The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

1058 prevent that vast difference betwixt the imports and exports of India. Lord GALWAY said he did not think the East India Company were entirely free from blame : It had been the custom of the East India Directors to deny all charges made in the House of Commons, and it required a man of no ordinary courage to get up anti con- tradict the dental of a director. He must say that lie did not believe the denials of the Diroctora, and recent events had justified him in doing so. The mischief as to India had been that they had blinked the question ; they hat been told not to do so and ao, because it would weaken the Government ; men who gave promise of taking an active but independent course on India were offered appointments, and recently a gentleman of great promise was uttered a place at the Board of Control, and the official plaister had sealed his lips. He hoped this would not be so in future, and that the subject would be thoroughly investigated. It was necessary it should be so, that the Government of India might be placed on a firmer basis, and that there should be no more truckling to the native religious prejudices. So far as he knew of the Opposition, of which he was proud to be a member, he believed they would be ready to lend every hand to her Majesty's Go- vernment ; they did it during the Russian war, and would do it now. He congratulated them on the fall of Delhi, which he hoped was an augury of still further success, and after deprecating the feelings which seemed to prevail that their army should go to India more as murderers than as soldiers, he said he trusted that while they punished the guilty they would not forget to spare the innocent ; that while they inflicted stern justice, they would no:, seek to wreak indiscriminate vengeance. Lord HARROWBY, at the Sandon and Marston Agricultural Society's meeting held on Wednesday, having eulogised the gallantry of the British in India, came to the question of the future govern ment of the country. He said : The government of India is a problem of which the history of the world furnishes no solution ; and I mention these circumstances for the purpose of asking your indul gence for those upon whom the task of reconstituting our government in that country may fall. It has been a sub j ect of reproach to us that more hes not been done for India in the way of improvement. No doubt more might have been done ; but on the other hand you must hear in mind the difficulty arising from the danger of offending the prejudices and outraging the feeling of the natives, while we were obliged to govern by the aid of the natives them• selves. If we had a sufficient number of European troops to govern the country the case would be different, but that is manifestly impossible The finances of the Indian Go. vernment would be ruined by the attempt to govern that immense empire by the ail of English troops alone. We must, therefore, govern it through the people themselves— through their own feelings and prejudices, or give up the attempt to govern it at all. Ido not say that there is not much that may be dared now that could not have been dared before this outbreak occurred. There is much that a man will not do when he fears the attempt will bring his house down about his earn that when the house is brought about his ears he will set ab',ut with alacrity, and, no doubt, in reference to India that may be done now in the way of eduction and in disregard of mere idle prejudices which could not be done while we had in the Bengal Presidency a native army of 10t1,000 men, which, though in one sense the strength of the Govern. meat, was also a source of weakness. The Solicitor• General, Sir H. KEATINGE, at Reading, thought that the effort which despatched "40,000 men in a few weeks" was " witLicut parallel in the history of England." Mr. W. MILES, M.P. for East Somerset, thought that a great change must take place in the govern. ment of India : That was a subject which was growing in the minds of all men who gave it the least consideration. At present, however, they had nothing to do with what the future go vernment of India should be. But of this he thought there could be no doubt, that a double government could no longer exist, that the queen must rule supreme in that country, and tic whole of the Ministers must be subject to the control of public opinion rather than under an Indian board. Mr. W. KNATCUBULL, M.P., concurred in this opinion. The Right Hon. H. LABOtiCIIERE, M.P., Secretary of State for the Colonies, met his constituents at Taunton last week, and at the close of rather a tedious narrative of recent events in India, said, " he acknowledged that it was the duty of the Go. vernment not only to put down this rebellion and to establish law and order, but to look closely into the causes by which it had been produced, and to examine narrowly the circumstances of the Indian Government, not only in its military organisation, but in the civil administration of the affairs of that c )untry. That duty, he thought, the Government were prepared to undertake, and nothing, be trusted, would be wanting on their part to the fulfilment of it, in the full confidence that they would be sup ported by the country." Mr. HENRY DnummoNn, M.P., at the Chertsey Agricultural Association, said he was excessively disgusted with the hue and cry that some papers are raising about the vengeance that should be in flicted : THE PRESS, OCTOBER 31, 1857. He was not by any means one of those mawkish senti-- mentalists who