The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-07 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7, 1857.

We have already had an opportunity of wit
nessing particely the mode in which the day of
national Fasting and Humiliation is observed by a
large proportion of the inhabitants of the metro-
polis. The shops, generally speakiug, are elised ,
or at least shutters are put up, although a smart
trade may still be carried on iu the interior. Church
bells h tve been riug,ill7, and servic! conducted in
the various places of worship, aLhaugh not to
very numerous congregations. Many persons of
both sexes decked out in their best have started
in search of enjoyhent with any thing but gloom
in their aspects, or sorrow or humiliation in their
hearts. The chief manifestations were those of
intense delight and elation at the unex?ected
escape from the toils of every day life. There was
certainly, occasionally, an appearance of &kw-
tion. But that clearly proceeded from the lack
of means to make the most of the opportunity,
and the tantalising prospect before them, " their
pwerty and not their will " consenting to keep
the fast, or possibly the showers that endangered
their finery.
This is but a superficial view of the suljecl-.
It is what must be apparent to every eye, that
looks on the Metropolitan thoroughfares or th,-
green-laneA, and other haunts of the pleasure-
seeking inhabitants of the modern B thylon. If,
however, we could obtain another Asmodeus cap-
able of showing the interiors of the differen:
houses, we might find a still stronger confirmation
of the inlpolicy of the proceeding. We should, in
some instances, find men drinking heavily of the
liquors they had previously provided, or waiting
anxiously for the opening of the public-houses to
procure the means of intoxication, or sleeping off
the fumes of last night's debauch, into which they
were seduced in consequence of knowing that they
would not have to rise early to go to work this
morning. The wife is probably very differently
occupied. While the husband is drinking or
venting his ill-humour on herself and her children,
in consequence of the delay in obtaininc, liquor,
or is thinking
or snoring in their single room,
of the terrible deficiency in the receipts on Satur-
day, from the loss of a day's wages, and also of
the amount squandered in drink or amusement,
and painfully considering what articles can besi
be spared from their scanty furniture or clothing
to send to the pawn-office, in order to make up
the hiatus valde deflenclu3. Those of a better
class will have friends to visit them, as on Sun-
days, and feast rather than fast, while the
few, the very few, who follow the proclama-
tion in heart and spirit would have acted simi-
larly had there been merely recommendations from
their pastors, or, at all events, the appointment
0 a Sunday, for the national demonstration.
In addition to this, as we have already stated,
there in a serious loss from the compulsory idle-

ness of so large a proportion of her Majesty's
subjects ; and the closing of mills, the stoppage
of looms, the cessation of labour of almost every
description. Production has been arrested, at the
very time when there were the heaviest demands
on our resources, and when the claims of charity
were peculiarly urgent, our sagacious Privy Coun-
cillors, or at least three of the number, have thought
proper to fling away nearly a million sterling to
please the puritanical party. It is a pity that
these names should not be generally known, in
order that they may receive the degree of credit to
which they are entitled for the act. It was the
PRINCE CONSORT, EARL GRANVILLE, and Lord
STANLEY of Alderley, who advised her MAJESTY
t 3 the step. We fancy we can detect the quiver
from which the shaft was drawn. It savours
strongly of Germanism. The subordinate
members of the Cabinet would scarcely act in di-
rect opposition to the well-known wishes of their
Premier, unless their insubordination was sanc-
tioned by high authority, which could screen them
from the consequences of their mutiny.

The people will, however, say to each—" Phy-
sician, heal thyself." Fast, and pray, and humi-
liate yourself publicly for your participation in
the causes that led to the deplorable catastrophe,
for !maintaining the Company in a position for
which they were not qualified, for sending
out and keeping Lord CANNING in the Go-
vernor-Generalship, for not sending immediate
reinforcements overland, and gunboats to keep
guard over the rivers. For these short-comings
public penance might be done, and walking bare-
footed in St. Pads, arrayed in a white sheet, with
bare feet and lighted taper, might not be amiss.
But it is a mockery and a delusion to call on the in Tic •
Pent people to mourn for the faults and short-
comings of their rulers, and to inflict on them—
in addition to the taxation to which they must
submit for these grave mistakes—the positive loss
of a day's wages ! Let the parties responsible
manifest a true repentance, which may be known
by its fruits ; without which, their "fasting and
praying" is but a piece of specious hypocrisy,
alike objectionable in the eyes of GOD and man.

