The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-19 00:00:00

J. 8S ; 11111 Fe" Ad PE COT his of tle of , to til co elc Pe of Ei mi to: tic ye of va lifl di 113 S( ST CO st gl ec al 111 P. ci ri b. C ti 0. Hi is ti it r. b n ti t S it 0 li I C r. t t C i. JANUARY 19, 1856• debating experience. In this state of things Loyd lWitnv tendered office to Mr. WALPOLE as a leading member of the English Bar. His Lordship followed the precedent of Mr. Pm and the Duke of PORTLAND, when at different periods they strengthened Ministries with lentil pN;nr.iapnients in the persons of Lord- Advocate Dc a-DAG (Marl lits;Lvrcmv, aid Mr.. Pt-Am:vit.. The wishes of Lord DERBY were complied with by Mr. WALPOLE. He abandoned his profession, and no man had more certainty of reaching the Bench. The Right Hon. Gen tleman gave up a lucrative practice for the sake of his political connection. We think that fact ought to be remembered to the advantage of Mr. WALroLn. We know that in some quarters it is considered a most conclusive claim to the support of Conservative electors. But besides, Mr. WALPOLE has many personal qualifications for the representation of the University. His mind is peculiarly English in its tone, and his tastes are acade mical. His intellect also is specially suited for dealing with that important class of ques tions which are most thought about in a Uni versity. He is pliant, but not at the expense of principle, and has nought of the weather vane in his character; neither, on the other band, is he crotchetty,perverse, or fantastiCally disputative. We have seen great parts spoiled by hair-splitting habits. Mr. WALPOLE would solve political questions by reference to con stitutional principle, and not by cobweb casuistry. He is a reasoner, not a rhetorician ; and he has one of those intellects which strengthen and expand after experience with great affairs. On the score of personal character, Mr. WALPOLE is irreproachable. He is amiable, courteous, and well-bred—points of consider able importance when weighing the claims of a candidate for a University. His connections are influential, and it is proper that the Member for a great University should stand well with general society. He is also a tried man, a thing of no small importance in the present state of public opinion. A thorough friend to civil and religious liberty, Mr. W AL POLE is a steady upholder of Protestant prin ciples. His position in reference to the religious question is clearly marked by his being intrusted with the case of the Irish Clergy and the Board of Education—a ques tion which is to be brought before the House of Commons in the ensuing session. We think, also, that Mr. WALpoLE's union of moral firmness and personal moderation is ad mirably suited at the present time for the University of Cambridge. He is not the can didate of a clique, nor the representative of a coterie. There is a wide union of interests in the Right Honourable Gentleman's support, which we think should secure his election. In urging these points, we do so with sincere respect for the sentiments of the University body at large. Mr. WALPOI.E has risen high, and must rise still higher. With his experience, eloquence, personal standing, and political connection, what more could the University of Cambridge desire? OUDE. THE last mail brings us the intelligence that the Indian Government is not going, after all, to annex Oude. It fears, it is said, the respon sibility of the measure which has been cast on it by the Directors, and visions rise before it of failure in India and of condemnation at home. Our most solemn treaties are thus not to be broken, and an unheard-of act of spoliation and violence perpetrated, merely because Nature, who is not always prodigal of personal gifts to sovereigns, has been some what sparing of her favours to the existing King of OMR. As regards the feelings and wishes of the people of that country, we have over and over again shown that they would in no way be consulted—on the contrary, that they would be greatly outraged by our annexa tion of that State. If there is one thing more clearly established in history than another, it is that in whatever light they may look upon the acts of their own Government, they in finitely prefer it to our rule. Bishop HEBER, THE PRESS. MILL, HAYMAN WILSON, besides other undeniable authorities quoted by them, most completely prove this fact; and Sir ERSKINE PERRY, in his " Bird's-eye View of India," tells us also the same tale. He had acuteness enough to per ceive that the constant disturbances that we hear of in Oude arose not from the overwhelm ittg Anyamann,y of the Government, but from a cause precisely the reverse. Ho saw that the true source of them was the weakness of the Government, and the spirit of independence in the people, which this weakness had engen dered in men naturally of a warlike temper, of a bold bearing, and of a most powerful frame. The truth is, that in Oude the peasantry rise and resist exactions not half so heavy and so galling as those to which our own ryots patiently submit. It would be utterly impossible for any sovereign to rule Oude as we rule Madras. The grinding oppression of the system would be resisted sword in hand, and the collectors who tolerated torture in their districts would be fortunate if they were not impaled on their own stakes, or roasted to death at their own fires. Of course nothing is more easy than for a Government to get up cases against any State or individual that it finds it to its interest to visit with confiscation and ruin. The Demo cratic Government of France found no kind of difficulty during the first Revolution in proving any nobleman guilty of any crime whatever who happened to have an estate that was worth being seized. As regards the rest, the rights of man were allowed to take care of themselves without the virtuous DANTON'S and ROBESPIERRE'S aid ; just as States in India not worth confiscation are allowed to groan as they may under the despotisms of their sovereigns without the Indian Governments lifting a finger to save them. The monster GOOLAB SING, for instance, who unites all the vices that SUETONIUS attributes to the Cfesars in his own person, is allowed to flay alive the ryois of Cashmere—whom for a sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling