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

kind of learning. And if the fabric of the Church of England is to be maintained as by law established—if her beautiful Liturgy, her decent ceremonies, and her ancient constitu tion of bishops, priests, and deacons are to continue in force—if all that influence, either spiritual or social, which she has long exer cised for good is to flourish and increase, it call only be through the exercise of the greatest discretion and self-denial on the part of the clergy—by a surrender of sectional crotchets and personal caprices, and a manly acceptance of the doctrines and practices of the Reformed Church of England in their fullest and strictest sense. MILITARY PREPARATIONS. GoVERNMENT is at length beginning, we pre- slime, to see that " the magnitude of the crisis" has not after been exaggerated. Three months ago nothing could exceed the saucy in difference with which Lord PALMERSTON and his colleagues treated all representations of the truth. Notwithstanding the rapid succes sion of disastrous tidings from the East, they still continued to assure us that it was only a transient and local outbreak, which a few European regiments could quell with ease. There was only one thing more absurd than clamouring for reinforcements for India, and that was to embody the Militia at home. On the 10th of July Lord PALMERSTON point blank refused to take any steps for providing substi tutes or reserves for the Line. "He saw no "reason why the intelligence from India " should cause any change" in the inten tions of Government. On the following day he repeated his refusal in still more emphatic terms. And this, too, when Delhi was in possession of the rebels, and our losses had already amounted to some thirty thousand men. On the 28th, in spite of Lord ELLENROROUGIeS warning, this opinion was repeated by Lord PANaluitE in the House of Lords with characteristic doggedness. And it was not till fairly frightened out of their hauteur by the united demands of the Opposi tion and the public, that a slight concession was made, and 10,000 of the Militia embodied. Fifteen thousand more are now to be called out, and there can be no doubt that it will end as we predicted, in the whole force being em ployed. Now, it is very easy to say that Government was right to wait, and not to plunge the country into expense till convinced of the necessity of doing so ; but what we urge is, that would they but have condescended to listen to those who understand Indian ques tions, they might have been convinced long ago. The public was convinced ; the relatives of the unhappy sufferers were convinced only too well. But still Government chose to deride the gravity of the emergency, and neglect means which would have rendered eveiy re giment in England available for foreign service some six or seven weeks ago. One reason we have heard assigned for this extraordinary conduct too childish, we should hope, to be the truth. Government intended all along, it is said, to take the same measures, but refused to be dictated to by Parliament. Why, in the name of common sense, for what does Par liament meet? Or is Lord PALMERSTON trying to parody the Grande Monarque---tetat c'est moi. Not to be dictated to, forsooth ! When the blood of Englishmen and the honour of Englishwomen is crying for vengeance , the Minister of the Crown delays to assist them, because somebody else pointed out the right way before he found it himself ! We con fidently appeal to the public whether this is the man who deserves all the fulsome eulogies which have lately been heaped on him for his energy, his patriotism, and his foresight ! Is this the man, we would ask, in whose fer tility of resource or vigour of action any confi dence can be placed when the stimulus of Parliamentary surveillance is removed ? Even now the full difficulty of our situation is but beginning to be felt. People cried with con fidence to hurry out reinforcement after rein forcement, fancying that it was merely a ques tion of tame when the mutineers should be THE PRESS, OCTOBER 10,1857. crushed. But it is one thing to demand rein forcements, and another thing to find the men. Our recruiting is progressing with the most unsatisfactory results ; and it appears, after all, as if the real source of our embarrassment would be found, not in India, but in England. Men will no longer join for a bounty too small to be a boon, for pay which a beggar would despise, and a pension which leaves them to the workhouse. Whether one or all of these repulsive features in the soldier's prospects are to be remedied, we do not undertake to determine ; but sure we are that in them lies the pith and marrow of the reluctance now exhibited to military service, eitherlin the Line or in the Militia, by our mechanics and pea santry. Over and above these objections are also to be noticed certain peculiar reasons at the present moment for which Lord PAL MERSTON'S Government alone is responsible. We mean the abominable treatment experi enced by the disbanded militia at the close of the Russian war. Many were then heard to mutter that the sky might fall ere Government caught hold of them again. Present circumstances sufficiently prove that the threat was no idle one, and based on no fancied grievance. As we sowed, so have we reaped. We neglected our soldiers then, they neglect our appeal now. And the recollection of these things certainly does not increase our confidence in Lord Patimuaes capacity for administration at the prenent crisis, in his power of con ciliating the lower classes, or inspiring them with enthusiasm for a military life. What steps, then, is Government now taking? or is the magnitude of this difficulty exaggerated too? And will the Premier per sist in ignoring it till India has slipped through our fingers, and then earn the ap plause of his satellites by offering increased pay ? The appeal to the middle classes is all moonshine. We can never obtain from them that steady influx of thousands which the exigencies of a regular army require. A few irregular corps is all we can hope to raise or maintain from this quarter. Our main reliance