The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-08 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8.

Y E4TrßilatT the once famous, numerous, and
wealthy - Ass. talon fur the Protection if British'
lowimatry" met, at that most appropriate locality,
South Sea House, for the last time. Insolvency was
is full view of the "Council;" the fate of DANIEL
O'Cosseist.'m Conciliation Hall, where chairs and
tables were sold in default of Repeal Rent, to pay
rates and !AWN, was before them. With infinite
difficulty, by earnest circulars, a melancholy quorum
was collected, and the second South-Sea Bubble
dissolved. Having survived fortune and credit, the
Association escaped death from starvation by suicide.
The rural army that once filled " Old Drury." and
the great Amphitheatre of Liverpool, fired with the
hope of raver' ing the bread-tax, ready to frater-
nise with the discontent of Spitalfields, and march
on Manchester, grown prosperous and peaceful
under Free Trade, has dispersed over England's
broad acres, tally-hoing and ploughing, draining,
and manuring, busy at work and at field-sports,
heartily sick of politics. None are left of the once
formidable arra but a General (Rtennozn), a Colo-
nel (Diwriloar , with NEWDEOATE, PAUL Foolurn,
a few corpora's, and an empty military chest. If
MUNDT or NEwDEOATE want to lead again, it mast
not be on the platform or in the House of Commons
but over a good grass country, mounted on the bet;
hunters of Leicestershire or Warwickshire; there
they are safe swift guides; and surely an epustrian
triumph is better then a political failure. Whatever
may be the feelings of sympathisers with the faith-
ful " fifty-three," there is no doubt that the parlia-
mentary chiefs of the country party will hear of the
closing of South Sea House, the modern temple of
Jazus, with intense satisfaction.
It must be confessed that, on looking back from
the commencement to the close of the performance of
the Association which has just dissolved, there is an
extraordinary likeness between the South Sea Bubble
et 1711 and of 1848.
The bubble dissolved on Monday_ was originated
by the Duke of RICHMOND, Mr. NEWDEOATE, and
other Peers and Squires, in order to restore the poli-
tical credit which had been destroyed by the con-
version of Sir ROBERT PEEL to common sense.
It has, indeed, succeeded in creating a batch of
"Right Honourable Privy Camellias" and brief
Cabinet Ministers,
A sheet, suet Menu, at a vast mouse.
The South Sea Bubble of 1711 ruined the multitude.
swished a Secretary of State and a few jobbers, and
inflicted a heavy blow on the credit of the country.
Apia, among the most successful speculations
hatched by the mania of 1711 was one worthy of
ear late by
the Exchequer; "For an
undertaking of great advantage. to the public,
but nobody to know what it as," "a capital"
of half a million was required, with a deposit of 21.
per share. The profits were to be 1001. a year on
each deposit. The manner in which the profits were
to be realised to remain "looming in the future."
With the same alacrity that the farmers in 18,51 un-
tied their canvas bags to subscribe to South Sea
House, and in 1832 subscribed again and rushed to
the poll to turn PHILIP PCIJET out of Berke, to return
BERENroRD for Essex, BALL for Cambridge, and
Boozes for Hereford, the simple citizens of the last
century crowded up to lodge their V. for a share in
the anonymous undertaking of an adventurer, who,
having pocketed a few thousand pounds in flee years,
retind, and was never heard of again.
Fortunately, in the case of the South Sea Bubble
of 1831, the disastrous effects have been coofined to
time and guineas wasted and to the disappointed hopes
of the masa of the subscribers. What damage was
done to those who were tempted to remain in over-
rented farms to theissuin-by vain expectations of a
return to Protection prices, it is impossible to ascer-
tain ? Such broken-hearted victims of political
dupery perish, or retreat to distant shores in silence.
Ample evidence is before us in the shape of after-
dinner speeches at agricultural meetings that the
great body of farmers, laving finally ceased to waste
*air strength in pursuing a" Will-d-the-Wisp," have
turned their attention to questions of agricultural
improvement and reforms of general and local taxa. I
lion, which are really attainable. At these dinners
it has become possible to suggest the use of artificial
manures, deep draining, or Improved implements,
without risking " load cries of disapprobation." For
instance, at an agricultural dinner at Melksham,
Wilts, Mr. SornEnoN, M.P., acknowledges "that
the labourer is better off than before," and enforces on
landlords the necessity of " petting farms in such a
condition that farmers can cultivate the land with a
profit" At the Gravesend and Rochester, Kent,
Ideating the breeding dead colts was the leading
subject. At Alford, Lincolnshire, the chairman,
Mr. W. UM, coos a Protectionist, dilated on
the alvantages of • ing, and the necessity
...imoprain
of making the booms the labourers comfortable if
they were to be kept from emigration. At DriMeld,
Yorkshire, the chairman took oat crushing as his
text, whilst the Smeary spoke of manures. At
Halberton, Devoe, the ehairsao, a landowner, Neg-
evlowering rents where needful and diminishing
rows. At a Cheshire sleeting a farmer urged
landlords to great leases and execute draining. In
Dorset liquid manure and peat charcoal formed the
text of useful discourses. And so wherever we look
we find practical miggestioas superseding obsolete
political absures.
The only nowt political allusion worth notice was
a farmer, at a ploughing match dinner in Fulford,
Cambridgeshire, where a Mr. WRIGHT, an occupier,
claimed. as " the first mason of agricultural reform,
that the farmers should have a voice in expending
the county rates." He did not impute anything wrong
to the county magistrates, but he urged that as the
farmers were the parties who paid, they ought to have
the spending of those rates. Then they ought to have
a " union," instead of parish, poor rats, which would
put a just burden on "close parishes." Both good
and sound suggestions. But we have quoted enough
to show how much tenant farmers have gained in
independence and comma erase by the final extinc-
tion of the aimless Protectionist agitation carried on
so long at their expense. None have more reason to
stoic, that it has at length been finally entombed is
that classic nmasolcum of exploded absurdities, the
Been Sea Howe.

