The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-17 00:00:00

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No. 59.—VoL. 11.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1854.

g4t Vrtss.

public welfare they ought not to have been
abandoned, and, if unnecessary, ought not to
have been introduced.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 18154.

But while the country is perplexed at the
incapaCity of those from whom so much was
expected, and who themselves announced that
so much should be accomplished, it finds
itself suddenly in a condition which it had
almost brought itself to believe was incom-
patible with the civilisation of the age ; and
that it is absolutely involved in a war which
may he prolonged and costly, and of which
the cause and the object are equally obscure.
It seems now pretty well agreed that no Power
in Europe wished to go to war; and that, if
Lord ABERDEEN had not been Minister of this
country, no war could possibly have occurred.
A want of frankness and of firmness on the
part of the English Ministry has tempted the
Emperor of RUSSIA to occupy a position from
which he finds it almost impossible to extri-
cate himself with honour. Counting on the
avowed prejudices of Lord ABERDEEN against
the Sovereign of France, and his long-che
rished sympathy with the Sovereign of Russia,
NICHOLAS, feeling his way at every step, ven-
tured on a course which may involve Europe
in a struggle of years. His assumption was
that England and France could not act toge
ther : he consequently complimented Lord
ABERDEEN on the English fleet not accom-
panying the French squadron to Salamis ; the
compliment was accepted without a remon-
strance, and the Russians passed the Pruth !

FOUR months of feebleness, accompanied by
some humiliating circumstances, have been
followed by a reconstruction of the Cabinet,
which has not added either to its strength or
its dignity. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, whose self-
respect, we were told, was sustained by his
filling no post under Lord ABERDEEN, now
avowedly holds a subordinate office under that
energetic chief. This pointless result has not
even been accomplished without cost, and the
price of an undesirable inCident is the degra-
dation of a young and able Minister, and one
of the few members of the Coalition to whom
the country looks with some degree of con-
fidence and hope. Had the seals relinquished
by the Duke of NEWCASTLE been entrusted to
the late President of the Council, they would
certainly have been used with not less vigour
and discretion than by Sir GEORGE GREY, who
will find in the office, to which he returns with
exhausted energies, no traditions of his past
success.

During the two last months the decline of
the Cabinet in public estimation has been
rapid and continuous. This is the more
remarkable as there is a great absence of
party feeling in the country, and the Opposi.
Lion throughout the session, with the ex-
ception of the important motion of Mr. BARING,
has discreetly confined itself to consolidating
its strength, and acting on the defensive.
There is no doubt that a considerable and
influential portion of the community, on the
formation of the present Ministry, were pre-
pared to accord to it their support from the
belief that it consisted of men eminent for
their skill in the management of affairs. The
country, in a great measure, was willing to
find compensation for the absence of distinct
principles in official dexterity. A series of
Wilms, perhaps without parallel in parlia-
mentary history, has taught us that no degree
of mere administrative habitude can supply
the energy which a compact and confiding
Patty can alone afford, or remedy the internal
diasencions of those who are bound together
neither by political nor personal sympathy.
The country has seen with amazement during
the last four months enormous propositions
brought forward without due deliberation and
Precipitately withdrawn. The Ministers have
introduced schemes for the reform of Parlia-
ment, for the redemption of the public debt,
for national education, for the abolition of the
law of settlement, for the remodelling ofoaths,
of universities, and of the whole civil service of
the country, and for the abolition of constitu-
tional securities, with the carelessness of
children blowing bubbles. Their campaign
has been an alternation of overwhelming dis-
eomfitures or precipitate retreats. It is this
readiness to meddle with all things, and
Inability to settle any, that has alienated from
them that valuable public confidence which
was not originally prompted by party feeling.
The impartial world naturally observes that if
these great measures were necessary for the

Whether we consider our external or domes-
tic relations, one is almost tempted to admire
the ingenuity which in the space of eighteen
months has contrived to accomplish so much
disappointment, and to achieve so much dis-
aster.

