The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 21, 1857. 1124 of such unworthy means to exalt the gallantry or spread the reputation of NEILL, HAVELOCK, and NictioLsoN, All Europe is their audience, and half the audience are their friends. The echoes of their praises will long linger amongst us, and their actions " blossom in the dust " till the soil of great deeds is barren. " IS LORD CANNING EQUAL TO HIS POST ?" OUR readers will recollect that our tone towards Lord CANNING has always been the reverse of unfriendly, but we never concealed our anxiety about his critical position. In ordinary times, and with a mass of routine work before him, Lord CANNING might make an efficient Governor-General of India, and it is really no disgrace to any man that he should prove unequal to so tremendous a crisis as now prevails in the Eastern empire. But Lord CANNING was for twenty years in public life before he went to Calcutta, and his Lordship never displayed in our home politics any of those great leading qualities which signalise a master.spirit. From first to last his political resources lay in the sentiments awakened by the phrase—" his father's son." We shared largely in those feelings ourselves. GEORGE CANNING was a famous orator, a shining light of Parliament, a brave and brilliant upholder of the Constitution in days of peril, and a tried chief of the Tories. We hold his memory in high regard, and the world admires his dazzling career. But the feeling of sym pathy with the son of a gifted sire must not be carried too far. That Lord CANNING was surprised in the first instance cannot be denied, and that he placed extravagant faith in the opinions of his Council must be admitted. When the facts at last loomed plainly before him, Lord CANNING did just what any other Governor-General would have done. He wrote home a strong and urgent statement of the case, and asked for troops wherever they could be got, and to whatever amount they could be sent. He was constantly at his post, was as punctual as the best clerk in his service, and as regularly diligent as the most active adju tant in a marching army. So far so good His Lordship also showed considerable moral and personal courage. We should expect so much from " his father's son," or from any Governor-General sent out to uphold Queen VICTORIA'S power. Courage, really, is not so very scarce, and so singularly rare a quality amongst Englishmen, that we should lavish applause on Lord CANNING because he was not panic-strickm. No amount of courage and industry can turn a second-rate ruler into a first-rate statesman, or atone for enormous mistakes. The capacity for reading rightly and rapidly the signs of the times was not given to Lord CANNING. The genius which penetrates the character of numbers of men, which masters their wills, hushes their doubts, and kin:lles up their enthusiasm—the attributes of lofty statesman ship were not exhibited by Lord CANNING. There was no originality of design, no breadth of view, shown in his policy ; and unfortu nately, also, there appears to have been great and positive blunders on a large scale, and on points where his Lordship ought to have been well prepared. How Lord CANNING could have contrived to alienate from himself so large a mass of English public opinion at Calcutta seems to us one of the most extraordinary facts in the Indian mutiny. One might have reasonably anticipated that with common prudence, and some insight into character, any Governor- General would have rallied to his aide all the loyal feelings of all the English in India. The contrary seems to have been the case. The Calcutta Petition is one of those facts which cannot be disregarded, for we do not now recollect so hostile a demonstration from the Anglo-Indians against any previous Gover nor-General. There must have been serious mistakes, indeed, and very great faults, when by "a large majority" the mercantile commu nity at Calcutta, represented by " The Cham ber of Commerce," affirmed the resolution to bind the Chamber to a petition for the recall of Lord CANNING. Observe the facts. At a crisis when our empire is in jeopardy, when the rebels and mutineers have ap pealed so successfully to the traditions of an effete race, and the sanctity of a false religion, Lord CANNING has thrown contempt on the patriotism of British subjects and the piety of the Anglo-Saxon race. Like the cosmopolite satirised by his father, Lord CANNING'S aspira tions are for large masses of mankind in India, and not for the English race threatened with extermination Does " his father's son " recol lect who wrote the admirable lines in " New Mo rality " Shall one half-peopled island's rocky round, A love, that glows for all creation, bound ? No narrow bigot he—his reasoned view Thy interests, England, rank with thine, Peru! In fact, the allegations of the Calcutta Petition for the recall of Lord CANNING may be summed up in the assertion that in an internecine contest Lord CANNING exhibited towards the English race in India the feelings of what his father would have called a " candid friend." The Times assuredly is no enemy to Lord CANNING ; and that journal in its Calcutta correspondence contains facts which cannot be refuted. The Europeans, or English, are now placed exactly on a par with the native Indians. Every Englishman in Calcutta must register his arms, and is liable to punishment for carrying them in the street. By an act of power resembling the wild and wayward deeds of the French revolutionary leaders, there is no distinction made between classes, preju dices, traditions, and ties of race and civilisa tion. Lord CANNING acted as if he were a political alchemist, who had been gifted with some magic crucible, by means of which he could at one experiment melt the English into Indians, and at the same moment raise the native dross into the true