The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-26 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING. JANUARY 26, 1849.

Vie erprems.

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8188 WATII LT LONDON 11110131
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LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 26.
THE meeting at the London Tavern on Tuesday,
for the dissolution of the " East Indian Railway
Company" revives one of the most disagreeable sub-
jects which have of late years come before the public.
The Rest India Company, the supreme government
of that country, the Board of Control, and in truth
every public functionary, anti almost every private
person connected with Hindostan appear to reams
amongst them at least one point of perfect unanimity,
and this common agreement refers to the desirable-
ness of railways as a mode of Indian transit. There
is no question—as far as we know, there never has
been a question raised—upon the policy of super-
eeding with every possible despatch the pabite.
gains and hackeries, and primitive canoes which,
at the rats of a dozen miles a day, con-
vey the commerce of the whole Peninsula precisely
as it was transported in the time of Anausrozzaz.
1
A railway to Loodiana, would disperse with the ser-
vice* of 60,000 sepoys: an efficient steam communica-
tion to Mirzapore would save a twentieth part of the
price of the great Indian staples by abolishinemsor-
ant* and diminishing detenoration and delay ; a
trunk line which should penetrate Berar and unite
Colman and Sholopore with the sea-coast, would be
the first and the only real commencement of cheap
cotton from India. AU these things are seen. All
these facts are admitted, and the East India Company
and the Board of Control are hypothetically anxious
fur the construction of a railway.
We have more than once recapitulated the circum-
stances under which the Bombay and the Calcutta
companies for the construction of railways in those
Presidencies were originally formed. It is now only
needful to repeat that, established so far back as 1844
and 1843—promoted and controlled by men of the
first respectability, and fortified by the results of a
scientific and political reference of the whole question
to the Governor-General in council —there have been

no public bodies since the month of July, 1846, when
all these preliminaries were concluded, which had a
better title to consider themselves on the high-road
to SUCCeII.

ow it is with that date—the date of July, 1848—
that the history of the decline and fall of the under-
taking commences. We do not profess to believe
that the But Indian Railway Company have cot on
several occasions committed themselves to :seta which
it would be difficult to defend ; that they have not
been sometimes precipitate, and frequently extrava-
Fent ; that the directors have not aimed at a
jurisdiction which does not belong to 'them ; and that
a little more judgment and earnestness would not oc-
casionally have been of the greatest service. But, in
spite of all these unfavoni able circumstances, we have
a strong opinion that the history of these transactions
will for ever be a disgrace to the home authorities
connected with India.

In the first place, the preparations were complete
in the summer of 1846. The line had been surveyed
and the cost had been reckoned, the emp‘.atic concur-
rence of the Indian government had been officially
communicated, and the company at home had com-
plied with all the provisions of the law. The enter-
prise was popular, the times were favourable, and
there was a corjuncture of circumstances is the
highest degree propitious to success. The only absent
link of the chain was the formal conclusion by the
East Indio directors and the Bowl of Control of a
negotiation of which every part had been fully exa-
mined and considered. _ _ _

It will remain for a future explorer of secret his-
tory, or for an indignant committee of the House of
Commons, to discover the motives which, from July,
1846, to July, 1847, a space of twelve calendar mouths,
postponed the ceremonial of a decisive official reply.
This inexplicable delay has been the fruitful source
of all the subsequent embarrassments. An Indian
railway in the autumn of 1847 had no more chance of
commanding countenance, than a compagnie des Inds'
in Paris immediately after the bankruptcy of Law.
The first thing therefore to be condemned is the
culpable nation of the India House or of the
Board of Control—we believe of the latter—in the
preliminary stages of the enterprise, and this con-
demnation cannot be too severe. Bat not only
was there a most fatal delay. If when the
answer had at length arrived, it had been fall
and hearty and explicit, it might have made some
reparation for an iejury as perfectly gratuitous as cat
well be conceived. -Bat the reply was neither one tor
the other of these things, and this brings as to the
great mystery of the guarantee.
From the very first it was palpable to every prao-
tie:al person that the railway would never be eon-
structed without the administrative assistance and the
financial support of the India Company. The first
reflection of every man of common sense who was or
is asked to rapport an Indian railway is a very ob.
vioas one. He says, in so many words: " If it is
not worth the while of the India Company to sup-
port a railway in their dominions, how, in the
name of all that is reasonable, can it be
worth mine r and he is right. Hence it was a sine
qua was with the railway board, and by them put
constantly forward in all their correspondenoe and
papers, that the subscribers of the capital must pay
their money under the guarantee of a certain return
by the East India Company, and they very reasonably
fixed upon 6 per cent. for 25 years certain as the
minimum of advantage under which the public would
give the undertaking a sufficient support. There cer-
tainly was nothing immoderate in thaw attempt
of peas over the somewhat ungracious attempt
of the India House to higgle down the concession to
4 per cent. for 16 years, because they had the good
sense to withdraw that proposition without much dif-
ficulty. But what is to be said to the famous queer
don of the guarantee ?
Inthe summer of 1847 a certain paper. celled
"Terms and Conditions," and drawn, as the event
has proved, with no small share of ingenuity, was
delivered to the railway comppaany as the basis of the
connexion at that time atablisbed between them and
the East India Company. This written paper,
divided into sixteen sections, conveyed, or was sup-
posed to convey, on the part of the Indian govern-
ment an obligation to guarantee a minimum dividend
of 5 per cent. per annum for 25 years upon a paid-up
capital of 3,000,0001. There seems to be no doubt that
the railway directors did honestly believe such a
meaning to be the fair and undoubted construction of
the document, and they gave the best proof of this by
proceeding to disseminate through every possible
channel of publicity, and in the daily presence of the
directors of the India Company, a distinct assurance
that, by means of these " Terms and Conditions," the
aura in their railway had become equal to a " 5 per
ant government guaranteed stock."
This procedure, and these statements, went on for
some months, and received no denial, and, as far as
we know, provoked no remonstrance of any kind
from the India-house. The shareholders believed in
the guarantee ; the stock exchange believed in it ; the
press believed in it ; and we are not sure that the
India-house also did not believe in it.
Well, time wore away, and difficulties increased,
1 until at some period or other during the last twelve-
. mouths a new light appears to have been shed upon
! the whole of these interminable negotiations with the
India House. It began to be whispered that the
"Terms and Conditions" did not convey a guarantee of
1 dividend, but only a contribution of so much interest,
that is to say, that the East India Company tad not
' bound themselves to pay to the railway shareholders 5
per cent. per annum on their money, no matter what
might be the profit and loss results of the line, but
simply to give the railway company an interest of S
per cent. upon a specified sum, leaving the railway
company to make what they could of the con-
cern, and either divide a dividend of profit
among, or call for a contribution of loss

from, the individual proprietors. Now this
was precisely that rook or uncertainty which
the railway directors have been fearing since the
very first. They had done nothing bat reiterate
either that they mast have a guaranteed di, idend or
abandon the whole thing.
The whispers gathered strength, inquiries were
made, and, at last, the East India Company declared
' that a contribution of interest was ail they ever in-
tended or bad boned themselves to concede.
That declaration, of coarse, extinguished the
scheme, and all that has since been done has been
with reference to the decent interment of a project
long sines defunct.
At present, we my nothing upon the °Deduct of the
East India directors in this business. We will con-
tent ourselves with • quotation of their own words,
referring to these identical "Terms and Conditions,"
within a few weeks of the issue of that extraordinary

paper.
On the 6th of July, 1847, Mr. Secretary MiLvtu,
writes to the railway company, that " they (the
India House) have resolved to augmebt the rate of
dividend to be guaranteed by the East India Company
to five per cent., provided that the East Indian Rail-
way Company, in consideration of that guarantee," will
do certain things..
It seems to us, in the face of such language u this,
either that the India Company bound themselves to a
guarantee, or that the English tongue has lost its

