The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

THE INDIAN CRISIS FORETOLD BY

" THE PRESS."
TILE Indian telegraphic despatch received
since our last issue has brought with it a fresh

834

tale of horrors, and the public is beginning at
length to arrive at a more just conception of
the .magnitude of the task in which it is
engaged. There is no one of sense who can
have a doubt as to the absurdity of the esti-
mate formed of it at the outset by Mr. VERNON
SMITH. But now, aOrnitting that he was
wrong in his first view of it, he would try and
prose that all the rest of the world were,
up to the date of the outbreak of hostilities,
RS blind as himself. His words in the
House of Commons on the 11th of this
month were :

I believe that any man would have been denounced as a
madman, or a visionary, who had hinted that such an
outbreak as that which has occurred would occur in
India.

We think it right, therefore, to show the public
that not only did we hint at this outbreak,
but that we indicated clearly what was to he
expected, and the time when, if a change was
not made in the system of misgoverning India,
it would infallibly take place Nay, more ; the
very ferocity which has so much astonished
the people here who are accustomed to dream
of gentle Hindoos was also anticipated by us,
as the extracts which we shall give from pre-
ceding numbers will unmistakeably prove.
The public will thus see that if the
Ministers chose to blind their eyes to the
storm which their own misrule was preparing,
it was not for want of repeated and urgent
remonstrances on the part of THE PRESs.
On the Bth of July, 1854, when commenting
on the resumption of lands in India, we
said :

A spirit is being engendered in the minds of the most
influential class in India, and of all the hundreds and
thousands who depend on it, which, whenever fortune
turns, will be most dangerous to our rulv.

On the 14th of October, 1854, we said, when
speaking of Lord DALHOUSIE'S policy :

The course of absorption of native states and jaghires
which he is pursuing will bring its own punishment with
it, and sow the seeds of innumerable disturbances after he
shall have left India.

On the 21st of October. 1854, when speaking
of the proposed annexation of Oude, we
wrote :

That these sepoys, accustomed in (hide to the rule of
men of their own colour, caste, and nagon, would view
with any feeling but that of the deepest resentment the
transfer of their homes to the withering blight of the Com-
pany's domination, is not to be expected. That the trans-
fer of °tide to the Company will be the signal for resist-
ance by these men we cannot doubt, and it is a resistanee
which, if made, must endanger our Indian empire. We
hold India by the swords of these men. and if we once
turn their arms against us, the few Europeans in India
would he powerless to resist them, and the fabric of our
dominion might receive a shock from which it never
would recover.

On the 24th of February, 1855, we wrote
that Lnrd DALROURIE was " sowing the seeds
" of ruin in India."

•
On the 3rd of March, 1855, referring to the
removal of Mr. MAUNSELL on account of his
honest report about the annexation of Nag-
pore, we said :

The result will necessarily he that men will henceforth
shape their reports according to the supposed views of the
Government of the day, and thus the only „means of ever
learning the truth as to the state of distant provinces will
be greatly corrupted. By this means, to be sure, the
gave r mental machine may for a time appear to run
well and smoothly, but it will only create a false security,
and give rise to greater difflenities in the long run. The
least reflection most show that it is impnssible for any
Government to he forearmed that is not forewarned, and
no Government can be forewarned which thus treats the
agents on whose entire honesty and openness and truth-
fulness it is compelled to rely

On the 19th of May, 1655, when discussing
the 'relation of the struggle with Russia to
India, we said :
Once let the people see oar arms heffled and our re-
sources fall ns, and numberless are the rebels to our
anthority, and countless their adherents who will spring
up aglinst us on every side.

On the Bth of September, 1R55, we wrote:—

Tt is the misfortune of the Indian Government that the
selfish poliry it hes adopted of bite has completely iwdeted
tie and 'hat. in forthorpnre of a Wrnstpit.g s'stetn. it has
sp,itired ell hold on the natives' interest or affection.
Excepting the people at the three Presidencies, we have