The Press. — London, England, 1856-02-16 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 16, 1856. tocracy is the creature of the Crown, because it gives titles of honour. Its functions in both cases seem to be dispensatory more than creative. The aristocracy of this country is not merely a collection of individuals, it is an order in the State; and this fact it is which the advocates of life peerages seem too much inclined to pass over. To decree that the Crown should be elective, or that a certain number of the House of Commons should occupy seats for three years instead of for seven, would be an innovation conceived in a very similar spirit to the present one. Such measures are, of course, impossible ; but why should a like interference with the House of Lords be more possible. Why should that be the only branch of the Legislature subject to alteration without the consent of the whole Legislature ? Such an idea is an anomaly that could only have recommended itself to minds ignorant or careless of the principles of the Constitution. Let not her Majesty's advisers deceive them selves. Let them not by this measure im agine they are strengthening the hands of the Crown. They are, son the contrary, weaken ing the great support of the Crown. Let not the people deceive themselves either. The House of Lords, as at present constituted, is one of the best bulwarks of that sober and genuine liberty which our forefathers valued. And Europe might have been spared those alternations between popular fury and despotic torpor which recent times have witnessed, had continental countries possessed the same court of arbitration between prince and people as the English House of Lords. INDIAN EXPENDITURE. Is our last issue we explained how absolutely necessary it was to the due control of Indian expenditure that the suggestions made by Lord ELLENBOROUGH at the time of the discus sions on the late India Bill should be carried out. The first of these was that the Company's expenditure in England should be subjected to the same supervision as that which the Indian Minister already exercises over the ex penditure in India; and the second that the whole of the accounts of the Company, both English and Indian, should be checked by an independent auditor nominated, with the con sent of Parliament, by the Crown. In a word, that the audit and control of our twenty-eight millions of Indian revenue should be fenced round with the same safeguards against mis appropriation as are now existent in respect to the public Exchequer at home. It has often surprised us to observe the apathy shown in respect to the waste of our Indian revenue by men who are ready enough to wrangle with the CHANCELLOR of the Ex- CHEQUER over every penny of our English revenue that appears to them to be thrown away. Yet the waste of the one is not a whit less injurious to us than the waste of the other, the eventual losers in both cases being in reality the same. It cannot, for instance, be too often impressed upon our legislators that it was the Indian deficit which was used as one of the chief arguments for the imposition of the income tax by Sir ROBERT PEEL. Nor can it be too frequently or too strongly recalled to their mind that whether India be a source of profit to us or of loss, it must be equally maintained, while it is clear that an empire of that magnitude, involving calls on us of oatlay for its safe keeping, would very soon prove to us the most fatal of gifts. It may be doubted whether the total loss of India or its retention under such circumstances would soonest produce Great Britain's ruin. Yet we all know that deficits coming year after year very soon become chronic, and that, while ex penditure has a tendency to increase rapidly, there is nothing more difficult than to re trench. The question, then, is simply whether we will boldly stretch forth our hands to stay the progress of India on its road to financial ruin, or leave the matter to those whose personal interests are all on the side of waste, and diametrically opposed, therefore, to the interests of the public at large. It may be all very well to try and justify to ourselves our apathy by the idea that it is merely an affair THE PRESS. of the Company's ; but the only point in re spect of which the Company are personally in terested, the payment of their dividends, is already secured to them by law. As to the rest, their interest in the government of India is all in the direction of expenditure, because expenditure provides fortunes for relatives and connections ; and the more extravagant, therefore, the Indian Government is, the more• the Directors profit by the patronage which is in their hands. It is the Crown and public alone that are interested in seeing that the vast patrimony thus held in trust for them by the East India Company is not wasted away or misapplied. It is, and has been, the opinion of many men of large Indian experience that not only ought India not to be subject to a constant deficit, but that under proper management there would be a considerable annual surplus available for the general purposes of the Crown. Their idea is, that under the present inefficient mode of collection a large portion of the proper revenue is lost to us before it ever comes to 'nand ; and that the system of economics insisted on by the Company is so utterly opposed to every principle of develop ment and progress that the expansion of the public income is in India impossible ; while such expansion is the must marked and clear characteristic of prosperity and advancement in every well-ordered State. Almost the only increase that is now ever made to the Indian revenue is that arising from annexations and confiscations, and these are always found after a time to fail to pay the increased establish ments they compel us to keep up. The only parts of India where progress is really made (and there it has been rapid and undoubted) are the Presidency capitals, where no such impediments to improvement as the Company are allowed to raise up elsewhere are per• initted by the law to exist. To the revenue thus lost and sacrificed let us add the absurdly