The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-23 00:00:00

THE from India this week, detailed and telegraphic, The intelligence __ throws very little light upon the real position of affairs. We have no published details of the defeat we experienced at Cawnpore, and reticence on the part of the Government here is no longer a virtue. The reputation of a deservedly popular officer is at stake, and if the details of the operations before and at Cawnpore on the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th of November are in the hands of the Government, to withhold them is not generous towards General WINDHAM, while it is obviously unjust towards Sir COLIN CAMPBELL. The general tenor of all letssrs received from India is that our army is inadequate and our transport inefficient, while the real struggle for supremacy is only now commencing. In fact, it seems to be the im pression of every thoughtful mind that matters have arrived at a most serious point, and that the future of India has yet to be decided in the field. This is not encouraging, after eight months' hard fighting ; but this view would appear to be fully borne out by facts Despite his victory over the Gwalior Conting3nt, it is more than probable that Sir Como CAMPBELL has been compelled to abandon Cawnpore as well as Lucknow from sheer inability to hold either position in the face of the increasing numbers of the enemy, and to fall back upon Futtehpore, and from thence to Allahabadi as the most secure base for his opera tions. In that case we may assume that Sir JAMES OUTRAM would abandon Alumbagh, and form a junction with Sir Como at Futtehpore. What effect such a retrograde movement will have upon Rohilcund generally, and particularly upon the neighbourhood of Delhi, is a subject for grave consideration. Our garrison at Delhi has been weakened to an unsafe degree by these repeated detachments to Agra and Cawnpore ; and by the last accounts we had only 300 European and not more than 500 native troops to hold the city. The neighbourhood is filled with a hostile population ; and although we have a few hundred men at Meerut, we must not calculate upon holding the district in subjection with such inadequate forces, when intelligence, judiciously exaggerated and sedulously propagated, of our having abandoned Lucknow and Cawnpore arrives to fan the smouldering embers of hatred once more into a flame of insurrection. Neither can we any longer count upon receiving further aid from Sir Jona Lawazsca. In point of fact the Punjaub now requires aid, imme diate aid, and the want of which may add materially to our troubles, if not our disasters, in India. The country cannot too seriously reflect that we are now engaged in a war which will heavily tax our resources. In both men and money matters are serious. From the treatment Lord Palmetto inflicted upon the army after the conclusion of the Russian war, the service is no longer popular, and our finances are not flourishing. We certainly have contrived in this crisis, and under the pre sent Government, to unite physical with administrative deficiency, and to grow weaker and worse by the same action. We are obliged to call in the aid of our good allies the French to conduct our campaign in China, we cannot obtain sufficient recruits to meet the demands of our army, and before Parliament has long met the question which comes most home to every man's business and bosom—increased taxation—will, in all probability, be brought prominently before the nation. The whole of this lamentable state of things may be traced to natimple want of foresight. With the moat ordinary precaution this rebellion in India could have been nipped in the bud. We are told by Ministers that no documents are in existence which indicate in any manner the probability of an outbreak of India. We speak advisedly when we say that at this moment there is in existence an official letter of a date long previous to the actual outbreak, in which the following remarkable passage occurs : Mahomedan emissaries from the coast of India are at work among the Moors of Ceylon. Now it is not to be lost sight of that a vast religious and Mahomedan move ment is in progress in India from east to west--from Calcutta to the Punjaub; and it is not improbable that a diversion may be sought by thus rousing the Moors of Ceylon to revolt, to prevent the co-operation of troops from the coast, or vioe This is one, in all probability, of many warnings the Government had at their disposal ; but they took no heed. They never watched or sought to fathom the progress of that " religious movement" so saga ciously detected ; but they plunged into a Persian war, the step of all others, politically and physically, certain to rouse the smouldering Indian insurrection. That they have got us into our present difficulties no one can deny. That they can extricate us few would be bold enough to assert. The speech of the Emperor NAPOLEON is a frank exposition of that foreign and domestic policy which has certainly won for France a highly satisfactory position in Europe. In his unreserved declaration that the Empire is an enemy to every abstract theory, and that in his hands it shall be a power capable of control, we recognise that sagacity to maintain those institutions best suited to ty of France and the happiness of her people. short have done so much for his country as the The recent atrocious attempt against his life will to every impartial mind in France. The con of the Imperial Speech are remarkable for the ce with which the attempt of the 14th is treated. all allusion to the development of this dark con . but it is impossible that the serious question permitted to remain in its present unsatisfactory to give and the will secure the prosperity Few men in time so sb Emperor NAPOLKON. bring home this truth eluding paragraphs of courageous confidence The Emperor avoids al spiracy against him ; involved can be pert position. 