The Press. — London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

JONE 21, 1856. which Captain KENNEDY used when certain Irish Orangemen were subsidised for " law and order," about the period when the Earl of ENNISKILLEN was a favored guest of the Vice roy. An experienced eye can discern in every act of Mr. CaAmexoN the superior agency which was moving the wire. There is the system acted on, whatever may be the latitude or longitude, in which small and subterra nean artifices are employed in a manner sure to eventuate in official embroilment, in poli tical disclosures of the " Birch " kind, and in what we may be branded by the significant term of—Clarendonian complications, result ing in Clarendonian capitulations. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND MR. WALPOLE'S RESOLUTION. ON Monday night, with the connivance of the Ministry, the House of Commons will be called upon to stultify itself in the eyes of the country, and to rescind the resolution passed on Tuesday with reference to National Educa tion in Ireland. We can state both special and general reasons why we hope the House of Commons will decline to behave itself in so humiliating a way. In the first place—and this is an important consideration—neither the House nor the Ministry were taken by surprise. Every one knew that the motion was fixed for that parti cular day, and the public attention had for some time past been concentrated on the reso lution of Mr. WALPI)LE. The Secretary for Ireland was ready in his place, and care was taken that a brace of Irish Government lawyers should be - briefed" upon the debate, so that it is idle to talk of the Ministerialists having been suddenly outwitted. So much for the position of the House of Commons in its relation to the question ; but there aro in trinsic reasons why the House should on Monday decline to rescind its resolution. The merits of the question are entirely with Mr WALPOLE, and his resolution does not at all endanger the existence of the National Educa tion system. In his able and conciliatory speech, Mr. WALPOLE distinctly guarded him self from differing on the whole question from Lord DERBY, the founder of the " National System " in Ireland. All that the Right Hon. Gentleman sought was that some decent con sideration, some honourable recognition of a conciliatory kind, might be given to the con scientious feelings of the clergy of the Church Establishment, who aro actually placed in a more disadvantageous position with reference to the working of the system than the Pres byterian clergy. Surely, an anomaly like that deserves to be redressed. Privileges possessed by the Presbyterians undoubtedly ought to be given to the clergy of the Church Estab lishment. We should be grieved to introduce sectarian considerations into the discussion of this sub ject, but we must say that it is a great evil that the more recent rules of the " National Board" are framed in such a manner as to compel the clergy of the Establishment upon the point of honour to refrain reluctantly from a joint effort to educate the poor chil dren of Ireland We are convinced that the road might easily be smoothed for bringing the Established clergy into harmonious action with other denominations in Ireland. But there certainly does appear to be some grounds for suspecting that some of the rules of the Board have been aimed almost offensively at the clergy of the Established Church. We ask that the peculiar situation of those emi nently respectable persons should be calmly considered. They are the ministers of the " United Church of Great Britain and Ire land ;" they are the clergy of the State ; the funds are supplied by the State for the sup port of the " National S 3 stem ;" and yet they, the clergy of the State, are placed in a worse Position than the Presbyterian ministers, for whom some of the rules have been relaxed. Now, we must caution the House a Com mons against being led away by a false cant of " neutrality "on this subject. The system, as now carried on, is in many respects at vari ance with the principles originally laid down THE PRESS. by Lord DERBY. At present the schools are worked in such a manner as to he Presby terian in Ulster, and Roman Catholic in Munster. In the latter district, and in much of Connaught, the Roman Catholic priesthood are the chief directors of the schools, and none but Catholics attend them. Theoreti cally, the system is a united one, but prac tically it is discordant and partial. Parliament votes money for uniting the Irish children in a joint scheme cf school education, but the facts show that it might just as well give separate grants to the various sects, as adopt the present system. Yet, not " quite as well," but, as some would say, " much better," be cause if money were voted to the separate sects, at least the children of the Establish ment would have some of it, whereas now the "Church Education Society" has to rely on it own funds, while it sees the money of the State given for the teaching of other deno• minations. But it may be said that it is " the proselytising bigotry " of the clergy of the Establishment which prevents them from adopting the pre sent rules of the " National !Board." In an swer to that assertion, we must remind our readers that High Church and Low Church clergy, Whigs and Tories, Conservatives and Liberals, are to be found in the Establishment in Ireland, and that even several clerical " Liberals" cannot conscientiously take part in the system. Is it not strange, while several Roman Catholic priests of the Archbishop 'WHALE school refuse to join in the National System, that an overwhelming preponderance of the Establishment is entirely opposed to it? Does not this fact show that the numerical conviction of the Established clergy is against the disparaging position in which they are placed ? And shall not Parliament do some thing to redress this grievance, and give their case a fair hearing? Last of all, let it be recollected that the Archbishop of DUBLIN and Mr. BLACKBURNE have both been compelled, conscientiously, to relinquish their places as directors of the Na tional Board, from a sense of the Board having become oue-sided ; and