The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-16 00:00:00

LONDON, WEIMESDAY EVENING, SEPFEM_BER 16, 1857.

THE INDIAN MASSACRES.

WEYMOUTH.

In compliance with. a communication received
from the Lord Mayor of London, Mr. G. C. Wels-
ford, mayor of this borough, convened a meeting
of the inhabitants and visitors at the Guildhall
yesterday for the purpose of taking steps to co-operate
with the London committee in raising funds for
the relief of the destitute sufferers by the mutiny
in- India. His worship presided, and was sup-
ported by Mr. B. J. ,B. Campbell, one of the mem-
bers and by many of the clergy and principal
inhabitants of the town. _ _

Mr. ELIOT, a" county magistrate, proposed the
first resolution, 'which was as follows :
" That this meeting desires to express its sympathy
with the many helpless sufferers who are reduced to a
stale of destitution by the late mutinies in India, and
feels called upon to record its detestation of the unheard
of atrocities of the rebel army, and its cruelty to help-
less females, children, and our unarmed Christian fellow
iubj cts, and trusts that the efforts now being made for
the punishment of the guilty'may, by the Divine bless-
ing, be crowned with the earliest success:"
Captain PROWSE, R.N. , seconded the resolution,
which was unanimously adopted.
The Rev. R. J. LYON proposed the next reso-
lution :

" That, in consideration of the survivors of these un-
heard-of brutalities being now dependent on others for
clothing, food, and slater, in addition to their cruel lose
of husbands and parents, this meeting anxiously entreats
the benevolent contributions of its fellow-townsmen and
visitors to relieve in some measure the want and suffer-
ing of the afflicted."
He urged that it was the duty of all 'Christians
and lovers of their country. not only to do all in
their power to relieve the sufferers by this wide-
spread mutiny, but to do more than that. Never,
perhaps in the history of any heathen nation were
such atrocities heard of as were now perpetrated in
India, and that under the pretext of religion, for
he feared that it was a Mahomedau feeling which
moved those wretches, as he might well call them,
to the perpetration of outrages which could not
be exceeded by a nation of savages.
The Rev. G. JACKSON seconded the resolution,
which was carried unanimously.
Mr. CAMPBELL, M.P., proposed,—
" That subscription lists be opened at eaoh of the
banks and libraries of this town, and that the amounts
as collected be forwarded to the L ird Mayor and the
London committee to be added to the general fund for
carrying out the objects of the meeting."
The hon. member, with the permission of the
Mayor, added the following rider :
"That this meeting, feeling satisfied that the appeal
made on behalf of their fellow-countrymen in India
must be liberally responded to in this country and
throughout our vast possessions abroad, would urge
upon the central committee in London the creation of a
fund having for its object the formation of schools in the
healthy hill stations of India, for the education and
maintenance of the children of European soldiers, this
fund to be created out of the surplus contributions
received, after satisfying the pressing wants of the
sufferers by the mutinies."
He then observed that he was sure a gallant and
distinguished general whom he saw in the room
(General Huish), and who had been some time in
India, would bear tt-stimony to the advantages
which would erise from the establishment of such
schools. They would not only improve the morality
of the army and raise a barrier against the encroach-
, ment of the native influence, but would be likely
to promote coleniiation in our Indian possessions.
Mr. ANDERSON, in seconding the. resolution, re-
mark that the establishment of schools in the hill
districts was no new idea, as tbe subject had been
taken in hand by the late Sir H. Lawrence.
Mr. S. C. HALL supported the resolution.
The resolution, with the rider, was then carried
unanimously.
A committee was appointed to carry out the
resolution, and a vote of thanks to the chairman
was agreed to.
It is intended to make a house-to-house collec-
tion in the curse of a few days ; but the Mayor
announced, during the above proceedings, that
several gentlemen had a2ready put their names
down for sums which amounted to upwards of 551.,
including 201. from Mr. Campbell, M.P.

