The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APEIL 17, 1858.

deficiencies of defective parochial supervision
and Church accommodation.

Had the Dean taken the measures ho now
proposes
a year ago, he would have pleased
the taste of a year ago. That is all. But the
novelty has gone by; and surely it is not
gravely to be argued by ecclesiastical digni-
taries that the mere change of position in
celebrating Divine service under one roof,
will permanently insure enlarged congrega-
tions? People rush in crowds from curiosity
to see the nave of Westminster illuminated;
and, for a certain number of Sundays, the
same people will do the same thing at St.
Paul's. Here, however, the poetic vein of
Dean MILMAN comes in. He proposes not
only to fit up the space beneath the dome for
public preaching, at a cost of 1,0001, but at a
cost of 12,0001. to carry out a scheme for paint-
ing and decorating the walls of the Cathedral
suitably with the character of the architecture.
He wishes, in fact, to make art minister to
religion in a manner that every one who has
turned over the pages of MILDIAN'S "Horace "
can well believe would be severely correct, and
chaste, and beautiful. Now, if 12,0001. can be
raised for such a purpose, we shall rejoice
to see this design carried into effect.
That gloomy pile, with its cold, hare
stone walls, deserves better treatment
than it has ever yet received. It wants
what the Dean proposes : whether it will get
it, is quite another matter. In the love of art,
and the strong desire of Dean MILMAN to see
the fabric of which he is the keeper properly
decorated and adorned, we completely sympa-
thize. Without permitting ourselves to enter
upon the controversy between Grecian and
Gothic architecture, we think that every one
must admit that the Grecian wants warmth and
light. It has these in the lands to which it is
native, but it has tiem not in this land.
Marble capitals, shas, porticoes, be., even
when stained by the lees of ages, retain all
their lightness of appearance, and only acquire
warmth of colouring in Italy or Greece. In
England they acquire blackness, grime, and
dirt; for warmth, dinginess; for light, dark-
ness; and for depth of shadow, dust.
If, therefore, while Dean MILMAN had an
eye to OWXN Jorms and our frescoe painters
for the interior, he had also suggested a
brigade of ecclesiastical charwomen for the
exterior, we should have applauded all the
more strongly ; for, considering the uses to
which St. Paul's is dedicated, we can only look
upon it as a " standing evidence " to the ex-
ceptions of which the very best of proverbs
may admit; since here, at least, cleanliness
does not come next to godliness. Grecian
architecture, therefore, so far as St. Paul's may
be considered its representative iu London
(Vitruvius pax tibi), wants colouring, and light,
and warmth ; all which things St. Paul's does
not possess, and which the Dean would
supply.

But this is not the great object, after all.
The Dean's decorations are put forward as
subsidiary to opening St. Paul's for popular
services. Without wishing to seem to know
more than we do, we cannot help suspecting
that Dr MILMAN'S interest in the services and
the decorations bear about the same relative
proportion to one another as the cost of fitting
lip his Cathedral at 1,0001. and decorating it
for 12,0001. That is to say, his regard for the
services is as one in twelve to his desire for the
decorations We do not blame him if our suspi•
cion be correct; for the Dean probably considers
that these services will be ephemeral in their
character,while the decorations would be perma-
nent, and a beautiful monument of his Decanal
thoughtfulness. Had Dr. MILMAN been pecu
liarly anxious for these popular services he
would have urged them a year ago. He is
now behind the times. Even Mr. E. T. SMITH,
of Drury Lanel has been beforehand with him ;
and on the Horatian principle, "aut Rex, aut
Butor," while giving dramatic entertainments
Six days in the week, endeavoured to make
hay while the sun of the Spurgeon frenzy
shone, and to give religious entertainments on
the seventh.

