The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LOND7ON'

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA.

(From the Daily News.)
We are not unprepared to find some dissentients
from the judgment we were among the first pub-
licly to express, respecting the administrative incom-
petence of Lord Canning. Opinion in this country
is habitually slow to believe that a man deliberately
selected to fill an eminent station, and who is known
to have sought the trust confided to him, is after all
an utter failure, that neither he himself nor those
who appointed him could have ever had any ade-
quate reason to expect the contrary, and that, con-
sequently, his original nomination was no better
than a solemn and dignified job. But public opinion,
when once awakened to the suspicion that it has
been duped by names of popular sound, and pre-
tensions resting upon gravity and circumspection of
personal deportment, is apt to quicken its pace, and
to make up by the decision and energy of its tone
for the drowsy and good-natured credulity in which
it finds out that it was caught napping. A marvel-
lous change has rapidly come over the minds of men
within the last few weeks, and even within the last
few days, respecting Lord Canning. At the com-
mencement of the Indian revolt there was a preva-
lent indisposition to suppose that the conduct of the
Executive Government at Calcutta was as inefficient
as it looked. Full of anxiety and misgiving though
they were, people would not be persuaded that they
knew all that was done or doing to retrieve early
disasters and to prevent others. As in the case of
the Crimean expedition, the boldest critics held
their breath for a time. Some explanation of appa-
rent irresolution would turn up, some well-planned
measure of circumvention or suppression would be
developed, and then the world would see how much
of self-possession and of statesmanship was really
concealed under the seeming un-preparedness of
the Governor-General. But as the bloody scroll of
time was unrolled the eye sought in vain for the
resources or the reasons it had a right to expect.
Gradually the miserable conviction forced itself
upon all, that the plan and purpose, reason and re-
course were wholly wanting ; and that for all that
the noble viscount had done, was doing, or evinced
the capacity to do, victory in India there might as
well he rlonee Amid a tempest of alarms, perplexi-
ties, and dangers, Lord Canning appears to have
occupied the conspicuous and central post, around
which a perfect anarchy of suggestions, counsels,
schemes, and projects of every varied hue of vigour
an p concession eddied tumultuously. Ascendancy
of will, of knowledge, or of genius the Governor-
General manifested none : and this deplorable and
unpardonable want constitutes the head and front
of his offending.
We havecalled the want unpardonable not unad-
visedly; and upon calm reflection we think all just
and thoughtful men will so regard it. The Govern-
ment ofgreat empires cannot afford to pardon flagrant
incapacity in high office. No man in our day has ad-
ministrativegreatness thrust upon him. No English
peer is liable to serve as governor of a distant de-
pendency, and to take upon himself the charge of
its remote and onerous affairs, contrary to his own
free will. Nobody aske I Lord Canning to under-
take the functions of Chief Ruler of Southern Asia.
He sought that Imperial trust himself, as a favour
and a benefit he wished to have conferred, and for
which he admitted his sense of personal obliga-
tion. It is no reproach to him that he happened
to be a favourite with the ci decant Prime Minister,
and that the present Premier should, for various
reasons, have not been unwilling ta serve him.
Neither is it a reproach to any man that, possessing
but a slender fortune, he should be willing to expa-
triate himself for a time in order honourab'y to im-
prove it. The Governor-Generalship is the biggest
plum in the patronage pie ; and what George Can-
ning, in the zsnith of his fame, was not unwilling
to accept, his faint and feeble representative might
well chuckle at obtaining. • But the grave question
remains—What was Lord Canning ; what had he
done ; what did anybody believe he was ever likely
to do, to justify his appointment as Governor-Gene-
ral of India ? If the office be worth maintaining,
if the government of a continent inhabited by
150,000 of people is to be conducted in subordina-
tion to him who fills such a position, the least
which just'se and policy demand Is that it should be
filled by a man—a man not merely in the vulgar
sense of the term, as one possessing ordinary intelli-
gence and physical pluck, but a man in that higher
sense which constitutes the only real right divineto
bear rule and to have sway. Coleridge's division of
a library was two-fold—books that were books, and
books that were not books. In civil and military
affairs mankind are similarly divisible, into men
that are men, and men that are not men. Lord
Palmerston will find it difficult to justify his con-
ferring the greatest and most responsible office
under the Crown upon one of the latter class.
We have no desire to be needlessly hard on. Lord
Canning. His fault and that of those who sent him
to India is heavy enough for any one to bear, with-
out exaggeration. His fault is this—one of the
gravest a public man can commit—that he is a
usurper. A mere diligent tier and un-tier of tapes
a'l his life, a man without even the eloqu ace of a
political impos'or, without even the dignity or pre-
sence of a sham king, without even the routine
I imiliArity of military or civil service in the East to
compensate for his want of natural gifts—he must
have been criminally conscious of his utter unfit-
ness to take upon him such a charge, and, we are
compelled to add, Lord Palmerston must hive been
equally aware of it ? What is the first duty of the
first adviser of the Queen ? Confessedly to seek out
fit and proper men to carry on, in their respective
spheres, the arduous and accountable business of
the Empire. The very expression we use as equiva-
lent to the nomination of a man to be Prime Mini-
ster vividly indicates this: he is said to be called
upon "to form a government." It is an apt and
expressive phrase. It points out, as plainly as any
words can speak, the primary behest laid upon him.
And if the choice of one who is to exercise for the
time being all but absolute sway in the Queen's
name over her vast dominions in the Els+, be not
an essential item in the performance of the Pre-
mier's duty of selecting the materials of efficient
government, we confess we know not in what that
duty consists. The choice of a Governor-General
for India—we say it fearlessly—is the gravest and
most responsible act which the PI iine Minister has
to perform : and looking at the awful consequence;
which have lately followed from sending there an
unfit, incompetent, dull, and vascilating shadow of
mere aristocratic re-pectabllity, instead of a vistas-
rous, aide, and resolute type of the moral an l in-
tellectual manhood of the nation, we cannot but
hold Lord Pahnersten answerable in this =qtr.
Lord Canning is what is called in party politics a
safe and moderate man ; which, being translated
into plain English, means that he is one who has
served in turn under any Government that he
thought would last, and that was willing to em-
ploy him, with mercenary impartiality. His
official career begen under Sir Robert Peel, by
whom his redly noble, though un-coroneted
father was hurried to a premature grave.
When Protectionists abjured Protection he clung
tenaciously to office until office was literally taken
from him. Lord Derby judged him to be sufficiently
Tory for his purposes in 1851 ; but lie failed to
convince the calculating Lord Canning of his ability
to hold power ; and his offer, therefore, was refused.
The coalit;on promised better, and Lord Calamine.
became Postmaster-General ; and when by degrees
every other member of the section to which he pro-
fessed to belong had quitted office, he, and he
alone, was willing to remain, and was raised to a
a at in the Cabinet of the present Whig Premier.
For which of these performances, or for what other
step in his hungry and humiliating career, was this
man made by Lord Palmerston Governor-General
of India ?

