The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-17 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY., OCT. 17, 1857.

One of the mos: interesting and important
letters which we have seen on the state of India,
and the duties of Englishmen in reference
thereto, has been addrcsied by the Eirl of
ELLENBOROUGH to tho members of the Winch-
combe Agricultural Association. It goes exactly
to the point, shows what should be done in
India and in England. It is now useless, aye,
worse than useless, to depreciate the magnitude
of the crisis, or to supp )se that we can wash out
the stains of blood, with rose water. It is not by
sickly sentimentalism that we can get rid of the
blot on the national escutcheon. We bare had
" a great war forced upon us, by rebels who
would deprive all our countrymen of their lives,
and England of an empire—where we placed our
confidence we have been met with treachery—
where we acted with kindness we have encountered
murder—murder, not directed only against men
by whom resistance might be made, and from
whom wrongs might have been feared, but ex-
tending equally to unoffending, helpless women,
to the children at their knees, and to the infants
at their breasts—sparing none, and often inflict-
ing death upon the body with torture, where it
had already more cruelly tortured mind."
Lord ELLENBOROUGH has already been victi-
mised by the East India Company. He alone,
in the present age, had zeal and energy sufficient
to repudiate red-tapeism, and to act for the bene-
fit of India and of Great Britain without refer-
ence to the prejudices of antiquated civilians.
We need not say that the Company exercised a
power which should never have been conceded them,
to enforce his recal, and that consequently the
country lost the service of the most able and
energetic Governor-General, since the days of
CLIME and HASTINGS.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER was also treated in a
similar manner. In his case, the directors were
subsequently compelled " to eat humble pie," and
it is by no means impossible that a like retributive
iodize may place Lord ELLENBOROTICIII at the licad
of the Anglo-Indian Government.

Lord CANNING is manifestly incompetent. He
is, we believe, an amiable nobleman, who might
do very wen, in ordinary times, to take part in a
pageant, or do the honours at a ball in Government
House. But he has not the energy or ability to
break through the trammels by which he is en-
compassed. He is the servant, not the master
of the Council, and so long as he remains in Cal.
cuttl, we cannct hope for the restoration of peace I
and tranquillity, and the complete suppression of
of the insurrection. Lard ELLENBOROUGH as
Governor-General would be " the right man in
the right place." He would not interfere injte-
yloitsly with Sir CoLIN CA-11PBELL, and a Governor-
General and a Commander-in-Chief cordially co-
operating, would bring the rebellion to a speedy
and satisfactory termination.
If the -United Kingdom were canvassed at
moment we believe that nine men out of ten
would give their votes for Lord ELLENEOROTIGII
as Governor-General. Surely undt.r existing
circumstances the national will 'should be re-
spected. We do not desire that Lord PALMERSTON
should be ejected from office. He is in his right
position. But he ought to break through the

trammels of routine, and to avail himself of the
services of Lord ELLENBOROUGH, in the existing
crisis. It is true that the Noble Earl is a poli-
tical opponent. But such considerations should
be disregarded under the peculiar circumstances
of the case. It is not as a reward for a political
supporter that the high position should be
bestowed. The best man is required, and the
voice of public opinion almost unanimously de-
clares in favour of Lard ELLENBOROUGH.