The Dean and his services we regarl as a
mistake ; the Dean and his frescoes we readily
Consent unto, but with small hope of their ac-
complishment. It will never make any perm*.

rent difference in Westminster Abbey or St.
Paul's whether the pulpit stands in the chancel
or in the nave. We almost smile at the principle
to which these special services practically
reduce themselves, which is, that gas-fittings
and preaching at the west end of a church
rather than the east are calculated to attract
the multitude and to enforce the truths of
Christianity. As we have said, whenever St.
Paul's is opened we quite believe crowds will
rush, and crush, and cram the place as they
have done in Westminster Abbey; but it will
not be long before the same crowds have
melted away, finding newer attractions than
gas-fittings and the appearance of a Cathedral
lighted up at night. It is not this, nor the
moving of a pulpit from one part of a church
to another, that will make the voice of Chris-
tianity heard among the people. It is not the
pulpit, but the men who are put into it, that
ought to be the consideration of our spiritual
overseers. If courses of sermons upon the
truths of Christianity by the ablest divines
of the age were delivered in St. Paul's
or Westminster—if the subjects were pub-
licly known, and a bold front was displayed
against all the levity and latitudinarian style
of writing upon the doctrines of our faith
which is so common in the present age—if the
doctors of our temples exhibited themselves
able and ready to cope with the disguised ene-
mies of the cross of CHRIST, and stood forth
preachers, like PAUL, to reason with the most
accomplished, learned, and sceptical minds of
our times, we should see a righteous purpose
undertaken that would engage and even rivet
the attention of the nation. It would tend to
drive back that wave of Infidelity which has
lashed itself into rage against the bulwarks of
Christianity, and it would establish a series of
special services beneficial to the last degree at
the moment, and, by the Divine blessing, per-
manently useful, not only to the metropolis,
but, through the press, to the nation at large.
Let St. Paul's be opened and decorated for
such a purpose as this, the spirit that once
lived at Paul's Cross coming back again to its
former house swept and garnished, and we
believe Dean MILMAN will then leave a name
behind him which will be tableted, not on his
Cathedral's cold stone walls, but in the hearts
of the people.

365

She made shirting. and stockings for all civi-
lized humanity. Mills rose, and wealth accu-
mulated, and hands grew too few in number
to supply the demand for cotton-workers. So
they were imported from Ireland and else-
where. And soon it began to be perceived
that the people fitted for cotton-working were
little fitted for other employments. They
who could forge and work their indige-
nous iron could not spin the exotic cotton,
and so the cotton-mills became the centres of
colonies of imported workpeople, who could
be distinguished off-hand from the indigenous
inhabitants. The keen, strong-bodied men of
Blackstone Edge and elsewhere, probably the
mingled race of the old Saxon and Colt of
the traditional ARTHUR'S time, were the
masters ; the colonists were the vassals
—well-paid vassals while too few for the work.
but still vassals, and when they had " filled up
their numbers," constantly lowering in value.
And in process of time wives and children
competed with husbands and fathers in order
to swell up the general wages of the family.

Peace came, and vain wore legislative en-
deavours to prevent the export of machinery.
Very pleasant it might have been to have
had the exclusive manufacture of the
clothing of all the world at our own
prices, but this did not fall within the scope
of PROVIDICNCE. It was no small honour, no
little prestige, and not a little profit, which
had been awarded to us for leading the van of
progress; and it was destined also that in the
fulness of time other nations should follow in
our footsteps. America, France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, and other countries gradually
acquired the same machinery as ourselves,
and though we had the advantage of being
first in the field, with accumulated skill, they
would insist upon doing their own work, trying
to balance their disadvantage by exclusive
laws.

To meet this, began the cutting down of
wages, met by " Strikes," and reasserted in
occasional " Lock-outs." And then, when
wages could bear no mare reduction, the old
genius of Lancashire arose again in its mettle,
and new and improved machinery added more
miles of cloth to the quantity that could be made
for a given sum of money. Still the opponents
held their own ; they sacrificed their true wel-
fare in many things in ordar to conquer in one;
and the battle has been waged from that time
to this with alternate victory and defeat; our
millowners constantly endeavouring to do a
larger business to make up for a smaller rate
of profit. The manufacture became a specu-
lation, as much as that of the Stock Exchange
—with years of loss to be counterbalanced by
periods of exorbitant profits—but far more
mischievous in its effects, inasmuch as the
comforts or miseries of a large number of
human beings went up and down in the
balance. And withal the profits are con-
tinuously dwindling, and the cost of the raw
material is continually increasing, while the
amount of the wages paid is lessening. In
proof of this, the tables of Messrs, Du PAY
and Co. of Manchester, published in their
Monthly Trade Report, give the results of the
year 1852 as sixty-one and a half millions of
pounds sterling in value produced, out of
which forty four millions and three quarters
are left for wages, cost, and profit. after pay-
ing for the cotton about sixteen millions and
three. quarters. But in the year 1857 the total
value in pounds sterling was ouly fifty-six
millions and a quarter, out of which only
thirty millions were left for wages, cost, and
profit, after paying twenty-six millions for the
cotton.

