The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-16 00:00:00

No. 246.—V0L. VI. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 16,1858. STAMPED ....SIXPF.NCE. UNSTAMPED ..FIVEPENCE. Ot Vrtss. officer of the 64th, captured in the affair in which Wine;Ast suffered so much, was hanged, we are told, on the gallows erected for executing the mutineers by NEILL. A second, with a studied mixture of cruelty and contempt, was beaten to death with shoes ; the punishment of the shoe being the most degrading of all punishments in Eastern eyes. A third, it is said, was tied to a cartwheel, and so crushed to death. We, on our side, can hardly be said to be behindhand in our retalition ; for though we do not hear of any cruelties on the part of our European soldiers, the doings of the Ghoorkas in our employ are enough to make the very blood rim cold. They spare the women and children, but that is all. The men of every village they enter they butcher with fiendish barbarity, without re spect to guilt or innocence, occupation or age. All are despatched by them with their crooked knives. We think such proceedings wholly wrong in a mere political point of view; but we should equally record our protest against them if they were in that respect as advan tageous as we are sure that they will prove the reverse. For we think it utterly indefensible in Christians to resort to such measures, and cannot understand the morality that sets Ghoorkas or Red Indians to do what we should shudder at the thought of perpetrating ourselves. We look on all this, therefore, as a very vile as well as a very inefficient sub stitute for that overwhelming European force which, with the amplest means of moving, it was the duty of the Government from the first to provide. It is now a twelvemonth since the first unmistakeable signs of the coming storm appeared ; it is about eight months since the Meerut massacre occurred. It is seven months since Lord ELLENBOROUGH brought the matter prominently before the House of Lords, and unfolded his views regarding the mode in which the rebellion must be dealt with, and which his great military knowledge and thorough experience of India had assured him could alone be crowned with success. But he and Mr. DISRAELI, who spoke in the same spirit in the House of Commons, were both called alarmists ; and Ministers, like the ostriches of the African desert, to whom Lord ELLENBOROUGH compared them, thought they had escaped the danger by merely hiding it from their eyes. In India similar counsels prevailed. The revolt was treated there, too, by the Government as a mere passing mutiny, that was speedily to be subdued at a very tri fling cost, whether of money or of life. If regiments were despatched in largo numbers to the East, they were despatched avowedly rather to silence Conservative cavils than out of any real conviction on the part of the Cabi net of the necessity of the step. It was the same in regard to calling the Militia out. Then as to carriage for the troops, when they got out there the Governor-General provided none. He either thought, apparently, that the ser vices of these regiments would never be wanted in the field, or else he must have been ignorant that transport was requisite for their movement. Had it been otherwise, there can be no conceivable reason why he should not have collected all the necessary carriage, having, as he had, such ample time before him. If there was little to be got in Lower Bengal, there was nothing to prevent his obtaining as much as he wanted from the North-West after Delhi had fallen, and from Madras. His power was only limited by his funds; LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1858. Oen position in India is so far encouraging that we have an able Commander-in-Chief there equal to every emergency, anti who is a host in himself. The courage, the sagacity, the fertility of resource which he has dis played are beyond all praise. He has shown himself to be, what Lord Et.i.xxsoaoueu lately characterised him, a lion fit to lead lions ; and wherever he may be we are sure that victories will be gained. This, indeed, was what we always predicted, knowing the extremely high opinion that the late Sir CHARLES NAPIER had formed of him, and also how distinguished had been his past career. It may be remem bered how warmly and uniformly wo sup ported him when driven from India in disgust by Lord DALuoustx, and passed over by Lord PANMURE during the Crimean campaign. The eminent qualities he is now displaying are a sufficient comment on the wisdom or the honesty that superseded him by a junior at Sebastopol, when the death of the illustrious RAGLAN and the retirement of Sir JAMES SIMPSON had fairly opened up his way to the command. But though we have a most excellent Com mander-in-Chief in India, still it is daily be coming more and more clear to the public that he has not those means at his disposal fur crushing the enemy which he ought to have. To ourselves and our readers this has been obvious all along. The eighty-five thou sand Europeans which the newspapers here were so fond of dilating on, have now dwin dled down to a very moderate force. From