The Press.
London, England, 1856-05-31 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The Treats of April 15, by its contents and sense, is s
guarantee that the parties to it will nowhere and never
swerve from the principles of international law and
justice. . . • ' •
The t-- - i•. •1 :'es *cadres the prolonged anion of
Austria, 4,egisnd44llld od the principles of law and
insane.
: k a
This 4 a fair thd ta Ail statement of the tell
principle of the "rti Alliance. Its purpdie
ri
is to *ure i ptedo nating power to prevent
any 4Paurbante 111 P "Actual state of Europa.
The i t llia.ice of the t Ale Powers, it is said,
" was cons,,lidated 111 a most conservative
" sense after the war Which had led to it was
" at an end."

Then how does this Triple Alliance affect
our relations with Sardinia ? The Correspon-
denz shows that the Austrian and the Sardi-
nian Governments are in direct antagonism
on the question of Italy, and that the former
will never recognise the right of the latter to
speak in the name of Italy :

As to the policy of the Austrian empire, it is based on a
respect for all acquired rights.
True to its principle—regard fer the independence of
all sovereignties—the Imperial Royal Government can
never recognise the right which is clai.ned by the Sar-
dinian Court to speak in the name of Italy. Although
regarding things from a point of view entirely different,
we cannot but agree with the opinion eapresaed by that
Minister, that in the perception of international relations,
rights, and duties, there is an impassable gulf between
Austria and the present Sardinian Cabinet.

Throughout this document Austria speaks of
the Italian Sovereigns alone. It is with the
sovereignties of Italy that she is allied; it is to
the sovereignties of Italy that she is bound to
afford aid against insurrectionary movements ;
she will support the " advantageous changes "
which may emanate from the free will of the
Italian Sovereigns, but she will not suffer
them to be coerced by popular movements :
She will firmly repel any unjustifiable attack which may
be made on those Italian States that are allied to her, and
will do all in her power to counteract the machinations of
the anarchis►i, and to prevent revolutionary agitation.

Surely this is plain speaking. Austria will
support the Italian Courts against any effort
of the Italian people to overthrow them; and
to maintain this principle, she relies on her
internal strength. and on "European treaties
" which are recognised and respected by all
" the Powers." Austria feels that she has
gained an accession of strength by the Triple
Alliance, and her determination to uphold the
sovereignties of Italy is clearer and more de
cided than it has ever been before. The
Courts in her estimation are all ; the people
are nothing. Whatever changes are required
must come from the Governments, not from
the governed.—

Wherever Austria has intervened in Italy, she has done
so in the most disinterested manner; she has intervened
at the request of the different sovereigns, and as soon as
one or other of them has declared his ability to maintain
public peace and order without foreign assis.ance, the
Imperial forces have been withdrawn from his territories.
Willie the doctrine of intervention prevails, the Italian
people must of necessity be at the mercy of their Courts ;
and to speak to them of their rights, to encourage them to
rise or to agitate for tneir liberties, is to prepare for them
all the calamities inevitably resulting from the domination
and licence of a foreign military force. Against this right
of intervention m iintained by Austria, Sardinia protests
with all her power. Between the policy.of the two Go•
vernments there is an " impassable gulf."

In what position the. is the Administration of
Lord PALM ERSTON ? If A and B are tit mly and
intimately allied, and B is directly opposed to
C. what is I.ll* relation of Ato C? This is the
point to be determined. It is this question
which our Legislature is imperatively called
on to discuss. We can no longer tolerate
without dishonour professions favorable to
Italian liberalism and conduct upholding
Italian despotism. England will be branded
with hypucrisy in the face of the world, should
she continue to stimulate liberal principles in
Italy while strengthening the authority of the
Austrian Government, which openly proclaims
its intention of suppressing those principles.
This policy of holding with the hounds and
running with the hare is contemptible in a
small Power, but odious in a great one. Austria
must despise our sympathy with the Italian
Liberals while secure of our alliance. Her
answer to our support of the Sardinian re-
monstrance is conveyed in the assertion she
makes that she has the right and the power
to suppress all popular effervescent.* in the
Italian States.

The Court of Austria must feel that it has
at last made Lord Patatsasrox safe. Ills

.m=ll

SATURDAY,

declaration that the British Government
separated itself from the Sicilian move-
ment 4n 1849, because the Sicilians re.
fused to acknowledge the sovereignty of
the King of N&IPLE% is so notoriously
opposed to fain, and to repugnant to all
the opinions ha las perviously expressed,
that It hen been eViitywhale received with un-
bouatled astonishnitint. It is opposed to the
expos% tliclaratiima itdOit Mum that he was
will*/ to recogniS t e independence of Sicily,
hut tliat he could not overcome the opposition
of the Court of Naples. Were not guns sent
to the Sicilian inEurgents with the Tower
brand upon them? Was not the Duke of
GENOA intimated by Lord PALMERSTON as a
desirable prince for Sicily ? It is difficult
to account for his Lordship's sudden change
of tone. Does it arise from profound con-
tempt of what is called the Liberal party
in this country ? No other explanation is
adequate to the fact. This party is at his
foot. He can now be as absolutist in
his avowals as he pleases. There is some
shrewdness in his contempt, fur it is shared
by the enlightened opinion of the whole
country.