Tux differences that have become manifest between
the President of the French republic, or rather be-
tween his ministry and the National Assembly,
seem to be rather those of personal objections and
distrusts, than of any antagonism of policy or of
principle, existing between them. The majority
of the Assembly is moderately republican.
But nothing has hitherto transpired, or become
apparent in the acts of LOUIS NAPOLEON or his
ministers, which would indicate a desire to recur to
monarchy or to abrogate the constitution. It has,
indeed, become a maxim with all political men in
France, that whatever may be the faith or the desires
of different sections of the great community, none
must seek to further them by any line of conduct or
policy that would produce convulsion. Whatever
takes place in France must take place quietly, by the
tendency of things, by the rrogress of public opinion,
and the tranquil action of the public will. No one
seems to have resigned himself more implicitly
to this law than Louts NAPOLEON himself. We
believe that the republicans also, even the fiercest of
them, have adopted feelings of resignation. And
when we hear of their plotting, and stirring, and me-
ditating strife, we cannot but think such rumours
spread by their enemies rather than given occasion to
by themselves.
The maxim of preserving complete peace and con-
cord at home is joined by another, that of maintaining
peace abroad and concord with foreign nations. All
indeed seem impressed with the necessity of peace ;
the moderate parties dread war, the violent do not
desire it. And each perceives that whichever of them
provokes war, will lose credit with the people.
LOUIS NAPOLEON, Louis NAPOLEON'S ministers, and
the National Assembly, are perfectly agreed on this
important point. The committee of the Assembly is
most strenuous for the reduction of military expenses,
so strenuous that they recommend an organic law to
put permanent limits to such expenses, and to substi-
tute a system of reserve and of de misty° force for the
offensive and active army. LAMORICIERE sup-
ported this opinion, and the present ministers, far
from contradicting it, nary the reduction for 1849
even farther than lien. CAVAIONAC.
The rectified budget foe 1848 estimated
Army expanse at 432,255,2246.
Mame at

LAMORICIERE, General CAVAIONAC'S war minister,
proposed to reduce the army expenses for 1849 by
sixty millions. The prvent ministry reduce it by
sixteen millions more, making in all a reduction of
three millions sterling.
The marine estimates, as above, are six millions
sterling, which includes colonial expenses. A million
sterling nearly of this is to be reduced. The principal
redaction was effected in the corps, answering to our
marines, and in the marine artillery,—in fact, in the
very material of Laval aggression. The French fleet
in commission is to consist of eight vessels of the
line, two more as floating batteries, and eight frigates
employing 20,000 seamen. There are to be four steam
frigates.
On the Ist of January, 1848, we had 17 line•of-
battle ships in commission, and 32 fourth, fifth, and
sixth rates, with 45,000 men, besides 78 war steamers,
the expenditure being nearly nine millions sterling,
full twice that of the French.

Oa its army, in which, however, its police is to be
incladed, France spends the enormous sum of four-
teen millions sterling. One-fifth of this expenditure
is absorbed by Algeria. The numbers of the army
which this sum is calculated to support are 380,000.
Such masses of troops are required for the eventuality
of forming large armies to cope with those of
Germany and Ras is on the Rhine. England has no
such requirements, nor can her army expenses be
brought into comparison with those of any other
power. For information we give also Gen. LADlO-
mantes plan of a peace establishment for France :
Infantry
C aalry
Artillery
Beeman
Commissariat, Driven, Le. B,BOO
Veterans 3 500
Gendarmerie
Staff 2,900
Officers 17,390

292,890
It is gratifying to see, that in France those fore-
most for the reduction of military expenditure, ere
military men. CAVAIGNAC and LAMORICIERE have
both distinguished themselves in this respect. The
cavils and the objections raised by the committee and
by economists in the Assembly, never called forth the
spleen of any admiral or general officer. The French
army and navy,or their chiefs, felt that they were made
far the nation, not the nation for them. And we will
be bound to say, that had any French general spoken
the bitter words, or indited letters against those who
demand retrenchment, in the style of Sir WILLIAM
NAPIER, he would have been hooted down, as sinning
alike against decorum and against the dignity of his
profession.

Ir is to be feared that a temper is beginning to
pervade the West India colonies, which will require
more judicious and unimpassioned handling than the
antecedents of the home government lead us to expect
from it. _ _

---- ---
Some months ago the intelligence reached this
country that on account of the refusal of the acting
governor of British Guiana to allow the representa-
tive financial assembly of that country to examine
into the civil list, its proceedings had been suspended,
and the supplies for the year left unvoted. The next
mail brought news that Earl GREY had refused to
sanction reductions of the civil list of Trinidad,

though they were recommended by the governor,
and approved of by a council of government
nominees. Next came the intelligence that the
Jamaica Assembly had refused to accept of its share
of the loan voted last session by the House of Com-
mons, on the terms prescribed by government. And
now we learn that the Barbadoes House of Assembly
has pursued the same course. With every month the
difficulties in the way of governing these colonies, in
accordance with the views and wishes of Downing-
street, increase. The causes of perplexity are in the
main the same in all the colonies, and are rapidly
extending from Berbice to the most northern of the
Antilles.

