The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

THE CALCUTTA PETITION.

At a meeting of merchants and others at Calcutta
the annexed petition W the Home Legislature had
been adopted :

Petition of the British inhabitants of Calcutta to the
Lards and Common♦ of Great Britain and Ireland in
Parliament assembled.
The humble petition of the undersigned British inhabi-
tants of Calcutta most huwbly showeth,—
That your petitioners view with daily increasing
anxiety and alarm the condition and prospects of British

They do not despair of its speedy reconquest by the
forces of her Majesty, but it is undeniable that, with the
exception of three or four places of strength, the whole of
the north-west provinces, as well as the newly acquired
kingdom of Oude, is lost for the present. In addition to
which Tirhoot, Behar, and Chota Nagpore are in danger.
Throughout India the native belief in the prestige of
British power has been destroyed, and where the Asiatic
has no dread of physical force he has no respect for moral
influence.

Over thousands of square miles, where three months
since Engliblitueu travelled in security unarmed, at this
moment European women for themselves and their chit•
dren court speedy death as a blessing.

On every highway lie the dishonoured and mutilated
remains of our countrywomen and their children and the
bodies of British soldiers and unarmed man foully mur-
dered.

The Government of the East India Company, to whose
care the interests of Great Britain in the East have been
confided, possess from their constitution absolute power.
They have a perpetual majority in the Legislative Council,
which is composed entirely of official persons.
They have the sole appointment to all offices with
the exception only of those of the Governur•General,
the Commander-in-Chief, and the Judges of the Supreme
Court.

There are no private or corporate rights that can be
effectually opposed to them, nor is there any representation
of public opinion.
In the country desolated by the rebels there are hundreds
of civil eervants, judges, magistrates, and collectors, village
chowkeilars and policemen in tens of thousands, and more
than 2,000 commissioned military officers—European and
native; and yet, if we may believe the Government, there
was not in all this vast establishment to be found one
person to acquaint the authorities of the existence of a con-
spiracy spread over countries many times larger than the
area of the British Isles, and in which upwards of a hundred
thousand soldiers have joined.
The rebellion broke out and found the Government
totally unprepared. No efficient commissariat, no organ-
ised means of procuring intelligence, and, with a few
brilliant exceptions, no men of sufficient capacity for
the emergency. At the commencement of the outbreak
Delhi, the largest arsenal of ordnance in the north-west
of India, the important military depot of Cawnpore, and
the fortress and arsenal of Allahabad, the key of the lower
provinces, were without a single European soldier to
defend them. The two former fell into the hands of the
insurgents.
On the 25th of may last, when a number of regiments
were in open revolt, when many treasuries had been
plundered and various important stations fallen into the
hands of the rebels, the Secretary to the Home De-
partment officially informed the inhabitants of Calcutta,
in answer to loyal addresses tendering aid and personal
service, that " the mischief caused by a passing and
groundless panic had already been arrested, and that
there was every reason to hope that in the course of a
few days tranquillity and confidence would be restored
throughout the Presidency."
_ _

From that hour to the present the policy of Government
has not undergone the slightest change. In the teeth of
events the most startling, in defiance of warnings the most
emphatic, they steadily persisted in ignoring the fact of
danger for which they had made no preparation.
On the 13th of June they passed a law which destroyed
the liberty of the press, and placed every journal in India
at the absolute feet of the executive authority.
Your petitioners refrain from here commenting on this
act of the Government, uncalled for by the occasion,
repugnant to British feeling, and subversive of the prin-
ciples of the British Constitution. This was done at a
time when the Government were receiving universal
support from the English portion of the press.
Your petitioners felt themselves bitterly aggrieved by
the attempted imposition of what is known as the Black
Act, but their feelings in that respect never hindered
them for a moment in coming forward to assist the
Government with heart and hand. Their offers were coldly
declined, though ultimately accepted when danger was too
apparent At the present moment not only does Calcutta
owe its chief security to European volunteers, but Govern•
meat have invited the enrolment of paid corps for service
in the interior.

The whole trade of the Presidency has suffered more or
less, many branches of it are ruined entirely. The sale
of imports is almost nominal, the cotton goods of England
are not t be digposed of even at great sacrifices. The
export of silk, indigo, and sugar, and other articles of
export will suffer considerable diminution for some seasons
to come in consequence of the destruction of many
factories and the loss of much capital.
In the train of the revolt it is more than probable that
famine with all its Indian horrors will follow.

To remedy all these evils and to fix on a firmer basis
the British power in the East your petitioners can alone
appeal to the British nation.
Your petitioners can look for no redress to the powers
to whom the Government of this great country is
delegated, they having shown themselves unequal to the
task.

The Government of the East India Company have
neither men, money, nor credit; what credit they had
was destroyed by their c.mduct in the late financial
operations.
The army has dissolved itself, the treasuries have
either been plundered by the rebels or exhausted by the
public service, and a loan, even at six pet cent., would
scarcely find subscribers.
When triingaillity is once restored, her Majesty's
Ministers will find that many millions sterling have been
added to the Indian debt, and that the annual deficits of
the Indian budget will be materially increased ; but under
good government your petitioners have the fullest confi-
dence that the boundless resourc,:ts of this vast country are
sufficient to meet all necessary demands of the State. The
system under which the country has been hitherto
governed, utterly antagonistic as it has ever been to the
encouragement of British settlement and enterprise in
India, has entirely failed to preserve the power of the
Queen, to win the affections of the natives, or to secure
the confidence of the British in India.

Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that your hon.
hcuse will adopt such measures as may be necessary for
removing the government of this country trom the East
India Company, and substituting in its place the direct
government of her Majesty the Queen, with an open
legislative council, suitable to the tequirementa of the
country and compatible with the British supremacy, Queen's
courts presided over by trained lawyers and with the English
language as the official court language.
And your petitioners will ever pray, itc.
Calcutta, August 3.