The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

THE WEEK. THE Plenipotentiaries have this week met more consecutively on Mon day, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and is hence surmised that they are anxious to bring their sittings to a close, and announce a defini tive result. After the Conference has broken up, and a treaty of peace has been signed, a convention will, it appears, be assembled to sit for weektrOr months to regulate details; so that the diplomatists of Europe will have ample scope afforded them for the exercise of their skill, and numberless questions will probably arise, on which disagree ment may exist. It is in this convention, we suppose, that the battle for influence in the councils of the Porte will be fought. The war of diplomacy will succeed to the war of arms, and unless our Adminis tnttion be careful we may at last be dexterously driven, in part, at least, 'from the attainment of our objects. • This convention will, we finpy,peeve a disagreeable sequel to the treaty; while it lasts it will keep the political horizon clouded, and perhaps prevent any general discernment. If reports from Paris al e to be credited, Lord CLAREN DON -has managed to signalise himself by disputing Prussia's right to - free and equal action at the Conference to which she has been invited. It is scarcely credible that any serious question can have beeri raised on this head. If so, we are in danger of returning to those good old-fashioned days of diplomacy, when plenipotentiaries disputed with each other which should first enter a room and last leave it, and held trivial formalities to be of : infinitely higher import ance than matters on which the fate of nations depended. Lord CLA RENDON has a genius for raising those fungus-like quarrels which spring up one can scarely tell how, and if examined aro found to be mere swollen bladders of dirt and wind. It is to be hoped no mischief will come of them. Covering all hoardings and dead walls about London are large posters, denouncing Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE as the real cause of the fall of Kars, and bringing against his Lordship a huge bill of in dictment. Who are at the bottom of this movement ? Evidently sonic persons ignorant of the real facts of the case, or making their show of ignorance a cloak for their sinister designs. Not a word is said against Lord CLARENDON—no blame is attributed to the Govern ment—Lord STRATFORD has done it all. Vengeance is called down on his head ; he is the person against whom a set is to be made at the meeting of Parliament. His Lordship must defend himself as he best can for his neglect of General WILLIAMS in the first instance. We have nothing to say to that; but, to do him justice, he has had no more to .do with the fall of Ksrs than the man in the moon. It was Lord CLARENDON who sent WILLIAMS out—it was to Lord CLARENDON that WILLIAMS was directed to send his reports—it was from Lord CLAREN DON that he was directed to seek his instructions. The whole case of Kars hangs on two points. 1. Was it right for Lord CLARENDON, well knowing that Turkey could not be depended on to resist the Russian arms in Mingrelia, or even to semi to Kars the necessary allies, to yet leave that important place to its fate? Ought he, or ought he not, to have desired the British Government to afford direct assistance to General WILLIAMS, by sending to him, which might easily have been done, supplies of money, stores, arms, &e.? When the question was • directly raised whether, iu compliance with the request of General WILLIAms made in March, 1854, for a reinforcement of Turkish troops, was it right or not in Lord CLARENDON and Lord PANMURE to return an answer that no re- inforcements could be sent until " the more pressing need " for Turkish troops in other quarters had been supplied? It was this answer v►hich intimated to Turkey the idea of the British Government that the fate of Kars was altogether of very secondary importance, which prevented the necessary succours being sent out, and which directly led to the desertion of WILLIAMS and the success of MoueAVIEFF•. These are the facts with which the Legislature will shortly be called on to deal: and whatever tends to conceal or overlay these facts must tend to deceive the public, and divert its mind from the real merits of the case. What is to be done in the ease of Oude? Let us see how many courses are open to us. Are there three? No, we think but two. The Legis lature must remain silent, or it must speak out. It must affect igno rance of what is passing in India,—though the transaction concerns a wealthy and fertile kingdom half as large as England, with a popula tion of three million of souls,—or it must review the acts of the Indian Government, and declare its opinion whether the seizure of this king dom on the grounds set forth is justifiable and lawful. Much may, perhaps, be said as to what is expedient, but the chief question is. what ss right and just? Here is a kingdom at peace with our Government ; a kingdom whose reigning family, as appears by the proclamation issued for its seizure, has always remained faithful to our Government ; a • kingdom whose only alleged misdemeanour is, that it has the misfor tune to be badly governed. It may be right for British power to be exercised for the correction of gross abuses in native Indian Govern ments,—for the.pmtentian of the people from oppression,—for the in troduction of improvements to fertilise the country, and benefit the inhabitants. But between the interposition of such influence and the seizure of the State, there is a wide distinction,—as great as between Chancery assuming tp gnardianship of a minor's property. and confis eating it for the sol e use and benefit of the Court. Annexation in India means not only the deposition of native government, but the eonfiseation of ail titles, tenures, and rights, by which property is hold: it meaus such a total social revolution as England was doomed to un- SATURDAY, dergo when the Conqueror parcelled out its soil into knights' fees. Hence it happens that no sooner is annexation an accomplished fact, titan wealth, as by the stroke of a magic wand, is dried up, —e n . terprise flies the fated land,—industry languishes, the revenue