MR ROEBUCK'S MOTION
144 Piccadilly, 26th January 1855.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that Lord John Russell having made his statement, concluding with an announcement that he did not mean to vote on Mr Roebuck's Motion, and Viscount Palmerston having made a few remarks on that statement, Mr Roebuck rose to make his Motion; but the paralytic affection under which he has for some time laboured soon overpowered him, and before he had proceeded far in his speech he became so unwell that he was obliged to finish abruptly, make his Motion, and sit down.
Mr Sidney Herbert, who was to reply to Mr Roebuck, rose therefore under great disadvantage, as he had to reply to a speech which had not been made; but he acquitted himself with great ability, and made an excellent statement in explanation and defence of the conduct of the Government. He was followed by Mr Henry Drummond,8 Colonel North for the Motion, Mr Monckton Milnes against it; Lord Granby who, in supporting the Motion, praised and defended the Emperor of Russia; Mr Layard, who in a speech of much animation, gave very strong reasons to show the great impropriety of the Motion, and ended by saying he should vote for it; Sir George Grey, who made a spirited and excellent speech; Mr Walpole, who supported the Motion and endeavoured, but fruitlessly, to establish a similarity between the enquiry proposed by Mr Roebuck and the enquiry in a Committee of the whole House into the conduct of the Walcheren Expedition when the operation was over and the Army had returned to England. Mr Vernon Smith declared that his confidence in the Government had been confined to three Members—Lord Lansdowne, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston—and that it was greatly diminished by the retirement of Lord John Russell. Colonel Sibthorp,9 Sir John Fitzgerald, and Mr Knightley10 followed, and Mr Disraeli having said that his side of the House required that the Debate should be adjourned, an adjournment to Monday was agreed to; but Viscount Palmerston, in consenting to the adjournment, expressed a strong hope that the Debate would not be protracted beyond that night.
Viscount Palmerston regrets to say that the general aspect of the House was not very encouraging.
Footnote 7: His first letter to the Queen as Leader of the House of Commons.
Footnote 8: M.P. for West Surrey.
Footnote 9: Sibthorp, whose name is almost forgotten, earned some fame as an opponent of the Exhibition of 1851, and remained faithful to Protection, after Lord Derby and his party had dropped it. His beard, his eye-glass, and his clothes were a constant subject for the pencil of Leech.
Footnote 10: Mr (afterwards Sir) Reginald Knightley, M.P. for South Northamptonshire, 1852-1892. In the latter year he was created Lord Knightley of Fawsley.