Tun report that the East India Company intends
to increase the European portion of its army senders
it needful for the public to remember what such an
increase amounts to. The military service of India at
present is composed of about—
Queen's tro0p5....

Native troopi
Europese hoops.. 20,000
Native aseilkipit troops 32,000

Total of Indian Army 322,000,
And the total cost of the three first-mentioned bodies
to the Government of the But India Company is
upwards of ten millions sterling a year. The 32,000
native contingent troops are, of course, maintained at
the expense of our native allies; substantially but
theg are just as mach part of the British power in
India as any of the others. In speaking, therefore,
of the military ch irge on India, the cost of the con-
tingent force must be added to the ten millions
terling before we Gan arrive at the actual military,
Nathan borne by the people of India. And what
that burthen in our own territories is may, perhaps.
be estimated when we state that of the total expen-
diture of the Indian Government more than 50 per
cent. is purely and entirely for its army ; even the
police of India being otherwise provi,led for, whilst
the general expenditure on public works is only 2k
per cent.
When, then, we are told that the But India Com-
pany is going to increase any part of this huge and
costly army, the first question that arises is—can it
be possible that an army already containing 322,000
men is inadequate to the protection of India? The
answer to that question of course depends very much

.
lon the character of the Indian Army ;, on its (Among.,
lite courage, and its subordination ; fat, venni( these
qualities, even double the 'number of soldiers must
be inadequate. Now, if our readers will 'turn to
an article in the Edinburgh Review, they will there
find, what we have often told them, that this army
is in anything but an efficient state; they will there
learn how whole native regiments have turned their
backs on the enemy on the day of battle ; how a Com-
mander-in-Chief has spoken of the Bengal Army as
being totally disorganised; how the native ranks are
now filled with tho very worst materials for good
soldiers; and how a bad system, gradually introduced,
has at last deprived the native officers of spirit and
enthusiasm, and of the respect and confidence of their
men. The writer of this article is by no means an
alarmist, nor is he the advocate of any addition
to the strength of the Indian Army. On the contrary
he traces these effects to their causes; he shows that
just as the European element was made to predomi-
nate, so native courage and efficiency hays sunk; and
the whole scope of his reasoning is, not in favour of
military extension, but of military reform.
Such being the condition oft he Indian Army, the step
which it is said the East India Company has resolved
on—viz. to increase the European troops in its own
service—certainly is not a measure of military reform.
The objections to it are innumerable. In the first place,
it is improper that English soldiers shoidd serve in
any part of the English dominions under any other
than Royal authonty. Over the thirty thousand
Quer-tea troops in India, the Horse Guards, the War-
office and the other authorities at home watch and .
care foe. For their safety, their comfort, and their
return, the Imperial Government is responsible to
the Imperial Parliament. The men can communi-
cate
with their friends in the regimental depots in
this country; they look forward to their return as a
body ; they have all the pride, the spirit, and the
unity of QUEEN'S troops. But who in England knows
anything whatever—who cares far, who watches
over, or ever thinks of the 20,0(10 Englishmen in the
Company's European regiments ? The Horse