OUR CIVILISATION IN THE EAST-
WE see by the last Indian twill that the Mop-
halls have again risen in rebellion in Malabar,
and that a body of her Majesty's troops have
been sent down from Bombay to Calicut to
quell the outbreak. These are the people, it
may be remembered, who, a short time since,
murdered their collector, Mr. CONOLLY, and
who have been with short intervals perpetu-
ally giving trouble for the last fourteen years.
An attempt was made on the last occasion to
terrorise them into future submission by burn-
ing the corpses of those who fell in their
collision with our troops, but the result has
been, as we predicted, to infuriate their pas-
sions instead of allaying them, and to make
them less amenable to reason, if possible, than
tuey were before. A similar measure has had
a similar result on our north-west frontier.
There, too, the practice of burning the bodies
of Mahomcdau insurgents, and so depriving
them of the rites of sepulture, has been
adopted ; and there, too, assassinations, in-
stead of diminishing, have greatly increased,
since the introduction of this barbarous law.
Nor does the evil end here ; for it seems to
have had an influence the very reverse of
desirable over the minds of our own officials
in India Having entered upon this p.eth,
and found it so far a failure, they appear in-
clined to follow it out to the most revolting
extremes The organ of the Government
actually deplores the existence of feelings on
the part of the public which render it impos-
sible to resort to the measure of burning alive
malefactors of this description ; but it ex-
presses itself as not disinclined to resort to
mutilation, which it supposes may have terrors
for such minds as theirs. At any rate, all
forms of trial, it affirms, should be dispensed
with in such cases, and the offender, or sup-
posed offender, hung as soon as caught upon
the nearest tree.
If anything were wanting to show that the
backwardness in civilisation which is said to
exist in India is not confined to the natives of
the country, it would be the
publication, in a
respectable English journal, of such atro-
cious sentiments. No wonder that torture,
though formally denounced, excites little
horror in India and meets with little real effort
at repression, when modes are advocated of en-
forcing submission to the Government more
barbarous than those to which even the most
barbarous and inhuman of' Asiatic sovereigns
have ever had recourse. The propounders of
such doctrines are evidently blind to the fact
that vigour in the Government and a tyran-
nical abuse of power are not synonymous,.
and that cruelty always productive of
weakness is a sign of it, rather than of
strength. In no country has a recourse to
such expedients ever been permanently suc-
cessful. Even if effectual at the instant, a
terrible reaction is always, sooner or later, the.
inevitable result. Nor does our experience of

111

F

MAY 31, 1856.

India tend to show that it is likely to afford
any exception to this universal rule The
frontier of the north-west, and the country of
the Moplahs, for instance, are the two parts
where this violent system has been chiefly
tr►ed, and they are precisely the parts where
the irritation against us is the greatest, where
the spirit of resistance to us is the strongest,
and where the lives of our officials are the
least secure. Indeed, in scarcely any other
quarter has assassination ever been resorted
to, while in those quarters an opportunity of
revenge is never spared.

We do think that the Government would do
well if, taking these things into consideration,
it were to try the opposite policy, and have
the honesty for once to retrace its steps. Sir
CHARLES NAPIER was very successful in deal-
ing with the Beloochies of Scinde, a people of
Arab descent, like the Mopbilis, and who had
as little scruple about shedding human
blood But in his treitment of them, though
he showed a wonderful vigour, there was
!lashing inhuman or even unkind. On the
contrary, he on all occasions displayed the
greatest regard to their feelings and the
readiest inclinations to redress their gliev-
ances and to listen to their complaints. He
dealt with them as brave and generous men
deal with other brave and generous men
whom the fortune of war has placed in subjec-
tion to them. And in such cases those usually
prove the warmest friends and the most loyal
subjects who are possessed of the m st fiery
and the boldest hearts. For a governor who
really understands his business the most diffi-
cult people to deal with are those so sunk in
apathy and misery and abjectness as to have
no hearts, or passions, or spirits on which to
work. If we are to trust the evidence of
another great soldier, Sir COLIN CAMPBELL, the
wild tribes on the north-west frontier would
not be less easy to deal with if only treated in
the manner in which men of their free and in-
dependent character will alone submit to be
treated —that is, with justice and with con-
sideration for their feelings and for the posi-
tion which they previously held. It is by
such a mode of dealing with them only that
we can hope to bring them within the pale of
civilisation, a pale which must he made attrac-
tive instead of repulsive if we would win to it
men like these.