said there should be no punishment by death, for he contended most strenuously that every man should lose his life that had committed a murder. He thought we should punish those who were at the head of the mutiny, but not have any of that indiscriminate ven geance that had been advocated. Still he said that every leader of the mutiny should be shot. He did approve of Lord Canning 's proclamation, for he did not think it right to burn down villages and their inhabitants indis criinivately. Lord BROUGHAM, who was entertained at a grand banquet at Penrith on Wednesday last, remarked, with regard to India, that it was a saying of Pox, and characterised by the wonted sagacity of that great man, when some one said to him, "Why, this is a war only on a point of national honour." " I should like t..) know," said he, " any war that could be de fended on any other ground but that of national honour. Unless you wage it on that point, you had better not wage it at all ": On this great Indian question my noble friend Lord Ellenbotough—of whose great and brilliant success as Governor of India no one can entertain a doubt—has re• cently stated that if we are driven out of India we are safe nowhere, and therefore he calls upon the Government to strain every nerve to retain it. He has also stated that after this great struggle is over—which I hope is only a struggle with an armed body of mutineers, and that the naives ns a body are not with them—two things will re• main to be done to prevent the recurrence of the mischief and to recover what has been lost. To lose it or give it up is impossible. To divide it with another is equally impossible, for we aro habituated to dominion and inured to empire. A third point that will have to be determined will, it is urged, be the limit of retribution and the penalties to be exacted. lint I believe that that question will long and long have been disposed of before Parliament will be called upon to decide it. Far be it from me to recommend needless severity to any one or to any place : still further from me to wish every possible means not to be taken whereby the innocent can be separated from the guilty ; but that severe punishment is needed—that retribution is almost a matter of course—that justice, according to that banner ( pointing to a banner on the wall on which were inscribed the words '' Justice and Mercy,") must be placed above mercy. The other banners which I see be• fore me—" Peace and Harmony," " Honour and Loyalty," —may allow them to be placed on the same level, but justice and mercy must follow in the sequence which that banner bears—justice must precede mercy. THE INDIAN RELIEF FUND. AN influential meeting was held at the Shirc-hall, in Worcester, on Saturday last— To consider how we can best prove our sympathy for the sufferings and misfortunes of our ccuntrymen in India ; and, further, to consider the propriety of sending up an humble address to the Queen to assure her Majesty of the deep pain with which we have heard of recent events in India, and of our conviction that, in her efforts to sup press the rebellion which has broken out in that country, and to re•establish her authority, her Majesty may rely with confidence on the support of a loyal and united people. The chair was taken at half-past one o'clock by the High Sheriff, Mr. E. V. Wheeler, and among those present were—Earl Beauchamp, Viscount Elm ley, Lord Southwell, Sir J. S. Pakington, M.P., Sir T. E. Winnington, M.P., Hon. Colonel Rushout, M.P., Mr. Laslett, M.P., Sir 0. P. Wakeman, Sir E. A. H. Lechmere, Mr. H. H. Foley, M.P., Mr. W. Coventry, Sc. The first resolutior., " that a subscription be raised in the county," having been pr. posed by Earl Beauchamp and seconded by Colonel Rushout, M.P., Mr. ACTON, a Roman Catholic magistrate, supported the resolution, and in a brief speech vindicated the Boman Catholics from the imputation of a want of patriotism in this crisis. At the same time, it was the deep conviction of his co•religionists that the Patriotic Fund was not well managed, and that the Catholic body did not receive fair play in its appro priation : He grounded that assertion on the fact that 231,0001 of the capital was appropriated to Protestant orphanages and endowments, while the application of a party of Roman Catholic gentlemen iu Ireland for an allotment for the education of Catholic children was refused, although one half of the Crimean army were Catholic soldiers. lie hoped that the Roman Catholic r.ohlemen and gentlemen in both Houses of Parliament would, early neat session, raise the question of the distribution of the Patriotic Fund. Sir JOHN PAKINOTON said that the Patriotic Fund Commissioners had not been influenced by religious prejudices in their distribution of the fund, and he felt convinced that, upon investigation, Mr. Acton would find that he had been misled by erroneous reports. _ _ lord Southwell and Viscount Elmley having proposed and seconded the next resolution, ex pressing condolence with the sufferers in India, Sir JOHN PAKINOTON rose to propose au address to the Queen, expressive of the sympathy and devotion of the inhabitants of the county of Worcester for the profound grief of her Majesty at these painful events, and to assure her Majesty of their " firm resolve to make every effort and to submit to every sacrifice which may be necessary for the complete and per manent re•establishment of your Majesty's authority in India." Sir John Pakington, in proposing this loyal and patriotic address, said it was right that our people in India should know