The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-29 00:00:00

1230 of jubilant sounds issued from the War-office. The despatches of General WILLIAMS were prominently printed at full length in the organs of the Cabinet. Credit was taken for the " sagacious foresight of the Premier," and " the practical capacity of Lord PANmuna." The vigour of the Administration Was bouted of, and there were some indirect rebukes to those who had hinted that the expedition at Kars had been neglected. Either the baste of the Cabinet and 00 organs were trub or false on that occasion as to the practical cognisance of the affairs of General WimaAms : if false, there was a scan dalous gasconnade on the part of Ministers ; if true, their assumed superintendence, vaunted of at that time, cannot now be denied. From this dilemma of responsibility ingenuity would vainly try to exculpate the Cabinet. We cannot suppose that the audacity of partisanship, or the unscrupulous habits of official asseveration, would rashly attempt in the face of facts to deny the responsibility of our War-office. Surely, it requires not the industry of historical research to ascertain the patent facts of the last year's campaign in Asia Minor. The character and extent of the British assistance was not concealed either from friend or foe, from the Allies or from the Russians. Firstly, the Turkish army in Ana tolia was to be re-disciplined and organised under English auspices, on a better system of military arrangement. As time would be necessary for accomplishing that object, it would be desirable to interpose a powerful obstacle to the march of the Russians in the field—hence it was resolved, not without good sense as to the design, that (secondly) the frontier town of Kars should be occupied and defended. But in war, though plan is of importance, execution is nearly everything. The most brilliant conceptions of a Marlborough or a Turenne are mere chimeras, unless carried out with corresponding energy. Louis XIV. was himself an admirable War Minister for his glorious Marshals in the field. Our own MARLBOROUGH was aided by most able English statesmen, let Mr. MACAULAY blacken their moral characters as he will. A Wolfe would be almost worthless, if there was no Chatham in the Cabinet. NAPOLEON conquering Italy proclaimed CARNOT as the " organiser of vic tory ;" and WELLINGTON would never for the second time have been sent out to the Penin sula, hut for the repeated pressure of CASTLE REAGH on his colleagues. " The Duke " himself is the witness to the truth of the latter fact. But if we are to judge of Lord PANEL:IAN'S talent for war by his neglect of Kars, though the eventuality was obvious to every eye, it is not too much to say that " supineness" like his Lordship's would have blasted the laurels of the most consummate Generals that ever fought. Observe how the chain of personal responsibility is coiled around Lord PANMURE in this case. He came into office on the cl,wntitll of the Duke of NEWCASTLE. In pre 'ions years his Lordship had official expe rience of the War Department, and it was hoped that with the personal recollections and suggestions of the Premier the country would find an able Minister in Lord PAN MORE. The Duke of NEWCASTLE left when things ware at the worst. Lord PANMURE came in with fine weather in the Crimea, and the dawning consciousness of the popular mind - that war was a more serious affair than a young and inexperienced generation believed. The purse of the nation was opened, and a reign of profuseness followed a routine of stint, parsimony, and traditional terror of " Joe Hume." The public had bought their experience dearly. Lord PANMURE was in office simultaneously with the revolution of the public mind, and his Lordship was lucky in taking office after and not before the first scenes of the war. In point of fact, Lord PAN MURE was never subjected to the same grave ordeal as the Duke of NEWCASTLE. The nation was ready to do anything, and pay bills to any • mount. But the campaign in Asia Miror was pre cisely the undertaking for which Lord PAN MIME made himself responsible. The design of the campaign was approved of at home ; it was made a Btitish of ; the English officers THE PRESS. forwarded their reports through an English Ambassador at Constantinople to the English Foreign Secretary. The Turks took heart upon England coming to their relief in Asia Minor. The Rtwslans . took alarm and in creased their force under MOURAVIEFF. Loans were raage to the Turkish Government to help the arming of the soldiers of the Crescent. Neither French nor Sardinians were appointed to the army iii. Asia Minor, but English officers of taot and experience were Apt thither under the avowed cognisance of the English Cabinet. AS the same time a Turkish Contingent of twenty thousand men was formed. English officers and an English medical staff were appointed to it, and it was placed under the Standard of England. Of how little use has that large reserve been to the Crimea! Yet of what prodigious utility it might have been hovering in the rear of MOURAVIEFF, or sallying on the flank of Wit: LIAMS And now it is asked, "Why was not that " Contingent sent to Asia Minor? With our " immense resources in transports, why was no " help given to General WILLIAMS?" That question may yet assume a most serious Par liamentary shape, and faces may lengthen in the Treasury benches as the capacity of Lord PANMURE for his part will be subjected to dis cussion. There were many blunders in detail during the rule of the Coalition, but so deli berate an error, or so grievous a strategic mis take, was not committed as leaving Kars to its fate. Civilians and military men are agreed on this point, and even thorough-going Minis terialists have not a word to say for Lord PANMORE. THE LOCAL COURTS IN INDIA. WE understand that petitions are likely to be presented in the next session of Parliament praying for a change in the constitution of the local courts in India. While the administra tion of justice by her Mikjesty's Supreme Courts of Judicature at the Presidencies has given the most entire satisfaction to all over whom their jurisdiction extends, the action of the Company's courts, owing to the total