The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—There is, no doubt, much in the present
state of Greece exceedingly unsatisfactory to her-
self as well as to her friends and wellwisbers. The
country has by no means recovered from the
paroxysm of revolution which so fiercely agitated
it two years ago. The evil times which it has gone
through have left their miserable legacy in the
shape of innumerable factions and inextinguishable
discontents. The work of reconstruction has hardly
commenced, and before anything can be done the
whole edifice has fairly crumbled about the ears of
the nation. King Otho with hia heavy system of
repression, Qu:Tn Amelia with her restless and un-
tiring industry, are gone, and their places filled by
a Sovereign of another and a hostile race. An in-
credible number of Administrations have succeeded
each other. The army is more formidable to the capital
than the rebels or brigands, and the provinces are
sinking into an almost hopeless anarchy. We bear
of violent crimes at the very gates of Athens, and we
hear nothing of any serious effort to develops the
resources of the country or to put the finances on
a sound footing. Added to all these causes of con-
fusion there is the acquisition of the lonian Islands
and the necessity of amalgamating this extraneous
substance into a body possessing itself scarcely any
valid organisation. Nothing seems really active
but the Assembly, and that, as usual in such cases,
is quite taken up with the discussion of the funda-
mental law on which the Constitution is to be based.
Things seem pretty much in the state into which
they fell under the Government of Capo d'lstria.
No one who knows the past history of Greece, the
real and urgent difficulties with which she has to
struggle, and the exceedingly defective appliances
of all kinds with which that struggle has to be con-
ducted, will be surprised at this state of affairs. The
five-and-thirty years which have succeeded the
emancipation of the country from the Turkish rule
have been worse than wasted, and the whole work
of reconstruction has to be begun over again with-
out the- ardour, without the enthusiasm, without
tho great revolutionary names whose influence
seemed to make almost anything possible. It was
the practice of King Otho to employ in succession
all the public men and all the parties in the country;
it was a maxim of his Government never to employ
any one without as far as lay in his power degrad-
ing him in the eyes of his fellow-citizens, exacting
from him some concession, or engaging him in some
act justly obnoxious to public censure. Here is a
collection of difficulties sufficient to arouse the sym-
pathy and to command the forbearance of every
foreign country. Every allowance ought to be
made for an Oriental race struggling with means
so inadequate against such an overwhelming mass
of obstruction and anarchy yet we are informed
that Lord Russell has addressed a Note to the
Greek Cabinet, declaring that Engiand recognises no
factions in Greece and condemns anarchical demon-
strations. The Note further states that, in case of
necessity, England will, in conjunction with France
and Russia, take measures for the maintenance
of order and the strengthening of the reigning
dynasty. We have only a summary of the despatch
before us, but we confess that, so far as we are able
to judge, we view the appearance of such a docu-
ment with regret. We do not doubt that there are
factions in Greece, just as we know there are factions
in Ireland; and we admit, without difficulty, that
it is not the duty of the English Government to re-
cognise any faction whatever. We are not aware
that we have ever done so; but we must, on the
other hand, say that no expectation could be more
chimerical or absurd than the hope that Greece
could settle down under its new Government with-
out a long period of faction and discord. Faction
is but another name for party. We at least have
found it impossible to preserve freedom without the

