Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-12 00:00:00

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ON INDIA,

MR. BAXTER AT ARBROATH.

The first question which will naturally be asked when
Parliament re-asembles is, was no warning given of what
has taken place ? Among the numerous gifted civil and
military servants of the company, was there none far-
seeing enough to predict the gathering storm? I will not
say, with Mr. Disraeli, that the councillors of the
Governor-General have, by their "conceit and arrogance,
endangered the Indian empire," but I am prepared to
join those who will ask them the following questions :
Did Lord Metcalf, referring to the condition of the Bengal
army, say, " 1 fear we shall awake some fine morning
and find that her Majesty has lost India ? Were native
newspapers, containing notices of whispered disaffection,
laid before council iu December, 1856 ? Did the late
lamented General Anson never cease to represent to the
directors the danger to be apprehended from the Sepoys ?
Did Lord Metcalf; when he returned home in 1850 (I quote
his own words in the House of Lords), express the
greatest disapprobation of the condition of the Bengal
troops, and was he told not to publish his sentiments lest
foreign nations should be acquainted with the state of
affairs ? Is Sir Charles Napier correct in stating that in
1849 a mutinous spirit prevaded some 30 sepoy battalions
in march for, or actually employed in, the Punjaub ? Did
not he, in a work published in 1833, say—" Mutiny with
the Sepoys is the most formidable danger menacing our
Indian empire—a danger that may come unexpectedly,
and if the first symptoms be not carefully watched, with a
power to shake Lnadenhall-street 7" Did the Bengal sepoys
mutiny in Scinde? In 1849 was the same spirit rampant
in Delhi? Were twenty regiments then discovered to to
infected ? Did Sir Charles Napier state on his arrival iu
India to assume the chief command that he found the
seeds of mutiny sown in a large proportion of the native
army ? These are questions not to be hastily answered,
as they contain serious charges. Parliament, after all
the causes of this fearful outbreak have been investigated,
and the real culprits exposed, will be called on to
provide for the reorganisation of the native infantry—for
it is utterly imrossible to hold India with British troops
alone; to consider the requisite augmentation of the
European force.; and (regarding as well the danger to the
apprehended from internal cotmnotions as that likely to
arise from hostility on the part of the NI ahratta States
of Ave, of Affghanism, and Nepaul) to make arrange-
ments for the defence of the empire. But the great que-
.

nen will be the continued existence of the East India
Company—whether that mercantile oligarchy should be
held as scarcely responsible for any of the evils admitted
to exist, and therefore permitte l to continue its infl lence
or policy ; or whether, in consideration of the growing
feeling even in Calcutta itself, as indicated by the unani-
mously passed resolution of a public meeting, and the
wide spread sentiment at home, it should be condemned
as effete aad inefficient, and India be brought into more
immediate connection with the British Crown.