The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-16 00:00:00

THE

also an ovation ; and this was, of course, a proper
occasion for a member of the English House of
Commons to praise all he could Austria's attempts
to create something like an imitation of it. He did
not, on this occasion, venture in explicit words to
attack Hungary, but he took care to describe what
Austria was doing, in such language as should by
implication condemn the former. We should have
liked him better for saying openly what he meant.
He said that we Englishmen were slowly compre-
hending the greatness of the EMPEROR'S deeds.
He was not raising one people above another, or
attempting to make one part of his dominions
superior to another, but was treating all alike.

But with Mr. ROEBUCK'S leave the whole ques-
tion is the right of the Emperor of AUSTRIA
to treat all alike. He has a kingdom which, by
every treaty of his ancestors, including the one
which makes him hereditary King, is an indepen-
dent kingdom—a kingdom with a most venerable
constitution, and corresponding franchises of all
kinds ; he has also a medley of no one knows how
many provinces under his despotic power. The '
former he can obviously only deal with according
to the terms of the old constitution and treaties ;
to the other part he is free to vouchsafe any consti-
tution he pleases, and Mr. ROEBUCK'S commenda-
tion is, that he treats all alike—the very thing
which is his crime. Suppose Mr. ROEBUCK to in-
herit a large estate, he finds connected with it
tenants at will, tenants for short leases, tenants for
long leases, and copyholders. "I do not like," he
says, "this motley diversity; I will treat you all
alike. To you tenants at will I will give leases of
reasonable length, and you copyholders, and all
other tenants, must be put on the same footing."
Confiscation ! every one would exclaim. " No equal
treatment, let no part of my hereditary estate be
superior to another," Mr. ROEBUCK would reply.
"But we are of right superior,"the copyholders would
rejoin, and the long lease tenants would concur.
But, according to Mr. ROEBUCK'S reasoning. if he
had got rid of all the armed males from the pro-
perty, and had spread over it a set of armed
foreigners in his pay, he might, like Austria, say,
I persist in making you all alike. Mr. ROEBUCK
knows that this illustration is no exaggeration.
As to his fulsome praises of the EMPEROR, backed
most humbly and gratefully by the Austrian Am-
bassador; all that we can say is that." treacle" is
not Mr. ROEBUCK'S line. Englishmen can forgive
him anything in his natural vein ; and, when he
reverts on any future occasion to Austria, we advise
him also to revert to " brimstone."

It is not too much to say that the first golden
link between England and India has now been
formed. India has indeed poured her gold abun-
dantly enough into English purses, but it has been
little more than tribute. Companies have been
formed which have sent capital recently to India,
but it has been guaranteed. It seems to have been
reserved to the East India Irrigation and Canal
Company to have been the first to fashion a link of
gold without alloy between this country and her
great dependency. The company is an unguaran-
teed one. It sends India capital, and seeks only
dividends in return. The Government has no fur-
ther connection with it than what secures its own
rights and the necessary powers to the company.
We may well hail this event. The principle of the
company's operations is the pure commerial prin-
ciple, though the beneficial results certain to flow
from it are such as to enlist the hearty sympathy
and warm public advocacy in the House of Peers
itself, of Lord SHAFTESBURY.
It cannot be said that the Company has been
well used by the Home Government—that is by
Sir CHAS. WOOD. We may let byegones be bye-
gones, yet it is impossible not to advert for a
moment to the unaccountable pettifogging and
sharp practice of our Indian Secretary. Our
readers have seen it noticed before, but it was, we
must say, a piece of tampering with a contract,
such as we hope never to see again. Had the
Government shared the risk by a guarantee, there
would have been fair ground to ask a share of the
Company's profits after interest for capital ex-
pended had been fairly paid. But to wish first to
avoid all risk, then to share at discretion, for to
that it amounted, in the profits of an able scheme,
and of skilful administration, was inexcusable.
That the Company rightly interpreted the
terms of its contract can hardly be doubted. Lord
CANNING took their view of it in India ; the Press
of this country took the same view; members of
Parliament took the same view ; so at last, whether
Sir CHARLES WOOD took the 'same view or not, he
acted on it, and left the matter to the company and
their old and honourable friend Lord CANNING.
One fact alone shows what difficulty Sir C. WooD
himself had in twisting the contract into something
plausible for his worse than SHYLOCK interpreta-
tion. He received Lord CANNING'S despatch, accept-
ing the Company's views and proposals, in the
middle of January, the Company heard nothing of
it till the middle of March, when they received a
copy of it, with a letter intimating that both Lord
CANNING and the Company had mistaken the terms
of the contract ! In this style did the Indian
Secretary deal with the first company, which pro-
posed to spend English money in enriching the
Indian cultivator, and the Indian Exchequer
taking their own chance of enriching themselves.
We refer our readers, however, to the Chairman's
speech for the full details of the case ; only adding
that we fancy some " Old Indian" was at the
elbow of the worthy Sir CHARLES ; who, never-
theless, must bear the responsibility of acting on
his advice.

We have so recently as well as formerly adverted
to the incalculable value of water for India, that
we need not do more than call attention to it afresh
through this company. That it will pay the
shareholders, and pay them handsomely, probably
splendidly, we do not entertain a moment's doubt,
a remark we shoald not venture, had we a
single share in it. But we look upon this
company as a public benefactor, first to a few
shareholders of the English public— but to
tens, probably to hundreds, of thousands of the
Indian public. We write advisedly when we say
that, having read most which has been written
on the subject of Indian irrigation and canals
since Colonel
and
oalotnoe l COTTON'S book appeared, our con-
viction,t
hwee
Bubb
je
el believe
is, s
vet,hat that oaf
fairall start
ahrot haveonlonly
is wanted to make such companies among
the most popular both in England and in
India. The facility for irrigation, and asso-
ciated water conveyances, is so great; the
almost fabulous agricultural wealth to be
realised from it by the natives so certain, that the
initial success of a well-managed company is all
that is wanted. We fully expect before many
years have elapsed to see India withoverrunwater
en-
gineer, gine ers selecting sites for irrigation and
car-
riage, just as England was overrun by them in the
year of the railway mania. There may be even
similar dangers to guard against.
This company has selected a very desirable dis-
trict, for an account of which we may again refer
to the Chairman's speech. We must, however,
quote one extract :—" To show them the results of
irrigation he might point to one remarkable in-
attune mentioned by Mr. SMITH, an executive officer