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

THE DAY'S NEWS.

Wedneslayfthe 7th proximo, has been settled
upon as a day for national humiliation and prayer,
in consequence of the deplorable state of affairs in
India. The selection of a week-day for this solemn
occasion, shows the serious sense entertained by
the Government of the crisis which has called
forth the official announcement. It is to be hoped
that the occasion may be " improved"—as the
modern phrase goes—to the best purpose, that is,
to the relief di the sufferers from the unforeseen
and unparalleled atrocities, the bare recital of which
has roused and excited the warm and indignant
sympathies of every person in town and country,
and even of all our foreign friends and allies, who
have come forward so nobly in the cause of civili-
zation, to express their horror of the unheard-of,
and barbarous crimes whichhave been committed,
upon the most helpless and innocent'of our race,
We are glad to learn that Major General Have-
lock is to be promoted to the honour of being a
Knight Commander of the Bath, for his distin-
guished services near Lue.know.

We are now anxiously awaiting the receipt of
further telegraphic news from India; and it is most
likely that before we go to press we will be in
possession of a telegram" from Cagliari or Trieste.
It is now quite due, if not over due, and it is
impossible to overrate the anxiety that is felt by
the public on this all-engrossing .aubject Never,
perhaps, wars the public mind so much excited by
any passing events. The Observer, though it is
told that the news by this forthcoming mail is to
be bad, hopes that it will not be bad—in fact it is
of a different opinion. " We were caught napping.
Our representatives in India had too much confi-
dence in the native troops, whom they had often
led to victory, but who were too highly pampered,
and left with arms in their hands to butcher our
innocent wives and children with the cruelty and
all the treachery of Oriental barbarism. But, by
this time, they are taught a severe and salutary
lesson. Our troops are arriving day by day. Some
days-there are five hundred—some days there are
a thousand—all stout and trained men, under true
and faithful leaders. This tide of conquest—cr of
re-conquest--will arrive daily•for the next three
months, establish the supremacy of civilisation
upon a more firm basis than ever, and scatter to
the winds all the evil auguries that have surged up i
amongst the flood of ignoranee, of mutiny, of
cruelty, and of ingratitude, such as never before
unsettled, fol. a Chile; the regular march of order
and good government, to the destrucion of more
human life than has been heard of since fabulous
times." The Bankers' Circular is in favour of the
abolition 9f the chat ter to the East India Company,
who, not content with the mere lase of poLtical
power into their hands, seize upon all the private
property of the deceased Rajah's relatives—dis-
lodges every tenant of the soil—deprives all classes
of the means of a livelihood—and, as Mr. Norton
forcibly remarks, "in a week succeeds in converting
.Tanjore from the most respectful contented place
in our dominions into a hotbed of sullen disaffec-
tion." The paper alluded to says It can
Scarcely Alla doubted that if we would 'retain India
under the sway of British power, our first duty is
to subdue the rebellion. Bat if we neglect those
higher duties which are demanded of us as a
civilised nation, should it once more be.placed in our
hands, revenge at some future day will again be the
fate of England's sons and daughters in a-terrible
form. The real friends of India must be sought
for in England ; the government of India must
form a prominent feature in the British parliament,
where jtistiee can be meted out to it without the
interf?rence of a closeted clique, whose only interest
is to exact tribute from the conquered. We must
have no East India Coriipauy incompetence—we
must get rid of the Board of Controi—and legis-
late for India through the British parliatnent.
We have already adverted to the sloweess of the
present recruiting for the Indian army, but it
seems by the Ministerial print of yesterday, that
we sadly underrated the number that are joining
-the army. It says that they reach 1,000 per
week. We very much doubt this. The only way
it s: eels at present to bring in large additions to
the line, is to raise the bounty and reduce the
standard. Until this is done, nothing like the
.adequate force can be despatched to Indio. s.
The Board of Trade returns for the month of
August, have just been issued. They represent
generally, a very satisfactoty condition of manu-
tures and trade. In the great item of national
exports, large increases ate again met with. Th us the
whet) value of Br-t'sh produce, which in August,
1856, had increased to £10,758,000 from £8,891:000 in
same period of 1855, 'amounted ic. the August of
.1857 to £11,038,000, an increase of about £835 000
on August, 1856, and nearly double that amount
on the same month of 1855. In the eight months
of the year for which the returns account the
increase is stilt more striking. In the first eight
months of 1855 the value of British exports was
.260,154,0,00, in the same term of 1856 £74 689 000,
and in that of the ice °sent year, £81.666,000—
being, in round nuastbers, an increase of ten
millions on last year, and of twenty.four and a half
milliettS on the present one. We may thus calcu-
late that the national exports of the year 1857
will reach the unexampled value of £130,000,000 In
the important commodities comprising the articles
entered for home consumption there is a general in-
crease ; and the navigation returns also exhibit
-progressive activity. In every respegt the returns
.may be regarded with unalloyed gratification.
The Sheffield people h eve given a great public
reception to Lord John Russell. A vast multitude
assembled at the railway station to welcome him
with their plaudits. The Town Council presented
him ---erltth a highly compPmentary address. The
working classes addressed him as the great advo-
cate of Parliamentary Reform, and urged the
justice of a large extension of the franchise to the
non-el 3eteral portion of the community. The
Jews also addressed the noble Lord as the
champion of their emancipation. To these various
addresses,Llrd John returned appropriate replies
He more particularly claimed to be the friend of
the working man, His Lordship presided at a
Ragged School Meeting, and delivered a speech on
the educational question. He insisted upon the
desirability of depriving the schools of the poor ge
far as possible of their charitable character, and-