It is on such grounds, and not out of any
sympathy with the proceedings of these
people, that we think it might be well if some
inquiry were instituted into the cause of
these perpetually recurring outbreaks among
tl►e tribes on the Peshawur frontier and the
Moplahs of the Malabar coast. It is very
easy to asc►ibe them to a natural turbulence
and impatience of rule, but Sir COLIN CAMP-
Emu was not of that opinion in respect to the
former races ; and for the constant outbreaks
of the latter we have also heard, from good
authority, a very different cause assigned. In
the former case we have over and over again
pointed out that the true causes of resistance
were the taxes put by us on salt, the attempt
to raise a revenue from lands which had pre-
viously been held rent free, and the aboli
Lion by force, and without compensation, of
tolls to which the tribes had been entitled
time out of mind In the case of the Moplahs
we have heard of proceedings on the part of
the revenue officers and their establishments
wholly indefensible, and which were quite
suff►cient in themselves to account for—though,
of course, they could not justify—the resist-
ance that has ensued. Nor is there anything
intrinsically improbable in this statement, for
if torture could be used so long in the Madras
Presidency without its being known to the
Government, there is no reason why other in
tolerable grievances should not exist there;
and it is in the Madras Presidency that the
Moplahs reside. If the several Governments
of India would only duly perform their func•
tions by inquiring into the complaints made
to them, and correcting what they find to have
been done amiss, they would effect ten times
more for the civilisation of the people, and
for the prevention of disturbances, than
by milking laws such as those we have
denounced. The enactment authorising the
burning of rebels' corpses is one t'►at ought
to be at once repealed, as calculated only to be

THE PRESS.

productive of the worst passions in the na-
tives, and to excite in Europeans, as an act of
vengeance, feelings of horror and disgust.

THE CARLTON CLUB.

THE discussion at the late annual meeting of
the Carlton Club attracted much interest, on
account of it giving a precedent for other
clubs to follow in a similar case. There were
strong expressions of opinion elicited as to the
impropriety of gentlemen remaining members
of a club when they are politically antago-
nistic to the principles of nineteen-twentieths
of its members. There was no peremptory
decision come to in the shape of a positive
rule, because after such an expression of sen-
timents the members of the Carlton Club felt
that amongst gentlemen it would be unneces-
sary It is also our own conviction that such
questions can be solved only by " the spirit of
" a gentleman," and when the overwhelming
voice of any company signify that the presence
of a particular person or persons is distasteful
(not to use other epithets), lamentable must
be the want of self respect which intrudes
against hostility, or meanly accepts a con-
temptuous toleration. The remarks of the
Earl of EoLtNroN, the Earl of NIALMESBURY,
and of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON were of great im-
portance. The latter happily alluded to
" the busy class of gentlemen who made
" themselves most offensive to the club."
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON used the plural number,
and subsequently the Earl of EGLINTON, in a
spirited speech, referred in strong terms to
those who during Lord DERBY'S Government
" had not scrupled, as members of the Carlton
" Club, to write systematically against it." We
are not aware of any " class of gentlemen "
who have been guilty of such practices, but
" Mr. ABRAHAM HAYWARD," it appears, has so
often vented his spleen under the collective
" we" of journalism, that he considered him-
self a noun of multitude, took up the case of
" the busy class of gentlemen," and stood for-
ward to speak in their—that is in his own—
behalf.

The unemployed Queen's:Counsel had at last
found a client. He acted as his own advocate,
and confirmed the professional proverb ap
plicable to such a case. Mute at the Bar,
without a voice in Parliament, the es-Lycurgus
of the Law Magazine had got a constituency,
and he stood up to represent it. But " Mr. ABRA-
HAM HAYWARD" was never meant by nature for
an orator; and his want of success in pleading
the cause of " the busy gentlemen "—repre-
sented by a solitary unit—shows that the at-
torneys have shown a sound sense in never
burdening him with briefs. MOORE, in the
last volumes of his diary, mentions a person
" who was better kno‘'n for his culinary
" articles " than for other compositions ; and
Mr ABRAHAM HAYWARD may have the
" busy " powers required for writing " sys-
tematically," but he has neither the faculties
of a public speaker nor the discretion of an
advocate. He failed utterly in trying to ad-
dress the Carlton Club, as he has failed in
other pretentious efforts. His place in juris.
prudence, in belles lettres, in journalism, in
public speaking, cannot be now mentioned in
any discussion without reference to MooßE's
wicked remark on " the busy gentleman " who
was " better known for his culinary articles."
So little satisft .ctory was the reception of
" Mr. ABRAHAM HAYWARD" by the audience,
who did not hear his speech at the Carlton
Club, that he has fallen back upon his usual
resources, the newspapers. He has penned a
letter stating, in affected swagger, that " he had
" always avowed his articles, and offered to
" be personally responsible for them." Every
one knows " the busy class of gentlemen "
who, in other times, tried to rise in the world