British metal. There has been, and is, a large party in the Govern ment of India which holds that, while the country should be ruled by Europeans, the Civil Service should have the chief superin tendence. They hold, as the Times corre spondent admits, " that all other Europeans " should be placed exactly on a par with the " natives, he tried by native judges (!), 'and be " reduced to a powerless section of the Indian " popularity." In other words, and in plain English, the virtue of their blood and lineage should be washed out of them. They should be squeezed out of their Anglicism. " This " party in the Government almost felt a pity " for the sepoy." They actually appointed a Mussulman, named MEER ALI, over the heads of Europeans to put down an insurrection of Mussulmans. They forgot the native cha meter, and believed it to be " murders, not " withstanding as good as the European." We are not surprised accordingly to read that " the measures adopted by this party produced " a burst of hatred towards the Government, such " as Englishmen accustomed to party spirit " cannot even imagine." In short, the feelings of the English at Calcutta have been aroused against Lord CANNING. He is stated to have shown that maudlin travestie of a virtue which his father denounced : Thou drivelling virtue of this moral age, Candour, which softens party's headlong rage— Candour, which spares its foes. nor e'er descends With bigot zeal to combat for its friends, And finds with keen, discriminating sight Black's not so black, nor white so very white. It is strange, indeed, that " his father's son " should in a great crisis of English nationality have exhibited the want of national sympathy so lashed by GEORGE CANNING. But who is responsible for the original nomination of Lord CANNING to the Governor- Generalship. Lord GRANVILLE, with unlucky " candour," has confessed that the appoint ment was accepted by Lord CANNING after "very mature consideration." His Lordship, probably, had " candid " doubts about his fit ness for the post. Lord GRANVILLE made a " candid" apolJgy for the Governor-General, but the Premier disliked " candour " as much as GEORGE CANNING did, and therefore put a bold face on matters, and pledged the credit of Government as a sort of " rate in aid " for the threatening insolvency of the Government dis-"union" at Calcutta. The town was told on Thursday that `• the middle classes die " tate the national policy and govern the Go " vernment," and it remains to be seen whether Parliament and the public will endorse the reckless certificate for Lord CANNING presented by Lord PALMERSTON. Certain it is, however, that it is matter of universal regret that a statesman of tried abilities, and of long experience in emergen cies, had not been appointed to such a post. When people asked, " Why was Lord CANNING selected ?" they received as an answer, be- CSLISC GEORGE CANNING had first given a place in the Cabinet to Lord PALMERSTON. The words of the Premier on this point are known, and cannot be denied. As we said before, we go some way with the feelings for " his father's son," but it is worthy of note that GEORGE CANNING never was happy in dealing with indi viduals. He was not able to obtain ascen dancy over others in council, though all admired him as an orator "on his legs." His whole conduct in the transaction which led to the duel with CASTLEREAGH Was maladroit, and eventuated in his losing the leadership of his connection ; and the mode in which he dealt with the Tory chiefs at the death of Lord LIVERPOOL undoubtedly broke up the Tory party. It is of evil omen that GEORGE CANNING accepted under peculiar circum stances the Governor-Generalship of India (though on the death of Lord CASTLEREAGH he resigned it), and exposed himself thereby to the merciless invective of Lord BROUGHAM in 1823, of being " scorned by his enemies and " pitied by his friends." Management of men— one of the best gifts of statesmanship—was the exact quality in which GEORGE CANNING was deficient, and will any one say that his " father's son " exhibits that great quality at Calcutta?' Government originally should hava appointed a stronger statesman, with a confirmed reputa tion, and with that tried character which would potently influence the public opinion of Eng lishmen, whether at home or in India. The selection of Lord CANNING was a Palmerston job, and a Governor-General should have been made from purely public motives. The Go vernment at home had for two years previously been kept well informed as to the irritable and excited state of India, especially during the Russian war, and nobody can affirm that Lord CANNING was the best person that could have been chosen for discharging the duties of so great a post. 111... foreign 6orrtsgonblact. PARIS, Nov. 19. EVERY effort is now being made by the opponents to the union of the Danubian provinces to create a feeling against the Roumans. It is well known that some time since secret agents were sent into the provinces to excite the people, and to endeavour to get up a republican party. Those same agents now send detailed reports of what they call the "real state " of the provinces to certain German papers. In those reports it is said that the majority of the Roumans are opposed to the wishes of the Divans, and would prefer their present organisation ; and that the mem bers of the Divans have privately resolved, should the Congress oppose their wishes, to declare them selves independent and to form a Provisional Govern ment. Now, I have good reasons for saying that these accusations against the Divans are false, as are equally false the pretended "wishes of the people." It is sought by these reports to create such a prejudice throughout Europe as would intimidate certain European powers. But this is not the only scheme now put in motion. It is a fact that attempts are R~v