that they have the sympathy, support, and gratitude of the British public ; and that we should tell foreign powers that, whatever may be our domestic differences and party distinctions, whenevor we feel ourselves in the prs sence of a great national calamity we come forward as one man to assert our power and vindicate our rights. Passing rapidly through the different phases ct this rebellion, and congratulating his hearers upon the recent good news, Sir John Pakington pointed out that, as saon as the rebellion was suppressed, the question of the future government of India would arise : Is India to be governed hereafter as she has been go verned to this time ; or is she to be governed hereafter in a manner tending to the credit and security of England, and to the civilisation and happiness of the Indian people? Questions will arise in reference to this of the deepest importance. The first question will he—ls the extra• ordinary idea that a vast country like India can be governed by a company of merchants to be carried out; or is it a case in which the direct authority of the Crown of England ought to be exercised? Twice has this double govern. went been tried, and twice it has been found wanting. The next question will be—What is to be the mode of raising the revenues of India? Are we to continue to raise the revenues b an oppressive land or salt tax, or from some unworthy and immoral source such as the sale of opium'? A third and not an easy question will relate to the native army. Are we to abandon the native army ? Are we to have a native army organised and recruited in a manner violating every dictate of common prudence and common sense, or an army organised on a different principle, so that it may be efficient, and so that we may regard it in England as an effective force? Lastly, let me refer to a question which is already deep in the minds of thinking Englishmen, and which is perhaps the most difficult of all. Hereafter, in India, is the flag of England to be prostituted to the sup port of the barbarous rites of Indian superstition ? Or are we to govern our Eastern empire in a way which, without violating the prejudices of a people, shall do honour to and uphold that Christian religion which we believe and know to be founded on Divine truth ? (Cheers.) In conclusion, the right hon. baronet said he was glad to have this opportunity of expressing what be felt on this subject. When the rebellion should he quelled and the British Crown supported in its au thority in India, he was sanguine enough to believe that we might look forward to brighter and happier days for India. He was sanguine enough to believe that as, by the inscrutable dispensations of Provi dence, Ireland had dated her return of prosperity from a periAl of famine, so India might date her regeneration from these deplorable transactions. Mr. FOLEY, M.P., seconded the resolution, which was carried with acclamation. The meeting then separated. At a county meeting held at Castle Exeter last week, the Earl of FORTESCUE moved the first resolu tion, and in the course of an eloquent address on the occasion said, in allusion to the victories of Havelock and the arrival of reinforcements:— I hope and believe also that with the sweeping march of these armies throughout the land the stern hand of British justice, while it makes strict inquiry and inflicts condign punishment upon all who can he proved to have been willing actors in the late dreadful mutinies, will at the same time be accompanied and tempered with British clemency and justice. I hope that wherever doubt exists the benefit of that doubt will be given to the accused party, and while we inflict punishment on the guilty I trust we shall acknowledge and reward the fidelity shown by many of the native princes of our alliance, and that we shall also acknowledge and reward the unshaken allegiance which has been shown to us by a large portion, happily, of the native 4 ,, population. And, gentlemen, when peace and order shall have been restored, as I trust, by God's help, they will be restored throughout the length and breadth of British India, then I hope that due consideration will be given to some improvement in the administration of our Indian empire. After such a disaster as the present the British public have a right to inquire, and the represents - fives of British interests in India have also the right to inquire, whether a form of government combining the rule of the BritiAl Crown with that of a mercantile body is the best form of government that can be devised for that great portion of our empire. To that inquiry the British empire and the Indian empire have a right to receive an answer ; and I trust that the deliberations of the next session of Parliament will have the guidance of Provi dence to direct to the best solution of a question so deeply involving the interests of that country and so vitally involving with the existence of our empire in India the happiness of the many millions in that country com mitted to our charge. Sir J. YARDE BULLER seconded the resolution : For himself, he was not an alarmist. He had not the slightest doubt the whole would by and by be set right by the determination of the British troops ; and when the rebellion had been suppressed, and peace and • order restored, then would be our time quietly and calmly to inquire what was the origin of this outbreak, and what had been the mismanagement and misgovernment that had brought it abaut. That subject would form one of the most early and important matters for the next session of Parliament.