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

THE PRESS, AUGUST 29, 1857.

scarcely a real friend throughout the length and breadth
of Hintlostan, and the consegnence is that every attempt
against us is viewed with o secret sympathy by thus•• who,
under a better system, would be the foremost, both openly
and covertly, to uphold our rule. The dependent princes,
the great nobles, the large landholder!, and the hereditary
cultivators, would in India, as in every other part of the
British empire, be the firrnestsupporters of law and order,
if we would only allow them an interest in the country
concurrent with, though subordinateto,our own. But when
the mass of cultivators we treated in the mode which the
Madras Tortnre Cotnniisidoirdlsplays,and when the prinebe,
nobility, and large landholdtra see nothing in prospect but
the confiscation of their estates as soon as opportunity
serves, it is not to be supplied that their wishes can be
with us, from whom they have nothing to hope and all to
fear. To rule a country on the principle of abolishing all
property in land, and leaving no intermediate orders be-
tween the sovereign and the serf, is to stake our all on
a military ascendancy which mutiny may at any time
undermine, or an adverse campaign or a successful revolt
destroy.

On the 22nd of Srptember, 1855, when
commenting on the Torture Report, we ob-
served:—

One unfortunate result of the late disclosures on the
subjec'. of torture has been the spreading abroad an opinion
which is both very erroneous and very ilang,erons regarding
the natives of India. It has been alleged, because they
have submitted so tamely to the. proceedings of the Com-
pany's officials, that they must necessarily be a very
meek, imbecile, and harmless set of creatures, incapable of
resentment, born to be bullied, and so patient of ill usage
as to make it a matter of l►ttle importance in what manner
they are treated.
But we went on to say :

Because this has been borne with apparent patience, it
is an error to suppose that it is unresented in spirit, or
forgotten. The Asiatic, like the animals that inhabit his
forest, bears patiently the evils he feels himself powerless
to prevent ; bet it is only to show himself the more vin-
dictive when the moment for retaliation has arrived.

On the 13th of October, 1855, writing on the
appointmentment of the new Governor-Gene-
ral, we said :

There is no doubt that whenever an opportunity occurs
we shall find how vast is the number of this class ( the
native princes and nobility) who have been but watching
their time to rise against

On the 12th of. January, 1856, we wrote :

Unless the public voice in England he raised no strongly
as to compel the Indian Goveinment to retrace its steps,
there can ha no doubt that the result will be a struggle
between the natives of India and ourselves, far more deep,
more widespread, and more determined than has ever, so
far. threatened our existence. Already we see uremia•
takeable signs of the coming storm. May heaven grant
us a better pilot than we have now at the helm to
meet it.

On the 22nd of March, 1g56, we wrote, re-
garding the annexation of Oude:—

How little attention is really paid to the feelings of the
people of Oude, is shown by the way in which the annex-
ation is carried out. It is prochimed without consulting
them that the country is ours, and that every one who
refugee to submit to 114—or, in other words, who dares
to uphold the independence of his country—shall be
seized as a rebel, and treate I as Ruch, and an overwhelm.
ing body of troops is moved up to bear down all opposition
by force.
•
And again :
This harefteed violation of every principle of public
faith will render nor position in India infinitely more
difficult than it bin been hitherto.

On the 12th of April. 1856, we wrote :-
11,nline and violence are easy onerationa, when dealing'
with States which have been lulled by a reliance on cove.
nants into an implicit confidence, and which must, there
fore, fall an unresisting prey. In the long run, however•
it does not answer, and that (passive as the people of
India are generally supposed to he) it is not improbable
we shall shortly find. Already to the discerning eye there
are not wanting symptoms that portend a storm which it
will require all Lord Canning's sagacity to weather.

Regarding the horrid practice introduced by
Lord DALHoustes Government of burning the
corpses of Mahomedan insurgents—an opera-
tion which his organ in India regretted that
public opinion would not allow of being per-
formed while they were alive—we wrote, on the
31st of May, 1856 :

No wonder that torture, though formally denounced,
eseites little horror in India and meets with little real
effort at repression,when modes are advocated of enforcing
submission to the Government more barbarous than those
to which even the most barbarous and inhuman of Asiatic
sovereigns have ever had recourse.
And we added :

In no conntry hits a reennrse to finch expedients been
permanently successful. Even if effectual at the instant a
terrible rent inn iq always sinner or later the inevitable
Nor floes our experience of India tend to show
t'i't it is likely to afford any exception to this universal
rule.