respecting that feeling of independence which is
inherent in the English character.
The domestic news this morning is devoid of
any interest or importance. We give the fullest
and latest particulars of the late railway accident,
the murder at Bristol, and several other matters.
Locally, ws are very dull, nothing of moment

occurring.
We are in the receipt of four days later news from
the United States, by the arrival of the Asia. The
conditions on which the American and New
Granadian governments have settled the dispute
have bsen published, and they will be found in
our regular summary of the news. A very severe
hurricane bad swept over the Southern coast,
and many vessels had been lost, and much
damage done to property in North Carolina
and Southern Virginia. Several railroad acci-
dents are announced, resulting in serious
loss of life. The American papers publish
the address of the Free State men of Kansas to the
people of the United States, prepared by a com-
mittee appointed at the recent convention held at
Grasshopper Falls, at which it was determined to
participate in the approaching election for dele-
gate to Congress and for members of the territorial
legislature. The address deserves to be carefully
read. It is a dispassionate document, presenting
with force and perspicuity the reasons why the
people have thus far refrained from voting, and
why they have now adopted another course. It
shows what faint grounds they have to hope for
fair play, and exposes the iniquity (fitly charac-
terised in the earnest language of the address
,by
a strong expletive) of the apportionment of the
legislature, whereby sixteen counties, strongly
free-state, containing nearly one-half the entire
population of the territory, are not allowed a single
representative in either branch ; and ten out of
thirteen members of the council, and twenty-nine
out of thirty-nine members cf the House of Repre-
sentatives, are to be chosen by districts bordering
on the Mis3ouri line. How abominable is this
inequality !

Of Continental news there is not much this
morning. The Emperor of the French has arrived
at Stuttgard+. The French papers continue to be
anxious for the safety of English possessions. The
Speetateur of Paris proposes that a French garrison
shall be sent to the Mauritius to protect the
Europeans against the Indian immigrants.
Our intelligence from Vienna is that the resolu-
tion of Francis Joseph to meet the Emperor Alex-
ander, has crated a ministerial crisis, and that,
perhaps, Count Apponyi will succeed Count Buol
in the Premiership.
The evacuation of Herat by the Persian troops
is denied. A telegraphic despatch from Constan-
tinople, of date September 13, states that Mr.
Murray had addressed a remonstrance on the sub-
ject to the Persian Court.
It does not augur well for the internal peace
of the Scandinavian Kingdoms of Sweden and
Norway, that the States of Sweden have not been
prevailed upon to come to a unanimous decision on
the nomination of the Regent. Only the clergy and
the nobility were in favor of the proposition of
the government. According to the Swedish con-
stitution, the four assemblies of which the Parlia-
ment consists will have to elect corninittes which
will form a General Committee to treat on the
question. We may safely predict that the States
of Sweden will not concede to the Regent the same
fullness of power which the States of Norway have
entrusted to him.