THE GOOD OLD ELECTION, TIDIES. 11
Our present County and Borough elections are
very tame affairs compared with the glorious sattnei
nalia which used to be celebrated before the Reform
Bill. Those old elections were indeed grand, olds
fashioned affairs. We go back to 'them With a sort
of pride even now. To be sure, they will not
bear examination, but no more would the feasts of
the godson Olympus or the suppers of the .Wat-
halla. Twenty-one days of uninterrupted drinking,
riot, shouting, 'bands playing; colours flying,
crowds marching backwards and forwards througls
the streets, all business at a standstill, all cage
flung aside, a free vent given to everybody's pug-
nacity of fist, leg, or tongue—one universal holy-
day row—this was a glotions seen in its way.
The ancients attributed a sort of divinity and in-
spisation to these scenes of extravagant abandon,
where human nature broke loose from the restraints
of cold reason and gave way entirely to wild
impulses and, humours, to unbounded riot and
genialitye—that poetry of license, • disorder, and
laxity which Poussin sometimes delighted to ex-
press on canvas. These exhibitions were indeed
the last relics of the old Saxon days, with their
wassails, when Christianity and bivilization had but
half conquered the religion of Odin. • •
But it is not only the abcptdon of "the mass, 'the
riot and confusion of the crowd, which deserves
notice in these past scenes ;• but, still more, the
abecnclon of the great families—the blind reckless
expenditure, whichshut its eyes to all consequences,
and resolved to win an Election at the cost of no
matter what number of broad acres, no matter
what fine mansions to be demolished or sold—at
the risk, in stunt, of utter ruin. This is much more
wonderful, in fact, than the 21 day.' row and
drinking in the lower electioneering world, because
the truth is, there was no g.e.t wonder that when
you gave people as much as they liked to drink they
drank it, and, having drunk, wore rather disorderly ;
the wonder was, that gentlemen and heads of fami-
lies should be willing to make that sacrifice of pro-
perty upon which all this riotous festivity arose.
The Yorkshire elections, in which the familieS of
Fitzwilliam and Lascelles enga?,ed, cost hundreds
of thousands, Sir Francis Burdett's election for
Middlesex was also a hundred thous•aid pounds af-
fair, besides the whole contents of the baronet's
cellar, which yielded to the 21 days' sitting of the
committee in his house in Piccarlidy. The contests
in Wiltshire between the Benette Methuens, and
Long Wellesley were enormously costly, as were
also the Norfolk contests between Cole) and Wede-
house. Some of these families have never recovered
from the effects of these o retests ; they are to this
day crippled in means, and have to indulge in the
memory of past grandeur, and refer to the ann
of the family as it flourished in the days before this
and that disastrous election, ss consolation to them
for their present reduced fortunes. The reckless-
ness of electioneering expend tura on the part of
the chiefs who dared to face theca ruinous results is,
as a display of character, more astosi,hing a great
deal than any quantity of drunkeness and fighting
in the crowd. We really stare in amazement, and.
say, " Is this the English character, pcp til arly con-
sidered so prudent, calculating, and co d?" If we
saw this in professed spendthrifts and wild young
twin we shouldnot wonder, but here were the most
respectable men in the country, Leads of estab•
lished families, men in middle life, men proud of
their family position, and anxious t r maintain it
and hand it down undiminished, g ambling fright-
fully. The prospect of a peerage, indeed, was some-
thing, but still one feels that our national character
must have undergone a naodifizatien since those
days. There was something wild and uncivilised in
this enormous extravagance and reckless emptying
of the family purse. Our Romeos and. Capulets
used to meet in the streets and fight it out. This
was fighting with the pocket instead of the sword.
There is a popular heroism connected with simple
expenditure. Great feats of expenditure are ad-
mired by the crowd, and class with conspicu• us acts
of personal courage ; the wholesale sacrifice of the
precious article has for them something in itself
grand, brilliant, and imposing about it, and makes
a "fine fellow." Cleopa`ra drinking her pearl,
and sailors eating back-notes beteeen th it bread
and butter are admired in the'r way, though by a
different class.

Compared with the old heroic electioneering ex-
penses, Lord Althorp's 8,0001. for the last Election
in the Southern Division of Northamptonshire is
almost tame and moderate. NorharaptonsLire
once vied with the most extravagant electioneering
counties in its outlays on these occasions, and now
it makes an effort to sustain its old name—indo,d,
the most valiant effort in this dire3tion that was
made siroughout the whol3 of the late general
election, for Lord Althorp's was, wo beLeve,
most expensive of all the rec nt elections. But how
feeble an effort it is ! The 8,0001. which fi;urts in
the official account of the expenses probably repre-
sents, indeed, a larger sum really expended, 'tut
still such expenditure hides its diminished Read
when compared with the unbounded. carte blanche
of former days. Of this 8,0001. nearly 6,0001. is
about equally divided between lawyers expenses
and expenses of conveyance—two very cold and
ungenial items. The hotel bills amount to 740/. !
What a fall from the unchecked inagnficence of
this department of expenditure, when the " old
anarch," ale, was crowned and enthroned in a
thousand publichouses ! How poor a sound kayo
these " hotel bills !" The spirit of Sir John Fal-
staff rises at that word. " What is that word

hotel ?' Alehouse, I suppose you mein." No ;
we mean hotel. Modern elections know nothing
of alehouses, they only acknowledge hot,lß, where
sober clerks and respectable solicitors meet to
transact business with pen and ink. All this change
which has come over the spirit of elections is, lioff-
ever, only a sample of a general change which bas
come over society at large. Our drinking squires,
our assailants of watchmen, our swealing captains,
are now almost a bygone generation. We here and
there meet with some one who keeps up the old
traditions, but the age has left him behind.—
Times.