The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-24 00:00:00

MAY 24, 1856. probably indifferent which way the question i decided. He leaves the parties to " fight i t out," and looks smiling on, while a membe r o his Government is raising the populace to dis pute an order obtained from him, as he admits, by a strong expression of the religious sense of the nation. AUDIT OF INDIAN ACCOUNTS. IN the House of Lords, on Monday night, the question of having an independent audit of Indian accounts was again alluded to by Lord ELLENsoaouon, and a hope was expressed by him that the Ministry would take some steps to secure this most important object. The utter confusion exhibited in the returns of revenue and disbursements transmitted to Parliament from the India-house was given as a sufficient reason for urging this matter on the Ministry's attention, but there is ano ther and a more important ground, which has been more than once stated. This is the ex treme inadvisability—to say the least of it— ot leaving the disbursement and the audit of revenues so vast in the hands of the same persons. In respect to the public revenues of Great Britain there is an independent audit, but in respect to the public revenues of India, which are now held in trust for the Crown, there is no check upon expenditure whatever, and Parliament has really no means of knowing whether any, and what, reliance is to be placed upon the accounts that are annually laid upon its table. Under such circumstances, the only possible means of verification lies in the seeing whether they bear upon the face of them a general appearance of consistency and correctness. But, judged by this standard, no accounts ever wore a stronger appearance of having been tampered with than these do ; and if they be not really amenable to the charge, we can only say that the Company is most un fortunate in its choice of the persons to whom it intrusts their preparation. At the same tine there do appear to us irresistible grounls for thinking that the con fusion which generally pervades them is not the casual result of ignorance or error on the preparers' part It bears, on the contrary, the appearance of having been purposely adopted by the Directors to exhibit in the light best suited to their interests the results of their own and their Governor-General's acts. Lord DALHOUSIE, for instance, is very popular with them; Lord ELLENBOROUGH was the reverse; and we see accordingly a totally different plan pursued for showing the financial results of their respective annexations, the Punjaub and Scinde. In a late article we made, on the very highest authority, a specific charge of their having for the same purpose mis stated the accounts of Pegu, by debiting a large item of outlay for military purposes there to the wholly separate Presidency of Madras. Indeed, we see this kind of thing going ou at every turn. Some little time ago, for instance, the annexation policy was strongly denounced in the House of Commons, and a return was called for with a view to show the vast extent to which it had been carried. But in this re turn the gross and net revenue of Pegu were both given as unknown ; and in eight out of the ten other instances of provinces annexed the net revenue was also set down as un known, the only net revenue returned as known amounting merely to twenty-six thou sand pounds. But when the point is to mag nify to the greatest extent the additional re venue gained for the empire by this policy, the united incomes of the annexed provinces are stated at millions, and Pegu is said, after all charges, military and civil, being deducted, to produce a surplus to our coffers of above a hundred thousand pounds. Now, we have no wish whatever to set bounds to the flights of fancy in which Indian politicians, or any other politicians, may choose to indulge. It is fairly open to the enthusiastic admirers of any statesman or of any system of policy, whether Eastern or IVestern, to set forth hi s or it s mer it s i n the fairest possible light. The highest arts of colouring may be legitimately used in such a service, according to the rules of morality which find most general acceptance among THE PRESS. our painters in words. It may even be held allowable for such persons to draw upon their imaginations for their facts, and obtain such credence for them as the less wary of the public may choose to accord. This is grant ing a latitude far beyond any that our own conscience allows us to take, for we hold that in all things men should adhere strictly and at all hazards to the truth. But we do not object to grant such latitude to our opponents, and they are welcome to make free use of it if they will. But if they go beyond this, and apply such arts to the preparation of Parlia• mentary returns and accounts, we do think that it is high time for the honest men of all parties to interfere. It is intolerable that any set of persons should be permitted with impunity to poison in this manner the foun tains of public information at their source. The arts of the orator, whether forensic or Parlia mentary, can be guarded against by the pre sence in the arena of opponents as practised as himself; but if the evidence on which both parties had agreed to rely is allowed to be tampered with, then all safeguard for the due working of our Parliamentary system is at an end. In such case, no one, not in the secret, can possibly tell whether the premises ho is arguing from are true or false. It is for this reason that we think that all, both peers and commoners, have a right to protest against the continuance of the pre sent system of preparing the Indian accounts. If not open to the charge of deliberate falsifi cation, they are certainly amenable to that of a confusion which wears every appearance of being studied with the view of preventing any facts adverse to the Directors being satisfac torily educed. Under such a system it is obvious that, for all Parliament can tell, the misapplication of funds may take place to any extent. Indeed, it is well known that consider able sums are wasted annually in entertain ments at the London Tavern, but of these we see no details afforded us in these accounts. Then, again, a large amount is spent in charges of a nature personal to the Directors, of which we see nothing either in the Parlia mentary return ; and there are many other items