The gentlemen accused of commercial frauds in
France, in connection with the Northern Railway,
have been adjudged, with the exception of one of
them who is aeculitted, to terms of imprisonment
for eight and five years. They are also required
to restore those railway shares which they
fraudulently took possession of.

THE people of the British Empire—aye, and
all who entertain respect and regard for the
supremacy of England—are nobly doing their
duty by subscribing liberally towards the fund
for Ore relief of the sufferers by the Indian
rebelliOn, and its attendant barbarities. Even
the Sultan himself, for motives of state policy,
has sent his donation of 1.0001., and has, at the
same time, expressed his sympathy with the
British cause, and struck a blow at the Mahom-
medan conspiracy against British power. In
such a state of things the chief matter for inquiry
now is, not only at home but at the seat of the
troubles in India, whether the action of the
Government- has been, or now is, equal to the
emergency. The public discussion o f such a
subject is-not only necessary but perfectly
legitimate.
Most of our readers will, no dotibt, have
been, like ourselves, much struck with the
different versions of the disasters which have
taken place in India, and the discrepancy that
exists between the positive statements contained
in the letters of private correspondents, and
those views of the state of things there which
have been circulated in this country 'for the
purpose of cheering and encouraging the public
mind. There is no doubt that the official
accounts of the occurrences in India are prepared
and forwarded by and under the auspices , of
persons whose position compels them in a great-
measure to confine themselves to events which-
-,
have already happened. It is, no doubt, con-
trary to their interest, as well as antagonistic to
their official pride, to allude to the tuture, much
less to draw legitimate inferences from the facts
before them. On the other hand, the private
letters which reach us contain the feelings,
opinions, and, not unfrequently, exagge-
rated apprehensions of those who have already
encountered the savage atrocities of the
mutinous sepovs, or at every moment fear
a visitation of horrible brutalities. It is only by
a careful and unprejudiced comparison of these
various versions of the Indian news that we can
possibly arrive at a fair estimate of the truth.
And here we are forced to confess that the local
government of India appears in an unsatisfac-
tory light. Taken as a whole, the accounts by
the last two or three overland mails clearly
show that the ruling authorities in India have
been much too prone to wait on events, and have
doled out the somewhat limited means at their
command to the more pressing wants of the
hour, while private individuals, instigated by
that dread which such a fearful occasion engen-
ders, exercised a foresight and precaution not
always reliable, and have in general anticipated
the evils which, unfortunately, in the vast
majority of instances, time and circumstances
have realised.

But while there are these significant points of
discrepancy between the public and the private
advices from Tndia, there is, we are glad to say,
one matter upon which each and all are firmly
agreed. The strong and the faintest-hearted—
' military and civlAans—officers burning With nu

