The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-05 00:00:00

INDIAN PETITIONS.

SINCE the passing of the Nawab of SuaAr's
Treaty Bill by so large a majority in the
House of Commons (a majority which would
have been greater by some forty votes but
that many intending to vote for it were shut
out on the division), some apprehension has
been expressed that Parliament is likely to be
inundated by a flood of similar petitions from
India. We do not ourselves at all share in
this apprehension ; but, supposing there to be
any ground for it, what a satire does it convey
on the boasted government of India by the
East India Company ! When one considers
the thousands of miles to be traversed by any
intending petitioner—the enormous expense
he must be put to—the abandonment for the
time of his home and family and native cout•
try—the immense difficulties of other kinds
which he must encounter in the endeavour to
maintain his cause before a strange tribuio 1,
of which the forms and even the very language
are unknown to him—strong indeed must Ls
his sense of the injustice done to him, before
he could feel prepared to resort to such a

many _
would be prepared to stiffer almost any
amount of wrong, rather than seek a remedy
by the tedious and expensive process pursued
in Westminster-hall. What, then, would be
the case with us if Westminster-hall, and every
other court of law in England, were closed to
us, and we were compelled, like these Indians,
to endure ell in silence, or, as the alternative.
make a pilgrimage to Delhi, and fight out
the battle for our rights, before a Hindus-
tam e King and a Hind ostanee Parliament. The
obstacles in the way of these peoples obtaining
justice are thus great enough already, without
closing the door of hope on them by shutting
them out from all power of appeal Indeed,
on other grounds we should be very careful
how we deal with a matter so important; for
it is the worst policy of all to try and drive
our native subjects into a corner from which
there can obviously be but one means for them
to escape. It may be inconvenient for Minis-
ters to have their tempers ruffled by complaints
of misgovernment from India; but it is better
that the money and energies of the petitioners
should be expended in a legal contest here,
than in a contest of another kind on the plains
of Hindostan.
At the same time, we quite agree in the
opinion that Parliament is not in itself the
best tribunal for the decision of such cases,
and that it is only on the supposition of the
Ministers obstinately refusing, as in this
instance, to refer them to a tribunal more
fitted for them, that we would retain (except
under very special circumstances) the plan of
Parliamentary appeal. As it is, Parliament
would refuse to listen to any application
in cases where the courts of India were open
to the petitioner, with their machinery for
eventual appeal, if wrong were done, to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. What
then, more obvious than that if the Minister
were to refer for the Judicial Committee's
opinion the cases which come before him
untried, in consequence of want of jurisdic-
tion in the Indian courts. Parliament would
be equally satisfied with the report on them
by the Committee, and equally disinclined, no
matter on what solicitation, to question the
award ? Over and over again have we sug-
gested this mode of avoiding these scandals
and obviating these difficulties ; and we see
that Mr. CARDWELL, on the part of the Com-
mittee on the Nawab's Bill, stated tho same
thing to the House. We have thus Mr.
CARDWELL, Mr. NAPIER, Mr. KEATINO, Mr
ATHERTON, and Mr. G. Burr, the gentlemen
who formed the Committee, all agreeing with
us on this point ; and we do trust, therefore,
that the Government will not treat lightly
authority so eminent, and which was shown to
have command( d the almost unanimous
confidence of the House. Mr CARDWELL
alluded, in addition, to another course
equally open to the Minister, and also
in accordance with the views we have
continuously laid down. It was, that Mr
VERNON SMITH might have taken the opinion
of the Law Officers of the Crown upon the
subject, and, fortified by these, have pro-
ceeded to state the course lie purposed follow.
ing. We can hardly conceive a case iu which
the Attorney and Solicitor General and
Queen's Advocate having declared them-
selves clearly of opinion that justice had
been done, any considerable number of
members would feel inclined to oppose the
Government, or in which there would be the
least chance of success for a private bill For
no one, it must be remembered, opposes either
the Government or the Directors in matters
of this kind for the mere sake of opposition ;
indeed, the feeling ties aU the other way.
But it is impossible, when appealed to, for
members to connive at the most flagrant in-
justice being perpetrated, by conferring en
the perpetrators that sense of irresponsibility
which is at the bottom of nearly all Indian
misgovernment.
That much injustice is, and must be, done
by the Directors, is clearly proved by the
result which an appeal against them to an
English tribunal invariably brings forth.
There was, for instance, the other day the
great Bengal zemindary case ; there was the
Dyce Sombre will case ; and there is this case

