The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

1082

portion to the guns ; the men in camp are not in proper
proportion to those in the trenches; the hours of refit are
not in proper proportion to the hours of work, &c.
But we have reason to doubt whether our
rulers have yet discovered the fatal error
which they have committed in the conduct of
this campaign. They seemed to think thel
by simply throwing 30,000 British troops into
the Crimea they had done all that was re-
quired of them. But they forgot two things:
the one, that the enemy whose territory was
thus invaded was the absolute master of a
million of soldiers ; and the other that an
invading army engaged in active operations
requires large and continuous supplies of
men to maintain it in a really effective • state.
The expedition should never have been
undertaken without an army of reserve,
either in the Mediterranean or on our own
shores, which might he despatched forth-
with to the scene of action in case of
need. As it is, we find it impossible
to fill up the gaps which the sword and
disease have made in the ranks of our
brave countrymen. They have fallen by
thousands, and we recruit their strength by
fifties ! And it is only with the remnant of
our army, reinforced by such dribblets as we
have sent them, that we are now engaged
in mortal strife with the greatest military
monarchy which has ever threatened the
liberties of Europe.
That this policy of starving the war at its
commencement is the surest mode of pro-
tracting it, is sufficiently obvious ; and we
trust that the events of the last few weeks
have at length opened the eyes of the nation
to the formidable nature of the contest in
whie tit is embarked. We must. make up our
minds to an immediate and a heavy increase
of expenditure. We must augment our army
by at least 50,000 men. Manchester may
murmur, but the honour of England is now at
stake, and her existence as a nation soon may
be. Our rulers have brought upon themselves
a terrible amount of responsibility by ne-
glecting to reinforce our army in the East.
They know, or ought to know, that the nation
would grudge no sacrifice to effect this all-
important object. But there has been all
along a serious obstacle in the way. The
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER obstinately re-
flitted to borrow when he might have had
money cheap, and he is loathe to confess him-
self in the wrong by now appearing in the
market when it is dear. And thus the safety
of our army has been, and is, imperilled
through a crotchet of Mr. GLADSTONE'S.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE AND THE
WAR DEPARTMENT.
THE inefficiency of the Duke of NEWCASTLE as
head of the War Department has become so
palpable, that persons who formerly had a high
opinion of his talents and qualifications are
now compelled to acknowledge that he is totally
incompetent to the duties he has undertaken
to perform. As an instance of the manner in
which the affairs of that department are
carried on, we may mention that, after a
recent Cabinet Council, Lord ST. GERMANS
informed an officer of the Grenadier Guards
that the Ist battalion of that regiment was to
go the Crim ea. Lord HARDINGE heard the
report;, but it was not until the next after-
noon, after the announcement was made in the
new spapers, that the Duke of NEWCASTLE came
to Lord HARDINGE to tell him the decision the
Government had come to. Lord HARDINGE
was then compelled to show that this move-
ment was impossible, and other arrangements
had to be made. In this way Lord HARDINGE
gets blamed for vacillation through decisions
being formed without his cognisance, which it
is impossible to carry out. It would be a great
improvement on the existing practice, if the
Commander-in-Chief were summoned to the
Council on occasions when details of the war
are discussed, as his opinion must surely be
worth at least as much as that of Lord ST.
GERMANS or the Duke of NEWCASTLE.

THE PRESS.

IRRIGATION IN SCINDE.
A PERIOD when one of the most desperate con-

tests is raging that Eland has ever been
engaged in may got oQnsidered an oppor-
tune Ow for (Ailing attention to the wants of
India. Inch, however, is not our view. Toe
enortnotte pecuniary qaarifices which the
vigorous prosecution of the war must entail
render it not only Stang, but necessary, that
we should look dos* into the condition of
the several parts of our empire, that we may
ascertain if it be not possible, by a better ad-
ministration of them, to obtain some relief in
aid of this vast expenditure. _ _

As at present managed, the revenue of India
may be reckoned at about twenty-five millions
sterling, and that wrung out of the people with
difficulty, and more than counterbalanced by
a wasteful and profuse expenditure. But this
is less than was paid with ease by the fraction
of that empire which was held by the Mogul
Emperors; it is less by two-thirds than, ac•
cording to our own moderate estimate, it ought
to pay ; and it is but one-sixth of the amount
it is calculated that it would yield by a very
competent authority on such points—Colonel
COTTON. And this calculation proceeds, be it
remembered, not on increasing the pressure of
taxation, but simply on adopting a sensible and
equitable system, the direct object of which
should be to improve the wealth of the country
and the people's condition, and so more than
proportionately increase their powers of pay-