The existing difficulty is great, far greater in-
deed than has been imagined. We look too com-
placently on such matters ; are accustomed to re-
gard the most brilliant victories, even against
odds of ten to one, as too much a matter of course,
and to think that we have only to sit down con-
tentedly at home, paying our taxes, passing reso-
lutions sympathising with the sufferers, and ex-
pecting to have the work done for us without
further trouble or inconvenience. We must put
our shoulders to the wheel, and every man must
consider how far he can help forward the State
machine by his individual exertions.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH offered a sound practical
suggestion. He has pointed out the manner in
which the young blood of England may be stimu•
lated. Let the militia be called out to a man,
and by that means, and that alone, we shall obtain
the best class of recruits. They may cost a little
more, but this is not the time to look to
matters of £ s. d. We may be penny
wise and pound foolish, and have to
pay far more, for any undue parsimony. Lord
ELLRNBORODOR has clearly pointed out how every
man may help the movement by obtaining re-
cruits for the regular army or for the militia. A
distinguished Scotch clergyman—the Rev. Mr.
WM. ROBERTSON, of New Greyfriars, Edinburgh—
turned the the Fast-day to good account in a simi-
lar manner. He explained that "on our army,
humanly speaking, depended the future of India,"
and "that every brave man who joins that army
is a benefactor, not only to Britain, but to India
too." His admirable address proved that the
Christian mother might safely send out her child
on such a mission—that ho would himself wil-
lingly do so ; concluding his spirited and exciting
appeal with these words :
" I speak not to others of a duty with which
I would not myself cheerfully comply. Had las
many sons as PRIAM, I should not shrink from
seeing them all in arms for a cause which, from my
heart, I believe to be the cause not of Britain and
India alone, but of the world, of civilisation, of
religion, and of GOD."

It was amusing enough to observe the course
pursued the other day at Stuttgard by Queen
AMELIA of Greece. It was so perfectly character-
istic ! It evidenced such a watchful " eye to the
main chance" on the part of that intriguing
princess. It was altogether so cunningly and mys-
teriously transparent. We cannot for an inAant
believe that the real meaning of her Athenian
Majesty's presence so very opportunely, a few
weeks back, i❑ the capital of Wurtemburg, can be
misapprehended for one moment by the least sa-
gacious observer, whether his "point of view" be
taken from L'mdon, or from Paris, or from
Vienna, or even from St. Petersburg.

Has anybody forgotten the sinister indications
of the secret policy of OTHO'S Government during
the late bloody contest in the Crimea Y Indica-
tions so unmistakeably inimical to the interests of
Vat, Western Powers, and so manifestly favourable
to the cause of the Russian AT:TTOCRA.T that—even
during the crisis of the struggle before Sebastopol
—a certain small proportion of the soldiers of
France and England had to be diverted from their
direct advance towards the seat of war, and to
be disembarked at the Piraans for the purpose of
watching grimly, sword in hand, over the good
conduct of the Greek Government.

The notorious reason for all this being, of
course, the peculiar crotchet warping the ambition
of OTHo's Queen, in the 'natter of that problema-
tical question—the succession to the Throne
erected nearly a quarter of a century ago by a
whim of diplomacy among the classic ruins of the
violet-crowned Acropolis.

Childless herself, Queen &MELIA ha.s a very natural
desire that such an exceedingly good thing as a
sceptre should not bo lost altogether to her funny,
because of that ono very tantalising circumstance.
And as it so happens that her connexions are for
the most part Muscovite, her sympathies, of course,
tend for the most part towards an intimate asso
ciation of her own interests with those of the
House of ROMANOFP. The "slope" of her ambi-
tion is decidedly towards St. Petersburg—just as
the "slope" of Russia, according to the happy
phrase of M. DE LAMA RTINE, is MI question_
ably towards the East. Whereupon t
carry out her own particular object,
the QUEEN of Greece has striven pertinaciously-
in one direction for a considerable time past-3n-
deavouring to accomplish her dasign uow by fair
mean, now by foul, precisely as events might
seem to afford her the opportunity. The "foul
means" we had an agreeable specimen of, two or
three years ago, when the Crimean war was com-
plicated for the Western Powers by that vexatious
little episode of the Grecian embarrassment—
namely, when the Angle-French troops had to be
landed at the Piraeus, instead of at Kamiesh and
Balaklava, under the irritating circumstances al-
readypartic alarised. The " fair means" some of the
European Sovereign's had a pleasant taste of, the
other day, in the midst of 013 Royal festivities
at Stuttgardt. Such is Queen AMELIA'S in-
domitable perseverance ! Altogether presenting
(to us constitutional spectators in England) a
spectacle that would be very laughable were it
not also at the same time vary afflicting. For,
after all, this particularly selfish and insatiable
ambition of the Greek Qtrzeres, signifies nothing
more in itself than the old Feudal Creed not yet
wholly dead and buried--. 1 belief still cherished
here and there all over the amtinent—to the
effect simply (to be plain) that the Peoples
are made for the Princes. Instead of exactly
the reverse t It is a very old story indeed—
an exceedingly venerable, not to say absolutely
decropid infatuation. her Athenian Majesty, in
truth, thinks for 'that matter, merely as her
Order thinks. She has long since apparently
altogether forgotten the constitutional origin of
the Greek Sovereignty. She locks manifestly
upon OTHO'S Crown as a very fine family jewel
that ought to be scrupulously kept i:s the family
and so her energies are altogether directed to-
words its retention—and so to the attainment of
that sole end her sinister intrigues are multiplied
and expanded.

