The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-18 00:00:00

AUG. 18, 1855.

institution of a Commission calculated honestly
to work out the result. Sir CHARLES WOOD'S
directions were, to " call upon every collector
" in the Presidency to report fully whether
" such an unjustifiable practice is suffered to
" exist, and whether they have reason to be-
" lieve that an occurrence of this kind can
u have taken place without their knowledge in
" any part of the territories under your govern.
" ment." In other words, the question was to
be left to the testimony of the very men whose
character was at issue, and who could have
only replied affirmatively as regards their own
districts at the risk of dismissal to themselves.
Lord HARRIS went to work in another fashion.
Writing on the part of the Madras Govern-
ment to the Directors at home, he says :

We have extended our tinstructions to all sub collectors,
judges, subordinate judges, civil engineers, and medical
officers employed in the provinces. We have also directed
that all officers of the army, and of the Commissariat
Department especially, should be required to afford all
information in their power. But, besides these applica-
tions to officers in the Government employ, we have
addressed persons residing in the provinces independent
of the Government; and we have appointed at the Presi-
dency a Commission, consisting of Mr. E. F. Elliott and
Mr. Stokes, Civil Service, and Mr. J. B. Norton, to receive
an I investigate any complaints which may be presented by
tslem of any class.
As Mr. J. B. NORTON IS a barrister known to
entertain views hostile to the system of the
Company, we must look upon his appoint-
ment—and indeed on the whole proceeding—
as evincing a fairness very honourable to
L )rd HARRIS. To him chiefly, we repeat, the
p tblic are indebted for the complete and
a itisfactory exposure that has been made.

It has been attempted by some persons to
show that the use of torture in the Company's
territories has been exceptional ; but the
Commissioners state that even in the short time
they sat they had received fourteen hundred
and forty letters of complaint from all parts of
the country—of which five hundred and eighty-
six were set apart by them for investigation.
Then, again, there is further proof of the fre-
quency of it in the limitation of inquiry
regarding torture to cases that had occurred
within a year of the Circular issued after the
Commission had closed —on the ground,
among others, that, " while it would impose
" much labour on the European officers, and
" occasion certain hindrance to the public
" service, it would be unattended with any
" countervailing benefit. The object is not
" vengeance for the past, but security for the
" future." We do not altogether concur in the
propriety of such limitation; but the state•
ment conveys convincing proof of the great
frequency of cases of torture and the neglect
which charges against officials in respect of it
had previously met with. Mr. WALTER ELLIOTT,
in his minute, indeed, says on this subject :
I can state, from my own knowledge of the precisely
similar revenue and police management in parts of Bom-
bay in which I have served or have visited, that similar
practices must and do prevail; end the relation of the
atrocities perpetrated by the Zemindary police, and the
far more degraded condition of the peasantry in the per-
manently-settled districts, leave no room to doubt that the
same excesses are to be found in an even greater degree
in Bengal.
The only part of the country subject to the
Commissioners' inquiry in which the practice
of torture appeared to be entirely unknown
was that within the limits of her Majesty's
Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras—a
most significant fact, but one which the readers
of this Journal will have seen long since anti
cipated and accounted for. The truth is, that
the spots within the limits of her Majesty's
courts' jurisdiction in India are the only spots
iu the whole territory in which the judges are
both competent and independent, and in
which, by consequence, any real protection
for person or property is to be found. The
Madras Government itself admits this when,
in accounting for such extensive abuses pre-
vailing, it alleges—

The difficulties in the way of the aggrieved parties ob-
taining redress—the European officers to whom alone
they could appeal with confidence for defence against op-
pression being overwhelmed with multifarious duties, and
burdened with the charge of extensive tracts of country
which it is beyond their power efficiently to supervise.
And again :
The enormous extent of their charges, the numerous
duties imposed on them, render it absolutely impossible
for magistrates to investigate more than a small propor-
tion of the complaints which come before them.

