The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 1, 1858.

Here peeps out the cloven foot of Demo-
cratic Despotism that worst abuse of
the worst form of government, which
it has been reserved for a writer of the
present day to elevate into an object of en-
thusiasm. At all events, we may very safely
say this,—that Englishmen will look at home
first, and will not establish a despotism here
that we may be better able to put it down
elsewhere. From the Indian article we quote
as follows :

The details of our dealings with Oude cannot be pro-
duced here. A majority of readers (and not the least
thoughtful part) will not believe them, unless fully and
minutely proved ; and that takes, not an article, but a
book; and when the book is writt-n (as " Dacoitee in
Excehtis "), though every statement be guaranteed by
quotations from Blue-books and from Mill's History, they
still say that it is too bad to be true; it must be garbled ;
they must read the Blue-books themselves before they
believe it :—and since they have no time to do this, it is
impossible to convince them. We therefore merely say ;
—it is perfectly certain that at least the people of Oude
believe the story in the very darkest form which it can
assume in our English narratives; for these are compiled
from the ex-parte documents furnished by the very men
who are liable to be inculpated by them. We professed to
annex Conde for the benefit of the people ; but in Outram's
advance to Lucknow, the people were found so hostile,
that terrible accounts came home of our wide-spread
burning of their villages, which the writers justified by
military necessity. If Oude was ill governed of late, at
any rate it was well governed and in high prosperity down
to the day that we first interfered with it. Such is the
testimony even of our own historians, as of James Mill ;
therefore it is beyond a doubt, that such is, will be, and
must be, the permanent tradition in the hearts of the
people. Nor are the violence; of this dreadful war (while
we write) at all ended; if we can believe the public letters
from India, they are as yet only in the beginning.
The tyrannical spirit is confined to no latitudes and to
no race; it grows apace with power and with fear. We
are shocked at the American sentiment towards his
"nigger," but we have a nigger of our own in India.
Listen to the outcries of the popular press: it will tell us
that nothing can succeed with Indians but violence. For-
sooth, "Orientals " are so accustomed to be ill-treated,
that they will despise you and rebel if you treat them well.
Just so our grandfathers and great-grandfathers used to
speak of the Irish : it is the universal doctrine of the
tyrant. Onr ears have scarcely rested from the outcries of
joy about the blowing of men from guns ; the hanging goes
on unabated, but it is no longer proclaimed to be good
fun. A veil is now drawn over it ; men are " disposed of;"
not hanged ; but the belief is not yet laid aside, that
wholesale summary atrocities are politic to terrify, whether
you have or have not men's conscience on your side. It
is only in our own cowardly moments that we fancy man-
kind to be so cowardly and so base. The plain fact is, that
the unarmed, and those who are not writhing under a
sense of injustice and indignity, are restrained from guilt
by far less ghastly inflictions; but the armed and the in-
dignant are only exasperated into frenzy, when oar
violence; find no justification in their consciences. And
when the crisis is past, and we wipe our hands of blood,
what then is our legacy to the future British rulers of
India? To ourselves we may justify our indiscriminate
severities by the massacre of Cawnpore, but the Indians
will have forgotten that massacre, as swallowed up in the
afterdeeds. If we had retaliated atrocities on the heads
of none but the actual perpetrators, this would not have
lowered our fighting prowess, or given us one victory
fewer; and after the victory, oh ! how would the moral
glory of the English name have shone pre-eminent, and
how much brighter would be our prospect! It is now too
late. We must accept as a fact, that the military part of
the Indian population in the north will in the future hate
us more than ever, unless some New, onzaT, AND sraucnio
changes obliterate these deadly remembrances.

We regret that we have no space for some
remarks en " Army Organization," which is
admirably written, nor " The Boscobel Tracts,"
the most interesting paper we have yet seen
on this subject, except one sometime ago in
Blacktcood.
The same inexorable necessity compels us
to award a much more oursory notice to the
National than we could have wished. Some
good reviews of ancient and modern literature ;
an essay on " The Old English Nobility ;" a
notice of Lord Grey on Reform funda-
mentally consistent with the views we have
from time to time expressed in this Journal,
and adding another to the already numerous
protests against the silly and intemperate
attack of the Times—and a very pleasant article
on the Waverley Novels, are perhaps the
best papers in this valuable publication.
The London Quarterly contains many sub-
stantial articles, but we have not noticed any-
thing that asks for special comment in the
way of either praise or blame.