We cannot wonder at the intense delight with
which the arrival of Sir C. CAMPBELL was hailed
by the English inhabitants, Lot only of Calcutta,
but of tho entire Indian Empire—that a single
man should be considered as fully equal to ten
thousand soldiers, "armed all in proof, and led
by shallow CANNING." Zeal, energy, and
decision were required at head-quarters, and
it was universally believed that he would
display these qualities that he would
suppress the vacillation and timidity of the
Council that pulled the wires of the puppet
Governor-General, and get rid of the twin mon-
sters, routing and red-tapism, that retarded the
suppression of the mutiny, and caused it to ex-
tend beyond a few regiments.
Hisw gladly would they have hailed his
nomination to the highest rank, with ample powers
to do all that he might oonsider advisable for the
speedy restoration of peace and tranquillity !
When Rome was endangered, the people set
up a Dictator, but it was not from
the effete men of wealth, that they made the
selection. They chose the simple citizen in whose
capacity they had confidence, and took him from
the plough to invest him with supreme authority
—to constitut3 him an autocrat for the time
being.

• So it should have been in India. L)rd Cier-
NING might act his part in a pageant very wcll—
might give very respectable entertainments at
Government House, and affix a fair specimen of
caligraphy to the resolutions of the prejudiced
elderly epicenes by whom the real power is wielded,
and be himself controlled and directed. The mere
fact that he had not ne decision of character to
emancipate himself from their control, and the
trammels in which they kept him en veloped, proved
beyond the possibility cf doubt that he was n( t
"the right man in the right place." His sub-
serviency may extenuate his shortcomings, but it
still proves his want of real power. The Com-
pany's system of government is now on trial.
"It has been weighed in the bal Ince
and found wanting," and Ministers in place of
c tiling on the people "to fast and pray," should
set their own shoulders to the wheel,
and arm the man who possesses the confilencs
of the people both of England and India, with
ample powers to enable him to accomplish his
arduous task. Thus might CAMPBELL restore
what CLIME founded, and HASTINGS, WELLESLEY,
and CORNWALLIS strengthened and consolidated.
"If a railway accident occurred in consequence
of the want of energy and vigour of the driver, s
man of 70, long known to be ruptured and
gouty, and if lives were lost, what would the ver-
dict of the jury be, supposing the directors de-
fended themselves by alleging that it would have
been hard upon the poor old driver to supersede
him, and that he would probably have been very
importunate for a pension had he been super-
seded I"

So says the correspondent of a contemporary,
whose able communication we have extracted into
our columns in reference to General LLOYD, whose
effete senili!y lsd to the mutiny at Dinapore and
the destruction of British soldiers in the attempt
to relieve Arrab. He pertinently inquires—.
" Whose duty was it to see that such com-
mands as that of General LLOYD'S wore in
competent hands—to report upon them if they
were not—to act on such reports ?" Adding—
" We take almost vexatious pains to ascertain
that a recruit is sound, wind and limb. We
strip him naked, we pommel him all over, we
make him go through all manner of pro-
bationary contortions, and we reject Lien
at onto if we espy the slightest defect in his
physique, considering him unfit in such a cause to
be intrusted with the responsibility of a pri-
vate in the British army. But when we have
to appoint a general to a position in which
the lives of thousands, his country's honour,
the fate of an empire may depend on his
soundness of mild and body we take none
of these precautions. If we see that he is an ot--
viou3 cripple and dotard, we appoint him all the
same ; it would be so hard upon the poor old
man to pass him over.' Yet if he fails when he
is so appointed—as we know he must fail when
put to the test—we inexorably try the poor old
creature by court-martial !"
be further extended. If
LorTdhiCsApNrNilnNeGipla may
and the Council of India be reE-
ponsit le for the inefficiency of General LLOYD,
so are Lord PALMERSTON and the English Cabinet
for the mistakes and shortcomings of these
very parties. So the nation now feels, and so it
will feel with still greater intensity when fresh
blunders have increased the existing evils and led
to further sacrifices of life and money.

ECONOMY OF VIE Manchester gentleman
tion,
OF A CIRCUS.—
In
pePnny paper, the day after pub lea.-
FALL
at hall.Pi ir ce."—luantchhe. m
course of the perforar nes
of an Equestr:an company, known as the Bouthor family,
at the fete of Vau,rirard, Saturday evening, a crack-
ing noise wa4 suddenly I eard, and the spectators, about
900 in number, rushed to the doors ; but t efore they
could ei.c .pe, ate ctreu.4, which WAS of wood and canvas,
fell in. A number of persons were more or less cut and
bruised but no one was dangerous:y hurt.

THE LATE MR. JERROLD.