The Express.
London, England, 1857-10-07 00:00:00

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LONDON. WADNWIDAY, OCTOBER 7.

TILII first impreasion produced in Caleutta by the
arrival of Sir Cott?, CAMPBELL is described as having
been one of " universal confidence and joy." In
that excited community, long labouring under the
most distressing of all social symptoms--a thorough
distrust in the competency of its Government to
meet the existing crisis—the sudden appearance of
a man of known wisdom, energy, and decision was
naturally felt as a God-send. This was the first
impulse of the popular feeling; hut it was soon
toned down by other considerations. Sir Cutty
CAMPBELL came, not to supersede, but to serve; not
to control, bat only to counsel. The GOVERNOR-
GENERAL still retained the supreme power
which he had already shown his inability to
wield ; the Council from whose influence he had
never shaken himself loose, and in whose suggestions
and advice he was only too glad to merge his own
responsibility, still remained inexpugnably en-
trenched in all the strongholds of routine, potently
believing that they could guide with reins of red
tape the wild frenzy of • military insurrection
whose like the world has never vet seen. Had Sir
COLIN CAMPPELL come over to exercise undivided
sapremacy—had the power of the civil and military
sword been vested in his sole grasp, the known
energy and promptitude of the man might reason-
ably have inspired a new life of hope and
confidence into the harassed citizens of Calcutta.
But Sir Cott's in subordination to • Governor wbo
was himself subordinate to the C'ouncil, was evi-
dently a very different thing. Hence the eager
desire of the Calcutta people for an absolute dictator-
ship—for a few months of irresponsible power vested
in some one wise and capable and resolute ruler. It
• is a most natural wish—•a most unavoidable de&'e.
If we only look closely at the actual position in
which this Indian empire of ours is now placed, we
shall find that its most real and urgent waist is the
want of a single. supreme, and presiding mind.
In times of deep public calamity and imminent
public danger it must ever be thus. Whenever the
safety of all depends upon the prompt and ener-
getic employment of the powers of all
fee the great end of the general welfare, the
temporary amender of full supremacy to any ooe
pair of hands really able to wield it, is a matter of
common prudence and almost of popular instinct.
Whent eer Rome was in jeopardy, the forms of
liberty were suspended, in order that its essence
might be preserved by the wholesome energy of
temporary despotism. The imperilled Republic sub-
mitted itself to a master; the Assembly, the Senate,

and the Consuls were superseded by a Dietator. The •
emergency that has now arisen in India is peculiarly
of a kind that requires can► a remedy es this : a elm
head, a resolute will, an abseiena authority, are the
pressing exigencies of the Beeman them They
are the things most wanted v.—unless a speedy
change is made, they ire the things k-sat
likely to be bed. If Lord CANNING possessed
in any eminent degree t►e elements of practical
greatness, he would require nothing but the circum-
stances that have transpired to invest him with the
dictatorship that they demand. In times of such
argent necessity a superior aptitude for command
asserts its own sovereignty, and no murmur., &along
at least as the danger lute, rise in protest against
its beneficent usurpation, A great man in a greet
emergency is a de facto Dictator, vested with
supreme command by the paramount rights of
genius and the absolute enmities of the time, In
Indian history, long before the independent power
of the Governor-General was formalised as it
is now, the eminent servants of the Com-
pany have been more than once made supreme
by the combination of faculty and circumstance,
genius and necessity, Cul t and A..TI Gs were
Dictators in this num. By the curviest of powers
transcending rule, but drawing their warrant from
emergency, they built up this Indian Empire
which, by Gou's blceeng, we mean to transmit.
not only unimpaired, but extended and conso-
lidated, to our eons. In later times every able
Governor-General has known how, in times of
difficulty, to make himself supreme. CORN W LIAM
and Ilasrltina and WELLEXLET acted for them-
selves. And now a time has fallen upon India
the like of which has never been before; the foun-
tains of the great deep have been broken up ; the
elemental forces long imprisoned ander the fairsurface
of a seemingly prosperous social system have been
let loose, and an Empire is resolved into an Anarchy.
Now, if ever, we want in India a Man, end we have
got—what ? A Governor-General without energy;
ands Council without insight—an amiable and cul-
tivated nobleman of classic tastes, good dispoai t ioa , and
single-hearted integrity, leaning for aid on a con-
dare of five exceedingly limited and ordinary men
wedded to Routine, trained in Circumlocution,
swathed in Red Tape. Admirable people, no doubt,
all of them, for nrdinary times, but for an emer-
gency, for a revolution, for a wild, weltering chaos
of anarchy and insurrection, why, any five clerks
you might pick at random from the Treasury benches
would do as well—nay, better, for their view, if
limited by want of insight, would not at least be
coloured and distorted by prejudice.
Manifestly this won't do. The first want of India
is a man for a ruler ; and till this first want is sup-
plied no approach will be made to a settlement of
the Indian question. One has heard of all site of
odd forms of government. Despotisms tempered by
epigrams; despotisms tempered by regicide; but of
all conceivable modes of administration, the most
fatal and the most foolish would seem to be this,
Governor-Gcnerilship tempered by Doerr, PZACOCI
and GRANT. ttf the whole Council the cunent opinion;
in India seems to be that Mr. PEACOCK is the most
unexceptionable member. Westminster Hall knew
something of this gentleman before he went out to
take part in the government of India. An honour.
able, excellent, and upright man as ever wore bona-
baleen and horsehair, the keenest of special pleaders.
prmternaturally acute in detecting the minutest flaw
in a legal statement. absolutely without a rival in the
dexterity with which he could wield, when driven to