must be, as of old, on the thews and sinews of the poor. But these said thews and sinews will always fetch what they are worth ; and home employers will continue to outbid the recruiting sergeant till such time as soldiering is rendered at once more lucrative and more respectable. Is Lord PALMERSTON the man to carry out such a reform ? Has not his conduct all along shown him unable to appreciate our Indian situation ? Drop-by drop reinforcement and piecemeal concession will not supply the place of that broad, pre scient, and generous policy which alone can man the ranks of our army and allay the dis content of our subjects. MR. BERESFORD IN ESSEX. THE personal courage of Mr. BERESFORD, and the exploits which gained him his reward, we cordially admire ; but we regret that we cannot commend his political discre tion. It is possible that we may be mistaken, but we really feel some difficulty in under standing the Gallant Officer's language. We have a long copy of his address now before us, but it is taken, W 3 admit, from a Palmers tonian print. His views on " Christianity " and on " justice " seem quite original, and his tone towards Lord PALMERSTON is peculiar. He is reporte I to have said :—" If the English " nation remained true to their religion, and " flinched not from asserting their Chris " tianity . . . . God would assist their " arms." Our readers know, without our reminding them, what " Christianity" means, and what duties it enforces. A little further on M.r BERESFORD observed :—" lie was " sorry to hear that there were persons in the " House of Commohs and out of it who said— " • For God's sake temper your justice with " mercy.' " He then proceeded to contend that in this instance we should do justice without mercy. In what part of the sacred code of " Chris tianity " did Mr. BERESFORD find that "justice" and " mercy " should be severed from each other ? Did not all the preachers on the Fast-day warn us against vengeance ? When the British fleet mutinied at the Nore, and when the country was left in dreadful peril, 979 was "justice " without " mercy" done to the mutineers? We do not fur a moment place the acts of the malcontent shipmates of PARKER and his misguided associates with the cruelties of NANA SAHIB; but nevertheless the acts of the mutineers at the Nora sent the Funds down to 57, and fearfully shook the Government of England. " Mercy was tempered along with "justice " to the rebellious seamen, and they soon afterwards fought the battle of Campordown in splendid style. The Sikhs were our enemies a few years since; they were conquered and sub dued; " justice " was tempered with " mercy" towards them, and they are now our allies in the field in the day of our trial and our peril. The Gallant Officer is an Irishman, and his courage is that of his race and country ; but temperance of view, under existing provoca• tion, is not exactly an Irish quality. The furious retribution and the indiscriminate vengeance of party against party in Ireland have been for ages the reproach of that land. Would Mr. BERESFORD advocate the policy pursued by OLIVER CROMWELL in Ireland--the policy of mere extermination? Mr. BERES FORD seems to forget that the Sovereign in whose service Ito has fought so gallantly was solemnly armed in the august ceremony of the Coronation with " The Sword of Mercy" as well as "Justice." To judge him by his words (if accurately reported) the Right Honourable Gentleman would break the " Sword of Mercy" into splinters. The tone taken by Mr. BERESFORD to wards Lord PALMERSTON is certainly very peculiar. The Premier is ardently lauded by the Right Honourable Gentleman, and at the same time the Gallant Member for North Essex criticised with freedom the conduct of Lord DERBY. He had deprecated " the idea "of a coalition between Lord DERBY, Mr. " SIDNEY HERBERT, and Mr. GLADSTONE, be " cause such coalition would have been imme " diately followed by an extensive reduction "in the army." The reason offered is the assertion of Mr. BERESFORD, but let that pass; we would rather ask what has the Pre mier done in the present yea: but the iden tical thing which Mr. BERESFORD " depre cated?" The Gallant Officer certainly leads a forlorn hope in his logic, without gaining political laurels. He calls upon the country to stand by " Christianity," and to execute "justice " without " mercy." He then boasts of how he " deprecated " proposed unions of Conservatives, lest the army should be re duced, and he panegyrises the Premier, who did the very thing that the Gallant Major " deprecated." What a consistent Christian What a " patriotic " Conservative ! The Gallant Officer, however, was not con tent with this wild logic; he went a little farther. In a vaunting tone the Right Hon. Gentleman said :—" He would be no party to " acquiring capital at the expense of his " country." As if, forsooth, some member of the Conservative party had attempted to do so. We think that Mr. BERESFORD ought to be more discreet in the use of his language. Englishmen do not like those who fling about unauthorised imputations. On this recent occasion Mr. BERESFORD in some passages seems to have been talking " at " the party to which ho belongs. That party stood gene rously by Mr. BERESFORD when the Liberals and Palmerstonians used every means in their power to ruin the public and private reputa tion of the Right Hon. and Gallant Gentle man. Because Mr. BERESFORD had held office under Lord DERBY it was resolved on by the Liberals to make " capital " out of him, and they did so without either "justice " or " mercy." For the time the Liberals did ac quire some " capital" by their perpetual abuse and by their scurrilous defamation of Major BERESFORD, and the Conservatives had to stand the " expense" of it. Lord PALMERSTON with a few words might have stopped the de famers of Mr. BERESFORD; but we never heard that the Noble Viscount did so, though in another case, when the Liberals had recourse to the same artifices, it was under stood that the Premier had actively inti mated his disapproval of the use of such weapons. Nay, further ; it was Sir ALEXANDER COCKBURN, the right-hand man of Lord PAL