Guards, the War-office, the Government, the Parlia-
ment, or the public, have nocogn'sance of them. Their
mortality may be excessive—their health may be un-
attended to—their discipline lax—their general con-
dition altogether disorganised. On all these points
there is no one in England clothed with any autho-
rity or under any responsibility. In principle,
therefore, nothing can be so objectionable as there
being any European soldiers in India not belonging
to the QUEEN'S Army.
Why, then, have European regiments been intro-
duced into the Company's service? We venture to
ascribe the increase, if not the original introduction,
of European regiments, to the curse of India—
its Patronage. Formerly, there was only one
European regiment in each presideocy; composed,
as were our own regiments during the war,
of two battalions. These two battalions have,
however, to the great increase of the Directors'
patronage, been separated into two regiments; so
that now we have six European regiments in the
three presidencies. And just as the original three
rose into the preseat six, and patronage was in-
creased in the same proportion, there seems
reason to apprehend a deeply laid scheme to turn
the six into twelve regiments. Foe already each of
the six is divided into two wings, the right and the
left; the right wings having from 47 to 44 officers,
the left only some half dozen. When, therefore, we
hear reports of a large increase of the Company's
European troupe, the expansion of these wings into
regiments naturally. suggests itself, by which a very
considerable accession of patronage would, of course,
be created.

To any such increase the Board of Control will
not, it is to be hoped, listen. Already the indecency
of having recruiting parties of the East India'
Company's European regiments competing with the
Quer.s's recruiting service in our towns is too
flagrant--already the exhibition of their rude wood-
cuts exhibiting Englishmen savagely cutting down
Hindoos is sufficiently objectionable. What with
the Militia, the QUKILN.B service, and the increase of
the East India Company's European regiments, we
shall have the fife and the drum going all the year
round. Some cheek ought to be given to it. Let ea, then
put a stop to East India Company's recruiting. This
ought to be does both in the interests of humanity
and of safety. Men deluded into enlisting into regi-
ments that never come home, are practically deluded
into military service for life, or so olong u the human
frame will bear it. They become in India weakened
and diseased; they do little duty; their disci-
pline is relaxed; their lives are disorderly;
and between the European regiments in the
Company's permanent service and the Queen's
troops temporarily sent out to India, the comparison
is singularly disadvantageous to the former Into
them all the dif-raff of the Queits's regiments
coming home exchange. And, though greatly over
they are perhaps the very worst portions
of •
the Company's Army.
The first step in Indian Military Reform is clearly,
therefore, to plate these six regiments under the Royal
command, and not to allow the East India Company
to exercise any of the prerogatives of Royalty here in
England. By that means we should give some
relief to our regiments on foreign service; have a
larger proportion of seasoned troops at home; and
relieve 20,000 Englishmen from as unhappy and
hopeless a position in the East as any Europeans
were ever placed in. But even this would form but
a small portion of the reform in the Company's
asrvios that is required. How to restore the spirit
of the Native Army, is a question at even more press-
ing importance, and one that the Committee, now
that it is about to proceed to the military portion
of their subject, will, it is to be hoped, direct its
attention.