The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, Juts 25, 1857.

CANNING'S despatch was received, announcing the mutiny and its rapid
spread. Will it be credited that the Directors replied—
Having just received your official report of the measures taken by you on the
occasion of the extensive and calamitous outbreak in the Bengal native army, we shall
give it our best attention at the earliest possible period;
and even expressed a hope that in the interim it would go out of
itself! This is just the sort of thing the public wish to unravel. They
desire to know whether the rebellion lies only upon the surface of the
Bengal army, or whether it has not roots deep in years of oppression
and misgovernment. And our agreement with all the active measures
of the Government by no means precludes present inquiry, or more
deliberate determination. The only thing to be avoided is procrasti-
nation. Let calm investigation be pursued, and remedies will be sug-
gested, not wild projects struck out from temporary distress. In the
prosecution of the inquiry, we should be open to information, indefati-
gable to examine, but careful to weigh, and cautious to proceed. Let
us penetrate the cause of this great evil, and while we avoid languid
palliatives, let us apply the only remedy which will be truly service-
able, and from which we may expect a radical cure.

There can be little doubt that if Mr. TRACKERAY persists in his
determination to obtain a seat in Parliament a constituency will he
found to return him before very long. A body of men, dazzled by
his fame, and conciliated by the pleasure they have derived from his
works, are not likely to be nice in demanding his political certificate.
On the causes of his failure at Oxford we might speculate for ever.
The first reason undoubtedly is that Mr. CARDWELL is the better man.
After this it may, perhaps, be thought superfluous to add another.
But as constituencies noto►iously do not always choose the best man,
it is open to us to inquire what other causes may have been in opera-
tion. We are inclined, then, to believe that the English people look
with a little justifiable suspicion on all professional grumblers.
They smile over the portrait of Lord Carahas, or laugh heart:ly
at the Barnacles. But they fancy that in all this fine noise there
is something that rings unsound, something of querulous vanity with
which they do not quite sympathise. As literature they take it well
enough ; they know they cannot have perfection. But what is merely
a venial defect in an author, becomes magnified into a heavy drawback
in a statesman. We think the Oxford electors have very likely been
unconsciously influenced by some such feeling •as this, which is
eminently characteristic of Englishmen.

We have already hinted at the somewhat delicate dilemma in
which our contemporary, the Morning Post, occasionally found itself
when ecclesiastical questions catno under the consideration of Govern-
ment. Long known as an exponent of ultra-High-Church principles,
it was suddenly compelled to swallow its past leaders, and acknowledge
the beauty of Lord PALMERSTON'S Evangelical convictions. On the first
occasion when this unpalatable duty was to be performed, our contem-
porary endeavoured to throw some sort of veil around its movements.
When a TAIT, a VILLIERS, and a CLOSE were successively nominated to
bishoprics in place of Dr. HOOK and Mr. TRENCH, the Post reasoned
that an earnest adversary was better than a lukewarm friend, and with
a few such adroit commonplaces managed partially to conceal the full
extent of the tergiversation. Now, however, whether it be that our
contemporary has waxed more fearless or more shameless, or has
become thoroughly impregnated with the Gallio-like coolness of its
patron—whatever be the cause, it no longer scruples at much more
undisguised " word-bolting " On the Bth of July last, we find the fol-
lowing remarks on the Divorce Bill :

Will any one say that, because the Church is in a certain way subject to the State, it
is right to force a clergyman to such a strait—to allow no latitude to conscience. no mar-
gin to the firm instincts of decency and reverence ? We entreat the House to weigh these
things ; and we entreat the clergy, one and all, rather to go to gaol and suffer the loss of
all things than prostitute their high and holy office to the performance of a service so
eontrary to truth, reason, equity, and religion.
Yesterday we read as follows :

Tt is said that there are a number of the clergy who, from conscientious scruples,
are determined to refuse to obey this enactment. We respect their motives, and fully
appreciate their resolutions, but we suspect that they are magnifying an evil which only
exists ix. their imagination.
It was rather superfluous to exhort the clergy to go to gaol and suffer
the loss of all things rather than submit to an evil " which exists only
"in their imagination." It is suggested, indeed, in yesterday's leader
that a middle course may remedy all difficulties; but it is quite evident
that our contemporary has received a sudden order to tack, and that
the watchword is now " State supremacy" instead of " ecclesiastical
independence." This is a miserable way of trifling with serious pies-
tio►is, and manifestly betrays the absence of principles in the Premier's
oa•u mind and his habit of veering on every political emergency. We
are sorry to see the destinies of the Church in such keeping.

