The Press. — London, England, 1853-05-21 00:00:00

52 are still the same. He cannot be a king after the fashion of legitimate monarchs, whose ride it is to make things pleasant and keep things quiet—ex Oficia Conservatives, because, when revolution comes, they themselves are the first to be swept away. Of such men and such measures France has hail enough. She will not be content on these easy terms. Her ruler, if he be not I. conqueror, must be a re former ; if ho cannot dazzle his subjects, he must endeavour to benefit them in seine form which shall not only satisfy their wants, but strike their imaginations. To this necessity NAcui.hos 11h. is alive; and not less so to the precarious tenure by which he holds his throne. Nene(' the same week has witnessed two projects of law, opposite in character, but in their object not dissimilar : one, by which the death punishment is restored for offences against the State—the other, that which now concerns us, intended to ameliorate the condi tion of the Parisian working-man. Punish ment in one hand, prevention in the other ; such is the aspect under which the Freneh Government presents itself. Nor is it neces sary, in order to explain the motives of the Imperial philanthropy, to suppose that the chief object of building model lodging-houses is to place them under the surveillance of a vigilant police. French statesmen know, us well as those of Englund, that political troubles have generally their origin in social evils ; and that if dens of vice and disease can be broken up, not so as to throw their inmates on the world more destitute than before, but so as to replace them by dwellings fit for civilised men to inhabit, a great step will have been taken towards pacifying Paris, and avoiding a repe , tition of such scenes as those of 184 m and 1851. - - Is there nothing in all this from which we may take a lesson? Doubtless, the evil is not here so much before our eyes ; we have no socialist demonstrations, no processions of workmen demanding the organisation of la bour. Our 10th of April is a memento, not of threatened disorder, but of exuberant. loyalty and unnecessary panic ; but it is bad logic, and worse morality, to show the misses of this country that bemuse they are quiet, in dustrious, and well-affeeted, therefore their grievances shall not be redressed. Doubtless, too, the powers of Government are in every sense eircumseribed ; we leave more to the community, trust more to individual efforts; but, unless these efforts be sus tained and etketual, how shall we vindi cate this wise principle of non-intertlT mice ? how exonerate Parliament from the charge of negleeting the poor? Something. it may be said, has been done among us already like that which the Frying' EMPEIIOR designs. Something—but how much? What propor tion do the model lodging-houses of Loudon bear to those thousand upon thousands of ha bitations which are models in quite a contrary sense—ingenious devices to breed pestilence, to harbour it, to give concealment and refuge to crime, to destroy by the continual con tact of impurity, and by the crowding Of multitudes into narrow spaces, all sense and desire of cleanliness among working-men? Forty-six thousand Parisian mit. rient, it. is stated offieiadly, live in hired rooms, mostly shared among several families. We are mistaken if this number might not be trebled or quadru pled with ease for Toulon ; and equally mis taken if the character of these habitations be not worse among us than among our neigh bours. Mr. IlEsmr.s's work of last year. the reports of the Statistical Society, and the re searches of some of our contempomies, give startling testimony on these points. An in vestigation into the districts immediately sur rounding New Oxford street indicated, on an average of twenty seven houses, a space of only 175 cubic feet for each individual inhabiting them, while the space assigned to a felon in gaol is not less than 1,000 cubic feet. 111 St. THE PRESS. Giles's, in Saffron-hill, in the districts east of the Tower, in Westminster itself, such rooke ries abound. Law, it is true, has within the last few years been invoked to place them under supervision. and to improve their accom modations. The number of lodgers, and the space allotted to each, are matters of which the pollee takes cognisance : sanitary reform, though more talked of than acted on, is yet in progress. But law, after all, can do little. It can drive from► an overcrowded tenement the beggar, the thief, the pauper ; it can say to the hotoseowner, " You shall not receive more than " a certain number of tenants, and you shall " supply them with certain things necessary " pin• decency or comfort ;" but here its power ends. Bad lodgings, undrained, unventilated, and unclean, can only be put an end to by re placing them with better. It is mockery to tell the labourer in search of a house that. for de cency's sake, he must not be suffered to re side in such dwellings as alone are accessible to him ; the remedy lies in an opposite direc tion. Build working-men's houses such as they ought to be, and the sties and dens that now stand in their stead will rapidly disap pear. This can be done without appeals to benevolence—without public meetings, expen sive dinners, subscription lists advertised in the newspapers, and all the machinery of ostentatious charity. Indeed, such means for such an end are not only useless, but posi tively injurious. If the labouring class of the metropolis can only be lodged and maintained at the expense of the wealthy, there must be something radically wrong in our social sys tem. But we believe this is not the case. Lodging-house keepers, as a general rule, charge exorbitant rents, because their capital is small, and they have to calculate on a cer tain amount of loss by non-payment. They, moreover, are for the most part tenants them selves ; and thus a. double profit has to be de ducted from the rent ultimately paid by the occupier. Where companies have been formed, large capitals invested, and a moderate rent demanded, the undertaking has in ahnost every ease been found successful—not only in a moral and social, but also in an economical, point of view. All that is necess►uy is that these facts should be known : the rest will fol low in due time. TREATY WITH PARAHUAY.—It is our pro vinee to draw attention to the important fact that a commercial treaty has just been concluded with Paraguay. This treaty occupied the attention of the Earl of Malmesbury, and has been settled on the basis of the principles laid down by the noble Lord when he held the seals of the Foreign office. It. has just received the official papa' tures of the Ministers of France, of the United States, and Sardinia, along with that of the chief contracting parties,—an instance of unanimity not often met with among diplo nudists ; and its bearing will be understood in mercantile circles when we state that it will in all probability be followed by the opening of the navigation of the Parana. CAsr. or Ma. SlCllELL.