by th
HAYWARD has employed to promote his decline
in public estimation. He is a bad logician in
trying to shelter himself under such a plea.
Why did he not address the public in his own
name ? Why did he not openly stand upon
his own principles, and not endeavour to give
his private animosity and miserable disap-
pointment some show of public opinion, by
" systematically " producing it in a newspaper ?

Mr. HAYWARD is a man without original
genius of any kind. He has no wit, no
glow of imagination, and not the least
power of attracting readers. For years he
professed to be a juridical writer, but where
are the legal productions of his pen that
can take rank with the writings of his
contemporaries. In what departments of
exertion has Mr. ABRAHAM HAYWARD ever
won " a name," except as a motley med-
dler in law, in politics, in periodical litera-
ture, journalism, in cookery ?—in none of
which, except the last, has he attained any
success. He is, we believe, quite competent
to re•edit Mrs. GLASSE'S book of receipts,
being well versed in kitchen knowledge,
though he has no more pretensions to be
ranked with FRANCATELLf, or SOYER, than
with the successful forensic, political, or
literary contemporaries who have distanced
him in the race for fame.

We are glad, therefore, for the sake of the
general question, applicable to all political
clubs, that the recent discussion has taken
place at the Carlton. The explosion of cheers
which followed the significant remarks of Lord
EGT.INTON and Sir JOHN PAKINOTON required
no commentary. We are glad also that the Earl
of MALMESBURY'S statement about Lord DERBY
having taken his name off Brookes's. several
years ago, has gone forth to the public. We
sincerely trust that it will be accepted as a
precedent, more decisive than the ambiguous
course of Mr. PITT in leaving his name on the
books of a club which he carefully avoided, and
to whose members he was politically opposed.

According to the latest information from Wash-
ington, Mr. Marcy, the Secretary of State, has refused
to give the American shipping soy instructions
respecting the payment of the Sound dues, leaving it
to the discretion of every master passing the Sound,
or the Belts, to pay the dues or not.

A Cabinet Council was held at the Foreign-ofEce
last Saturday ; all the Ministers were present. The
Council sat three hours. A Cabinet Council will be
held this afternoon at the Foreign-office.

Viscount Sydney has been appointed Lori Lieu-
tenant of Kent in the room of the late Ear, Cowper.
Mr. Bright is at present at Inverary in the High-
lands, where he intends to reside for a short period.
Sir James Meek, C. 8., formerly Secrete)), to Lord
Keith, and Comptroller of the Victualling D.part-
ment of the Navy, died last week at Ilfracnnibe. Sir
James, as secretary, was present during tht interview
between Lord Keith and the Emperor Napole..n whtu
the decision of the British Government con( ernil z the
Emperor's destination was intimated to hire t,y Lord
Keith. Sir James Meek was also confide, fully em-
ployed by Sir Robert Peel in 1841 to collect on the
Continent certain statistical returns of agricultural
produce and shipping.
Mr. George Russell, of the Treasury, has been
appointed Assistant Secretary to the Board of
Works, in the room of Mr. Thornborrow, super-
annuated.

Mr. Rivers Wilson, of the Treasury, has been
appointed Private Secretary to Mr. James Wilson,
in succession to Mr. Russell.

Lord John Russell's intended break-up of his estab-
lishment in town, and retirement for a lengthened
period abroad, has been asserted and denied during
the week.

Mr. Ballantine and Mr. Parry will,
shortly be made sergeants •at-law.

Mr. Baron Platt, whose Revere indisposition
vented him going last circuit or appearing
during this and the previous term, said
tendered his resignation. Mr. W

M.P., is already spoken of as likely
Baron of the Court of Exchequer.
A new planet was discovered on',
at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford,
the fiist assistant. It is a little

tenth magnitude. Mr. Pogson sa,
midnight on the 23rd, but the sky
fore he could obtain a satisfactory

•
507
the use of such means as Mr. ABRAHAM
.- 1_ • 1

t !or a lengthened
and denied during
ill, it is understood,
indisposition pre-
appearing in court
m, is said to have
Watson, Q.C. and
ely to be the new
Thursday morning
prd, by Mr. Pogson,
e brighter than a
iw the planet about
ty clouded over be-
observation.'