of expense that we could enumerate which are open to the same objection. The present costly lawsuit with Mrs. DYCE SOMBRE, in which some eighty thousand pounds have been already sunk by the Directors, shows how, under such a system, the revenue of India may be misapplied. We do think, therefore, all these things considered, that the first step to be taken in regard to Indian affairs is the estab lishment of an independent and trustworthy audit of Indian accounts. We shall then have the satisfaction, at any rate, of knowing, as in the case of our own revenue accounts, that the returns laid before Parliament by the Minis ter are reliable, which we have shown them to be the very reverse of at present. Let the colouring given to his financial statements then be what it may, we shall be sure that the data he furnishes are both accurate and clear. To this we can conceive no honest Minister of any party in the State objecting ; and we do trust, therefore, that Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S sug gestion will be assented to and adopted by Mr. VERNON SMITH. The latter may not be equal to the office he has undertaken, but his Parliamen tary conduct in respect to it has 'hitherto been clear and straightforward ; it has been in marked contrast throughout to the system of glozing sophistry pursued by the directorial spokesman Sir JAMES Hooc. We are not, con sequently, without hope that he may be in duced to take the manly ccurse in respect to this important question ; that he will refuse to continue a system which exposure makes useless even for the purposes of its adherents ; and that he will give the public the benefit of a clear, truthful, and independent audit of the Indian Accounts. WHERE ARE OUR RISING YOUNG MEN ? PRIOR to the Reform Bill, and even later, it was customary to talk of " the rising young " men of the day." WALPOLE'S interesting letters, in their first series, allude to young politicians contemporary with the " Great Commoner," and their last describe the 483 effects of CHARLES Fox in his heyday. When our present Premier was commencing the world, people talked about the brilliant JOHN WILLIAM WARD (Lord Dudley), the clever WILLIAM LAMB, and BYRON'S schoolfellow, Mr. ROBERT PEEL, " the orator, or statesman, that " was, or is, or is to be." The loud talker fiom Edinburgh, Mr. HENRY BROUGHAM ; the Duke of BEDFORD'S Mr. FRANCIS HORNER ; the saucy Irish barrister, Mr. WILSON CROICER—aII gave some promise of ability which they have since justified in various ways. Now, we desire to know where are all our rising young men in 1856 ? Lord STANLEY, with his laborious habits, his masculine un derstanding, and shrewdly practical views of life and its duties, has graduated high in public estimation, and there is a hardy force about him which we miss in his youthful contemporaries. The Noble Lord has great personal energy, and he has strong volition ; and it is in the important faculty of the will that the young men of the day completely fail. They seem to think that moral passion is a thing to be got rid of, not an inspiration to be cherished. Of genius they are singu larly destitute. " Great attainments" is the point at which they aim. Hence their know ledge is all " cram." They hear heavy bur dens of useless statistics ; they never read poetry; they never speak the language of elo quence ; and they do thoroughly succeed in being things of routine—tiresome, solemn, and clerkly. The " virtue of confidence " is beyond doubt possessed by the young men in our day. But where has gone the freshness of soul, the manly play of feelings, the buoyancy of life, the gallantry of character, which in former times marked " the young men of the day "? The French Legislature, in its Parliamentary period, permitted no one to enter into the Chamber of Deputies until thirty years of age ; our Constitution has been more practically wise. It has allowed men to be chosen into the House of Commons at the age of twenty-one. It has ordained that the coldness of age at one extreme should be balanced against the fervour of youthful pas sions at the other. It discarded the ungene rous maxim that there was no wisdom to be gained from the unbroken heart, and the mount ing aspirations of early manhood. Splendid have been the careers of our youthful British senators in other days. At thirty-two years of age HENRY ST. Joss led the House of Com mons, and was Secretary of State. ROBERT WALPOLE had signalised his powers at the same period of life. Fox, Pm, SHERIDAN, CANNING, were celebrated and brilliant before thirty. At the time of the Reform Bill a host of eloquent and gifted young men challenged attention by their talents, and people talked of MACAULAY and PRAED, Ot the two BULWERS, of " 'Young DISRAELI," of CHARLES BULLER, of ' 1 GLAD STONE down at Oxford," and they pointed to the triumphant prowess in debate of "young Mr. STANLEY," whose " knowledge of Parliamentary " defence was like an instinct," as the Edin burgh Review said. But where are our rising young men in 1856? " Here I am," cries the Duke of ARGYLL, and " Look at me," says Mr. F. PEEL. Well, we see them; we have heard them, but we protest we cannot think that they are " rising" men. We have heard that story these five years, but we cannot perceive that they have realised anything. Under such circumstances we were pleased with the clever and really " promising" speech of the young Earl of CARNARVON. ° Sensible, vigorous, and clear, it had none of the weak prettiness of a young man's speech. The House of Lords liked it and cheered it, and the Upper House is difficult to be pleased. Its applause is not to be won by storm, nor can its ears be tickled by mere declamation. We sincerely hope that the Earl of CARNARVON will justify the expectations excited by his display on Thursday night. he will pletcly passion )iration • singu- is the L. know- 1 fy bur- sr read ; of elo- ceed in solemn, ;d doubt y. But all, the of life, former day "? mentary er into thirty an more . a to be I at the that the )uld be Liu! pas- ungene- n to be mount- -4)lendid British years of rf Com- • ROBERT at the lERIDAN, t before rm Bill ig men talents, ,Y and • " Young " GLAD- !d to the mg Mr. mentary e Edin- ✓ rising ;ries the ;vs Mr. e heard nk that Lrd that . 1 ?erceive pleased ; i 'speech ensible, ie weak L The . it, and led. Its for can )n. We VON will display