it, all the weapons, offensive and defensive, of
2
chicane. Such was Mr. P the t
master of the Science of Special I (wren: to
any wide or far-reaching n ' y •
ROT, least of all on any bjcet eon with
the great matters of petti _ tory, ,
life, a more absolutely incapable person it would be
utterly impossible to conceive—incapable, not only
from want of knowledge, but from positive inapti-
tude for a general view. The mind morbidly
sharpened to the minutest exercise of a subtle logical
analysis had wholly kat, if it ever possessed, all
grasp for wider and nobler objects. And yet thin mere
law) er is admitted to be the best man in the Council.
And it is to Lord CANNINO and such a Council as this,
that Government is still content to trust the destinies
of India. If they are, the People are not. The thing
cannot go on ea it is. That a change has not been
made already is a serious reproach on the Cabinet of
Lord PALMERSTON. It cannot be longer postponed
without gis ing rise to more serious imputations and
more formidable results.

IT has been sarcastically, but too truly said, that I
in matters of the deepest moment to the moral and
religious amendment of mankind, "it le not so easy
" to do good as those may imagine who never try."
Old habits are so hard to break, ingrained prejudices
so difficult to eradicate, the egotism of class and
sect is so imperturbable, and the relish for every
delusion that contains enough of the alcohol of
intolerance is so keen, that many a generous and
good man is fain to give up the struggle in
despair. He finds that no sacrifice he may
vidually make disposes the majority of those with
whom he arisociates to do likewise, sad he is, if pos-
sible, still more mortified and disheartened at

finding his exceptional conduct speedily forgot-
ten, and confounded in the resentment caused
by the refusal of others to follow in the way
he beckoned. He is even not unfrequently blamed
for secring questions he knew not how to settle, and
raising hopes beyond his power to realise. A man
has need of sagacity quite aa much as of benevolence
in his wrestling* with social and sectarian bigotry.
If be has not the wit to decoy the Devil into a dis-
advantageous position, the odds are that he will have
the wont of it at the end of the campaign ; and if he
does not possess a considerable share of that mes-
meric power over the wills of other men whereby
all the greatest things have been accomplished, he hes
bat a poor 'thence of achieving anything worth note
or mention.