Thus, therefore, there is a constant tendency
to the growth of a large class of workpeople
with insufficient and fluctuating wages a
class in which women and children are em-
ployed in " divisional " labour, without any
resource in case of work falling off. Moreover,
the class of work tends to induce feeble and
delicate bodies, and they are wholly depen-
dent fur work on a slave-grown material, the
sudden dearth of which would be equivalent
to privation of food and wide-spread calamity;
a pauperism more or less pervading the whole
nation.

It is a maxim that " trade knowsino friend-
ships." It seeks to make profit in any way it

the not ye tong oeroro me same crowas nave ue oiemigulSllCH on-nand trona the indigenous
certain number of Sundays, and, fora melted away, finding newer attractions than inhabitants. The keen, strong-bodied men of
same people will do the same thing at St.
gas-fittings and the appearance of a Cathedral Blackstone Edge and elsewhere, probably the
Paul's. Here, however, the poetic vein of
lighted up at night. It is not this, nor the mingled race of the old Saxon and Colt of
Dean MILMAN comes in. He proposes not
moving of a pulpit from one part of a church the traditional ARTHUR'S time, were the
only to fit up the space beneath the dome for
to another, that will make the voice of Chris- masters ; the colonists were the vassals
public preaching, at a cost of 1,000/ , but at a
tianity heard among the people. It is not the —well-paid vassals while too few for the work.
cost of 12,0001. to carry out a scheme for paint-
pulpit, but the men who are put into it, that but still vassals, and when they had " filled up
ing and decorating the walls of the Cathedral
ought to be the consideration of our spiritual their numbers," constantly lowering in value.
suitably with the character of the architecture.
overseers. If courses of sermons upon the And in process of time wives and children
He wishes, in fact, to make art minister to
truths of Christianity by the ablest divines competed with husbands and fathers in order
religion in a manner that every one who has
of the age were delivered in St. Paul's to swell up the general wages of the family.
turned over the pages of MILDIAN'S "Horace " or Westminster—if the subjects were pub- Peace came, and vain wore legislative en-
can well believe would be severely correct, and licly known, and a bold front was displayed
chaste, and beautiful. Now, if 12,0001. can bedeavours to prevent the export of machinery.
against all the levity and latitudinarian style
raised for such a purpose, we shall rejoice Very pleasant it might have been to have
writing of
wrng upon the doctrines of our faith
to see this design carried into effect.had the exclusive manufacture of the
which is so common in the present age—if the
That gloomy pile, with its cold, bare clothing of all the world at our own
ves doctors of our temples exhibited themselves
stone walls, deserves better treatment prices, but this did not fall within the scope
able and readytocope withdisguised ene-of PROVIDENCE. It was no small honour, no
than it has ever yet received. It wants
mica of the cross of CHRIST, and stood forth little prestige, and not a little profit, which
what the Dean proposes whether it will get
preachers, like PAUL, to reason with the most
it, is quite another matter. In the love of art,had been awarded to us for leading the van of
and the strong desire of Dean MILMAN to see
accomplished, learned, and sceptical minds of progress; and it was destined also that in the
should
see a righteous purpose
times, we
the fabric of which he is the keeper properly our fulness of time other nations should follow in
decorated and adorned, we completely sympa-
Without permitting ourselves to enter undertaken that would engage and even rivet our footsteps. America, France, Germany,
the attention of the nation. It would tend to Italy: Spain, and other countries gradually
thize.
drive back that wave of Infidelity which has
upon the controversy between Grecian and acquired the same machinery as ourselves,
lashed itself into rage against the bulwarks of and though we had the advantage of being
Gothic architecture, we think that every one
must admit that the Grecian wants warmth and
Christianity, and it would establish a series of first in the field, with accumulated skill, they
special services beneficial to the last degree at
light. It has these in the lands to which it is would insist upon doing their own work, trying
native, but it has tom not in this land. the moment, and, by the Divine blessing, per- to balance their disadvantage by exclusive
i
manently useful, not only to the metropolis, laws.
Marble capitals, shafts, porticoes, &a, even but, through the press, to the nation at large.
when stained by the lees of ages, retain all To meet this, began the cutting down of
their lightness of appearance, and only acquire Let St. Paul's be opened and decorated for wages, met by " Strikes," and reasserted in
warmth of colouring in Italy or Greece. In such a purpose as this, the spirit that once occasional " Lock-outs." And then, when
England they acquire blackness, grime, and lived at Paul's Cross coming back again to its wages could bear no mare reduction, the old
dirt; for warmth, dinginess; for light, dark- former house swept and garnished, and we genius of Lancashire arose again in its mettle,
ness; and for depth of shadow, dust. believe Dean MILMAN will then leave a name and new and improved machinery added more
If, therefore, while Dean MILMAN had an behind him which will be tableted, not on his miles of cloth to the quantity that could be made
