The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-26 00:00:00

TO CORREBI:ONDENTE

lac= ;;*" Tlw hipresk” ell-MR.llft tle WWI tasl•Qe
p.,sit•.ed ',ay 'fund*, sad miry eight. is U.
ter rac-
kr, reffreutuin' • fu: "Ifr Expries," Unties Evade. paper,
ut •tm tu.ke, le, Baugerie.situst, Dp Two o'sask ea the
pep J pb.Astiou.

Tung WATEIt AT LONDON BRIDGE.
1,1. gt4T-11,roma. 4a. a.. Alterman. 4i. 10m.
1,001a...4-110rmai, 4a Um.. ... J.llmrtaMa. 4k. 5040.

LoNDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2G.

I lERE is not, it appears, a statesman in the
110,4. of Lords, who will associate his reputation
with the Burmese war. Lord ELLENBDROUGH boldly
dewen.ces both its origin and its conduct ; Lord
Ant RULES says• of course, he has nothing to do with
it; Lord Detaiv protests that he only carried on
what he found begun ; and, out of doors, the Court
of 'firestone a.,sure their friends that they know no
more about it than the rest of the public. The simple
truth is that land DALHOUSIE began it on his
own rolonsibility ; what he commenced Lord
ytweri.itteeN I.F: GICIDED lazily sanctioned ; and
the late Duke of WELLINOTON tardily justified,
three %seeks before his death. And thus war
after war in India is begun, without home control,
without home responsibility, without home advice,
without !tome sanction. The mischief is done, the
honour of the British name is at stake, the credit of
the 'latish U,rernment is involved, before the facts
of the Mire come home, before the QUEEN'S Govern-
ment can be colieilted, before the public have any
authentic information what it is aboct. And all that
the present Pr.ssitett can do, when questioned, is'
to siirug his shoulders and say that ever since
he sat in the Disuse of Lords, every Governor-
&octal has gone out to India with peace on his
lips, and immediately got into a war. A species of
political philosophy, intended, we presume, to warn
the people of ling.and that Indian wars will be in-
terminable.
But Lord ABERDEEN forgets that this war with
3lurtuah is not an Indian war ; it is not a war for the
defence of our frontiers, for the tranquillity of our
fermium*, for the repulsion ofiggressions, or for the
abatement of an ambitious and threatening power.
It may be necessary to be jealous and exigeant, and
peremptory and severe with provinces and states in
3adia ; to check and punish at once any insolence
me their part; to nip in the bud schemes and designs
foolish in reality, but dangerous in intent; to insist
OD their doing just as we choose. All this may be
necessary with the Rajpoots, the Mahrattas,—in the
Deccan, sad in Oude. But these territories are in
ladle; they are inseparably intermingled and mixed
sip with our own, and no disturbances can occur
therein n ithout the effects being felt throughout
lades. It might further he necessary to extend our
frontitrs into Seinde, to destroy the great armed con-
federacy in the Punjaub, and to occupy the country be-
!seen the Sutlej and the Alfghan chain. But all that is
beside the question of this Burmese war. And when
Lord Mist:La:EN lugs in former wars in India and
en the north-west to help Lord DALHOUSIE out of
the difficulty and discredit of a Burmese war, his
lordship must be very hard pressed fur arguments
and excuses.
Burmah, it cannot he too often repeated, is out of
Ineek—has nothing to do with India. Between it
and India there are natural distinctions ; there
is no connexion of language, religion, min-
ters, policy, or commerce; there is no danger
and no intercourse. Lord DALHOUsIL'S predecessors
had wisely recognised these facts ; had judiciously
withdrawn front all interference in a country with
which they had nothing to do ; and were under so
little apprehension of the result, that eastward of
Calcutta they habitually kept up fewer troops than
in any other part of India. The country was known
to be poor and worthless, the court to be ignorant
and isolated, and the trade not worth having. Yet
now we are upending 130,0001. a month on a war
with Burmah ; in that war we have only gained dis-
credit and scandal ; we bare now one fifth of our
whole force in hospital; and are losing 10 men a day
by cholera. Already it has cost us much
nearer two millions sterling than one. But by the
last telegraphic announcement the end of hostilities
seems further off than ever. When the war is ended
we can never hope to repay its cost. In annexing I'egu
we have laid the foundation of future wars ; and
though we may very probably overthrow the Bur-
mese State, we shall only add to the misery of the
people by that disorganisation of their country.
And for what axe we doing and risking all this?
To punish Burmese insolence. But are we quite
certain that the Governor of Rangoon was really
and intentionally offensive when he refused to
receive a British deputation in the mid-day sun ? Do
we know enough of the Burmese language, of Bur-
mese etiquette, of Burmese manners, to have no
doubt ? Had we not rushed into a discussion about
trifles that were certaiato beget offence ? And for any
insults we received, would not the bombardment of
Rangoon have been amply sufficient ? Why rush into
a great war in a country where we can do no
good, but where we are certain to do infinite harm ?
Above all—what moral right have we to spend the
revenues of the people of India in a war in which
they have no concern ?
We raise by Indian taxation out of the labour of
the Indian population a net sum of twenty millions
sterling a year. Throughout the whole of our terri-
tories we can only afford to spend 21 per cent. an-
nually on public works, which in India must be
constructed by Government, for there is no one
else to undertake them. The consequence is
that the cultivation of India is retarded by the
went of roads to convey its produce to
market. But, though oar expense ander this
head is so limited, here we are, in this Burmese
war, spending 77i per cent. of the net
India—spending it, too, in a contest in which the
people of India, who furnish the means of carrying
it ea, have no more interest than they have in open-
ingap Japan. No doubt, we are conquerors in
India ; and the rights of conquest and predominance
are ill-defined. But this, surely, is as great an
abuse of power as can well be imagined ? To
maintain ourselves in India is our duty ; and, for
wars necessary to that maintenance, the people of
India must pay. But the misery of Lord DAL-
ROCHE'S wretched war with Burnish is, that,—wholly
unnecessary for any rational purpose, either Indian
or Eoglish,—its cost is paid by- the people of India,
sad its discredit recoils on the people of England.
It enures India by a profligate expenditure of its
remits out of the sphere of its own existence; it
awns England by accustoming us to unjust wars,
carried on at other people's expense ; it injures both
by diminishing the power of India to export what
we went, and to consume what we can amply. And
of this war all the Paaratit can say is, that we
always have been at war in India, and, for anything
be Wu, always will be!