An immediate and definite increase of the standing European army
in India has, we have reason to believe, been determined upon. No one
denies that such an increase is indispensable, but we object in toto
to the further proposal to leave it to the East India Direction to
supply these troops. The troops should be enlisted and sent out by
tile Horse Guards, and net by the East India Company, for the follow-
ing reasons, to which we earnestly entreat the attention of the Govern-
inent:—That if the Horse Guards raise and officer additional battalions
to existing regiments on Indian service, they would not only increase
the Indian army to the required extent in a manner the most rapid
and the most effective, but the troops they raised, drilled, and sent

out would be ready for service on landing. Now, if the East India
Company are permitted to raise recruits in England, they would
only obtain officers for them in India, and the officers assigned
to them would be, not men accustomed to European troops, but
officers of the native infantry, of all men the most unfitted by
previous habits for the management of European regiments.
We will even venture to say that the a officers would take
longer to learn their duties than the men to learn their drill, and
when all was done the troops would never equal in efficiency those
officered by men accustomed to European regiments. But let us
reflect for a moment what length of time it will take to bring
regiments raised by the East India Company even to that pitch of
efficiency which would enable them to take the field. The whole of
the men being recruits, and the whole of the officers having everything
to learn as well, it would be at least two years, and probably much
more, before the new regiments were fit for service ; while what we
want are troops fit to take the field at once. If the Company like, let
them increase each of their existing European regiments by two or three
hundred men over the fixed establishment,so as to be able to fill up the
vacancies by casualties that may be inflicted in times like these ; but
by all means let the regiments sent to India to re-establish order be
regiments of the Queen, and not new Company's regiments that will
take two years to fit themselves for service, and which will have for
officers all the native infantry incapables, who have already managed to
lose the Bengal army. We protest most strongly against the proposal
which we believe to be under, if not past, consideration, and we hope
to see the question taken up in the proper quarter.

The tedious debate of Friday night week, prolonged until half-past
four in tho morning, was principally due to the want of weight and
authority upon the part of the new Speaker. We have pointed out upon
a previous occasion the want of firmness and precision apparent in Mr.
Speaker DENISON'S decisions upon questions of order. The want o
Parliamentary knowledge may now be added. When he interferes he
interferes weakly; he has evidently but little confidence in his own
judgment. He " suspects," but always on the wrong point, and very
little weight would appear to be attached by the House to his opinioc.
This is much to be regretted, for with a new House, and in such times
as these, the Chair requires to be filled by a skilful and energetic
Speaker—by one throughly well acquainted with the rules of the
House, and too keen in Parliamentary precedent to permit them to be
" skilfully evaded."

And so we are "not at war with China"! Well, that is satisfactory,
although it is the reverse of what we have beliaved for the last four
months ; and after all the hard names that were flung at Yen—after
the despatch of a special Envoy with 5,000 troops and a fleet of gun
boats—and after the Mansion-house speech and the Tiverton address
above all, we may be excused for believing in a war with China, and
for looking forward to the capture of Canton as ilia first effect of
Lord ELoin's appearance in the Chinese waters. But "we are like to
"eat no great store of goslings this year." Lord ELGIN is to go to
Pekin. Non cuing homini eontingit adire Corinthum. "We have sent
"a special mission," said Lord PALMERSTON last Friday, " for the
" purpose of entering into negotiations with the Imperial Govern-
ment." This at least is a happy and an original idea ; but
what in the name of common sense has it got to do with " PM/MPTI..
TUDE" ? What becomes of the declaration of Lord CLARENDON that
the only argument the Chinese understood was that of " force."
or of the patriotic indignation of Lord PALMERSTON, and of his
appeal to the country to support him in " prompt and vigorous
" measures" ? We put it to the country : is it a " prompt" or a
" vigorous" measure, after you have been " disgraced," " insulted,
and " kicked out" of Canton (we use the words of the March debates),
to attempt negotiations at Pekin as a preliminary ? If it is a local
quarrel—if it is simply a little affair between the Palmerston of Eng-
land, and YEH, the " Palmerston of China," why can they not have it
out at Canton ? Why should Lord Elkin go to Pekin at all ?
Clearly Lord PALMERSTON is in a dilemma. Either the quarrel is local,
in which case there is no necessity for Lord ELGIN to go to Pekin ; or
it is national, in which case the very thing to be avoided was prelimi-
nary negotiation ; and yet this course, the one above all others which
he deprecated in March as degrading to the honour of the country, we
find him following out in July. Looking at the question from the
March Ministerial point of view, in this stage of tile affair to admit
" Correspondence " and written discussion is a huge blunder. What
man with any knowledge of the Chinese character would do such a
thing ? We-shall assuredly be beaten, for no nation on earth can equal
the Chinese in passive resistance—a very effectual check to positive
hostility. Upon the whole, we must unaffectedly confess that
we are disappointed. Lord PALMERSTON, in March, talked so big.
so much in the how-wow style, of what he would do, and held
forth such large promises to the country, that it was impossible not to
have our curiosity and our expectations strongly excited. And, after
all this prodigious parade of vengeance, what do we see ? Instead of
beholding an armed Minerva step from the brain of this Jupiter
Tonans, we arc told to contemplate a "rickety bantling," weak, ineffi-
cient, and contemptible. We will venture to predict that such a plan
of languid negotiation as that indicated by Lord PALMERSTON last
week will prove ridiculous, ignorant, and mistaken, and will inevit-
ably fail to carry out the professed object of the Chinese expedition.
The country, we hope, will now recover from the delusion that it was
the outraged honour of England which induced Lord PaLmeasros to
appeal to the national feeling in April.

'126

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION