The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 15, 1868.

Hardly, however, had the Mahratta insurgents been
signally defeated by Lord ELLENBOROUGII and his
military associate General Sir HARRY (now Field
Marshal the Lord) GOUGH—the latter of whom was
sung of, not long afterwards, by an enthusiastic
brother Irishman as—

" . . . A cross betwixt
A Bull-dog and a Salamander"—

when, by a decision of the Board of East India Direc-
tors, Lord ELLENBOROUGH, the victorious Governor-
General of India, was summarily recalled. He was
recalled by what the Great Duke of WELLINGTON
took occasion at once to designate " a most indis-
creet use of authoitty." He was recalled contrary to
the expressed wishes of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Govern-
ment. He was recalled not by the Crown, but by the
Company. But, by whatsoever authority, discreetly
or indiscreetly, wisely or unwisely—he was recalled.
His recall, however, was so repugnant at the time to
the QUEEN'S Government, that Lord ELLENBOROUGII,
until then simply a Baron, was simultaneously created
Viscount SOUTFIAII and Earl of ELLENBOROUGH. Sir
ROBERT PEEL, then Prime Minister, not only raised
him thus at once two degrees in the peerage—
he summoned him to a seat in the Cabinet, select-
ing him to be First Lord of the Admiralty. That was
immediately upon his return to England in 1844
disgraced by the Company but crowned with honour
by the Crown. Fourteen years afterwards, namely,
in 1858, the late Prime Minister, Lord DERBY,
still further signalized the national sense of the high
merits of Lord ELLENBOROUGH as one of the most
illustrious, and, let us add also, as one of the most
successful Governor-Generals who had ever been en-
trusted with the Government of India since the days
of WARREN HASTINGS, by installing him again in
office as President of the Board of Control. Never-
theless, such being the opinions entertained in regard
to Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S Governor-Generalship by
the Crown and by the Legislature—by three such
leading statesmen as Lord DERBY, as Sir ROBERT
FEEL, and as the Duke of WELLlNGTON—whatever
we may think about the unjustifiable character of
his recall by the East India Directors, the latter
had, at any rate, their reasons for arriving at that
decision, no less undeniably than they had the autho-
rity,while so thinking, to act upon their determination.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH had exercised the power of
Governor-General for more than a whole year—for the
better part of two years if we remember rightly. He
had had a policy of his own. That policy he had
made plain to the whole world by acting upon it. He
had made war, as we have seen, upon the Ameers of
Scinde. lie had made war upon the Mahrattas of
Gwalior. The Company judged him by his acts, and—
so judging him—they summoned him abruptly back
here to England.
There is no sort of analogy, however, between the
recall of Lord MAYO, and the recall of Lord ELLEN-
BOROUGH. The latter instance has simply been here
referred to by ourselves by way of contrast—not by
way of comparison. Lord MAYO has only just been
named to that post of dignity and of responsibility.
By his acts we cannot judge him. lie has not yet
arrived even at the seat of what was intended to be
the scene of his five years' Government. Scarcely has he
taken his departure, when the Minister whoselectedfhim
resigns the Premiership, while a new, in every sense
a thoroughly new and most originally-constructed
Cabinet is inaugurated under the leadership of Mr.
GLADSTONE. That First Minister of the Crown has,
of course, high Reasons of State for a proceeding so
startling and unparalleled as this sudden recall of
the Viceroy of India, who was but yesterday,
as we may say, selected by his immediate pre-
decessor as First Lord of the Treasury. The
act has, at the same time, about it a double
significance. It is a slight to Lord MAYO, and it is a
slight ti Mr. DISRAELI —to the selected and to the
selecter. And, however else it may be regarded, it
certainly cannot but be looked upon as a very signal
and a very public disgrace, a disgrace lasting, and
even, it may be said, historical, inflicted upon Lord
MAYO himself, upon the Governor-General who is
thus summarily and peremptorily recalled. The
First Minister of the Crown, we doubt not, will be
enabled, when the time comes for explanation, to vin-
dicate the course he has pursued in arriving at this
extraordinary determination. But, in the meantime,
in our capacity as independent Liberals, we may be
permitted, without anticipating in the slightest de-
gree the terms of that explanation, without derogat-
ing in the least from the dignity of that solemn
responsibility under the consciousness of which the
Prime Minister has arrived, we are absolutely certain
beforehand, most deliberately and most conscien-
tiously at this startling determination—we may be
permitted, we say, in our capacity as independent
Liberals, to express an earnest sympathy with the
noble lord upon whose career, upon whose ambition,
upon whose heart, this sudden summons of recall will
descend as with the crushing blow of a thunder-
bolt.