Now, these allegations of the Government
of Madras being assumed to be true, what

THE PRESS.

becomes of all the self-laudations we hear
periodically from Leadenhall-street as to the
wonderful perfection of the government of
India by the East India Company ? Why,
here, by their own Governor's confession, it
consists in putting under their sons and
nephews extensive tracts of country which it
is impossible for them efficiently to supervise,
and establishing a system for administering
justice under which it is equally impossible
for the magistrates to attend to more than a
tithe of the cases that are brought before
them. This may be admirable government
according to the Leadenhall-street standard—
and indeed it is notorious that the Directors
follow pretty much the example of their magis-
trates in respect to their own treatment of the
cases that are brought before themselves—
but to any one dwelling out of that atmo-
sphere such a system of ruling a country will
appear intolerable ; and we hope that the day
is not very distant when it will be wholly
swept away.
We cannot terminate our notice of this Par-
liamentary paper without quoting the conclud-
ing paragraph of Mr. WALTER Ettiorr's minute.
The views contained in it we consider admira-
ble, and they are entirely in accordance with
the doctrines which we have so repeatedly
laid down :
I have already remarked that I consider the most fertile
source of oppression is to be found in connection with the
indirect exactions levied by public officers from the
ryots. The practice, I consider, cannot be checked so
long as annual ryot-war settlements of the revenue con-
tinue to be made. The machinery for such a purpose re-
quires the employment of a very large body of inferior
revenue officers, many of them receiving rates of remune-
ration lower than those of ordinary domestic servants.
They are always men of education,—that is, they are the
best educated individuals in the community ; they are
expected to maintain a decent appearance, and the
nature of their duties often requires them to keep a
conveyance. It is absolutely impossible for them to do
all this on the pittance allowed to them, and their means
are eked out by illicit contributions derived from the ryots.
I believe that a more permanent tenure of the land which
shall save the people from constant annual interference,
while it allows of a large reduction in the present descrip-
tion of inferior agency and the better remuneration of those
that remain, with the location of a larger number of
European or other qualified controlling authorities through-
out the extensive revenue and police districts into which
the country is divided, are quite as essential to a successful
repression of torture as any of the other methods that
have been recommended.

With Mr. WALTER ELLIOTT We entirely
concur, and we are sure that there is no man of
common sense in the community who can fail
to see that for the perpetration of these
atrocities it is the Government of India that
is principally to blame. To hand over the
ryots to the mercies of subordinate officials •
who have to support themselves and their
families, maintain a decent appearance, and
keep a conveyance into the bargain, on a less
salary than they have to pay as wages to one
of their own domestic servants, is to invite, or
rather create, the extortion which the Directors
now affect to join in condemning. The more
especially is this the case when the only ap-
peal complainants have against such oppres-
sion is to magistrates who have not time to
investigate a tithe of the complaints that are
daily made before them. It is a farce to lay
the blame of such things on the native cha-
racter when there is scarcely a man of the
same class in any other country, our own in-
cluded, who, placed in similar circumstances,
would fail to extort money to the same extent
if not precisely in the same manner. Appoint-
ments of this nature, virtually unpaid, involv-
ing a large personal expenditure, and accom
panied by power unlimited—power of which
the abuse is manifest, universal, and habitual
—could only after a time be looked on in any
country as licenses for extortion from the
whole community.

THE NEW VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE

BOARD OF TRADE.
" WHO, and what, is Mr. LOWE that he should
" be made a Privy Councillor, and a Vice-Presi-
" dent of the Board?" is a question on the lips
of many. Even with the autobiographical aid
of the gentleman himself we cannot profess to
be able to answer the query. That " Boe
LOWE " was an " Oxford Tutor," and a barrister
at the Antipodes, are the patent facts in his
personal antecedents, with which people are