eye to Owxa JONES and our frescos painters Cathedral's cold stone walls, but in the hearts for a given sum of money. Still the opponents
for the interior, he had also suggested a of the p eople. held their own ; they sacrificed their true wel-
in to
brigade of ecclesiastical charwomen for the
fare in many things
exterior, we should have applauded all the and the battle has been waordorged from that time conquer in one;
this with alternate victory and defeat; our
more strongly ; for, considering the uses to THE COTTON MANUFACTURES OF to
llowners constantly endeavouring to do a
which Sr. Paul's is dedicated, we can only look mi
upon it as a " standing evidence " to the ex-
GREAT BRITAIN. larger business to make up for a smaller rate
ceptions of which the very best of proverbs THE "blue cloth of Surat," such as Robinson of profit. The manufacture became a specu-
may admit; since here, at least, cleanliness Crusoe traded in, the pink cloth of Nankin,
lation, as much as that of the Stock Exchange
does not come next to odliness. Grecian '
—with years of loss to be counterbalanced by
g the white cloth of Calicut, and the muslins, periods of exorbitant profits—but far more
architecture, therefore, so far as St. Paqrs may
be considered its representative iu London plain,flowered, and goldand silver embroidered, mischievous in its effects, inasmuch as the
(Vitruvius pax tibi), wants colouring, and light, were the cotton products of the East, brought comforts or miseries of' a large number of
bhu beings went up and down in the
.man
and warmth ; all which things St. Paul's does hither by commerce when English enterprise
i
not possess, and which the Dean would followed the track of the great ALBUQUERQUE. aance. And withal the profits are con-
supply. tinuously dwindling, and the cost of the raw
And this commerce would have continued till material is continually increasing, while the
The Dean's
But this is n
decorations not the great object, after all.
are put forward as now, had not WATr, AMU/RIGHT, CROMPTON, and amount of the wages paid is lessening. In
Du
subsidiary to opening St. Paul's for popular other inventors, produced the steam-engine,
proof of this, the tables of Messrs, ,
inPAY
services. Without wishing to seem to know the spinning-jenny, and the power-loom.
and Co. of Man
more than we do, we cannot help suspecting Monthly Trade Report,cte g published theirive the results of the
'Cris
spinning and weaving labour of year 1852 as sixty-one and a half millions of
that Dr MILMAN'S interest in the services and pounds sterling in value produced, out of
India was the cheapest in the known world,
the decorations bear about the same relative
and no competition could have inter- which forty four millions and three quarters
proportion to one another as the coat of fitting
about
857 t
up hie Cathedral at 1,000/. and decorating it fared with it, had not the powers of nature
are left for wages, cost, and profit, after pay-
for sixteen mihe totalllions and
i three-auarters. Butn the year 1
for 12,0001. That is to say, his regard for the been developed by the brain of man to make
ing for the cotton
services is as one in twelve to his desire for the art or secondary nature triumph over simple
value in pounds sterling was out fifty-six
decorations We do not blame him if' our suspi- nature. And so cotton was carried from India millions and a quarter, out of which only
cion be correct ; for the Dean probably considers
that these services will be ephemeral in their to England, and spun into yarns, which were thirty millions were left for wages, cost, and
character,while the decorations would be perms- carried back to India to weave into cloths, profit, after paying twenty-six millions for the
neat, and a beautiful monument of his Decanal and finally both the yarn and the cloths cotton.
thoughtfulness. Thus, therefore, there is a constant tendency
Had Dr. MILMAN been pecu themselves were manufactured in this
hall), anxious for these popular services he to the growth of a large class of workpeople
country ; and so the triumph was complete . .
would have urged them a year ago. He is with insufficient and fluctuating wages a
now behind the times. Even Mr. E. T. SMITH, of art and industry over natural circumstances. class in which women and children are em-
of Drury Lane, has been beforehand with him ; India ceased to produce yarns and clo the of ployed in " divisional " labour, without any
and_ on the Horatian principle, "aut Rex, aut cotton save for coarse home purposes, using resource in case of work falling off. Moreover,
Butor," while giving dramatic entertainments labour that had no other employment save the class of work tends to induce feeble and
Six days in the week, endeavoured to make delicate bodies, and they are wholly depen-
hay while the sun of the Spurgeon frenzy that and the production of barbaric glitter. dent fur work on a slave-grown material, the
shone, and to give religious entertainments on sudden dearth of which would be equivalent
Europe indulged in war, and England reaped
the seventh. to privation of food and wide-spread calamity;
the fruits of the inventive faculties of Lan-
The Dean and his services we regard as a a pauperism more or less pervading the whole
c
mistake ; the Dean and his frescoes we readily
She supplied the European and nation.
consent unto, but with small hope of their so-American world and parts of Asia and Africa It is a maxim that " trade knowsino friend-
complishinent. It will never make any puma- with cotton cloths, printed and unprinted. ships." It seeks to make profit in any way it