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PRESS.

regarding the heirs of the Nawab of S&L r.
In all these the Directors have not only been
beaten, but beaten ignominiously, and been
told substantially in the judgments that their
cases had not one of thou a leg to stand upon.
What, then, must be the species of cause in
which they have none but weak and helpless
opponents to deal with, when these are the
style of actions they select to do battle on in
the face of England? We believe ourselves
that there are thousands of cases of inherited
rights in which the parties have been even more
shamefully treated by the Directors, if the truth
were known, than have been the heirs of the
late Nawab of SURAT. However, now that in-
quiry has commenced, we may be pretty cer-
tain these things will not continue long to
be enveloped in darkness One point re-
mains to which we must beg to draw the
public attention, and regarding which it is
essential that Mr. VERNON SMITH should act
immediately. The point we allude to is the
retaining upon our legal tribunals—at fees
which are said to be enormous—the son of
the India-house Secretary in every India-house
contest with its Indian subjects. Mr. VERNON
SMITH must be quite ae are of the influence of
the Secretary, and that virtually it is perhaps
even more by his fiat than by the will of the
Directors that such litigation must in most
cases take place. It is undesirable, therefore,
in the highest degree, that the spectacle
should be exhibited (particularly in cases
without a leg to stand on) of the father driv-
ing the people of India into ruinous struggles
in the law courts here, while the son is making
his fortune by fees to contest their claims, paid
out of their and their native fellow-tax-
payers' pockets. If these are to be forced by
the India-house into such contests, the least
that can be done is to see that neither the
Directors, nor their Secretary, nor their rela-
tions or connections, shall in any way profit
by the liti'ation. Under the system we are
commenting on the India-house officials have
a positive interest in doing injustice to their
native subjects. We do not mean to say that
they have been actuated by such feelings in
these recent transactions, for we will admit
that the emplo)ment of a son in such cases
Is at first sight very natural. Still the ten-
dency of the system is that which we have de-
picted ; the continuance of it must in the
long run he fatal to all confidence in the India-
house, and it should and must be at once
abandoned.

IMPRACTICAB ILITY OF "ANTI-

MAYNOOTH ISM."
THE evil of exciting dissension in Ireland at
the present time is so great that we feel
'ldled upon to express our hope that no rash
movements, under the pretence of advancing
pure religion, will be sanctioned by Protestant
politicians. Experience has shown that, as
religious discord has ceased, the gentry of
Ireland has regained its proper position in
political life ; and, polemical passions being
allowed to slumber, there is every reason to
expect that the natural aristocracy of Ireland
will be enabled to resume its constitutional
position, and fill those seats in Parliament
from which, for many years, it has been un-
fairly excluded. But if, unhappily, an anti-
Nlaynooth crusade should be undertaken, we
may bid farewell to any hopes of social her
mony in Ireland. Let us look at the facts
fairly, and let us calculate what would be the
certain results of a great Protestant agitation
got up for the purpose of destroying an edu-
cational institution established by Mr. Prrr,
and supported by Lord ELDON and Mr.
PERCITAL.

