The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MARCH 6, 1858.

three years bitice, fancjing that there was an appeal from
a Governor-General's exercise of authority to the Queen's
justice, he sought to come to England, and was stopped at
Calcutta itself—so it was stated by one portion of the
Indian press—by an intimation from Lord Dalhousie that,
if he left the country, his State would be taken possess•on
of and administered by the English. lam bound to say,
however, tLat other newspapers gave a different version,
leas creditable to himself, of his giving up the idea of a
voyage to Europe. Nothing, however, could be more
evident in the Government organs than their dislike to such
a step.
Here, on Mr. Ludlow's own showing, there are
two sides to the question. He takes only one.
Or, look at his opinion on what certainly may
be called an extrajudicial point as regards
India, but one on which every one has now
enjoyed opportunities of forming a right im-
pression:—

[Lord Hardinge's] ambition, T believe, by leading him
to oust Lord Raglan from the commandership in•chief, for
which he was admirably fitted, and to thrust him by way
of compensation into the command of the Crimean war,
for whica he was not fitted, was one of the main sources of
our disasters in the first half of that war.

There is much in the history of the late war,
no doubt, on which the public is still mis
informed. But if there is one point by this
time clearer than another, it is the military
character of Lord Raglan. That almost every-
thing well done in the Crimea was in pur-
suance of his plans, and that almost everything
ill done was in contravention of them, has been,
we should have thought, made out to the
satisfaction of everybody, except the Times
correspondent and Mr. Ludlow. When we
find him thus misled by the representations of
a portion of the English press, we regret to
observe that in the latter part of his historical
narrative Indian newspapers have been his
chief authorities, and that while aware, as he of
course is, of their frequent misinformation
and general unscrupulousness, he should show
hardly any sign of a disposition to weigh
their statements in a firm and impartial
balance. The same remark applies to his use
of the Life of Sir Charles Napierlwhich, how-
ever admirable as a vindication of a great man,
has been too often impugned to make a wri:er
prudent in adopting it as the sole source of
his facto in the periods it covers.

The subjects of Mr. Ludlow's concluding
chapters are such as belong to another part of
our columns than that dedicated to literature.
He treats of them under the heads of the
Military, the Religious, the Race, the Govern-
mental, and the National questions, and on all
these points he is what may be called a
Radical reformer. Many of his views are
similar to what we ourselves have frequently
urged : with many others we should not at
present be disposed to coincide. But his
reasoning on all is well worthy of attention by
those who wish to form an opinion on the
present state of affairs as to the condition of
India which is likely to result from the modi-
fications which will shortly be effected in its
Government.

The work of Mr. Mills, though an able and
useful one, does not admit of any lengthened
notice, it purpose being entirely statistical,
and partaking in no respect of the nature
either of history or disquisition. Its object
is to supply actual knowledge on the subjects
of Indian taxation, law, judicial procedure,
and military defence. It sets out with a
sketch of the political history of British
India, giving a summary of the area and
population, a list of the charters which have
been granted to the Company, and of its
acquisitions from the earliest period to the
present time. This is succeeded by a chapter
on the Home and the Local Government ; an
extract from which will answer a question not
unfrequently asked—What is the Board of
Control ?
The Board of Commissioners for the affairs of India,
commonly called the " Board of Control," is practically
a corporation sole—the duties of which devolve on a
Cabinet Minister, who is designated " President " of a
Board which has, for purposes of business, no real ex-
istence.

The present theoretical constitution of the Board is
defined by statute 3 and -I Will. IV. cap. 85, by which the
Crown is empowered to appoint as Commissioners for the
affairs of India any number of persons, whether of the
Privy Council or not; and it is enacted that the Lord
President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal, the First
Lord of the Treasury, the principal Secretaries of State,
and the Chancellor of the Eachequer shall, by virtue of
their offices, be members of the Beard ;—two to form a
quorum, and the Commissioner first named in the patent
to be the President.

---
The Commissioners never now sit as a Board, though it
appears that in former times they did so, and minutes of
the attendance of Mr. Dundas, Mr. Pitt, and others exist.
Subsequently, when there were two paid junior Commis-
sioners, there were occasional meetings; but since the
only paid Commissioner has been the President, no Hoardhas been held. The President is regarded as acting on
his own responsibility.
The fiction of a " Board " is however still kept up, by
the signature of one of the ex-officio members, being in
conformity with the law, attached to all documents record-
ing the decisions of the President.