366

can, without consideration of its neighbours.
There are many trades very profitable to the
employers, such as shirtmaking under
our London contractors, but which only
exist by the aid of a large mass of misery
amongst the workers. If it could be demon-
strated that such trades were of no value save
to a few employers, and that they resulted in
misery and pauperism to the nation, as tending
to collect and perpetuate helpless people, the
Legislature would have as much right to pro-
hibit it as it has to prohibit the propagation of
the smallpox or other disorders ; and some
have said that the general cotton trade comes
under this category, inasmuch as it tends to
the growth of unhealthy creatures, deteriorating
the stock and race of the English people,
and threatening them at last with permanent

The nation has aright to say that it will not
permit its stock and staple to be deteriorated.
The happiness of a community depends on
the general health of its members, on their
power to labour, on their skill, and on their
strength to defend their natal soil against
enemies. Now, it is well known that we can-
not get soldiers out of our cotton-mill popula-
tion ; they are not of the right staple. The
mill owners are strong and stout enough, but
they do not go for soldiers—they prefer profits ;
and the processes they resort to to get pro-
fits in difficult times are not such as to elevate
their moral sense. We have heard of a mill-
owner rebuking his foreman in bad times for
not making fines enough on tho workmen.
On the foreman replying that the work was all
well done, and there was no pretext for fining,
the owner's reply was, " I must find a foreman
" who can make fines, for all my profits come
"from fines." This system of mulcting the
wages-sheet is practically a system of slavery,
a contrivance to keep people at low wages,
analogous to that of the Scottish West India
planter, who, when prices were low, invented
the plan of feeding the negroes on " fish wib
one yeye ;" splittin*.the ration herring into two
sepat ate meals.
The fear of a dearth of cotton has led Man-
chester men to speculate on the possibility of
eking out the supply of American cotton with
East Indian. It is known that any amount of
cotton can be had from India, providing only
roads can be obtained. But it does not seem
to have occurred to the millowners that there
are other things in India besides cotton;
there is coal in abundance, and also iron.
But there is also another matter as important
as both of these—the delicate-fingered work-
people in any quantity, who can spin and
weave cotton in any quantity, provided only
that the mills and machinery be put up ; and
there is no need to build the mills in many
stories, as at Manchester. They may be built
like MARSHALL'S flax-mill at Leeds, on the
surface, with a roof of any thickness, to keep
out surplus heat. Now, if the cotton be
grown in India, it will not be very long before
some Manchester millowners will transplant
there the steam engine and machinery to
the aid of the indigenous Indian labourers.
The Indians are:our fellow•subjects ; they rebel
simply because they can get no work to do
but soldiering, and they are a staple of in-
exhaustible wealth so soon as they can be set
to work. In the olden time they made cotton
cloth at Calicut and elsewhere at a penny a
day. They would gladly do it now at three-
pence per day ; for their food in the warm
climate is far less costly than in England, and
there needs no artificial warming in Indian
mills.

