The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-18 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAY.—Morning, lh. 28m.—Afternoon, lh. 47m.
To-monßow.-Morning, 2h. sm.—Afternoon. ' 2h. 20m.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, SEP UMBER 17, 1861.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
o—highest since noon yesterday.
4.5 —lowest this morning and during the night.
57—this day at noon.
BARoIinTER-30.20; rising rapidly.
WlND—Northerly to N.-E. moderate; with dull,
cloudy weather. The Western and Irish coast were visited
last week by Equinoctial gales, as we anticipated.

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4 ,„,..7?p),,;,y,
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THE SUN,

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18, 1881.

The Nil Darpan trial at Calcutta is one of the
chief subjects which fill the India papers; nor is
this much to be wondered at. Vehement party
feeling, harsh and questionable application of law,
the questions of religious persecution and of the
freedom of the press, are all involved in it ; and
the Rev. JAMES LONG, who seems to be a weak-
minded and pious man, and one who, in the
usual course (I things, would attract about as
much notice as a useful Setipture-reader here,
becomes all at once the most notable person in
Calcutta. More is heard of about Mr. LONG than
about the Governor-General himself. The Friend
India says :—" The chief subject of conversa-
tion in all circles and of discussion in the press,
during
the last fortnight, has been the sentence
of a thotrasaa
rupees fine and one month's
impriso [lntent
LONG, of ti:assed Oil the Rev. JAMES
Church Missionary Society, '

for libelling the editor of the Eny/ishinan
and the whole lfdy of indigo planters in
Lower Bengal. The fine was at once paid in Ccurt
by a native gentleman, and Mr. LONG, now in jail,
receives visits of sympathy from crowds of natives,
from his missionary brethren, and from others. The
Calcutta Missionary Conference has passed a series
of resolutions on the subject which we print else-
where, and. the leading natives of Calcutta have
presented an address to Mr. LONG full of sympathy
and admiration of his conduct, in which they also
condemn the uncalled for conduct of Sir MORDAUNT
WELLS, the presiding Judge, who declared of an
address which they presented to Mr. LONG pre-
vious to his trial, that he would have torn it in

pieces."

The chief points of the story are these. The
indigo planters, and the ryots to whom they have
made advances for the cultivation of indigo, are, as
we have so long heard, in a state of violent excite-
ment against each other. Ryots allege cruelty and
oppression on the part of the planters, the planters
fraud, and non-fulfilment of contract on the part of
the ryots, who have taken their money on the con-
dition of growing the indigo. The covenanted civil
service of India has a standing traditional hatred of
the planters, they are interlopers, who have endan-
gered their monopoly, and " the service" has there-
fore shown a disposition to side with the natives.
The missionaries, as somewhat became them, were
also the natives' advocates, hence the planters had
against them no less than three parties—the natives,
the covenanted civil service, and the missionaries ;
and bitter was the strife and contention.
While all these elements were fermenting, the
natives composed, as is their wont, a drama, in
which the indigo planters are of course made to play
no very honourable part; and the thing was full
of what to natives would seem racy telling hits
on the gentlemen intended to be lampooned.
Such dramas are their customary resort for
popular attack—and are of about as much impor-
tance as an article in an English newspaper, per-
haps, of less. This one in point of literary character
is thus described—" In itself the drama is neither
more nor less filthy than the majority of such pro-
ductions, and must in all respects, except literary
merit, rank with the lowest plays of the time of the
Second CHARLES or the political satires of the days
of the GEORGES. Even had it in all its original
warmth of colouring been translated into English
and published in the ordinary way, it would have
excited no attention. But it appeared at a time
when the controversy between the planters and
the local Government was at its height, and with
a native preface which, while it eulogised the
latter in oriental terms, charged two of the daily
papers with selling themselves, like JUDAS, to the
planters' cause for a thousand rupees."

Mr. LONG meets with this publication in his
visits among the natives, and thought it ought to
be brought to the notice of the English public as
showing them what was going on in the native
mind. There is no evidence that he was actuated
by any malicious motive against any individual ;
and as to the planters, even if he had been disposed
to enjoy a joke on the body, there/does not seem to
have been more in it than in any of the humorous
satires of our friend Punch—though, of course in
the state of native morals, we cannot expect that
the allusions should surpass in purity the plays of
ARISTOPHANUS himself, and those of the period of
English history just referred to. " Satisfied,"
however, we are told, " that the drama was
the production of a native resident in the in-
terior, and looking upon it as an ebullition of
popular feeling, Mr. LONG, with the sanction and
knowledge of Mr. SETON-KARR caused the produc-
tion to be translated by a native, purged it of some
of its filthiest sentences, and added a preface, one
passage of which may certainly bear the meaning
that he vouched for the truth of the statements in
the drama, but the whole tenor of which is against
such a rendering. Had the production appeared in
the usual way, it might still have been treated
with indifference. But the publication was private,
and of the five hundred copies printed four were
sent to journals in Meerut, Lahore, Bombay and
Madras, and about two hundred to leading men
and societies in London."

