The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

1132

THE WEEK.

Timm are so many rumours and reports about Indian affairs float-
ing in the atmosphere of London that it is difficult to analyse, and
almost impossible to abstract, the truth. There is no doubt, however,
that matters are iu a sad mess at Calcutta. There is no commissariat,
and for transport they have the bullock-train and 700 bullocks. At a
bat glance the bullock-train with its 700 bullocks looks efficient, and
sounds well. But what is the bullock-train ? It is the long-estab-
lished country carrier of Cal cutta ; and with these means the Governer
General and Council write in the highest spirits—Lord CANNING
always writes in the " highest spirits "—that they intend to transport
the army of relief to the seat of war. Seeing that the war, more or
less, rages over the whole of India, we think the bullock-train will
scarcely prove adequate to the requireinents of the service. So
much for the land transport which the Governor General and
Council have been able in four months to prepare for the army.
As for river transport, it is limited, we believe, to three steamers
and a raft. With these conveniences, the question very naturally
arises whether the Government, if it cannot procure bullocks for
draught, can procure them for food, and whether the supply of stores
and ammunition is ample and extensive. Authentic letters from head-
quarters state that there is a miserable deficiency of both, and that
the Crimean army was never " at any period " one half so badly off for
transport and stores as the expected troops from England will be when
they reach Calcutta.
As to the general position of affairs at Delhi and Lucknow, we
think the public and private letters published this week fully bear out
the views we expressed in our last issue It is clear that General
WILSON'S force at Delhi is lamentably weak, and even at the moment
of assault the entire available army scarcely exceeded one half of the
reinforcements the Ministerial journals assured us alone arrived at
camp under General NICHOLSON. General WiLsos at the latest dates
had only 1,800 Europeans left! And when will any more reach him ?
The Punjaub is denuded of troops indeed so thoroughly that the hill
and other predatory tribes exhibit an unmistakeable tendency to take
advantage of the situation to excite disaffection among the villagers
and to plunder the towns.
With respect to Lucknow, the apprehensions we expressed last
week have been fully confirmed. We cannot regard General 013 TRAM'S
position with confidence or satisfaction. He has revictualled the
Residency, but,he cannot get back to Cawnpore. Now, the question is,
how long will it be before relief reach him, and to what extent?
Some 2,000 men were at Sir COLIN CAMPBELL'S disposal,
and another 1,000 were daily expected at Calcutta. OUTRAN
asked for 5,000 and 12 heavy guns. Sir COLIN CAMPBELL was of
opinion that 20,000 men and 50 guns would be required to effect his
relief. All this is very sad ; and it is not brightened by the latest
report among us—the capture of Malaghur, a small fortified village
about seven miles in the rear of Lucknow, and which event would
appear to indicate the line of retreat attempted by OUTRAN. We
must hope for the best, however. We know that we can place full
reliance upon his troops ; and if his provisions only hold out, we shall
yet see the poor worn-out little garrison of Lucknow brought off in
safety.

We trust that the report of the resignation of Sir ARCHDALE
Wasow, on account of illness; may prove to be erroneous. Our readers
will recollect that this intelligence has never been received by the
Government, but is only to be found in a hurrried postscript to the
letter of the Bombay correspondent of the Times. Now, we have
reason to believe that the last letter received from Lady WlLaow,
dated Mussooree, four days from Delhi, state that she hears that
her husband is in excellent health. In fact, one of her friends writes
her word from the camp that " the General appears to thrive on his
" work." We are sure that all our readers will unite with us in an eai neat
hope that the next mail will show that the Gallant General has not
succumbed to the climate at the very moment of the achievement of
his glorious triumph.

Once more has the Leviathan been tried for launching, and once
more the trial failed. This time the failure was purely mechanical.
The mooring chain gave way, and the piles could not stand the enor
mous pressure put upon them. At the first trial the failure was really
attributable to the men, and we think it is to be regretted that on
such an occasion a powerful body of seamen were not borrowed for the
work. Tack would never have committed the blunder of " slacking
back" instead of " heaving taut " the capstan, and the shrill pipe of one
boatswain's mate would be worth forty of your London boys with their
nutty little flags and vacant ignorance. Conceive for a moment
a first-lieutenant on board ship reefing topsails by means of signal
flags ! If you want organisation and unanimous effort in a
vast body of men, and with complicated machinery, you must appeal to
the ear, not to the eye. Had Mr. BRUNEL done so in the first place all
would have gone well, and the great ship Leviathan would have been
now floating on the waters. As to the utter folly exhibited in build-
ing on a bank a ship, to admit which there is not a constructed cradle
dock in any of the ports of Europe, we need not say much. The
company will no sooner have launched tier than they must build a dry
dock for her, and why in the name of common sense could this dock

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 21, 1857.

