The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

rHE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19, 1857. " Parliamentary Borough, in each County, in the United Kingdom, and " of the Population of each Parliamentary Borough, within each " County, from the Census of 1851." These returns are of great importance in many respects, and must be carefully studied in order to understand the present state of the electoral question with which the new Reform Bill announced by Ministers will have to deal. Mr. HENLEY'S speech of last week, amid much that is excellent and valuable, contains one or two statements that we think are perhaps open to comment. In thinking that interest in the Indian mutiny will swamp all discussion on Reform, Mr. HENLEY hardly allows sufficient weight to the progress of events on the ono hand, and the fickleness of human nature on the other. Before Christmas the mutineers will in all probability have exhausted their power to murder, torture, and ravish as they have done for the last three months. As soon, then, as the struggle shall have assumed the aspect of an ordinary war on which success is only a question of time, the public mind is certain to cool down, and to revert to subjects of permanent interest. Under any circumstances the people like change, and were beginning even to get tired of Sebastopol, where the uncertainty was much greater, before its final capture. We fear, too that Mr. HENLEY'S congratulations upon the rebels remaining at Delhi is somewhat premature. They stay there now, it is true, because they have nothing to fear; but who can suppose them so infatuated, so long as egress is possible, as quietly to wait while a hostile force surrounds them? Of course they will " walk out " at one side when there is any tidings of an English army approaching on the other. We fear that they know too well the importance of their concentration to us, and of their diffusion at the right moment to themselves. The recent accident on the North Kent Railway is one of those events that seem for the moment to justify the prejudices of WELLING- Tort and SIBTHORPE. Twelve persons were killed by it. Now, no coach accident that we have ever heard of came up to this, and we should doubt if as many persons were killed in fifty yeirs who could afford the expense of posting. The appalling feature in these railway colli sions is, Cis seeming impossibility, we do not say of preventing them, but of even diminishing their frequency. Not very long ago the columns of the limes were periodically occupied by the recom mendations of " A Railway Director," whose plans it has always seemed to us were certainl . y worth the trial. But when we come to read carefully the evidence adduced at the trial of the officials con cerned in the Lewisham catastrophe, we cannot for the life of us com prehend how the most perfect system can insure safety till three or four station-masters, whether innocent or guilty, have been hanged.We are confronted in every second or third paragraph with statements of precautions expected to be taken, and admissions in the same breath that the witnesses did not take thorn. We really eannot tell how the case may be. We read the evidence purely as outsiders. But it does certainly seem strange to be told that one servant looks out, for a signal, on which the lives of a whole cargo may depend, when " not otherwise occupied," and that another has so much to do that he really cannot attend to telegraphic messages. Good heavens ! aro these the people to whom we are perpetually incrusting the custody of our life and limbs? Aro these the people to whom we pay the extortionate second-class fares? and is this the meaning of those well-worded periods delivered by managers and shareholders at railway meetings, to the effect " that greater economy " should be introduced into the management of the line"? Why, if the guard cannot attend to the signals, nor the station-master to the telegraph, do we not have somebody else who can? Never mind the name. Let the station-master and guard attend to their various and overwhelming avocations, but in the name of mercy let us have an intelligent boy attached to each, who, for a very trifling remuneration, might save the lives of hundreds. A vast amount of twaddle has been talked about the want of organisation exhibited in the Indian rebellion. In the plenitude of stupid confidence the Sepoys are called a set of impulsive mutineers, who rise one after the other, from the mere force of example, without an object but plunder, and with no trace of secret and combined influence. We beg to put the Dinapore mutiny to these wiseacres. Here are four regiments which a short time since, when Allahabad and Benares were full of British troops, assisted to suppress a revolt at Patna, and cheerfully offered their services to hang a few of their own brethren. A few weeks later, when Allahabad and Benares, denuded of British troops, are at the mercy of the nearest mutineers, and when the tranquillity of the towns is of vital consequence to us for the transmission of reinforcements to General HAVELOCK—in a word, at the most critical moment to us for the peace and possession of that particular district, these four regiments, on preliminary symptoms simmering at Benares, revolt and march straight off for that city and Alh►habad. Is there nothing here of secret organisa tion ? We need not multiply instances. The conduct of the troops on each occasion, from Meerut to Dinapore, shows every evidence of combination, conspiracy, and design. The htct at last is forcing itself upon all that this is no military mutiny we have to master, but a national revolt. Hindoo, Nlahratta, and Maho►nedan. prince, proprietor, and peasant, are all against us in their hearts, if their hands are less earnestly em ployed. " The English," said the mutineers at Indore, " have lost " their raj from pride and faithlessness." That is the feeling which animates these men, flushed witl► the vigour of a bloody rebellion, and determined to encounter ev:Ty hazard than onbiuit to it dominion theS detest. to the Himalayas The wail of