The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

CIVILISATION versus WAR.

THE history of wars is not the most uninstrue-
tive chapter in the history of mankind. In
ancient times they were carried on from
mingled motives of plunder and domination,
and the triumphs of conquerors were the dis-
play of the booty they had won, and the
captives they had enslaved. With no moral
law to restrain the lust of acquisition, one war
ceased only to give birth to another. The
history of antiquity is a history of States
which, having risen to pre-eminence by arms,
sunk at last beneath the weight of their own
spoils. For them there was no medium
between supreme empire and utter destruc-
tion.

When the societies of modern Europe rose
from the ruins of Roman greatness, the pro-
spect was not much more hopeful, though the
completeness of barbarian conquest on every
side gave some security for the establishment
of independent States. But as these assumed
shape, war, as before, was entered on for
plunder or conquest. The weakest nations
suffered most, and the sword bore sway until
powerful kingdoms were consolidated, and
their Governments began to acton principles

SAT LIKD.

7.4
,Ay,

of policy, and to recognise some rules of inter-
national law.
It became then their interest to repress that
system ,
of plunder awl those marauding ex-
peditionvphich, lUX ottAier stage of their
career, thy had thewelikes encouraged. Their
bordpexa.by land am) buccaneers by sea were
foundlito be as danwous to their own subjects
as tq, their neiglibows. VI piratical warfare
was aupprpssedi a ikves assumed larger
dimewiuba, they wok bee purely wanton in
their object, and were commonly justified by
some asEttnned necessities of State policy.
With more light and more progress, peace
was broken with greater reluctance, and wars
of extremity viewed with greater aversion. It
is a significant fact., that the longest European
peace on record, the peace of forty years, has
been broken at last by the youngest andleast.
civilised of European nations.
During those forty years of unparalleled
progress, meditative minds have often asked,
whether war when it next broke forth would
be characterised by the obstinate ferocity of
past contests. In irreconcileable differences.
between nations, the ultimate appeal must be
to the sword. But that appeal may be short.
Foresight may decide, after the first struggle
of the combatants, which side carries with it
the public opinion of the civilised world, and
must ultimately prevail ; and the weaker
belligerent may make concessions which it
perceives to be inevitable.
A great moral question has now to be solved_
—a question than which none more important
to the highest interests of humanity has ever•
been raised. Shall we suffer a war com-
menced for just ends to become our master,.
or shall we make it ow servant ? Shall we•
repeat past errors, and, being once involved in
hostilities, suffer the object for which the war
was undertaken to be totally obscured by the
national animosities and desire of conquest
which unregulated warfare is certain to pro-
voke ; or shall we adhere to our original pur-
pose, and reject as equally savage and impolitic
the notion that we are to continue hostilities
for ends of retribution, revenge, or even the
prostration of our foe ? It is from such ideas
as those that wars in past ages have proved
the scourges of nations, that they have spread
like a conflagration it was impossible to resist,
and have lasted as long as the belligerents
had blood and resources to nourish it.
If the war-on-any-terms party is to prevail,
if the sole condition of peace is to be the total
defeat and exhaustion of our enemy, the hopes.
which philosophers and statesmen have nou-
rished for the last forty years—that war when
it next broke forth would be of short duration,.
from nations better comprehending their real
interests, and being governed by more mode-
rate counsels—must at once be rejected as
illusory. The present war must be charac-
terised by the same obstinacy, the same
bitterness, the same ferocity, as in periods
past.
But should the belligerent Powers agree•
that the war shall be confined to its first aims,
and decide, now that the appeal to arms has
conclusively established the superiority of the.
Allies, that there shall be, in their sense, an
equitable and permanent solution of the•
question which gave rise to the war, we may
rationally hope that a new and happier era is
about to dawn upon the world. As yet there
have been few precedents for short wars.- The'
present occasion is favorable for the estab-
lishment of a decisive one. With so memo-
rable an example to refer to, we may expect
that in any future collision the side of justice
will always enlist the stronger forces on its
side, and that nations will endeavour to settle
hostilities in which they may be unhappily
engaged, not by seeing which party can main-
tain them longest, but by an earnest attempt•
to solve the question out of which their
differences arose.
From this point of view, a great principle•
will be decided by the course which the pre-
sent contest may take. If wars cannot be
avoided, it will be a benefit to mankind to
place them under the control of wise, just,
and moderate councils, to remove them from
the influence of the senseless rage which has
commonly made them so destructive, and thus
contribute to shorten their duration, and
mitigate their evils.

DECEMBER 1, 1855.

THE WIDOWED QUEENS OF

NAGPORE.

