The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 9, 1858. after experiences in an English officer a generous conqueror. Sir Joitx KEANE had threatened to storm and sack the capital of the Ameer, unless terms of spoliation were instantly submitted to. OUTRAM took charge of the expedition, and so successfully employed his opportunity that the Ameer was won over to confide in the British power.' Now, all preceding historians of that period have pretended that on the Bth of May, 1829, Shah SHOOJAH was proclaimed at Candahar the monarch of the Douranee empire, and that it was in 1816, long before OUTRAM entered the service, that the fugitive prince was plundered by the hill tribes, from whose ruthless grasp he was rescued by the Rajah of KIS TAWAR. These same contrivers of fable also will have it that OUTRAN! never commanded any expedition against Ilyderabad, but was engaged with Lieutenant EASTWICK in negotiating with the Ameers the cession of Bukkur, previous to the Affghan war, while Sir JOHN KEANE and Sir WILLOUGHBY COTTON, at the head of their respective columns, awaited the result. Again, Mr. REED informs us that it was after the conquest of Scinde that OUTRAM made his way to Bombay in disguise, whereas earlier writers have placed that romantic episode in his adventurous career imme diately after the capture of Khelat. But the crowning point of this his torical panegyric was the animated description of the fall of Lucknow, in which we behold the veteran leader scaling the walls of Lucknow, like a Paladin of the olden times, and cleaving the skulls of the cursed Saracens with his trusty Toledo ! The Coroner's inquest on the unfortunate persons killed in the colli sion on the Oxford and Wolverhampton Railway has terminated in a verdict of " Manslaughter" against FREDERICK CooK, the guard of the foremost train, coupled with a very severe censure upon the general management of the line. So far so good. The verdict of manslaughter is all very well. If COOK could by any possible exercise of skill or vigilance have prevented the accident, it is proper that he should be punished for not doing so; but nobody imagines for a moment that more than a nominal punishment will be inflicted on him. The public sense of justice is too strong to admit of his being made a scapegoat, while probably most men feel in their own minds that his negligence, if negligence existed, was but a natural result of the example set by his superiors. " Like master like man" is an old but true proverb. When guards and engine-drivers see no thought taken about the capabilities of wood and iron, station masters starting trains at random, luggage piled up "higgledy piggledy " so that passengers cannot reach their carriages, punctuality totally disregarded, and the commonest rules and regulations violated daily, small blame to them if a break is applied a minute too late, or if a few jolts and jerks during a journey are not thought worth attending to. We have ceased to expect any great improvement in railway manage ment, or any sensible decrease of railway accidents, till either directors or shareholders are subjected to some more stringent regulations than they are at present. The traffic upon any line of railway depends upon exi gencies which no fear of accidents can overrule. A man must go to Wolverhampton, if he wants to go, in spite of the destruction of a dozen of his fellow-creatures on the same route. After all, the odds are almost incalculable against anything happening to himself. The traffic, therefore, is unaffected ; while the compensation to sufferers and the expense of repairs is hardly felt at all when distributed among so many. These ter rible calamities, in fact, are no more than a nine days' wonder. A leader in the Papers, some breakfast-table indignation, some silent grief, and the whole thing is forgotten, to be repeated again at the first suitable opportu nity. If the indirect influence of public opinion is powerless with the directors and shareholders, as it too often is with bodies of men banded together for a common purpose, it must be brought to bear on them more directly in the shape of Government interference. Railway inspectors must have the power, after due warning, to take the law into their own hands, and make an order on the company to increase the number of their servants, or reform the management of their traffic, where they see reason to consider it defective. We have heard a great deal of the superiority of private to imperial management; but, as far as railways are concerned, it is difficult to believe that anything can be worse than the former. Till something of this kind is done we have small hopes of a reform, and we regard the Coroner's inquest, with its elaborate collation of and stringent verdict of its jury, as little better than a farce. man in his senses, we should think, at the present day, can really that the liberty of the press is in danger. It is a subject, there we can discuss with perfect calmness, and without the smallest apprehension that any remarks we may make upon it can be construed hostility towards this our latest Magna Charts. There is, however, danger against which journalists ought constantly to be upon their and that is, the danger of regarding themselves as a separate body, iterests distinct from those of the community, and hence of being by a misplaced esprit du corps to regard all strictures on their luct as a piece of treachery towards their order. Nothing can he more injurious to the public welfare than this sentiment of pseudo-chivalry. And we are sorry to observe, from remarks we hare - mac 981 met with in regard to the Weedon investigation, some symptoms of its gaining ground amongst us. This, however, is not the point to which we desire to direct attention at the present moment. We wish to remind the public that as no official person can be foolish enough to dream of enforc ing any restrictions on the liberty of the press in England, so there is no reason why a courteous intimation that comment, under any particular circumstances, is deprecated, need elicit any violent resentment. An editor may still please himself; and even make capital out of the prohibi tion, if he is so minded. That inconveniences may