It is in Jamaica, however, that the excitement is
most intense, and its expression most vociferous.
And, unfortunately, the state of parties, in that island,
and the temper which is displaying itself, threaten
rather to obstruct all government than to conduce to
the concession of justice by the authorities at home.
The majority in the Jamaica House of Asseu.bly has
always been composed of gentlemen entertaining the
•pinions of the planter sad manager class. But many
of this majority are fair and cool-headed men. The
liberal minority is composed of resident merchants
and a few gentlemen who were always friendly to
negro emanc►pation—one or two of them are them-
selves men of colour. A section of the majority are
still unable to free themselves from the pre-
judice of skin aristocracy ; and it may
be that some of the minority men who
have raised themselves by their own industry—
are not very nice in mere matters of etiquette. Owing
to these circumstances, there has at all times been a
tendency towards unseemly personal brawls in the
assembly. Until the passing of the last Sugar Ditties
Bill in the House of Commons, reform of the admi-

nistrative government and economy in public expendi-
tare were perseveringly advocated by the liberal
minority alone. Since that measure passed the House
of Commons, the cease has been keenly taken up by
the majority. Toese new convert*, however, are not
merely imbued with that head-long and intolerant
zeal which so often characterises new converts.
they have, in some instances, conducted them-
selves in a manner that betrayed gull" as much of
spleen es of patriotism—quite u much of desire to
avenge the destruction of a profitable monopoly and
the emancipation of their black labourers as reel for
reform. The liberals objected to their course of
policy as headlong and danrrons, and were assailed
with torrents of thou. Still the prudence and good
feeling of the greater part of the majority led them
to concur in the fears of the reforming minority, and
had the governor not been too diplomatically clever,
and bad the home government not unwisely inter-
fered to obstruct economical reform, the Howie of
Assembly might have been kept within safe limits.
But the meddling spirit of Downing-street and the
excessive cleverness of Sir Cuanza GREY spoiled
everything.
An accident of a very suspicious, and as yet unex-
plained nature, has made matters worse than ever.
The House of Assembly resolved not to grant any sup-
plies for a longer period than •ill the 15th of February,
1849. This resolution was duly intimated to the
Legislative Council and the governor. On the 19th of
December a bill passed the house, continuing the im-
port duties bill till the 15th of February, 1849. The
draft bill, in the possession of the house, has this date;
bat in the engrossed bill, carried up to the council,
December is substituted fur February. The member
whose business it was to examine the engrossed bill
and certify its accordance with the draft, declares
that he was not aware of the change, and so does the
clerk of the house. How or when the alteration was
made is a mystery. The Council can scarcely have
been without a suspicion that December was a clerical
error. The resolution of the house not to grant any
supplies beyond the lath of February had boon inu-
mated to them ; and the 15th of December is not an
ordinary financial term. Yet the Council, on the bill
being sent up, carried it through the three readings in
the same meeting at which it was received, contrary
to ad form aad usage. This singular haste
has a very ugly look. And what is worse, the bill
passed the Council on the 20th of December ; the mail
was not despatched till the 22nd ; and the legislature
and the public were still left in doubt, when it was
sent off, as to whether the Governor would or would
not take advantage of this awkward accident.
It was understood that under these circumstances
the members of the House of Assembly had held a
private meeting in nett' committee-room, and pledged
themselves to certain resolutions, which hid not been
made public. Out of doors, however, it was
generally believed that they had resolved no
to form a house until it was ascertained
that the governor would not take advantage of
the error. The unaccoul,table haste of the oun-
cil to pass the bi:l, and the equally unaccountable
delay of the governor to declare that he world not
take advantage of the mistake, had created a general
ferment. The liberal minority, and the prudent
members of the majority, were in eminent danger of
being either carried away by the coategion of public
exasperation, or of having their influecee destroyed
if they adhered to their moderate policy, while all
around them were in a fever of excitement.

If in this critical state of &Mars the home govern-
ment attempt to carry matters in Jamaica with a high
hand, they will be playing the game of the firebrands
of that colony ; and it they provuke the inhabitants of
Jamaica to Inconsiderate courses, the effect upon the
growing discontents of the neighbouring colonies
cannot easily be estimated. All these difficulties have
their source, first in the pertinacity with v. hick the
home government interferes in questions of local ex-
penditure in the colonies; and, secondly, in the re-
tucal to grant elective legislatures to some, and in the
vetoes pronounced on the attempts of the elective legisla-
tures of the rest to reduce local expenditure. By this
unwise policy all who are sore because their slaves
have been emancipated, and all who are angry because
their monopoly has been taken from them, are enabled
to prosecute a clandestine revenge under the pretext
of advocating public economy and constitutional rights.