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

Lord Canning is perhaps the least to be envied
of all men in the public service at the present time.
Of the vicissitudes attending political life he has
had more than his share. How short a time has
elapsed since he was looked upon as the most for-
tunate of men ! That rich prize, the Governor-
Generalship of India, to be bestowed upon a com-
paratively young and unknown public servant, who
had no chime beyond an illustrious name, and some
useful service iu a department of Government the
furthest removed from that which he was called on
to direct 1 Yet now, in all probability, there are
not half a dozen men in her Majesty's dominions
who would accept the reversion of Lord Canning's
post, if it were a condition annexed that ho should
share in the unpopularity which has so suddenly
burst upon his heal.
The only consolation Lord Cann'ing can enjoy,
under the circumstance, is in the reflection that to
be unpopular is not always to des? rye unpopularity.
It is not necessary, indeed it is not pos,ible, yet to
determine to what extent the, absent Viceroy de-
s-ewes the censures that have been so freely bestowed.
The public here labour under the disadvantage of
being in almost total ignorance of the subjeer, and
tlre.efoie of the value of those censures. As in the
case of the Earl of Elleeile rough, they are favour-
ably placed for being made the dupes of a "cry ;"
but there is not at the! present day, a Duke of
Wellingtet, powerful, influential, and magnan'_
mous enough to steend up between Diree'.orial
Caba!lers or News paper Domagogues
nd- their
destined victims. Without safe gni:l,es, therefor,
arriving public arc exr2osed to the.
imminent danger of
arriving at a false conclus:
e.in or of conniving, in
utter holplessne'ee at -0
• .ne sacrifice of an individual
eteoaevlyeh had Hitherto
ti Lig t r
white every-
Hitherto Lord Canning. has
`Word said in his favour, win
be accumulated against him has
been pa-
-acled with a reckless injustice.
T.-• _Lee are already signs and symptoms, net Lobe
_
.4aunderstocd by experienced readers of political