The Indian Government and its instruments,
the administration of justice, the financial
system, an account of the administration of
native States, and a list of the laws and publin
documents relating to India, occupy the
remainder of the volume. At p 110 Mr.
Mills says :

In 1844, Scinde (in which territory a plan of collecting
land revenue under military superintendence had been at-
tempted by Sir C. Napier) was annexed to Bombay, and
partly subjected to the same system with that Presidenev.
This is hardly accurate ; though we have not
at present the information necessary for sub-
stituting a truer statement. The book how-
ever is compiled with much cam, and the data
it affords will make it a valuable work of re-
ference as long as the existing government of
India remains unaltered, and as regards
Indian administration, probably even after
that time. The Revenue Map is both curious
and interesting.

Oulita, the Serf. A Tragedy. London: J. W.

Parker and Son.
THE revival of dramatic poetry at the present
(lay is more to be desired than expected. The
surface of society has lost those inequalities
which produce broad and striking effects: its
mountains are levelled, its forests cleared, and
its marshes drained. We still have the pie•
turesque, but the grand has departed. It
would be easy to show, if the occasion re-
quired, to what extent comedy as well as tra-
gedy has been affected by the change. But
at present we merely wish to point out that
an author who chooses the dramatic form in
which to clothe his conceptions labours under
the double disadvantage of an unpopular
method and a constrained imagination. Of
the first, we need say nothing. By the second,
we mean that as a man cannot wholly dissever
himself from the tone and temper of the age
in which he lives, so he cannot give free play
to his genius unless in accordance with the ge-
neral current of contemporary humanity. The
age.of Queen Elizabeth found its natural expres-
sion in objective poetry—the age of Queen Vic-
toria in subjective. Tennysonlind Keats aro
as much superior to Herrick and Cowley as
Johnson and Massinger to Knowles or Byron.
What Shakespeare would have been had bo
struggled to give utterance to " The two
voices," that is an author at the present day
when he strives to reproduce an Othello or
Macbeth.

The distinguished writer to whom the pre-
sent volume is attributed would not probably
care to stake his reputation on " Oulita." We
could not say it was a fine tragedy, though it
contains one or two highly effective scenes.
But it is in some respects a fine poem. A sus-
tained flow of noble thoughts clothed in pure
and elevated language, and a touching, if not
art exciting, story, will be extensively and de-
servedly admired.
The heroine is a beautiful Russian serf,
with whom a great Russian noble falls in
love, hut the latter being betrothed to a lady
of his own rank, the mistress of Oulita, for
political objects, a terrible commotion ensiles
on the discovery of his passion. The Russian
police play a conspicuous part in the conduct
of the story, and the Emperor himself is one
of the minor personages. The period is the
beginning of the nineteenth century. The
leading defect of " Oulita" is that it partakes
too much of the character of a simple narra-
tive. The story does not unfold itself. Mr.
John Dennis would have said that there is no
Avayvw.flat;, and hat the If ErIrITtICS comes too
late. It is open to doubt, also, whether the
concluding catastrophe be not too abrupt. but,
as Coleridge has said of Shakespeare, the dra-
tnatic interest of " Oulita" is sometimes great
when quite independent of the plot. Thus

act iv., where Oulita makes her confer-
the princess, is one that rivets the
to the page. But the general effect is
and, with the above exception, we know
passage that would be a great success
the boards. _

characters are carefully distinguished.
icro, a scholar and philosophic Reformer,
ably portrayed. The contrast between
secluded literary calm of his ordinary life
-lie impetuous temerity with which he
awards Oulita displays close observance
uman nature. The princess, also, is a
• study; but whether her conduct at the
quite consistent with Russian social
rms may be doubted.
the whole, we cannot go so far as to say
• Oulita" is unworthy of the author's
Alen : but we do not think he will make
success in dramatic literature as alone
to satisfy him. Although, therefore, we
followed him through tragedy with some
acation, we cannot take our leave of him
the usual complimentary phrase, that we
soon to meet him there again.

