The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

652

Budget? His first act on that occasion will
have to be the explaining how the Indian
revenues are so exhausted that all expendi-
ture on public works has been suddenly and
peremptorily put an end to. And then he
will have to justify, in the face of this exhaus-
tion, the entertainment given by the Directors
the other day to a hundred and forty of their
friends and supporters, at the public expense,
at the London Tavern. The last time he had
to reply to a question on this subject, he
excused this gross misapplication of the reve-
nues of India on the ground of these dinners
being great public demonstrations in honour
of departing commanders-in-chief or gover-
nors-general. But the feast we are now speak•
ing of had nothing, if we are informed rightly,
of a public character about it.
But, even if the putting an end to this
scandal did not render it essential that the
Minister should be endowed with a greater
power of control over the expenditure of
Indian revenue than he now possesses, there
are other and unimpeachable grounds for the
reversal of the relative positions which he
and the Directors hold in respect to this
matter at present. The principle which
operated to exclude him from all power over
these moneys when his office was first estab-
lished is the very reason why Parliament
should give him the completest possible con-
trol over them now that the circumstances are
so totally altered. For then, be it remembered,
the money was the Company's own, and as
much its property in its collective capacity as
the private balances at their bankers were the
property of the individual members of that
body. Nothing, therefore, would have been
more unjust than to give the Minister the
power of disposing of money which was not
the Crown's, but the Company's, and on the
duly husbanding of which the interest pay-
able to the Proprietors on their stock from
time to time depended. Then it was the
Directors that had every inducement to deal
with this property carefully, while the Minis-
ter had nothing to suffer from the most bound-
less waste and extravagance. The power of
the purse was, therefore, properly put, not
into his hands, but into the hands of the
Directors—that is, into the hands of those
who were the owners of the funds, and had
the greatest interest in their preservation.
Such was the reason, and a very excellent
one, for the arrangement that was then
adopted; but that reason has long since ceased
to exist. When the Company sold all their
right and title to the Indian revenues, on the
terms of their stock being doubled, and its
interest, at a fixed rate, guaranteed to them
till the principal should be paid off, there was
an entire reversal of the Minister's and the
Directors' relative positions from that day
forth. It was the Crown that then became
the owner of these revenues, and the Crown
that by consequence had the deepest stake in
their maintenance and improvement; while
the interest of the Directors, on the contrary,
became changed from an interest in economy
to an interest in the most boundless and
most wasteful possible profusion. Previously,
if they had failed to make India pay, they
would have lost both principal and interest of
the stock that they stood possessed of ; but
when this was guaranteed to them it was the
Crown alone that could be the loser, the Com-
pany being exempted from the possibility of
loss or responsibility of any sort or kind what-
ever. Under such circumstances it is not in
the nature of things that the Directors should
discharge the duty very carefully, for which
the collision of the claims of interest with
those of duty must necessarily unfit them.
Had Prrr, the founder of the double Govern-
ment, been alive when the transfer took place,
he would have doubtless transferred with the
title to the Indian revenues the sole power of
control over them to the Crown. What he
would have done the Legislature must do, if
it would bring into working harmony the vari-
ous parts of the amended system. For no-
thing can be more absurd than to vest the
revenues of India in the Crown, and yet take
away all power, to prevent misappropriation,
from its Minister; or than to allow the Com-
pany to deal with these moneys as their own,
when they have actually the purchase money
of the fee-simple of them in their pockets.

THE PRESS.