that Mr. WALpoLE's resolution was directed against all prose lytism, providing " that no child will be com " pelled to learn any creed, catechism, or for " mulary, to which any parent or guardian may " object ;" and who is there that can refuse to listen to so reasonb.ble a request as that made by the Member for Cambridge Uni versity? Above all, let it not he forgotten that the system was an experimental one ; that it does not rest on long prescription ; that it is open to great improvement ; and that it is only matter for official diplomacy to see about carrying out the pro position of Mr. WALPOLE without disturbing the system ; and we have stated enough to show that the House of Commons has many valid reasons for adhering to its vote of Tues day, and refusing to rescind it at the orders of the Treasury. THE INDIAN MAGISTRACY. ONE of the greatest wants of India at the present moment is a want of district magis trates. On this point all parties, of whatever way of thinking they may be in regard to other matters, are fully agreed. But had there been the slightest room for doubt upon the subject, the Report of the Torture Commis sioners would have set it at rest for ever. These distinctly attribute the abuse of authority on the part of minor officials so per petually taking place in India to the absence of a sufficient number of European magis trates to listen to and investigate complaints. What with the enormous size of the districts, and the vast amount of revenue and other duties heaped upon them, it is declared to be physically impossible for them to investigate more than a fraction of the complaints re garding injustice of any kind that the ryots may bring forward. In other words, it is ad mitted that there is an habitual denial of justice simply from the absence of an ade quate number of constituted tribunals to afford redress. Such a state of things is 579 utterly indefensible—for the first duty of every Government is to provide for the people the means of obtaining justice. But if inde fensible in any Government, it is scandalous in our own, for the constant plea in defence of annexation is the alleged neglect of this duty by native Governments, and the superior con scientiousness in respect of it exhibited by ourselves. We can only conceive so grave au error on the part of Government to arise from indolence or from calculation, it being, per haps, unwilling to incur the necessary addi tional expense. In either case it is clear that this state of things must be put an end to if we be not content to sacrifice in the face of Europe all pretension to being better rulers than those of the worst managed and most despotic kingdoms whom we so habitually condemn. Nor would neglect of reform on this point affect our reputation merely—it must also prove injurious to any attempts at usefulness in the highest degree. For how can we hope to interfere effectually in behalf of the oppressed in other countries when the rulers of these have so ready a mode of answering us by pointing to what we allow to be done in India ourselves ? At first sight, no doubt, there appears to be a considerable difficulty in dealing with this important question. The Civil Service of India is so costly that any sufficient increase in that body to meet the demand is more than the Government, unless under the ex— tremest pressure, would be likely to assent to. At the same time, the attempt to meet the want in that way could only prove effective at a distant period, as even if the Civil Service were increased ever so largely, it would take several years before the persons now entering it could be qualified to undertake a district magistrate's charge. Then, as to the army, it has been already so largely drawn upon for officers for civil employ, that the Commander in-Chief in India has reported himself unable to go on unless some means be taken to re duce the draughts upon it within more mo derate bounds. There is another class, the uncovenanted Europeans; but their duties have been hitherto chiefly confined to assis tantships in public offices, particularly at the Presidencies, and there is not a very large number of them, perhaps, who would be in the highest degree fitted for duties of this special kind. Those members of the legal professions in India, on the other hand, who from long residence there and a familiar ac• quaintance with the natives would be perhaps the best fitted of all for the task, would not be found willing to resign their positions at the Presidencies for the moderate emoluments which the appointment of district magistrate would hold out. The salary, considering all things, could hardly be expected to be fixed at a higher rate than five or six hundred rupees monthly, with the usual batta when travelling of five rupees per diem more. This would make the cost of each district magistrate to the State about a thousand pounds annually, his clerks, stationery, and other extra ex penses include:l—a sum as great as in the present state of the Indian finances could reasonably be looked for, and sufficient to obtain men perfectly competent for the office, whose united labours would go far to remove those evils which are the opprobrium of the Indian Government at present. The nomina tion of fifty such magistrates to Bombay, a hundred to Madras, and a hundred and fifty to Bengal and the north-west provinces, would be one of the greatest boons to India that could be bestowed, and would not in the aggregate cost more to the Government yearly than three hundred thcusand pounds. is this too much to devote to the fulfilment of an obli gation so paramount? It is but a third of the surplus income which the Directors pro fess to have exacted, as a penalty for his ne glect to do justice, from our late ally, the de posed Sovereign of Oude. Such being the probable scale of remunera tion for these duties, and so pressing the de mand for persons qualified at once to under take them, we know but one source towards %vhich we could look successfully for a supply of men in every way fitted for the task. This is in the lists of retired officers—civil, military, and medical—of the Company's service, many of whom we have no doubt would be very