Our ears would be stunned at once with a
Radical cry (assisted by the Whigs) for
abolishing or " appropriating " the funds of
the Irish Church. On that one question
Whigs, Liberals, Dissenters, Voluntaries,
Seotch Presbyterians, Nonconformists, would
raise a rancorous din, to the no small glee of
those worthy gentlemen. Mr. 600nErrovon
HATTER and Mr .1. COPPOCK. Our Parliamen-
tary politics would be taken back to the point
at which they stood in 1838. Other " houses"

SA'

besides that of " Lichfield" would easily be
found for the purpose .of " oontpacts and
Lord GRANVILLE, or any other complaisant
courtier, would (as SYDNEY SMITH said of Lold
MELBOURNE) be " a decent head for the Cabi-
net." Amongst other disadvantages in the
adoption of " Maynooth" for a political move-
ment, would be the result of making Parlia-
mentary parties turn upon a mere Irish topic.
We say at once that our conceptions of the
empire—our sense of Parliamentary dignity—
make us instinctively recoil from a plan of
action which would make Ireland the motive
power in our imperial system. Such a course
of conduct would result, not in Anglicising
Ireland, but in Hibernicising England. Agita-
tors, violent speeches, Celtic clatter, Milesian
rhapsodies, endless altercations, would become
the staple of our discussions. Is that desira-
ble? Is it politic, or profound, or states-
manlike ?
Again, we must ask where are the Conserva-
tive statesmen to be found who could form a
Cabinet agreed upon taking away Maynooth?
Is it at all likely that any such Cabinet could
be formed ? If not, to what object are our
Parliamentary " impractibles " tending? Do
they really believe that in the reign of
Queen VICTORIA, statesmen with capacity for
ruling a variously formed empire could under-
take to reverse a policy stamped with the
positive approbation of PITT, CASTLEREAGH,
WELLINGTON, WELLESLEY, and CANNING, and
with the Ministerial support of PERCIVAL,
ELDON, and other anti-Catholic statesmen?
None but dreamers could answer that ques-
tion affirmatively.

We say, emphatically, that " Maynooth" is
at once too Irish and too provincial a subject
to be adopted as a Protestant test. There are
many things in Ireland which cannot be regu-
lated by an exact application of our English
standard. Mr. Pirr, in his great speech on
the "Union," said the imperial junction of
England, Scotland, and Ireland should pre-
sent a family likeness, with common resem-
blance, and special diversity in each. He
illustrated his meaning with the happy quo-
tation:—

Facies non omnibus una,
Nee diverse tamen, quails decet ease sororum.
We must not be too intolerant of some provin-
cial differences arising out of the peculiar cir-
cumstances of the sister nations. Sir WALTER
Scorr declined being the biographer of Lord
CASTLEREAGH, because (amongst other reasons)
in
he was " unacquainted with the difficult d
" intricate questions arising out of the io ea
"of Ireland." We fear that those who iFit ld
now take a retrograde course, and plunge'us
into " Nlaynooth " and "anti-Irish Church "
agitation, are in the same state of ignorance as
Sir WALTER Scorr described himself, though
they have more confidence in their own Judg-
ment than, that eminent person.

The Globe of last night states that the proroga-
tion of Parliament will take place on Thipalm' the
24th inst. :,•1?•,t-
The entry of the Guards into London has not yet
been appointed. Until her Majesty fix the day the
brigade will remain at Aldershott.
Admiral Lord Lyons passed throngh Parisi on
Thursday on his way to the Crimea.
The King of Sweden bas, through the Minister
for Foreign Affairs, sent in his adhesion ou the
part of Sweden and Norway to the principles' led
down by the powers who signed the treaty Fof
Paris respecting the rights of neutrals in time of
War.

MALDON.—Tbe death of Mr. Lennard bas brought
forward, in addition to Mr. Mecbi and Mr. 41'Enteer,
another Liberal candidate, Mr. Sutton We tern. fp,
Social reform, no church rates, extension of the suf-
rage, and the advancement of education are the
principal points to which Mr. Western pledges
himself.

FROMT.—The death of HA Earl of Cork and
Orrery, and the consequent elevation 'Viscount
Dungarvan to the peerage, cr'atea vacancy in the
representation. The health of tsti e earl had for
some time past been so precarious that measures
were taken before hi death by the political parties
in the town to be prepared for the election, which
appeared to be inevitable. Major Boyle, nepli,w of
Colonel the Hon. Robert Edward Boyle, and Mr.
Donald Nicol, ex-Sheriff of London, and tailor, will
contest the vacant seat.

t -.
method for olltaining redress. We all know 1
how many there are among ourselves who