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

4*, ,4,44 4 bt 1)ft6,5 4 'ts't No. 223.—V0L.V. Vress. LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1857. WHEN Mr. DISRAELI performed the great public service of bringing the true state of India to the knowledge of the House of Com mons, he indicated very clearly the true causes out of which the revolt had arisen and the means by which the crisis could be most effectually met. These were unsparing vigour in putting down the mutineers, and the com plete separatin of their cause from that of the nativa princes and native people of India. This he proposed to effect by a proclamation addressed to the latter, disavowing any inten tion of interfering with their religion, and promising redress of any injustice that the Government of the Company might have done. In reply he was told by Mr. VERNON SMITH, on the part of the Government, that, amid all that was discouraging in the accounts from India, there were still two grounds of consolation left, and that these two sources of comfort Mr. DISRAELI had sought to cut away. The first of them was that there was not the slightest symptom of the mutiny being a national revolt ; and the second, that no native prince had been concerned in these transactions. The Maharajah of GWALIOR, lie said, had come forward with his contingent, and had even offered a reward of a hundred r pees a head for each mutineer brought in The state of Oude had exceedingly improved since the annexation, and he only hoped that those of our Sepoys who came from Oude were as satisfied with the annexation as the rest of the people undoubtedly were. If the native princes were offended with the conduct of the Government towards the Rajah of SATTARA, no doubt they would have manifested their feelings at the time. Finally, the Nizam had shown no disaffection to our rule Such was the fool's paradise in which the Ministers by their own account were revelling when the speech of Mr. Disamut burst upon them like a thunder-storm to clear away the vapours that filled their brain. Immediately afterwards, the mail came in to prove how sagacious his prognostications had been. Of the native princes now stated by the Indian papers to be implicated, there are the King of DELHI, the King of OUDE, and the Nawab of MoORsHEDABAD. The Maharajah of Gw&mort, who was to do us such service, has allowed his c ontingent to adopt en masse the cause of the mutineers, as any man of sense might have guessed from the tirst he would. Similar has been the conduct of another boasted ally, the Rajah of bilearPoßE, and several other minor chiefs have done the same. The people of Oude have shown their satisfaction with the annexation by shutting up Sir HENRY LAW RENCE in Lucknow, the space commanded by his guns being the whole of the soil that they have left to us in Oude. At the same time his Secretary, the chief agent in the an nexation under General OUTRAM, has been se zed by them and put to death. In Cawn pore, the station made for coercing Oude, the English are in like manner besieged, and de pend entirely for safety on their means of LONDON, UN SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1857. MPED . .SIXPENCE. TAMPE . D . ..FIV EPENCE. holding out. At Sattara, we see by a letter in yesterday's Times, there has been a plot to massacre all the Europeans and place the alopted son of the late Rajah on the throne. The name of the station is not given, but the details as to its position leave no doubt as to the spot to which the writer refers. At Jhansi, one of the latest of our annexations, the people have risen and murdered every Euro pean, man, woman, and child, with circum stances of aggravated atrocity that make the blood run cold. The Nizarn's country too, the Sattara letter tells us, is in a very unsettled state ; while the proceedings of the Resident show that he anticipates an outbreak, and thinks that if there should be one, it will be joined in by the regular cavalry stationed there. One regiment of the Hyderabad con tingent has already mutinied, and it appears that they are in constant expectation of a rising on the part of the Nawab of ARCOT at Madras, for he is one of the victims of our late policy, the policy which Mr DISRAELI so well denounced. Considering that the revolt only commenced about the middle of May, and that our advices only reach to the end of June--considering, also, that all the stations alluded to are many hundred miles apart—we do not see that Mr. VERNON SMITH has much to congratulate us on in respect to the attitude which the native princes have, so far, assumed ; and we have no doubt that he will be in possession by the time the next mail comes in, if he be not so already, of despatches which will teach him how little reliance is to be placed on those who have not yet thrown off the mask. Then, as to the people whose loyalty he dwells on, we do not know really what he means. We read of the whole of the bazaar people and