POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY.
The House of Commons, last night, was mainly occupied with the dis- cussion on Mr. Roebuck's motion. Soon after the House met, in reply The House of Commons, last night, was mainly occupied with the dis- cussion on Mr. Roebuck's motion. Soon after the House met, in reply to questions from Mr. Bremer WORTLEY, Mr. Teem/is Dormouse, and General EvAss, Mr. PEEL and Lord PAixensrox stated that a rejoin- der to Lord DICER and Lord Cardigan from Sir John TeNeill and Co-
lonel Tulloch had been received, and would be laid before the Board of General Officers ; that those two officers, like anybody else, might be present at the inquiry ; but that whether they will be allowed to put questions must rest with the Board, who have full authority to regulate their own proceedings. Not long after this brief conversation, the order of the day for going into Committee of Supply was read, and the question put. Mr. Ran- som then moved his resolution, not in the terms which he stated on Monday, but in the following terms-
" That the appointment of a Commission of General Officers to report upon the report of Sir John M'Neill and Colonel Tulle& was to substitute an inefficient for a very efficient mode of inquiry ; and that the effect of such appointment would be to hide the misconduct of those by whom various de- partments of our Army have been subjected to the command of officers who have been inculpated by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into their conduct."
Mr. Roebuck stated the object of the motion, by recapitulating the his- tory of the origin of the Sebastopol Committee and the Crimean Com- mission —the first stories of the sufferings of the army ; Mr. Sidney Her- bert's eiplanation, so delusively satisctory for the moment ; the repeti- tion of the stories, leading Mr. Roebuck to devote himself to the inves- tigation of the matter : how he moved for a Committee, and how the first effect of his notice of motion was the disappearance of Lord John Russell from the Aberdeen Ministry—" like the timid fisherman, he saw the storm coming on, saw the cloud no bigger than his hand, and rush- ing to the shore, ran howling inland." Next came the dissolution of the Ministry' and the appointment of the Crimean Commission and the Se- bastopol Committee. Mr. Roebuck contended that "every story of mis- conduct, every harrowing detail of suffering," which the newspapers had reported, was verified to the letter by the Committee, and by the report of the Commissioners—men of capacity fit to make the inquiry. The re- port of the Commissioners inculpated certain officers; and the Government ought to have treated the report as the indictment of a Grand Jury, and have appointed a Court-martial to try the persons accused. Instead of that, they appointed a Board of old General Officers—one of whom, Ge- neral Peel, is a carpet knight who never saw a shot fired, and who on the Sebastopol Committee always sided with the persons accused. And appointed them for what ?—To try the Crimean Commissioners. The consequences of this proceeding will be, that future Commissioners will shape their reports to suit the authorities. He warned the House to take care that they do not desert the army ; that they do not allow the army to think that last year the House was only actuated by party feeling. Mr. HADFIELD seconded Mr. Roebuck's resolution.
Sir JOHN PARDIGTON explained his own position. Having a decided opinion on the conduct of the Government in reference to these transac- tions., an opinion expressed in the notice he placed on the paper, he had intended to call the attention of the House to the matter; but a Com- mission having been appointed, he thought that was not the fitting time for the discussion. But when Mr. Roebuck raised the lineation, although precluded by the forms of the House from moving his amendment on Mr. Roebuck's motion, he had felt it necessary to record his opinions. He could not support either the original or the modified form of Mr. Roebuck's resolution. He would do nothing that would prejudge the cases about to be investigated. Sir John entered into an argument in support of the position taken up in his resolution ; the drift of which was, that Govern- ment is to blame for promoting those officers whose conduct was under investigation. He reserved to himself the right of bringing forward his views in a substantive form.
General PEEL replied to the personal attack made by Mr. Roebuck; showing that he had entered the army at fifteen, three days before the battle of Waterloo, not only for the purpose of wearing a red coat ; that he saw twelve years' service; and that war having ceased he entered Parliament. When the Crimean war broke out he declared his willing- ness to serve, and after the battle of Inkerman he again expressed anx- iety to go to the Crimea; but he was unfortunately senior to many offi- cers in command. He vindicated the course he took on the Sebastopol 'Committee.