lamentation heard throughout India last month, when the English mail of the 10th of July told them that at that date only 850 men were coming to their rescue, tells us too plainly the value we may set upon these high coloured statements of the Ministerial papers. If reinforcements are pouring into the above extent, why this outcry at the apathy of Eng land'a Ministers to the throes of India ? Why also these exaggerations of the actual forces which have arrived ? They betray the very weakness it is the object to conceal. But let us look into a few facts. Of the small force which comprised the division of troops sent to China by the 10th August, certainly not more than 3,000 men had reached Calcutta by the latest dates. That city itself for the approaching Ma homedan festival will demand a powerful garrison. The troops to be sent from the Mauritius will not exceed 1,000 men ; 300 have only arrived. From the Cape no reinforcements can be expected to reach the Indian ports before the end of October ; while of that " Army of Retribution" which has sailed from England, not a man will land much before November, for it must be remembered that the first " detachments were despatched in the veriest tubs of the Transport Service. Now, we maintain that it is between the middle of August and the end of September that the fate of India will be decided, and that no reinforcements of any weight can reach India within that period. Our letters from Bombay, both public and private, assure us of the despair felt at the neglect of Government to avail themselves of the overland route for troops. The importance of avoiding " incon venience and expense"—we quote Lord PALmEasvos's own words—is not appreciated by our gasping countrymen suffocated with the blood of their butchered wives and children. Now, in the face of these facts, are the statements of the Ministerial journals representations of the truth? We respect the political influences of Downing-street, but in this alarming emergency it is treachery to the country to conceal from it the real circumstances of our position in India, and the manner in which the Ministerial journals have for weeks past delibe rately misrepresented the truth is as discreditable as it is disingenuous. Such principles and proceedings, contemptible as they are, ar•e no less injudicious, for they preclude the country from remedying any negli gence that has been committed, or repairing any mischief that has been produced. The Government should despise the little policy of concealments. We should know the whole of our situation ; and if the information be new to the Ministry, let them take care to profit by it. This is no period, we maintain, for silence or reserve. We have heard enough of the boasted vigour of this sagacious Govern ment. Let us hear more of their activity : the country waits for results. The fate of India at this moment trembles in the balance, and not a private soldier from England has yet lauded iu Hindostan. The past week has witnessed a little fracas between the Times and Cardinal WISEMAN on the subject of a discourse delivered by the latter at, Salford, in which the Indian mutiny is discussed. The Times attacks the Cardinal for speaking lightly of the atrocities, and for drawing an analogy between the mutineers and political refugees in England. We ought not to protect the latter, he thinks, any mere than we would allow any independent Indian State to protect the former. The Cardinal, on the other hand, complains that the Times overlooked the date of the sermon, and given its readers to under stand that it was preached only last Sunday week, instead of the 26th of July, when the horrors of the rebellion were as yet imperfectly known. We think that upon this point the Cardinal has exculpated him-elf. Considering all that was known when the sermon was preached, we don't see that his language was open to tie charge of unpatriotism, or that the analogy was so utterly incorrect as the Times declares. There is a good deal of truth, too, in the Cardinal's remarks about Christianising India. But the leading journal is unbecomingly intent at the mention of religion, whether from cardinal or bishop. The Bishop of SALISBURY, for a very harmless proposal on the subject of Indian mission, is pilloried by the Times with the usual weapons of assault. Ilut, in spite of such tirades, we must acknowledge that Christianity for India is a cry never to be lost sight of. Religion may have caused this outbreak; but religion would also have modified it. Had the Sepoys been Christians, their barbarities would have been much diminished. It is better to take the bull by the horns. As long as Braliminism and Mahomnedanismn prevail, so long, we fear, will our tenure of India be insecure. The Cardinal's remarks about the treat ment of Roman Catholics in India may or may not be true; but we strongly suspect it is a gross exaggeration. The return to Mr. DISRAELI'S motion of Bth July has been issued within the last few days. It is tabulated under tho bead of " Property Tax and Population." It was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 25th of August, 1857. It is a most important tiaper, and will be sought for eagerly. The value is best seen in an abstract of its contents. We have first (folio 2) " A " Return of the Annual Value of all Real Property rated " under Schedule (A) of the Income Tax. for the year ending sth day "of April, 1857, in each County, or Parliamentary Division of a " County, in the United Kingdom, exclusive of the Real Property " in eacn. Parliamentary Borough, comprised within each such County " or Division ; and of the Population of each County, or Parliamentary Division of a County, from the Census of ISSI, not including " thin Population within any Parliamentary Borough in each " County." Thus we have a return of the wealth and numbers of the counties in England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, the figures being ranged in parallel columns. We have next a return " The Annual Value of all Real Property under Schedule (A) of the " Income Tax for the year ended sth day of April, 1857, in each 917