11111 MINI, THE PRESS, JANUARY 23, 1858. WEEK. In the Times of Wednesday the Dublin correspondent, referring to the law appointments, writes thus : It may be safely affirmed that the elevation of Mr. Sergeant O'Brien to the Ben c h will not be unpopular with the profession generally, and that it will only serve t o strengthen the public feeling that, sooner or later, there must be a change in the present system of promotion to high legal offices. This expression of opinion is entirely in accordance with the tone of this Journal on the Irish Judicature, but it derives additional force from the fact of its having been expressed after the whole subject of the law appointments had been canvassed in Dublin for several days. " What the Whigs can possibly mean " by these extraordinary appoint ments has puzzled all parties. In a Bar where the great majority is Protestant, and where the most distinguished politicians are Protes tant, three Roman Catholics and only one Protestant have been simul taneously promoted. If Ministers think that this question is only an Irish one, the supposition shows their ignorance of the attention bestowed on it by the English Bar and English society. People ask, what can Ministers mean by appointing able men in England (like Mr. Sergeant BYtes), without regard to his opinions, ' and nominating Mr. Sergeant O'BRIEN in Ireland, because he was M.P. for Limerick, and because—(of course, without the knowledge of that learned personage)—certain Roman Catholic clerical influences were brought to bear on the question of who was to succeed Mr. Jus tice Mooing in the Queen's Bench. The fact is, that all this scanda• lous jobbery has been perpetrated because the Cabinet thinks that the Conservatives and independent members of the Irish Bar will not bestir themselves about it. Mr. Warr/tuna was per fectly right in saying that Conservatives disapproved of " agita tion," and would decline to employ it. But no one knows better than that brilliant orator that remonstrance is a constitutional right of the subject ; and we have yet to learn whether every power of the cliques at Dublin Castle could contravene the rights of the Protestants of Ire land, in public meetings assembled, to tell the advisers of the Crown that out of the twelve Judges only three have been taken from that portion of the Bar which represents the feelings and convictions of the overwhelming majority of the Protestants of Ireland. The late Duke of DEVONSHIRE filled during his life a first-rate place amongst the most princely nobles in Europe. His immense fortune, his grand baronial halls, his galleries of art and exquisitely choice collections of virtu, his love of gorgeous entertainments, the munificence of his gifts, and the stately style of his equipage, all pointed him out as a patrician of the highest dignity. Though defi cient in the stamina of character required for public life, his Grace was by no means wanting in intellectual qualities, and his mind was stored with much curious and miscellaneous information on subjects rarely studied by a man in high life. Some of the tastes of his famous kinsman, the chemist CAVENDISH, were possessed by him, and his knowledge of the scientific preparations and preserved curiosities in a museum often surprised strangers who were not acquainted with his habits. His abilities, such as they were, were more passive than active. But it was in the extraordinary splendour of his entertain ments that the Duke's nature was best seen. Of those magni ficent revellings it might truly be said that they were not only banquets but spectacles. They were not simply " got up " with the hackneyed aid of professional caterers, but they were designed with an artistic mind. The gorgeous and the graceful were never better joined than at his brilliant balls, in all the arrangements for which his Grace took much pleasure, and spent no small trouble. About eight years since, after a temporary absence from fashionable life, the Duke gave a series of entertainments at Devonshire house which excited the admiration of all who participated in them; and even those most familiar with the splendour of foreign capitals, declared that they had never seen such receptions. In this taste for display, combined as it was with artistic finish, it was impossible not to see many of the characteristics which marked the famous and fascinating GEORGIANA, Duchess of Devonshire. That celebrated beauty had also a taste for arranging grand receptions in a style not to be attained by mere expenditure, however lavish ; and her productions with both pen and pencil showed much of talent, ani occasionally not a little of genius. Like many of the Spencer family, from whore she sprung, the Duchess of Davos:sums had some eccentricities of manner , not forgotten by Fox in his well-known lines : And then young, fair, fantastic Devon, Wild as the comet in mid heaven, &..c. And occasionally some peculiarities in the late Duke were of a kind rather "fantastic," and suggestive of the eccentricity, if not of the brilliancy, of the " comet ". alluded to by Cu/attics Fox. But for these oddities and whimsicalities great allowance was always made by society, who always looked on the Duke of DavoNsatas as a benefac tor, from the joy and diffusive brightness of life which usually encir cled him where he dwelt. Of late years, his Grace's principal amuse ment was enlarging and richly embellishing his seat of " Lismore Castle," in the county of Waterford, which he converted into a resi dence fit for an Esterhazy. It was always understood that her Majesty was to have been splendidly entertained there at some future time, and that the first private abode to be honoured by a night's sojourn in Ireland, on the part of the Queen, was to be the picturesque and magnificent castle which was bequeathed to the Cavxtrnisnits from the BOYLES. In party politics the Duke was a conventional Whig, of the Brookes's Club type, but his general views of life had been much influenced by his frequent residences abroad. Of the various idle tales connected with his family and birth, this is not the place to speak. Some of them are ridiculously false, and others are only partly true; but such matters do not fall within the sphere of public discussion. • • ..111WW