HOW DID JAMES SADLEIR ESCAPE ?
SEVERAL weeks ago we informed our readers
that the end of the Sadlcirite drama had not
yet arrived, and since then new revelations
have been made of a most singular character.
It would appear that, owing to neglect in some
influential quarter, JAMES SADLEIR, the brother
and accomplice of the notorious swindler and
suicide, has been allowed to escape ! We shall
not, at present, undertake to point out any
one person particular as obnoxious to im-
peachment in this matter, but it is beyond
controversy that grave neglect, and possibly
something worse, lies at the door of respon-
sible persons. The facts about the escape of
JAMES SADLEIR are beyond doubt. It is now a
considerable time since the Irish MASTER of
the ROLLS openly from the Bench commented
in plain terms on the criminal conduct of
JAMES SADLEIR, and yet nothing was done in
the way of arresting the person so judicially
accused, and he was allowed quietly to escape,
while under the eyes of two detective police.
men, who were probably employed as an
official screen.

The terms in which this whole extraordinary
business were alluded to by the MASTER of the
ROLLS are of a most remarkable kind. Their
importance is enhanced by the consideration
that the Right Honourable T. B. C. SMITH is a
lawyer of great distinction, a judge of much
experience, and a gentleman of untainted
honour. He was one of the most eminent
barristers of his day. When Attorney-General
he obtained a conviction against Mr. O'CONNELL,
who had previously baffled Mr. SAURIN, Mr
PLUNKETT, Mr. JOY, and Mr. BLACKBURNE.
Strictures, therefore, coming from so high a
quarter, and from so eminent an authority on
criminal prosecutions, cannot be passed over
lightly, and the ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S indis-
creet remark about " the irregular character"
of the MASTER of the ROLLS observations, was
unfortunate.

" Irregular" indeed! Was not the whole
conduct of Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues,
iu connection with JOHN and JAMES SADLBIR,
most " irregular?" Was not tempting poli-
ticians to break their pledges, and the pro-
motion of persons for abandoning their public
vows, " irregular ?" Was not—but we shall
avoid enumerating all the flagrant scandals of
the political drama in which the SADLEIRB and
their allies figured. We suppose that Mr.
J. D FITZGERALD would designate the appoint-
ment of EDMUND O'FLAHERTY as an income-
tax commissioner, only " irregular !"
Mr. J. D. FazaERALD, forsooth, observed
that if the MASTER of the ROLLS suspected
fraud he should have personally addressed
himself to the Goverment. No, Mr. FITZ-
GEhALD, the MASTER of the lions should
have done nothing in an underhand and fur-
tive way. It was his Lordship's business to
speak out, openly and plainly, just as various
Lord Chancellors have done when they de-
tected solicitors in
_peculation. The remarks
of the MASTER of tue ROLLS were not more
" irregular " than some which fell from Lord
PLUNKETT and Lord ST. LEONARDS on certain
occasions, to which we need not advert.
But the character of some of the observa-
tions of the MASTER of the ROLLS was un-
doubtedly most striking. According to one
version of them printed in a leading Ministe-
rial organ, his Lordship is reported to have
said—

That, for reasons which the public would understand, it
would have been of no use for him to have mentioned the
fact to Government.

We shall not now put any construction on
these words, further than to remark that his
Lordship seems to have had warrant for his
insinuation, since, after he had proclaimed the
criminality of SADLEIR from the Bench, nothing
was done to arrest him.

The examination, also, of JAMES SADLEIR in
private by the MASTER in CHANCERY, no other
parties being present but the official manager
of the Tipperary Bank and his counsel, was
deservedly censured by the MASTER of the
ROLLS. But we shall have occasion to allude
further to this case, as we perceive that the
MASTER of the ROLLS has announced his in

SATURDAY,

tention of bringing under the public notice
some important facts connected with this a.)
parent complicity of official persons in the
escape of JAMES SADLEIR. Tiler° is an Irish
political faction intimately acquainted with
the party now in office, which requires vigilant
surveillance, for it would be too bad if the
Sadleirising process were to be patented for
the benefit of dishonest ambition and clan-
destine intrigues of the worst kind.

