The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

892 THE WEEK. The anxiety with which the expected mail from India is anti cipated has not been equalled since the outbreak at Meerut. Reports arc prevalent that the Government have already received such alarming intelligence that it is considered prudent to ventilate it first by rumour before positive publication. We need scarcely say that up to a late hour last night these reports, so far as we can ascertain, are utterly groundless. No news has been received, though the telegraphic despatch may arrive at any moment. That the intelligence will be bad, we are prepared for. We must no longer rest our hopes of success upon the position of the rebels. It is the situation of our own forces which should cause us the liveliest anxiety. We have reason to believe that neither the Bombay nor Madras armies are implicitly relied on in high quarters, and, as for the fidelity of the Sikhs, in the face of Colonel EDWARDS'S truthfulness we venture to doubt the purity of a sudden conversion from semi-hostility to the most firm and friendly support. Time, however, will test all these conjectures. The coming mail will tell us probably of the relief or fall of Lucknow ; but beyond that relief being effected, we can scarcely hope for any favourable change in the position of affairs. The Govern ment, once so full of stupid confidence, at length appear to feel the dangerous predicament in which they stand. They see now how wickedly they have involved the country in this disastrous and despe rate situation. They tremble lest they should fail to extricate the nation with honour, or proceed with success, and dread the hour when their acts and their apathy will be scrutinised and discussed. The people no longer believe that Lord PALMERSTON'S Government in this great question has steered the country so steadily, or piloted it so wisely, that they ought to repose implicit confi dence in them without inquiry. As a test of opinion time is a great element, for falsehood every day grows weaker, and truth gains upon the world. The rebellion of India is no longer confined to the " fana tical impulse ;" it is admitted on all sides to have arisen from the annexation of Oude, and that flagitous act was ordered and endorsed by Lord PALMERSTON'S Cabinet. It needs little inquiry to show whether that act was to the safety, advantage, or honour of the country, and all concerned may rely upon it that the hour has come when that shameless crime excites, not sympathy, but detestation in the minds of the people, and turns what was considered glory into guilt. The response of the public to the appeal for the unfortunate refugees in India will, we have no doubt, be ready and liberal. The name of her Majesty the Queen heads the subscription-list with 1,000/., accompanied by that of the Emperor of the FRENCH with a donation of another 1,0001., and a further sum of 4001., subscribed in generous sympathy by the Imperial Guard. Such acts of friendly feeling are worthy of being recorded. Neither the Emperor nor his army nor his people have forgotten the sympathy recently testified in England for the sufferers by the floods in France, and, with generous rivalry, hasten to express to us in a practical form the sympathy they feel for our robbed and ruined countrymen and women in Hindostan. It is by such public expressions of esteem that the alliance of the two nations is riveted. And so Lord ELGIN is bound on an embassy to the Emperor of CHINA. We sincerely trust he may not be disappointed ; and we hope so the rather that we doubt extremely if he knows what he is going to ask for when he arrives in that august presence. There are certain objects relative to our intercourse with China which it is very desirable to attain. Access to her principal cities is unquestionably important to our trade, though we have got on very well without it. But the most intelligent Chinese have all along informed the English Government that this was a question that must be left to the people themselves ; that the Emperor neither could nor would exercise any coercion towards them in the matter, and wisely recommended that it should be left to time, and the slow but sure results of commercial intercourse, to soften down ancient prejudices, and remove inveterate suspicions. What moral right we have to offer any violent resist ance to a determination so expressed, the imitator of Roman aggressiveness is best qualified to inform us. The interview will probably terminate, as the Times last week anti cipated—that is, in nothing. And in what a truly ridiculous position will England then be placed ! In the meantime we are told that " Lord ELGIN'S tutu will conic." What an expression for military operations ! and kow extremely consoling to the British taxpayer who is paying money merely that Lord ELGIN may have " his turn !" We shrewdly suspect, however, that that " turn " will never arrive. Lord PALMERSTON'S " turn" has been well enough served by it but we doubt if anybody else will have equal cause for satisfaction. There are persons so thoroughly wedded to preconceived opinions, and so peremptorily disposed to view everything through a particular medium, that each action of their mind becomes imbued with the one dominant idea. With certain parties everything adverse to the in terests of England is attributed to Russian influence, and the Czar, in their infantile minds, is no other than the wicked spirit ever coming down the chimney to carry away and maltreat unfortunate Britons. The Queen of GREECE, a Princess of Oldenburg, is now accused of intriguing to place the succession to the Grecian Throne in the hands of Russia. It may be remembered, it has been provided in treaty that the successor to the dignity must belong to the Greek Church, and that to instal a Roman Catholic is directly opposed to the speci ality of the agreement that vested the royal functions in the present possessor. Now, the members of royal families belonging to the THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12,1857. Greek Church are very circumscribed, but to one of these must the