The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-09 00:00:00

announced that her Majesty had been pleased to elevate him to the baronetcy as Sir Henry Havelock of Lucknow. Alas ! on the very day before the G aze tte appeared, Sir Henry Havelock had paid the debt of nature, having died on the 25th of dysentery, brought on by exposure in the field and the anxieties of his position. From this lamentable and untoward accident the patent of baronetcy becomes invali dated and the title extinct. Sir Henry Havelock married, in 1827, Hannah Shepherd, youngest daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Marshman, of Serampore, the learned and accom plished Biblical scholar, by whom he has left a family of three surviving daughters and three sons, the eldest of whom was born in 1830. He at present holds a captain's commission in the 18th Royal Irish, and has been lately serving in India as deputy-assist ant adjutant-general under the gallant father whose honoured name he bears, and whose loss he must so deeply deplore. It is only about a fortnight ago that Lady Havelock, after a short stay in London and at Bath, left England for Germany among the con gratulations of her friends. She has ere this doubt less learned the sad intelligence of an event which has made herself a widow and her children father less. She will not want the hearty sympathy of the British public in her own and the nation's loss. CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. A runic meeting to consider the future relation of the British Government to religion in India was held on Tuesday, in the large room, Exeter-hall ; the Earl of Shaftesbury in the chair. Lord SHAFTESBURY, in opening the proceedings, said that a deep conviction existed amongst persons of all classes that as the governing nation we had of late years done too little for the extension of Chris tianity in India, and the only inquiry necessary to make was this—whether there was in Great Britain sufficient piety, sufficient knowledge, sufficient zeal, sufficient love to the cause of God and man, to unite with all its strength, and energy, and power for the extension of Christianity among the Hindoos. They bad met, in the first place, to declare that hencefor ward it mast be our business, as it is our duty, and as it has ever been the duty of the Government of the country and the Government of India, openly, boldly, unreservedly to proclaim that it is a Christian Go vernment—that it is a Christian Government founded for Christian enda; that it has Christian purposes ; that it will pursue a Christian course ; that it desires that its people should be brought within the knowledge, and, if possible, within the compass of Christianity ; that it will exercise no unfair advantage, that it will resort to no sinister means, but that it will put before the people of India the truth as it is ; and that it will allow no impedi ment whatever to stand in the way of the missionary going over the length and breadth of the land, there to proclaim the saving truth of the salvation of Christ. They must also declare that henceforward they would not, directly or indirectly, give the smallest encouragement to idolatrous practices ; that they would altogether abstain from supporting heathen temples, or from in any way taking a share in the administration of their funds. They must also declare that if they choose to retain schools and colleges, and intended to found more, into those schools and colleges the Bible must be introduced. It was perfectly monstrous that Government should undertake to give education to the people, to use the public funds for that purpose, and then put such an affront on their own Holy Book, as to leave the !nags of the natives to believe either that the Book was altogether untrue, or that, if true, the Government did not care one fig for it. Let them take one of two courses ; let them either give up the schools and colleges, or else introduce the Bible into them, and let it be faithfully taught by persons appointed for the purpose. But when we called upon Government to give its sanction to the Christian faith, we must be careful, said Lord Shaftesbury, to call upon the Government simultaneously to abstain from doing anything, directly or indirectly, that might in the least degree coerce or induce the natives by force, by bribery, or by any hope of wordly advantage, to quit the religion of their fathers : Let the Government proselytise in uo other way than this—by doing justice and judgment, by setting before them a model of Christian administration, not only in its great public affairs, but in the character and demeanour of all its functionaries. Lord Shaftesbury, in conclusion, eulogised the con duct of Sir John Lawrence in ignoring caste in the P unjaub. The Hon. A. Kt: um), M.P., in moving the first resolution, said we had not only hid the light of Chris tianity in India, but had openly denied it. The Bn tish Government in India had publicly honoured false gods, paid an idolatrous priesthood, and farmed the revenues and superintended the endowments of iiiolatroug temples. And even when there was a drought in the land they paid the Hindoo priests to pray for rain. They had gone even further, and tolerated open vice and most abominable crimes THE PRESS, JANUARY 9, 1858. under