The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

1028_ speech at Tring on the previous day, affords the most incontestable proof that the Conserva tive party is actuated by no motives at the present crisis but those of justice and pa triotism. Why say so much about supporting the Government? Have the Conservatives ever failed to support Government in an emer gency like the present ? But because we sup port, it does not follow that we may not criti cise; and bemuse vigorous action Is necessary now, it does not follow that we may not inves tigate our probable duties when that necessity shall have ceased. HonAcE lauded those who prepared for war while at peace. It is not a whit the less necessary, in the present case, to prepare for peace while at war. THE PRES S , OCTOBER 24,1857, lortign or,artzsganbenct. PARIS, October 22. Tiiis morning a telegraphic despatch was received at the Foreign•ofTce announcing that the Danubian Di • vans had unanimously decided in favour of the union of the two Itoumain provinces under a foreign prince, to be chosen from a Western dynasty, and with a Repre sentative Government. This news has created a great sensation in Paris, as putting an end to all speculation on this interesting question. The quasi protest and circular-note of the Ottoman Government has now lost all its importance; for it is generally believed that the Congress of Paris will confirm, pure et simple, the decision of the Divans. The Court continues at Compeigne, bunting. Count Walewski will return to Paris on Saturday. Count Persigny, who is now in Paris, leaves for London on Monday, passing through Compeigne. The Duke de Grammont, ambassador to the Vatican, will embark at Marseilles on the 27th for Rome. M. de Hubner has been spending several days at Etioles with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. This looks like a good understanding between the Courts of Vienna and Paris. M. de Seebach and the Mar quis de Villantarina have also been the guests of Count Walewski. The Legislative Corps is to meet on the 30th of November, when, after receiving the new deputies, it will be adjourned for the despatch of business to the 30th of December. This fact will demolish that idle report that the Emperor was afraid, owing to financial embarrassments, to meet the Legislative Chambers. The health of the King of Prussia daily improves, but the mental faculties of his Majesty are so debili tated that it has been decided, if the King do not recover sufficiently to transact business by a given date, the 31st inst., to name the Prince of Prussia Regent during the illness of his Majesty. Certain contingencies to prevent so easy a solution of a diffi culty may occur, but it is hoped by all that private feelings at such a moment will give way to a con sidetation of the public good. The best understand ing exists between the Queen and the Prince, but I am sorry to say it is not the same with the Princess of Prussia, who has been requested not to appear at Potsdam. The liberal views of her Royal Highness, so openly expressed since 18-IS, have given great offence to the Queen. The raising of discount to seven and a half per cent. by the B ink of France, which immediately followed the same measure taken by the Bank of England, has been well received by our merchants. The high rate of discount, it is true, diminishes the profits of our merchants, tradesmen, and manufac turers, but, at all events, money can be obtained. Before 1857 the Bank of France, after raising its discount to its maximum six and a half, was forced to restrict its discount to bills of less than two months' date, the usual custom of commerce being ninety days. Money became thus scarce, and serious diff►culties followed. The Bank now discounts bills of ninety days, and money is consequently abundant. The inhabitants of the department of the Loire were alarmed at the beginning of the week, owing to the rising of the river Allier, and great tears were entertained that the centre of France was about to be again visited with the sad disaster of the inunda tions of 1850. On Tuesday last, owing to in. e.lisant and heavy rains for three days, the waters of the Allier rose nearly five feet, and began overflowing the banks. Fortunately the rain ceased, and the waters subsided, having done no other damage than to carry away a suspension-bridge. You are probably aware that, notwithstanding the new Russian tariff permitted printed books to enter the Russian empire free of duty, a charge was made of twelve kopecks per pound at the Custom house. The Emperor Alexander having learned that this demand was considered as a charge for censorship, has ordered it immediately to cease, and stringent instructions have been issued to admit printed books free of all charges whatsoever. The Academy of Fine Arts at Milan has voted the sum of (10,000 livres for the erection of a statue to Leonardo de Vinci. The Archduke, Governor-General of Venetian- Lombardy, anti the Archduchess, reached Venice on the 14th from Monza. The next morning the Governor-General embarked on board the Elizabeth for Pole, in order to inspect the Austrian fleet now in the Adriatic and the gigantic fortress now com pleting at Pola. These illustrious personages will leave for Milan about the 26th, and will return to Venice in December, where they will remain with the Court till the end of the carnival. Civita Vecchia is about to be enlarged by throwing back the ramparts. This measure became necessary from the great increase of the population of that city owing to the Roman railroad. It has been officially announced that cm the Ist of November the Government of Parma will place cus tom houses on the frontiers which separates the Duchy from the Austrian possessions. This vir tually puts an end to the Austro-Italian Zolverin. The Duke of Modena, although inclined to follow the example of Parma, has nut yet come to a deci sion. THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. TO TILE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—Lord Canning has at least rendered us one service,—he has completed the demonstration of his own unfitness for a station that demands talents which he does not possess, and an energy that he cannot supply. He has no appreciation of a crisis in which, as a French writer justly remaiks, " the high position of England is at stake," and which must terminate either in the loss of India, or in the reconstruction of our Eastern empire upon a basis so broad and durable as to defy all shock of hostile storms. The success of such generals as Havelock, Nicholson, and Neill shows that our danger does not lie in the chances of the field ; but the heroism of our soldiers, and the military skill and determina tion of Sir Colin Campbell, will all be thrown away, unless the destinies of India are confided to a real statesman of high character and large experience, practically acquainted with the evils of our past administration, and capable of overcoming all the obstacles to the inauguration of a new policy, juster, firmer, and wiser than that which has existed heretofore. The practical question is, will the people of this country compel the Government to replace a Governor-General, lost in petty