exchequer has proposed a
vote in their House of Parliament to restore to the persons at St.
Albans, who were robbed by the raiders, the 50,000 dollars that were
taken from them.
And what is the state of things now? There is the greatest possible calm
on the frontier. The United States have not a word to say against
Canada. The Canadian people have found that they were in the wrong and
have now returned to their right mind. There is not a man in Canada at
this moment, I believe, who has any idea that the United States
Government has the smallest notion of attacking them, now or at any
future time, on account of anything that has transpired between the
United States and Canada during these trials. But if there comes a war
in which Canada shall suffer and be made a victim, it will be a war got
up between the Government of Washington and the Government of London.
And it becomes us to inquire whether that is at all probable. Is there
anybody in this House in favour of such a war? I notice with general
delight--and I was not a false prophet when I said some time ago that
some day it would be so--I say I notice with delight the changed tone
manifested here with regard to these American questions. Even the noble
Lord the Member for Stamford (Lord Robert Cecil) can speak without
anger, and without any of that ill feeling which I am sorry to say on
past occasions he has manifested in discussing these questions.
Now, I believe there are no men out of Bedlam--or at least who ought to
be out of it--and I suspect there are very few men in Bedlam, who are in
favour of our going to war with the United States. And in taking this
view I am not arguing that it is because we see the vast naval and
military power and apparently inexhaustible resources of that country. I
will not assume that you or my countrymen have come to the conclusion
that it is better for us not to make war with America, because you and
they find her with a strength that you did not even suspect: I will say
that it is upon higher grounds that we are all against a war with the
United States. Our history for the last 200 years, and further back, is
a record of calamitous, and for the most part, unnecessary wars. We have
had enough of whatever a nation can gain by military successes and
military glory. I will not turn to the disasters that might follow to
our commerce nor to the wide-spread ruin that might be occasioned. I
will say that we are a wiser and a better people than we were in these
respects, and that we should regard a war with the United States as even
a greater crime, if needlessly entered into, than war with almost any
other country in the world.
Looking at our Government, we have preserved, with a good many blunders--
one or two of which I shall comment upon by-and-by--neutrality during
this great struggle. We have had it stated in this House, and we have
had a Motion in this House, that the blockade was ineffective and ought
to be broken. Men of various classes, some of them agents of the
Richmond conspiracy--persons, it is said, of influence from France--all
these are reported to have brought their influence to bear on the noble
Lord at the head of the Government and his colleagues, with a view of
inducing them to take part in this quarrel, and all this has failed to
break our neutrality. Therefore, I should say, we may clearly come to
the conclusion that England is not in favour of war; and if there should
be any act of war, or any aggression whatever, out of which Canada will
suffer, I believe honestly that it will not come from this country. That
is a matter which gives me great satisfaction, and I believe the House
will agree with me that I am not misstating the case.
Now let us ask, Is the United States for war? I know the noble Lord the
Member for Stamford (Lord Robert Cecil) has a lurking idea that there is
some danger from that quarter; I am not at all certain that it does not
prevail in other minds, and in many minds not so acute as that with
which the noble Lord is gifted. If we had at the Bar of the House, Lord
Russell as representing the English Government, and Mr. Adams as the
representative of the Government of President Lincoln, and if we were to
ask their opinion, they would tell us that which the Secretary for the
Colonies has this night told us--that the relations between the two
countries, so far as it is possible to discover them, are perfectly
amicable; and I know from the communications between the Minister of the
United States and our Minister for Foreign Affairs that they have been
growing more and more amicable for many months past. Now, I take the
liberty of expressing this opinion--that there has never been an
administration in the United States since the time of the Revolutionary
War, up to this hour, more entirely favourable to peace with all foreign
countries, and more especially favourable to peace with England, than
the Government of which President Lincoln is the head. I will undertake
to say that the most exact investigator of what has taken place will not
be able to point to a single word he--President Lincoln--has said, or a
single line he has written, or a single act he has done, since his first
accession to power, that betrays anger against this country, or any of
that vindictive feeling which some persons here may imagine to inflame
the breasts of the President and his Cabinet.
Then if Canada is not for war, if England is not for war, and if the
United States are not for war, whence is the war to come? That is what I
should like to ask. I wish the noble Lord the Member for Stamford had
been a little more frank. I should like to ask whence comes the anxiety,
which undoubtedly to some extent prevails? It may be assumed even that
the Government is not wholly free from it; for they have shown it in an
almost ludicrous manner by proposing a vote of 50,000_l_. It is
said the newspapers have got into a sort of panic. They can do that any
night between the hours of six and twelve o'clock, when they write their
articles. They are either very courageous or very panic-stricken.
It is said that 'the City' joins in this feeling. We know what 'the
City' means--the right hon. Gentleman alluded to it to-night. It means
that the people who deal in shares--though that does not describe the
whole of them--'the moneyed interest' of the City, are alarmed. Well, I
never knew the City to be right. Men who are deep in great monetary
transactions, and who are steeped to the lips sometimes in perilous
speculations, are not able to take broad and dispassionate views of
political questions of this nature.
As to the newspapers, I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for
Bradford (Mr. W. E. Forster) when, referring to one of them in
particular, he intimated that he thought its course was indicated by a
wish to cover its own confusion. Surely, after four years' uninterrupted
publication of lies with regard to America, I should think it has done
pretty much to destroy its influence on foreign questions for ever.
But there is a much higher authority--that is the authority of the
Peers. I do not know why we should be so much restricted with regard to
the House of Lords in this House. I think I have observed that in their
place they are not so squeamish as to what they say about us. It
appeared to me that in this debate the right hon. Gentleman (Mr.
Disraeli) felt it necessary to get up and endeavour to defend his chief.
Now, if I were to give advice to the hon. Gentlemen opposite, it would
be this--for while stating that during the last four years many noble
Lords in the other House have said foolish things, I think I should be
uncandid if I did not say that you also have said foolish things--learn
from the example set you by the right hon. Gentleman. He, with a
thoughtfulness and statesmanship which you do not all acknowledge, he
did not say a word from that bench likely to create difficulty with the
United States. I think his chief and his followers might learn something
from his example.
But I have discovered one reason why in that other place mistakes of
this nature are so often made. Not long ago there was a great panic
raised, very much by what was said in another place about France. Now an
attempt is made there to create a panic upon this question. In the hall
of the Reform Club there is affixed to the wall a paper which gives a
telegraphic account of what is being done in this House every night, and
what is also being done in the other House, and I find almost every
night from the beginning of the Session that the only words that have
appeared on the side which is devoted to a record of the proceedings of
the House of Lords are these, 'Lords adjourned.' The noble Lord at the
head of the Government is responsible for much of this. He has brought
this House into nearly the same condition. We do very little, and they
do absolutely nothing. All of us in our younger days, I am quite sure,
were taught by those who had the care of us a verse which was intended
to inculcate the virtue of industry. One couplet was to this effect--
'Satan still some mischief finds
For idle hands to do.'
And I do not believe that men, however high in station, are exempt from
that unfortunate effect which arises to all of us from a course of
continued idleness. But I should like to ask this House in a most
serious mood, what is the reason that any man in this country has now
more anxiety with regard to the preservation of peace with the United
States than he had a few years ago? Is there not a consciousness in our
heart of hearts that we have not during the last five years behaved
generously to our neighbours? Do not we feel in some sort a pricking of
conscience, and are we not sensible that conscience tends to make us
cowards at this particular juncture?