camp followers rising together with the Sepoys, and of even the servants of the officers proving false. In other words, the entire non-military, as well as military, population have revolted in all our chief military stations in Bengal. The same course has been followed by the populace of the cities—the men who in every country furnish to rebellion its most active recruits. Many of the post-runners are said to have joined the rebels also, and most of the boatman on the Ganges, while the cargoes are plundered by bands of armed men. Num berless villages, moreover, appear to have taken advantage of the general confusion, and we read of plunderings, and burnings, and shootings—now by the people and now by the European soldiery, in retaliation—on every side. From Lahore to Calcutta there appears to be nothing but robbing and murdering, or hanging, as the rebels or the soldiers happen to have the upper hand. Such is the loyalty of princes and people contended for in his speech by Mr. VERNON SMITH. While such gross ignorance exists on the part of the Government as to the causes and the nature of the contest they are engaged in, we shall not be surprised if their endeavours meet with very little success. They may take Delhi, but we can only repeat that by doing so they will have completed but one step towards the termination of the affair. They will have cut off a single heal of the hydra, but they will have left the rest. Before order can be restored not only must the mutiny be quelled, but all community of feeling and interest must be cut off between the mutineers and the people and princes of India. They may, to be sure, do this for us themselves by their atrocities, just as the Red Republicans have done so for themselves in France. But this is a contingency impossible to rely on ; what is to be done, therefore, we must do ourselves. That is, to show the princes and people of India distinctly that if Great Britain has been unjust to them, it was from inadvertence, and not out of any disregard of their lawful rights and claims. It will be in vain to try and re-establish our authority on any basis but that of justice and magnanimity. These virtues may be hard of adoption while our passions are so excited ; but they are the only virtues through which we can attain success. In our anger we may desolate India, but in doing so we shall shiver to atoms the brightest jewel in Queen VICTORIA'S crown. The further we extend the circle of our ven geance the more shalt we unsettle the founda tions of our ride. If Russia were really at the bottom of our troubles, we could not better advance her interests than by engaging in the wholesale crusade against the natives and their sovereigns and their institutions, which many of the leaders of public opinion here propose. LORD PALMERSTON AND THE PRINCIPALITIES. THE question of the Danubian provinces is becoming of practical and pressing importance. The disgraceful intrigues of Austria and England which have characterised the pro- ceedings of the last three months have brought about a crisis at Constantinople, in which the peace of Europe can only be preserved by the disgrace of England. M. DE THOUVENEL, the Ambassador of France at Constantinople, supported by Prussia, Russia, and Sardinia, protesting against the discreditable intrigues of Austria, England, and Turkey, in the recent Danubian elections,lhas hauled down the flag of his Embassy, and conditionally broken off diplomatic relations with the Govern ment of the Porte. The policy Lord PAL mEnsToN's Government has pursued towards the Principalities is as discreditable as it is disingenuous. By the Treaty of Paris we solemnly engaged ourselves to permit the inhabitants of these provinces freely to express their views as to their future form of Govern ment. The tendency of the popular will was unmistakably in direction of a Union under an hereditary Prince. In conjunction with France, Russia, Prussia, and Sardinia, the policy of England at that period was strongly in favour of the Union, in favour of the estab lishment of a constitutional form of self- Government, of a free press, of an independent army ; ar.d solemn promises were made to the Moldo-Wallachs that their wishes upon these important points should be consulted and followed. But suddenly the Liberal _ Government of Lord that it had begun in di to end in eertaintie:. ishes of the Roumans that the true policy and, upon this questioi derstanding with that endangering the French was this question ? palities should remail be erected into an ind, there is one principle which the Liberal part, identified itself more , PALMERSTON, admitting loubts, but was resolved es, discovered that the Ens went "Inexpotheat ;" was to support Aulfria, on, to come to a good Vb._ Powers even at the ris loj • nch alliance.. 10 09. - t 7 was wletiser the • ~ in subtleet to Ttttk o r lependent State. X if le of foreign poliv. with arty in this counay IMO ' than another, it is hosti-