twenty-three to twenty-eight thousand are the most it is said that there will be—even when all that are due in Calcutta shall have arrived there—for the whole of Bengal. And of these, the Times correspondent tells us, there are (lying off or being disabled about three hun dred a week, besides the casualties at the Pre sidency that drink is causing among the new arrivals there. This is a much greater expen diture of men than our present shipments of recruits to India ' will replace. Besides, however brave and enduring our troops may be (and it would be difficult to 'over-estimate either their bravery or their endurance), human nature has put limits to man's capacity for exertion, and if these be over-stepped his frame gives way. unless, therefore, our estimate of what is pos sible from soldiers be grievously at built, it will be utterly beyond the power of Su Cow 'to restore peace to India with such a force as this. That the mutineers take the same view is perfectly clear from their acts ; and they Atught to be good judges by this time of what can be done by our European troops. After all their defeats (though we suspect that ti their losses have been in many instances ex aggerated), it might be expected that they would rather overrate than underrate our power to inflict eventual retribution for all 4hat might be done. But it is plain that our victories have not yet had that effect ; on the contrary, the rebels seem more and more savage and defiant as the affair goes on. One Those crisis were truth is to see strong bill for shall be tenderes►. estimated ters ha it must and will losses . seen who and wt. advice. tate at of the by whir or tho pleasan' the ref- every revolt. THE Foil many ' .-..1,-- ...A. ; • • ~•.7."., 1 ,-,!-- .. 4 0 . , e.° 74 .... „..•6; 7e541 1„..-1..." '. •,' t" - 4.- , _. ,1.•, „,,,,, , t\..,......}..... b but these, too, would have been ample if the advice of the Conservative leaders had prevailed. Yet, with all these means at his disposal, we know that till Sir COLIN lauded nothing had been done ; and when the preparations ought to have been far advanced towards completion, they had not even been commenced. The consequence has been that the time for action has been wasted, as we long since foretold. From sheer want of troops to preserve order, the rebellion has been allowed to make head in every direction, and the want of troops has been occasioned mainly by the want of means to move them up. Thus the revolt breaks out at fresh places as fast as it is put down, and the news of the most glorious victories is received with apathy, because it is felt that they produce so little fruit. The rebels, beaten one day, are ready for the encounter again the next; and, wherever order has been restored, insurrection has raised its head again, as soon as the VIM have marched on to meet some other foe. None who really understand the matter will be surprised, therefore, that, after all our anxieties, all our labours, all our sacrifices, pecuniary and of life, we should still in the opinion of those in India most capable of judging be as far almost as ever from the com pletion of our task. We seem in the eyes of these to resemble the wretch depicted by the an• cients whose weary task it was to roll up a stone that perpetually fell back again—a haupy picture of ceaseless and of fruitless toil. The true reason of this is not that the rebel lion was a matter impossible, or oven very difficult, to be dealt with effectually in the outset, if the men who had to deal with it had only understood their work. The failure to suppress it has arisen mainly from the igno -311 ranee of the Governor-General and of Ministers as to the nature of the crisis, their determination to close their eyes to all facts that told against their , precedin or themselves. A quack may call the pox a nettle-rash in despite of the p and be allowed to treat it as sedh ; but parent must not be surprised if in that his child is killed. So it has been with rebellion ' phesied on from first to last. Those who pro- d smooth things were listened to, while who explained the real. nature of'the were discredited. But now at last the is prevailing, and people are beginning that the latter were right. • Still more will become that conviction when the n• the cost incurred by the rebellion )e produced to touch John Brill in the rest point. The magnitude of it may be Lted by the reluctance which the Minis- ave shown to make it public ; but riblit it be made very soon. Then, pethaps, vhen our more deeply to be deplored in men, too, are reckoned up, it will .lie vho were the best friends of the nation. vho it was that gave it ale soundest s. The Conservatives who did not keel- t the outset to proclaim ..:tude 110 ,7,,,, danger, and insist . ..4 ~ , ...„_, __ iich it might at one jP" ' t. ''-' - '7.,, I 1 Ministers who t* I. ..-- : ^ 1 '?.-- sii Lilt and let things • ; ..., . • bellion bas becom ' AA , :.,_, l 2r 1 1 "....'" . 166 . province a separat " ;AL ..., T' i'•' . 7 . • • -.1. r, • ..,.... ~ tkl ; 2 1 * ; ht.. ; E EVENTUALIT -eilrt....?"— . !Al h it- O -4w Zany years past th• e , ,f s • ; • ass in the direction of Social Reform.