Mr. FREDERICK Peet replied to Mr. Roebuck and Sir John Pakington. He examined each case upon which, by some passages in the report, a high degree of criminality is thrown ; treating them as cases of incom- patible statements between the Commissioners and the officers impugned. Then he showed that Lord Cardigan was promoted when he was in the heyday of his Balaklava popularity; Lord Lucan, according to routine; General Airey, for the convenience of giving the Commander-in-chief a Crimean officer at his elbow ; Colonel Gordon, on high recommendation —all before the charges were received. The effect of the speech was to throw a general tone of discredit upon the report of the Crimean Com- missioners and to create a feeling of preference for the counter-assertions of the officers accused.
• Full advantage was taken of this speech by Mr. LAYARD ; and Gene- ral Evros, afterwards came forth, under the impulse of very strong feeling, to complain that the Government endeavoured to stifle disclo- sures as to the true state of the army and of the command in the Crimea, and to damage the character of the really working officers. He exposed some of the special pleading of Mr. Peel. One instance will exemplify' the character of this exposure. The Generals of Division denied having received circulars from Colonel Gordon ; Colonel Gordon was believed in preference to them. He was described as saying that all the Generals of Division had declined to receive knapsacks, with the exception of the Duke of Cambridge ; which left it to be inferred that the Duke had not declined, and had got them : but the Duke, when giving his evidence in this country, said he had applied in vain for his baggage. The General told a story of Colonel Gordon who came professing to be the bearer of a peremptory order from Lord Raglan, which the Colonel enforced by his manner, to attack a Russian convoy, where there VW no Russian convoy, and where the advance
would have entailed the loss of 1000 men : a letter from Lord Raglan expressed a fear that there had been "some misconception." Mr. .Aurnua Gonnos vindicated his absent brother from this attack ; and said that General Evans, after the battle of the Alma, had selected Colonel Gordon to fill the post of Quartermaster-General to his division. [General EvAss explained, that he had said he had no objection that Colonel Gordon should fill that post.]
Lord CLAUD HAMILTON with mud). warmth, defended Colonel Gordon ; and showed that in the ridgy related by General Evans about the convoy, Colonel Gordon was simply the bearer of a message from Lord Raglan, and nothing more. He charged General Evans with having after the battle of Inkerman advised Lord Raglan to quit the Crimea, and leave his cannon to the enemy and the French to their fate. General EvAse. explained, that he had only recommended Lord Raglan to take up some option. This was an episode. The main thread of the debate was carried on by Mr. Gladstone and Lord Palmerston. Mr. GLADSTONE, who rose after Mr. Arthur Gordon, deplored the latitude given to the debate ; but when he heard the speech of Mr. Peel, he thought it as easy to see what was to follow. He enlarged upon the valuable character of the report of the Crimean Commissioners—their labours entitle them to the gratitude of their country; and he hoped the Government would feel the sacred obligation incumbent on them of upholding the Commissioners who had taken upon themselves such a difficult, painful, thankless, and invidious duty. The Government should have brought the discrepanciee between the report of the Commissioners and the officers to some settlement before they threw the documents on the table. Were they going to try the Commissioners ? That challenge, thrown out by Mr. Roebuck, had not been answered. It is a matter of deep importance, and he hoped he should be assured that they had not, as it appeared they had, put the Commissioners on their trial.
Lord PAuseasros, with as much emphasis as Mr. Gladstone, euloeed the Commissioners and the labours they had performed with an in- finite advantage to the service." The appointment of a Board of Ge- neral Officers does not imply. the slightest reflection on the conduct and proceedings of the COminirmnliPTR, who had "put matters to rights" in the Crimea. Lord Palmerston defended the appointments of Lord Car- digan and General Airey ; and at the close of his speech again repeated his unqualified approval of the Commissioners. Mr. "Roesoca said—" As I find myself, as I usually am, happily in ,a minority, I shall not put the House to the trouble of dividing.' (A laugh and min of " Hear !")
The amendment was then withdrawn ; the Speaker left the chair; and the House went into Committee of Supply.
Mr. LAYARD gave notice that on the next day for going into Ccmi- mittee of Supply, he should call the attention of the House to the state of our relations with Persia.
The House of Lords listened to an able speech, from the Earl of Ai- on torture in India, as described in a blue book lately laid before Parliament. Lord Albemarle entreated their Lordships to read that book, and see what atrocities are committed in the name of British rule in India. The East India Company has been cognizant of the ex- istence of torture since 1806; but the -first knowledge of its existence communicated to Parliament is by this blue book, wet from the printer's hands. Could such things' have happened under a responsible Govern- ment.? He moved for returns to illustrate the blue book.—Motion agreed. to.
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