A debate was raised and a division taken on Monday
against the estimate for the Sepoys sent to Malta, but the debate was half-hearted and the division a farce. Lord Hartington made a very weighty speech against a division, upon the ground that as the Government maintained secrecy, the House had no sufficient information before it, and that if the vote was rejected,. the ex- pense must either be thrown on India, which was unfair, or on the "other resources," to which allusion had been made—a balance of the six millions—which was injudicious. His friends had made their protest against the unconstitutional character of the movement, and their protest had been unanswered ; but it had been overruled, and he did not wish to repeat it in that form. The Government were assuming a heavy responsibility, but everything depended upon the extent of the emergency, and that emergency was not as yet explained. He should therefore not vote. The Chancellor of the Exchequer virtually agreed with this speech, stating that at the proper time he would be fully prepared to defend the course taken by Government, which tended distinctly towards peace ; and although Mr. Gladstone made a speech to show that the Government had broken the law, and Sir H. Havelock, a competent expert, demonstrated that each Sepoy had cost £153, or more than Europeans would have cost, the estimate was carried, by 214 to 40. Nominally, we should add, the division was on a motion by Sir George Campbell for a committee of inquiry into the expense of using Indian troops, but as this was an amendment in Supply, the vote virtually carried the supply, which was subsequently agreed to without a division.
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