How, therefore, can Lancashire or Yorkshiso
or Scotland compete with Indian labour, being
respectively as eighteenpence and threepence,
.opposing all other circumstances to be
equal? It is obvious that the same pro-
cess which gave India the monopoly of cotton-
working in former times, and which she lost
by the balance struck in favour of the English
mill system, will restore the monopoly to India
if ever she attains to the possession of mills of
her own.

It is among the possible things that Cotton
Lancashire should cease to exist. There is a
greater thing behind—lron Lancashire. The
cotton trade is an exotic—a rapid growth that
never boasted a firm foundation. The iron
trade is indigenous; it existed before the

Corrtspontlnct.

IN ()lAN GOVERNMENT.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."

Sir,—lt was my intention to have asked your per-
mission to follow up the remarks contained in my
two letters which you have already published, by the
suggestion in a third of some specific propositions
for giving effect to the principles I have advanced,
as indispensable for the good government of India.
But the various manifestations of hostility
to both the bills now before Parliament, in
which my own judgment decidedly concurred, led
me to the conclusion, that if any practical benefit
was to be effected by suggestions from a private
source—which I am sensible many will consider pre-
sumptuous, and some may deem impertinent, but to
which I am impelled by conscientious feeling alone—
that object was more likely to be attained by an en.
deavour to keep the public mind fixed on great
principles, than by distracting and confusing atten-
tion in the 'multiplication of propositions of detail,
which I felt bad been already unwisely put forward
before a determination had been taken on the

principles themselves. I had consequently prepared
a letter in which T not only urged the propriety of
the withdrawal of both bills, but strongly recom-
mended that, following the precedent of 1813,
"Resolutions " should be submitted to the House of
Commons, the decision on which should become the
basis for legislation on this momentous subject. In
short, I advised the very same course that Lord John
Russell has since taken, and supported it by the
very same arguments.
The adoption of that course however by Lord John,
and the discussions to which it has given rise, have
placed the question in a new light, and induced me
to substitute a different letter. It is certain that
public opinion will, after all, now decide the issue be•
tween the principles involved in the affirmation of
prerogative doctrines and Ministerial power, cloaked
under the flimsy guise of a pretended but im-
practicable responsibility on the one band, and on
the other the assertion of the really constitutional
right of the people to representative institutions,
effectual control over the Executive Government, and
just participation in the power and patronage of the
State. This, divesting the question of all the pe-
dantry and technicality under which intriguing poli-
ticians delight in obscuring the truth, will be the
substantial issue on which battle must be joined ;
and it. becomes therefore of the last importance that,
anticipating the struggle, public attention should be
forcibly and clearly drawn to the facts and reason-
ings, the consideration of which can alone lead to a
sound conclusion.

Passing by, then, all minor points of detail, it
seems plain that the fundamental questions which
Parliament will he called on to determine, under
whatever form they may be submitted, will be—Shall
India be governed through the agency of a Council,
absolutely invested with all the substantial powers
requisite for good government, and only controlled in
their exercise by strictly constitutional checks?—
Or shall the government be in real fact handed over
to the Crown, shielded from actual responsibility by
the sham of a mere consultative Council, the off-
spring of Ministerial patronage, and the pliant instru-
ment of changing Ministerial policy or caprice ?
Lord Palmerston, by his bill rendering the Council
nominative and depriving it of all practical power,
affirms the latter proposition. Lord Derby's bill,
admitting the great constitutional principle of repre-
sentation and election(though too imperfect to accom-

plish its end), would, if its principle were boldly
vindicated, establish and confirm the former. Which
will the good sense and the patriotism of English-
men prefer? Absolutism or Representative Govern.
ment ?

