New-York daily tribune., 1856-03-22


orus NAV be made to reach two millions sterling.
TIE soldiers are $4,000 in number, and are eng
crate types of unpaid rsgsmufiinry' preyins on 'n'
vet more wretched. desperate, driveling PauPe's-
the u,ass Of the nation. In the delicate operation
Of collecting taxes of of such premises 1t Is es''
mated that three-fourths Of the amount has oeen
wont to stick to the hands of the judicious otcais
q lille the judicial arrangements under the coutrol
of pimps. eunucbs, buffoons, parasites ana con-
elomerste loaferdom generally, clenched the nal
Of popular suffering.
At the beginning of this century Lord wellesley
stated to the Nabob Of Dude, as has deliberate
opinion. that the management Of the country
should be transferred wholly to the Company 10
afford the people the rights of property, security
of life, and the administration OF justice. Inis
was fifty years ago; and what was recommend
ed then has now taken place. Dude, by this
measure. is to be snnexed-not sequestrated. The
difference is that in sequestrated province, the
surplus instead of swelling the general revenue OF
the Empire, must be spent within the province
itself. General Outram will be the chief Commis-
sioper. The King will be dismissed with pension
of $500, 900 years sum which ought to be con-
solatOry.
England appears to have been glorously ignor-
ant of the resl state of her Indian Empire In
evidence of this take some horrible and startling
statements of the existence oftorture used directly
bv British officials, in the collection of ground-rent
in he Presidency of Madras. In this part Of British
India there are not native middle-men upon whom
the onus of such cruelty could be thrown, as the
peasant is Immediately responsible to Government.
A commission to decide whether torture is used
has declared that "the only conclusion which any
"impartial minds cOald arrive at is, that personal
"volence, practiced by the native revenue and po-
slice officials generally, prevails throughout the
PRESIDENCY; and that many of these practices
smust cause acute, if temporary or even momen-
"tary, agony; and that in no few recorded in
distances Gas appears by the calendars) oven death
chad followed their intliction." On this subject
great mass of facts are presented, and in reading
them, such as they have just officially been made
known, we do not know which most to admire, the
variety and ingenuity of the tortures, practiced
not only on men but on women, or the fact that
the existence of such system should have been up
to this moment utterly unknown to Exeter Hall or
Parliament. The evidence ia indeed Overwhelm-
ing and the most remarkable part is that witnesses
declare that no laws can eradicate this practice,
sanctifed and sanctioned as it is BY inn
memorial time The Commissioners seek to
paiate these abuses by showing that they are less
horrible than tortures inflicted under the native
Governments. But this defepse is rather ragged
when we remember that the natives die under the
British torture, such as prolonged immersion In
water-tanks; forcible compression Of the arms,
thighs, and even the body, BY tying coil of rope
round them and then applying cold water so as to
cause il to contract and sink into the flesh; burning
with hot irons; hanging heavy stones round the
neck; the stOcks tying up bunch OF defaulters
by The hair so that every movement is attended
with pains starvation; prolonged deprivation of
sleep; beside various other crueltes too disgusting
to describe. Reduced, too, as the East India Com
psny now is, to the necessity of keeping up the
opium trade-a system unparalleled for national
effrontery and brutality, which. as we recently
showed, murders about 500 900 persons year and
renders the propagation of Christianity CHASTITY
farce in CbiDa-tbe Indian Empire in British hands
ne eds beside the abolition of torture at first and
second hands, vast extension to the newy.under-
taken internal Improvements, the better admins
tration of Justice the abolition even Of suttees, to
commend itself to distinct approval. But that
apart, it must not be forgotten that unceasing
war in India is acknowledged by The London Times
to be the inevitable price paid for the original
British conquest and present possession. This
makes fllibusterism the rule of the East Indian
Government. Hence, the impudence Of the British
public in speaking of American Fillibusterism is
simply sublime 1t is difficult to portray the hy-
pOcrisy which lives on fllibusterism in the East,
and denounces it in the West This hypocrisy is
still more vast when we contemplate the ferOcity
with which radicals and conservatives together
raised their discOrdsnt shrieks for the utter de-
struciOn of the fleets of their eastern rival Russia,
in the Black and Baltic Seas. England is not only
the chief fillibuster among European nations, but
is determined if she help it, Russia shall have
no hand in the game. And yet there are those
among us who sympathize with her opposition to
Russia, whose absorption of Turkey would not
only prove politically and industrialy advantageous
to that country, but by establishing political coun-
terpose strengthen the cause Of freedom in gen.
eral.