All this is clearly imagined upon the same
principle upon which each of the not easily numer-
abla German princelings imagines certain portions
of the human race to have been exclusively created
for the delight of his own peculiar privilege
Sovereignty. It is unraistAlcably thus, let us say,
by way of example, that the High and Mighty
HENRY THE TWENTIETH (vide the Almanach, (1,;
Gotha .f) presides in his stupendous capital of
Greiz, over the destinies of Reuss of the Elder
Branch, with a territory extending over the
gigantic area of 144 square miles, and having a
population of actually no leas than 35,159
(according to the last census) in the ag-

gregate !! ! It is no less unmistake-
ably thus, that his relative the equally
High and Mighty HENRY THE SIXTY-
SEVENTH (vide ditto, ditto) presides, in his gigan-
tic metropolis of Schleiz, over the fortunes of
Reuss of the Younger Branch, with even yet
larger territories and a yet vaster population 1! !
So—the redoubtable Prince, GUNTHER FREDERIC,
rules the ducal domain of Schwartzburg Sonder-
hausen 1 While the no less redoubtable Prince,
FREDERIC G UNTHER (literally this upon the in fal
lible authority of the same Almanach de Gotha),
sways the rod of empire over the other ducal
domain of Schwartzburg Rudolstadt ! So—
to sum up a series of ridiculous illustrations
(otherwise threatening to run off our hands in-
terminably as we write) by one supremely absurd
instance—the puissant Awls JOSEPH directs the
destinies of a sovereignty extending over just fifty-
three square miles, with a population numbering
(again, observe, according to the last census) ex-
actly 6,351 individuals ! ! !

Remembering all which nonsensical arrange-
ments, we really cannot wonder very much, on
serious reflection, that a Queen Consort, nurtured
in the midst of such old-world folly, should have
come at last to look upon a crown and sceptre,
pretty much as any fine lady may look upon the
glittering bauble ornaments in her jewel-case—
things to be taken a wonderful deal of care of,
and to be worn becomingly.
What we do wonder at is How long all

these same obsolete notions will yet be tolerated
among a multitude of thinking men, supposed to
be in some sort, enlightened I
As it is—the whole crumbling mass of rubbish,
rotten to the very core, is only held together for
a while by the glamour of that huge political In-
cubus (and Humbug) called Germanism.