the plea of religion, and by the system of edu. cation they had established they had shaken the confidence of the people in all religion, and brought their minds to the desolation of infidelity. They had also fostered and upheld that abominable system of caste, the principle of which was to degrade the larger part of the community, and to favour tho pampered and arrogant minority, who had now evinced their gratitude by rebelling openly against us. After speaking of the hostility exhibited by the Government of India in times past to missionary operations, and quoting a speech of one of the Directors, who said he would rather see a band of devils let loose in India than a band of Christian missionaries, he proceeded to express a hope that in whatever changes might be introduced the Govern ment patronage of idolatry would be swept away, and that no impediment would henceforth be offered by the Government to the free progress of Christianity and civilisation. He entirely sympathised with what the chairman had said in reference to the circular issued at the instance of Sir J. Lawrence, which had, he believed, afforded encouragement to all the Christian and faithful natives. The more we heard the more reason had we to be astonished at the tranquillity of the Punjaub, which he attributed solely to the wisdom and firmness with which it was governed by that able functionary. If the same wisdom were displayed in the government of the rest of India there would be no reason to place restrictions upon the freedom of the press : For his own part, he considered that where the press was fettered there was but little hope of good government, and he was convinced that the sooner the Government of India relieved the press of that country from the shackles they had imposed upon it the better would it be for the safety of that portion of our emptie. The Government of India would have been perfectly justified in suppressing treason able publications and punishing their authors, but they were notjuatified in treating all alike. That a full in. vestigation must take place into the csuses of the outbreak was clear; for the manner in which the Government were taken by surprise when the mutiny broke out, and the ex tent to which, unknown to them, the disaffection prevailed, proved how utterly ignorant they were of the feelings of the native population. He had been told that the British Government had not dealt justly with the landowners in Oude, and this might possibly account for their hostility. But, be that as it might, he could not conceive a more striking evidence of the want of wisdom in the councils of India than in the annexation of Oude at a time when there was but one British regiment in that kingdom, and, more than all, in leaving the native population with arms in their hands and all the forts and strong places in their posses sion. Lord EBURY aildressee the meeting, and, alluding to the revolt, said he looked upon the Canton squabble " as an interposition of Providence." Sir Culling Eardley, the Rev. J. Smith, the Rev. Canon Champneys, Mr. Marshman, and several other gentlemen addressed the meeting at great length, advocating the principle of ignoring caste and placing Christianity upon an equality with Hindooism. Mr. MARSEIMAN, in moving a resolution proposing perfect religious equality, said we had respected caste, and it was the high-caste Brahmin that bad arisen against us. Wre were called upon, then, the more imperatively to relinquish a policy that was derogatory to the national character, derogatory to our national religion, and which had failed as a ques tion of political expediency. He admitted that it would be most impolitic to endeavour to force our religion upon the Indian people—by so doing we should unquestionably raise against us the hostility of the population generally, as well as those of high caste—but it had been suggested that a proclama tion should go forth, stating the principles upon which our Government was hereafter to be con• ducted : Hitherto the Government had issued proclamations only in the moment of terror, and had consequently mani• fested a greater degree of sympathy for native prejudices and squeamishness in regard to giving offence by propa gating Chnstianity than they would do in calmer moments. Now an opportunity occurred of issuing a proclamation free from those influences. Now that they were about to inaugurate a new policy, and now that the Crown was about to assume the government of India directly, let there be issued a comprehensive proclamation, announcing to the people of India the religions principle on which the Government of that country was to be hereafter conducted, and which, coming from the highest authority—not from the Governor-General, but from the Crown—should inform the natives of India that we are a Christian people, governed by Christian principles, and shall continue to be so governed; that these principles will guide us in our government of their country, but that, while we profess Christianity, we allow every man to follow what religion he pleases. Such a proclamation might now be pat forth without dread, for we were henceforward to govern India, not in the timidity of weakness and the squeamishness of fear, but in the confidence of our own strength—and so far from its exciting