Even day now brings forth new illustrations
ti the system of Electoral corruption and of the
agonised efforts that are made to conceal it. To a
ITeat extent the latter have hitherto been eucoessful.
Many cases have suddenly and silently disappasred
hem the list of inculpations. Sometimes the electors
have been bamboalled,—sometimes the candidate',
—tad, no in the ease of Norwich, sometimes both.
,‘WelcKso printedons of the T on Thursdayory a letter from Colonel
"s, candidates at the last
election (or the city of Norwich, in which he caw
Plains, with soldier-like brevity and frankness, of the
moaner in which his own rights, and those °[
1400 electors who supported him, had been
korificed by a clandestine compromise. The
pliant colonel does not mince matters. He
woes the parties to the corrupt bargain, and the
emaidenition given and received. He asserts broadly
that the petitions against the sitting members for
Gloucester, Middlesex, Norwich, and Kidderminster
were withdrawn upon the stipulation that those for
Y.onehall, Down County, and the western division of
Norfolk should be abandoned on the other, the ow-
e:stars of the bargain being Mr. Bitowm and Mr.
C°l'.7° M, the leading Parliamentary agents for the
Tortes and the Whigs respectively. To what ex-
i!et these worthies ma have acted by autho-
at] of the other parties concerned, it will be
tor Mr. I.(x.xe KING's committee to determine.
But for himself and his supporters Colonel DICKSON
tee in the strongest terms all previous know-
orsubsequent sanction of tho proceedings.
had is no denial has yet appeared on the part of the

individuals concerned, the public, however incredu-
lous they may have been, and however disposed to
regard the statement as the ebullition of disappoint-
ment or vexation, would have probably come to the
conclusion that four seats on the one side of the
Rouse had actually been bartered for four seats upon
the other, in unblushing defiance of sip decency, jus-
tice, and law.