extravagant endowment of the covenanted Civil Service, contrasting so strongly with the niggardly endowment of the uncovenanted Civil Service, not cared for because not appointed by the Directors, but who really (to the greater part of the work. Let us add also the vast sums jobbed away in the shape of contracts, given not by competition, but by favour, and the thousand other ways in which the public money is got rid of, both in Leadenhall-street and in the East, and we shall have no difficulty in discovering how India is to us a source of loss instead of profit, though universally known and recognised as the richest empire in the world. The little island of Java pays to the Dutch Crown something like a million sterling annually, after all its civil and military and naval establishments are paid ; and there is not a province of ours in India in which there was not a large surplus of revenue when it was in native hands. Yet then the public establishments were larger, the do mains alienated to the nobility and others were vaster, and the expenditure on mosques, temples, tanks, wells, aqueducts, embank ments of masonry, and canals for irrigation, and for charitable establishments, and for resting-places for travellers and pilgrims, was so infinitely greater than ours is as to be abso lutely beyond compare. And withal the rural population seem to have been more comfort able and better satisfied, partly because the mode of assessment was better suited to their interest and habits, but chiefly because there were then more men of capital, in the shape of nobility and wealthy zemindars, who were devoted to or interested in the cultivation of land. It would be obviously too much to sup pose that any change in the mode of auditing the Indian accounts could remedy all these evils, which, if India is to be retained by us, must eventually be met ; but the first step towards putting a property in order is to get some clear and reliable detail of its revenue and expenditure, and to establish some effi cient guard against unauthorised outlay ; and this step in advance will at least have been taken when the measures shall have been alopted indicated by us at the outset of this article, and which the Earl of ELLENBOROUGH in 183 proposed. = 147 LORD PALMERSTON AND PRUSSIA. THE question of the introduction of Prussia to the Conferences of Paris assumes every day a graver character. The object of these im portant negotiations is to establish a barrier against the aggressive policy of Russia ; and it would be desirable, if possible, that all the countries of Europe should be engaged in restricting the ambition of a disturbing State. The Conferences of Paris commence their labours by the exclusion of a first-rate Power! But Prussia is not merely a first-rate Power. Great in her own resources, she is greater as the only practical medium of representing, on this occasion, pure Germany. The Conferences commence by Russia gaining the immense advantage that she has, at least, not to deal with united Europe. The isolation of Ger many is her strength. To obtain this end the Court of St. Peters burg adroitly commenced its diplomatic labours by requiring that the King of PRUSSIA should be invited to send Plenipotentiaries to Paris. It was sufficient that the request was made by Russia for the English Government to insist on its refusal, which was exactly what was desired at St. Petersburg. Lord PALMERS TON fell into a trap with curious ease. We have the best reason to believe that the Emperor NAPOLEON was anxious, and is still anxious, that Prussia should be identified with the common labours, and it was hoped, for a time, that the English Cabinet had assented to a proposition so clearly for their own in terest; for if there be a Power in Europe whose interests are identical with our own, it is Prussia. But the King of PRUSSIA and his Minister have offended Lord PALMERSTON, and that statesman continues, as before, to con duct diplomacy with passion. It is unfortu nate for this country that our Chief Minister will never learn that rancour is not a political word. Instead of an universal coalition against the ambition of a disturber, the Conferences of Paris already assume the limited character of a partial alliance for particular objects, in which all the members are not equally in terested. It will be wonderful, if jealousies are not soon developed, if they have not already appeared ; at any rate we must ex;', pect indifference and neglect. It is not the interest of England that Aus- ' tria should figure as the predominant Power of Germany. It is said that Prussia has offered to sign the five conditions, and to proceed to nego; tiate on their bases, incurring the conse quences of a failure in the treaty of peace: But Lord PALMERSTON, notwithstanding the appeals of France, and even Austria, even, indeed, of his own colleagues, will not listen to the proposition. In the meantime, M. BRUNOW smiles at the success of the manoeu vres of his Court, and feels that in negotiating a treaty of peace without Germany he has already half demolished the Coalition It is to be hoped that a saner spirit will yet vindicate the interests of England. We un derstand that the Emperor NAPOLEON has pro posed that, on the signature of the prelimi naries, the King of PRUSSIA shall be invited to send Ministers to Paris, to assist in the general treaty. The Emperor, however, can hardly be expected to be very importunate for an object peculiarly English ; and Lord PALMERSTON, who has been obliged to give up on all other points of what he considers import ance, is soothed and gratified by the idea that he is having his way in one instance, though, in truth, Prussia only mocks at him for his pains. Austria, not without complacency, shrugs her shoulders, and France is wearied of extricating him from the embarrassments occasioned by his habitual arrogance. THE CONSERVATIVES AND PRACTICAL REFORM. MANY sessions of Parliament have elapsed since the Conservative party exhibited such effective organisation as it now displays. It has taken up a clear and decided course of action in favour of tall sound practical re ,~~ ;if • A