Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-28 00:00:00

now from the strategy, or to speak more qxactly, the
want of strategy, of the Conservative leaders in 1830-1-2.
Their mode of dealing with Catholic Emancipation' had
placed them in difficulties on Reform,' which they had
not anticipated. The rapidity with which they struck
their protestant colours to O'Connell and the Clare
electors in 1829, while at the same time they pertinaciously
resisted every moderate meastre of reform, was the worst
course that they could have adopted. Their own Parlia-
ment did not follow them. They were deserted on Sir H.
Parnell's motion for Financial Reform. But if the Tories
were in difficulties about reform in 1830, it is very unsa_
tisfactory for us to know that the Whigs are in still
greater difficulties about reform in 1858. There was a
certain agreement and distinct understanding in 1832, to
which the Whig ministry was a contracting party, which
cannot be overlooked in 1858. Lord Palmerston knows all
about it ; so does Lord John Russell; so do other still
living members of Lord Grey's cabinet. On another
occasion we shall have to allude to that agreement, and
we shall take care that its binding force be maintained foi
the preservation of the 'Rights of Conservatives.' "

The Economist points out that our statesmen in India
have—what so rarely falls to the lot of statesmen—carte
blanche—a fair field. The Bengal army is gone, passed
away into history, with all its defects, all its obligations,
all its claims. It might have been very difficult to reform
it—it will be comparatively easy to-re-construct it. The
moment the principle on which its re-creation is to proceed
his teen determined on, the moment we have satisfied
ourselves as to those errors in its former constitution which
rendered possible its late crimes and dissolution, we are
free to act as on the first day of our imperial existence ;
there are no ruins to interfere with the new edifice we
choose to build, no embarrassing legacies of the past to
hamper or control our action: If we are not successful
now—if we do not create a new army, perfect at all points,
adequate to our necessities, and specially adapted to our
circumstances—we can plead no want of means, or expe-
rience, or golden opportunity, in extenuation of our failure.
Never did rulers set to work with more unfettered hands.
Thera is yet another jewel" of inestimable price to be
found in this " venemous and ugly" visitation if we have
but the wisdom to extract it, It will surely compel us—
we shall be very senseless and very guilty if it do not
compel us—to study thoroughly and to determine distinctly
and deliberately the principles on which oar entire
government of Hindostan shall in fature be conducted,
so that all our measures shall be consistent with each
other and convergent to one point, and so that for once
and in one quarter of the world British policy shall be
systematic, unlorm, and persistent. We can no longer,
without wilful folly, act a little on one plan ani a little on
another; hesitate between two opposing theories and end
by borrowing something from both, or trying timidly and
inefficiently each in turn ; allo w one goveraor-general to
upset or neutralise the proceedings- of a predecessor, 'his
antipodes in opinion and temperament ; in a word, leave
one of the grandest empires ever entrusted to a nation at
the mercy of that feeble vacillation which is the invariable
result of half-knowledge and half convictions.
The Dispatch has the following : -" Amicus Plato, sed
majits arnica veritas, He best loves England who will
not suffer his patriotism to ignore his sense of truth,
and to lower the tone of public principle It seems now to
be universally admitted that we can trust only to British
troops to govern India, and that W 3 must totally disarm the
native population. It is really believed that a territory of
nearly 2,000 miles square, inhabited by myriads of semi-
civilised subjects, can be he.d in subjection by 50,000
or 100,000 Europeans, in defiance of chrmiic disaffec.
tion, habitual fear, and the despairing disloyalty induced
by imperious domination. Sepoys, we are assured;
are as good as English troops if led. by English
officers. It consists with our certain knowledge that
Russian and other Earopean officers are at this moment
flocking to Hindostan to command the revolted Sap oys. This
upeising has betrayed to the Czar and the other autocra'; s of
Europe the fatalsecret that the people of India are prepared
to receive an army of liberation with open arms; and let us
bank the fact as we easy, that willtencefarth.be a perpetual
source of weakness to us in the a ljustment of Earopean p eli_
tics. We have habitually speculated on the probability of a
Russian invasion of India. Oa : ablest military authorities
have considered it perfec`ly pealtic able. It is quite p ti-
c able, by co operation with the native princes and indepen-
dent native states, to draw thither unobserved all the notes
nary muniments of an army. There are seventy millions of
Flindoos the subjects uf independent native sovereigns all
adjoining to, several surrounded by, our dominions. How
can we prevent these states from organising large sanding
armies, cffieered ant taught by Europeans, and filling
arsenals with. the _necessary equipments_for war ? We are
coolly told that these states must be annexe], by hook or
by crook, so that England alone shall reign in Hindoitan.
HeVe'aie not enoug's on our hands- already ? The more
we take, the more we have to hold, to garrison, to overawe ;
if thi,i be our polipy, hoW is our -pepulation' to stand the
drain of troops, the drain of our exchequer-? = When is
the income-tae to end? How high will the poundage
reach ?'' . •

