The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

The Rebellion in India : flow to Prevent Another.
By John Bruce Norton. London : Richard-
son Brothers.
THE author of this volume—written in India,
but published here—is a barrister very favour-
ably known at Madras. He practises in both
her Majesty's and the Company's Courts, and,
therefore, is well qualified by experience to
speak as to the comparative merits of each.
In the latter he has held the office of Govern-
ment pleader, and in the former it is under-
stood that he was offered that of A dvocate-
General, but declined it on the honourable
ground that his motives might be liable to
misconstruction in accepting such an office
from a Government to which he had uni-
formly been opposed. On this point, how-
ever, we speak under correction, our only
authority for the statement being that it was
so reported in the Indian journals some time
ago. To his eminent qualities we can testify
with more certainty ; indeed, he has long
taken the lead in all matters relating to the
reform of abuses at Madras. His exposure of
the absurdities so frequently exhibited in the
judgments of the Company's judges there has
done much to make the administration of
justice more careful and conscientious
than it was previously ; while his dentin
eiationg of the cruelties practised on the ryots
led to the establishment of the Madras Tor-
ture Commission, on which Lord Harris had
the manliness to place him as a member, with
what result the fearless exposure made by
that commission sufficiently shows. We may
remark that it is with sorrow, though not with
surprise, that we learn from his present work
that since the cry on that subject has died
away, the evils then laid bare have been left
unheeded, and that the ryots have been al-
lowed to remain as subject to these inflictions
as they were before the commission sat. Such
has ever been the way with the Company, as
even Macaulay, their great advocate, long
since pointed out. Penning despatches full
of humanity and fine feeling, to refer to when
attacked ; but taking no care whatever to see
that their servants carried their injunctions
out. On the contrary, giving them orders on
the subject of the necessity of collecting for
them the largest possible revenue, which they
must have known to be wholly incompatible
with the views of general benevolence which
they affected so strong a desire to enforce.
Mr. Norton's opinions as to the causes of
the rebellion differ wholly from those that
have been generally expressed by the Minis-
terial organs of public opinion here. He does
not favour the theory of spontaneous combus-
tion, or that of sepoys being like children, or
of natives being liable to sudden panics, or of
the whole being a wonderful and incompre-
hensible mystery, or of any other of the Direc-
torial absurdities of a similar kind. He takes
the plain, common sense view that Nature fol-
lows everywhere Nature's laws, and that the
people of India have rebelled simply because
they have been subjected to an amount of
misgovernment that would have equally, and
much sooner, produced a rebellion among our-
selveri. Nor does be fail to give numerous
illustrations and most convincing proofs of
this view, while anticipating what will be said
on the other side ; and thus, with wonderful
prescience, he foreshadows the line of argu
meat that the organs of the Government would
put forth :
When the present rebellion has been suppressed (I write
while it is still unchecked) and its immediate authors pu-
nished, I doubt not we shall be told that such outbursts
visit India periodically; that we are stronger than ever,
since the native soldiery has seen the hops lessness of
revolt. Historical precedents of former dangers, which
threatened our empire with ruin, and which have been
averted, will be quoted. It will be asserted, that the origin
of the present crisis is purely military disaffection, such
as that which formerly led to the mutiny at Vellore, or all
but broke out among even the European officers of the
Indian army in Clive's time. It will be declared to be
entirely isolated from the people ; that the masses took no
share in it, and that it does not afford any proof, indeed
scarcely leads to any inference, that the people at large are
disaffected. Indeed, the apathy of the people to the events
passing among them will be cited u a convincing proof
that the Government is in the main popular ; and thus the
rebellion will be vouched as a test both of our strength
and our popularity. Those remedies, it will be arid, are
sufficient which seek to improve the condition of the
native army, or by the increase of the European regiments
to counterpoise and overawe the turbulent native troops.
These and the lute line yf srpment viii be egcluJously