Punch (32.1857)

INTRODUCTION.

[January to Juke, 1857.

PAGE

villages will hand over their families to the authorities to be punished, as ir

they were the red-head rebels.....The Americans, Spaniards, and

(icher foreign nations are on good terms with ours The stoppage of trade is
.solely caused hy the English and French dogs, and complaints must be made
against them alone an.i not us."

This insolent and barbarous proclamation led to two
expeditions, one under Commodore Elliott, and the other
under Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, and which ended in j
the destruction of the Chinese fleet of war-junks in the
Canton Waters. On the 29th of May, Admiral Seymour
quitting his flag-ship the Calcutta, went on board a small
steamer, the Coromandel, and aided by Admiral Keppel,
who steamed up a channel to the right of Hyacinth Island,
succeeded in capturing the City of Fatshan, and destroying-
all the war-junks but three, two of which the next morning
appeared three miles astern, and fired a gun. They were
chasing the barbarian fleet! We shall have to resume this
subject in our next volume.

The conduct of Dr. Bowsing and the Government in this
affair with China, was made the subject of a vote of censure
by Lord Derby in the House of Lords, but it was carried
against him by a majority of 36. The Ministry were not so
fortunate in the House of Commons. A concurrent debate,
on the motion of Mr. Cobden, and a majority of 16 against
the Government brought about an immediate dissolution of
Parliament. The general election, however, which ensued,
gave unmistakeable evidence that the country was with Lord
Palmerston.

The result was, the return of a very powerful phalanx of
Government supporters, while those members of the Liberal
party who had stood aloof or had shown an unfriendly spirit
towards the great Parliamentary chief, found that even their
popular opinions and their well-earned reputation were iusuf- i
ficient to secure their election for the constituencies which hud
formerly supported them. Thus Mr. Cobden, who declined
to contest the West Biding, and fell back upon Huddersfield,
found himself defeated by an untried politician in that borough.
Messrs. Bright and Gibson were forced to yield to two can- j
didates of ministerial politics at Manchester ; Mr. Lai'ard was i
discomfited at Aylesbury, and Mr. Fox at Oldham. Anotner j
party, whose numbers, indeed, had before Dome small pro- \
portion to their activity and talent, commonly known by the !
designation of Peelites, were even more severely worsted in ;
the contest. Their thin ranks were still further reduced by |

the rejection of several of their conspicuous debaters. From
these circumstances the Premier met the new Parliament,
which had been convoked for the 30th April, under very
favourable auspices. His supporters formed a strong and
compact body ; his more formidable opponents were driven
from the field, or weakened by the consciousness that the
public voice had declared against them.

In the beginning of June, the first distant murmur of the
Indian Mutiny was heard in this country ; but as its history
belongs to the later portion of this year, we will merely
subjoin an extract from a speech by Lord Ellenborough :—

'" i real,'' said the noble Lord, " in the latest accounts from India, that
between the 16th and 25th of April there were seven incendiary fires, and
that the 3rd Regiment of Light Cavalry was in open mutiny. How it can be
possible that a regiment having no more than 400 sabres could for one half-
hour be in a state of open mutiny in the cantonment of Meerut is what I
cannot comprehend. At that station there is, I believe, a force of 54 guns.
42 of European and 12 of Native Artillery ; there is a regiment of European
Cavalry, the Carabineers ; a battalion of the 60th Regiment, Queen's troops ;
and two regiments of Native Infantry. The officer who commands that division
had the means of putting down any niutury in half-an-hour. Open mutiny
is open war, and it is to be met only as open war carried on by an enemy in
the field. I cannot but think that there must have Deen some strange mis-
representation and exaggeration in the accounts which we have received from
India. 1 have, however, looked most carefully into aU the statements which
we have received as to these mutinies in the Bengal territory, and I can come
to no other conclusion than that the source of all that discontent and mutiny
*s the apprehension that there is an intention on the part of the Government
to interfere with the religion of the natives.''

His Lordship then went on to say that Lord Canning's
patronage of a Society for the Conversion of the Natives had
had a most mischievous tendency, and that the Indian Govern-
ment were highly censurable for allowing a suspicion to exist
that they were favourable to a compulsory conversion of the
Sepoys

To this Lord Granville replied :—

" He thought that the remarks just made would have a mischievous
tendency in India. No information respecting the mutiny at Meerut had
reached the Government except by telegraph, and it was impossible to rely
entirely on the accuracy of information so forwarded. He was astonished at
the attack made on Lord Canning. He did not know whether Lord Canning
had subscribed tv any missionary society, but he knew that the most
unfounded and ridiculous remarks had been circulated—such as that Lokd
Canning had given a pledge to Lord Palmerston that he would convert the
whole population. Lord Canning's first exercise of the veto was to arrest a
police bill, because it might affect the religious feelings of the natives. Had
he issued a notification like that recommended by Lord Ellenborough. he
would have appeared to acknowledge that there had been a change of policy.
The Government entirely approved of his course."

We reserve !':he continuance of this terrible story for our
next volume.