detail, and sur rounded by feeble, and vacillating advisers, by a man equal to the emergency, and who would carry with him the confidence of all classes in terested in the re-establishment of British rule. Lord Canning is most anxious to retain those civil officials whose incapacity and self-conceit were the proximate causes of the outbreak, and the acts of his Government from first to last are a series of exhibitions of the qualities best adapted to bring an empire to decay. Let us adduce an instance. On the breaking out of the mutiny the inhabitants of Calcutta offered their personal services to the Govern ment, and received in reply an official letter from Lord Canning's secretary, dated 25th of May last, assuring them that their alarm was needless, as implicit confidence could be placed in the loyalty of every station and regiment which have since mutinied. This precious document affirmed— That the mischief caused by a passing groundless panic had already been arrested, and that there was every reason to hope that in the course of a few dabs tranquillity and confidence would be restored throughout the Pre sidency (!) It has been by nursing themselves in these insane delusions that Lord Canning and his Council have handed over our countrymen and countrywomen to massacres and tortures, at winch all Europe has stood appalled. So impossible was it to rouse Lord Canning from his apathy, that when at the beginning of the revolt he was told that some natives were in treaty for the pur chase of a couple of cannon in the Calcutta Bazaar, his reply was, " that lie could find no law by which he could stop the bargain ;" and while his lordship was vainly hunting for legal precedents, taken from some quiet times, the guns were on their way to the enemy, and are known to have been em ployed against us at Arrah! If subsequent events had afforded any cause for believing that Lord Canning or his advisers had any capacity for growing wiser by misfortune, there might be some argument against their supercession; but • - series of gross errors, capped with the climax of this last proclamation, proves the continuance of his lord. ship's administration to be a source of danger to our empire, far beyond that of all the mutineers and their abettors put together. A time of open war is a time when every encou ragement and facility should be given to the prompt and vigorous operations of our soldiers, and this has been the occasion chosen by the Governor-General to adopt every silly and vexatious means of thwart ing their proceedings and stopping their arm. When the safety of our countrymen at Lucknow demanded instant aid, and every hour was precious, her Majesty's 00th and the sth Fusiliers were re called from 3lirzapore to Dinapore, entailing a loss of ten days ; when the troops needed every encou ragement to sustain them, the Government sanc tioned a divisonal order, insulting the whole army, by condemning her Majesty's 10th as cold-blooded murderers upon mere gossip, and without one iota of reliable evidence being obtained against a single man. When Mr. J. Taylor, the Commissioner of Patna, for once in bis life exhibited symptoms of efficiency in dealing with the mutineers, he was immediately superseded ; and as the north-west provinces were most importantly implicated in the revolt, Mr. J. P. Grant, a man of so little vigour that he was never known to get himself dressed by midday, and quite enamoured of the " dear sepoys," was sent for their especial protection as governor of the district, to the infinite disgust of every British inhabitant and of the European soldiers, from whose anger, it is said, he is obliged to save himself by hiding in his own house. And lastly came a proclamation, which in point of English would require a month's study for its com prehension, the object of which was to take away trona the military authorities the power of dealing with deserters, and which, if acted upon, will employ every British soldier in the country in running backwards and forwards to Allahabad, escorting any pri.oners they might be lucky enough to catch. Sir Colin Campbell will of course do his utmost to put an end to these monstrous ways ; but unless that gallant soldier proves a complete Hercules, he will never be able to escape from the red tape with which Lord Canning and his Council will bind him; and to show that the picture in Punch is no exag geration, I quote a letter from the Rev. Alex ander Duff, one of the ablest of the clergy at Calcutta. On the 14th of August that gentleman writes:— Unless Sir Colin Campbell has come out with full authority to act on his own responsibility, it is but right that the people of Great Britain should know that they might as well have sent out decrepitude itself to be the commander-in-chief. The reign of red.tapeism at home was bad enough, as the Crimean disasters have sadly proved; but here, in its more complete absolutism, it has reached the very climax of arrogant emptiness, imbecility, and folly. Its incurable presumption and weakness has had much to do with the growth and spread of insurrec• tion ; and I am sure that I speak the mind of all classes of Europeans in this country (except, of course, the civilians) when I say that we are literally groaning under it. Oh ! what would we give now, if we had only a man like the Duke of Wellington or the late Sir Charles Napier for an absolute dictator! Can anyone resist the conclusion that Lord Can ning is not that Absolute Dictator the British residents in India require ?—Yours, (k.c., TFIE CALCUTTA MEMORIAL, from the merchants, bankers, professional men, and other English inha bitants of Calcutta, praying for a change in the ad ministrative affairs of India, has been intrusted to the care of Mr. H. Meade, who has arrived in London with the view to prosecute the cause of the memorialists, and generally to call the attention of the public at home to the condition of the East Indian territory and to the present position of its inhabitants. THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE brought their labours to a close with a general meeting last Friday, at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, in order to settle the title and objects of the society.' The title as above was settled. The committee recommends that the council be empowered to make arrangements for a proper office and staff in London, and to appoint committees and secretaries from time to time as they may deem advisable. An official report of the pro ceedings is to be published. rim QUESTION of turnpike abolition and main tenance of roads by assessment, which has been for ten years in agitation in Haddingtonshire, as well as in the counties of Fife, Forfar, Lanark, and others, was brought to a crisis in the first-named county at a meeting of the general turnpike trustees held at Haddington on Thursday last. A keen and am mated debate took place, in which the proposed reform was advocated by Lord Eleho, M.P. for the county, and resisted by the Right Hon. R. A. Chris topher Nisbet Hamilton, M.P. for South Lincoln shire. The result was that the numbers were equal for and against reform, when the chairman (Lhe Marquis of Tweeddale) gave his casting vote against She proposed change.