The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-18 00:00:00

690 from precipitancy, and Parliament was pre served from anarchy. The country then knew what questions of legislation were deemed of vital importance by the statesmen selected for its leaders, and on this knowletilge could satis factorily determine the amount of confidenCe to be placed in alai. . But in the pre 04 day A. Anvernthe 1 motion is a phrase ivittout a. Vne&fiing. T a words are still u t se ,Atit theitfhiphsinpiqx6' , Io i or withdrawn, al . in ,dlWed. with acct modating ease that nobody is the wiser fit hearing them. On the 15th of May last the Oaths Bill was a " Government measura. . Lord PALMERSTON apologised for taking it out of the hands of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, alleging in excuse that his only motive was the advan tage of introducing the bill with the whole • weight and sanction of Government. The Bill was defettLed by a larger majority in the House of Lords than that of last year. In the Upper House one Cabinet Minister—Lord HARROWIIY—and in the Commons two official supporters of Government—Lord CASTLEROSSE and Mr. MoNSELL—purposely absented them selves on the occasion, and the Premier at once evades all embarrassment by denying, forsooth, that the Oaths Bill is a Government measure ! We will venture to say there is scarcely another instance upon the Parlia mentary records of a Prime Minister delibe rately accepting the responsibility of a mea sure, introducing that measure himself in the Lower House, and then, when the Bill is thrown out in the Lords, excusing his defeat by denying its paternity. During the last three years this kind of ' thing has grown far too common. Individual popularity and individual talent aro only useful Ministerially to give effect to what a Government conceives to be judicious mew sures. If that cannot be done, what claim has a Ministry to the continued occupation of office ? They may purchase the sufferance of Parliament by allowing full scope to its caprices, as a nurse may obtain a reputation for the management of children by never refusing them a request. But in each case the reputation must be very shortlived. The results- will sooner or later become manifest Discontent is sure to follow. Men are made to be koverned, and those who are always per mitted to do what they like generally, after a time, cease to like what they do. Satiety and restlessness, impatience and languor, reign by turns; wren's minds grow averse to a resolute grasp of their difficulties, and at last it becomes evident that nothing but quiek and violent changes can succeed in resuscitating their dis sipated energies. People have hitherto acquiesced in the jaded rule of the Liberals, because they ex pected from a new Reform Bill some such stimulus as we describe. But the probability of any such measure is becoming fainter and fainter. Even at the best, it will probably be proposed pro forma by sonic Liberal Minister, who will see it mutilated with philosophic in difference, and, finally, when it cannot be carried, will deny that it is " a Government measure." Under these circumstances, it is high time that this system of irresponsibility were put an end to. With great events impending which imperatively demand sagacious councils and vigorous deeds, Government must not be without the spur of self-interest. It must • show itself competent to introduce measures which it will not fear to designate " Govern ment measures," in a genuine sense. It must either do this, or pay the penalty. The com monwealth has been brought to that state when a Minister must, like an Eastern physi cian, risk his own existence in prescribing fJr it. THE PRESS, JULY 18,1857. the nation will have to bear the consequences of its folly and its neglect. What steps it may evr le against those who ha , it were needless to e,nt. wore assured that if the ,t may happen, the will la; in ,iii humour have brought about .tious made to the 'ELITILLE on Monday ireetors must have were deceiving the country by the Statements they put forth. For what does his Lordship declare ? Why, that in 1850—when they were (hiving the late Sir CHARLES NAPIER from the command of their army for asserting (falsely as they alleged) that it was effected largely by a thirst of mutiny, and taking the measures necessary tc• prevent an outbreak—the discipline of that army was, in point of fact, of the worst descrip tion. Tile grossest overt acts of mutiny had been committed, and so bad was the condition of the army known to be that his Lordship was entreated not to give utterance to the facts in public, as it was extremely undesirable that foreign nations should be made acquainted with the real state of affairs. The late Sir CIIAIILES NAPIER was thus insulted—disgraced as far as the acts of such men could disgrace him—and hurried prematurely to his grave; and all for stating what now appears to have been the simple truth, for doing that which ho was im peratively bound to do in order to avert the dreadful catastrophe which has now befallen us, arid which for the time he warded off. In the whole range of English history we know of nothing so shameful as this. Talk of the British Bank Directors and their conceal ments, why they were nothing, by Lord MEL viLLE's account, ii the consequences only be considerel, to the concealments of the East India Directors. In that case the loss of a few hundred thousand pounds, and the ruin of a few dozen families, was the worst that could take place. But in the present instance the loss in money will have to be counted in millions, the loss in lives will have to be reckoned in thousands, and the loss in prestige, in any case, will be incalculable. Any worse contingency we pray may be averted ; but it will not be averted if the country con tinues to intrust the destinies of India to the men by whom alone the crisis has been brought about Already, indeed, may be seen symptoms of a disposition to turn the state of affairs to the purposes of jobbery rather than to resort to any hearty efforts to insure the speedy arrival in India of the troops that are being sent out. While the Government has to supply soldiers, the Directors have to engage shins for them ; and Lord