But the matter is not to be suffered to rest in the
dim regidn of probability or conjPeture. The elec-
tors of Norwich seem wisely determined not to sub-
mit to being jockeyed in this fashion. And to do
Colonel Dices()); justice, he appears to have no mind
to be contented with firing a Parthion shot, and then
desisting from the encounter. On Thursday list
two petitions on the subject, each of them praying
for redress under the peculiar circumstances of the
case, were presented to the I louso of Commons. The
first was from the electors who had originallv sub-
scribed the election petition complaining of the re-
turn of ono of the members for Norwich, and pray-
ing that a full investigation might take place before
a Parliamentary committee into the means whereby
that return had been procured. They alleged the
prevalence of undue influence and of treating upon
the occasion in question, and these Electoral sins
they declared themselves in a condition to prove
were the opportunity afforded them. Whilst
engaged in the preparation of proofs in sup-
port of their case, they were startled at learning
that it had been surreptitiously withdrawn by
the agent fur the Carlton Club, and finding their ex-
postulations treated with neglect and derision, they
naturally resolved upon appealing to the justice and
honour of the House. Rumours have reached us of
attempts made in certain quarters to smother this
appeal • and, if we are not wholly misinformed, there
have been some delays in making it for which the
petitioners are not answerable. Oa Thursday even-
ing, however, the case was brought before Parliament
by Colonel BuLDeno, supported by Mr. Hesav
DRUMMOND and Mr. LOCKE KING. As a pre-
liminary, the petition was read by the clerk
at the table, and then entered to be
printed with the votes. Soon afterwards Mr. BUN-
COMBE rose to call the attention of the House to what
he conceived to be a breach of privilege committed by
Mr. BROWN, the 80i-dia./ne. agent for the petitioners.
He stated that he was intrusted with a separate
petition from Colonel 'fret:sus himself, complaining
that his rights as a candidate claiming the seat now
occupied by Mr. WARNER had been unwarrantably
compromi.,d without his knowledge, and in defiance
of his wishes and intentions in the manner already de-
scribed, and praying to be heard at the bar in their
vindication. A certain uneasy fluttering of the spirits
became perceptible on both sides of the chair its the
honourable member for Finsbury proceeded to
detail what had occurred, and to comment in
his characteristic style of caustic wit upon
the nature of the transaction. The Chairman of
Ways and Means, Mr. WILSON P.I'LLEN, endeavoured
to interpose by railing aqu stion of order. But the
imperturbable member for Finsbury was not to be
baulked in his purpose. And, after somewhat super-
ciliously quizzing the member for North Lancashire
for his disorderly efforts in favour of order, he con-
tinued to expose at some length the conduct of the
parties accused; and to expatiate, with his usual
clearness and point, upon the consequences which
must ensue if such things could be done with impu-
nity. Mr. Hume suggested that, as in the former
instance, the petition should first be printed, in order
that the members might be put in possession of all the
facts alleged before the House was called on to
decide on the course which it ought to pursue ;
and, some doubts having been expressed by
the SPEAKER as to whether the question were one
that came within the technical limits of what is called
"privilege," Mr. DENCOMBE contented himself
with adopting Mr. HumE's suggestion, and giving
notice that he es mild bring the whole subject forward
on an early day.
We have endeavoured to lay the circumstances of
this most extraordinary affair before our readers
with a strict adher, nee to impartiality. The ques-
tion is not one of party, but of public and national
importance, affecting the essential character of our
representative system, and as such, of infinitely more
weight and moment than any temporary convenience
of cliques or clubs. We care not whom the shoe pinches.
Our warfare is directed against the scandalous per-
version of all electoral right and equity which has
been suffered to grow up and organise itself under
the shadow of great political parties, to their dis-
honour, and to the detriment of the people. We
are determined, as far as in us lies, to rend to shreds
the veil of conventional reserve under which the re-
ciprocities of electioneering intrigue have hitherto
been shrouded. And we care not who may find it
convenient to shrink from the performance of so pal-
pable a duty, we shall persevere in the discharge of
ours. Tho truth, and the whole truth, must come
out, be the process of extracting it what it may.