The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

• MR. BERNAL OSBORNE AT DOVER.

Mn. R. B. OSBORNE was last week entertained by
his constituents at a grand banquet in the new
Town-hall, Dover. Between 400 and 500 Liberal
electors sat down to dinner, and, after the usual
loyal and patriotic toasts had been duly responded
to, the CHAIRMAN (Mr. S. Finnis) proposed "The
Health of the Borough Members," explaining the
absence of Sir W. Russell, Bart., by the fact of that
gallant officer having sailed with his regiment to
India. _ _

Mr. B. OSBORNE responded, and briefly glancing
at the results of the session, which he charc.cterised
as " useful and not showy," rassed at once to the
great Indian question, and, deprecating the abuse
lavished upon Mr. Vernon Smith, said :
If anybody be to blame for supposed mismanagement of
Indian affairs, that blame ought to attach, not to an indi-
vidual, but to the united Cabinet.

He hoped that " very soon we shall hear that an
end has been put to this monstrous conspiracy," and
declared that he should not be satisfied with less
than the entire destruction of Delhi. Mr. B.
Osborne, admitting that we had had "fre-
quent warnings" as to the state of the native army,
confessed that "alas ! though forewarned we were
not forearmed." Other errors, too, had been com-
mitted. We persisted in a course "of petty inter.
ference " with native customs, which "could only
serve to exasperate and envenom our subjects."
But the policy most destructive to us, "most un-
wise, imprudent, and detrimental to the interests " of
England, was tliatj" of annexation " :
A hundred years ago all the territory we had in India
was a few factories on the Malabar and Coromandel
coasts, and in Bengal, amounting to not more than 5,000
square miles. The great Burke in his reflections o.i the
French Revolution in 1703 gave a solemn warning in his
celebrated passage against the ambition of Great Britain.
He says, " I dread that you should be too much dreaded,"
and the remarkable words which he adds are, " Our
empire in India is an awful thing." I have told you what
that empire was in 1757 ; what was it in 1703 in the time
of Lord Cornwallis's settlement ? It amounted to 200,000
square miles, with a population acknowledging British
sway of 40,000,000. What would Burke have said had he
lived to see that empire in 1857? The 200,000 square
miles under the policy of annexation have swelled to
7,000,000, with a population of 180,000,000. That,
indeed, is an awful empire, and ought not to be governed
on a narrow and contracted basis, still less on the
principles of forcing European notions upon Asiatic insti-
tutions.

With regard to domestic legislation, Mr. B. Osborne
expressed his opinions freely. He thought we were
" going too fast " in education, that the competitive
system should not be " forced on too rapidly," and
that he was prepared to advocate a measure of par-
liamentary reform
But if wo are to have another Reform Bill, I do regret
that there is one eminent public man who, whatever may
have been his political backelidings, is yet a fine specimen
of the English gentleman and the English Liberal, and
whose name is indissolubly intertwined with the brightest
triumphs of the Liberal cause—l regret that Lord John
Russell is not a member of the present Government. Be
is far too useful a man to be consigned to the dreary shade
of a back bench.

- - -
In conclusion, he thought the present Cabinet, in
which there was " community of sentiment and unity
of action," exactly fitted to meet a "crisis," whether
it be on reform or in India; in fact, he felt "con-
vinced" that it was for the interests of the empire
to have a man like Lord Palmerston at the head of
the Government, supported by a Cabinet of men
remarkable at least for industry, if not so well known
to the public as their distinguished chief, than it
would be to have a Cabinet of mere rhetorician.