The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

.4'Y 24, 1858.

THE EASE INDIA COMPANY.

(From the Daily News.) "
The deed is done ! One of the great Powers of
the civilised world is extinguished. Another chap-
ter of human history (and one of the most romantic
in the' whole record) is closed. The great ruler,
John Coompanea; whose mere name and shadow
were a spell on the imagination of a hundred
millions of men for long generations, is depos4d.
It is always mournful to watch the departure 'or
exlinction of anything really venerable. Brilliant
as Florence was when the Medici resented as 'an
impertinence the last act of republican .citstom,
that tread which put out the last spark of popular
freedom still echoes through history. Proud tqid
happy as the American colonists were at the achieve-
ment of their independence, there were many v9to
gazed through tears at the last ship which carried
a royalist freight, as it put off from the shore.
Haughtily as the martial Spaniards drove the MoOrs
before them into the Mediterranean, punishing all ,
who lagged in the final flight, the high-hearted
among those Christian knights could hardly have
paced the halls of Saracenic palaces, and climbed
the pinnacles of the empty mosques, with-out sotne
sadness and some tenderness for the departpd
people, so brave in their first intrusion, and eo_
learned and accomplished in the midst of their
heresy and bigotry. From the poor Indian rem-
nant on the Missouri, who close up the burial
mound of their last chief, and take down their last
wigwam, and turn their backs on tl:e period when
they were a tribe, to the train of Zenobia following
their captive queen as she issued from the gates of
Palmyra into the clued, before the eyes of a pity-
ing foe, there is no human heart which can help
suffering when human pride and greatness succumb
to the, ultimate destiny of all.
•
So fails, so languishes, grows dim and dies
All that this world is proud of.- From their spheme
The stars of human glory are cast down :
Perish the roses and the flowers of kings,
Princes and emperors, and the crowns and p lms
Of all the mighty, withered and consumed !

And not only does the old imperial and kingly
grandeur of the world's youth thus perish, but, as
the poet goes on to say, the more modern forms
and forces of social rule.
-