In the meantime, there are some symptoms
in our internal condition which ought to
attract the attention, and perhaps excite the
anxiety, of all reflecting men. It is impos-
sible any longer to deny, or to conceal, that
the Protestant feelin6 of this country has
assumed a power which, if not appreciated
and guided with sincerity and discretion, may
effect in these kingdoms even startling changes.
The desertion to Rome of a large body of the
Oxford clergy some years ago was the first
event which, awakening the High Church
party from their bewildering trance, largely
re-enforced the Protestant ranks ; the Wise-
man aggression—above all, the solemn an-
nouncement in Parliament, at the time, of the
Prime Minister of England, that there was
without doubt a vast Papal conspiracy against
the liberties of Europe—confirmed, and even
inflamed, the fears of the followers of the
Reformation. Since that period there has
been, on the part not only of the middle
classes, but of the great majority of the upper
classes of this country, a growing conviction
that a stand must be made against the aggres-
sive spirit of Rome. The influential presence
in the existing Cabinet of those very states-
men who uncompromisingly and successfully
opposed Lord JOHN RUSSELL in his attempts
to resist the Jesuit influence has been viewed
from the first with distrust and alarm by the
mass of the community, who rarely interest
themselves in the struggles of political parties.
But this spirit has already made itself felt
even in the present House of Commons. The
Parliament is more Protestant than the
Ministry•, but the country is more Protestant
than the Parliament.

nothing left.
tallic current

have some ii

agriculturist
For any j,
the wish to

PRICE SIXPENCE.

THE LAND TAX IN THE PUNJAUB.
Jr was to be expected that with tho total
change in the government of the Punjaub,
caused by our conquest and occupation of that
country, there would be a change in adminis-
trative measures affecting to some extent the
social condition of the people. The question
is, whether that change has been for the better
or the worse—whether the inhabitants gene-
rally hail it as a benefit or deplore it as a mis-
fortune. If we recognise the principle that
every addition to our power as a nation is an
addition to our responsibilities, and that all
government should be in the nature of a trust
for the benefit of the governed, we are bound
to look narrowly into the character of those
measures which, in any part of our empire, are
received with complaints by the people, and
are directly productive of misery and distress.
In our last number we noticed the measures

adopted by the Indian Government in relation
to salt in the Punjaub, and we observe that
its rules for the collection of the land tax are
marked by the same spirit of oppressive inno-
vation, and by the same disregard of the feel-
ings and interests of the people.

To those who have not read the report
from which we last week quoted, this charge
may appear a strong one ; but all who have
studied it with due mire will admit the justice
of our remarks. With well-considered re-
forms we should be the last to quarrel ; from
whatever quarter they might come, they should
have our hearty support ; but we cannot see
any advantage in jeopardising our revenue in
the East, and alienating the affections of the
people, for the sake of enforcing theories In
respect to the payment of rent, which, how-
ever suitable to a country of limited area like
England, possessing a circulating medium
adequate to its wants, is totally out of place in
the Punjaub. In the one country the abun-
dance of money makes accommodation easy,
and, if at the time of harvest the price of pro-
duce is low, the farmer is not compelled to
sell; but in the other, money is not procurable
except in small sums, and then only from the
village corn-dealer (for all over the East the
village corn-dealer and the village money-
lender are one), while he, of course, will only
advance it on exorbitant terms. Under such
circumstances, to convert suddenly the corn
rent of a whole country, into a cash rent by an
arbitrary act of the Government against the
renter's wishes, and in spite of his complaints,
is, in fact, to place him at the mercy of
his natural opponent in interest, the money-
dealer, and that is what has been lately done
by the Government of the I'unjaub. Let the
reader imaginr
the English
complete hie
his landlord,
lation of

in the repot ig _, the
ag►riculturissts in RUNJEZT SISOH'S time were
happy, flourishing, and contented, and paid a
much higher sum as revenue than is extorted

gine for an instant %lie, sacrifices
h farmer
.wau44ilui4el Itd make to
si
is engageme4tvtert* in nt with
d, if the whole 'iiettaand hi cireu-
Englitnd were' amillkihne and
'tin tlie ekefe of money but e me-
fleY '0 . tl*:oountry, and will
idea ofiike fif=t condition of the
A in the Pit ...
justificatßin pf,f4eVessnri beyond
enforce liifilieurite theory we look
lrt in vain ; for, according to.it, the