nstrumentality of party, and party must necessarily
have more weight and influence in proportion as
freedom is newer and Government less firmly este.
blished. We therefore see no reason for speaking
with such extreme impatience and indignation of
the manifestations of party spirit with which Greece
abounds. The only question is, what is the best
way to put an end to this state of things P On this
point we fear we are entirely at issue with Lord
Russell. If we are to believe the reports which
have reached us, he seems to think that the best
course is to put down the factious leaders by armed
force, and to strengthen the existing Government by
foreign intervention. No one, we suppose, doubts
the power of England, France, Russia, or any one
of them, to put down by main force any Greek
faction it pleases, but is it quite clear that such
a proceeding is the best way to secure the end
proposed ? The King of Greece cannot always be
supported like the Pope by foreign troops, and the
withdrawal of those troops is sure to be the signal
for the starting into existence of innumerable fee„
tions. Aro we prepared to make our intervention
permanent or intermittent, ceasicg for a while, and
then recurring again as often as the necessity for it
arises ? No country can be permanently governed,
no society can be solidly established on such princi-
plea. The time must come at last when it must be
left to work out its own purification by its own in-
ternal fermentation, and when the only possibility
of peace will be in the victory of one faction over
another. The gift of liberty is but a mockery if it
is to be attendeti by perpetual interference whenever
it is not exercised to the satisfaction of those who
gave it. We might as well abolish it at once as de-
stroy it under the pressure of repeated interventions.
There is still another objection in this despatch
which will not fail to suggest itself to the minds of
our readers. The one result that was obtained by
the great debate of last summer was believed to be
that henceforth our Government will be less prop•
digal of their advice and interference in the affairs
of foreign countries. The feeling of Parliament was
unmistakably strong against armed intervention,
and still stronger against despatches which, if not
complied with by those to whom they were addressed
seemed to require armed intervention as their neces-
sary complement. We heard abundance of protests
against barking without biting, not because we
wanted to bite, but because we did not wish that
our wateh-dogs should continually Lark. The nee
tional feeling was humiliated not because we did
not assist the Danes, but because we adopted a tone
which seemed to place us on the very verge of dis-
honour if we did not come forward to assist them.
We are now in the month of October, a period
justly dreaded by the friends of peace and order as
the one which is usually selected for demonstrations
of extraordinary Ministerial vigour. We regret that
the precedent is allowed to become inveterate. We
certainly are on the safe side in this instance; we
have got France and Russia with us, and nothing
but some anarchical factions of poor little Greece
against us. There is no fear that we shall be treated
as we were at Berlin and Vienna. But while the
victory of one faction over the other, obtained by
internal means, may leave no element of discord
behind it, a victory by external force must ulti-
mately weaken the King's Government, and give
its enemies the opportunity of representing it as
supported by foreign bayonets against the will of
the nation. Such despatches as the one we have
been considering must necessarily have the effect
of exciting the feelings .of every Greek patriot
against us, and doing that injury to our moral in-
fluence which it never fails to sustain when it
appeals to force instead of reason.

POST.—Few persons are better qualified to speak
on the subject of Indian finance than Mr Laing, for
although his residence in India during the period
when its exchequer was entrusted to his keeping
was brief, it was certainly during that time that the
majority of those reforms were effected which have
contributed so much to the present commercial
prosperity of our Eastern Empire. One is, there.
fore, inclined to overlook the egotism which more
than once betrayed itself in the course of an address
recently delivered by him at Kirkwall, in considerao
tion of the unquestionable services which he has
rendered to the State. The transition from the rule
of a trading company to that of the Imperial Go.
vernment could not be effected in India without the
change being severely felt; and the condition in
which India found herself at the time when that
change was rendered indispensable did not tend to
diminish the effects of the shock. Mr. Laing, no
doubt, correctly describes the mutiny as having pro-
duced all the results of a revolution, and it unques-
tionably prepared the native population to transfer
their allegiance to a Government which in so
striking a manner had demonstrated its ability to
maintain supreme control within its dominions. The
territories of the East India Company had increased
to such an extent that it was impossible for it to
hope to retain in subjection the various races with
which they were peopled without the establishment
of a despotism which, nevertheless, it wanted the
power to make irresistible. The rule of the company
may be said to have culminated in the viceroyalty
of the Marquis of Dalhousie' but, notwithstanding
no one possessed in a higher degree all the qualities
necessary to fit him for the arduous and almost irre-

sponsible position which he filled than that states-
man, the measures which he adopted precipitated
the catastrophe which has completely revolutionised
the Indian Empire. The rule of the Marquis of
Dalhousie was, as Mr. Laing states, a splendid
despotism, but at the same time was rotten to the

core. That rottenness became apparent as soon as
the Governor-General had left the Indian shores ;
and then, after a crisis which threatened the very
existence of the British supremacy in Hindostan,
new era opened, which, if judged by the favour-
able auspices under which it has commenced, pro-
mises a future for India which might well be envied
by the most favoured, countries on the face of the