ELLENDOROUGH told the Lords on Tuesday evening the kind of ships they were taking up. Instead of all the fastest vessels procurable, they were, he said, engaging, among others, a parcel of old tubs notorious fn. their slow-sailing qualities. One of them, he said, to his knowledge never used to progress at above the rate of four knots an hour. We do not know whether the practice of the Com pany is as it used to be, to make the contracts a perquisite of the Directors, for the benefit of themselves and their friends ; but, if so, it will not be surprising if their troop-ships, like everything else they send to India, from steamers to stationery, be at once the most costly and the most worthless of their kind. Meantime, it may be as well to point out the effects of the crisis, present and pos sible, to the nation at large. At present, then we have thirty-two regiments in a state of open revolt, besides artillery ; while the rest of the Bengal army is utterly incapable of being de pended on, and is as likely as not to rise upon us at any moment. In many cases the officers and their families have been murdered, and in others they have been driven forth with insult scarcely preferable to death. The Trea sury of Delhi has been plundered, besides an endless number of smaller local treasuries. The amount that fell into the hands of the mutineers at Delhi was about seven hundred thousand pounds, and the arsenal and its con tents were worth about a million more. What the amount of money seized by them else where may be it is impossible to say. But we shall not be far wrong if at the very least we estimate the loss already caused by the plunder of money, arms, and stores, and by the destruction of public and private property, for which the State will have eventually to make compensation, at six millions sterling. Before the of is over, it will probably have reached nearly twice that sum. Then, of course, the revenue for the present of the whole of the disturbed provinces' will be utterly lost, which, with the falling off in the Customs duties, will be some millions besides. The military operations undertaken for the suppression of the revolt, including the trans port of troops and stores from England, and largesses to the native soldiery who may re main stanch to us, will not, under the most favourable circumstances, be less than fifteen millions sterling more. Supposing, therefore, everything to go on as fa - oourably as can be expected, the whole loss to the nation incurred through the misconduct or incompetence of the Directors will probably not be less than thirty millions sterling, if it do not exceed that sum. I❑ the meantime, their paper is utterly unsaleable in India; the native capitalists are drawing out their money from the Govern. ment banks ; and there are tidings of commer cial failures on every side. These thirty millions will, therefore, have to be paid most likely by the people here. But if, through the delays or jobbery of the India-house, the reinforcements required eo urgently should not arrive in time, there is no knowing what the final issue to England may be. Every day's delay will make the task of rule during the revolt more arduous because every day it lasts it will more widely spread. The sight of successful rebellion is a danger ous one in any country, but most dangerous is it among a people like thos3 of Hiudostan. The more subservient a nation are by habit to those in authority over them the more fero cious are they when the restraining hand is removed. There is no one who shows such vindictiveness as a revolted slave. Nor, we a►e sorry to say, has the conduct of our countrymen been i❑ all instances such as to confirm the idea of the natural superiority of our race. More dastardly specimens of dis graceful panic have seldom been exhibited than the accounts of the conduct of the officers at Simla and some other places dis close. The only chance then of safety lies in action immediate, resolute, and swift. Neither men nor money must be spared. Every man and every million now is worth ten men and ten millions a year hence. The appointment of Sir COLIN CAMPBELL is excellent ; but without a fitting man at the helm in India the measure will be incomplete. Lord CAN.. SING may be well adapted for ordinary times, but it requires special knowledge and special capacity to meet and master a crisis l►ke this. In Lord Eusimonouon alone do we see a man equal to the emergency, and that Noble Earl only could we behold with unmixed satisfac tion intrusted with the task. Then would England be in a position to combat success fully the dangers by which she is surrounded in the East, and then we might rely upon it, if the separate and mischievous powers of the Directors were suspended, that this most serious crisis would be surely and promptly overcome. THE WHIGS AND " SPIRITUAL INTIMIDATION." ONE of the best jokes of the day is the affected horror of the \Vhig party at the novel fact of " spiritual intimidation " in Ireland. Let dicers lad at gaming, let fast young men talk against dissipation, but let not the Whigs, in the face of notorious facts, overdo their horror at the bare idea of an Irish popular election being carried by the " intimidation " of Roman Catholic clergymen. Have they forgotten the memorable contests in Longford, and Louth, and Carlow, and twenty other counties besides ? Are they ignorant of the means by which certain Irish ALP.'s in the last twenty years have been elected to the Senate? When we hear of the Whigs:railing at " spiritual intimidation," we are forced to rentually decide to take we so geat)k misled it, Iticimte. ut we Feel 1 olit houl . )iappfxt that Copt ` i of t h .' 'se Teal ins w a' trOiing wi tholite who tk la dash., 'l l lq ,revelati [mire of Lord by aord Al ight show that the Di nown all along thit they THE INDIAN MUTINIES. THE British Indian bubble, like the British Bank bubble, has bur:A at last. Repeatedly have we warned the shareholders, or, in other words, the public, of what would be th•; result of leaving their affairs in the Directors' hands. But our words were unheeded, as had been the words of greater men before. The delu sive statements of the Directors were believed because they made things pleasant; and now