The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

JUNE 2, 1855. introduce a bill which shall cause effectual justice to be done on those by whose act or connivance such atrocities have been com mitted. If he be asked whether the col lectorate officials aro the habitual plunderers of the people they are appointed to protect, he can plead guilty to the charge on the part of the India Board, and show that purveyance, which is usually taking things for nothing, and forced labour, are abuses that are hence forth to be put down for ever. If he be asked whether members of the Civil Service, when found too stupid for the office of collector, are turned into judges, he will candidly acknow ledge that it is so. If questioned whether to such men's decisions the absolute disposal of the lives and liberties and fortunes of thou sands are committed without even the inter• vention of a jury, to guard against the judge's incompetence, he will allow that such is the fact, and he will at once provide a remedy for the injustice. In doing this he will dwell feelingly on the numberless judicial murders that under such a system the Government must be annually responsible for, setting aside the thousands of persons unjustly trans• ported or imprisoned, and the utter insecurity for property, as well as life, when dependent on the judgments of such tribunals. Finally, he will have an opportunity of showing the practice of the Government in the matter of Indian appeals—we mean appeals in cases of injustice perpetrated by officials, and not in those in which a native has a suit merely against his native neighbour. In such cases he will show how an Indian nobleman or gen tleman may be deprived by Government of his patrimony on the most baseless pretext, and without the slightest shadow of law or justice ; and he will further show that such nobleman may go on memorialising for re dress till his fortune is expended and his heart is broken, without any other result than being told in India that he may, if he likes, appeal to the authorities in England, and in England that the authorities here cannot interfere with the authorities in India, who have perpetrated the wrong. No one knows better than Mr. DANBY SEY MOUR that there is not a charge which we have here made against the Government of India to which it is not really amenable, in addition to That of the most shameless nepotism and jobbery in every department of the State. If, then, knowing this to be the state of things, he has accepted office to reform it, he will confer great benefit on India, and gain con siderable credit for himself. But if he has taken the secretaryship with no such inten tion, he will yet live to repent it ; for the act will prove as destructive of his own character and prospects as a public man, as disgraceful to the Administration in which he has de scended to play so mean a part. WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE? Tns Committee of Inquiry having closed, practical men are beginning to " take stock," and see what they have gained by the in vestigation into the blunders of the war. There are some wiseacres who pretend to think that nothing but " the system" has been proved to bo in fault. They say, " You " made war on a peace-establishment, and of " course the results in such (a case could "be easily anticipated." But that is just our point; for not having anticipated the conse quences, we say the Government was clearly responsible. "Yes ! but who amongst them "in particular?" asks some one, wishing to fix the culpability on persons. Lord JOHN thinks it was the Duke of NEWCASTLE, and the Duke thinks it was the system. Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN, by implication, blames Lord RAGLAN and the Quartermaster -General. The Radicals blame "the aristocracy," and there are various members of the latter class, quite are various memoers in i.iiv ...... ~...., - 1 -- unconnected with party, who say that the THE CAPTURE OF KERTCH. to the exigencies of party—wnicn carries on newspapers forced us into a struggle for A smorio feeling has been produced in this negotiations on one side and talks bellicosely which the country was not prepared. Ordi- country by the tidings of the last few days. on the other—and which, instead . of adopting nary people with so many issues before them For its course boldly from consideration of the the first time in more than six months we would get puzzled, but, with a little calmhonour of the nation, is driven into a warlike attention to facts, it is possible to see one's are cheered by t h e a nnouncement of successes p olic y b y the threatening aspect of the House way clearly to a distinct conclusion. which may exercise a decisive influence upon of Commons. THE PRESS. In thinking of " Who are "responsible? " the first fact is that the vaunted reputa tion of the Peelites has melted away like mist. The Whigs gave them the conduct of the war. It was not until after the ruin had been worked that Lord JOHN RUSSELL cams out as Queen's evidence against his former colleague. The Duke of NEWCASTLE had made himself the head of a rival connection in politics bound together by ties of a not dissimilar kind from those preserved by the Whigs. He vaulted at once into the War Ministry, and to his latest time he will have reason to curse his infatuation. He has been dreadfully humbled, and we have no desire to add further pangs to a politician who has forfeited his reputation for ability. Even in the current week, in an organ which long adhered to him, we read severe strictures on his Grace's "vacillation" and "habits of pro crastination." It is a pity that these faults were not confessed at an earlier period by the leading champion of the Coalition. Our readers must recollect that at the time we urgently remonstrated against the appoint ment of the Duke of NEWCASTLE. Well his Grace has deservedly been held responsible. His character has been exposed : even the Peelites acquiesced in his removal befoie the Coalition broke up. He is deci dedly the most fallen public man of the day. But we say again, for having put him in the War-office both Lord PALMERSTON