The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-20 00:00:00

THE SUN,

EDWARDES the acquisition of the northern provinces
of Hindostan, the Company are to him
indebted in a very great measure for the
preservation of their more southern con-
quests in that peninsula. It must ever be pre-
served to remembrance by the annalists of our oriental
empire that the energy, the genius, tile courage, the
discipline, the promptitude, and the precocious
generalship conspicuous in the conduct or the cha-
racter of this young and already illustrious soldier,
proved the salvation of our authority over the Asiatic
races ; and that, moreover, at a crisis which threatened
to prove as perilous as it was unprecedented. Aban-
doned entirely to his own resources, unaided by the
Supreme Government at Calcutta, cut off for a con-
siderable time from all intercourse with the regular
army—it is notorious how Major, then Lieute-
nant EDWARDES, by the sole force of his own
daring temperament, collected together the nucleus
of that military strength which subsequently led to
the occupation of Lahore, and the storming of the
citadel of Moultan. But for the ,barrier raised be-
tween British predominance and Seikh turpitude,
the conspiracy of the rebel chieftains might so far
have prospered in the first instance as to have defied
our tardy efforts at repression, and thereby have ex-
tended the contagion of insurrection among the
scattered millions of that most cunning and treacherous
population. In consideration of these eminent ser-
vices of Major EDWARDES, therefore, the East India
Company have bestowed upon him the magnifi-
cent pension of 100/. per annum, not nine pounds a
month, not forty shilling a week ! We blush for such
mistaken economy, such ignominious parsimony, such
despicable niggardliness ! The more so from the
conspicuous character of the services rendered by
Major HERBERT EDWARDES, and thus recompensed
and principally from the enormous wealth of that
most wonderful of all the companies ever created by
commerce, a Company which is now illustrating its
history by an act of almost unparalleled ingratitude.
Almost, we say, advisedly, for we have not altogether
abandoned to oblivion the meanness and discourtesy
displayed by the Court of Directors in Leadenball-
street, as well as by their representative Council at
Calcutta, towards one of the most eminent of their
peaceful benefactors, the late lamented and enter-
prising Lieutenant WAGHORN. It was with a
mingled sense of shame and indignation that the com-
munity recently beheld the Government of this
country bestowing upon the widow of that distin-
guished man—in consideration of his eminent ser-
vices—how much ? Just five-and-twenty pounds per
annum ! Not the wages of a flunkey ! Not the
amount yearly realised by a street porter ! Was
ever enterprise so astonishing, so miserably estimated ?
The achievement of WAGHORN deserved, we are bold
to say, scarcely less honour than that of the great
COLUMBUS. True, there was about it nothing
whatever of that gorgeous romance which
elevated into the highest regions of the
poetical the deed which has given to immortality
the name of the illustrious navigator. It was a less
romantic but an equally practical benefaction, and
this, moreover, in a strictly practical generation. The
realm of Prester John no lunger presented its beau-
tiful illusion to the fancy. The golden shores of
Cathay had long since given place to those of these
Presidencies. The question was no longer how
to reach India, but how to reach it with the utmcst
rapidity. COLUMBUS proceeded in search of the Indian
continent by a slow movement westward. WAG..
HORN by a swift movement eastward. One adven-
tured across the Atlantic, the other across Europe.
The former, it is true, had the ineffable
glory of discovering a new world and a
new ocean : but the result of the latter enterprise
cannot fail ultimately to prove of almost equal im-
portance in its influence upon commerce, and so also
to a considerable extent even upon civilization. Yet
while Spain invested COLUMBUS with the rank of
Admiral, and elevated him to the dignity of Lieu-
tenant-Governor of the American Continent—Eng-
land has munificently bestowed twenty-five pounds
per annum upon the widow of WAGHOEN. We are
not so much reminding the public of this circum-
stance by way of uttering our condemnation exclu-
sively upon the Cr' overnment, although we cannot but
regard her MAJESTY'S Ministers as being in
this instance to a certain degree culpable.
We are aware that the capacity of re-
warding great public benefactors, granted to
the First Lord of the Treasury, is deplorably re-
stricted, and that that restriction is attributable not
so much to himself as to the Imperial Parliament.
It is with pain and indignation that we recognise the
truth of this assertion in the fact that 1,200/. cone'.
tute the full amount of moneys annually devoted by,
the House of Commons to this species of national re-
compense. When this circumstance is borne in re-
membrance ; when it is considered that the genius
and the goodness of the country is to receive its ac-
knowledgment out of this miserable pittance ; when
it is observed that the Prime Minister has only
twelve hundred pounds per annum to bestow upon
the meritorious of all classes and professions,
upon literary merit and artistic merit, upon
poets, and painters, and historians, upon men of
science and upon men of general enterprise, it can-
not remain much matter of astonishment that the
relict of Lieutenant WAGHORN is insulted by the
niggardly pension of five-and-twenty pounds a year.
The English Premier has this excuse, that he is de-
pendent' for his funds in this particular upon the
niggardliness or munificence of the popular House of
Parliament. Such, however, is not the case with the
Court of Directors of the Honourable East
India Company, in Leadenhall-street. They
were in no such manner debarred from re-
cognizing the eminent public services of
Major HERBERT EDWARDES. Yet, while we
cannot but express our surprise at the par-
simony displayed towards that illustrious young sol-
dier, we have the satisfaction of reflecting that his
youth and his energetic character alike secure to him
competence and independence. A change, neverthe-
less, is required in regard to the treatment of public
benefactors both by the Court of Directors in Lea-
denhall-street, and by the Ministerial advisers of her
Britannic ;MAJESTY : for this change we must con-
tinue to look to the shareholders of the Company and
to the Commons at Westminster.

