The Press. — London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

vance. The defection of the llindoo soldiery was the result of several co-operating► causes, the last of which was the alarm about the greased cart ridges. Mr. Gubbins candidly admits that the natives had been for some time previously in a state of painful excitement on the subject of caste and religion : Many public measures (ha says) had tended to this result ; but perhaps none more so than the extreme ra pidity with which educational measures had of late years been forced on. Local officers, with the approval of Go vernment, solicited contributions from the people for the establishment of schools. These were set up not only in cities, nor yet only in towns ; but villages were grouped together into circles or unions to support a school ; and every month brought out some ne w measure to glee impetus to the educational mania. All public servants were required to qualify themselves by literary acquirements, for which examinations were instituted. Not even au ordinary messenger, on the pay of eight shillings a montb,could be entertained unless be could read and write. Village accountants, and the headmen of village communities, might be required to pass examina tions. In respect to the public gaols a perfect mania prevailed. Reading, writing, arithmetic, were required ; and sometimes geography and the planetary system were taught. And murderers and burglars who distinguished themselves as teachers were conveyed from one gaol to another to educate the rest. The people looked on and wondered, not without suspicion. Suspicion ever marks the barbaric mind. Why were we doing all this ? Surely not without some hidden purpose of our own. The Brahmins fostered the suspicions. They beheld in the enlightenment of the people, the certain downfall of their faith and their power. And already they perceived themselves to be treated with less consideration than before. It was whispered, and extensively believed. that the object of our Government was to destroy the Hindoo religion, and to convert them to our own. With equal candour does this distinguished member of the Bengal Civil Service condemn the system he has been engaged in administering during the best portion of his life. The native gentry, he acknowledges, have no reason to feel much attachment for a Government that has worked their ruin. The proprietors and culti vators of the land, also, can hardly be expected to exhibit much gratitude for a land tax that is assessed too high, or for a revenue system that renders them perpetually liable to the chicaneries and delays of the most abominable law courts. Even the sepoys writhed under what they con sidered an act of spoliation, when the Govern ment caused their hereditary lands to be surveyed and subjected to a direct impost. It is true " the payment of a land tax is one of the oldest "institutions of the country," but it was paid in a very different manner. A village was assessed to a certain amount, but each man's quota was settled by the inhabitants themselves, and the potail, or headman, stood between them and the farmer of the revenue. No man was dis possessed of lands because he failed sonic one year to pay up his whole share of the aggregate impost. Under the present system, however, he is called upon to pay his own land tax, without reference to his village brethren ; and, in the event of falling into arrears, he is liable to be ousted, and to see his paternal acres put up for public sale. " The " tenacity with which the llindoo sharer (of the " a v illage lands) clings to his ancestral fields, and " his affection for the soil which he inherits, is " unsurpassed in any country." It may be imagined, then, how intense was the dissatisfac tion felt by the Oudh population—from whom the Bengal army was chiefly recruited—when they found themselves no longer landed pro prietors, but the mere tenants of the Govern ment ; for it was in this light they viewed the in novation. No doubt after a little time the feeling of exasperation would have become mitigated, and the people of Oudh would have bowed their necks to the yoke as patiently as their neighbours in the north-western provinces. But the annexation of that country was even a greater blunder than a crime. It was effected at a time when only one weak European regiment was available to overawe five millions of people. For the sake of Pegu and the Punjaub, the Upper Provinces had been denuded of troops, and thus the sepoys were led to form the most exaggerated notions of their own power and importance, and to entertain a sovereign contempt for the handful of "pale f ac e t ," who assumed to rule over them. The op portunity was certainly very tempting, and it is no matter for special wonder that they should have availed themselves of it. One thing slime was wanting, but that the most important of all. They had no leader, no head. Consequently their movements were spasmodic and without eonc.ert or combination, and the mighty ,sepoy likk.. THE PRESS, AUGUST 21,1858. army became a huge unwieldy monster, oppressed by its own weight. The Age. A Colloquial Satire. By Philip James Bailey, Author of "Festus." London: Chapman and Hall. THE importance of this work consists in its being a summary of the opinions upon public affairs held by the ill-tempered section of that large and respectable class who never study them. It is very properly written in slipshod English and halting metre. It is perhaps rather long, but Mr. Bailey is known to be, if we measure by the number of verses which he has produced, the most creative genius of recent times. The plot is perhaps needlessly com plicated. Three personages are introduced, who as they appear to agree in opinion upon most questions, and all alike belong manifestly to the class above referred to, might, as far as appears, have commissioned one of their number to say everything which was to be said. But doubtless the author felt that these characters were necessary to keep each other in countenance, and considered that an ignorant man seldom bestows the whole tediousness of his ignorance except upon companions as ignorant as himself. In other respects the plan is very consistently executed. We have here no digressions into that supersensual world in which Mr. Bailey is most at home. The guardian angels of planets, the eternal predestination of souls, the tempta tions of the devil, the frail human contemplatist, have ceased to be the subjects of his Muse; and front the present volume we should never have guessed that Mr. Bailey had ever occupied himself with " fates and destinies, and such odd sayings— the sisters three, and such branches of learning." As consistently he appears to have avoided every other subject upon which he has ever meditated. We have not discovered among the vast number of topics cursorily discussed in this " Colloquial Satire" any one which the author has studied more than another. He treats with the same engaging