HOWEVER imperfectly the Company may at
times do its work where men are concerned,
it has always made a root-and-branch affair of
it where it has had to do with women. It
plays the amiable to the Affghans, who are
in a position to hold its friendship and its
enmity at equal value, and is not above trying
the soothing system with the savage Santhals ;
but from the days of SHERIDAN'S Begum
speech to the present its policy has been
uniform where helpless Princesses of India

are in question. These have always formed at
once the richest and the safest prey of its
bow and spear.
The Crown of England conveys to the
wearer a power limited by the laws, but the
Act ,establishing the Company gives them
a sovereignty more unlimited, whether by law
or public opinion, than that of the Sultan or
the Czar. The proceedings of the late Torture
Commission, and the matter now brought
under notice, show that in some cases at least
it is more tyrannically abused.
We have been led to make these observa-
tions by the perusal of a printed petition to
the Directors from the widowed Queens of
Nagpore. It details the wrongs to which they
and.; theirjeountry have' been subjected ;—and
greater certainly would appear never to have
been perpetrated even in India, and in the
worst of times. Of course their petition to the
Directors will be treated as waste paper ; for
never yet was remedy for wrongs obtained
from that quarter. But we should hope, for
the character of our country, that Parliament
and the public will not prove deaf to it; for
nations cannot suffer deeds of this kind to be
done by their delegated authorities without
themselves suffering eventually the penalty
which sooner or later overtakes misrule. At
the same time, however, we think that no con-
sideration of that nature will be required to
stimulate public opinion in a case of this sort.
There are certain kinds of proceedings from
which the sense of everyone revolts the instant
they are made clear to his !apprehension; and
such we think is this proceeding towards the
widowed Queens of Nagpore. The country, it
will be remembered, was annexed some time
ago, when the matter was cursorily commented
on in this Journal, but the mode in which it
was annexed, and the proceedings adopted
towards the widows, are more fully detailed in
their petition to the Directors, an extract con-
veying the most material part of which we
here transcribe.
After detailing the position of the family,
our various treaties with it, and its rights
under those treaties and according to both
Hindoo and international law, it states that on
the death of the late Rajah, and his widows'
adoption, agreeably to law and custom, of a
successor to whom the Throne should, con-
formably to treaty, have descended,—
without instituting any inquiry into the case, or affording
any opportunity to your Memorialists, or the people whose
rights and interest are involved in the issue, to offer any
remonstrance or explanation, the British Government of
India have seized upon and confiscated the Sovereignty of
Nagpore, thereby depriving your Memorialists, and in their
persons the whole of the Bhorlah family, of the privileges
and territories guaranteed to them in perpetuity by treaty,
and annihilating the rights enjoyed by the people of Nag-
pre under native rule.
That, in pursuance of this manifest violation of justice
and national engagements, a military force, without any
previous notice, entered the city of Nagpore on the I:4th
of October, 1854, and, surrounding the palace, carried
away the treasures ani jewels of the late Maharajah, which
sail valuables were sent off with an escort to Calcutta:
that they had previously taken forcible possession of the
elephants, horses, camels, rich cloths, shawls, and all other
available property, and exposed them for public sale, to the
grievous humiliation of your Memorialists : that the whole
of the treasures, jewels, and other personal property thus
seized are estimated at the value of two millions sterling :
t tat great changes were made in the military and civil
establishments of the State : and that, to obliterate all
t aces of the native rule in the common concerns of bust-
n 335, all the Nagpore coins were with lrawn from circula-
tion, and the Company's coins substituted, occasioning
t tereby much loss and inconvenience to the people.
Tbat your Memorialists have been and continue to be
.'posed to the cruellest personal indignities and privations:
that they are not allowed to hold any intercourse with any
or the friends or advisers of their late illustrious lord : that
some of the most devoted servants of the Bhorlah family

THE PRESS.

have been, since the 27th January last, arbitrarily subjected
to close confinement, under the orders of the Commis-
sioner, which circumstance was brought under the notice
of your Honourable Court, in a communication dated 18th
April last, inclosing the original order for their confine-
ment, which is still in the possession of your Honourable
Court: that a European officer has taken up his residence
in the palace, where guards are placed to overawe and con-
trol their actions, thereby rendering them literally prisoners
in their own apartments : that they are not allowed money
to defray the expenses of those religious celebrations and
ceremonies which have hitherto been uninterruptedly
observed by the Bhorlah family : and that so great is the
humiliation to which they are reduced, that they are not
even permitted to appropriate the products of their lord's
own gardens, which have been sold away by contractors.
Such is the statement of the shameful I
treatment to which they are subjected, made
by these unfortunate Princesses, the widowed
Queens of one of the justest, best, and
most enlightened rulers who ever occupied a
Throne in Hindoostan. He spoke English
thoroughly, was a warm and sincere ally to us,
and ruled his country so mildly and so benefi-
cently as to make his loss irreparable to the
people subject to his sway. He is dead now,
and this is his family's reward.
For confirmation of the truth of their state •
ment the widows appeal to Mr. MaNsELL, the
late Resident at Nagpore, and who is, we
believe, now in England—his testimony, which
is unimpeachable, being thus within our reach.
We may also add that all our Indian news-
papers and letters confirm their tale. If it be
true, we can only say that—setting aside the
question of annexation altogether, which we
will not here discuss—the atrocities proved by
the Torture Commission are not a whit more
disgraceful to the Indian Government than
such dark deeds as these. We do hope, there-
fore, that the earliest opportunity will be taken
of eliciting from the President of the India
Board whether he has received the petition,
and what he has done in reference to it. That
Mr. VERNON SMITH is more weak and incapable
than even the weak and incapable Indian
Minister whom he succeeded was always
known ; but tolerance for such incapacity
must have its limit, and if such fruits as
these are really arising from it in India, it will
be the opinion of all men that this limit has
been reached.

