The Press. — 1857-09-19 (London, England)

INS-t) reveal, under circumstances which would insure a wide publicity and extensive perusal of my evidence, those monstrous perversions of justice to which I have been for years endeavouring to direct the public attention.  Mr. Luard then proceeds to make a number of statements, as he avers, on his own knowledge, regarding the iniquities, and misgovern. ment, and corruption that prevail. He winds up these by telling us that one of his own assistants, a Bombay civilian, caused the death of a native by beating him and having urine put down his throat by the lowest caste that. could be procured, having previously with his own hands dragged him to prison by a rope tied about his heels, beating him with a bridle on the hack all the way. And for doing this he adds that the civilian escaped scot-free. He says that a commander-in-chief in India once ordered his aide-de-camp to shoot a trooper of the Bengal cavalry, and that the trooper was shot accordingly and the case hushed up. He affirms that he has known respectable native officers tied up and Hogged before the whole regiment, and then dismissed, without any sort of inquiry ; and that, though they complained, the commanding officer was related to Lord Dalhousie, and that of course there was no redress.  Such are some of the charges brought by Mr. Luard against our rule, and he winds up his pamphlet as follows : -  . Colonel Sykes says an inquiry into the causes of this mutiny must take place. It ought; but no inquiry ever has taken place yet into Indian crimes, simply because they are too disgraceful and too numerous ; but the affairs of India have now become history. Its people have thrown off our rule, and this they never would have done had we governed them better than their native princea ; nor would anything have caused the Hindoos and Mahomedans to combine saving a great common cause ; and no other cause yet assigned wculd affect the prejudices of both. This outbreak has been foreseen for years. Sir Charles Napier foretold it ; so did the tree press ; so did the natives themselves ; so did I ; so did every honest, practical man who had courage to speak his real opinions. The annexation of Gude was the last inciting cause of it by bringing so large a number of Bengal sepoys under our rule; but the origin of the revolt is to he found entire in these pages, and need not be sought fur elsewhere. And now, reconstructors of the Indian empire, stiy what shall be done with this people of whom rightly or wrongly you have aasutned the government and all its fearful responsibilities towards God and min? Shall the sun which never sets on our dominions only shine on this portion of them to display a scene of suffering, degradation, and brutality on the one hand, and crime, corruption, and rapacity on the other, which the world has rarely seen equalled and—in its atrocious details of misery—never surpassed ? Shall we who proudly consider ourselves the salt of the earth ( how aptly do the words apply, if the salt have lost its savour wherewithal shall it be savoured ), the champions of Christianity, the promoters of civilisation, shall we first commit by the hands of our Government and then wilfully ignore, and by ignoring sanction, the bribery, corruption, falsehood, murder, and tyranny of which these pages contain an outline too scanty to convey the faintest idea of the fearful reality ? Whatever the late atrocities may have proved the natives of India to he, we have undertaken to rule them—sad we cannot escape the responsibilities that rule imposes on us. The day of reckoning must come, if it be not already at the doors. Our armies may reconquer Indian ground, but Indian hearts and the great object of our mission to India are lust fur ever. That object was to benefit our fellow. creatures, advance the interests of civilisation, and aid in the propagation of Christianity. We have disgraced God's holy name in a heathen land ; we have deliberately made ourselves a curse to those whom it was our duty to have protected and defended; we have driven them to