riddles. To those in responsible authority it is ob-
vious that the outraged feeling of the British com-
munity will require some sacrifice to the manes of
the hapless victims at Cawnpore and elsewhere, and
some atonement for the errors which imperilled our
sway in India. Woe to the luckless Minister or
Statesman who happens at such a moment to offer a
convenient substitute for real delinquents. No-
thincris more easy than to direct the lightnings of
public wrath in the desired direction, and from that
moment the neighbours of the unfortunate victim
are safe. One man was in this way made respon-
sible for all the mismanagement in the Crimea, and
his equally culpable colleagues have ever since ruled
the country. It is nothing to the purpose, that the
momentary error of passion has been long since
disco vered. Nations are seldom penitent, or at least
their penitence seldom takes the shape of atone-
ment.

It would .be as premature to affirm that'Lord
Canning is innocent, as it certainly is unjust also,
to prepare the public mind for his condemnation.
It is permissible, however, to point out a few con-
siderations which might operate as a warning to
the public here, not to let themselves be made the
tools and instruments of selfish tyranny. If Lord
Canning instead of being a man of statesmanlike
sympathies too large for a period of troub'e, had-
been the model of a stern practical Diet itor, he
would still have a very poor chance of escaping the
fate, which, unless we are very much mistaken, is
even now being prepared for him. In these cases
it is the position of the man, rather than his
actual conduct, that invites the catastrophe.
Louis the Sixteenth was a mild, virtuous mo-
narch, by comparison with his predecessors,
yet they died in their beds and he perished
on the scaffold. Many a wise and patriotic
Minister has been sacrificed to popular caprice, in
favour of rivals false, venal, tyrannical. Accident,
rather than any law of justice, rules in these cases,
and Lord Canning, unluckily for himself and his
reputation, happens to occupy a position in which
almost all the chances are against him. When he
was nominated Viceroy of India, all the world ad-
Mired the-magnanimous gratitude which led Lord
Palmerston to show his respect for the father by
rewarding the son. It is now doubtful whether
the menaced Governor-General could count even
on the ostensible support of the fickle and time-
serving Minister, whose ill-judged kindness, or
popularity-bunting instincts, placed his protege in
a position demanding such vast powers of mind
and experience.
It is a very general opinion that the Company
will no longer be entrusted with the Government of
India. It is equally supposed that Lord Canning
will be the last, or at the utmost the last but one
Governor-General under the present regime. This
unfortunate position renders him the centre of at-
traction for attacks inspired by the most opposite
interests, and conducted on the most opposite
grounds. It is therefore—without affecting to pre-
judge the question whether or not be has been
culpable—that we would warn the public here
against being misled by mere clamour. His assail-
ants are legion. In Calcutta and elsewhere in
India, the rule of the Company has long been hated
by large classes of the European community—by
almost all, indeed, except those who are actually
in the service of the Government. It is natural,
then, that Lord Canning, as the Chief Representa-
tive of that Government, should be the object of
their fierce hostility. Of this the Calcutta petition
was an example. To the other independent Edro-
pea'is must be added the journalists, whom Lord
Canning has converted into irreconcileable enemies,
by his precautions against venomous garrulity.
That the military authorities should be among the
assailants of Lord Canning is only naturally to be ex-
pected when we reflect that there has at all timesbeen
a feudbet ween the civil and military powers, and that
it has been brought to a head by this rebellion. No
better proof of this state of things is needed than 1
that afforded by the order of the day of General
Wilson to "give no quarter," following so soon
after those general instructions of the Government i
at Calcutta, which have been made the subject of
animadversion by the Press of this country.
It would not be at all surprising if the falling
"rulers" of Leadenhall-street sought to save the it-
selves by sacrificing their representative in India.
Such a policy would be quite in accordance with
their past conduct. Whether crushing a Napier or
an Ellenborough, because they consulted the wel-
fare of the nation or the consolidation of the Impe-
rial dominion, or abandoning a Canning to the
fury of his enemies, because he had only too faith-
, fully followed the traditions of the Company's ru'e,
i the selfish motive and the short-sighted policy ,
would be the same ; nor is it likely that those Dic-
tators would hesitate between their supp•sed
interests and the precepts of a nobler policy.
Against this long array of antagonists, the Go-
vernor-General might reasonably count on receiving
the support of the Ministers of the Crown. This
question will mainly depend for its solution on the
result of military operations during the next two
or three months. If tho restoration of our rule
appears assured, Lord Canning may count on sup-
port from his loving colleagues. It; on the con-
trary, early delays, and arrogant obstinacy of
opinion, shall be proved to have been the cause of
sufferings th it mightthave been averted, then every
effort will be made to save the Vernon Smiths and
the Panmures, and the 'scapegoat will be found in
the City of Calcutta.