The Leader has 'Especially refr duel, upon all occa-
sions, from reckless invective against mut wh ), like Lord
Canning, occupy, responsible positions in times of confusion
and
,calamity. and whose duties have to be psrfarnie d in
the midst of isudden aiaiins, and even actual dangers.
Bat it is impossible to resist the canelasion that, as Gover-
nor-General of India, Lord Canning stands convicted
of indifference or incapacity. The case against him _
rests not upon. suspicion, -but upon absOltitie e7idence
Overrating himself and underrating the dangers of the
country, what guarantee have we that Lord Canning is
the man to whom should be entraste d the conduct of that
gigantic struggle by which, if by anything, the English are
to regain the stipremacy of India ? Th.) curse of the nation
is that no guarantee is required from men -in responsible
situations. We insist as little upon qualifications as upon
guarantees. General Anson was an ensign with the bag-
gage guard at Walerloo, and we made him :Commander-in-
chief in India. Fame gathered by field days in Hyde park
has been permitted to supersede great Indian reputations
—Outram and Lawrence are no competitors of Anson .and
Canning. The favourites may break dawn, it is true; but
British nepotism is ingenious. To sati fy the public
( which is easily satisfied), a board of old Peninselars will
sit, and whitewash every one concerned. But we are
anticipating. We have net yet made head against the
rebellion and if the feeb'e government at Calcutta should
bend to the blast, it may at length be thought necessary by
the nation at hor43 the' personal vanity should give way
to imperial interests; and that_lndia should be saved; even
at the risk of offehee to Viscount Canning and M . Vernon
Smith."
The Illiesl,reed News, on the other hand, remarks that
" opinions differ as to the length of time and the amount
of sacrifice by which the final v;otory of Great Britain will
be achieved ; but there is no difference of opinion on the
main fact, that we are fated to conquer, and that the loss
of India by this country would be a calamity to the'world.
The only exceptions, to the unanimity of feeling are pecu-
liar. They all spring from one source—the hostility of
the Ultraliontane ani Ultra Popish party. They are
not influenced by reasons of state, bat by reasons of
religion. A few rabid Irishmen—and they no Ay be
counted by units, not by hundreds —gloat over the dis-
tresses of Protestant Eogland. Cardinal Wiseman mani-
fests a lukewarm and jesuitical sympathy with the country
of which he claims to be a native, but not until ha has
been roughly called to account for passages in his pnb:
lished sermon which might warrant a different interpeta-
tion ; and the French Roman Catholic journals—which
would restore Franca, if it were in , their power, to the
darkness of the middle ages, when St. Louis was the
type alike of manhood, of royalty, and of Christianity—
express doubts as to our ultimate triumph, and a very
strong conviction that, if we—heretics as we are—

should be the winners, it will be a misfortune
to Europe and the Church of Rome. One or two
who only hate England
Orleans. Print" of Perla,