It is but a few months since the Rev. Mr. PEL-
HAM was chosen to fill the See of Norwich.
It was felt by many that noble traditions
nettled in a peculiar manner the diocesan
throne of Norwich, and that it would pot
be easy for any man adequately to fill the place
which in popular memory was still associated
with the names of BATHURST and of STANLEY.
They were very different men in their day and
generation ; hat their eminent merits ss prelates
consisted in this, that each in turn supplied what
was most wanting in hie day to his generation. The
venerable form of the courtly yet liberal BATHURST
IS still remembered with affection and respect by
thousand' who belong not to the fold whereof he
was the chief provincial shepherd ; and the fearless
and comprehensive charity of the energetic STANGRY
is never named without emotions of admiration and
sorrow by numbers who never perhaps before or
since have thought of an Anglican Bishop with
love or spoken of him with praise. Mr. PEL-
HAM enjoyed many of the advantages of
his more popular predecessors. Like them he
possessed the advantage of high birth and breed-
ing; and like them he was known to be
actuated by sentiments of thoroughly earnest but
thoroughly tolerant piety. Ilia friends did not
indeed claim for him any special gifts of li-
quorice or learning ; but they alleged, and with
truth, that he had proved himself to be an
excellent pariah priest—a hospitable, gentle, cha.
ritable and cheerful worker in concert with all who
would work zealously, come whence they might, in
the great vineyard. Without any particular display
of sentiment or feeling his elevation was hailed with
general satisfaction, and on entering his diocese he
was received with a quiet but sincere welcome.

In the overlie of the first Charge delivered by him
to his clergy, the new Bishop set forth in simple and
teaching language the sense he entertained of the
need that exists of cordial co-operation among the
pastors of all religious denominations, if the mass of
the community are to be taught and cared for.
Instead of brandishing D s crozier in disdain or de-
fiance before the eyes of his dissenting brethren, he
proclaimed his personal readiness to act in concert
with all amongst them who would lay aside their
jealousy of the Establishment for the sake of the good
work which they and he had equally undertaken to
share in. The Charge of a Bishop admits not of
audible criticism or open controversy, and this
offer of practical comprehension pared at the
time unquestioned by those to whom it was
more immediately addressed ; and by none
outside the sacerdotal pals was it likely to be pan-
elled. The various nonconformist bodies testified
silently, but significantly, their appreciation of the
right hand of fellowship thus held forth to them,
and among the laity of the diocese there was but one
feeling—that of satisfaction and approval. Moody
discontent and disapprobation filled, on the other
hand, the minds of many of the diocesan clergy ; in
private they caballed, and in public they murmured.
We speak not indiscriminately, nor of all; we know
there are exceptions; but we regret to be obliged to
say—what recent circumstances appear indeed to
leave no room for doubting—that the prevalent
feeling of the clergy of Norfolk is as little in unison
with the enlightened spirit of their present eccle-
siastical chief as it was with that of his illustrious
predecessors. A narrow and jealous temper still
unhappily prevails amongst them ; and while no
diocese in the kingdom has contributed less, of late,
to the general cause of religious improvement, its
parochial and capitolar dignitaries seem actuated by
the same spirit of exclusiveness and sectarianism
which we have so often had to deplore in their more
energetic and eloquent brethren elsewhere.
A peculiarly infelicitous occasion is said to have
been chosen by the Norwich Ecelesiawica of the
high and dry school for the manifestation of their
repugnance to Bishop PELHAM'S comprehensive
views of Christian duty. The public c Ilection for
the relief of our fellow-subjects of all sects and
chimes who have suffered recently in India was
naturally considered by his lordship as a fitting
opportunity for showing that he really meant what
be said in his inaugural address. It was proposed by
him that on a given day the Ministers of all denorai-
-1 nations should assemble, along with other persons of
, local weight and influence, impartially chosen, to
consider the best mode of dealing with the fund thus
raised, and as a matter of courtesy the episcopal
palace was offered by him as a convenient place of
inciting. We are informed that on tho day ap-
pointed many dissenting Ministers assembled, when,
to their no small surprise, an intimation wu con-
veyed to them that however deeply the Bishop must
regret the cause, he found himself unable to carry
oat the arrangement he had suggested. In other
words, he had found it inpoesible to per-