absence of independence and legal training in the Judges, is felt to have been the occasion from time to time of much injustice and wrong. In cases in which the Government has appeared as a party this has been par ticularly felt ; and, indeed, the admitted partiality exhibited by its dependants in such suits has been one of the strongest causes of the present general feeling of the absolute necessity of some change. In England it has been considered objectionable that even a county-court judge should be dependent from time to time on the Government of the day for the amount of salary that he received. How, then, can the native nobility and merchant princes of India, when suitors against the Company, be content to see their lands and fortunes made contiirgent on the verdict of a removable officer of the body ho is suing or by whom he is sued? It is true that in such cases an appeal lies open to the parties, unless the decision happens to have been given by the officer as a political award ; but no man saving one of enormous fortune could undergo the expense of au appeal to this country; and for practical purposes with the decision of the Company's Judge the case is closed. At the same time, these same officers being called on to adjudicate in one case juridically, and in another'politically, the boundaries of such juris diction become mixed and ill-defined—the sepa rate principles which should guide the officer in his separate judgments get jumbled up to gether in inextricable confusion in his brain— the subject of the decision seldom knows whe ther the person deciding is guided by his instructions as a political officer or by his regulations as a judge—the advocate feels only the oppressiveness of the case, without seeing how he is to meet it—and the result, in nine instances out of ten, is a tangled and complicated mass of injustice, which it would require the patience of a Job and the inge nuity of a Sugden to unravel. Nor does the Government itself derive any real or substan tial benefit from the system. On the contrary, though it gains its suits, the process is fatal to SATURDAY, -‘ its influence upon the people at large. Even when it has right upon its side its right is seldom felt or admitted, because under so arbitrary a mode of procedure it is impossible for the oasual speabiler to know whether it is to right or to might that the verdict should be properly assigned. It must be clear toevat , one who reflects upon the subject that this is a state of things which cannot touch Lou tw be maintained. It wite r must ba abrious e ' , that it is as much to the true interest ii Government as it is to that or t h e people that it should be with as little delay as possible put an end to. In the first rough cast of the Government of a dis tant empire, then but very partially subdued, anomalies might be tolerated which, with the consolidation of our power, and the progress of the arts of peace, must necessarily be re moved. Realms brought under subjection by arms require capital and commerce to develop them • and capital and commerce can only flourish in lands where equal laws and compe tent and independent tribunals make property, as well as life, secure. To give this security, in its most ample form, in India nothing is required but to extend to those parts of it which have been long under our sway. and are now securely settled, the same principles of judicature which have proved so successful at the Presidencies, under the able and impar tial administration of the Supreme Courts. Receiving their commissions from the Crown, the Judges of these enjoy the respect of the natives to a much greater extent than is ever accorded by them to the most upright of the Company's Judges. Trained to the law in England, they bring with them to their task that reverence for the Constitution, that tenlei ness towards both person and property, and that calm and impartial spirit of investigation which so conspicuously mark the Bench of England. Above all, their submission to authority is regulated by the knowledge that the subservience which would make the Crown an instrument of injustice to its people is, in point of fact, the greatest outrage on, and in sult to, it, that could be committed. Nor has the influence which this spirit has had upon the people of the Presidencies been other than might have been expected. While all over the Mufussil commerce languishes, at the Presi dencies it has ever flourished. While there we hear on all sides the mutterings of rebel lion, at tlic Presidencies the people are loyal, satisfied, and happy. When kitten, then, is the chief want of India, can we with reason refuse so moderate a request ?—a request not for anarchy, democracy, or the subversion of authority, but merely for the substitution of properly educated Crown-appointed Judges for the self-suflicient and ill-educated progeny of the Directors, who make the local Bench of India a reproach to us, and our laws alter nately an object of ridicule and hatred. AMERICAN OPINIONS ON RUSSIA. ENGLAND does not understand America, and America does not understand England. The one cannot comprehend the connection be tween democracy and tyranny—the other can not comprehend the connection between mon archy and freedom. The consequence is that whenever our Transatlantic brethren undertake to enlighten the world on the subject of Russia, their statements are always either ludicrously or mischievously exaggerated. On the one side peeps out that respect for physical force which is characteristic of democracy —on the other that hatred of being ruled which is characteristic of Char tists and children. From Colonel SHAFFENER'S account of the Russian empire, we should be led to suppose that nothing could resist the aggressions of that powerful and fortunate country. Every class, from the lowest serf who worships the noble, to the hightest noble who worships the Emperor, is resolutely bent upon " a vigorous prosecution of the war:' Nature does all she can to help their enthu siasm. The harvests are abundant, the popu lation is numerous—and however many men you may take to satisfy the exigencies of war, more than enough will remain behind to pro secute the arts of peace. It would be strange