innocence of each and all. Nor, indeed, when he drops practical politics, and pursues for a few digressive pages certain theological theories suggested by the topics of the day, does he show any more acquaintance with the ground he is treading. So that it seems quite impossible that " The Age" can really be a production of the author of " Festus," a work which Alfred Tennyson declared that he could not trust hint self to say how much he admired, or else the suggestion we have thrown out must be true, and Mr. Bailey must have deliberately intended to display the extent of popular ignorance of politics. If this be so, then the title "A Colloquial Satire" must be taken to mean "a " satire upon conversation, or upon the pro " pensity of people in this age to talk about " what they do not understand." Supposing, however, that this is really the author's design, we must profess that we cannot consider it altogether a happy plan, and we much doubt whether either our own patience or that of our readers will second us if we attempt to give a particular account of the poem. We com mence our colloquial satire with the question of Parliamentary Reform. Upon this point our opinion, or rather our " Friend's" opinion, is that " In my view, though not worth defending, " —in this phrase perhaps the author's covert con tempt for the interlocutors in his dialogue peeps out, the vote wants raising, rather than ex tending." From this we pass to a strong con demnation of the Indian policy of England; and thence again advancing, we confidently pronounce that The Typocrat now rules from coast to coast, Who, rattling off a leader while yon are winking, Has almost atifted independent thinking. If we look to the voluminousness of his works, Mr. Bailey ought certainly to be allowed a high rank among the Typocrats. Ilis first poem, published when he had scarcely written himself among men, was as long as all Milton's poems put together, and in the present work he has shown a similar superiority in prolixity , to Pope. Again advancing, we undauntedly declare that of all conceits misgraftcd on God's word A Christian soldier seems the most alisnr I ; That word commands us so to act in all things As veer to uurt another e'en in small things. Becoming alive to the objection that this pre cept, supposed to be found in the New Testa ment (it has been omitted in our copy), Wou l d bar himself from boxing his naughty ears, and still more front publishing his p ant 111 r. wholeley re d tur o n c s tr t i o ne subject.tohfispeace war i We then . : nously stated : If I run a man right through and th rough, As in some cases I have a ri g h t t o d o, 1 . 11 boast nn Christian motive i n th e act, Nor Gospels garble to excuse th e f act; Enough that he's a rogue and I' m attac k ed. Ask me how much about his sou l I care Just at that moment, and —no, I'll not swear. This writer has certainly . adopted a diff erent tone of treating serious subjects fr ont th at which he employed in former times, when he mingled with the choirs of angels and caught the words of Divine Persons audibly speaking. Il e h as now learnt that Christianity is only an outward fashion ; that it has nothing to do with a man ' s and tini/. essential character, but only affects hi s genera l manners ; that it is, in short, a dress-suit to be worn in solemn assemblies, and to be discarded as soon as there is work to be done. And why does Mr. Bailey pull himself up when he feels tempted to utter a profane oath ? Courage, Mr. Bailey ; you can enjoy your oath without " garbling Gospels to excuse the fact." It is enough that you feel tempted to give vent to it. Perhaps, however, we are wrong in ascribing the aposiopesis to pious self-restraint. It occurs to us that there is no oath in common use which rhymes to " care." Again, changing the subject, we review the whole course of events in Europe since the repeal of the Corn Laws. We remark that that party contest was followed by a rot of the potatoes, and this, again, by " a year of rows and revolutions." The word " row" does not probably occur in this sense in Milton or Pope. Upon these events we appear not to be inspired with any reflections, except one which has perhaps been anticipated by some other writer—viz., that the rench revolutionary leaders are not sufficiently practi cal. Upon the Chartist demonstration of 154 s we feel ourselves competent to pronounce a dignified opinion—" in fact, they lacked substra " turn for a row." Before we pass from this to the Papal Aggression, we find occasion to de nounce Dr. Livingstone in a parenthesis:— To me his Biblical-Cottonian gammon Seems just the thing denounced—read Luke —as mammon. Bence it would appear that a denunciation of commerce, as well as of war, has been discovered in the New Testament. Nay, from the invidious compound " Biblical-Cottonian," it might he inferred that the Bible denounces cotton alto gether. Then we go on to sneer at the Eerie siasteat Titles Bill, which we pronounce to be otiose. Then we glance at the Great Exhibition. and remark that " art-education don't succeed on bees," which we illustrate by criticizing the statues of the metropolis. Arguments, perhaps tending to a contrary conclusion, might be de duced from the Royal Academy's Exhibition of pictures; but, on the other hand, the unfavourable opinion is confirmed by the fact that sonic of the poems recently produced in England are monsters of shapeless and massive imbecility. Statues suggest to us the Duke of Wellington, and he again gives occasion to the reflection that " all government is based on force." This sentence presents an appearance of novelty, but as we hasten to explain that in "force" we II!' dude all power, whether material or moral, this appearance again disappears, and the position is shown to be, when rightly understood , one which will be universally allowed—viz., that all govern ment is government. We pass to the Coup-d'Etat of Noveniber• This appears to us very sur prising. W ye eve! consider it " the grandest drama ev er p la Y ed; but upon consideration we do not find that we have any further remark to make upon wh it, ican. hu accordingly we pass to the Russian war, ' as we happily phrase it, " brings us down to where we nearly are." We are extremely d.c sirous of treating this subject in a striki ng manner. Accordingly we gather ourselves st and tter a formula of introduction caleslatfl: excite the reader to unusual attentio n, we dell' our mind : The object of that war appears to me Wrapped in this query ; Russia , sh all it be 111 Europe? or shall Europe be in Russia . After this effort, then, we rest. Our political system is before the world. It t tt of mir rd is al be ed hy els Ir. nut is it, he to ich the eal ty- Ind Is." his we ted ich eti- a ra- to de- ann. of Ted iuus he Ito- de- he lon the aps de- of able the are lity. ;ton, that This hut e in- this an i 9 'lnch ern- lber• even ed;" A We , a nd hick, to y de- iking s uP , ed to e liver litical