The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-12 00:00:00

and this is by the adoption of the principle so
strongly recommended by " Her Majesty's Com-
missioners on Civil and Military Appointments
and Education," viz., "by competitive examina-
tion."
This may not prove the only criterion,
inasmuch as an admirable soldier in the field may
be a very dunce at learning ; but still it is the best,
almost the only one, that can be devised during
the piping times of peace. There may be certain
exceptions allowed, but, as a general principle,
competitive examinations should be adopted, and
the reasons for any departure therefrom accu-
rately detailed and strictly scrutinised. Under
any circumstances great benefits will be derived
from the discussion of the interesting subject,
which will, we hope, eventually lead to a
vast improvement in the military system, and
that on which its efficiency mainly depends—
promotion, by merit, not by purchase, and ample
security that every commissioned, aye, and non-
commissioned officer, shall be fully qualified for
the discharge of the duties that may devolve on
him in consequence of the position in which ho
has been placed through the favour of his
superiors.

Notwithstanding the apparently wonderful dif
ferences of opinion expressed last evening in the
House of Commons during the " Bengal. Debate"
—everybody in reality was more or less agreed
as to the gist or gravamen of the motion intro-
duced yesterday by the Hon. Gentleman the
Member for Perth. That motion intimated, in
plain terms, a fact altogether, we tike it, unde-
niable—the fact that the lower province of Ben-
gal does admit of changes being advantageously
introduced into its present system of adminis-
tration. That, in other words, the present sys-
tem of administration in that lower province of
Bengal does not secure the population the blessings
of good government. But that, on the contrary,
the bulk of that population suffers grievous oppres-
sion from the Police, and groans under the obvious
want of—Justice properly administered I Scarcely
anyone can venture seriously to deny the accuracy ,
of these melancholy statements. The Noble Lord
the Member for the City of London, who took a
prominent part in last evening's discussion, so far
from gainsaying the truth of the assertions thus
brought under the immediate consideration of
Parliament, virtually endorsed those assertions
by his own authoritative recognition of the
grievances existing in the province of
Bengal—grievances, according to Lord JOHN,
requiring immediate correction. The fact that
it is so, we repeat, is altogether unde-
niable. Many of those grievances are noto-
rious. Bengal has not the advantages of good
government. The Police do occasionally subject
the mass of the people to grievous oppression.
The " administration of justice" (so called)
among the unfortunate Bengalese is an odious
caricature of the'phrase thus applied to it. The
Ryots in that lower province of Bengal are for
the most part continually ground under the heel
of the domineering Zemindars. Those Zemindars
have their own courts, their own prisons, and
it is believed, and we conceive not erroneously
believed, their own system of tortures likewise—
courts, prisons, tortures, applied by them with
devilish ingenuity for the extortion of fresh
taxes from the wretched Ryots under their domi-
nation. The latter being as utterly without a
chance of redress, as they are obviously without

protection.
Nevertheless, while everybody, or nearly every-
body who took part in last evening's debate in
the House of Commons, admitted, with scarcely
a show of even momentary hesitation, the general
veracity of the accotint given by the hon. member
for Perth, at the commeucement of the discussion
—the " previous question " was moved (and
therefore, of course, the particular motion of Mr.
KINNA.IRD virtually rejected) by 119 opposed to
18, or, in other words, by a clear majority of 101
in a House of 137. Why this discrepancy ? Not
because the House, for an instant, denied the
fact, that Bengal, as at present governed, is mis
governed. Not that the majority refused to open
their eyes to the truth that the Ryots are atroci-
ously domineered over by the Zemindars. No-
thing of the kind. Even the Right non. Gen-
tleman, the President of the Board of Control ad-
mitted the reasonableness of the statements advanced
by the member for Perth—when announcing on the
part of his colleagues that measures are in contempla-
tion to improve the administration of justice (in
Bengal), and to render the police system (in
Bengal) more effective. The deduction from
which candid acknowledgment is, of course, suffi-
ciently obvious at a glance. For why contem-
plate measures to improve, supposing there were
no cause for those measures, and no room for that
improvement ? Subsequently one of the mag-
nates of Leadenhall-street, took occasion, late
in the discussion, to assure the House
that no effort on the part of the East
India Company should be wanting to give to India
the beat administration of justice and the best
system of police that could be wished by the truest
friends of the population. Observe the words we
have italicised—" to give"—a distinct admission
that these boons are not already in the possession
of the Bengalese. The fact—again and again we
repeat it, we cannot tire of repeating it—is unde-
niable. It is historical. It is admitted on all hands.
It was admitted yesterday successively by Mr.
VERNON SMITH, speaking for the Government—
by Lord J. RUSSELL, speaking for the great mass
of Liberals in the Lower. Branch of the Legisla-
ture—by Mr. MANGLES, speaking on behalf of
the East India Directory ! We reiterate the
assertion—it is incontrovertible. Yet the motion,
or rather the resolutions of the Honourable Mem-
ber for Perth " fell through" yesterday, in spite
of all this unanimity! And, why ? Simply be-
cause Mr. KINNAIRD'S resolutions were founded
upon the petition of certain humane Missionaries !
Rejected, however, though those resolutions were
thus inconsistently last evening, they have been
so far effectual : that—they have ventilated the
whole question in the Legislature, while they have
extorted promises of amendment at once from the
East India Directory, and from Her MAJESTY'S

Government.
. •
How difficult is the task of improvement now to
be undertaken by the united agency of the Board
of Directors and of the Councils of the Imperial
Government—those may best appreciate, who will
scrutinise for a while this strange race of the Ben-
galese, as seen in the stereoscopic glimpse of them
afforded by the vigilant genius of Mr. MAOAULAY.
Thus has our great Historian written in that
Essay of his upon " Warren Hastings," which we
are still disposed to regard as his masterpiece :
"The physical organisation of the Bengalee is feeble
even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapour bath.
His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his move-
ments languid. During many years he has been tram-
pled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds.
Courage, independence, veracity, are qualities to which
his constitution and his situation are equally unfavour-
able. His mind bears, a singular analogy to his body.
It is weak even to helplessness for purposes of manly
resistance ,• but its suppleness and its tact move the
children of sterner climates to admiration not unmingled
with c)ntempt. All those arts which are the natural
defence of the weak are more familiar to this subtle race
than to the lonian of the time of Jtivenal, or to the Jew
of the dark ages. What the horns are to the buffalo,
what the paws are to the tiger, whit the sting is to the
bee, what beauty, according to the Greek song, is to
woman, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises,
smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial false-
.