The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

INDIAN COMPLI CATIONS.

THE plot in India appears to be thickening,
and fresh complications would seem by the
last mail to be arising on every side ; yet in
none of the cases given does it appear to us
that the difficulty might not have been
very easily avoided by a little manage-
ment on the part of the Indian Government.
Take, for instance, the insurrection of the
Santals—the first on the list. It is now clear
from the Indian papers that however the
feelings of these people may have been out-
raged by the railway officials, their original
exasperation against the Government was
caused by an enormous increase on their
former land tax, and by the introduction into
their district of the oppressive excise on salt.
Their land tax had, it seems, been raised from
two to twelve annas the begah, or exactly six-
fold, while the salt excise levies a duty of six-
teen hundred per cent., ad valorem, on the first
necessary of life—a duty which had among the
Santals been previously unknown. The salt
excise further brings with it a system of police
visitation, with a view to prevent illicit impor-
tation or manufacture, which even those long
accustomed to it feel to be vexatious to the
very last degree.
if the Government of India will deal with
people accustomed to the highest degree of
freedom in a manner so insensate, what can
they expect but that resistance would be the
result? It ought to be triumph enough for
any reasonable rulers to engage such tribes
to settle down peacefully in their hills without
reference to the amount of revenue they paid.
This would in any case he too trifling in a fiscal
sense to be worth considering, while the
bringing them into habits of civilisation was
an object that should have been deemed
beyond all price. To subject them to the
revenue screw was to insure their eventually
quarrelling with us and taking to their old
courses and their old haunts. It is the same
precisely with the semi-barbarous tribes on
our north-west frontier. The most serious
outbreak that occurred there arose in conse
quence of the Government's attempt to impose
, upon them this very excise of salt, and all the
other perpetually-recurring disturbances in
the same quarter have demands by our com-
missioners for land tax at the bottom of them
—land tax which they cannot obtain. The Go-
vernment organs, to be sure, allege that no
Government can be carried on without taxa•
tion, and that under the despotic system it is
not for the people to decide what taxes shall
and what shall not be paid. We grant the
premises, but refuse assent to the deduction
from them which these organs make. A Go-
vernment, though right in respect to the ab-
stract principle, may be entirely wrong in its
application of it, and this is precisely the case
with the Indian Government in all these in-
stances. It applies the revenue screw to races
of wild hillmen, people who in every quarter
of the globe are most impatient of taxation of
any kind, and most ready to resent it. It thus
alienates the allegiance of hardy mountaineers,
who, under a better system, might be brought
to afford us aid in men more valuable ten
times than any that could be got from them
in money. To sum up all, it wastes in useless
conflicts with them ten times the amount
that, if expended judiciously within their dis-
tricts, would have made them our most peace-
ful and prosperous subjects, as well as the

SATURDAY,

most devoted to our rule. Surely this latter
were a more profitable as well as more Chris-
tian-like Ind humane pity" than dealing with
them in a manner *filch must render them
for ever enemies to tit, ati4 *hich brutalises
and infuriates them td the list degree.
To be able to jdclo ate clearly of the
effectbf inch injudieio taxation in India,
let uti flee *hat *ouiti be result of similar
iirocebdittO towurdi ntifil6 yes by the Govern-
ment it home. How should we like an ad
valorem duty of sixteen hundred per cent. on
tea for instance, and a sudden increase of the
land tax sixfold ? How many hours would a
Ministry last that brought forth such a pro-
ject ; or how many days would a Parliament
last that sanctioned it? If then even John
Bull's placid nature would be roused to resent-
ment by such unheard-of proceedings, are we
to be astonished that they have succeeded in
awakening all the savage passions of the semi-
barbarous Santals? For these we are no
apologists ; they have appealed to the sword.
for the redress of their grievances, and by the
sword they must be put down. But guilty
though they be, we think those not less guilty
whose wanton abuse of power has brought the
insurrection about. We do trust, therefore,
that no time will be lost after Parliament shall
have assembled in ascertaining who it is that
has been the real cause of all this mischief by
suddenly increasing the Santal land tax six-
fold and introducing into their hills the galling
and most oppressive excise on salt. And we
further hope that even at this eleventh hour
the Board of Control will do its duty by ren-
dering such vagaries of power impossible in
all times to come. It will not do to be per-
petually staking the Crown of India in contests
for farthings with the Monund and Swat
tribes and the naked Santals.