_ -
• globe. The wr-:s in whi:2ll the East India Govern"
'neat was engaged during the latter years of its
existence, coupled with the mutiny which marked
the termination of its career, not merely drainL
the Indian exchequer, bur seriously encumbered 'no
national finances and lessened the credit of the Go'
vernnient. So deeply involved, indeed,had the late.
ter become, and so insecure was the condition
.0!
Al
Indian finance, that the first care of the linp
e
Government was to effect, if possible, such reforms
as would at least enable India to emerge from her
:state of chronic indebtedness. To Mr. Wilson was
entrusted this difficult task, and in endeavouring to
accomplish it he sacrificed his life. Mr. Laing B,u.cs,
seeded him ; and although he pursued a policy al.L_
ferent from that of his predecessor, it would niot
unjust to the memory of the former not to adroit
that his labours lightened, in no inconsiderable
degree, the duty which the latter was called 11Prin.:
to discharge. When Mr. Laing landed in i 5,11,0
ho tells us ho found a dfficit of X 6,000,000,
new taxes unproductive and unpopular, the credit
of the Government so low as to be unable to ell
mend a loan even at six per cent., and the na:t
balances in the Treasury at the lowest Point
which it was possible that the government of tee
country could be conducted. In this
affairs he addressed himself to the work of refodrr.
by making a sweeping reduction in the elEllef ut
ture. The annual outlay was at this time allot
£28,000,000, and this was diminished forthwith r
the extent of .L 5,000,000, and in the following Yenaf
it was reduced by an additional £2,000,000.
these sums, about £4,000,000 were saved by reduce
tions in the military and naval establishments, a-nth
the remainder by pursuing a similar course
position
_L
respect to the civil service departments. At the
time remissions were effected in taxation ; the out
lay on public works was increased, notwithatan.
ing which, owing to the buoyancy of the revenue
deficits of previous years became converted into ss
surplus. It is gratifying to know that the sunnheat
obtained by Mr. Laing was not transient, and ,t,";„b
the prosecution of the same economical system vipiis
he contributed so much to establish has since so
departure from India been followed by the same
good results. The great secret of financial anti-0
in India seems to be to bestow with no grudg—a°;
hand all that is required for the development of t"s
material resources of the empire. Mr Laing2Pts
been all his life a man of business, and the "" f
which his recent address contained on the subject ot
remuneration to the servants of the Governnlen
merit the closest attention. "Real economy is narkgether inconsistent with cheeseparing. To do Ora
cheaply you must do it with the smallest number t
the best possible hands. To get this you must
only pay men well, but you must treat them ILL'i,";
rally, and make them zealous and hearty 5131-,0
service." Mr Laing is a practical economist, and
can point to the results of the system he has per',,
s
sued ; and we would therefore recommend the cot i
sels which he gives' to the serious consideration 0
those gentlemen who, in the House of Common" ,-130
constantly manifest the interest which they to`e
the taxpayer by proposing to deck the salaries of
public servants. Everyone knows that if they wen:,
work well done it must be well paid for, ancl:ra
Government are the last in the world who can a'-`"t
to ignore this important fact. "To a Governlye.i,
like that of India," says Mr Laing, "is worth a relto
lion a-year—as a mere question of money, notely
speak of higher considerations—that its whole boo
of servants, civil and military, should feel that tof
State is a generous master, whom it is a poin'e
then
honour to servo faithfully." Mr Laing Was
fore careful, notwithstanding the great temptation
to reduce the apparently large salaries of the India,
public servants, to leave them comparatively n-40
touched. Retrenchment is not always synonYnS
with economy. The maintenance of the vast
ministrative system which is needed for the geTe.„-
meat of India must elways cost what to Europes-ti
may appear an extravagantly large sum ; but vihfea,
it is borne in mind how much depends on the e to
ciency of that administration, few will hesitate to
admit that if the paymasters err at all it should
on the side of generosity.