arise from comment upon such transactions as those now in progress at Weedon, before the evidence is completed, is a point that must not be ignored or obscured. Editors and contributors are, after all, but men. Suppose that a gentle man sits down at an early stage of such proceedings to comment on as much of the case as has yet been revealed to him. Let us further go the length of supposing that he has no prejudices on the subject. Still, we confidently ask whether, as he writes, his remarks will not gradually, and perhaps unconsciously, shape themselves into something like a theory of the whole affair ? Then the mischief is done. Subsequent revelations may require that that theory should be modified : but he cannot do it, or practically never does. The vanity of the writer, concerned in proving that from a few present particulars he deduced the remote truth, and the interest of editors, who must each appear like little Popes to their own subscribers, combine to render any such tribute to justice almost impossible. Lieutenant PERRY was a case in point. The Crimean mismanagement was a case in point. Others might be mentioned. But we have said enough to show that any challenge on the part of the press to adduce instances of the mischief in question, can be only too readily answered by their opponents. The benefits arising from free discussion are so great that, as we have observed twice already, public opinion, in the best sense of the word, will never interfere with it. This being an established certainty, we think jour nalists are bound in turn to strain every nerve to give the public the maximum of advantage with the minimum of inquiry, in their treatment of public affairs. And to let no petty pride or wounded dignity urge them on to courses which their calmer good sense must disapprove. We have read with great pleasure an article in our clever con temporary, the Globe, upon a police case that recently came under the cognizance of Mr. SELFE. IVell says our contemporary that it is almost ex clusively in the daytime and in eminently respectable localities that the calm, self-possessed, and patient representative of the law is to be met with. " Soon as the shades of night prevail " the moon can tell a different talc. It is then that the police indemnify themselves for all they hare had to undergo at other times. And woe betide the unfortunate gentleman who is ill advised enough to interfere with their capricious brutality about the small hours of the morning in any region which enjoys a sufficiently bad reputation to serve as an excuse for their violence. On more than one occasion we have been under the necessity of commenting on their conduct in these columns ; and we are pretty sure that a conviction is slowly, but surely, growing up that public confidence in these functionaries has over shot the mark. and that it is high time some effectual stand was attempted against the petty tyranny they exercise. If indeed the police magistrates would only emancipate themselves from the stupid dictum that " the police must be supported," no further movement in the matter would be necessary. And we would fain hope that the example set by Mr. SEI.FE may be followed by his coadjutors elsewhere. Indiscriminate obedience to this dogma, however proper under many circumstances, is simply absurd. On what grounds, we should like to know, is the opinion of two ignorant men animated by an unscrupulous espirit du corps to be relied on in preference to the word of a perfectly sober, rational, and respectable citizen ? Why is an unlimited discretion—for such it amounts to—of determining some of the most delicate social questions to be intrusted to men who cannot by any possibility have the requisite qualifications for deciding them ? Whether a woman is a lady—whether a man is a gentleman—whether a particular demeanour arise from intoxication or illness—are all of them points which a policeman invariably determines to the disadvantage of the lieges—a decision in which he is as invariably backed up by the inspector, and almost as invariably confirmed by the sitting magistrate. Thus the very power which ought to operate as a check upon the abuse of authority unavoidably placed in the hands of coarse and ignorant men, becomes their strongest encouragement and protection. The magistrates arc afraid of allowing that policemen have made a mistake for fear of damaging their position. And the consequence is that an innocent man who might have made allowance for the blunder of an inferior, leaves the court incensed at finding it endorsed without inquiry by one of his own class, who ought to have been the first to protect him. We are not forgetful of the exemplary conduct which upon many trying occasions has earned for the police force a high and well-merited reputation. But they must not be permitted to take advantage of that to the detriment of her Majesty's subjects. Nor can it have escaped the public notice that on various recent emergencies, in the shape of riots and the like, the promptitude of the police has not been as conspicuous as it used to be. Mischievous ruffians in the park are allowed to assault people with impunity, and respectable women, whose only crime is illness, are dragged off to the station-house. If a gentleman interferes in such a case, he must expect to share their captivity—to be insulted by the inspector over night, fined by the magistrate in the morning, and pompously informed, if he remonstrates, that " the police must . be supported." g w en o c h i . c e s rb w am hi p ch ton no if f h e: his fellow-creatures incalculable against a is unaffected ; while repairs is hardly felt rible calamities, in fa in the Papers, some 1 • whole thing is forgot nity. If the indirec directors and shareh , together for a comic directly in the shat must have the pow hands, and make an servants, or reform tl to consider it defectil private to imperial ni is difficult to believe something of this ki cannot but regard I evidence and stringer No man in his st be afraid that the lib fore, that we can di apprehension that a into hostility toward one danger against guard ; and that is, with interests distir stimulated by a mist own conduct as a Possibly he more id pseudo-chivalry. A