The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-05 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOV. 5, 1857.

The honours yesterday conferred on the Duke
of CAMBRIDGE by the Corporation of the City of
London, were not the mere common-place compli-
ments so frequently bestowed by municipalities on
men of high rank and station. They had been
well and nobly earned, not only by the gallant
exploits of His Royal Highness on the tented
field, where he fully participated in the perils and
dangers of the sanguinary strife, and as freely ex-
posed himself as any private soldier under his
command, but also by the anxious desire to effeot
useful reforms in the military department, over
which he now so worthily presides. It was a
tribute of esteein and respect to the Royal Duke, and,
in his person, to the entire army under his control
and direction. He justly regarded it in this point
of view, and felt doubly gratified in consequence ;
and the public will not the less highly estimate
his deserts, because helmodestly professed to have
only discharged his duty, and to bestow the
-honours on those by whom, irrespective of rank
or influence, he was elevated to so high a position
in the hearts of his fellow-citizens that his ap-
pointment to the highest military rank was hailed
with universal satisfaction.

The Civic authorities made a happy selection in
Sir Joan KEY to act as their orator on the jute.
resting occasion. He spoke well and clearly,
while pointing out how nobly the Duke had
earned the gift of a soldier's weapon, and how
phasing it must be to a man, even of his exalted
Tank, to find his name inscribed on the same roll
with those of CHATHAM and of PITT, of NELSON
and of WELLINGTON. It was bestowed on him
not merely as a Prince of the blood, but
as a valuable publiU servant, as " the humblest
soldier's friend,;a3 one who had shared the dangers
of the campaign in the Crimea, cheering his men
On the victorious heights of Alma, and in the
thick of the murderous fire at Inkerman, with
more than half of his noble Guards lying dead or
oanded around him, and his gallant steed, struck
by the bullet aimed at its rider. There was, in
addition to these claims, the active, vigilant, pains-
taking interest, in other institutions which have
made the British nation as prominent for moral
achievements, as she is unrivalled for the glory o f
her arms. He was honoured alike as the Bel!
diet and the philanthropist, the defender of our
liberties and the benefactor of our homes." jai,
Royal Highness responded in a similar spirit.
He spoke in a straightforward, manly tone, both
at the meeting, and at the banquet that followed,
and added to the high estimation in which be
had previously been held. He also alluded to the
Indian Rebellion, and repeated the sentiments
Which he bad previously urged at Sheffield, and
for which he received such weV-rnerited eulogy.

There was another speaker who did not carry
with him the feeling of his audience. Lard GRAN-
var.; in returning thanks for the toa3t of her
MAJESTY'S Ministers, entered on an elabo-

rate vindication of Lord CANNING, a vindication
which was listened to with ill-disguised im-
patience by the assembled party. His text
was " fair play." He demanded that we should
hear before we condemn, and strove to remove
some of the impressions prejudicial to the Go-
vernor-General. This is all very well for a per-
son in a private position, but where the destinies
of India are placed in the hands of an individual,
it is not sufficient that his inefficiency should be
clearly established. He should be beyond sus-
picion—capable of turning passing events to the
best account, and of co-operating with the mili-
tary authorities, on whom the burden must mainly
rest. But in place of so doing, there is a vexa-
tious system of interference—a:strict attention to
routine and red-tapism—the proclamation cast-
ing censure on the military authorities, and
breathing a maudlin philanthropy towards rebels,
could not be explained away. Mr. J. P. GRANT
might have been sent merely as locum tencns for
the Governor of the North-Western Provinces,
who, being confined in the fort of Agra, was
unable to discharge his duties. But this view of
the case has never before been presented to the
public, nor is it borne out by the conduct of
Mr. GRANT. The pardon of 150 rebels at
Cawnpore—the spot desecrated by the murder
and violation of our countrywomen and their
helpless children—stamped a character on the
proceeding which all the eloquence and astuteness
of Earl GRANVILLE cannot get rid of.

