The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

652 Budget? His first act on that occasion will have to be the explaining how the Indian revenues are so exhausted that all expendi ture on public works has been suddenly and peremptorily put an end to. And then he will have to justify, in the face of this exhaus tion, the entertainment given by the Directors the other day to a hundred and forty of their friends and supporters, at the public expense, at the London Tavern. The last time he had to reply to a question on this subject, he excused this gross misapplication of the reve nues of India on the ground of these dinners being great public demonstrations in honour of departing commanders-in-chief or gover nors-general. But the feast we are now speak• ing of had nothing, if we are informed rightly, of a public character about it. But, even if the putting an end to this scandal did not render it essential that the Minister should be endowed with a greater power of control over the expenditure of Indian revenue than he now possesses, there are other and unimpeachable grounds for the reversal of the relative positions which he and the Directors hold in respect to this matter at present. The principle which operated to exclude him from all power over these moneys when his office was first estab lished is the very reason why Parliament should give him the completest possible con trol over them now that the circumstances are so totally altered. For then, be it remembered, the money was the Company's own, and as much its property in its collective capacity as the private balances at their bankers were the property of the individual members of that body. Nothing, therefore, would have been more unjust than to give the Minister the power of disposing of money which was not the Crown's, but the Company's, and on the duly husbanding of which the interest pay able to the Proprietors on their stock from time to time depended. Then it was the Directors that had every inducement to deal with this property carefully, while the Minis ter had nothing to suffer from the most bound less waste and extravagance. The power of the purse was, therefore, properly put, not into his hands, but into the hands of the Directors—that is, into the hands of those who were the owners of the funds, and had the greatest interest in their preservation. Such was the reason, and a very excellent one, for the arrangement that was then adopted; but that reason has long since ceased to exist. When the Company sold all their right and title to the Indian revenues, on the terms of their stock being doubled, and its interest, at a fixed rate, guaranteed to them till the principal should be paid off, there was an entire reversal of the Minister's and the Directors' relative positions from that day forth. It was the Crown that then became the owner of these revenues, and the Crown that by consequence had the deepest stake in their maintenance and improvement; while the interest of the Directors, on the contrary, became changed from an interest in economy to an interest in the most boundless and most wasteful possible profusion. Previously, if they had failed to make India pay, they would have lost both principal and interest of the stock that they stood possessed of ; but when this was guaranteed to them it was the Crown alone that could be the loser, the Com pany being exempted from the possibility of loss or responsibility of any sort or kind what ever. Under such circumstances it is not in the nature of things that the Directors should discharge the duty very carefully, for which the collision of the claims of interest with those of duty must necessarily unfit them. Had Prrr, the founder of the double Govern ment, been alive when the transfer took place, he would have doubtless transferred with the title to the Indian revenues the sole power of control over them to the Crown. What he would have done the Legislature must do, if it would bring into working harmony the vari ous parts of the amended system. For no thing can be more absurd than to vest the revenues of India in the Crown, and yet take away all power, to prevent misappropriation, from its Minister; or than to allow the Com pany to deal with these moneys as their own, when they have actually the purchase money of the fee-simple of them in their pockets. THE PRESS. HOW DID JAMES SADLEIR ESCAPE ? SEVERAL weeks ago we informed our readers that the end of the Sadlcirite drama had not yet arrived, and since then new revelations have been made of a most singular character. It would appear that, owing to neglect in some influential quarter, JAMES SADLEIR, the brother and accomplice of the notorious swindler and suicide, has been allowed to escape ! We shall not, at present, undertake to point out any one person particular as obnoxious to im peachment in this matter, but it is beyond controversy that grave neglect, and possibly something worse, lies at the door of respon sible persons. The facts about the escape of JAMES SADLEIR are beyond doubt. It is now a considerable time since the Irish MASTER of the ROLLS openly from the Bench commented in plain terms on the criminal conduct of JAMES SADLEIR, and yet nothing was done in the way of arresting the person so judicially accused, and he was allowed quietly to escape, while under the eyes of two detective police. men, who were probably employed as an official screen. The terms in which this whole extraordinary business were alluded to by the MASTER of the ROLLS are of a most remarkable kind. Their importance is enhanced by the consideration that the Right Honourable T. B. C. SMITH is a lawyer of great distinction, a judge of much experience, and a gentleman of untainted honour. He was one of the most eminent barristers of his day. When Attorney-General he obtained a conviction against Mr. O'CONNELL, who had previously baffled Mr. SAURIN, Mr PLUNKETT, Mr. JOY, and Mr. BLACKBURNE. Strictures, therefore, coming from so high a quarter, and from so eminent an authority on criminal prosecutions, cannot be passed over lightly, and the ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S indis creet remark about " the irregular character" of the MASTER of the ROLLS observations, was unfortunate. " Irregular" indeed! Was not the whole conduct of Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues, iu connection with JOHN and JAMES SADLBIR, most " irregular?" Was not tempting poli ticians to break their pledges, and the pro motion of persons for abandoning their public vows, " irregular ?" Was not—but we shall avoid enumerating all the flagrant scandals of the political drama in which the SADLEIRB and their allies figured. We suppose that Mr. J. D FITZGERALD would designate the appoint