—Particulars have reached us of the ease of a Mr. Siehell, who has been locked up for three weeks at Milan by the Austrian authorities. Without, how er, entering upon this case at present, we wish to remark the silence of Lord Dudley Stuart and others under the sedative influence of a congenial Administration. TO TII EDlTiolt OF "THE P1:1-:•S." Sir,—Not living a political partisan it is very possible that my ideas about what is right and wrong mav not suit an age like that in which we live : but 1 recolieet when stioli emitting AS 11104 towards Mr. S:atiltril, in dragging rliVatte" lettell4 and eollVerpOlthillS heron. the rlthlte. Wolliti have met with an ontburst of universal indignation from the gouttlemen of England. I heard the late Sir Hobert Peel utter a vehement invective in the Maine of l'ommonn against those who, for party purposes. pubished the cluditlential lett4.l* of )Ir. Sourin, t torney-O enent lof Ireland, addressed to the hue hoed No,intrv. Yet the practice. which was then considered disgrareinl. has now liven rendered legitimate by constitutional processes, as a co ntribution to the general confusion to which iwe are rupidl tending. 1 am, sir, Your most obedient servant, E. G. SATURDAY, Vrotettlings in arliantent. IN I)IAN MISGOVERNMENT. On the House of Commons resuming business after the brief recess on Thursday, the first public) question that was proposed in the shape of a motion for going into committee of supply was employed by Mr. RICH, to expatiate upon the anomalous system and evil results of our present Government of India. Nothing like full and efficient information had as yet been offered to the House on the subject. The committee, had been appointed very late ; had re ported but upon a single head of the vast inquiry ; and had given only the opinions of eighteen witnesses, of whom five were military officers, and the other thirteen all interested in the past, present, and future of the East India Company. He wanted not only an examination into the bare machinery of government, or a detail of messages exchanged be tween Leadenhall and Downing-street, but an inquiry " into the well-being of the whole people of India, how they were governed, and what had been done to improve their social and moral condition." Upon these points Mr. Rich proceeded to offer a variety of details, from which he drew a heavy charge of maladministration against the Company, as re • garded their military, financial, and judicial systems ; as also of neglect in the matters of public works, social improvement, and native alliances. Of the Indian Army be remarked : " It was asserted that none but the most degraded natives of India could be induced to enter our service. The higher castes disdained entering a service in which the highest rank they could attain must be subordinate to that of the rawest ensign just arrived from Europe. The prement inefficient state of the Indian army was attested by Sir C. Napier, and if they wanted further evidence they would find it in the statement of Lord Ellenborough, to the effect that all the young European officers treated the natives with the greatest contempt. Why should not one half of the Indian army be led by natives, seeing that such an arrangement would only render the other half all the more efficient? At present every European officer escaped as soon as possible from his regiment, and got on the staff, or into a civil appointment. It appeared that there were in all 4,710 officers to the Indian' army. Of these 94N were absent on leave. 1,040 employed in civil appointments or on the staff, making 1,988 absent front the regiments, and leaving only 2,728 officers for regimental duty. He found also that whereas in her Majesty's troops there was 1 officer for every 2r) soldiers, the East India Company haul for their European regiments 1 officer to soldiers, and for the Sepoys 1 officer to 100 men. (Hear.) He would ask any military man whether after such details he could wonder at the calamities of Caboul. or the doubt• ful and sanguinary victories of the Punjaub ?" Of Indian Finance : " In this country one year's deficit would alarm a minis- try, but in India during the last 1:1 years I'2 had been years of deficiency. ( Hear, hear.) One year hail been one of surplus to the amount of 300,000/., but the de ficits on the other 12 Vi cars averaged a million annually. In 1143:3, when the charter was renewed, the debt amounted to 33 millions, lint dedneting the commercial assets of the company, then giving up trade, it was '►9 millions, whereas at the present. moment it exceeded too millions. Here was an neettmulation of 21 millions in less than 20 years through maladministration. It might be said that with a modified charter this state of things would improve, but that story was as old as the company itself. Lord Melville in '93 had hoped for an improved revenue; so had the Duke of Wellington at a later date; and, when Lord Hast ings had effected what was called the pacification of India by the termination of the Mahratta war, he even Antici pated a surplus, and went. so far as to deelare that its probable autonut. would lie four millions annually. Even so late as the time of Lord Dalhousie, the Saturnian reign was again promised, but it had never come. (Hear, hear.)" Of Indian Law : " In India no previous legal education was considered neeessary for a judge. and men were allowed to decide on the destinies of 01Ie hundred millions of people who had never hail an 1 s instruction in law. Out of 567 trials there h►il been 3:ls appeals, and in 131 cases the decisions of the inferior courts had been reversed." Of Indian Education : " The returns were frightful,—maly one school at Madras." Of Indian Patronage:- - In refutation of the charge of native exclusion, the eompany had published a paper showing that 1,14011 natives held employtuent under them. This was in appearance a fair number, as the European staff was only S4 M but these latter absorbed all the large salaries, while the natives had all the drudgery. Of the natives, 1.100 had salaries e , from INd. to Os. Md. pee diem ; .100, from Os. Sd. to 18a 4d. ; 177. between 300/. and VOL a year; and 45 from 5001. to SOO/. a year. What were all these compared to the European situations of from N.OOOl. to 10,1001. and 12,11.01. a year." Of Indian Pale Works : " The company were as land to their own interests as they were to those of the country. It appeared that thew was a vast delta of eotmtry sultieet to frightful inundations and consequent dearth. which an outlay of 30000/. would restore to a safe and healthy position. Famines had taken place, sweeping away 100,000 persons and millions of pro perty, and yet si.x.years had been consumed . by the cum-