The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

834 tale of horrors, and the public is beginning at length to arrive at a more just conception of the .magnitude of the task in which it is engaged. There is no one of sense who can have a doubt as to the absurdity of the esti mate formed of it at the outset by Mr. VERNON SMITH. But now, aOrnitting that he was wrong in his first view of it, he would try and prose that all the rest of the world were, up to the date of the outbreak of hostilities, RS blind as himself. His words in the House of Commons on the 11th of this month were : I believe that any man would have been denounced as a madman, or a visionary, who had hinted that such an outbreak as that which has occurred would occur in India. We think it right, therefore, to show the public that not only did we hint at this outbreak, but that we indicated clearly what was to he expected, and the time when, if a change was not made in the system of misgoverning India, it would infallibly take place Nay, more ; the very ferocity which has so much astonished the people here who are accustomed to dream of gentle Hindoos was also anticipated by us, as the extracts which we shall give from pre ceding numbers will unmistakeably prove. The public will thus see that if the Ministers chose to blind their eyes to the storm which their own misrule was preparing, it was not for want of repeated and urgent remonstrances on the part of THE PRESs. On the Bth of July, 1854, when commenting on the resumption of lands in India, we said : A spirit is being engendered in the minds of the most influential class in India, and of all the hundreds and thousands who depend on it, which, whenever fortune turns, will be most dangerous to our rulv. On the 14th of October, 1854, we said, when speaking of Lord DALHOUSIE'S policy : The course of absorption of native states and jaghires which he is pursuing will bring its own punishment with it, and sow the seeds of innumerable disturbances after he shall have left India. On the 21st of October. 1854, when speaking of the proposed annexation of Oude, we wrote : That these sepoys, accustomed in (hide to the rule of men of their own colour, caste, and nagon, would view with any feeling but that of the deepest resentment the transfer of their homes to the withering blight of the Com pany's domination, is not to be expected. That the trans fer of °tide to the Company will be the signal for resist ance by these men we cannot doubt, and it is a resistanee which, if made, must endanger our Indian empire. We hold India by the swords of these men. and if we once turn their arms against us, the few Europeans in India would he powerless to resist them, and the fabric of our dominion might receive a shock from which it never would recover. On the 24th of February, 1855, we wrote that Lnrd DALROURIE was " sowing the seeds " of ruin in India." • On the 3rd of March, 1855, referring to the removal of Mr. MAUNSELL on account of his honest report about the annexation of Nag pore, we said : The result will necessarily he that men will henceforth shape their reports according to the supposed views of the Government of the day, and thus the only „means of ever learning the truth as to the state of distant provinces will be greatly corrupted. By this means, to be sure, the gave r mental machine may for a time appear to run well and smoothly, but it will only create a false security, and give rise to greater difflenities in the long run. The least reflection most show that it is impnssible for any Government to he forearmed that is not forewarned, and no Government can be forewarned which thus treats the agents on whose entire honesty and openness and truth fulness it is compelled to rely On the 19th of May, 1655, when discussing the 'relation of the struggle with Russia to India, we said : Once let the people see oar arms heffled and our re sources fall ns, and numberless are the rebels to our anthority, and countless their adherents who will spring up aglinst us on every side. On the Bth of September, 1R55, we wrote:— Tt is the misfortune of the Indian Government that the selfish poliry it hes adopted of bite has completely iwdeted tie and 'hat. in forthorpnre of a Wrnstpit.g s'stetn. it has sp,itired ell hold on the natives' interest or affection. Excepting the people at the three Presidencies, we have THE PRESS, AUGUST 29, 1857. scarcely a real friend throughout the length and breadth of Hintlostan, and the consegnence is that every attempt against us is viewed with o secret sympathy by thus•• who, under a better system, would be the foremost, both openly and covertly, to uphold our rule. The dependent princes, the great nobles, the large landholder!, and the hereditary cultivators, would in India, as in every other part of the British empire, be the firrnestsupporters of law and order, if we would only allow them an interest in the country concurrent with, though subordinateto,our own. But when the mass of cultivators we treated in the mode which the Madras Tortnre Cotnniisidoirdlsplays,and when the prinebe, nobility, and large landholdtra see nothing in prospect but the confiscation of their estates as soon as opportunity serves, it is not to be supplied that their wishes can be with us, from whom they have nothing to hope and all to fear. To rule a country on the principle of abolishing all property in land, and leaving no intermediate orders be tween the sovereign and the serf, is to stake our all on a military ascendancy which mutiny may at any time undermine, or an adverse campaign or a successful revolt destroy. On the 22nd of Srptember, 1855, when commenting on the Torture Report, we ob served:— One unfortunate result of the late disclosures on the subjec'. of torture has been the spreading abroad an opinion which is both very erroneous and very ilang,erons regarding the natives of India. It has been alleged, because they have submitted so tamely to the. proceedings of the Com pany's officials, that they must necessarily be a very meek, imbecile, and harmless set of creatures, incapable of resentment, born to be bullied, and so patient of ill usage as to make it a matter of l►ttle importance in what manner they are treated. But we went on to say : Because this has been borne with apparent patience, it is an error to suppose that it is unresented in spirit, or forgotten. The Asiatic, like the animals that inhabit his forest, bears patiently the evils he feels himself powerless to prevent ; bet it is only to show himself the more vin dictive when the