ntroduetory Lecture to a Course on the
Principles and Practice of Civil Engineering.
Henry Conybeare, F.G.S. London :
onge and Crighton.
Ire glad that Mr. Conybeare has published
interesting lecture in the form of a pam-
containing as it does many hints, valu-
at all times, but particularly so now, as
plies to India, by way of illustration,
of the " principles that should regulate
complete system of ways of internal coin-
inication," the chapter on which is one of
lost instructive in the lecture.
ime of these principles require only to be
Inciated to command our immediate assent.
',nstance,--that the system should form a
,lets whole; that each road composing it
sh,uld be specially adapted to the nature and
iount of traffic it has to carry, as regards
and relative perfection ; that each road
Id be carried into execution in its proper
of sequence. Western India is pointed
, exemplifying the essentiality of system
the failure in result of the publio works
expenditure of the last twenty years .

According to parliamentary returns (obtained on Mr.
motion), such expenditure during the ten years
ing 184,5.46 amounted for the Bombay Presidency to
During the last ten years the rate of expendi-
- public works has notoriously increased, and we
therefore safe in taking the expenditure of the
Presidency on public works durit.g the last twenty
. from 800,0001. to 1,000,0001. sterling, exclusive of
expenditure on railways.
the case of Western India, the exigencies of the case
-- especially intelligible. A peculiarly rugged chain of
mountains ran parallel to the roast, at an average distance
miles, and completely shut out the productive pro-
of the interior from the points of export.
t " had to be done " first of all was evidently to
this mountain barrier by great trunk roads, and so
the extensive and productive districts behind them,
t a farthing should have been spent on works in
(erior until this first desideratum had been accom-

up to the present time, that large expenditure of
. twenty years on public works has not afforded to
commerce of Bombay a single trunk road, economi-
practicable throughout for wheeled carriages tra-
p the Ghauts, and tapping the producing districts
them ; and the large sums spent have been abso-
without result, either in increasing the amount of
exported from Bombay or in diminishing the cost
conveyance from the interior to the coast. Under
present system, the public works executed by Govern-
cost the country above one hundred per cent. on the
`construction in engineering superintendence alone,
in England the charge is always under five per
and on the Continent usually under two and a half
cent. Works of this class can seldom be productive
complete, and Government works in India seldom are
ipleted within a single generation. Large. sums are
dissipated on tho construction of discontinuous
of road scattered over the interior, but no arterial
---;-ation is ever finished out of hand. The

. defect of the system is, in fact, the same that
Archbishop Whately has pronounced to be the prominent
of the female mind, a want of totality.

greatest public work undertaken by the Indian
anent, beyond all comparison, is that of the lloab
the north-west of Bengal, a work intended both
irrigation and navigation. It is estimated to cost a
and a half sterling, and for which purpose 50,0001.
has been voted. As a means of navigation it will
le no return till completed, and at the rate of 50,0001.
it will take thirty years to complete it—thus in-
a loss of ono million sterling by interest on un-
Produtire capital, to my nothing of waiting thirty Team

se. 3, act
sion to '
reader tc
tame, an
of no pa(
upon tlo
The cl
The her(
is very a
the sec!'
and the
acts tow
of hums
clever st
last is
customs
On th
that " C
reputati
such a s
ought tc
have fol
gratifies
with the
hope so
introdue
Prime]
By F
Yong(
WE are
this int
phlet, c(
able at
he app]
some of
" a corn
" munic
the mos
Some
enuncia
For inst
complet
should I
amount
cost an
should 1
order of
to as e
by the
expend]
Accordi
Ewart's n
ending it
390,2761.
tore on p
ARP. be t}
Bombay I
years at fr
the expen
In the
were expel
ntountains
of fifty mi
vinces of t
What "
pierce thit
(lip" thi
and not
the interic
'dished.
Yet, up
the last is
the comm
tally prac
versing th
behind tht
lutely witl
cotton exp
of its cons
the preset
went coat
cost of co►
whereas it
cent., and
per cent.
till compli
completed
uaelessly
scraps oft
line of cot
radical de
Archbisho
failing of
The gr
Govern►ns
Canal, in •
for irrigat
million an
a year has
produce ni
a year it
Voicing al
Productly4