The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

subject of painful conviction that its posses-
sion of power at this crisis is a standing
menace to the hnpur atii4 interests of England.
In their minds tlie Niter truth will stand m}-
washed in all 4i5%4 reality, that
destinies pf the action ,s ctrusted—not to the
inen whose abiAtx haciustified its confidence,
or whosc integr4 144§ commanded its sym-
pathy—not to the ma% wo, empowered to
execute its high behests, have risen with the
dignity of their mission, and achieved results
commensurate with its hopes and proper
tiouate to its enthusiasm—but to a clique who
regard their position, not as the means of
serving their country, but of aggrandising
themselves ; with whom statesmanship is the
art of retaining office at all hazards and by all
expedients ; who covet the emoluments, but
evade the responsibilities of Government, and,
unable or unwilling to take their stand boldly
by a definite, determined policy, are content
to follow, not to lead, and to wait upon public
opinion, rather than to mould and fashion it
by the force of its creative energies, thus
throwing into contempt institutions which
tolerate at the head of affairs a Cabinet so
destitute of all the insignia of authority.
But although reflections akin to these will
readily occur to the intelligent observer of
our condition and prospects under the Ad-
ministration of Lord PALMERSTON, there is a
point of view in which the subject may be
treated with interest and with advantage.
It is unquestionably true that the war in which
we are engaged engrosses the thoughts and
absorbs the solicitude of the community. All
the prominent questions of internal legislation
which have formed through our annals the
battle-ground of political controversy and
party collision have been thrown into the
shade by the superlative importance of the
present conjuncture. But it is not to be for-
gotten that the various opinions which have
agitated the popular mind iu recent periods
have not been disposed of, but only sus-
pended. The broad line of demarcation
which has so long separated our Parliamentary
combinations, though it may be in some re-
spects less clear and distinct, has not been
effaced. The landmarks have not been re-
moved. The points of divergence have not
been changed. The antagonistic principles of
democratic ascendency and constitutional
monarchy still live and move and have their
being. Though eclipsed and obscured by the
transcendant moment of the struggle to which
the nation is committed, the flame is not ex-
tinguished, but only slumbering. If, then,
the cessation of hostilities between the rival
sections of the Legislature is to be regarded
only as a short truce, a temporary armistice,
the attitude which they respectively occupy in
this great emergency, the part they take in
the struggle, the influence they exercise over
the counsels of the Senate, are all matters of
supreme importance. We wish at this time
to advert to the posture in which what was
once known as the great Liberalparty is found
in the midst of one of the gravest crises of
English history. We hear a vast deal of sar-
castic comment upon the disunion and dis-
organisation of the Conservative ranks. We
are constantly being assured that we have
no leaders in whom we can trust, and no
principles to which we are attached. But
we should like very much to be informed by
these Isneerers whether they have reviewed
their own condition—whether they are cogni-
sant of the circumstances in which they them-
selves now stand in the face of observant
Europe—whether they are alive to the degra-
dation which has fallen upon their once
respected order. Let them, instead of banter
ing about the weakness and decay of the Con-
servative body, embrace the opportunity
afforded them by the comparative calmness
now pervading the political world to take
account of their own state, and to deliberate
upon their own prospects. The task will be
a humiliating one. It is utterly impossible
for any public man in the kingdom devoted to
what is termed the Liberal cause, and who
comprehends the present status of his party,
to feel otherwise than mortified and ashamed.
If the sentiments he avows are genuine, and

SATURDAY,

not fictitious—are real, and not illusory—if
the objects to which he aspires are realities,
and not kliadows-4_ %mt. know that his
creed is n # only at 4 Oiwant, but bids fair to
be actual I annikll4oo. This statement is
nit papal* of . facile dg pxtstriition. In reviewing
the ernti of the t tittipp years we find
rir
some
pry danring ts.ssociated with the
Libe pikily. Flo 0fA.44. tion possessed of
such e.stgth or ng such influence
ever in so short a period suffered more disas-
trously.
First in the long chain of calamitous epi-
sodes was the infamous Coalition which was
formed to overthrow Lord DERBY'S Government.
Here began the disgrace ofithe Liberal party, and
here commenced its punishment. Contributing
mainly to the success of the manoeuvre, it re-
ceived an insignificant share of the spoil.
The highest offices were now monopolised by
its new confederates, and it was reduced to the
ignominy of holding a subordinate place in a
Cabinet of which the most prominent mem-
bers were professedly Conservatives. We
should surmise that subsequent occurrences
have taught the Liberal party to regard this
epoch with unfeigned disgust. We should
suppose that they do not now derive much
satisfaction from the vote which made Lord
ABERDEEN their leader, and led ultimately to
a rupture which was not more disreputable
than it was disastrous, placing Lord JOHN
RUSSELL and his Whig associates in the in-
vidious position of co-operating with a man
they despised, in a cause they disproved—of
acquiescing in a policy they felt to be ruinous,
and continuing in a Government they admitted
to be incapable. We cannot linger here to
point out that the Liberal party by their
slavish support of Lord ABERDEEN have become
inseparably identified with his fatal career,
and will not only be held responsible for the
war in which we are engaged, but adjudged to
be criminally inculpated in its aggravated
calamities. We hurry on to the present
period—and what do we find ? We find the
Conservatives in opposition and the Liberals
out of power. In the narrow coterie of large
houses and wealthy families from which the
Cabinet of Lord PALMERSTON has been taken
Whiggism is rampant, but where are the
energies of the Radical school to quicken and
invigorate the torpid genius of Finality?
The emissaries of progress, the disciples
of development, the philanthropists of the
species, find no place round the Council-
table, but sit grimly on the Ministerial
benches, at one moment biting, at another
licking, the chain which fetters them, ever
making resolves to be independent, but with
ears well attuned to the crack of the Treasury
whip ! What a picture for the eyes of
earnest-minded Democrats ! an Adminis-
tration which lives on their support and
following entirely denuded of the popular
element, so that even Sir WILLIAM MoLEswonrit
has abjured all his eccentricities but the out-
landishness of his dress !
Will these things continue ? If the Liberal
party be not dead to its own honour and
traitorous to its own principles, it will no
longer tolerate the usurping tyranny of the
Whig oligarchy. If it persists in its alle-
giance to a Cabinet which practically ignores
its existence it may certainly be enriched with
such fragments of patronage as Mr. HATTER
may be able to spare from his voracious con-
stituents, but its influence will bo overthrown
and its character destroyed.

