The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

t No. 227.—V0L.V. Ete Vrtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1857. AT a time when the frantic outpourings of the Ministerial journals on the subject of India are beginning to turn the sympathy felt for us on the Continent into a feeling somewhat akin to disgust, it may not be unfitting for those wha have some sense of national dignity under the pressure of misfortune to surrey our position calmly, and to examine into the causes which have led to these disasters. It i 3 not the men loudest in their yells and their vociferations who generally approve themselves the wisest or the bravest when peril overtakes them, whether by laud or by water, in the Cabinet or in the Camp. To begin, then, with our position. No doubt it is most disastrous, though leaving us certainly no reason for despair. We have loot Artsos, and BARNARD, and LimasNes, and WHEKLER, ) all commanders of the highest rank. In Delhi we are as much the besieged as the besiegers ; and accounts from the camp tell us how often the turning of a straw would have changed a dear-bought victory into a total defeat; and defeat before Delhi involves anni hilation. At Agra our state would appear to be very dangerous, with a fort to protect and feed filled with five thousand non-combatants, and only a fifteenth of that number of troops of all arms for duty. At Lucknow we are even still more unsafe ; for there the small garrison is beleagured by the whole revolted army of Oude. All the remaining places of importance in Bengal are in the hands of the rebels, and how strong some of them are we may judge by the numerous repulses we received in earlier wars from the fortress of Bhurtpore. The Punjaub, we are told, is secure, the Patens and Sikhs being . stanch; but we confess that our own • im pression is that these aro merely playing their ' own game. That is, that they, are simply helping us to destroy their old. enemies the findoostanees in order to have the field clear or them to operate against us themselves. We shall be very much surprised if it do not prove after all a repetition of the old story of the wolves and the dogs. And we are the more confirmed in this opinion by the letter which the Times lately published from See kote, in which it was said that the Sikhs were mainly actuated in their support of us by this feeling, and that a reverse before Delhi would probably lead them also to rise. We cannot caution our countrymen too strongly against placing any deep reliance on the professions of our bitterest enemies of olden days. the Patens and the Sikhs. Then, again, if we look to the southward, there is deep danger at Hyderabad, for we cannot believe that the LATEST EDITION. LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER attack upon thp Residency which was repulsed so gallantly wIR be the last. It is not in the nature of the horde of ruffians that fill that Mahon3edatn city to remain quiet while the storm of war and rebellion is raging around. Over the dreadful horrors of Cawnpore we would gladly draw a veil; but it is a mistake to suppose that it was a deed of infuriated passion in the monster NANA SAHIB. With him we may be sure it was an act done deli berately to dishonour us beyond redemption throughout the whole Eastern world. To talk of money matters at such a moment may be deemed unworthy, but in the examina tion of our position financial considerations can not he wholly thrown aside. There can be no doubt that the resuit of this outbreak will be to render the Indian finances insol vent, and to throw not o-ply the chief cost of the suppression of the rebellion on the mother country, but to cause a large annual drain on our finances, even after peace shall be restored, for the support of the vast body of European troops in India whom it will be utterly im possible for us to provide for from the dimi nished receipts there. Such is our position as it really stands. The question then arises by what chain of circumstances has this state of things been brought about? The Ministerial journals tell us that it is because the Sepoys have been pampered. and petted; but Sir CHARLES NAPIER, wpb knew the Sepoys well, says:— " I have constantly commanded and studied " Bengal and Bombay Sepoys for nearly eight " years, and could find nothing to fear from " them except when Mused." And whenever an inquiry shall be instituted into the treatment they had received of late years, it will be found that, so far from being pampered and petted, they had, in the matter of distant expeditions, and furloughs, and compensation, and hutting, and allowances, and invalidings, and privileges of various kinds, been extremely illused. Or, at least, they had been used in a manner very different from that to which they had been before accustomed, and which long enjoyment had led them to expect. But all these were trifling grievances compared with the seizure of their country, and the - confiscation of their lands under pretence of a new revenue settle ment, which. immediately followed on the annexation of Oude. This seems