ment.
One of the chief causes of India being new
a burthen upon, instead of an aid to, the
national resources, is that which prevents her
own development, and which has repeatedly
been pointed out in these columns ; we mean
the system which prevents the acquisition
there of freehold property in land. Besides
this there are other impeding causes at work
which, if less powerful, are not less active, and
one of the most prominent of these is the
passive, but at the same time most obstinate,
resistance which is offered by the East India
Company to every plan intended to provide
those means of developing the resources of
' India, which on the ground of financial
inability they refuse to provide themselves.
We have before us papers showing the
underhand opposition of the Leadenhall•street
sovereigns to a company lately formed for the
irrigation of Scinde. That there is a legitimate
opening in India for such a company, or for
ten such companies, no one who has perused
Colonel COTTON'S work, or who has conversed
with any competent person from India, can
doubt ; yet simply because Scinde is se-
lected as the scene of operations, direc-
torial hostility has been aimed against it,
though every man of sense must see that this
second Egypt is the most natural and fitting
locality for the operation of such enterprise,
deprived as it is by nature of rain, and depen-
dent, therefore, entirely for the water necessary
to fertilise it on artificial means. The land of
Scinde is, when irrigated, perhaps the most
productive in the world, yielding frequently
fifty-six bushels of corn to the acre. Nor are
its capabilities confined to cereals. Its
peculiar natural adaptation for cotton was
long since pointed out by one of the largest
and most successful growers of cotton in
Egypt, and his view was confirmed by the fact,
at the time unknown to him, that cotton
actually grows wild in the province. For the
cultivation of flax, too, its soil is unrivalled ;
and thus the two most important of the raw
materials of our manufactures might, by the
application of capital, be produced to an almost
unlimited extent in this fertile country. But
though Scinde by the spontaneous gift of
nature possesses all these advantages, it
possesses one disadvantage that more than
countervails them. It was the conquest made
by the late Sir CHARLES NAPIER, under the
orders of the Earl of ELLENBOROUGH, and this,
its original sin iu the Directors' eyes, no
earthly consideration can wipe out. Thus,
though it requires nothing but the application
of capital to make it a far richer province than
Egypt, and though abundant capital was
ready to be tendered for its acceptance, the

SATURDAY,

proffered wealth has been cut off from it by
the interference of the Directors, because the
development of its resources would show tho
sagacity of its couqueros, *WO its poverty and
sterility afford a malignant s4tisfaction to his
detractors.
Nations, it is said, have no cousins, nor
kings either ; but this does not hold good of
the kings in I,eadonthull•strect. With them
personal interest and personal feeling are
everything—the interests of the State nothing,
Tho foundations of their service are laid deep
in nepotism, and all public measures are de-
cided by them accordingly as they are per-
sonally favourable or personally hostile to the
proposers. Whether it is fitting that they
should be allowed longer to deal thus with
questions of the most vital public interest the
Legislature must determine ; but for our parts
we cannot see why we should be compelled to
pay double income tax when the public income
derived from India would, under proper
management, be ample to relieve us from it;
nor can we understand why our merchants
should be forced to send gold to Russia for
flax, and to depend wholly on America for
cotton, when we have provinces subject to our
sway in which those products are indigenous,
and which would supply us with more than we
could possibly consume, but for the neglect or
perversion of their trust by the Court )f
Directors.

WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR ?
DURING the last week we have received the
most momentous intelligence that has startled
the ears of the present generation. The ter-
rible, yet glorious, " mistake " of October 25 ;
the hard-won victory that has added a new
interest to November 5 ; the yet uncertain
events of the 11th ; and all the while the
certain danger that our brave troops may be
at this moment slowly wearing out under the
incessant attacks of a power that is prodigal
of blood—that will direct its batteries un-
flinchingly upon a pile-mile of friend and foe,
ready to sacrifice the first if it can slaughter
the last—that is content to wait, and calculate
with grim arithmetic how many of our victories
will ensure our annihilation ;—in all this there
is surely enough to make us pause, and ask
ourselves, rather seriously, what it is that we
are fighting for?
What we have done, we know. We have
doubled our income tax; have sent out muni-
tions of war (Lord GRANVILLE tells us) to
an
almost fabulous amount; we have narrowed
our trade ; adjourned all measures of social
improvement ; with entire forgetfulness of the
past, we, the Conservatives of England, have
steadily supported the Queen's Ministers in
the prosecution of a war which but for the
Coalition had never arisen ; and, far beyond all,
we have sent out our men—the men that have
made England what she is. The war has
already cost us not less than 20,000 of our
best and bravest hearts. At a time when
there is hardly a household in the United
Kingdom or in France that is not looking
with wistful eye and personal anxiety for
every despatch that arrives, it is full time
to inquire what is the end proposed ; and
whether it is worth the tremendous sacrifices
we are making to attain it.
Lord ABERDEEN tells us once a week that
his object is " peace," and peace in his mouth
means the acceptance by Russia of the much-
talked-of four points" which have been ar-
ranged in concert with Austria. These points
relate almost exclusively to Austrian interests.
They are of vital importance to the commerce
of Austria, and to the extension of her power
in Eastern Europe. Were it she, instead of
the Western Powers, who, for the ends pro-
posed, bore the heat and burden of this war,
no one would say that the stake was not
worth the hazard and cost of the contest. By
the four points Austria would gain the opening
of the Danube and the navigation of the
Euxine, and, practically, the protectorate of
the principalities, and of the Christian sub•
jects of the Porte.