Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-01 00:00:00

MISGOVERNMENT AT C ALCUTTA.

The Birmingham Daily Press publishes 'a letter,
written by an English resident at Calcutta, and
addressed to Mr. George Dawson. The following
extracts will, doubtless, greatly interest our
readers .

The fact is, Lord Canning is not the man for his post.
No one would ever have chosen him for it. The Horne
Government, little knowing, in their innocence, what
a storm was brewing—(how should they, when their
informants here upen t. e spot could trace no shadow
of the coming struggle ? mixing with the discontented
and disaffected, they found but nothing of their diicon-
tents), the Home Government then requiring a man to
consolidate, to keep things cool and quiet, after the fuss
and bluster of the last vice-royalty, picked out of their
own ranks the nobleman they could best spare, and
packed him off to Calcutta. I know little about his politics
—we don't call men by political names here—but I suppose
he belonged to the Whigs, or the Peelites, or the Liberal_
Conservatives. or some other of those safe little pigeon-
holes for undecided men. Well, such is not the man to
muzzle a revolution. The art of navigation, as learnt on
Bala Lake or your own Sato Pool would not be of much
avail in a stiff sou'-wester off an iron-bound lee shore
The Governor-General of India should always be a man
of tremendous energy, moral ani physical, a man who
has passed his life in doing, and been knocked about he
must be prepared for every emergency, for India is
always smouldering above a volcano ; above all he must
have his own way. He may bluster like Ellenborough, or
s orear and fume like Sir Charles Napier (the dead lion.
not the living bear), or better, he may prove like our
beloved and lamented Lawrence, the "still strong man in
a blatant land." But strong he must be, or he will fail
egregiously, and bitterly fail. And Lord Canning, if the
voice of the whole of the intelligent Earopean population
of Calcutta may be trusted, has so failed. Industrious
and self-sacrificing as heart could wish, he has not yet
succeeded in satisfying the English of India by one singe
act. He vacillates ;he is led by his councillors ;he is
afraid, not of the natives, but of being harsh with them.
He trusts them ; if one fails, he still believes another ; he
is like charity, " hoping all things, believing all things,"
if a native or a native regiment make any profession. But
let Europeans appeal, he is deaf and dumb, he mistrusts
them ;he is unfair'' to them. For it is not impartiality in
these times to deal out equal justice, (Taal harshness, to
dark and light. When the existence of a terrible con-
spiracy against the lives of every one of us English is
proved, it is not impartial to forbid European and Asiatic
alike from carrying arms in the streets of Calcutta; the
European carries his for self defence, the native for ag-
gression. It is not impartial to bind by one constraint
the low scurillous native papers which the respectable
class of natives (who speak and read English and conduct.
'their private correspondence in Eaglish) would never
look at, and the loyal, honest, gentlemanly European
press. The Friend of India withers under treatment which
a contemptible native paper,_by reason of its very man-
ners, would not feel.

And the worst of these dealings with the newspapers is
just this: that the very meanness and slightness of the
native press show that the blow was directed, for some
unaccountable reason, against the European papers.
Government had had from these the most kindly and cor-
dial support ; Enot a paper but praised Lord Canning's
energy and activity, feeling as they did how much moral
strength the confidence of the English inhabitants would
give him. And all this support has been wantonly dissi-
pated; Government felt themselves not strong enough to
face a breath of adverse criticism, and determined upon
gagging the press. This was their ostensible ground :
In the Doorbin, a Hindustanee paper, published at Cal-
cutta, appears a proclamation, promulgated by the Delhi
insurgents, calling upon the natives throughout India to
rise and massacre the " Feringhees." The proclamation
is inserted seemingly only as a piece of news, and with
adverse comments. Another Hindustanee paper copies it,
appending similar comments ; and a Bengalee paper, about
the same time, inserts several obscure editorial pare
graphs, which the Government interpreters construe into
treasonable sympathy with the insurgent Sepoys. Straight-
way the three papers are seized, the editors bound to ap-
pear at the next sessions, and Lord Canning goes down
and passes a " gagging act," giving power to the Govern-
ment to stop the publication of any paper or book contain-
ing seditious matter, and to punish the editor with
imprisonment and fine. Well, this looks energetic
enough, but what follows converts it into a farce.
The grand jury found a true bill against the three
editors, who were tried by the law of libel, and the
act,of course not having a retrospective effect, when the
trial came on, it was intimated to the three editors that
if they would plead guilty they should be let off with a
nominal fine. The two Hindustanee editors did so; the
Bengalee one refused, and as there was a great confusion
about the meaning of the suspicious passages, the jury,
liking natives little, but government less, found him " not
gully.'' So then government have cut their own throats,
thrown away the support of Anglo India, and of the
home press (which of course will be loud against the
insult to the craft), and disgusted every reasonable-man
because of three articles, two of which according to its
own estimation, were sufficiently punished by a fine of
cele rupee, and the third was pronounced innocent by a
jury composed principally of educated Englishmen. There
must surely be something more in this than meets the ear.
The editor of the Doorbin is a clerk in the Home-office, and
people do not scruple to hint that the obnoxious article
was inserted at the inspiration of the Home Secretary.
* * * Then take this Dinapore business as a specimen
of their way of managing things. Dinapore, as you all
know by this time, is a military cantonment on the right
Dank of the Ganges, in the province of Saber, about eight
miles from the troublesome Mussultnan city of Patna, in
which plot after plot has been traced by the exertions of
individuals (rewarded for their energy, sometimes, as
Lord thick Browne was by a most triumphant snubbing).
Well, at Dinapore were three Sepoy regiments and one
Queen's regiment—the 10th ; and the station was com-
manded by an old brigadier, named Lloyd. When
the Calcutta and Barrackpore regiments were dis-
armed some six weeks ago, a deputation of merchants
of Calcutta and Patna waited on Lord Canning, begging
him to disarm the Dinapore troops also, and sug-
gesting that some European regiments passing up the
river should stop tor a day or two and see it done, as the
10th were not strong. These merchants, of course, feared
for Patna and their goods there, while Government, with
31 croves worth of opium in their stores there (a crove of
rupees is a million of our money) was so gloriously unsel-
fish as to care nothing. The lord bowed them out with,
" I have reason to place implicit confidence in the fidelity
of the Dinapore troops." Well, in a fortnight, Govern-
ment thought better of it, and sent Brigadier Lloyd a
carte blanche to disarm them or not as he thought well.
The brigadier put it in his pocket. The other day Go-
vernment waxed courageous, and wrote to ;the brigadier,
" Disarm them at once.' The brigadier went and an-
nounced it to the troops. They said " Give us 24 hours."
He gave it, and in a very few hours they had rushed off,
burning their barracks behind them .to spread destruction
and devastation through the hitherto quiet province of
Behar. When the er.sis came, the poor old brigsdier was
aowhere to be ((mad, till at last he.was discovered tremb.
ling on board. & steamboat., in, Lilo. alver.Ejantut nitre our