The Express.
London, England, 1858-05-03 00:00:00

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LONDON. MONDAY, NAY 3.

11l the present position of the great India ques-
tion there is something very disheartening and
diesoureging to all who have no other desire than to
secure for our vast Eastern poseessions that form of
government which is beet calculated to rivet the
connexion between the two countries, and to pro-
mote the happiness of the salijoit people. India,
at this moment, lies prostrate at the feet of party.
If anyone of thaws imaginative artists who, on the
walls of the Royal Academy or in the pages of
Pure*, have been symbolising the recent aspects of
the great Indian disaster, are in searc► of a new sub-
ject, let him place the paw of • huge animal on the
breast of • gimping Hindoo, and he will fitly allego-
rise the present po-ition of our Indian Empire. The
welfare of two hundred millions of human beings
is dependent upon the issue of • series of faction
tights. The question uppermost in the minds
of those who have to decide it is simply',
a question of • parliamentary migarity. Of
the five hundred members who voted on Friday
night it would be curious to ascertain the number
who were actuated by nothing but a single-minded
desire to confer good government on India.

But it is of little time to revert to the past. It has
been decided that in the present temper of Puha-
ment, and in the present state of Parliamentary
knowledge, the "collective wisdom of the country"
shall proceed to legislate, without delay, for our
vast Anglo-Indian empire ; that a new Indian con-
stitution ia to be struck off at a heat from the great
senatorial anvil. In other words Parliament is
suddenly called upon to do what it
done and never has thought of doing before ; and
that, too, not under the auspices of a strong Govern-
ment, to whose instruction and guidance members
feel that they may safely submit themselves, bat
done that scarcely seems to have an opinion of its
own on any subject, and which upon this particular
'abject of Indian government has shown a peculiar
incapacity to grapple with the difficulties of the
question—sot at a time when men's minds are
fres from distracting influences of person and of
piety, and able, therefore, to flx themselves ear-
nestly and intently upon the subject itself, but
WWI they are continually distracted by thoughts of
what a day or an hour may bring forth, and ever
al the aleti to seize a fleeting opportunity of damag-
ing the enemy, or of making a good party move for
themselves. We may say, without the least fear
of contradiction, that the oldest member of the House
of Commons cannot call to mind a period
in the annals of our country at which the state
of parties in the House has been so peculiarly
unfavourable to legislation upon any momentous
question demanding deliberate and impartial cond-
deration, and the unimpeded exercise of the highest
powers of statesmanship, for its solution. And yet
it is under these peculiarly unfavourable influences—
when the parliamentary mind is tossed to and fro by
gusts of party—when the position of Government is
so unsteady that any shock of accident or caprice
may bring it to the ground in an hour—when there
is a general scramble for place, and the question of
in or out is paramount in men's minds—that the
most difficult and momentous work ever entrusted to
Parliament is to be executed in hot haste, and under
the influence of excited passions oscillating between
delirious frenzy and tremulous timidity.
The House of Commons has resolved that the
time has arrived for the direct management of
the affairs of our Indian Empire being eassimsd
by the Ministers of the Crown. The first Resolu-
tion, embodying this proposition, has been uncon-
ditionally passed. The House has consented,
in vulgar phraseology, to buy a " pig in a
" poke." It has resolved to accept a substitate for
the present system of "double government" without
any knowledge of what that substitute is to be. In
the ordinary affairs of life, met, when they are asked
to barter one thing for another, satisfy themselves
thoroughly regarding the value of the article which
they are to receive in place of that which they are to
give in exchange. They do not adopt the omits igtto-
tens pro mayseffsco principle as their rule of conduct.
But the Howe of Commons has pledged itself to
accept something in place of the existing Govern-
ment, without knowing, or caring to know, whether
it will be something better, or something worm than
what they have got. The utmost caution, there-
fore, will be necessary, in every subsequent stage of
the proceeding, to ensure the acquisition of the beet
pomade substitute for that which ham been so hastily
abandoned. We have no hope that the substitute
will be better than that for which it is substituted;
but there are many degrees of badness, and what we
have now to contend for is the best possible substi-
tute for the form of government which Parliament
has resolved to relinquish. That if we desire to
retain India as a dependency of the British Crown
we must have a constitutional, not a despotic Govern-
ment, we have the strongest possible conviction. The
great question, therefore, now is how to bemire this
constitutional Government after the abolition of the
East India Company, which hes stood for so many
years between India and the whippers-in of the
House of Commons.

The Resolutions which the House is now about to
consider are those which relate to the future govern-
ment of India by a Minister of the Crown, aided by,
or in conjunction with, a Council. The real question
to be solved is, whether that Council is to be a
reality or a sham. The beet Council to inaugurate
the new system would be the present Court el
Directors. Ia this Court there are Ave deverimmet
nominees the Crowe having, ender the old system,
the right of nominating to tie part Tammy. Ia
this Court there jo a sattiseoy both of knowledge