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not have been built in the first instance, and the ship built within the
dock? It is difficult to say now when the shit► will get off. The ways
arc sinking, that there is no doubt about ; and if they sink much more
before the ship is launched she will have to be raised, the old slips
removed, and new ones constructed.

Once upon a time the Marylebone Vestry used to be held up
as the model of a deliberative assembly, in which a taste for public
life, it love of real power, and a talent for oratory could all find room
for development, without subjecting the aspirant to a column and
a half of sarcasm every other morning in the week, and a dissatisfied
deputation on the other three. The mantle of Marylebone has [fallen
upon Guildhall. " What Timotheus was is Dryden now."
It is not easier to conceive a more pleasant debating
society than that which meets every month under the
presidency of Mr. THWAITES. It certainly labours under
what some people might consider the slight drawback of being
totally useless. But this is a narrow-minded view of the ques-
tion. We hate people who are always asking cui bone ? And it makes
us proud of our country to peruse the temperate but firm expos-
tulations of a BRISTOW, the honest indignation of a TAYLOR, and the
prophetic foresight of a HARRISON. The WENTWORTHS and the
STOREYS of Queen ELIZABETH'S reign are the only parallels to these
heroic patriots ; and it demands the pen of a HALLAM to do justice to
their protests against the unconstitutional encroachments of the Chief
Commissioner, and the courtly subservience of his creature WILKINSON.
In the meantime, whether or no London is relieved of its sewage or
not makes very little difference to each individual. His adhesion or
opposition to Sir BEN.Lonsfs policy makes each member of the Board
a man of importance. He has his talk gratis, and can persuade him-
self at the same time that he is really that idol of true-born Britons—
a practical man. " Peace to all such." But who, we ask, is really the
responsible cause of all this wretched tomfoolery ? Who supplies fuel
to the indignation of these city orators? Whose self-sufficient obsti-
nacy alone prevents the settlement of this important sanitary ques-
tion? All we can say is, that if it be not Sir BENJAMIN HALL, then the
cause must be sought in the radical unsoundness of the principle on
which the new Board is organised. One of the twolrmust be to blame,
' if not both ; and the public, as it certainly pays the money, may take
the choice.

It is only a short time ago that we felt it our duty to call public
attention to the abuses of our metropolitan police-courts. Public
opinion only reaches these tribunals by a circuitous route, and then
only in the case of such victims as are not likely to conic under their
jurisdiction very frequently. We know nothing more of the case of
Sir ARCHIBALD MACLAINE'S servants than we have gathered from
the reports of our contemporaries. But we are heartily
glad to see that Sir ARCHIBALD has expressed his deter-
mination to investigate this affitir. Policemen are sufficiently
obtrusive in their ordinary capacity ; but when " detectives
"in plain clothes" hang about people's carriages, and assume a
despotic right of controlling their movements, we are inclined to won-
der at the perpetual invocations to liberty with which the English
press teems. The behaviour of the London police is becoming abso-
lutely inquisitorial. We only hope their insolence may lead them ere
long to lock up a bishop for the night, and then we may have some
hopes of being permitted the use of the flagstones and gas, for which
we yearly pay a round sum, without interruption.

Our prospects for the winter are not so bright as we could
wish. The existing commercial crisis has produced its usual results.
A large proportion of the manufacturing population are thrown out of
work, and it is to be feared that even those who are fortunate enough
to continue employed must submit to considerable inconvenience front
the want of ready money for their wages. We apprehend, moreover,
that the mischief will not be confined to the more especially commer-
cial districts. The stoppage of banks in the agricultural counties must
be attended with severe distress and wide-spread embarrassment.
Pendent opera interrupta. Improvement will be checked, and industry
baffled. Capital is the heart's blood of labour, and flows from our
great commercial centres through every vein of our social system. A
sudden stoppage of the currency is to the body politic what a sudden
chill is to the human frame. It languishes, sickens, and is affected
alternately by fever and by lethargy. A period of some suffering seems
now inevitably before us ; and we sincerely trust that private benevo-
lence will not be behindhand in filling up the deficiencies which must
at such a season be felt in our ordinary machinery of relief. We can add
little on this head to the remarks of the Daily News of yesterday. It is
difficult to support a population by charity for any length of time with-
out weakening their self-reliance and relaxing their moral tone. But
there is just now no help for it ; and perhaps some antidote to its ill
effects might he found, and such seasons turned to positive advantage.
by stimulating the victims of compulsory idleness to the pursuit of
intellectual improvemeilt. In a word, why not take the opportunity
of these long winter hours of leisure to organise some fuller system of
education than the ordinary life of a working mall or his family call
possibly submit to ? Let the mechanic be induced to beguile the
tedium of inactivity and mitigate the pains of penury by some mental
employment, and let him feel that his life is not entirely useless to
him, and the happiest results might follow. At all events, we have
one great cause for thankfulness in the improved retlations between

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