The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-11 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 11, 1854. struggle with her American colonies she lost — the picture which GEORGE 111. alluded to has been consigned to Hampton Court, a palace whichthe Sovereign never visits, and therefore is never reminded that the descendants of the Nuwab then written to are now pleading before the Company that they may not be deprived of bread. - . It is difficult to contemplate such a case without strong feelings of compassion for the state to which fortune has reduced the de- scendants of a powerful monarch. And wo are very sure that if our gracious Sovereign were only aware of the facts she would interpose to prevent the ruin that is threatened to them. She would view the promise made personally by her royal grandfather as a pledge too sacred to be allowed to be contemptuously violated, and she would permit no pretended motives of policy to interfere with the fulfilment of the plighted word of the most honest and conscientious of our kings. In truth, however, there is no considerable question of policy involved in the matter. The only question is, whether the Carnatic stipendiaries shall still continue to receive annually the sum that in lieu of their patri mony was by treaty assigned them; or whe ther, having fixed ourselves too firmly in the territories which they resigned to us, to be driven from them by force, we shall now be at liberty to repudiate the stipulations on which we originally acquired those territories. The principle at issue may be shortly stated. At the time when the Nuwab of ARCOT ceded by treaty his territories on certain terms to the Company there were a number of rela tions and officers of the Sovereign who held estates under grants made by the Nuwab and his predecessors of a very similar nature to those by which the nobility and gentry of Eng land now hold their estates. It was thought desirable by the Company to obtain posses sion of these estates at the time when they acquired the sovereignty of the territories in which they lay, and they agreed to pay to the holders and their families in successive gene rations a sum annually, as compensation, which was deemed ,equivalent to the rents of the lands thus sought to be obtained. On this agreement the holders at once gave up posses sion, and the Company stepped peaceably into the proprietorship of the estates. For many years the equivalent was paid fairly and with out question, and descending to children, where there were any ; and, if not, reverting to the heirs general of the original stipendiaries, precisely as in the case of income arising out of any other kind of personal estate. Latterly, however, the system has been entirely altered. The Company have claimed the right on the death of each individual holder to pay his heir whatever amount they think proper. And what with diminished payments to lineal heirs, and the refusing payment altogether in cases where the heir is not a male child inheriting by direct descent from the last incumbent, a large portion of the payment originally stipu lated has been withheld. Thus the Company, while they retain possession of the land, and the rents arising from it, are repudiating a large portion of the annual payments, in con sideration of which the land was assigned to them. In fact, they have arbitrarily changed an estate properly descendible to heirs general of the first granters into an estate descendible only in tail male, renewing the settlement in each generation so as to cut off all those who even under this limitation would be heirs to the original grantee, and confining the succes sion to the eldest male child of the man last in possession, or, on failure of such child, the portion is resumed, and the heirs general are left to starve. The plan has been artfully devised with a view of gradually absorbing the cost of the lughires, the rents of which we continue to pocket ; hut it is not only an unworthy one, but contrary to treaty, and a direct violation, therefore, of the faith that we have pledged. If proof be wanting of this, it may be found in the fact that no such plan of reducing the payment ever occurred to the minds of those who formed the treaty, or to the successive governors who ruled India for very many years afterwards. In fact, the whole plan owes its origin to that alieni appetens tut pro futus system alleged by CICERO against V;..... THE PRESS. CATALINI, and which has of late formed so dis tinctive a feature in the policy pursued by the East India Company. In the present instance the following out of the system wants even the recommendation of any considerable amount of income being saved by it. A few thou sand pounds annually is all the profit which we derive from this breach of faith—a large sum to the sufferers, but less to the company than they lose by cheating and peculation on the part of their own servants every day. But, be the sum great or small, the violation of principle involved in the system is just the same. And against that violation of principle we hold it our duty most strenuously to protest, for we shall never be convinced that the way to improve a country is to confiscate the property of every man of wealth within it. And if we had any doubt of the correctness of our view we should find a sufficient confirmation of it in the con stantly-increasing impoverishment of India, except in those parts protected by the Crown Courts at the Presidencies. _ At this point we would gladly stop, but there is one feature in this case too remarkable to be passed over, the more especially as it is so indicative of the present conduct of the East India Company. These Carnatic Stipen diaries, when they first became aware of the confiscation system to which they were to be subjected, presented a respectful memorial against it to the local Government. To this they received no reply, and they then pre sented another. The local authorities still refusing to give any reply, the Stipendiaries sent, through them, a memorial in due form to the Directors of the East India Company. To this also no answer was vouchsafed ; when they sent an agent home to petition them, and the only reply given to him was the return of his petition, with an intimation that they could receive no petition not forwarded through the local Government, though the petition so sent had been left unnoticed. Such is the mode in which the Company now meet claims made on them for redress. Such is