LORD STANLEY ON EDUCATION.
THIS patriotic Nobleman has recently made
another appearance in the field of Educational

- -
Reform. The views which he has already pro.

pounded in Lancashire, Herts, and elsewhere,
he has reiterated in a letter to a gentleman in
Norfolk on occasion of his late absence from the
educational meeting in that county. He has,
however, here given us a more distinct elucida.
tion of the cardinal point in his theory, viz.,
that education, to be of any permanent
avail, must take in the parents as well as
the children. Those conversant with the
habits of our rural population will readily
acknowledge the justice of Lord STANLEY'S
views, even though they may be inclined to
question the possibility of giving them effect.
Schooling is looked upon by the bulk of our
peasantry merely as a good way of filling up
an idle hour, or getting rid of a refractory
child. Children too young to work may go to
school all the week round, and the elder ones
may drawl through a spelling lesson, or learn
their [collects on a Sunday—it pleases the
clergyman or the squire, and can do them no
harm. But as for looking at it in the light of
a necessity, or even a luxury, they are about
as likely to do that as to sigh for the wings of
an eagle, or the speed of an antelope. The
consequence is, that the little which the
children learn at school they immediately for-
get at hon e, and that generation after gene-
ration grows up as ignorant as the beasts of
the field. But were it possible to encourage
in the parents themselves anything like a taste
for intellectual culture, we might hope—thinks
Lord STANLEY—that not only would they he
willing to sacrifice something to their chil-
dren's acquisition of knowledge, but would also
be to some extent enabled to fan the flame of
learning, and prevent their boys from entirely
forgetting the lessons of the schoolmaster
when sent to the fields or the factory.

1135

The scheme looks likely enough, but it has
been damned with faint praise by the Times.
People, it is said, won't read books if you
lend them, and, besides that, they are being
educated by the war and the newspapers. It
is a novelty, certainly, to be tuld that war
promotes education, that being usually
esteemed one of the special blessings of peace.
But we do not despair of our contemporary
changing his mind. And we should not be sur-
prised if " a safe and honourable peace " were
soon to be recommended on the ground that
war, among other bad effects, is such a
hindrance to popular education. There are,
however, certain remarks in the commence-

ment of the article to which we are referring
which are pregnant with instruction, and
prove, we cannot but think, a little more than
the writer intended. What is the best pre-
ventative of crime ? Education. What of

intemperance ? Education. And so on. But
does the Times really intend us to believe that
the perusal of its Correspondent's " letters
will mitigate such evils as these? As is well
observed in the Daily News, a very large pro-
portion of our criminals are what is called
well-educated men. But it is precisely be-
cause their education has been of this descrip-
tion that they are criminals. The mechanic,
who instructs his fellow citizens about the

war and the papers on Saturday night, and
reads his " penny serial " on Sunday morn-
ing, in which the vices of a "bloated aris-
tocracy" are exposed, has undoubtedly a
kind of education—and a kind of education
which the Times thinks it impossible to change.
But does any reasonable man consider that
this is the sort of knowledge which is to check
intemperance, sedition, or robbery? Fortu-
nately, these publications circulate but little
in the rural districts, or it would soon cease to
be optional whether they should have a police
or not.
There are undoubtedly difficulties opposed
to the realisation of Lord STANLEY'S views,
from the physical condition of the great body
of our labouring classes. When a man has been
working ten or eleven hours in the cold, heat,
or wet, and returns to his scanty fire, and
still scantier supper, is he likely to feel
much inclination fur intellectual improve-
ment? Let not, however, Lord STANLEY
and his friends despair. Reading is
not education, any more than knowledge is
virtue. And the mere conviction of the fact
that the gentry are striving to elevate and
assist them will do more for the improvement
of the poor than the most erudite lectures on
the pump or the steam•engine. Education is
not merely the stowing a certain amount of
material into a certain receptacle called the
brains. It is also the culture of the moral
part, the discipline of the passions, and the
training of the affections. The conviction
among the working families of a district that
means of improvement have been placed
within their reach will not be without its good
effect, and in nearly every district it is proba-
ble that there will be a few persons disposed
to avail themselves of the advantages open to
them, and to make some sacrifices for the pur•
pose. In this way a little leaven may go far
to leaven the whole lump ; and at least greater
facilities will be afforded to those of our labour-
ing classes who, 'possessed of more ability or
more perseverance than their fellows, desire to
elevate their condition, and to rise by the
fair exercise of such faculties as they possess.