Mr. SETON-KARR was at the time Secretary
to the Bengal Government, and he sent under the
Government frank fourteen copies of the play to
different parts of India, which seems, however, to
have been repeatedly done before, with translations
of native papers. Those sent to England were
sent to such men as Lords STANLEY and SHAFTES-
BURY, Messrs. BRIGHT and COBDEN, the Hon.
BAPTIST NOEL, and so forth—all of which, to us,
appears like anything but secresy and conscious-
ness of a malus animus. Neither Mr. SETON-KARR
nor Mr. LONG could have hoped to impose a libel-
lous slander on such gentlemen as these ; and their
statement, therefore, seems every way credible that
they thought a Drama like this an indication of
what was passing in the native mind, with which
persons interested in India would like to be ac-
quainted. We may add, that had the Government
been as well informed in this way of what was

going on prior to the Mutiny, we might have

escaped that drealful disaster altogether. It would
seem to be good policy to encourage the translation
of everything-, were it possible.

The planters, however, thought that they could
find a legal libel in the drama, and it seems they
were right. Unfortunately the law of libel remains
in India in the same state in which it was before
the late Lord CAMPBELL'S reform ; Mr. LONG was
unable therefore to plead a justification ; the
planters determined to proceed by criminal indict-
ment and to try a fall with their antagonists the
missionaries. They had a full legal right as the
law stands in India to do so ; though, in England,
they would not, under similar circumstances, and
with our amended law, have had the shadow of a I
chance. Probably they thought a civil action would
be hopeless, as the editor of the Englishnzan, whom
they put forward, could prove no damage to the
circulation of the paper, and actually confessed that
he did receive more than the thousand rupees for
his services to the planters. The indictment was
Ist, for a libel against the editor ; 2d, for one
against the whole body of the planters,
and, strange as it• may seem to us, the
jury, which was one, on the whole, likely to lean
to Mr. LONG rather than otherwise, under the di-
rection of the Judge, found on both counts. Under
all the circumstances, the punishment ought cer-
tainly to have been nominal. Before the sentence
was passed, Mr. LONG read a statement which ex-
plained the motives that had actuated him in what
he had done. He regretted that he had not added
foot-notes to explain some of the passages that had
given offence ; and said that the pamphlet did not
contain his own views on the character of planters
and others, but those entertained by the ryots,
which he had considered it his duty to bring to the ,
notice of the Government and of gentlemen in high
station in England. And we must say, after read-
ing the report of the trial, that the entire evidence
fully sustained the truth of the rev. gentleman's
remarks.

Mr. LONG'S counsel laid chief stress on the :follow-
ing points :—" That the Landholders' Association
had three courses open to them in seeking redress
for libel. They might have instituted a civil actioll,

or they might have proceeded by criminal informa-
tion ; in both of which cases he would have had an
opportunity of defending himself. But they had
selected the harshest.form of procedure known to
English law. That law was found so oppressive
above 16 or 17 years ago in England that a
new Act was passed affording the defendant an
opportunity for justification, but that Act had
not been extended to this country. The
passage in question contained no libel. It merely
imputed that the two editors wrote profes-
sionally and for money in support of a particu-
lar interest, as was done in every civilized country.
That there were four grounds on which the jury
were bound to return a verdict of acquittal. Ist,
the indigo planters of Lower Bengal were an un-
defined body ; 2d, the pamphlet was a dramatic
fiction ; 3d, there was no evidence of libel. 4th
there was no evidence of malice. 1. In the case of
the clergy of the diocese of certain Jews in
London, there was a unity and identity which the
planters of Bengal could not lay claim to. 2. No
jury would consider a drama as libellous, every
play had an evil genius as part of- the dramatis
personee. The character of LEGREE in " Uncle
Tom's Cabin" was a case in point. All slaveholders
were not necessarily LEGREES. 3 and 4. The pub-
lication was not a libel. The freedom of the
press and the discussion of public matters
should not bo restrained. Malice apart,
the greatest latitude was allowed in the
discussion of public questions, and on
topics of general interest a warmth and freedom
are tolerated which would not perhaps be submitted
to in the case of a single person. The drama was
not shown to have been published maliciously. Mr.
LONG was neither the author nor the translator of
the work, nor had he identified himself with the
truth of the matter. If the jury found Mr. LONG
guilty they would be carrying the law of libel
further than it had ever yet been carried, and
striking a serious blow at the freedom of public
discussion in India."