to have been the culminating point with them, and they knew that they would find sympathy, if not active allies, among our own illused ryots. and in those who peopled the other lately annexed native States. Here was the real cause of the final resort to arms. Thus, al/ the horrors that have been perpetrated, all the money that has been and will be wasted, and all the misery and dishonour that have been occasioned, are owing to Lord PAL MERSTON and Lord DALHOCSIE, the Minister who sanctioned, and the Governor-General who effected, this unjustifiable act. It might have been something if the Government, de termined, in spite of warnings, to persist in a course so dangerous, had at least had the sense to provide against the resistance which they had resolved to brave. But, so far from this, the establishment of Queen's troops in India was reduced in order to give an im proved appearance to the balance-sheet, and a large force of Europeans and Bombay troops was sent to Persia only to be hurried back again before we had reaped any of the advantages of that foolish war. At the same time the Madras troops were left to garrison Burma', OUR VIGOROUS GOVERNMENT. THE sagacity and vigour with which the Go vernment have foreseen and met the disastrous crisis in India is a subject for a monstrous deal of puffing and praise bythe Ministerial journals We doubt the truth fact the assertion in truth ; and in to appear to press meat. On the con, afford them every overcome this terrii for years past !' 1 ' - 1 , - -.4 - =. , ..."_••• ty - '7.Y..iidi',... , . . 0•.. . - . ~. .: : • 7 . „.. . ~. . _... -... .... s, .. , .. . a ' a ;:: ''l .! 'at % : . j .•.• A :e7"!` ' .. .. ,of'. Ls A 14141 ,t 6, .. ; ~.. „ . , • .L:::.....:,,....,.. __ __ ..„,„ tic, _____— ER 5, 1857. ST x V PEI) ....STRPFNCE. UNSTAMPED ..FIVEPENCS: 1 ---.... . ed and a refusal was given to the proposition to 9 . -,.. he send a large Bengal force to China, as Lord let ELLENBOROUGH had proposed. Thus, the well- he affected troops were all sent away, the die- i id. affected were all kept in Bengal, and the latter we therefore found the field conveniently made ; .ke clear. Is it wonderful that they should have ed taken advantage of a position so completely. Alt prepared by the Government to their hands? , Ai- If, then, the country really desires ven- on geance, if it wants victims, it need not to go to Calcutta or Delhi for them, as it has them !nt here at its hand. The real creators of its mis- na- fortunes, the real authors of its disasters, are an- not in India, but in Downing-street and . . no in Cannon-row. They it is who have stung .- 'alc these tigers to madness without even taking ~• :ol- the precautions that common sense had dic- of tated against their certain attempts at revenge- leer These are the men who to the last pooh , . ~ 4 on pooped the affair, and laughed at what I .ed, t h ey d escr ib e d a s the impotent efforts ?an of the men they had misgoverned in Hindo. ; lm - sten. If the nation has the moral as well as mi - the physical courage to enforce for itself redress, let it begin with the authors of its ids. calamities before the turn of the actors in ' of them arrives. Let it show that it is not the een Palmerston-ridden people that the Continalk..:Avt... tell proclaims, but that it can insist on As pun een ment of guilty ministers as well as on that of 'L ES guilty serfs. Let the country do this, and it has . .. z 1 : only to speak its will to do Amid it is done. It • lied will thus stand higher in the estimation of the ght world than it will by all the ravings it can •oin outpour against the mutineers of Bengal. These, •an too, will have their day, we may rely upon it; ient but vengeance, like charity, should begin at and home. Any personal injury to the Ministers Led, we, of course, do not contemplate; but they Ens, should be ever marked with the country's re- ingt probation. They who have brought dis- mes aster and dishonour on us should no Or, more encumber the national coun- rerY oils, they should be no longer allowed oppor- keen tunity of doing further ill. It was by a sturdy ' lent course of this kind that England attained her vere greatness ;itis by the indolence that insures sure impunity to such men that she is hastening heir her decline. If a change is now to be effected tile- in our condition, that change must commence, J the not at the extremities, but at the head. The • aave nation, if left free to act for itself, would still ; . 1 . and show the vigour of a giant, but it will never do Ly, if so while its limbs are bound by withes like rots. these. What it wants is neither strength nor 4 1 itely ability to quell this direful outbreak, but man- real cipation from the leading of the men who have s, all caused the disaster, and who are thinking less all of the salvation of the country than of screen- ' .sted, ing themselves. th of the asserti faint of A L has scarce Airoulicittio, saying i . , o t hr, . re rte► . ontrary, to . It'll/6" . f 1 ry suppcil 4„ l i k _ viii .., . rrible erbig,l : 7 , _ 'ewe 4 ?‘ . , ..... ; Lssiduou • .. . tt Es . i ) -: 4 -"'