COMEDY and tragedy are very closely allied. A
few days ago the police-court at Kendal was kept in
" roars of laughter " by an incident which, to us,
reading, instead of hearing it, seems full of pathos.
A 44 quaint-looking old man," JONATHAN HOLDEN,
was brought before the magistrates charged
with being drunk and incapable. The man
acknowledged the truth of the charge, and
then, amid great laughter, he besought the
magistrate to give him " three months." "You'll
do me a great kindness," pleaded the man ; and then,
when the magistrate doubted if he had power to
award so long a term, the poor old drunkard urged
his request again. " I want to be locked up, anyhow,
for I'm tired of wandering about, living on kicks and
curses, and sleeping o' nights on doorsteps and
pigsties." Surely a pathetic request; but it only
excited in those who heard it " great laughter."
The man was not to be laughed down. "I'm vara
near starved and hungered to death. They won't ha'
me i' the workhouse, they won't ha' me anywhere."
Kicks, curses, sleeping with the pigs, starvation, to be
spurned from every door, even from the door of the
poor's house, may be amusing, but to us they seem to
partake rather of tragedy than of comedy.
Not so with the people of Kendal ; there was
" much laughter," and again " great laughter"
when the old man replied to the magis-
trate's objection, that the law would not allow
so long a term, " Oh, never mind the law. You can
just make a little one as 'II do for mesel. If you don't,
I'll go and do something which 'll make you send me
for six months, and then I'll be happier nor I've been
for vara many a day." But the magistrate was stern
and inflexible. Tie would not grant this suppliant's
request—the prayer which meant for him generous
food, though prison fare, and warmth, though in
a cell, raiment, though the convict's motley,
and a comfortable bed, though a hammock.
Ile got but one week, and when he
comes out he will have to return again to his
bedfellows the pigs, and to the kicks and curses of
his fellow-men. He has given good warning that
he will "do something " which will get him " six
months." And who will blame him if he fulfils his
threat ? Who will hold him guilty if he forces
society to take notice of the misery which it now
only curses or laughs at ? Six months in gaol is
better than the pigsty and the outside of the
poorhouse, and the mirth of fools.

TIIE Mausoleum at Frogmore is progressing.
It has already cost more than 1::200,000. Probably
it will have cost a quarter of a million before it is
finished. It is a masterpiece of decorative
art. But is it quite the memorial that
the PRINCE CONSORT would have chosen ?
He was not a great statesman, and yet

he has a monument infinitely grander than the
greatest statesman ever had ; he was not a great
philosopher, and yet no philosopher in ancient
or modern time was ever sepultured in such a last
home as this. He was simply a good man, doing his
duty in a difficult sphere with conscientiousness and
discretion. He loved the country which had adopted
him ; he had a philanthropic heart and a cultivated
mind. If he had been asked what memorial he
wished to have, this mausoleum would have been the
last thing that he would have chosen. Ile would
have preferred to found scholarships for the
advancement of learning, as Mr. WHITWORTH
has done, or to have erected homes for
the poor of our large cities to dwell in,
as Mr. PEABODY has done. He would have mourned
over such prodigality of expenditure as that which
has been levied upon his mausoleum, for he would
have said how much better to instruct the ignorant
and to house the living than to build this sumptuous
house for one to whom all art, all beauty are nought,
and for whom a narrow chest affords room enough
and to spare.

LATEST INTELL MENGE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

SPAIN.

MADRID, Dee. 14.

General Dulce left last evening for Cadiz, where
he will embark the day after to-morrow for

Havannah.

The Correspondencia says that no orders of the
Government were communicated to the Duke of
Montpensier to return to Lisbon. When he arrived
at Cordova he there learned that neither reaction-
ists nor Carlists were concerned in the revolt at
Cadiz, and that it was only an outbreak of the ex-
treme fraction of the Liberal party. The Duke of
Montpensier might possibly have been misinformed
as to the character of the outbreak, but he had no
intention to take any part against the revolution.
Alter having arrived at the conviction that no
more blood would be shed, he left for Lisbon. In
order to mislead public opinion, a rurnoar had been
spread at Cadiz, and other points of Andalusia that
the Government intended to impose the candida-
ture of the Duke of Montp3nsier by means of a
ooup d'etat.

This rumour is a calumny both against that Go-
vernment and the Duke of Montpensier. The
Dukewill only accept the crown in the event of the
Constituent Cortes chosen by the free voice of
all liberal parties of the nation should offer him the
throne.

ROUMANIA.

BUCHAREST, Dec. 14.

The Minister of the Interior has issued a circular
to the prefects forbidding all subscriptions for the
purchase of arms for Greece, and laying stress
upon the necessity of upholding the principle of
strict neutrality.

AMERICA.
ARRIVAL OF THE UNION.
(Via Southampton.)

NEW YORK, Dec. 3, Noon.

The Alabama House of Representatives has
passed a bill repealing all laws -forbidding inter-
marriages between blacks and whites.
The report of General Carstairs' victory over
the Cheyenne Indians is confirmed. He captured
900 horses and a, large quantity of arms and pro-