775

familiar. In his speech at Kidderminster Mr.
LowE boastfully recorded how, at twenty-one
years of age, he began the world with five
shillings, but he did not condescend to state
natorttshehenutgugrnetesdwhhiischfiTiet
n"ocirvohwonldosf.
1.
bg
YI
o r*y.
.11" a it'
DE 0E wrote the history of Colonel Jack, a
boy who never went to school," and it would
be a taking title for a Railway Volume to ad-
vertise " Boa LOWE at the Diggins,' or Me-
moirs of a Gent who got an Oxford Educa-
tion upon Five Shillings." This boastful as-
sertion about his limited means, and (implied)
unlimited abilities, must be read like para-
graphs about the last American marvels—
headed " wonderful if true." After a few
more addresses to his constituents, Mr.
ROBERT Lows will make Kidderminster as re-
nowned for good stories as Kentucky.
Of Mr. LOWE'S career at the Antipodes we
have heard contrathctory accounts. Nothing
has been recorded of him in that region to
justify his rapid elevation. We have even
heard some persons, well qualified to give an
opinion, predict that " Boa LOWE will be
" found out to be a complete mistake." Nor
shall we be surprised at it. His first speech
in Parliament was well conned, delivered at
the right moment, and was successful. But
since then he has made no way as a speaker,
though he often showed a disposition to be
offensive, when he calculated on impunity.
He is more saucy than sarcastic, more smart
than! sparkling in his rhetoric, and his logic
is not sustained. He can carp at an adversary,
but he cannot confute him skilfully, and he
is deficient in tone as a debater. So far from
improving on his legs, his delivery of late has
partaken of a strange fumbling manner ; and
at reply, though he can always be curt, he
wants readiness and illustrative faculty when
he has not got his lesson by rote.
Such is Mr. LowE as a speaker. What he
may be as a writer, we do not care to inquire.
We should be sorry to suppose that some of
the writings attributed to Mr. Lows by com-
mon rumour ever proceeded from his pen.
They would do equal discredit to his head and
heart, and their style would support the name,
not of an "Oxford tutor," but of an alumnus,
who spent his first " five shillings " upon some
academy in Billingsgate. Mr. COBDEN, in a
letter to the Times, recently read a severe
lesson to any honourable, or "right honour-
able " members who would enter into rivalry
with the reporters. The stenographic reports
are done with extraordinary accuracy; and
harsh censors who are silent in debate, though
vehement in type, would do well to imitate
the fidelity to fact and language exhibited by
the Parliamentary reporters.
We know of no special qualifications of Mr.
Lows for the Vice Presidency of the Board of
Trade. His speech on the Decimal Coinage
question abounded in blunders. He elabo-
rately showed that he had not accurately
studied tho subject, and that he had taken
great pains to go wrong. He stumbled over
the modus deeimandi ; he chopped midship-
man's logic about florins and pennies, con-
founded fractions with decimals, (and asked
questions which would have enraged COCKER.
Commercial members smiled ; and he sat
down after a bad speech, made with the best
intentions to do himself credit. One of his
predecessors, Mr. SHELL, was also singularly
unfitted for the post now held by Mr. Lows.
But Mr. SHELL had been a distinguished Par •
liamentary speaker for several years; and
people are well justified in their surprise at
the sudden promotion of Mr. Lows
We shall not here say what we have heard
upon the subject. But we are convinced that
Mr. LowE will dissatisfy those who have
weakly consented to his promotion. Like the
manufacture of the town that he represents,
Mr. ROBERT LOWE will yet he shown in Parlia-
ment to be " not the real thing." He ought to
be careful in his mode of speaking of other
men in public life, and he should steadily
avoid whatever would suggest that his surname
had more appropriate felicity than is usual
amongstmen. the
He ha s a
gpopte
somellat i o ngse
notfl e Ehni
ngsh
tl
in gentle-
Parlia-
ment, and Mr. LOWE may be assured that men
far cleverer than himself have soon been hum-
bled when carrying their pretensions too far.
More formidable persons Mr. Lows ever

'Y/6

can become have been taught that systematic
personal abuse of leaders of the Conservative
party cannot be performed with impunity.

THE BALTIC TRIUMPHS.