I perceive the Times evades these questions, by
declaring that the course of proceeding by " Resolu-
tions" is " unprecedented," and the admission of the
representative principle " utterly unconstitutional."
Let us examine these pleas in succession.
And first as to the absence of precedent. Unable
to ignore that of 1813, the Times asserts that there
is no similarity between the two cases—the adoption
of Resolutions in 1813 being for the purpose of
"carrying out a simple and admitted principle
while the object at present is the forming a measure
"embracing a variety of principles." Now surely
this antithesis, instead of negativing the similarity,
affords an argument a fortiori for following the
precedent. Resolutions are never adopted by the
House of Commons iu connection with legislation,
except for the affirmation of priuciples to be subse.
quently embodied in laws. If, then, in 1813 it was
right to affirm by Resolution a simple and acknow.
ledged principle, surely it must be infinitely more
proper that the same course should be taken in
reference to a measure embracing many and dis-
puted principles. Moreover, it seems undeniable
that if this description of the present measure be
correct, it is only by Resolutions that Parliament can
possibly legislate without absurdity. The second
reading of a bill is for the admitted purpose of de-
ciding on its principle, and on that only; the discus.
sion of details is in that stage inadmissible. If, then,
a measure includes many principles, how is the
house to determine as to the reception or rejection ?
It may approve a portion of them, and disapprove
others. How is the question to be submitted on
them separately, when the only admissible question
is, shall the bill be read a second time or not Pro.
ceediog by Resolutions, this difficulty is obviated.
Eazh in succession is discussed and decided on ; and
the "variety of principles" settled, a bill is intro-
duced founded on the whole settlement.
Having thus disposed of the objection that pro.
ceeding by Resolutions is " unprecedentee," and
demonstrated that it is not only not " against com-
mon sense," as the Times asserts, bat that itis the
only course common sense would dictate, I proceed
to grapple with the objection 'that the introduction of
the elective principle into the formation of the
Council " offends against the first principles of the
British Constitution."

In making this assertion,the Times wholly ignores
the anomalous circumstances which surround and
control the determination of a form of government
for India. If it were possible to adhere strictly to
constitutional principles, it would surely not be con-
tended that it would be consistent to hand over to
the Crown the entire administration of Indian

affairs, with all its enormous power and patronage,
through the agency of a Minister, aided, but not
controlled, by a Council to be nominated wholly by
the Sovereign, as Lord Palmerston proposes by his
bill, which the Times defends. Again, can it be for
a moment urged that the powers so long exercised
by the Directors of the East India Company, under
the sanction of British law, are not accordant with
the principles of the Constitution ? Yet these are
the very powers to be simply transferred to the new
governing authority, and if so transferred to tho
Crown, as proposed by Lord Palmerston's bill, the
Times can discover in them nothing unconstitutional.
The truth is, that if it were possible to adhere to the
principles of the Constitution, direct representative
institutions would be given to India, as they have been
given to Australia, to Canada, to Jamaica, to every one
of our important colonial possessions. But though
this is impossible, the impossibility constitutes no
reason why the leading constitutional principles,
which we so value and cherish at home, should not
be followed as far as differing circumstances will
permit, in establishing regulations for the
government of India. Of these principles, one of
the most, perhaps the most, valuable is justly held
to be that of representation ; and if it can be shown,
as in my first letter I endeavoured to show, that its
application to Indian government is practicable and
safe, I maintain that its adoption is in strictest
harmony with the spirit of the British Constitution,
and claims the support of every friend of popular
rights, and of every opponent of official intrigue,
corruption, and monopoly. I trust. therefore, chat
the Resolutions the Government will
propose will
distinctly and boldly assert that principle; and I sin
satisfied that if then driven by factious combinstion
to appeal to tho people, the hustings will vindicate
what party intrigue in the House of Commons rosy
defeat, and ate 180 millions of our fellow-country-
men in the East may have a reasonable chance of
being governed in the spirit of those institutions
which have conferred on the people of this favoured
land so large a portion of security, prosperity, liberty,
and happiness.—l am, sir, your faithful and obedient
servant, Orin Romsxus.
Reigate, April 15, 1858.

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