We have read in ancient myth of an avenging
spirit following a particular family, and involving its
members in diMculties and perplexities, until some
grievous offence had been expiated. It would almost
appear as if the Whig Ministry were subject to such
a fate, and that Sir CHARLES WOOD is the :NE.-
MESIS goading them on to destruction. It would be
a tedious and irksome tax to narrate the full extent
of shame and humiliation to which the Right
Honourable Baronet has exposed his colleagues
through a blind adherence to the fiscal policy which
he has indicated, Defeat after defeat, and
these of no trivial or insignificant character, have
exhibited in the strongest light the dissatisfaction of
the House and Country on the administration of the
financial
as
lds muchepartm tento boftehe Government, or, what is
deprec a tbeyd ,
'scopes," have been only achieved
in-
considerable majorities, and by means of paltry
‘ h atihreba hairbreadth
dotsh;
discreditable dodges and pettiatogingiim devices, wholly
is mighty
slightedn a tn.
Thean d
uvoniwceorthyofthe
pAulbinliiestersopionfion
despised—the most obnoxious, and
uit-
and mulish
able imposts are clung to with an
almost' incredible degree of pertinacity an
perversity. Justice and expediency are alike disre
garded, and a one-sided morality is openly avowed
and unhesitatingly acted on, which if practised by a
private individual would certainly cause the party to
be shunned and avoided by every straightforward and
honourable man, if it did not cause him to be
speedily brought before the tribunals of his country,
which might be befitting the PEACHUMS or LOCKETS of
the dramatist, but are strangely misplaced when falling
from a Cabinet Minister, denominated—by courtesy—
" a statesman." We regret this the more, because
in many respects, more especially in the foreign
policy, we render a cordial and disinterested support
to the present Government; and we do not see how
they could be replaced under existing circumstances.
They must not, however, place too much dependence
on the forbearance of the country, or continue to set
at defiance the calm and temperate, but firm and
resolute, expression of the popular will. They must
be aware that " the people " are the true source of
power, and they must not suppose that they can sap
the foundations on which their real strength is based,