The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857.

tion of that native system of civil polity of
which the King was the representative and the
head. He corroborates our statement that the
deposition of the Monarch was accompanied
by the total abrogation of all pre-existing pro-
prietary rights. He tells us that this has
turned the whole population of Oude against
us, and of the population of Oude the sepoys
of the Bengal army formed an integral and
most important part. Nay, more, he goes on to
arraign, precisely as we have ever done, the
proceedings of the Company in respect to
landed property almost everywhere through-
out recently-annexed States. He says :
" Whatever popular opposition there is in our
" own older districts, besides the mere free-
" booting of the plundering tribes, may be
" traced almost exclusively to one great source
" of hostility which has raised many people
" against us. I mean the very general trans-
" fel of landed rights which has taken place
" under our system." He informs us that
there "has been so general a transfer of
" landed rights as has, perhaps, never been
" known in any age or in any country." He tells
us that, as our Civil functionaries have been
swept away by the rebellion, the old proprie-
tors have come forth and resumed their
estates, the new possessors disappearing with
the collectors on whose decrees their titles
rested. He adds that, " Surely we must take
" warning. Surely we shall not thus rudely
" destroy the remaining tenures, and render
" hostile the remaining provinces. If the land
" of the Punjaub had been transferred, as that
" of the north-western provinces, it is quite
" certain that we should not be here ; that we
" should hold nothing of India beyond the
" guns of our ships; we should have neither
" taken Delhi nor saved Allahabad. The
" Sikhs would have been against us to a man,
" and General HAVELOCK would probably have
" now been defending Calcutta."

Such are the statements contained in this
letter ; and we would ask whether it would be
possible to offer clearer proof of the accuracy
of the view taken of the crisis by Mr.
DISRAELI in his speech in the House of Com-
mons in July last? He over and over again
explained that this might on the surface
appear to be a religious question, but that at
the bottom it was a territorial and agrarian
one, and that the Bengal army had revolted
because it was mainly composed of Oude men,
and that they were thus the exponents, not so
much of the military as of the national dis-
content. Indeed, every one who really knows
the structure of Indian society and the feel-
ings which predominate in it must have per-
ceive 1 this from the first. The Ministers
alone were blind to the truth, because
it formed the strongest possible condem-
nation of their acts. They did not choose
to see that their proceedings had produced a
great revolt in India, though they might have
known that in any other country a similar
course would have brought about a not very
dissimilar result. Here, then, is the true
source of the evil, and here must be applied
the remedy, if we would look for any perma-
nent effect. It is easy to talk of Mahome-
den turbulence, and the treachery of the Hin-
doos ; but these are not the causes of the mis•
chief, but simply its effects. The origin of our
disasters has not been in the nature of the
people we have had to deal with, but in the
fact of the policy pursued towards them being
contrary to every principle either of common
justice, or of common sense.

THE LORDS AND THE LIBERALS.
TILE vague ideas entertained in opposite
quarters about the coining Reform Bill are
visible in the variety of opinions propounded
on its expected operation. It has been as-
sumed by one of our weekly contemporaries
that the present county franchise is " doomed,"
and it seems to be taken for granted by some
that Lord PALMERSTON'S Ministry will actually
propose to " Tower-Hamletise the consti-
" tuencies." In other quarters we see the phrase
used " to regulate the laws relating to the
" franchise," as if an extension of the suffrage
was to be the sole aim of the proposed
measure. Conjectural schemes are beyond