honour sooner or later appertain, unless ambition tempt some latitu dinarian Roman to prefer temporal dignities to his spiritual welfare. It is nothing less than natural that the Queen of GREECE should feel an interest in the nomination of the royal personage who is to suc ceed her present Consort ; yet it does not necessitate that she should use undue influence to instal any particular personage. One thing is clear, that the future king, as belonging to the Greek Church, will in all probability bo a connection more or less distant of the Imperial Family of Russia, or he will be a flagrant apostate ; or a congress of Europe—or rather a portion of the sovereigns of Europe—will attempt to violate the law of Grecian succession, in which they will probably not succeed, for France must prove the impediment to such violation of compact. In the reitent speech of Mr. FELLOWES in Huntingdonshire we observe with pleasure the utterance of many opinions congenial with those so uninterruptedly brought forward by ourselves. Lord PAL MERSTON is dangerous fro:n his weakness. He would not injure the Constitution of this country of his own accord. But he would sacrifice nothing to preserve it. He probably has a respect for the Church of England as a sort of decent, gentletnanlike institution ; but he does not scruple to corrupt her for his own support, and to insult her to please his followers. From a statesman with such exclusively per sonal aims the public knows not what to expect, and should therefore be doubly on their guard. The Church of England especially will, we are confident, ere long stand in need of all her strength, both within and without, to resist his undesigned assaults. We are glad that a Member of the Conservative party should have spoken so well upon the subject. The circular issued by the Commander•in-Chief, declaring his in tention of awarding commissions to all gentlemen capable of raising one hundred recruits, can scarcely meet with any objections. It is in itself a good and useful proposition. We would, however, remind our readers that in a very short time there will be a body of 12,000 or 15,000 disciplined men, raised to a great extent by the exertions of a special class of officers who do not receive quite fair treatment in the matter. Of course, we allude to the Militia. In the last war sub alterns in that service were presented with a commission in the lino on their bringing a certain number of recruits. No doubt these young men would all make good officers. But there is a wider difference between many of the militia captains and the subalterns, than between captains and subalterns in the line It is proposed still to continue the system of recruiting from the Militia—a system we believe to be highly objectionable ; it had better be done effec tively at once. Let whole companies be transferred to the line— officers and all. Imagine the difference to a regiment thinned by active service between such a reinforcement as this and a hundred raw recruits who have never acted together. As an experiment on the in• fluence still capable of being exerted by the gentry upon the people, we applaud his Royal Highness's intention. We have little doubt it will be successful. But we still maintain that the claims both of the public service and of a large body of meritorious officers should receive the consideration they deserve. Some letters relative to the recent statement of the Bishop of MELBOURNE, and the comments of the leading journal thereon, afford us an excuse for treating this subject under the present week, though in reality belonging to tire past. The Bishop's publication is supposed to have raised the question of the comparative merits of Establishments and the voluntary system. And the Times has undertaken to explain to the world the rationale of the former on the authority of the learned Bishop TOMLINE. " The principle of an Established Church," says the writer, " is nothing more than the plan of getting paid before " hand for work which would perhaps not be paid for afterwards." We know not what feeling could have prompted any journalist to pen so transparently disingenuous an assertion. Whatever may be the value of the argument for an Establishment, that argument is notoriously quite different from what the Times alleges. A clergy independent of their parishioners are enabled to utter un palatable truths with greater freedom than those who are dependent on the goodwill of their audience. When this is the case the clergy must appeal to certain of the lower emotions—either to superstition. to vanity, or to theological exclusiveness, alias spiritual pride. Ex perience confirms what reason would have declared inevitable. We find that the fact is so. "Popular Preachers," whether Churchmen or otherwise, have long been the butts of popular satire ; and the volun tary system has a much greater tendency to produce such " plants of grace " than Establishments. The majority of these orators live by their pew-rents. First the seats must be filled. Doctrine is a second ary con sideration. " An Old Soldier " suggests in the Times that the field officers of the Militia should be appointed by Lord PANNICIRE, instead of the Lord-Lieutenants of counties, for the sake of avoiding " aristo " cratic sympathies and influences." A certain honest and unsuspect ing simplicity have been held to be ingredients of the military cha• ratter in all ages. Here is a truly remarkable specimen of that virtue. Our old friend the veteran perceives some evils as he thinks resulting from the present mode of appointments, and straightway demands that they be placed at once in the hand of that great potentate her Majesty's Minister for War. The fine old veteran cannot for a moment suspect that so elevated a functionary as Queen VICTORIA'S own Minister should share in the weaknesses of common men. He has, doubtless, a true martial contempt for newspapers, and has there fore, perhaps, never read a certain famous anecdote about a certain gallant Major who now enjoys a reputation which is, at all events, uncommonly wide spread. In one sense, no doubt, the old soldier