1,307

364
3,041

28,217

5,478
3,581
1,367
8,010
22,111
6,71 z
33'587

224
6,895
27,662

69,116
1,793
16,991
19,854
72

11,238
797

1,107
32,853

3 331

1,473
3,653
5,748
8,117
i 9
2,887
1,C,29
3,228

2,1331
22.586
7.333

1,381

3,982

37,635

36,332

34,774

ee
Degrees and ranks,
• Fraternities and orders—heaping bigh
New wealth upon the burden of the old,
" And placing trust in privilege confirmed
And re confirmed.
For these, too, is Nature always prop firing a
shroud, and their splendid trappings must be ex-
chartged sooner or later for the covering of common
verdure which finally enwraps all that have lived,
and ail their monuments. We are now at the
death-stroke of one of the ablest Governments on
record. Its monuments will outlive it long, and
we must make the most of them, seeing that their
uature ie that of the highest order of monuments—
the good works which follow the dead, first to
praise them, and then to lapse with them into ob-
livion. Without attempting to measure the mag
nitude of such monuments in other ca-Aes of illus-
trious rule and in this, we may safely say that to-
thing reeemblng the success of the Company's go-
vernment has been seen elsewhere than in cur em-
pire o f India. •
Its imposing greatness appeals now the least
affecting part of it. There is no need to commend
to English hearts the valour manifest,d on all oc-
casions Of need by individuals, from C ive to Have-
lock, and by the Government, from is defiance of
Hyder -Ali to its mastery over its mutinous Bengal
army.
_We need not point oat to English eyes the
splendour of the whole panorama of Iridiau his-
tory, from the sailing of the first fleet into Got, and
the gorgeous embassies to the foreign courts of Ada,
to the final spread of railways, roads, canals, tele
graPh•wires,•eolleges, viii ego schools, and civilisa-
tion in &lite forms. There can be no used to rause
the sensibility of -British • men te the dig ,ity of
such a hierarchy, and such a succession of
ability as has been built up and drawn out
wiehin the dominions of the Compaely, from the
first tour when it found werk for its hind to do,
to the present, when its knell is struck. Not
only Englishmen, but all other men who care about
the'cleings of their race, are aware of the magnifi-
eent feature aof our Indian rule, as shown in war,
in wealth, in power, and in genius. No one of the
vast Multitude of observers will say that in any
one century of human history there has bent else-
where such a display of remarkable men, of work
done, and of empire .censolidated, as between the
battle of Plassy, and the victories of Havelock. But
theseekinds, and all other kinds of greatness, will
grow dim horeafter in comparison with th it which
constitutes the special glory of our Indian rule ;
its being planned and carried out for the benefit of
In tie, and more' and more ,xpross'y so from period
to.period of iti histcry. It is here that we feel the
most misgiving and the saddest regret. As we
never saw before, we must naturally ale whether
we shall ever see again, a great empire ruled, not
only by a superior race for the benefit of au infe-
rior, but a Government planned and carried out at
all, expressly for the good of the many.
It may be true,' and it is true, that the empire of
the CoMpany arose by ambition and cupidity, by
encr,:achmeat and' force of arms. It is true that
there have been self-seekers in the councils, and
tyrants in the palaces of India. It is true that the
spirit of monopoly was extended from the Com-
pany's trade to other departmen`.s of its activity
and authority: It is true that its annals would
have been fairer in the- readiog if .-there had been
fewer wars, and that we should have been prouder
of its territory if it had been smaller. It is tree that
it bad latterly become better
,acquainted with
the•native mind, ani that improvements in its civil
administration we:e at least balanced by deteriora-
tion is its military organisation and management.
But; admitting all this 'and more, the fact remains
that the Company has exercised the most bene-
ficent rule over exhibited for an equal length
of time ; and that it not only released the native
population from the penalties of barbaric rule,
but governed them fur their own welfare, be-
stowing on the study 'Of that welfare an amount
of toil, solicitude, :generosity, and magnani-
moue devotedness more appropriate to an ideal re-
publinthan.to the transactions of a despotic, corpo-
ration. There must .be a world of painful doubt in
the question—the great and ominous qUestion of the
moments-whether this aim is still to be upheld—
whether this lofty temper is will to animate the
counsels and 'inspire the acts of future Indian Go-
vernments. At present we have no great reason for
confidence, and verystronggrnuodfor apprehension.
airing the most tremfatelous crisis of Indian his-
tory, we have Seen Parliament exhibiting every
possible evidence of incapacity, levity, caprice, and
sceptic'sm, of that worst kind which grows out of
selfishness in the soil of ignorant a We who are
outside may see- something of the lowering dark-
ness of which btir legislators seem to be almost•in-
sensible. We see no means taken to replace the
native army which has become our worst foe. We
see no prospect of either pacification or the end of
the war, or of zufficient means of finishing the war
being provided.
But we will say no more of what we see or do not
see in the future. The past is enough to engross us
at this moment'. There, far off, we disc: rn the
old English power touching that mysterious siore,
and daring to penetrate among the barbaric shows
and perils of its interior. We see it assuming its
corporate form, repairing to the dazzling courts of
Oriental Princes, busy in the bazaars and in the
battle-field, leseieged in forts, or 'noun ing the
judgment seat, or protecting thrones, or keeping
the peace between hostile Sovereigus. We see it
setting loOnie and the plough to work over areas as
large as 'European kingdoms, and calling home
in-
Its
fleets from all seas. We see it making laws,
dulging religions while suppressing superstition?,
developing intelligence, extirpating fanatical climes
pand bringing to bear on the welfare of a undred
millions of people this noblest ab lity
I and most
strenuous zeal that liberality of views and of purse
ever brought into action.
We have seen its will overpowered by circum-
stances, and its opulence swallowed up by casual,y ;
we have seen its merchants withdrawn from the
markets and its fleets from the sea ; we have seen
the concentrated earnestness with which it devoted
itself to its remaining fano! ions of territorial govern-
meat, and have marked t'us increase of good works
by which every year has been dist:nguished. All
the while we were aware, more or less distinctly, of
its coming change. Where its early armies hid
gone out • f sight, there its caravans of wealth had
followed. Its warehouses and its fleets had vanished
next. Some time since its councils and magistracy,
its host of civil functionaries, its armies, its sage,
at home and its hero in the fle!d, turned their
faces in the way that the rest had gone; knowing
that the word would come for them to march. 'I he
storm of r,belliOn and the panic of popular igno
ranee have precipitated the order ; and the s one
has c'osed before any due preparation has been
made for the opening of another. We have all
hoped to the last that the departure would have
been delayed till a safer moment ; but the petty
interests of party have come upper most in the con-