and the Whig clique must also be held responsible. Evils, mischief's, blunders, shortcomings were inevitable at the beginning of the war ; and that they were so was the very reason why the best man who could be had should have been selected. The Ministers—Whigs and Peelites—aggravated intensely evils that were certain to occur. Mischances were likely to take place. They managed to make them worse. The Duke of NEWCASTLE never before held a first-rate secretarial place, and to his inexperience was consigned the conduct of the war. He broke down in it, and he has been punished. " I do not like to strike a " man who is down," said one of the speakers of the Administrative Reform Association, passing on from his Grace to other public men. But though the Duke of NEWCASTLE 15 down, the Whigs are still up in office. They cannot be absolved from their responsibility. It is of no use for them to plead that the " cry " of the newspapers forced on the Government to a struggle for which the country was not pre pared. What is a Government for, but to control and to direct? Had it no authority to restrain, and no duty to guide the people ? What confession can be more degrading than that with all their pride, and pomp, and power, the great families who made the Coalition were driven onwards by the newspapers ? If precipitate ink flowed from a few vehement pens, was that a reason why the blood of armies should be prematurely shed? Such a line of defence would lead people to suppose that our Ministers had been like so many demagogues crouching before the cry of the platform, and quailing before the censure of the invisible "we " of journalism. We shall not be charged with underrating our own vocation if we say that British journalists do not claim to exercise such a directing power as the Whig apologist would assign to them. Pity, however, that as the newspapers were so powerful as to cause the war the Cabinet which listened with such obedience to the public press did not also follow the significant hints repeatedly given in so many journals about the non-efficiency of the authorities in the War-office. It is responsibility of the primary kind that must be attached to the Cabinet that sent out the expedition. There is also a secondary responsibility attached to certain officials attached to the army, but we have not space to-day for discussing their faults. 511 the coming campaign. At Sebastopol itself the siege makes progress. Largo and impor tant outworks have been carried by storm with a very heavy loss on the side of the defenders ; while outside the town the enemy has fallen back from the fortified lines of the Tschernaya ; so that hopes are entertained that we may be able to move round towards the north and complete the investment of the place. But great as these advantages may appear they are surpassed in ulterior importance by the ex pedition to the easterncorner of the peninsula, and the capture of Kertch. Stores to an enor mous amount have been taken or destroyed, and the communication across the Straits of Yenikale and the Sea of Azoff entirely cut off. By these two routes, up to the present time, the Russians have conveyed more than one half of the provisions and munitions of war which were required for the support of their forces in the Crimea. A large part were brought from Anapa and provinces of the Caucasus, but the most considerable portion were derived from Taganrog and the navigation of the Don and Volga, which form the main artery of the trade of South-Eastern Russia, and are con tinued so as to afford an un interrupted water communication with St. Petersburg itself. The stores will still reach Taganrog in security, but the greatest difficulty will be experienced in their transport into the Crimea. Two ways remain open. The first is across the Putrid Sea to Arabat, and thence to ,Simferopol. But the next step of the allies will probably be to advance from Kertch to Kaffir, to occupy Arabat, and to close this route. The only remaining road is by a very long circuit through Perekop. It is scarcely probable that the Russian Go vernment are adequately provided with means of transport by land between Taganrog and Perekop, and great interruption will take place in the supplies of their armies in the field, but we cannot suppose that the difficulty will be of long continuance. We may rest assured that the energy of the Russian Commissariat will soon furnish the means of conveyance along the new route,and that the traffic through Perekop will be immensely increased. Every • thing points at the necessity of an attack upon that place. The facility with which Kertch was occupied makes it more unaccountable why this obvious operation should have been so long delayed. If Kertch is of such vital importance, why was it not perceived before? Why was Lord RAGLAN'S army left so weak? Why were so many troops left in Mediterranean garrisons, or cantoned at Maslak, when they might have been so much more usefully employed? It is idle to say that we could not have sent on re giments from Gibraltar or Corfu; it was only a question of reliefs, and the very regiments which are now taking their place might, with common energy and promptitude, have gone out months ago. Who can tell the effect which might have been produced upon the garrison of Sebastopol, and on public opinion throughout Europe, by a vigorous and early blow against the fortress which has now fallen unresistingly into our hands? These omissions may be passed over in the moment of success, but the public mind has undergone a great change, which it will be dangerous for Ministers to overlook. There is no longer any hesitation about the course to be pursued—any hope that negotiation may relieve us from an unpleasant dilemma—any inclination to welcome a doubtful peace. The nation cries out for an earnest prosecution of the war, and for the full accomplishment of all the ends for which it was undertaken. A Vienna Conference which should prevent this would be looked upon as treachery. The country will tolerate no longer the ambiguous conduct which speaks peace or war according the exigencies of party—which carries on sid,