DR. CULLEN ON THE INDIAN BELIEF

FUND.

(From the Times.)
Lies are very wrong things, very shocking things,
but it must he admitted, nevertheless, that there is
one excuse for them—their extreme facility. A lie
is the easiest crime which a man can commit ; it is
achieved by the simple natural motion of the tongue
in the mouth, all the evolutions and revolutions of
which instrument come of ihemselves, and performs
he mind's bidding at a moment's notice, without
any difficulty whatever. There is a proverh,or say-
ing about the tongue sticking in the mouth when a
man tells a lie. It is wholly untrue ; the tongue
easily,
glibly,ailindslick, when a statement is
false as when it is true, and
and smoothly, its
works
nnut ionquisite as
as lit
Sheridan's correc-
tion of his friend, who said he want d to go down
a coalpit in order that he might say that he had
been down one, is strictly and accurately true—
" You could say that without going down a coal-
pit." Lying is in substance simply speech ; it
is speech, indeed, which is contrary to fact, but
this circumstance does not interfere wet) and has
nothing to do with speech as such, which is a
wholly neutral and strictly impartial natural organ,
performing its functions with a disinterested—we
(night almost say an equitable andj udical—indif-
fereuce to the question of fact of one way or an-
other. The tongue is 110 partisan, no sectarian ;it
is a citizen of the world ; it does not undertake to
decide between the merits of truth and falsehood.
It performs its proper services to each in its turn,
as it happens to be called upon. It is a perfect
machine for the production of truth ; it is also a
perfect machine for the production of falsehoo 1.
Such is the remarkable facility which nature affords
for untrue statement to those who are willing to
avail-themselves of it. It puts the ins.rurneut
into their hand, all ready for me and in working
order, and they have only to touch the handle.
What an admirable, what an inviting, what a
tempting engine ! Is it not a shameful waste
if we neglect so admirable a cmtrivaece as
this, —an actual instrument for creating facts,
'Jr what are as good as facts for the time,
and creating them without the smallest difficulty ?
Who does not like to have things his own way ?
who would not like facts always to speak for him?
Very well, thsn, if thefacts do not speak for him he
speaks for the facts. It is only a difference of
means to the same end. Is not lying a part of the
legitimate dominion of man over nature ? A good
deal, we think, might be said in support of this
thesis. The theory has a touch of boldness, but
after it had got over the difficulty of its first statt it
would gain ground and win over many shoals of
casuists. Surely, when Nature herself turns temp-
tress, and puts such an instrument into our hands, a
man must bee moral hero or a saint not to use it occa-
sionally. Thanks, indeed, to a stern voice within,
there are individuals who think it vst ong to Le,
but sects and parties, especially religious sects and
parties, can hardly be said to be of this opinion.
The sect is a natural liar, it is born with a lie in its
mouth, which glows up with its growth, and multi-
plies. Every sect has its favourite customary set
of statement, which it palms off upon the world
for the purpose of adding to its respectability and
reputation—statements of which it does not care to
examine the truth, and of which it does not wish the
wo..rrld to examine the truth
either.
1- is a customary Roman Catholic statement that
half of the defence of te•is country isperformed by
loan Cathoecs
tle at this at Our Protestant public stares a
in it, free, first, but half acquiesces gradually
so bold' .ninking that a fact would not be stated
„, . eiy if it wre not true. Simple minded pub-
" ! The remarks which we have just made will have
enlightened you on that point. The Romanist
stetement is made up, first of a gross exaggeration,
and next of a still grosser suppression. lestead of
one half of our soldiers, hardly one-third of them
are ROrrlallBt3i But this statement leaves out the
Navy altogether, which numbers 70,000, of which
net more than one or two psr cent.
are Bo-
tnanist. So that, takinee the two services together,
the one-half which the Romauists claim of the
defensive firce of this country diminishes to
about one sixth. But we are not concerned with
this fact any more than as it is connected with a
subject about Which Archbishop Cave nublisbed