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

N0.238.—V0L.V.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21,1857.

(Tilt Vrtss.

obtain no considerable loans in India. What
they could squeeze out of the fears or hopes
of the petty rajahs in alliance with us they
have secured. But that mine—and it is not a
very creditable one—was soon worked out.
The necessity of an application to Parliament
was, therefore, obviously a mere question of
time; and with its usual fatality in all that
relates to India, the Government has selected
the worst time possible for the act. Its object,
of course, was to stave off the evil day as long
as possible ; not out of any regard to the in-
terests of the country, but out of a considera-
tion for interests far dearer to it—its own. It
knew that when the public grant money, they
like to have some information as to the manner
in which it is to be spent ; and Ministers
are not quite au fait at Indian matters,
nor does Lord PALMERSTON happen, like
Lord ELLENBOROUGH, to have all the ways
and means and military details of an Indian
campaign at his fingers' ends. The veil of
secrecy the Premier saw must be withdrawn
from the Cabinet's proceedings in relation to
that country, and no very remarkable exhibi-
tion of genius would meet the eye. While,
of course, some more tangible form of ex-
planation of the state of things there would
be required by Parliament, than the con-
fused mass of rubbish with which the people
have been overwhelmed by the Minis-
terial press. This was the secret of the
denial that India could possibly require
financial assistance from England which the
Government and its organs so sedulously put
forth. This was the true reason for the re-
ception which Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S proposi-
tion for an Indian loan met with in July last.
This was the motive for our being told that of
all the wants of the Company that of money
was the least. This was the cause of our
being assured that it would ask for no assist-
ance from England in a financial shape. The
object of the Government was secured by the
deception; inquiry was set at rest; and the
multitude began to think comparatively little
of a revolt which was not, after• all, to burden
their pockets in any way. It is needless to
tell the readers of this Journal that we were not
deceived. We knew that the whole thing was
a deliberate fraud. But it answered the pur•
pose of the Government, and the sole end
which Lord PALMERSTON ever has in view was
served—namely, that of escaping from the
difficulty of the moment, no matter at what
eventual cost to the nation, or embarrassment
to his successors in the conduct of affairs.
A policy of this kind, however, though it
may be successful for the moment, is never
long without producing most bitter fruits.
Dishonesty, whether public or private, always
sooner or later brings on itself the necessary
punishment of the offence. Nor will the pre-
sent case, we may be sure, prove any exception
to the rule. On the contrary, there seems
every probability of the heaviest retribution
on all, both Government and people, who have
been parties, whether actively or passively, to
the affair. Money, which was plentiful in July
last, is now at what may be called the panic-
rate. Specie, which might hava been largely
exported then without much detriment to com-
merce, can only be sent to India now at the
risk of adding greatly to our embarrassments
here. The public securities in India, which
might in July have very speedily recovered
themselves under the influence of a loan in
England, are now utterly unnegotiable, and
are likely to remain ruinously depressed for a

desire of the Rol

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• r

STAMPED .. .. SIXPENCE.
lINSTAMPED -IPITEPENCE.

long period to come. The Indian exchequer
has, in fact, collie to that pass that it will pro-
bably require for years to be propped up from
home. Nor is the condition of the people here
now such as to make them tolerant of the
increased burdens that a loan for India will
entail upon them, as they might haveabeen
found to be in last July. It is not the modi-
cum of glory that has been reaped there (or
rather of glory's fruits, for the glory has been
most abundant,) that will compensate them,
not only for our great disasters, but for the
heavy pecuniary price of them that will be
thus imposed. Our struggling merchants and
manufacturers are in no mood for paying
Indian income tax ; still less are our starving
artisans in any humour for additional taxation
on the necessaries of life. Nor is there likely
to be that feature in the proceeding which so
often tends to make us bear such burdens
calmly—a prospect of a speedy relief. On the
contrary, unless the whole system of Indian
government be soon and completely changed,
it will be years before India will cease to be a
deadweight on our finances, a charnel-house
for our army, an ulcer eating the country's life
and strength away.
These are the points to which our states-
men, when Parliament assembles, will do well
to address themselves, for these are the points
on which the future of England as well as of
India depends. As to thanks and rewards to
our brave heroes, there will he no opposition
offered to anything in reason that the Premier
may propose. But it will not do to allow him
to ride off from his responsibilities to the
nation, upon motions for rewards for victories
in which neither he nor any of the Cabinet,
nor even the Governor-General of India him-
self, has had the slightest share. Our army in
India has acted nobly, and its services cannot
be overrated; but we must be careful to see
that the rewards and honours intended for it
be not put to other uses by those through
whose hands they must officially pass. It
would be too absurd for us, in the face of
all Europe, to allow the laurels destined for
the brows of a Wilson and a Havelock to be
turned into a screen to hide the imbecilities
of a Canning and a Vernon Smith. That,
however, is what the Ministers are evi-
dently aiming at; though if the people of
England be not more abject, and servile, and
contemptible than the Hindoos themselves, it
is an attempt in which they will most signally

. r
LORD PALMERSTON AND MHZ
PRINCIPALITIES. ';-
AT the Congress of Paris, held to detirmine
the provisions of the Treaty of Peace, Lord
CLARENDON warmly supported the project of
the union of the Danubian Principalities. Ile
agreed with Count WAtEwsxt that he con-
ceived the union of these provinces satisfied
" the requirements brought to light" by an
attentive investigation into their " true inte-
" rests," and he relied especially on the utility
and expediency
ration " the wishes
wishes have beer
and without er
cause which ind
PALMERSTON W

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