THE NORTHERN

insatiable desire to annihilate their fiendish foes
—women trembling in the agonies of something
worse than fear, for their honour and their lives
—the man of commerce quailing before the
approaching storm, which is to hurl at him, with
the destructive, velocity of a thunderbolt, bank-
ruptcy and ruin, if not mutiny and rivers of
blood at the very seat and stronghold of the
Government itself,—each and all express their
conviction that the local authorities at Calcutta
have proved, aye, and will continue to prove
themselvesanequal to the frightful emergencY with
which they have to deal, and to dis Charge the
serious task imposed upon them. •
In proof of this opinion we need only quote
the remarks of the Indian fugitives who arrived
at Southampton on Thursday. They deliberately
state that Calcutta and the upper provinces of
India were in a frightful state. Besides this,
some of the latest letters from gentlemen in
Calcutta, which have been received in Liverpool,
go far to prefer specific and categorical charges
against the Government, that we cannot avoid
thinking that, although too highly pictured, they
are not without foundation. Indeed, we are told
that one writer, in the depths of his despair—or,
it may more probably • be, the extreme of his
indignation—has been heard to suggest, that
unless Lord CANNING be instantly recalled or
change his tactics, we will, in all probability,
shortly hear of the establishment in Chlcutta of
a Vigilance Committee, a la California ! or, what
would be. still more deplorable, a mutiny among
the European troops ! ! No doubt these threats
are at present of very little moment, and should
be estimated at their real worth.' Nevertheless,
they are not without significanoe, indicating as
they unquestionably do the state of feeling
among the inhabitants of Calcutta, and of the
absolute and imperative necessity which exists
for a change of tactics.
We are further strengthened in these views
from the fact that the opinions and conduct of
the Indian Government have had their influence
and sway upon the authorities at home. Just as
at the outset of the Crimean campaign, time has
been lost, and opportunities overlooked or
neglected. At present, we are all bustle and
confusion, in despatching military reinforcements
to India; but it is impossible to close our eyes
to the indisputable fact, that at the outset of
the rebellion there was an almost total indif•
ference to the higher responsibilities of states-
manship, and what would have only been a
partial and local enzeute has been s'uffered to be-
come a national rebellion. The maxim of all Eng-
land's greatest, generals, including WELLINGTON,
NAPIER, GOUGH, &c., that in military 'operations
time is every thing, was disregarded, thereby
enabling the savage mutineers to plan their ope-
rations, and prosecute their unchristian deeds of
brutal infamy upon the lives of innocent women
and children, not to speak of their bloody doings
upon every English soldier who falls into their
hands.

We have seen in the columns of one of our
weekly cotemporaries a communication, which,'
certainly, merits some attention at the hands of
the Government. The letter relates to the
speediest mode.of transmitting troops from this
country to India. It will be recollected that
before the prorocation of Parliament, when
questioned as to the desirability of sending out
troops by the Overland _ Rmte, the Ministry
denied "Its practicability, on the ground .that
there was- a want of ships of adequate size to
convey the troops' from Suez to India If the
communication in .the Liverpool Courier can be
relied upon, the difficulty .tiiged by the' Gov-
ernment could have been easily overcome. As'
they are difficulties suggested by the- imagina-
tion,- inasmuch as it is a positiVe :fact that a
regiment of English soldiers cdn, without any
difficulty, be conveye4 :from Alexandria to
Cairo in seven hours. From, that ,point the
railway exteridS 'nearly fifty miles across the
desert to Suez, leaving little more than twenty-
five miles of marching. So that the entire dis-j
tance from Alexandria to Suez :could be easily
accomplished, the marching included, in about
three days. The more we come to learn of the
proceedings of the Home Government and the
autliorities at Calcutta, the more we are convinced
that there has been gross mismanagement of the
Indian war, and that much of the miseries and
murders which have taken place must be attri-
buted to official mismanagement and goveinment
routine.

The Saturday Review thinks that there is an inherent
vitality in railway undertakings which nothing but the
grossest mismanagement could have depressed to its
present feeble condition. Had a tenth part of the pru,..
denee and intelligence which are displayed in the ordinary
commercial business of the country been exhibited by the
directors of railway companies, shareholders would have
had as much reason as the travelling public to congratu-
late themselves on the resells of the bold speeulatioa
which so rapidly covered the country with its network of
rails. The tables; which show the progress of traffic -and
the amount of dividend for the last ten years, prove
beyond all question that, but for the flagrant extrava-
gance practised by every
,board in the early days of the
railway movements a ten per cent. dividend, instead of
being an unheard of thing, would have bee❑ the rule with
the majority of companies. The average cost of the lines
now in existence appears, by-Captain G repor!-, to
have been about ,435,000 per mile, while the lines which
have been opened since 1848 have been constructed at an
expense of less that., 210,030 par mile. There is no reason
to believe that the more recent lines have been freer from
engineering difficulties than' those which were thought
the most promising at the coanmencement of the great
experiment; and it seems to be fair inference, that the
two-thirds of the capital sunk by the existing companies
have been recklessly squandered, and that the average
ra'n of interest realised, iticluding that upon loans and
preference shares, as well as upon ordinarly stock, is not
more than one third of what it would have bee: if a rea_
sonable thrift had taken place of the wild prodigaLity
with which the money of railway companies has been
expended.
The Preis says—" The Conservative:party suffers even