The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

JUNE 18, 1853. assailable by his literary adversaries. But on great occasions he could rise with the subject, and the manly animation of his hearty spirit gave life and confidence to the supporters of his politics. It is impossible to overestimate the services which he rendered on the death of Mr. Perceval, when in arduous times he un dertook to lead the Commons. As evidence of those services we may appeal to a passage in this series of despatches from the pen of Lord Aberdeen, written in 1t4.1. Even for the sake of curiosity, if not for any better reason. let us see what so eminent a " Conservative liberal" thought of that ma• ligned nobleman. He says : I cannot too often represent to you the veal state of the minds of those weak men by whom Europe is governed. The seeming agreement at Langres covered distrust and hate. A little success will cement them again ; but, if they are to be severely tried in adversity, their dissolution is certain. Your presence has done much, and, I hare no doubt, would continue to sustain them in inbfortone. but withont it they could not exist. And again he writes : Firmness and perseverance will certainly do all ; and, a- Imeg as you remain, the Allies may have these qualities. whatever may be their fortune. But, as your absence must sooner or later take place, it is well to be provided against it in the only manner in which it can be done effectually. The best evidence of that " firmness and perseverance" is the whole tenor of these twelve volumes of correspondence now given to the world. The spirit of the writer may be truly judged of by the following specimen which we extract from the present series. Observe the truth and force with which, just after Napoleon's escape from Elba, Lord Castlereagh addresses the Duke of Wel lington : I have nothing material to add to my letter. We wait with impatience for intelligence from all quarters. The great question is, can the Bourbons get Frenchmen to fight for them against Frenchmen ? If they can, Europe may soon turn the tide in their favour ; and, the process of fer mentation once begun, they may create real partisans, in stead of criers of five k Rua ! and doers of nothing. If we are to undertake the job, we must leave nothing to chance. It must be done upon the largest scale. With Nlayence, Luxembourg, and Lille, you start on solid grounds, and no fortresses in the rear to blockade as before. But you must inundate France with force in all directions If Bonaparte could turn the tide, there is no calculating upon his plan, and we must always recollect that Poland, Sax ony, and much Js.cobinism, are in our rear. I wish you would turn in your mind the principles to be acted upon in France. The applying those you acted upon in the south to the force you will now command of all na tions is out of the question. The utmost we could at tempt would be to be honest ourselves. and this would only make our allies more odious. My notion is, that France must pay the price of her own deliverance—that the King should consider the allied troops—that every corps should be accompanied by a French ordonnateur, through whom all requisitions for forage and subsistence should be made ; the value to he paid in bons, the liquidation of which should be assured upon a peace, either in whole, or in the greater proportion, at the expense of thy• French Govern ment. Unless some system of this kind is agreed upon, the war will either degenerate, as it did last year, into an indiscri minate and destructive pillage, or ire shall he haat-nos, and driven out of the field in three months. I know the difficulties of what I suggest; but the alternative in the less objectionable sense leads at once to impossibilities a►d ruin. Pray consider whether the territorial acquisitions of Austria must not he redneed into articles. I think she cannot rest her title merely upon the secret and very gene nd article in the treaty of Paris. We cannot set down to mere malignity the blunders upon his character committed by his hostile censors. Some of them involuntarily do homage to his merits. Thus, in his " Life of Canning," Mr. Robert Bell incriminates the policy and &rides the character of Lord Castlereagh. But mark this sentence : " The Duke of Wellington PRODIGIOUSLY .UfIIIRED Lord Castlereagh."t Indeed ! And we ask whether ten persons could now be found in England who would venture to doubt the great qualities of any man "prodigiously admired" by the Great I►uke, who was no enthusiast ? The assertion about the extent of the Dukes admiration is perfectly true. How strange that a litterateur could not have seen the irreconcilable dif ferenee between the picture of Lord Castle reagh, as drawn in that unsatisfactory " Life of Canning," and the foregoing assertion about the sentiments of the Great Duke ! • L► this letter Lord Aberdeen says, " It will do yon uo harm t.i glee the interior of a Coalition." the admirers of "antiquated imbecility " will pr►bahly refer tit this sentence as a proof of the writer's present sagacity! We must desire better authority un the "no harm " of a Coalition., " Life of Canning," p. 325. THE PRESS. We do not ourselves place any stress upon the opinions of such a whirligig as the late Sir Robert Peel. But if the Manchester school should disparage the fame of Lord Castlereagh we might refer them to an elaborate eulogy upon him from the late member for Tamworth.* Are we too late in raising the question, has justice been done to the memory of Lord Castle reagh; and, when Art has been invoked to minis ter to the celebrity of characters who lived in more fortunate times, might not the sentiment of loyalty desire to record in seine marble m e nu. ment , risible to the popular gaze, the memory of the • undaunted statesman, who stood by his Sore reign and country in times when sedition was hailed as patriotic, and revolution was invoked as reform ? Nor let it be said that these twelve volumes of despatches are the best me morial of the writer's fame. They are invalu able for reference, and must he frequently consulted by the historian of that age. They throw great light on many passages in the momentous period at which they were com posed, hut, while we cordially thank Lord Londonderry for giving them to the world, we cannot help urging that the life of Lord Cas tlereagh, as an individual, remains to be written. Proposal of a Plan for Remodelling the Govern meat of India. Respectfully submitted to the consideration of her Majesty's Ministers and both Houses of Parliament. London : Smith, Elder, and Co. THIS plan for the future government of India is well worthy the attention of those to whom it is addressed. It is evidently written by a man of great knowledge and experience, and, tbi.ugh