SEPT. 22, 1855.

but a stronger plea for kindly usage ; for who
can have more claim on our sympathies than
those who are powerless of themselves to
enforce their claims for redress ? But all who
are acquainted with India must know how
fallacious is the supposition that the natives
are people of the imbecile and passive cha-
racter which is thus ascribed to them.

As regards natives of rank, there are some
of them, no doubt, who are little better than
slaves to their pleasures ; but this happens
not rarely with men of rank and opulence in
every country. The greater number of them,
however, pass their time in reading or being
read to, in field sports, in the management of
their estates, and In the private circle of their
families, pretty much as is done by men of
similar position throughout Europe. In point
of natural talent they are inferior to none, and
the deficiency of education ascribed to them is
rather apparent than real. They know little,
for instance, of the languages or the literature
of Europe, but probably as much as is known
of the languages and literature of Asia by the
greater part of our nobility at home. There
are more Indian gentlemen, in proportion,
who are familiar with Persian than there are
English who are masters of Italian; there aro
as many who can read the Koran and the
works of the commentators on it in Arabic as
there are English who can peruse with facility
the Testament and Chrysostom in the original
Greek ; and Sanscrit is more generally under-
stood by the Hindoo priesthood than Hebrew
is by the clergy of our own Church. To be
sure, among the best educated of the natives
of India, where their education has been
wholly of the native description, one hears
occasionally most absurd mistakes regarding
the history and geography of Europe, but how
often does one hear equally absurd mistakes
from men highly educated in England regard-
ing the history and geography of our Eastern
empire? Such natives know nothing of
FIALLAM, but they have FERMATA, and a dozen
other Mahomedan historians, at their fingers'
ends. And how many Englishmen apart
from those who have served in India know
anything whatever of FERMATA'S history ?
While such is the state of education among
them, their capacity for learning is boundless.
Under great disadvantages, a Hindoo, Dr.
Cnucxxasurry, took the second prize at the
first competitive examination for, assistant-
surgeons; and we have heard it made an
objection to the competitive examination for
Indian Civil servants that before ten years are
over the great majority of the appointments
will be carried off by Hindoos. Their mer-
cantile enterprise and talent may be estimated
by the fact that there are probably more mer-
cantile millionaires at the Presidencies of
India than there are in London ; while as to
administrative talent there is no one who has
held office in any country who does not know
how much of the real work is done by the per-
manent establishments—and the whole of the
permanent establishments in India are natives
of the country. The real auditors, paymasters,
commissaries, collectors, commissioners, and
judges of India are thus for the most part
natives. They it is who, like the Armenians
in Turkey, for the most part do the duties of
the offices for which their superiors of the
ruling race are so highly paid. Not few are
the magistrates and judges in India who take
their decisions from their heristadars as im-
plicitly as a City alderman takes his from the
clerk. If any one, in short, imagines that the
natives are a set of imbeciles, let him ask
the opinion of that fine old veteran Lord
GOUGH. He will tell who it was that pulled
him so admirably through the Chillianwallah
campaign, the English Commissary-General,
or the native commissariat contractor, Leila
JOTEE PERSAUD.

On the other hand, they who think that the
natives are deficient in spirit have only to look
at our Indian army, which is composed of the
same classes precisely as those towards whom
the practice of torture has been so rife. But,
because this has been borne with apparent
patience, it is an error to suppose that it is
unresented in spirit, or forgotten. The Asiatic,
like the animals that inhabit his forests, bears
patiently the evils which he feels himself
powerless to prevent; but it is only to show
himself the more vindictive whenever he