The Express.
London, England, 1858-08-10 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

A SPECIAL EDITION of the "EXPRESS,"
eontaining the results of the day's Races, is pub-
lished every ',ening daring the Sporting Season, at
six o'clock.

Tree late rulers of India have selected those of
their number who are to form part of the new
Council for India. Already we know the names of
nearly one-half of those that are to wield the
destinies of our Eastern Empire. The language is
not too strong. It is true that the routine business
of administration will mainly be carried on in India,
and that the success with which instant and
emerging danger shall hereafter be encountered will
depend mainly on the characters of those who are
invested with local authority. Much, however,
will still depend upon the Home Government-
The Home Government will be a permanent
Court of Appeal in weighty controversies ; upon
the Home Government will devolve the delicate and
difficult task of deciding the broad general principles
upon which India is to be administered. Regrets
for what is past are vain. It is the duty of those
who know India, and are interested in its fate, to
spare no efforts to keep the new Government in the
right path. The permanence of our Indian Empire
will depend upon the skill, tact, and energy with
which its affairs are managed for the next few years.
The choice of the Directors is perhaps as good a
one as could have been made. We could have
wished to have seen the name of Mr. WILLOUGHBY
on the list; but that omission may be supplied by
the Crown ; and probably it has been owing to in
impression that the Crown will take care of its own,
that not one Crown nominee has been returned by
the Directors. The responsible Ministers of the
Crown will ale° do well to place coos?icuously sad
avowedly in office the two men who, unnamed, have
been for years, as heads of the Examiner's Ocoee,
the real Government of India. If wo were disposed
to be critical we might object that some of the gen-
tlemen elected have attained an age that entitled
them to be discharged from further labours.
This is a series' consideration. Notwithstanding the
prevalent notion that the East is unchangeable, it is
notorious that the upset of affair, in India changes
with such rapidity, that an Anglo-Indian who has
been ten years in retirement finds it no easy matter
to understand them. If the majority of the first
council for India are of the old school, there will be
imminent danger, with life-appointments, of the
T- future Home Government for India lagging behind
the age. In respect of business talent and informa-
tion, however, we have no objections to urge
against any of the gentlemen on the list we pub-
lish to-day. Captain EASTWICK is an admirable
choice; Mr. SHErHERD--Irell it not that his time
is so much engrossed by the Trinity Holm—
equally so; and Sir JAMES WEIR Hoc°, though no
favourite with the House of Commons, is an able
men of business, with a large fund of Indian infor-
mal ion.
The first difficulty with which the new Govern-
ment for India will have to grapple is a religious
agitation. At least Lord STANLEY was pretty
unequivocally threatened with something of
the kind by the deputation whose visit to
him was recorded in our yesterday's issue.
We entertain the highest respect for the character
and intentions of the gentlemen who composed that
deputation, and for that section of the public which
they represent. But we think that they labour
under misapprehensions which may seriously
endanger • cause which we have quite as much at
heart as they. We believe that laws and precepts
are of comparatively little avail to make a people
moral. Giv. main nut, for the attainment of
so desirable an end, is in the cultivation
of true views and a pure and well-
balanced frame of mind. Firm believers eareedves
in the Christian religion, we are anxious to see it
disseminated through India. We believe it to be
the best—the only efficient counter-agent to the in-
fluence of false notions of the Divine government,
sensual superstition, and the baneful institution of
caste. Bat the Christianity upon which we rely is
real Christianity ; the Christianity of the spirit ; the
Christianity which is the growth of deliberate*
fearless inquiry and unbiassed conviction. We
shrink from the use of any influence which en.
poses us to the risk of having self-seeking,
insincere professors of Cl•-istianity, or mere penal.
like repeaters of certain formulas, palmed off upon 1111
SS real Christians. We therefore thank Lind
Bunter from the bottom of our hearts for the brave
stand he has made against urgent solicitations to
convert the Government of India into a propaguilielt
agency. Had he yielded on this point, be
would have gone far to render the Chris-
tianising of India impossible. Strange that ales
who flatter themselves that they are PM*
teletexts per ezeelienee—who are secustoesed
to repeat by rote, as it were, every day of their
lives that CONSTANTINI corrupted Christianity by
making it a mere affair of State—should be so eager
to imitate his pestilent mistake in India. If Govern-
meat patrosege is to be thrown into the missionary
scale—if Government is even to hint its leaning by
an ostentatious assumption of a religious character,
the Churches of India will be filled not with sincere
(cm erts, but with hypocritical aspirants to wealth
and high official position. The Government patron-
age of religion, which is so urgently called for,
would give us • new and animal Ireland writhing
under • new and more baneful "Protestant
" Ascendancy." If we are to have real Christians
in India oar Missionaries must follow the
Apostolic example. They mu t candidly tell all
who listen to them that worldly prosperity is not
the reward for which Christians are to lick. They
must wake the martyr spirit—that spirit which can
dare and 'lifter everything for the sake of truth—or
they will never be able to Christianise India. This