proposing many considerable altera tions, is decidedly conservative. This is as it. should be; let us byall means have alterations in the system of government, but let us go de liberately to work, and be careful that such alterations are improvements ; above all, let us, if we wish to preserve the sovereignty of India, studiously avoid the reckless radical reform, the utter sweeping away of things as they are, recommended by ignorant or disappointed men, and supported so vehemently by the cotton-spinners, " and persons of that sort," who think nothing of risking an empire against the chance of securing a larger consumption of Manchester goods and factory children. The author proposes to continue the court of directors and to renew their political powers for a further term of twenty years, " the impe rial authority to be represented by a cabinet minister, whose control over the court of direc tors shall be limited to the supervision of their proceedings in questions of imperial concern only ; such as peace and war, extension of ter ritory, commercial tariffs, &c., &c." He re commends some changes with respect to the election of directors, and an enlargement of the constituency, which is, perhaps, objection able. But the most considerable alterations in the present form of government advocated by the writer affect the authorities and agencies in India. The main feature of these is centrali sation. The supreme government• is to consist of the governor-general and a council of twelve, com posed of the following members :—One legis lative member ; the commander-in-chief of the army in Balla, ex. officio ; six members, civil and military, in equal proportion, to be drawn, one from each of the six minor govern ments to be established ; and the four chief secretaries to government. in the foreign, financial, home, and military departments respectively. The law officer and the com mander-in-chief to be nominated by the court, and appointed under sanction of the Crown ; the remaining members to be appointed abso lutely by the court of directors. The noun oils at Madras and BoinbaLare to be abolished, and six minor governments to be formed, viz., Bengal proper. Africa, the Punjaub, Bombay, Madras, and the Straits; each under the au thority of a lieutenant governor, to be nom by the court of directors for terms of five years, renewable at the plea • Nee Sir H. Peel's letter ofJuly 23rd, 10439, quoted int:gesso (i2astlereagh Despatches, First Series, p. 131). Not many years ago Sir R. Peel, in our presence, spoke of Lord Castlereagh as " that illusirions atatessinui." 161 sure of the court. The powers of the gover nor-general are increased, and it is pro posed, amongst other things, that he should "be empowered absolutely to overrule and " practically set aside, on his own responsi - bihty. the opinions and votes of his council. "individual or collective, on any difference that may arise between them." This last proviso we think rather injudicious, as it would tend to letter, if not altogether to set aside, the free will of the councillors. The commander-in-ehief is to have the power of nominating to all offices and appointments on the general staff of the army, and to brigade and regimental commands. The civil services of the three presidencies are proposed to be united into one civil service of India. Our limits preclude us from following the author into the details of his plan, hut we must mention that it concludes " that all " political powers, privileges, and patronage, - at present held and exercised by the Court of " Directors (except in so far as the same may " stand modified by the terms of the foregoing "propositions). be renewed to that body in " full." The " plan" is followed by " explana " tory comments" which are terse and to the purpose, though we disagree with the writer in many of his conclusions. For instance, when he says, alluding to the power of the governors-general to overrule his council on his own responsibility, "No fear of such a " power being abused, as only the confidence " inspired by high genius, and a consciousness " of ability to deal with the emergency, would " ever prompt a governor-general to assume " so heavy a responsibility." &Id (purrs de hoc ; we mistrust this confidence of genius and con sciousness of ability ; and it must never be forgotten that " Fools rush in where angels " fear to tread." We do not mean to divide our governors-general into two such broadly separated classes, but experience has taught us that they are not all angels, and we should be sorry to see a power so despotic placed in the hands of a single erring mortal. It istrue that if he erred he might be impeached after wards, being solely responsible ; but the mischief would be done, and where would be the remedy ? We heartily agree with our author when in his last lines he asks for India—" a strong " Government with undivided responsibility.' Whether the Government he single or double ; whether it be vested in the Crown or the Com pany, or divided between them; each and every member of such Government should he responsible to the Imperial Parliament for his acts and their consequences. The I.'nglish Huntourists of the Eighteenth CMu• mu. By W. M. Thackeiiiy. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. WIRTEvEtt may have been the success of these lectures on their delivery (and we understand it was highly flattering), we doubt the wisdom of giving them to the public in a printed fem. If the most sparkling essays of the periodical press when subsequently col lected and republished have been compared to champagne brought a second time to table, what remains of spirit or flavour can we expect to find in lectures which, like the present, have been prepared only for delivery, and require the aid of voice, look, and manner to give efiect to their " points," to carry off the negligence of their style, and often, indeed, to explain their meaning ? It is a more serious objection to their republication that they contain no matter which can justify their claim to perusal in the closet. The writer tells us that "it is of the men and of their lives, rather than of their books" (p. I), that he proposes to treat. Ilut he does not pretend in the following slight sketches (nor, indeed, could he be expected) to throw any new light on their history. He does not seem to possess that deep and intituate know ledge of the manners of the last age which might enable him to place before our eyes, with a few graphic touches, the men and the scenes in which they acted, and to condense the result of much hard reading of his own into a few pages of easy reading for the public. Indeed, his apparent want of care in econo• miring space (as, for instance, where he be stows two pages on conjectural ,guesses at