The speeches on the side of Government were rather wearisome.
Mr. Stanhope brought forward the strong argument that if England found the money, India would be actually paid for waging a war undertaken on her own behalf, and declared that -the famine-money had been provided ; while Lord George Hamil- ton affirmed that the war was strictly Indian ; that England spent much more for India, in her resistance to Russia, than India did -for the Empire ; and that if the English Treasury paid for Indian wars, the restraining authority of the Viceroy over the many 'Generals who were burning for active service would be seriously .diminished. These are all grave arguments, but the smaller men, like Mr: Smollett, seemed to think that to show that the Ameer was disagreeable was to show that India ought to pay for beating him into friendliness ; while Sir Stafford Northcote virtually threw over his allies, by alleging that the vote settled nothing, as the expenses would only be temporarily paid by India, and the ultimate distribution of the burden would be settled hereafter. This statement probably influenced the result of the debate, for scores of Liberals stayed away, and in a House of only 360 Members, the Government triumphed by 235 to 125, a greater, but much less important, victory than they obtained in the debate on the policy of the war. The truth is that Parlia- ment, having affirmed the war to be just and to be a frontier war, the expense logically falls to India, the liability of England arising only from the falsity of those assumptions.
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