declines, —the whole tract dwindles to a state of serfdom, and the population falls into the two classes most fatal to a country's prosperity,— the collectors and agents of the Govat•nment, and the unhappy e n i t i. vators of the soil, who derive a wretched, precarious, and fearful subsistence from their toil. This no imaginative sketch ; it is the truth. It is being brought home to the minds of the people of this country strongly by the stern undisguisable facts of a yearly diminish ing revenue, and a yearly augmenting expenditure. Hear what the Times—the defender of Lord DALHOUSIE'S administration, and the apologist of the Oude annexation—is forced to admit in its impression of yesterday, the facts being taken from Blue-books which cannot be hidden : The actual revenue of India for the year ending April 11.134 was 2 1 ,000,0001., and there was au increase of expenditure over revenue of no less than 2,000,0001. Then this deficit is annually inct•eariny : For the following year the estimate is that the income would be only a few thousands more, while the deficiency would be half a million more. Of this enormous deficieney of 2;00,001., which is eren bower than that which sealed the doom of the Mel&men, Ministry f ifteen years ago, Bengal ib accountable for 2.300,0001. Iu this Presidency the excess of outlay over receipts has been gradually increasing. A de: •eucy of two millions and a half, with a revenue of 20 t ' I IL, is equal to just one-tlighth part. Imagine England with a , • deficit of seven millions, and that deficit annually increasing, would it be necessary for any prophet to cry trumpet-tongued what our end must soon be? and this ruinous state of the finances rums side by side with the most confiscating rule ever known in India. We could make up a catalogue of Lord DaLitousiles spoliations longer than a stage tailor's bill, or than the roll which the impudent fabricator of " The Adventures of an Eastern King " pretends was presented to the Monarch of Oude by his barber-minister. First, under Lord DatHousiE was perpertrated the confiscation of Sattara, because he would not recognise the rule of native adoption, though sanctioned by such Indian statesmen as SULLIVAN, HUME, and Sir G. CLERK ; next came the Punjaub, for which there would have been good grounds in the Sikh uprising of 18-10, though very little for the supercession of the arrangement then made by Lord Ijai.uocsiE two years later, and N.B. mark what appears relating to the revenue of the Punjaub : The estimated net revenue of the North-Western provinces, including the Punjaub and Trans.lndus territory, is 6,000,0001, and this, it may be observed, is the only depart ment in which the revenue is in excess. It is more than double that of the expenditure, although, when we compare the accounts of the several years, and see how the receipts are slowly decreasing and the charges are rapidly multtplying, it is not difficult to anticipate the period when here also there shall be a deficit instead of a surplus. —Times of yesterday. Then fell Pegu because the governor of its seaport bad kept a message from the British admiral waiting half an hour at his door. Then followed the annexation of Nagpore, with the seizure of all the treasures of the Bailees; after that came the confiscation of the pension to the Nawabs of Arcot, 100,0001. a year; and lastly, to crown all, we have the annexation of Oude. As fur the confiscation of inferior pensions, jaghires, territories, estates, and lands, our columns would groan to burst with the list. We only ask to what has' all this confiscation conic? Look at the deficit in the Indian revenue. Mark how the receipts decline while the expenses increase, and say if the end does justify the means—if what is morally wrong is expediently right--if it will,be possible for us to preserve India on this system without au enormous addition to the burdens of this country. The• truth is forced on us, that conquered countries do not pay that if we do not take heed our empire in India will fall as N&POLEON'S empire ; and that the time has arrived when the British Legislature, if it would not prove unfilithful to its highest duties and dearest interests, must institute an inquiry on what princi ple the confiscations iu India have proceeded, and on what grounds of right they proceed. It will be a great scandal if Lord llautousiz is permitted to act out in India the Socialist principles which Mr. Lucas is scouted for but advocating in the House of Commons. Mn. GLADSTONE'S speech at the Mansion-house on Monday last is a tardy recantation of error. Ho acknowledges the justice of the war, which will henceforth stand " conspicuous for the purity of its motives " Such is the force of opinion in this country, that even a statesman like Mr GLADSTONE, who piques himself on his singularity is dragged at its tail, in how dignified a position let impartial spectate determine But we hereby may perceive how futile is the attempt a any man of the Gladstone calibre to attempt to dictate to the great political parties. Like the ass between the bundles of hay, he starves in his isolated intellectual pride. He can get no followers, either in the country or in Parliament, and is at last reduced to the humiliating necessity of admitting that his fastidiousness was simple tally, and his vaunted superiority to the system which bred him] nothing but the swagger of all disappointed men—that they are not appreciated by the world. One of the great political facts of the day is the decided change of opinion in Ireland In three successive elections Conservatives have replaced " Liberal " representatives. In Carlow, two years since, Mr. ALEXANDER defeated SADLEIR, whose name was not then as infamous as it is now. In Sligo, the Premier's own borough, his " bosom . friend" has lately been ignominiously defeated by an ex-official Lord DERBY'S Ministry, Mr. WYNNE and Mr TOTTENHAM, in New Ross, has completely overthrown poor Sir THOMAS REntsoros. In the latte two eases the seats were 14 nearly 20. years in the hands of the Libe yak. Mr. J. COPPODE lutist fuel dismay as he thinks of the next general election in Ireland. The ignominy of the Brass Baud,and the disgust towards mercenary adventurers, are beginning to produce marked ...II THE PRESS. 300