Russia is clearly bent upon availing herself or
the present very tempting opportunity. That
opportunity is to every evil-disposed Muscovite(
no less manifestly than it has been before now, to
certain wrong-headed demagogues on the other
side of St. George's Channel—England's em-
barrassment ! Scarcely have we found it incum-
bent upon us t) declare war against the Chinese,
than the entire Bengal Army (to the number of
very nearly 100,000 fighting men) revolts, and
our whole Indian Empire appears for the moment
to be jeopardised. It becomes necessary, under
these unexpected circumstances, to concentrate as
rapidly as possible the bulk of our military forces
in Hindostan for the reeonquest of the ravaged
districts and the punishment of the mutineers.
The settlement of the Chinese difficulty has to be
postponed for a while—namely, until such time as
the more urgent and more serious difficulty in Ben-
gal and the Western Provinces shall have been de-
finitively arranged. Admiral SEYMOUR has to await
yet for some time in the Canton Waters for the
long and eagerly looked for reinforcements. Go-
vernor YEE has an unlocked for time of truce,
during which he can vapour to his heart's con-
tent, as becomes a Celestial Viceroy of the
Emperor of the Red Uumbrella 1 Ambassador
BOWRING has to tarry in his turn, as patiently as
he may, in his little stronghold at Hongkong.
Even Lord ELGIN, sent out in hot haste (to settle
recent differences, if possible, without having re-
course to cold steel and gunpowder) in his capa-
city as Minister Plenipotentiary, finds the time
hang so heavily on his hands at the very period
when a crisis is raging at Calcutta, that he ventures
upon a little private episodical expedition to that
capital of our Asiatic possessions, just to see how
Lord CANNING is getting on, and to discover if
he can be of any use to Governor-General, to
Supreme Council, or to Commander-in-Chief.
An apparently bewildering embarrassment like
this to England could not possibly appear to
Russia otherwise than a most tempting and alluring

opportunity.
Wherefore, we don't wonder in th 3 least t
find the Northern Bee—[drat unmistakeable Bee
i❑ the Bonnet of Absolutism !]—beginning to cal-
culate frankly upon the probable advantages
likely (according to its perverse view of
things) to result from all this to the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg. Consequently
—remembering what Russia notoriously is and
has been for the last century, any one may
recognise at a glance what is really meant by the
specious arguments recently put forth by the
Northern Bee in reference to the position of Eng-
land between the Indian and the Chinese difficul
ties—arguments wound up in the manner follow-

mg :-

" In the interest of all Europe, for the vindica-
tion of the superiority of our civilization as com-
pared with the Chinese, it is indispensably necessary
to make good this failure of the English to the best
of our power, and by energetic measures convinca
the Chine,ie, once for all, of the superiority of El-
rope over their country. To this end the opening
of direct negotiations with the Pekin Government,
as well as of a course of action to be observed to-
wards it without the iiiterme liation of the provin-
cial governor, is urgently necessary."

A magnanimous declaration like this (may we
not venture to add ?) coming to us as it does firs`,
from the Northern Bee is just all Hum ! Imagine
for an instant how very beneficial to England
would be the tendency of the " direct
negotiations" of Russia with the Pekin
Government:! Cmceive for an instant the salu-
tary aid to be derived by us from so exceedingly
opp )rtune and desirable an intervention ! Re-
flecting upon all which, we can only ejaculate--
"Save us from our Friends !" Yet the neces-
sity of doing something a little more directly to
the purpose than utter mere ejaculations that
might be readily taken for granted, is sufficiently
apparent, we take it, when, in addition to this
sinister " hum" of the Bee, comes to us the know-
ledge of the much more sinister fact announced
almost simultaneously in the Nord—that Admi-
ral PIITIATIN has received instructions to repair
to Shanghai with the Amoor Fleet ; the said
Admiral having, at an earlier period, been in-
trusted with an extraordinary mission to Pekin,
contrary to the wishes of tho Chinese Gov.cm-
ment.

Aware of these very suspicious Sayings and
Doings in the North, it bohoves us, in the midst
of all our Eastern anxieties, to keep an ever-
watchful eye fixed unwinkiugly upon the Rus3iau
Government.

The Princes of Siam, on a mission to this Court, are
ex)ected to arrive in England next week. The state
apartments at Ciaridge's Hotel are prepared for their
reception.

Tne Duchess Dowager of Beaufort and the Ladies
Somerset are expected in town 'n afe days, fro►n visit-
ing the Earl and C .uuteBs of Wilton, at Heaton Hall,
near Manchester.

The Duchess of Wellington has left Apsley House to
join the duke, who has gone to Manchester for a few
days.

The Earl of RA:len left town a few days since, to visit
his estates in Ireland. His lordship will raturn to Lon-
don in about 10 days.