the contemptuous indifference with which are treated the descendants of a Sovereign who was but eighty years ago not deemed unworthy to be conciliated by a personal letter and personal presents from our own King —a contemptuous indifference with which no English Minister would dare to treat the representation of the poorest and humblest British-born subject of the Crown of England. THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—The efficiency of the English navy in the materiel and personnel of its estab lishment has been the theme of more than oue article in the French journals. When it is borne in mind that the present First Lord of the Admiralty travelled out of his way despite fully to dishonour the present Emperor of the French, it must be conceded that our gallant allies are possessed of a generous and for giving disposition. But, unless vigilance be on the alert to guard against ministerial as sumption and Coalition immolesty, an attempt will be made to exalt Coalition ability and to usurp the credit of perfecting the present materiel of the English navy. When the Duke of Northumberland was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in the Ministry of the Earl of Derby, in 1852, he found at Plymouth 7 ships-of-the-line, mounting 180 guns, with 1,730 men. When the duke retired from office, in 1853, there were 10 ships, 622 guns, and 3,102 men. Again, at Portsmouth in 1852 there appeared 9 ships, mounting 272 guns, with 2,959 men. In 1853 these numbers were raised to 21 ships, 913 guns, and 7,623 men. These are sta tistics incapable of denial, and afford an earnest of the administrative abilities of the First Lord of the Admiralty in the Adminis tration of the Earl of Derby. The Duke of Northumberland, during his tenure of office, conferred greater benefit on the navy than had been effected in ten times that period under former Ministries. Squad rons were concentrated in each of the home ports ; steamers were equipped ; screw line-of battle ships were hastened in their construc tion ; and a large addition of seamen and Alf 1059 marines was voted by acclamation in Parlia ment. A screw squadron was sent, under the orders of Captain Robinson, to test the quali ties of the several vessels, and a committee was appointed which fully proved the incom petency of steam-packets and merchant vessels fur the purposes of war. It was shown that out of 700 merchant vessels only three were capable of war service. Another commission was employed on the question of manning the navy, and the measures recommended in that report have been adopted and carried out by the present Government. The pensioners of Greenwich Hospital received the boon of ad ditional comfort, whilst the personal liberality of the duke was displayed in the princely do nation he presented to the Sailors' Homes. These are services real and substantial — these are administrative achievements em blazoned by the light of their own virtue. No First Lord of the Admiralty ever entered upon office with a purer resolve to perform its duties, and no one more loyally and nobly fulfilled them. It were easy to amplify where the materials of merit are profuse, but a plain recital of valuable service without comment, and beyond contradiction, will best illustrate the claims of the Duke of Northumberland to the gratitude of his country. CHAPLAINS FOR THE ARMY OF THE EAST. SEVERAL erroneous statements having appeared with reference to the provision that has been made for the religious wants of our army in the East, we are in duced to published a nominal list of the chaplains of all denominations who have been appointed:— CLERGYHRN or TRZ CHURCH or ENOLAND.—Rey. H. 0. Wright, Principal Chaplain—Rev. R. Halpin—Rev. R. Hamilton—Rev. G. Lawleee—Rev. J. Egan—Rev. T. Sabine--Rev. J. L. Gilborne—Rey. J. M. Lewee--Rev. H. Hulcatt—Rev. Mr. Hayward—Rev. C. E. Hadow—Rey. E. Owen—Rev. E. G. Parker—Rev. G. B. Eade—Rev. R. Freeman. Of these fifteen, the last five named were sent out undor the auspices of the Gospel Propagation So ciety : ROMAN CATHOLIC PIIIIESTS.—Rey. J. J. Wheble—Rev. D. Sheahan—Rev. M. ('uffe—Rev. F. 0. Dwyer—Rev. J. Butt—Rev. J. Baireliawe—Rev. T. Molony—Rev. M. Cantry—Rev. J. Doyle--Rev. H. Clark. PREBBYTEBIAN MINISTICHIL—Rev. J. Campbell—Rev. H. Drennan. We may add that there are vacancies in the regular body of chaplains of the Church of England, and that two more clergymen will probably leave England in the course of the ensuing week, on the same footing as those already despatched by the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Another Pres byterian minister will also be sent out forthwith. PRINCE EDWARD OF SAXE WEIMAR. THE Crimea expedition has been fertile in examples of courage and gallantry never surpassed in our mi litary annals ; and among the most illustrious of these examples may fairly be ranked the heroic con duct of I'rince EDWARD of Saxs Weimar. He went on duty in the trenches at four a.m.; at ten a.m. he was severely wounded from the bursting of a shell, receiving a severe contusion on the outer part of the left thigh ; a second injury on the inside of the left thigh ; and a third on the right arm. Although stunned by this treble blow, he positively declined to abandon his post, nor did he leave the trenches till he was relieved at the usual time, four next morning ; thus having remained on duty wounded for sixteen hours. For the two following days he was compelled to lie by, but at the last accounts was going on well. His life, in all probability, was saved by his having a thick silk wrapper and letter-case in his pocket, both of which were cut to pieces! IN the public correspondence from the Black Sea fleet the want of ASSISTANT-SURGEONS IN THE NAVY is justly and forlibly complained of. After the action with the forts these gentlemen were handed round, as it were, from one ship to another, performing their functions as rapidly as possible, and yet so largo was the demand for their services that the dying and wounded of the most distant vessels had to wait several hours without the proper attention to their needs or sufferings. The Admiralty has fre quently been memorialised on the anomalous position of the members of this valuable branch of the service : it has been suggested for the last dozen years that they should be treated as officers, and should mess in the gun-room. It is no longer a fact that their ranks are supplied, as in the days of Com modore Trunnion, from behind the apothecar ies' - 4 o t