New-York daily tribune., 1859-05-24
MERIT AND NEED IN ENGLAND.

There is an odd kind Of conflict going on IN
England Just now, and has been since the suppress
sion of the Sepoy mutiny, between the Ministry
on the part and the people on the "ther, as to
the reward due 10 Sir John Lawrence for his eminent
services in that work. The respectable body of
the middle class with that instructive love for fair
play hich part and parcel Of the John Bull tenn
permanent, think that CIrcumlocutlonism and Red
tspery have robbed Sir John of the just need Of
hs deserts and are determined to extort it from the
their reluctant hands by persistent importantly. In
this course they have the powerful assistance of
The Times which let's slip no opportunity OF
snubbiDg the men in power for the snobbery dis
played in the distribution Of hOnors The recent
elevation of three four well Handed but person.
ally insignificant gentlemen to the peerage, and
the inhiction Of baTOnetcy upon haf-a-do mctn-
bers If the squiresrchy of some political preponder
ance in their counties doubtless, but of 20 specific
personal weight, has afforded the Thnndrrer The
latest occasion for launching his bolts at the high
places Of the realm The comparison between Sir
John Lawre services to the State and those Of
the gentlemen who have received equal or higher
hopors, gives a good opportunity for energetic
sarcasm, and the opportunity is turned to good
account.
The case of the British people for Sir John
Lawrence. as against the Ministers, is substan-
italy as follows: He had had for many years, as
Chief Commissioner, the government Of the Pun
jaub the country Of the Five Rivers, the dominion
Of Rupjeet Singh-classical as the extreme limit Of
the march of Alexander the Great after the con-
quest of Persia and famous in recent history by
the victories of Cough and Hardinge. At the end
Of the Sikh war. in le49, he was great! instru-
mental in settling the country. aud converting the
Sikhs from the fierce enemies to the loyal friends
of British supremacy. Eight years afterward, in
1857, he found himself on the extreme northern
frontier of British Indis, with warlike mountain
barbarians ready to pour down oa his Presidency
on the one hand, and With the Sepoy mutiny at the
hight # ts confsgraton on the other. He had
with him 81 600 native troops, aud 10000 Eu-
ropeans. As the rebellion made head at
Delhi he dispatched $500 Of hi. English troops
and 25. 600 Of his natives TO assist at the siege.
With the rest of his command he defended bis ter
rtory sgainst the northern mount n'aneers and
maintained internal order so perfectly, that there
was actually less crime within 1t than usual lie
established such Gordon sanitaire along the FIVE
divisions made by the five rivers of the Pupjaub
that the infection Of the mutiny never broke out in
any of them.
In the mean time he disarmed the population
without outbreak and in of any violation oilaw,
compelled the community in which it happened to
make good the losses. He collected the revenue
as usual and il is proof Of the orderly condition
of things within his jurisdiction that it was only
one per cent less than in ordinary years So that
he sent to the relief of the besiegers Of Delhi
f2OO 900 and raised BY loan for the same purpose,
of native chiefs and capitalists, f4l0,0o0 more.
And as the combat deepened around Delhi and it
became more and more apparent that that was the
cardinal point on which the future of British
dominion in India hinged, Sir John dispatched
almost every man, English and native, that he had
retained at first, leaving himself almost entirely
without soldiers of any kind. 1t was to these
timely succ0rs Of men and money, and to the quiet