The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-02 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2.

Tau arrival of each fresh Overland Mail giv.
interest to the question, " What shall be done for
India ?" Month after month the news shows that
our Government is at fault—that our position
is not what it should be—that in Burmah, and
elsewhere in the East, English lives are beiug
sacrificed, and Indian treasure is being lavished,
upon wan which vanquish enemies not worth
conquering, and subjugate countries not worth
having. In the present case the most gloomy part
of the news is that which tells of sufferings and
losses from sickness. Cholera, fever, and dysentery
make havoc with our troops and seem likely to do so.
The warlike part of the story is scarcely less in-
teresting. There is war in various quarters. The
Burmese campaign seems as slow and profitless as
ever. Though the golden foot of Av.v is said to have
been upset, the Burmese had nevertheless been trou•
blesome as far as they could. They had amongst
other things taken up a strong position in the Aeng
Pass, " au opening in the mountains which divide
the British province of Arrakau from our re-
cent conquests—and by which, if in our poll-
session, we might make a short cut to
Prome." Meanwhile a warlike cloud had risen in
Assam, where some thousands of Tartars, under
Chinese leaders, were said to be threatening our
frontier for the purpose of seizing some political
refugee who had fled into the British territory.
India is not calm, not safe, and not thriving ; and all
the evidence goes to show that the root of the evil is
in our faulty system of government. Hence the
question arises again, What must be done ? The
Bombay Times says : " A petition goes home from
Bombay, praying that the Charter Act may be
passed for one year to enable further evidence to be
received on the subject, and that inquiries be ordered
to be made in India." In the suggestion here again
urged lies the very essence of that Indian responsi-
bility now resting on the Members of the House of
Commons.

What shall be done for India? The Government
have now,—it is confidently stated,--come to the re-
solve that the Leadenhall•street Charter shall not be
renewed for twenty years, as before. This is
a step forward, and a good one.—so far
as it goes. It is a great thing to have the
Cabinet leaning in a right direction on so weighty
an affair as the future of our Empire in the East,
and the great effort of all who wish todo that which
is just and right should be to encourage Lord
ABERDEEN and his colleagues to persist in the course
it is said they are inclined to follow, and to show
them by facts and arguments that wisdom and
safety both consist in going fur enough. The
Government, we are told, mean not only to act, but
to act promptly. Their Bill for India is
shortly to be ready. They contemplate the re-
newal of the powers of the Court of Directors—but
only for a limited term. And herein will reside the
value of their proposition, and its virtue will be all
the greater and more clear the more they narrow the
intended limit of time. They are inclined, it is as-
sorted, to renew the Charter for ten years, making
some modification in the character of the Board
of Directors. The latter may be important,
no doubt, but the former is the oue great
thing to be first secured. Any renewal of
the Charter must be temporary. Instead of ten
years, one year should be the terra; or at most
two. The vastness of the interests at stake in India,
and—the truth must be told—the vastness also of
the general ignorance in England on Indian affairs,
and the very honest indisposition to meddle
ignorantly with so great a stake—conspire to
render it next to certain that the Charter will
be renewed in some shape. But the indifference
of Parliament can never be so great as to lead them
to condemn the people of India to any very long
renewal of the present system. A year or two
would give ample time for us all to become
wiser on this question—would give time enough
for evidence to be taken—for Indian topics
to be made interesting and understandable—for the
natives of that huge dependency to make themselves
heard, and for their friends in England to array their
facts in a manner calculated to secure the best re-
sults. India asks for time to make herself under-
stood ; England oaks for time that she may under-
stand the real needs and claims of India.

Millions of our fellow-subjects in Hindustan pray
the British Parliament that they may not be handed
over, bound hand and foot, for another twenty years
to the East India Company, and thousands of Eng-
lishmen sympathise in the prayer of this most just I
petition. The time has come for the prayer to be
granted or refused—end the Cabinet of Lord ABER-
DEEN, they say, contemplate " splitting the differ-
ence." They won't give up all India to Leadenhall-
street for twenty years, but they think of giving it up
for ten. Why. lf it be wise to limit the term,
that wisdom rests on the admission that there
is need for inquiry into Indian affairs.
Inquiry will not occupy ten years. The
Commons Committee now sitting may doubtless get
all the facts they seek in a year, or at most in two.
Two years would be amply sufficient to permit
evidence on all points to be taken. At present all
the evidence being collected will support the
case of the Company. Fair play demands that the
opponents of the Company should also be listened
to. Surely also the natives of India should be per-
mitted to speak. It is they who are on their trial. It
is their property, their lives, their industry, their
nation, which are now to be disposed of. Their
destiny it is which now trembles in the balance. The
verdict, then—an Englishman's verdict—will not be
taken without the natives being allowed to say what
they can on their own behalf. 11fillimis of men can-
not be condemned unheard to another term of even
ten years " under the Company." That innate spirit
of fair-play which, amid all the struggles of party,
still animates our parliament of English gentlemen,
forbids so unpardonable a decision. The measure of
justice now asked for is not great. Native evidence
as well as British evidence can all be taken in a year,
or a year and a half, and when that has been fairly
entered on the record, then—and not till then—let
Parliament decide. But if Parliament first ties up its
own hands for ten years—that evidence when got must
lie useless, a dead letter for full eight years. Would
not that be mast absurd ? If we seek to be instructed
by facts, and those facts are at this moment in course
of collection, to take any step now for preventing our-
selves from acting upon what they teach, would be in-
deed ridiculous. Either we know all we need to know
about India and its interests, and can re-model its
government without delay, or we do not know
all we wish to know, and in that case
should not blindly renew the Charter for
a term that postpones improvement for ten years,
however well able we may presently be to make
wise ameliorations or salutary changes in the present
system. If it be well to give any fresh term of
existence to the India Charter, the resolve should be
to renew it only for one or two years—and to lot the
time be employed in showing fair play to both sides.
Let the whole truth come out, and India may then
obtain the measure of justice which can alone render
her a contented and permanent dependency of the
British Empire.

THE RUMOUR ABOUT EXPULSION OF
FOREIGN REFUGEES.

The spectre raised by the Times has been laid by
Lord Palmerston, who in the House of Commons
last night said, " that no application had been made
to her Majesty's Government for the expulsion of
any foreign refugees now in the United Kingdom."
Austria has not ventured, as our cotemporary sup-
to demand the expulsion of the men who
ravefound in England a city of refuge, nor is
the free sanctuary of our soil to be called in
question. The Home Secretary said more last
night. With that otf-hand clearness for which
he has often been remarkable, he added that
" any such application would be met with
a firm and decided refusal," a declaration
which was received with hearty and well-deserved
cheers. The noble lord went on to say, that such a

measure as any such alleged contemplated expulsion
of refpgees " could not be taken by the Government
of this country without fresh powers being conferred
upon them by act of parliament ; and he apprehended
that no Government, even if they were inclined to do
so, could apply to the House of Commons for such
powers with any mance of success—(loud cheers)—
inasmuch as no Alien Bill passed within the present
century ever gave the Government power to expel
foreigners from the kingdom, except with reference
to considerations connected with the internal safety
of the country. The British government has never
undertaken to provide for the internal safety of other
countries; and it is sufficient that Parliament should
give the Government mea,ures fur our own internal
security, without meddling with that of other
countries."