The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONDON, TUESDAY "'"V

up, in the best manner possible, the quarrels that
have disturbed their relations with their best
friends. Let them remember that they them-
selves arc the aggressors, and that they must ne-
cessarily make submission. There is nothing dis-
honourable in the confession of error. Far worse
is a perverse and obstinate perseverance in a mis-
taken course.

The most contemptible offspring of Coalition
Legislation was, doubtless, its India Bill ; and
we were never more surprised than on readin,7, a
few weeks ago, in one of our ablest weekly con-.
temporaries, that this measure, opposed so vehe-

mently at first, was now looked back upon by the
country with such approbation, as to be justly
enumerated amongst the sources of Ministerial
strength ! The House of Commons was satisfied
that Ministers were thoroughly acquainted with
the subject ; popular opinion rapidly changed as
the discussion advanced ; the ignorant Press pays
now the penalty of bashful silence, as the just
punishment of its unjust attacks ; and Sir CHAS.
WOOD receives from all persons acquainted with
Indian matters a homage parallel with that ren-
dered to certain wooden idols in our Indian em-
p.

.e itself. Such is the pleasing fancy of one of
our journals, than which none is more competent
to deal with hard commercial facts ; possibly for
that very reason, less able to shape the creations
of its imagination, when it indulges that untried
faculty into anything like the needful resem-
blance to the realities of life. We thought
that no one doubted that the large ma-
jorities on the Indian Bill were due en-
tirely to our Legislators' weariness of a topic on
which they knew but little, and that no waking
man could imagine that either England or India
looked upon such a paltry measure for so great
an occasion with any other feeling than disgust.
We supposed that even the happy Directors who
survived self-mutilation (and their beneficiaries,
too) chuckled by themselves over their good luck
in escaping the wholesale annihilation which they
consciously merited.

If, however, one weekly journal indulges in
pleasant day-dreams, another of far higher politi-
cal pretensons awakens the dreamer a week or two
afterwards with most startling intelligence. If
Englishmen are weary of a long session, and not
least so of its worst part, East Indians are not
weary of their own business. If Sir CHARLES
WOOD really had begun to plume himself on his
measure, and to look forward to a niche of honour
in Anglo-Indian history, the most undeniably
competent judges of his bill have pronounced a
♦erdict which will make him wish that any name
but his had been on the back of his unlucky bill.
The arrival of Sir C. WOOD'S opening speech at
Calcutta was the signal for immediately convening
a great public meeting of the natives. It was
called in regular form by the High Sheriff ; it
met in the Town-hall, and was attended by 4,000
persons. The meeting was conducted wholly by
natives, the chairman and the speakers were all
natives and all Hindoos. The principal natives of
the province were present, gentlemen representing,
it is said, ten millions of property. Europeans
who were present were auditors merely. Such a
meeting as this in India must, under almost any
circumstances, make any flesh and blood Presi-
dent of the Board of Control open his eyes, and
widely too. Though there are no elections iu
India, though public meetings cannot sway elec-
toral votes, and set the Governor and his Council
on calculating their numerical strength, yet pub-
lic meetings alone cannot be despised. In con-
junction with a Free Press they will compel the
attention of even an absolute Governor and an
absolute Indian President at home.

This meeting, however, was conducted with a
measure of ability which would have affected
the councils of NICHOLAS himself. Such full
political knowledge, such consummate talent,
such thorough mastery of the English lan-
guage itself, and such oratorical power were
displayed, as must make both Sir CHARLES
WOOD and Sir JAMES HOGG tremble on their
respective thrones. It is obvious enough now,
if it was not before, that the days of exclu-
sive covenanted service are nearly ended. If the
English public can be bamboozled with the mer-
cenary fiction of an irresponsible double govern-
ment, and its institutions for English patronage at
Haileybury and Addiscombe, the Indian public
are alive to the gross injustice, and are plainly
adequate to its exposure. Not the least remark-
able circumstance about the speeches was their
absolute freedom from all claptrap, personality,
and declamation, and their thorough business-like
character, notwithstanding that the eloquence of
some of them was, in the language of a Calcutta
merchant, " astounding." The speech of RAMGO-
PAUL, says the same witness, " would have gained
breathless attention and thundering applause in
any country in Europe." What if this thoroughly-
informed man, brilliant speaker, and perfect
master of English, should come hither to instruct
British audiences ! Sir CHARLES and Sir JAMES,
we imagine, would shrink into their proper di-
mensions, and India be no longer an unin-
teresting theme. Perhaps, however, he will
act more wisely to be the COBDEN of the Anti-
Leadenhall-street League. It is perfectly certain
that an agitation under his guidance would be
conducted at once with consummate talent, and
with the best possible temper.

RAMGOPAUL, in the most dignified temper, and.
happiest manner, attacked with convincing argu-
ments almost every thing Anti-Indian in the bill,
and the arguments by which it was defended. He
showed that opening Haileybury and Addiscombe
to competition might indeed be a boon to the
English public, but that so long as they were re-
tained as the exclusive media of entering the cove-
nanted service, the hundred and fifty millions of
India would be shut out from the benefit. He
considered it impossible that any parent or guar-
dian could trust his child to the wardship of
strangers, and in an ungenial clime. He exposed
the error of excluding every native from the Le-
gislative Council, contending that no one but a
native could understand adequately the customs,
prejudices, and sentiments of the natives of the
country. To the most intelligent and observing
foreigner these would be the study of a lifetime.
BAMGOPAUL denounced as a national disgrace the

charge made in the House of Commons, on the
testimony of Mr. FIALLInIv, that the natives were
too jealous of each other's promotion to render such

promotion safe to the individual promoted. The
person of whom the allegation was made came
forward himself to deny it utterly No charge
against the natives excited more indignation than
this. The same speaker showed that " giving the
natives a high degree of education, and then slap-
ping the door of exclusion in their faces from the
higher prizes of the public service, was an anomaly
in itself, and a cruelty to them," and eloquently
exposed the tantalising effect of such a procedure.
The administration of justice was placed in the
light of truth and experience by one who lives
under it. We may say in brief, and that on the
testimony of a candid speaker who cordially wit-
nessed to the merits of individual magistrates,
that, as a system, the worst is true. The majority
of the lads, and even middle-aged magistrates, who,
without jury or permission to the parties to criti-
cise the evidence, try the cases of the more re-
spectable part of the community, are, through
youth or ignorance, incompetent for their work.
Respectable natives are tried in a style which, "if
attempted in England in a single instance, would
create a burst of indignation from one end of the
land to the other."
We think it clear that a new era is dawning on
India. Downing-street incompetency and Leaden-
hall old ladies will not long be able to maintain
their ground against the high ability and steady
agitation of their Hind.oo superiors. Indian talent
must be conciliated and employed, or India will
not long be ours.

The Earl and Countess Granville, after closing their
visit to Mr. and Lady Georgiana Fullerton, at Matcham
Park, proceeded on a visit to the Marquis of Lans-
downe, at Bowood Park, Wilts. The noble Lord Pre-
sident of the Council is expected to return to London
early in the ensuing week.
Lord and Lady Gough have arrived at Garron Tower,
on a visit to the Marquis of Londonderry.
The mansion of the Earl Ducie in Belgrave-square
has just been disposed of, Its estimated value was
14,0001.