ment of EDMUND O'FLAHERTY as an income tax commissioner, only " irregular !" Mr. J. D. FazaERALD, forsooth, observed that if the MASTER of the ROLLS suspected fraud he should have personally addressed himself to the Goverment. No, Mr. FITZ GEhALD, the MASTER of the lions should have done nothing in an underhand and fur tive way. It was his Lordship's business to speak out, openly and plainly, just as various Lord Chancellors have done when they de tected solicitors in _peculation. The remarks of the MASTER of tue ROLLS were not more " irregular " than some which fell from Lord PLUNKETT and Lord ST. LEONARDS on certain occasions, to which we need not advert. But the character of some of the observa tions of the MASTER of the ROLLS was un doubtedly most striking. According to one version of them printed in a leading Ministe rial organ, his Lordship is reported to have said— That, for reasons which the public would understand, it would have been of no use for him to have mentioned the fact to Government. We shall not now put any construction on these words, further than to remark that his Lordship seems to have had warrant for his insinuation, since, after he had proclaimed the criminality of SADLEIR from the Bench, nothing was done to arrest him. The examination, also, of JAMES SADLEIR in private by the MASTER in CHANCERY, no other parties being present but the official manager of the Tipperary Bank and his counsel, was deservedly censured by the MASTER of the ROLLS. But we shall have occasion to allude further to this case, as we perceive that the MASTER of the ROLLS has announced his in SATURDAY, tention of bringing under the public notice some important facts connected with this a.) parent complicity of official persons in the escape of JAMES SADLEIR. Tiler° is an Irish political faction intimately acquainted with the party now in office, which requires vigilant surveillance, for it would be too bad if the Sadleirising process were to be patented for the benefit of dishonest ambition and clan destine intrigues of the worst kind. Her Majesty was not so fortunate in her weather upon her visit to Aldershott on Monday. It rained almost incessantly the whole day, and effectually put a stop to all hopes of a review. The Queen, accom. panied by the King of the Belgians, remained at the Pavilion during the night, and on Tuesday morning, at an early hour, the troops paraded, and shortly after eleven o'clock, in a brief interval of dry weather, her Majesty, accompanied by her illustrious visitors, and attended by a brilliant but wet staff, left the Pavilion, and inspected the troops. The brigades then defiled past the royal party, when the Crimean regiments formed three sides of a square around the royal equipage. The officers of cavalr) and infantry who had been under fire, together with four men of each company and troop, advanced at a given signal. The Queen's carriage was then thrown open, and her Majesty, who wore a riding habit, and in her hat a military plume of feathers, rose, amid breathless attention, and spoke as follows : Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers,—l wish personally to convey, through you, to the regiments assembled here this day, my hearty welcome on your return to England in health and full efficiency. Say to them that I have watched anxiously over the difficulties and hardshq a which they have so nobly borne ; that I have mourned with deep sorrow for the brave men who have fallen for their country ; and that I have felt proud of that valour which, with their gallant allies, they have displayed on every field. I thank God that your dangers are over, whilst the glory of your deeds remains. But I know that, should your servicts be again required, you will be animated with the same derc tion which in the Crimea has rendered you invincible. No sooner had her Majesty concluded this brief but gracious harangue, than a cry of " God save the Qleen !" sprang to every lip. Helmets, bearskins, and shakos were thrown in the air, the Dragoons waved their sabres, and a shout of loyal acclamation, caught up from line to line, rang through the hills. The word, " Selected men, join your standards !" was then' given, and the troops marched back to camp dripping with rain, but apparently very happy and contented. The royal party returned to the Pavilion, and at three o'clock left the Farnborough Station for Nine Elms, where they were received by a guard of honour of the 3rd Light Dragoons, by whom they were escorted to Buckingham Palace. During her Majesty's visit a serious incident occurred. Lord Hardinge, while speaking to the Queen on Monday afternoon, in the Royal Pavilion, was sud denly attacked with apoplexy, snatched at a table to support himself, the table slipped away, and the noble lord fell heavily to the ground. Medical at tendance was instantly called in, Lord Hardinge was removed to his quarters for the night, and the next morning taken to town in a very suffering state. THE CAMP IN THE CRIMEA.—The army is rapidly retiring from the East. A general order of the 26th ult. gave to the 7th instant for the definitive evacuation of the Crimea. Upwards of 30,000 men and 6,000 horses have already been disembarked at Portsmouth, and six vessels, carrying nearly 4,000 more men, passed through the Bosphorus between the Ist and 7th of the present month. The definitive evacuation of the Crimea by the French army was completed on the sth July, when Marshal Pelissier embarked on board the Roland, and left for Constantinople. A cruel murder had been committed on the lnkermann heights. The body of a young gentleman, with the throat cut, had been found close to the lnkermann monument. His socks were marked J. 0., and his pocketbook A. 0. A. The body was buried. Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell will have the command of the troops to be encamped at Shorn cliffe, numbering about 5,000 men. Among the regiments constituting this division will be included some of those lately under Sir Colin's command in the Highland division in the Crimea. Colonel Trollope, of the 62nd Regiment, who lately commanded a brigade in the Crimea, will, we understand, proceed to Canada to fill a staff appoint ment of similar rank, in the room of Major-General Home Home, who returns to England. The promotions of Sir John Burgoyne to the rank of general, and of Sir Colin Campbell and Sir Richard England to the rank of lieutenant- general, for distinguished services during the war, have ap peared this week in the Gazette. Sir Colin's promo tion is ante-dated to the 4th June, senior to Sir W. Codrington, promoted on the 6th June. Major-General Crawfurd will, it is understood, be appointed to the command of the brigade of Guards at Aldershott. L. .