The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

OPINION UPON INDIA.

SirFnEnEnte SIIITH, M.P., who was entertained by
his constituents at Chatham on Wednesday evening,
said :

Because the city of Delhi was rescued from the hands of
the mutineers they must not therefore conclude that the
mutiny was at an end, for the capture of Delhi was only
one part of the war, and with a population of 180,000,000
it was impossible to say that the whole of India might not
be turned against us, seeing that the natives of that
country were essentially a warlike people. tinder all
circumstances, and whatever might be the cost, our power
in India must be maintained. Our empire in India must
be held with a strong hand, because it added a glory to
England. No doubt there were many persons who were
anxious that in our punishment of the mutineers we should
be merciful—and he prayed God we might, but at the
same time it was nurbounden duty to execige justice. Nut
only must we punish perfidy and fiendish atrocity, but at
the same time we must let it be plain to the whole of Asia
that England must be treated with the respect she de.
served, and that her sons and daughters, wherever they
went, must be respexted likewise.

Mr. R. M. tlimiEs, M.P., at Pontefract, on Wed-
nesday, thought we had not much to congratulate
ourselves upon in the fall of Delhi :

The struggle in India was not to be measured by ordi-
nary rules, for it was a singular and unprecedented one.
It would be an almost unparalleled triumph for a hand-
ful of Englishmen to storm a great city in which the
representatives of the Great Mogul made their last stand
—armed with a power which of themselves they could
never have accumulated, but with which we, in our ne-
gligence, supplied them. This would, indeed, have been
an almost unparalleled triumph, but they mast remember
that the foemen were not worthy of their steel. Had it
been the princes of India, who had risen because we
wished to deprive them of their ancestral rights—had it
been the peasantry of India, who had risen because they
considered our taxation oppressively large, and were unable
to comprehend the great benefits or general justice of our
rule—in either case, there would have been something to
say for the fee. But what was the case'? Were our
enemies not men whom we had armed—for whose wel-
fare we had felt the most tender rega-d—for whose pre-
judices we had shown the utmost deference—and whose
feelings we heel respected to a',degree never heard of before?
That was the army which had risen against us—not in
fair fight, but with brutal treachery, and with circum-
stances the most lustful, dastardly, and atrocious. It was
because this foe was not worthy of our steel that we could
not rejoice in this Delhi triumph.
With respect to the future government of India, Mr
Monckton Milnes expressed himself rather vaguely?
" He desired that India should be governed by Inert
exp. rienced in Indian affairs," and generally he ap-
proved the conduct of the East India Company.
Mr. WOOD, M.P., sail he could not agree with his
colleague
He did not think it would be right to continue the
East India Company's governing powers; the country
should be under the control of the English Government.
There were many shortcomings in the East India Com-
pany—they had not discharged their duty as Christians,
and when he heard of a soldier in the Indian army being
disgraced because he had become a Christian, he could not
but think that the Company were deserving of much
blame. To do really good, India must be Anglicised—
we must have Englishmen spread over every part of
that empire, showing the Hindoos, by example, waat our
Christian energies could do. Comparatively, nothing
had been done in India during the hundred years it
had been in oar possession. The whole country should
be thoroughly open to commerce, and commercial agents
should be located in every district; we should then soon

1058

prevent that vast difference betwixt the imports and exports
of India.

Lord GALWAY said he did not think the East India
Company were entirely free from blame :
It had been the custom of the East India Directors to
deny all charges made in the House of Commons, and it
required a man of no ordinary courage to get up anti con-
tradict the dental of a director. He must say that lie did
not believe the denials of the Diroctora, and recent events
had justified him in doing so. The mischief as to India
had been that they had blinked the question ; they hat
been told not to do so and ao, because it would weaken
the Government ; men who gave promise of taking an
active but independent course on India were offered
appointments, and recently a gentleman of great promise
was uttered a place at the Board of Control, and the official
plaister had sealed his lips. He hoped this would not be
so in future, and that the subject would be thoroughly
investigated. It was necessary it should be so, that the
Government of India might be placed on a firmer basis,
and that there should be no more truckling to the native
religious prejudices. So far as he knew of the Opposition,
of which he was proud to be a member, he believed they
would be ready to lend every hand to her Majesty's Go-
vernment ; they did it during the Russian war, and would
do it now. He congratulated them on the fall of Delhi,
which he hoped was an augury of still further success, and
after deprecating the feelings which seemed to prevail that
their army should go to India more as murderers than as
soldiers, he said he trusted that while they punished the
guilty they would not forget to spare the innocent ; that
while they inflicted stern justice, they would no:, seek to
wreak indiscriminate vengeance.

Lord HARROWBY, at the Sandon and Marston
Agricultural Society's meeting held on Wednesday,
having eulogised the gallantry of the British in
India, came to the question of the future govern-
ment of the country. He said :
The government of India is a problem of which the
history of the world furnishes no solution ; and I mention
these circumstances for the purpose of asking your indul-
gence for those upon whom the task of reconstituting our
government in that country may fall. It has been a sub-
j ect of reproach to us that more hes not been done for
India in the way of improvement. No doubt more might
have been done ; but on the other hand you must hear in
mind the difficulty arising from the danger of offending the
prejudices and outraging the feeling of the natives, while we
were obliged to govern by the aid of the natives them•
selves. If we had a sufficient number of European troops
to govern the country the case would be different, but that
is manifestly impossible The finances of the Indian Go.
vernment would be ruined by the attempt to govern that
immense empire by the ail of English troops alone. We
must, therefore, govern it through the people themselves—
through their own feelings and prejudices, or give up the
attempt to govern it at all. Ido not say that there is
not much that may be dared now that could not have
been dared before this outbreak occurred. There is
much that a man will not do when he fears the attempt
will bring his house down about his earn that when the
house is brought about his ears he will set ab',ut with
alacrity, and, no doubt, in reference to India that may
be done now in the way of eduction and in disregard of
mere idle prejudices which could not be done while we had
in the Bengal Presidency a native army of 10t1,000 men,
which, though in one sense the strength of the Govern.
meat, was also a source of weakness.

The Solicitor• General, Sir H. KEATINGE, at
Reading, thought that the effort which despatched
"40,000 men in a few weeks" was " witLicut parallel
in the history of England."
Mr. W. MILES, M.P. for East Somerset, thought
that a great change must take place in the govern.
ment of India :
That was a subject which was growing in the minds of
all men who gave it the least consideration. At present,
however, they had nothing to do with what the future go-
vernment of India should be. But of this he thought
there could be no doubt, that a double government could
no longer exist, that the queen must rule supreme in that
country, and tic whole of the Ministers must be subject
to the control of public opinion rather than under an
Indian board.

Mr. W. KNATCUBULL, M.P., concurred in this
opinion.

The Right Hon. H. LABOtiCIIERE, M.P., Secretary
of State for the Colonies, met his constituents at
Taunton last week, and at the close of rather a
tedious narrative of recent events in India, said,
" he acknowledged that it was the duty of the Go.
vernment not only to put down this rebellion and
to establish law and order, but to look closely into
the causes by which it had been produced, and to
examine narrowly the circumstances of the Indian
Government, not only in its military organisation,
but in the civil administration of the affairs of that
c )untry. That duty, he thought, the Government
were prepared to undertake, and nothing, be trusted,
would be wanting on their part to the fulfilment of
it, in the full confidence that they would be sup
ported by the country."

Mr. HENRY DnummoNn, M.P., at the Chertsey
Agricultural Association, said he was excessively
disgusted with the hue and cry that some papers are
raising about the vengeance that should be in-
flicted :