OCTOBER 6, 1855.

considerations of humanity, is it true that the
Russian force which withdrew from Sebas-
topol was really by that skilful retreat
" degraded, dishonoured, and disgraced ?"
Regarded from Mr. FRERE'S exalted military
point of view, it would no doubt have been
more satisfactory that the whole Russian force
should have been hemmed in and slaughtered
to a man. In the fervency of our warlike zeal
we may regret that such was not the case, but
regard for fact and sense will not allow us to
reproach the Russians with the misfortune of
their escape, nor to assert that the remaining
garrison of Sebastopol was really degraded by
the success of its last movement.
It is in view that such services as that of
Sunday last may, perhaps, be frequently re-
peated before the 'war is brought to a close
that we make these remarks. We think Mr.
FREER has allowed a sanguine temperament
to carry him too far in his exultation, and that
he has set an example by no means to be
imitated. It may be the duty of a preacher
on such occasions to animate the patriotism of
the people, to encourage their fortitude, and
to connect the prosecution of the war with
principles of righteousness ; but it never can
be his office to represent the army with which
we are contending in the most odious and des-
picable light, or to regret after such a terrible
slaughter as ensued on the memorable Bth of
September that more blood was not shed, and
that so great a number of our foes had the
misfortune to escape.

INJUSTICE OF THE "LEADING
JOURNAL."
DIMING the last week the fury of the Times at
finding that everything is not done according
to its orders is vastly amusing. When rage is
kept up for a long time it ceases to be impres
sive, and we almost suspect that it is simu-
lated. On Wednesday the Times was angry
because there was a report that the Princess
Royal was likely to be married, without the
editor's permission; and on Thursday it was
equally furious because certain officers of old
renown were gazetted as Field Marshals !
In neither case was it first consulted by "the
authorities."

We are sure that many of its readers must
have felt disgust at the way in which the
Times on Thursday spoke of Lord STRAFFORD,
Lord COMBERMERE, and Lord HARDINGE. At
Hougoument, as through a long time pre-
viously, Lord STRAFFORD conferred distinction
on his name, and he is never mentioned with
out honour in military circles. Not to speak
of his services elsewhere, Lord COMBERMERE
was an able, vigilant, and energetic general in
his Indian command. The Times, however,
cares for none of these things. It even assails
Lord HARDINGE as a general " not very eminent
"in the field " ! Of course, it never heard of
what Lord HARDINGE, when only a regimental
officer, performed at Albuera, nor does it care
for the Duke of WELLINGTON'S opinion on him.
Indeed, so cheaply does the Times hold our
English military reputation, that not long
since it had the indecency to say that
" English Generals were like American aloes,
" and bloomed only once in a century."
Did the Times ever hear of the names, not
of MARLBOROUGH and WELLINGTON, but of
officers whose talents for generalship held a
deserved repute wherever military science and
splendid exploits are respected? Is it to be
pretended that mere fighting alone got us our
Indian empire and Transatlantic possessions?
The names of Sir EYRE COOTE, CLIVE, General
WOI.FE, Sir THOMAS MUNRO, Sir RALPH ABER-
CROMBY, Sil JOHN MOORE, Marshal BERESFORD,
Lord HILL, Sir GEORGE MURRAY, Sir CHARLES
NAPIER, Sir EDWARD PAKENHAM, belong to
those of officers who were " Generals" in their
talents as well as heroes in their deeds. Some
of them were singularly unfortunate in the
circumstances in which they were placed, and
more than one of them was subjected to cruel
and unjust newspaper vituperation. With
such a catalogue of distinguished names, we
do not like the idea of an English journalist
casting shame upon the military character of
his native land.

The most remarkable thing about the vitu-
peration of the Times is, that it generally

ITHE PRESS.

attacks the absent or the helpless. It rarely
assails a Cabinet Minister, though it made a
special exception in the case of Lord PALMERS
TON. Are there no men in the present
Ministry obnoxious to severe criticism? Is
Lord PANMURE " the right man in the right
" lace?" Is the Duke of ARGYLL a nobleman
of any distinction beyond being hereditary
M'CULLUM MORE, and a mere pretending
sciolist in all that relates to the ologies 1 Is
the health of Sir GEORGE GREY equal to the
requirements of his arduous office ? Does
Lord CRANWORTH make a Chancellor worthy
of sitting where Lords ELDON, LYNDHURST, and
ST. LEONARDS have dispensed equity? We
submit that these are questions which the
Times might consider as well as the reputa-
tions of professional military men.
The worst of this continued abuse of all
notabilities (except a favoured clique) is, that
the practice has a tendency to make public
characters callous to censure. Even when
properly censured, they reply (or their friends
for them), " Oh! what matter? See how
" the Times was always abusing Lord PALMERS-
" TON, and he is now Prime Minister," and so
forth. The practice, however, has its amusing
aspect, and the ludicrous way in which the
Times is always retrospectively wise, with the
air of an oracle upon mischiefs too late to be
remedied, is very droll. After the shower, it
waters the garden. When the steed is stolen,
it locks the stable. When the ship has
foundered, it brings a chart of navigation.