moment for retaliation has arrived. On the 13th of October, 1855, writing on the appointmentment of the new Governor-Gene ral, we said : There is no doubt that whenever an opportunity occurs we shall find how vast is the number of this class ( the native princes and nobility) who have been but watching their time to rise against On the 12th of. January, 1856, we wrote : Unless the public voice in England he raised no strongly as to compel the Indian Goveinment to retrace its steps, there can ha no doubt that the result will be a struggle between the natives of India and ourselves, far more deep, more widespread, and more determined than has ever, so far. threatened our existence. Already we see uremia• takeable signs of the coming storm. May heaven grant us a better pilot than we have now at the helm to meet it. On the 22nd of March, 1g56, we wrote, re garding the annexation of Oude:— How little attention is really paid to the feelings of the people of Oude, is shown by the way in which the annex ation is carried out. It is prochimed without consulting them that the country is ours, and that every one who refugee to submit to 114—or, in other words, who dares to uphold the independence of his country—shall be seized as a rebel, and treate I as Ruch, and an overwhelm. ing body of troops is moved up to bear down all opposition by force. • And again : This harefteed violation of every principle of public faith will render nor position in India infinitely more difficult than it bin been hitherto. On the 12th of April. 1856, we wrote :- 11 , nline and violence are easy onerationa, when dealing' with States which have been lulled by a reliance on cove. nants into an implicit confidence, and which must, there fore, fall an unresisting prey. In the long run, however• it does not answer, and that (passive as the people of India are generally supposed to he) it is not improbable we shall shortly find. Already to the discerning eye there are not wanting symptoms that portend a storm which it will require all Lord Canning's sagacity to weather. Regarding the horrid practice introduced by Lord DALHoustes Government of burning the corpses of Mahomedan insurgents —an opera tion which his organ in India regretted that public opinion would not allow of being per formed while they were alive—we wrote, on the 31st of May, 1856 : No wonder that torture, though formally denounced, eseites little horror in India and meets with little real effort at repression,when modes are advocated of enforcing submission to the Government more barbarous than those to which even the most barbarous and inhuman of Asiatic sovereigns have ever had recourse. And we added : In no conntry hits a reennrse to finch expedients been permanently successful. Even if effectual at the instant a terrible rent inn iq always sinner or later the inevitable Nor floes our experience of India tend to show t'i't it is likely to afford any exception to this universal rule. On the sth of July, 1856, we wrote regarding the refusal of the ➢linisters to listen to Indian grievances It is the worst policy of "IT fo try and drive our natife subjects into * corner front which there can obviously be but one weans for them to escape, It is better that the money and ergies of peifHonera ilhould be expended in a legal cantesl Rare than in seontese of another kind on the plains of klutestan. Finally, on ate Intll Of July, 1850, we spoke of a knowtiAte that the determination is daily extending among the natives no longer to acquiesce with patient sub mission in the wrongs to which they have been in many instances notoriously subjected. And we said : The present state of things is in the last degree anoma• lons—it is in the highest degree perilous, and the longer continuance of it is simply impossible. Such were the numerous and emphatic warnings given by this journal as to the effects which the misgovernment of Sir CHARLES Woon and Mr. VERNON SMITH were producing in India. But though we have reason to believe that these warnings were habitually read, they were us habitually thrown aside and neglected Three months after the last of them had been uttered the chowpatty affair took place, and as soon as the plot had thoroughly ripened the outbreak occurred. This was at first Treated with equal levity by the Directors and the India Board, and the admirable advice tendered by Mr. DISRAELI was rudely refused acceptance. Had it been adopted there can be no doubt the revolt would have ceased with the cessation of its causes. But Providence had willed other wise. The country still prefers the screening of incapables to the salvation of an empire, and deep is the cup of bitterness which it is doomed to drink. POSITION OF THE CHURCH. THE wrong has triumphed. The Houses of Parliament have declared themselves the enemies of religious freedom. The Churoh of England, that old and stanch ally of the civil power, has been spoiled of an immemorial right secured to her on the honour of the Sovereign ; and in return for her firm friendship she has been treated worse than the most seditious and disloyal of sectarians. The Church of Rome, which has never scrupled to avow the most unconsti tutional sentiments, is permitted to violate the decrees of Parliament ; while the law of the land is itself violated to coerce the Anglican clergy, the champions of allegiance and order. It is useless to discuss at this moment the particular injury to which she has recently been subjected. The clergyman's right to the custody of his own church is one too long and too plainly recognised by the law of England to stand in need of any argument from us. It is also an essential feature in our ancient parochial system which we have endured so much to preserve. And whether we regard the new statute in its operation upon either patron or incumbent, upon lay property or ecclesiastical law, it cannot but be denounced as a flagrant act of oppression, insult, and ill faith. The Church can now fully appreciate the spirit in which the Liberal party are prepared to deal with her. If she is not permitted to retain those rights against Which nobody has protested, how can she expect to retain those which are the objects of popular hostility ? Church rates will be the next sacrifice to Ministerial exigencies; and by a gradual transition we shall proceed to a community of ecclesiastical goods, and the surrender of the Church establishment. In point of principle there is little difference between a clergyman of the Church of England forcing his way into his nci;;hbour's church, and Cardinal Wiszbuif