we sold to him—without let or hindrance from us. Nagpore—which all who know it admit to have been much more prosperous and better governed under its late Sovereign than any part of our own territory—is seized upon, not at the wish of the people, but in defiance alike of their entreaties and their protests. Nor does the Indian Government find it less necessary for the rights of the people to imprison, insult, and rob the widowed Queens of Nagpore ; though how the rights of man are to be furthered by this flagrant violation of the rights of women it would puzzle any hut the preachers in this new school of social ethics to determine. The fact is, that we of this Journal are as ardent supporters of good government, and a kindly treatment of the people generally, as any of these wolves in sheep's clothing whom we thus expose. These profess to see relief for the lower classes only by despoiling the higher. We think that the interests of every class are as closely united as they can be. It' a native State is misgoverned, we see no harm in interference. On the contrary, interference is our right by treaty, as well as a duty which we ought not to hesitate to fulfil. But such interference, to be just or even useful, should, we hold, be conscientious, honest, and disin terested. Interference under the guise of fine maxims, but in reality for our own profit, Lord METCALFE characterised emphatically as a filthy policy ; and in this stigma of it we entirely agree. To annex a State which we are bound by treaty to maintain, we hold to be most iniquitous, as long as the treaties which bind us to it are on its side maintained. If the ruler is one whose government it is impossible to defend, it is easy to form a Regency from among the native nobility of the country, or to confer the crown, as was the case at our own revolution, on the next heir Again, if a State lapses to us by absolute failure of succes sors, we hold ourselves bound, when taking over the country, to respect most faithfully the possessions of all—to leave to the widows of the departed all their accumulated property and treasures intact—and to discharge the public debt, if there be such a thing, with fidelity. But to seize upon the Crown, to confis cate the estates of all the nobility, to plunder the private property of widows, and to repu- 51 diate the public debt,—these arc acts which, however smoothed over under the name of annexation, are deeds of outrageous spoliation which no honest Englishman, whether Con servative or Liberal, will ever knowingly sanc tion or defend. The fact is, and it is very desirable that the Conservatives of England should distinctly know it, that as the French Revolution arose from seeds that were sown in America, so there is now training up a very large and powerful party of semi-socialists on the plains of Hindoostan. These people are the follow ers of the ultra-radical school of MILL. Ac cording to their views, kings are expensive puppets. and the nobility and landed gentry successful robbers of the public estate. Their beau-ideal of a Government is a people all virtuously labouring with contentment for their daily wants, with a bureau of philoso phers to govern them at their head. The summum bonum that they would wish to establish for the people generally, appears to be bread and watercresses, with an intellec tual feast derived from BENTHAM or MILL; but they do not appear neglectful of luxuries or pleasures in their own persons, the largest salaries scarcely sufficing for them, while their private lives are often not over-correct, accord ing to the code of morals prevailing in these Western climes. Their theory seems to be a self-denying ordinance for everyone else, with a special dispensation for themselves. At present their operations are confined merely to India, because doctrines do not revolt us when applied to native kings and nobles, which would look rather more than revolutionary if hinted at as regards the Crown and nobility of these realms. But the leaders of the party and its organs make no secret that kingly pomps and a luxurious nobility are institutions to be put down, whenever they have the power to do so, in the West as well as in the East — in England as well as in Hindoostan. That such detestable principles will ever find favour with the Legislature of Great Britain we be lieve to be impossible, but they are daily spreading in India, and if the thing is not stopped in the outset it may be too late. The mode of checking it is very simple ; it is merely to declare, once for all, that the same principles of truth, moderation, and honesty, which pervade our dealings with European nations, shall guide our conduct towards the native States of India; and as regards the estates of private individuals there, to place them under the same protection of the Supreme Courts of Judicature which so effectually maintain the rights and secure the loyalty of the Parsees and other people at the Presi dencies at present. HOW WILL MINISTERS MEET PARLIAMENT? Ix is no political paradox, though at first it looks like one, that a weak Cabinet may stand during a war, but must fall upon a peace. The reason is plain. The honour of the Crown, the wisdom of Parliament, and the patriotism of the country, support any Ministry, when the standard of England is unfurled to the winds, and the eyes of Europe ate upon our councils. But in peace all this is changed. The public again becomes critical, and even censorious, and personal pretensions are closely scanned. Nobody knows this better than Lord PALMERS TON. He must feel that on a peace his political position is entirely altered. He had a certain vague kind of flyingpopularity in the country as a herald of war. The public knows him now as a mere Achilles of straw. An aged Irish Viscount without any principles, but bending between his double load of years and heavy jokes, was to have awed Europe, and compelled the en terprising Mr. WYLD to take measures for more new maps of the nations. During the smoke of war, and the excitement of the public mind, with panegyrists well paid, and silent senators active at anonymous toils, Lord PAL.. MERSTON was written up to look "a big man." Intelligent observers were not misled, but many gudgeons were taken in, and the iguo rant were deceived.