William Paterson, the Merchant Stamm% and
Founder of the Bank of England. By S, Ban-
nister, Xi.. Edinburgh ; Ninuno.
Taxi is e small 00Lavo volume relating the principal
'sante in the life of Peterson, the founder of the
Mak et Fmgland, Pater op vfm a poi opectmen

419

of the favourable sort of Scotch speculators, from
whose energies the empire has often benefited. He
was, instinctively, a projector, and was not, like
" Missisippi Law," a merely clever charlatan.
Paterson based most of his schemes upon science
and facts ; his views were always ingenious, and often
original; and he used his pen actively to promote his
designs. His tracts were innumerable ; and he
appears to have had the art of advancing in the
world, and. procuring the favourable notice of dis-
tinguished persona. But we cannot say that this
biography of Paterson is very attrlictive, or that it
is calculated to interest the general reader. The
history of commerce, since Paterson's days, com-
memorates many still more remarkable characters,
though, undoubtedly, a large measure of respeet
ought to be accorded to the memory of one who
entertained sound views on many difficult and obscure
questions in political economy. To impart general
interest to the life of a practical political projector
like Paterson could only be done by literary art, a
graphic style, and s skilful presentation of the
commercial world in the days of Paterson.
Such resources are not possessed by Mr.
Bannister, who is an unpractised author. The
volume is filled up with a great number of extracts
from Paterson's various writings, which read heavily ;
and even the curious project of the Darien Colon",
with its attendant circumstances, is not described in
a way calculated to interest. The lamented Eliot
Warburton might have written a graphic work on
Paterson, and it is no discredit to Mr. Bannister that
he has not succeeded, because (except in experienced
hands) there is much difEculty in giving variety of
interest to the life of a civilian whose career does
not abound in striking incidents. Adam Smith in-
fluenced the world incalculably beyond Paterson,
but it does not follow that the life of Smith would
necessarily be interesting, and we know that even
Dugald Stewart's biography of him is not very at-
tractive. The estimate of Paterson by Mr. Bannister
is fair enough :
He was, indeed, no common man. His very early imc-
ceases, which did not spring from adventitious einem-
stances, denote his superior intelligence. The Bank of
England was perfected through that superior intelligence—
not on account of his wealth; for, although then a uterelisat
in good credit, his fortune was moderate, the accumulation
of riches never being his ruling passion, well as he recog-
nised their
_proper valise. His admittance as a Beak
director has the same significancy to his honour, inasainsh
as the wealthier men of London, his colleagues, were at
that time by no means of a temper to be guided by a native
of beotland, unless his intellectual superiority was well
attested. He is known to have planned his great colony
in Darien, in Central America, with powerful support
throughout Western Europe, and as i field of 'lineal Des-
mopolitan enterprise ; not as one peculiarly Scottish, until
it was limited to the resources of the Scottish people, In
consequence of the hostility of the English sad Dub&
privileged companies. Under his vigorous management
the Scots adopted it with unanimity and surprising enthu-
siasm. He bad impressed them and others with the truth
of hie commercial doctrines; and the William Paterson of
Dumfriesshire, who clearly did so much in 1694 and 1693
in those two enterprises, can be identified beyond all doubt
with the doer of other things not less important, and be
demonstrated to have been the author of valuable books.
It is, then, to be safely concluded that his antecedents and
personal qualities were consistent with his great actions,
and worthy of no ordinary respect. •
We shall have another occasion for reviewing the
career of Paterson. We see that his writings, col-
lected in two large volumes, with a biographical in-
troduction, are announced for publication, sad we
shall defer until then some comments on the
character of Paterson's commercial and economical
views.

PUBLICATIONS

29.

Parallel Lives of Ancient and Modern Heroes. By Charles
Duke Yonge. Chapman and Hall

Christian Gellert. By Berthold Auerbach. Sampson Low
Poets and Poetry of Germany. Two Vols.
Chapman and Hall
The English liumourists of the Eighteenth Centxry. By W
M. Thackeray. Smith and Elder

Cooing Monte.- By the Author of " A Trap to Catch a
Bttnbesm." Wright and Co.

The Common °keel,' of the Country.

The Poetical IT of Professor Wilson. Blackwoods
The Cruellest Wrong of AU. By the Author of " Mar-.
garet ; or, Prejudice at Home," .fie. Smith and Elder
Colons*, the. Painter. Blaskwoods

Fraser's Magazine. J. W. Patter—Davenport Dann.
Chapman and Hall—Le Follet. Simpkin and Marshall—
Canines New Monthly. Chapman and 11011—Blesetwools.
Blackwood—Titer/4. firoolDbridge,

/*ten to the President ea Me "PA* sod Donate PA*:
TrublnN—Can we ddapt P 4 ficisogi NPm
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