any misapprehension in the minds of the natives, and lead to disaffection, he believed it would tend more to secure and consolidate oar empire in that part of the world than all the proclamations that had been hitherto issued. Resolutions in accordance with the object or the meeting were then proposed and passed, and the proceedings terminated. FIELD MARSHAL RADETZ KY. FIELD MARSHAL COUNT RADETZKY, the oldest and most distinguished officer in the Austrian service, died at Milan on the sth inst., after a short illness, in his eighty-ninth year. Count Radetzky entered the Austrian army in 1784, and first distinguished himself at the Austrian siege of Belgrade in 1789. Europe was then upon the eve of great events. The storm of the French Revolution was gathering in the West, and a few years saw Europe deluged with blood, and the Old World shaken to its centre with anarchy and war. During the entire period from 1793 to 1815 Radetzky was present with the Austrian army. He served in Italy in the campaigns of 17956, and again in 1799 1800. He held the rank of major-general at the battle of Austerlitz, and in the campaign of 1809 commanded the sth corps d'armee, from the opening of the cam paign in the valley of the Danube, to the battles of Aspern, Ealing, and Wagram. In the campaigns of 1813.14, as chief of the staff, he took an important part in those great campaigns which decided the fate of Europe, and won for himself a brilliant repu tation in the ranks of the Austrian army. From the peace of 1815 to 1831, Radetzky enjoyed adminis trative and military commands in Bohemia and Hungary. In 1831, and in the sixty-third year of his age, he was appointed commander•in-chief in Austrian Italy. Like Saxe, Radetzky was com mencing his real career at an age when most men seek repose. But he was one of those men, so rare, before whom age stepped aside. At eighty be re• twined all the activity of a subaltern ; and it needed such a man for the post he held, for the office was no sinecure. When Mescal Ferretti succeeded to the chair of St. Peter as Pius IL, and initiated his rule by liberal reforms, a thrill of nationality ran, like the electric fluid, throughout Italy. This was in 1846. In the fol lowing year the movement was almost brought to a crisis by the Austrians placing a garrison in Ferrara. A " Gusrdia Civica," or National Guard, was formed in nearly every State, and then came like a thunder bolt the Revolution of 1848 at Paris. Revolution succeeded revolution. On the 17th March (1848) the news of the events at Vienna reached Milan. On the same night the Archduke Rainier, the Viceroy, with his family, left Milan for Verona. On the next morning barricades were eiected in every street of Milan, and a revolution commenced. Radetzky, it must be admitted, was taken by surprise. After three days' fighting be retired in good order to Verona. The Italian League had for a moment triumphed. The red white and green tricolour waved from the towers of every city, except Verona, Mantua, Legnano, and Peschera. The number of Austrian troops at Radetzky's command at this period was about 15,000 men. Austria was too much occupied at home to send reinforcements. Charles Albert declared himself, and on the 25th of March a Sardinian army crossed the Ticino in two columns. On the Bth April he advanced against Radetzky. Skirmishing commenced on the 9th with the Austrian outposts at Goito, about six miles from Mantua. After some severe fighting Charles Albert forced the passage, and Radetzky fell back, first on Mantua, then on Verona. The insurrection was general throughout Italy. Abandoned by the Court of Vienna, without men, money, or resources, Radetzky was attacked on all sides. But he never despaired. He felt that the fate of the Austrian empire was in his hands, and the intrepid old soldier resolved to do his duty by his country. The Italians, elated with success, poured in reinforcements frcm Tuscany, Rome, and Na ples. Radetzky concentrated his main force at Verona, leaving a strong division at Pas. trengo to keep open his communications with the Tyrol. Charles Albert resolved to attack this division. On the 23rd he canied the heights, and the Austrians fell back beyond the Etech. The Piedmontese monarch then gave battle. His army was about 45,000 strong, that of Radetzky 30,000, with Verona to fall back upon. On the 6th of May Charles Albert gave orders to advance, and a general battle ensued. The Austrians were driven from St. Lucia. But the good fortune of Charles Albert deserted him here. Dissension broke out in the Italian camp. Radetzky, like a good general, took advan tage of the opportunity, and forcing Charles Albert to retreat, commenced that campaign which cleared Lombardy of the Sardinians. An armistice agreed upon for the winter was broken by Charles Albert, early in March, 1849, and the fatal battle of Novara commenced and eaded the campaign. Charles Albert abdicated, Ratletzky agreed to a truce with Victor Emanuel on the 26th of March, and the war with Sardinia was at an end. This short and brilliant campaign, which lasted only one week, added a fresh lustre to the honours of the marshal. The young Em• peror Francis Joseph sent the Archduke Wil liam of Austria expressly to Milan to thank Radetzky and present him with the Order of the 31