Iv the subject were not quite so serious, it
would be laughable to note the feverish ex-
ultation which appears to characterise the
popular voice in this country upon the receipt
of any intelligence of success from either the
Baltic or the Black Sea. No details are
waited for, no comparisons between the rela-
tive forces of the contending parties made ;
everything short of disaster is accepted as a
success ; the mere fact of a bombardment
taking place is a triumph, and its consequent
conflagration a conquest. A vast stronghold of
Russia in the Baltic is declared upon all sides
to be destroyed, her loss estimated as terrific,
and the road admitted now to be clearly open
for the easy destruction of St. Petersburg!
From what, in this instance, all these extrava-
gant deductions have been drawn, it is diffi
cult to say. The despatches of the Admirals
are so vague, that nothing of any value can he
extracted from them, beyond the fact that the
fortresses of Sweaborg were bombarded for
forty-five hours, and that their estimated loss is
very severe, while ours is nominal. No
further facts are given, no mention made of
the fire of the Russian batteries being silenced,
or whether even they ever opened at all upon
the mortar-vessels, and no further attempt
appears to have been made to test the success
of the bombardment by bringing up the liners
to force the passage, or even anchoring them
within point-blank range of the fortresses. We
confess, for our own part, that as yet we regard
the affair as a mere experiment, rather partial
than otherwise, to test the capabilities of the
mortar-vessels, and unless it be well followed
up, the granite batteries of Sweaborg really
destroyed, and our fleet force its way into the
harbour—then, and not till then, shall we
consider that Russia has experienced a most
sensible defeat, and that we have achieved a
most undoubted triumph. But at present we
see no reason to believe that any such success
has been obtained, nor that the batteries,
as said to be, are a heap of ruins, or even very
materially injured. Admiral PENAUD in his
despatch is very vague, though he mentions
the arsenal as being in ruins ; and Admiral
DUNDAS clearly limits the destruction and con-
flagration to the two islands Vargon and
Svarto, while we know very well that Swea-
borg and its principal forts lie upon a cluster
of four or five islands, connected with stone
bridges, and mounting from 800 to 1,200 guns
in their granite batteries. Furthermore, on
the eastern main some powerful earthworks
have been thrown up to command the narrow
passage, and within the harbour are several
islets, mounted each with heavy batteries,
while the town of Helsingfors itself is said
to be defended by solid and stupendous works.
Upon the islands of Vargon, and Great and
Little Svarto, are several government build-
ings, stores, arsenal, and docks, the latter
hewn out of the solid rock. It is probably
these former which, from a forty five hours'
bombardment, have taken fire and been burnt
to the ground ; but until we have some better
proof than the mere estimation of the allied
Admirals we can scarcely believe that the
Russian losses have been very enormous, or
that the granite batteries faced with earth—no
very inflammable substance it must be con-
ceded—have been successfully destroyed. The
future operations of the fleet will be the test,
and most sincerely do we trust that no false
humanity, worn a desire to spare life or the
city of Helsingfors, will induce the allied Ad-
mirals to withdraw definitively from the spot
without the most complete and ample success,
if such be really practicable. After fifteen
mouths' procrastination, we have struck a blow
at last, and let us follow it up ; for whatever is
worth doing is worth doing well, and we anti
cipate with some little anxiety the intelligence
of the ulterior operations of this portion of the
fleet. At present we have no cause for extra-
vagant nijoleings ; on the contrary, if any

THE PRESS.

great success has been easily attained, it be
comes as much a matter for self-reproach that
it was not attempted somewhat earlier in this,
a fifteen months' war : a few ouch hard blows
twelve months ago, when Sir CHARLES NAPIER
was incessantly begging for gun and mortar
boats, might have orotight Russia to reason,
have spared the Sebastopol campaign,
and have raised our credit and glory to the
highest pitch, while it would have taught
Russia a lesson that a century would not have
eradicated. Not that a series of successive and
well-directed blows would not now affect
Russia, but any defeat inflicted has lost much
of its terrors : they are prepared for attack,
have been long waiting for it, and have taunted us
with our inactivity. Like a surprise, prepara
tion is half the battle ; and moreover the Rue
sians are now more or less regarded as martyrs,
waging heroically, and as yet not unsuccess
fully, a tremendous war at both extremities of
its vast empire against the two most powerful na-
tions of Europe. While we, with our credit
rather tarnished on the whole, with all our
vast means, our science, our preparation, have
hitherto obtained but questionable successes.
How much have all the talents of '54 to an-
swer for ?