Her Majesty was not so fortunate in her weather
upon her visit to Aldershott on Monday. It rained
almost incessantly the whole day, and effectually put
a stop to all hopes of a review. The Queen, accom.
panied by the King of the Belgians, remained at the
Pavilion during the night, and on Tuesday morning,
at an early hour, the troops paraded, and shortly
after eleven o'clock, in a brief interval of dry
weather, her Majesty, accompanied by her illustrious
visitors, and attended by a brilliant but wet staff, left
the Pavilion, and inspected the troops. The
brigades then defiled past the royal party, when the
Crimean regiments formed three sides of a square
around the royal equipage. The officers of cavalr)
and infantry who had been under fire, together with
four men of each company and troop, advanced at a
given signal. The Queen's carriage was then thrown
open, and her Majesty, who wore a riding habit, and
in her hat a military plume of feathers, rose, amid
breathless attention, and spoke as follows :

Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers,—l
wish personally to convey, through you, to the regiments
assembled here this day, my hearty welcome on your return
to England in health and full efficiency. Say to them that
I have watched anxiously over the difficulties and hardshq a
which they have so nobly borne ; that I have mourned with
deep sorrow for the brave men who have fallen for their
country ; and that I have felt proud of that valour which,
with their gallant allies, they have displayed on every field.
I thank God that your dangers are over, whilst the glory of
your deeds remains. But I know that, should your servicts
be again required, you will be animated with the same derc-
tion which in the Crimea has rendered you invincible.
No sooner had her Majesty concluded this brief but
gracious harangue, than a cry of " God save the
Qleen !" sprang to every lip. Helmets, bearskins,
and shakos were thrown in the air, the Dragoons
waved their sabres, and a shout of loyal acclamation,
caught up from line to line, rang through the hills.
The word, " Selected men, join your standards !"
was then' given, and the troops marched back to
camp dripping with rain, but apparently very happy
and contented. The royal party returned to the
Pavilion, and at three o'clock left the Farnborough
Station for Nine Elms, where they were received by
a guard of honour of the 3rd Light Dragoons, by
whom they were escorted to Buckingham Palace.
During her Majesty's visit a serious incident occurred.
Lord Hardinge, while speaking to the Queen on
Monday afternoon, in the Royal Pavilion, was sud-
denly attacked with apoplexy, snatched at a table to
support himself, the table slipped away, and the
noble lord fell heavily to the ground. Medical at-
tendance was instantly called in, Lord Hardinge was
removed to his quarters for the night, and the next
morning taken to town in a very suffering state.

THE CAMP IN THE CRIMEA.—The army is rapidly
retiring from the East. A general order of the 26th
ult. gave to the 7th instant for the definitive evacuation
of the Crimea. Upwards of 30,000 men and 6,000
horses have already been disembarked at Portsmouth,
and six vessels, carrying nearly 4,000 more men,
passed through the Bosphorus between the Ist and
7th of the present month. The definitive evacuation
of the Crimea by the French army was completed on
the sth July, when Marshal Pelissier embarked on
board the Roland, and left for Constantinople. A
cruel murder had been committed on the lnkermann
heights. The body of a young gentleman, with the
throat cut, had been found close to the lnkermann
monument. His socks were marked J. 0., and his
pocketbook A. 0. A. The body was buried.

Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell will have
the command of the troops to be encamped at Shorn-
cliffe, numbering about 5,000 men. Among the
regiments constituting this division will be included
some of those lately under Sir Colin's command in
the Highland division in the Crimea.

Colonel Trollope, of the 62nd Regiment, who
lately commanded a brigade in the Crimea, will, we
understand, proceed to Canada to fill a staff appoint-
ment of similar rank, in the room of Major-General
Home Home, who returns to England.
The promotions of Sir John Burgoyne to the rank
of general, and of Sir Colin Campbell and Sir
Richard England to the rank of lieutenant- general,
for distinguished services during the war, have ap-
peared this week in the Gazette. Sir Colin's promo-
tion is ante-dated to the 4th June, senior to Sir W.
Codrington, promoted on the 6th June.
Major-General Crawfurd will, it is understood, be
appointed to the command of the brigade of Guards
at Aldershott.

L.