We are glad to learn, on competent authority,
that the rumours of estrangement and differences
between the Governor-General and the Commander-
in-Chief are without adequate foundation. But
there are other matters that cannot be contra-
dicted. It is palpable that Lord CANNING,
although an amiable man, who might make a re-
spectable. Governor on ordinary occasions, is not
qualified to meet the present emergency. The
universal feeling of all the non-official English in-
habitants of Calcutta sufficiently indicates his de-
ficiencies ; and really we cannot afford to wait
until India is lost to the British nation, and
this, one of the brightest gems, is abstracted
from the Imperial diadem, to decide whether Lord
CANNING has merited all the censure which, justly
or unjustly, has been cast upon him. As a private
individual he would have an unquestionable right
to demand that public opinion should remain
suspended until he had an opportunity of being '
heard in his own defence ; but, as Governor-
General, occupying the most arduous and im-
portant
position in the gift of the Crown, at the
present moment, the case is very different. We
want the right man in the right place, and suffi-
cient has transpired to prove beyond the prc-
bability of doubt that Lord CANNING is not
that man. There have been sufficient indiscre-
tions to warrant his recal a dozen times over,
and, if Ministers and Directors neglect to adopt
that obvious course, they will have to answer for
all his future mistakes and shortcomings. Tiiele
are matters that must, for the time being, rest
with the Cabinet, but they may be assured that
they will have to render a stringent account for
themselves, as well as for Lord CANNING.
We fully concur in what fell from the noble
Earl in reference to Lords ELGIN and ELrHIN-
STONE. They have deserved the thanks ana
gratitude of their country. But surely their
zeal and activity contrasts strongly with the
apathy, indifference, and red-hpism of Lord
CANNING, and places his conduct in the worst
light. Lord GBANVILLE did what he could for
his friend, but we deeply regret the palpable bias,
respecting a matter on which he may be called
to pronounce a judgment in a few days. Certain
it is that he did not carry with him his auditors
or the community at large, in the defence which
he put forward on behalf of Lord CANNING.

The Massacre at Vellore in 1808 was but the
faint prototype, fifty years previously, of this
recent and more hideous Massacre at Cawnpore.
During the half century that elapsed between
those two frightful occurrences, however, the posi-
sion of the Bengal Sepoy had been wonderfully
advanced. So that in direct proportion to the
improvement of his social status has been the
height of his atrocity and the depth of his ingra-
titude. In testimony of this, for example, it
should be remembered that the pay of the infantry
Sepoy, amounting to some seven rupees, otherwise
fourteen shillings per month—surpassing in value
the wages of our agricultural labourers—ensured
to him at the same time a pension after a certain
number of years had elapsed, at a period of life
when he might be considered to be (for military
purposes) superannuated. This apparently mode-
rate pay, moreover, was in truth—taking into
account the average rate of wages and the ordinary
price of provisions in Hindostan—ample in itself ;
and its receipt, as a matter of course, was marked
by the utmost possible punctuality. Neverthe-
less, with a knowledge that their present income
would cease and their future pension be rendered
impossible when once they should have perversely
thrown off the yoke of our protective Govern-
ment, the Bengal Sepoys—with such a stake in
their allegiance—revolted, as we have seen, from
British rule, and revolted, too, beyond the possi-
bility of redemption. Signalising their mutiny
by crimes of such flagrant and heinous atrocity
as to preclude them altogether from the chance of
quarter or from the hope of reconciliation.

Notwithstanding the almost simultaneous out-
break of 100,000 armed and disciplined soldiers
—scattered over such wide territories—and evi-
dencing something very like concert in the mere
time and manner of their rebellious rising—no
one has yet succeeded anywhere in discovering
the faintest clue to anything at all bearing the
semblance of a conspiracy. This is at once one
of the most remarkable and one of the most
undeniable characteristics of the late extraordinary
movement in. the Bengal Presidency. Never, per-
haps, was there a more curiously appropriate illustra-
tion of that happy phrase of the First Consul, about
the pear being ripe ! The pear was, in very truth,
ripe all over those ill-fated provinces. The mere
breath of a rumour was enough to shake the fruit
down at once in all directions. It so happened,
moreover, that the rumour in question, though
to all appearance ridiculously frivolous in itself,
affected, in a peculiar manner, the fiercer preju-
dices of the two great divisions of the Indian
population. The seemingly trivial report that
the new cartridges were saturated with animal
grease, bore directly upon the veneration with
which ono animal (the cow) was regarded by the
Hindu°, and upon the abhorrence with which
another animal (the pig) was regarded by tLe
Mussulman. It was conceived by the latter that
their pollution, and by the former that their
degradation was intended through the imputed
lubrication of the cartridge on the one hand with
the fat of swine,
and on the other with the fat
of oxen. The preposterous scandal got bruited
abroad ; and, one after another,
,the native regi-
ments revolted.