The Press. — London, England, 1853-11-19 00:00:00

674 It would follow even from this change in the physical relations of the City that its corpora tion should have materially dwindled from its pristine greatness. The 1,• ird Mayor of London is not, in fact, as he is proud (of being desig nated, " the chief magistrate of the first city in the world," but ouly the chief magistrate of a population which is a little greater than one of our second-rate commercial or manutitetur ing towns. Even this will nut wholly &coolant for the inferiority, in many resperts, of its governing body to that of Liverpool. for ex ample. While the latter cam procure for its chief magistrate such persons as its late Mayor, Mr. SAMUEL HOLMV., the Corporation of Lon don is in such disrepute that, as Mr. TaAvEtts bean evidence, " such a man as Mr. THOMAS " BAnINO, who may be held to represent the " merchants of London, would consider it an " inside to be asked to become an alderman." In fact, it appears that civic dignities go beg ging—that they may be picked up by those who will stoop for them—and that, us those who accept ordinarily abuse them, Uwe is now, as a very natural consequence, a solemn inquisition into civic malpractices. it is singular to compare this submission to a eritninating—and it may even be termed a degrading—inquiry with civic antecedents. In the days of ATHELSTANE the magistrates of the City made a treaty with their king. In a suecession of civil wars, including those of the Roses, their influence sufficed to turn the scale of the contending parties. Alter nately they offered aid or opposed resistance, and nobles and Crowns went down in the con flict. But kk they are called to account for a series of extortions and malveraations—of mean and corrupt acts—important in the aggre gate, but petty in detail, and farcically trivial and vulgar, as compared with their historical reputation. From the instalments of evidence, as they ac cumulate day by day, we learn, in illustration of civic voracity, that the expenses of the Lord Mayor's office are 250101. a year. The annual salaries of the officers of the corporation are 40,090/. In the year 1852 the taxation on each house for civic purposes was 17/. The cor porate estates are as badly managed as the Crown lands were recently. What the annual revenue of the corporation is no one seems to know ; for the accounts are kept, not for use, but to puzzle accountants and defy investigation. How pia of it is spent, some of the witnesses have told us. Whenever a committee is formed, 200/. or 3001. is placed at its disposal, and this is spent in a series of dinners, which appear in the Recounts under the head of " sandwich and a glass of sherry "to the committee." The labours of the com mittee being of this nature, the chairman is selected more for his capaeity to undergo a severe course of eating and drinking than for the clearness of his head (in the ordinary sense) or his business-like habits. In addi tion to the statement of Mr. ACLAND, that a sum of money was allotted to purchase the support of newspapers, Mr. Bv.Nnoen asserts that articles have been sent, accompanied by money, to ensure their insertion. With these extra expenses the coffers of the corporation occasionally want replenishing ; and the mode they adopt on emergencies, whatever one may think of its morality or justice, is certainly striking and ingenious. They nominate and elect to the office of sheriff gentlemen whom it is previously known will refuse to serve. The refusal subjects them to a fine, varying from 400/. to 000/. By this means, Mr. Mn.i.s stated, the expenses of the corporation on the visit of the Emperor of RUSSIA were defrayed. As more of these particulars are made known through the agency of the Commission we may from time to time return to the sub ject. But we retnark already their tendency to support the worst imputations made against the corporation. For jobbery and gluttony - -floss -- Tears probable • in a popular .4tic elements idol, and which to aristocratic the grave in iting may be history of t wo London, from or the " Bria in unalloyed grossness it upper that we shall find an exemplar i ~,hulE fr 4 an which all aristocrat . that: likill 2 votiqat jenny exclude , 1 ••• 1 ,.. •el 4 ' ely opposed to ' - - •. v er dict of tl 4, 4 4 ~. • e e'..l r, . . . t. e now await i.. oral of the I e 0itt0 0 4 .. . . . • -0 Oratll iO Of I .. r ! .* . a ' '7, • n Liathis of V eiIIXAL • 4 ad vd sAiNT THE PRESS. Boys" of Shaftesbury, has been consistently hostile to all the other Conservative elements of our constitution. It has been the parent of libels and seditious innumerable. Uphold ing WiLaEs in face of the Parliament, and boastiNg at all events, though, in reality, with out foundation, of having bearded its Monarch through the mouth of BEexFoan,—assailing WElJamaroN with the same impatience with which it ounce adopted KeilbUri,—it has run its career of faction and turbulence to attain its climacteric of sloth and • corruption. In its last state, not worse than some states which have preceded though its later delinquencies have been more secret and sordid, it has been brought up like a culprit at the bar of its own Mansion-house ; and now, timid and chap fallen, and awaiting its condemnation, the moral of its present predicament and of its history is clear : to whatever new experiments our countrymen may be indueed to expose the Constitution, which all agree is working so admirably, let them learn from this procedure not to put their trust in civic Liberalism. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT/ INDIA. Tax aspect of India, if not alarming, is gloomy; and few are so thoughtless as to watch without anxiety the overclouding of the sky while an incompetent pilot is at the helm. In Burmah the work supposed done is all to do again. In Afghanistan intrigues are forming of which we seem likely to know nothing except their result. Assassination has been resorted to ; conspiracies exist, widely ramified, and having for object the subversion of our rule ; and European terrors and native sympathy magnify Heating rumours. Mr. THOMASON, of Agra, the first of Indian civil servants, just depatched in utmost need to rescue Madras from impending disorganisation and bankruptcy, dies on the road ; Lord DALHOUSIE, of whose general ability, though disapproving many acts of his administration, we think highly, draws near to the term of his labours; there must be a new governor of the north-west provinces, a new governor of Madras, a new viceroy. This change of hands, though inevitable, seems unluckily timed ; and the recent promotion of Lord ELeanisvoNE to the vacant post of Bom bay inspires us with no especial confidence in Sir CHARLES WOOD'S discriminating powers. Personal criticism is always disagreeable ; wherefore we will merely say that Lord EL PHINSTONE is not untried in the duty which he is a second time called to discharge. As Governor of Madras he is held to have failed, rather from the absence of official merit than from any positive fault that could be charged against his conduct. Weak, though well meaning—conscientious, but not energetic—he was found inadequate to the work, doubtless a heavy one, of reforming an administration almost hopelessly defective and perplexed. The state of Bombay is not much better : both presidencies require able governors ; but hoye fails us for the future, when contemplating the respectable mediocrity of both the Minister and his nominee. Like master, like man. The best we can expect is, that no new trou bles may he incurred ; not that anything will be done to get out of those already existing. It is not from the north-western frontier that we anticipate external danger. Neither Dost MAHOMMED, nor any of his probable suc cessors, is personally so secure as to venture on foreign aggression. Were the old wanior to move in the direction of the Khyber, he would almost inevitably find that, while he threatened Peshawar, some mutinous relative had usurped his authority, and occupied the citadel of Cabul. Persia, too, harbours designs on more than Herat ; the people of Candahar have no particular sympathy with those of the north ; and altogether the disorganised state of the Afghan kingdom is such as to render it formidable only to an invader—harmless be yond its boundary. All, therefore, that can reasonably he feared in this quarter is that the disturbed state of the Trans-Indus. the sus pected conspiracies of Sikh chiefs, and the underhand intriguing of the Dart, may prevent the drafting off of any large proportion of the SATURDAY, 70,000 men now employed in keeping order in the Punjaub, and to that extent render• useless one-fifth part of the Indian army. To stories, again, of Russian expeditious against Khiva and Bokhara we attach little importance. It is as well established as any fact not mathematically demonstrable can be, that in neither of those barren and inhos pitable countries could an army find the means of support, far less of pursuing an on ward march to the south. The memory of our slaughtered' soldiers stands between us and any attempt to renew the folly of an aggressive war in Central Asia. British India is, in a military point of view, impregnable. Its dan gers are of a different kind : they arise from reckless wars, extravagant expenditure, ill treatment of the native population, and neg lect of remunerative public works ; from India-house jobbery, Downing-street reckless ness, and Parliamentary indifference. Taking the first of these only, it is note worthy how universal iu India was the appro bation with which Lord DALHOUSIE'S policy was met, when, for reasons then presumed, and now known, to have been wholly inadequate, he thought tit to rush into the Burmese quar rel. The truth is—and it cannot be too often repeated—every war is popular among Anglo- Indians. The reasons are plain. In the first place, they do not feel the cost of a campaign. No part of it falls on them. The native is taxed more heavily—the European official re ceives his salary as before. There is, there fore, no direct pecuniary interest in preserving peace. Indeed we may doubt whether the connection between conquest and public ex penditure has ever presented itself in a very definite form to the vast majority of the na tives themselves. Those who see it do not feel ; those who feel it do not see. Secondly, war leads to annexation ; and annexation, be sides gratifying the national vanity, is to many persons a direct source of profit and advan tage. The society of India is principally mili tary ; and military men love action, and do not dislike prise-money. Next in importance to the army is the civil service ; and every ex tension of the area of British territory in creases the patronage and accelerates the promotion of civil servants. Lastly, there is a strong missionary body, who, instead of de precating conquests, rather favour them—from a belief that only by conquests can the opinions which they teach be diffused over native states. Commerce, the great modern pacifi cator, is undeveloped; European merchants are few, except in Calcutta and Bombay ; while, as to the opinions of natives, who cares what " niggers" think ? The war-cry, then, is always popular in Bri tish Asia. It is not discouraged at home ; for Lord WILLIAM BENTINCK, the only peace-loving Governor-General, died untitled, while Lord AUCKLAND, for losing an army in Afghanistan, was rewarded with an earldom. These facts are not novel, yet are they well worthy of re membrance, especially at a moment when some of our Indian contemporaries are cry ing out for the total overthrow, and conse quent annexation, of the Burmese empire. Will they occupy China next ? LORD MALMESBURY, AND MR. HAMILTON AT NAPLES. LAST week we commented on the case of M. HAMILTON, as stated by himself, and supported by the organ of Lord ABERDEEN. Taking it OD his own showing, we proved, first, that, even if Mr. HAMILTON had suffered wrong without ob taining redress, for that ladles Lord MAtmEs- BURY was not responsible ; secondly, that Mr. HAMILTON'S religion was not the cause of the outrage of the Neapolitan police ; thirdly, that the contents of Mr. HAMILTON'S pamphlet were not of a nature to create respect for his wis dom, or to inspire confidence in his state ments. Mr. HAMILTON'S charge against Lord MALMESBCRY was, that he had allowed the violation of a treaty to pass without redress, and that he had accepted " a present " of 1001. from the King of NAPI.ES as cotnpensatiou for the ruin of a British subject. Since then a