The result would seem to be to make a martyr of
a worthy but rather weak missionary; to give the
indigo planters a legal victory, but to fix on them a
lasting disgrace; and, finally, to render necessary
a change of the libel law in India, which shall assi-
milate it to that of this country. That Mr. LONG
might have stated more clearly that he did not
adopt the charges of the Drama is admitted, but
that he intended to imply or assert their truth it is
absurd to suppose.

Russia, like ourselves, is ruled by a German
family; bat how different the result of different
training. Education has made our QUEEN a real
Englishwoman ; and though under the degrading
system which rejects all noble English blood as
too ignoble for Royalty, we do our best to keep the
foreign blood pure, we have yet no doubt that our
Prince of WALES will turn out an Englishman
every inch of him. But if our discipline manu-
factures Germans into first rate constitutional
monarchs it can also make of them heart-
less and ruthless despots Tzars, in fact.
Real Tartars European polish, as of old,
serving only as a superficial disguise to
the feline nature beneath. The savage with the
" mild eyes" was succeeded by a son of whom it
was thought that the heart was as mild as the
eyes. But Czar-despots cannot get rid of their
nature ; and we have now too many painful proofs
that the present CZAR is no exception. The tamest
of VAN AMBURGU'S huge cats could never be trusted
not to kill a man, and the mildest CZAR can never
be trusted not to deceive, torture, and murder in the
interest of Czardom.
ALEXANDER IL is at this moment but too plain
an exemplification of the sad truth. Czardom is so
holy a cause in his eyes, that to act the venal spy,
and to ensnare the inhabitants of a town into acts
which might afford a miserable pretext for whole-
sale butchery, is holy work. The Poles were
created for his uncle CONSTANTINE to outrage, for
his father NICHOLAS to murder by wholesale when
they resisted his brother's outrages, and for ALEX-
ANDER 11. to decoy into a peaceful procession that
he might shoot them down by drunken Cossacks—
soldiers, if they deserve that name, so drunk, that
they in some cases beat the officials themselves.
The men, doubtless, were not remarkable for ten-
derheartedness ; but it was requisite to intoxicate
even them before they could be trusted to butcher,
without mercy, unarmed women and children. In
the rudest soldier natures, it seems there is some-
thing more human than in the hearts of Germans
educated for Czarship. The soldiers must be made
half mad to do the horrid work which Czars and
their higher officers could order in cold blood.

It is now certain that such has been the delibe•
rate policy of the " mild CZAR" this year with
Poland. The frightful massacres of this spring at
Warsaw were beyond all doubt inspired from St.
Petersburg. To tolerate national manifestations,
and to encourage them, was a part of a deliberate
design to extinguish them in blood ; the unhappy
people being so far beguiled as to believe that they
needed nothing but access in some authorised legi-
timate way to the " King of Poland" to insure atten-

tion to their very reasonable requests. Unhappy
men ! Unhappy women and infants !—they little
dreamed that their supposed paternal monarch was
a Tiger watching for their blood, and only remain-
ing quiet for a while, that his spring might be more
sure and fatal.

Lest, however, the Poles should too soon forget
what a CZAR was, the lesson has been repeated at
Vilna. The inhabitants of that town, it was known
at St. Petersburg, could not forget their birth.

They were Poles. And if they had in common with
their nation to bewail a suppressed nationality,

hey yet loved to keep in mind that they were not

semi-barbarian Russians. The knowledge of such
a state of mind was a cause of dark perturbation to

the' mild CzAtt? What pretext could he find to

satiate his morose hatred of noble patriotic recollec

tions in blood. The inhabitants of Wilna were

quiet, there was no excuse for bayonets and bullets ;

could not something be done to get up the semblance
of a crowd, a procession, a meeting, some kind of

assembly into which Cossacks could fire, and with-
out being prize shots, be sure to kill and wound ? A
willing tool was easily found, and we shall give

the narrative of the business in the words
of an evidently trustworthy correspondent of the
Daily News. The letter is dated from Warsaw,