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Leader (1850-1860), 1st August 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, No. 384, August -1,1857] THE LEAD E B. 7...

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      The Indian Revolt. Another Overland Mail...

      hold of the mutineers . Meerut is , and lias been since the commencement of 1853 , the head-quarters of the Bengal Artillery . Here , within forty miles of Delhi , are the principal . laboratory for military and scientific purposes , the schools of instruction , and the parade grounds upon which the gunners of the corps are exercised in the use both of field and siege ordnance . We should certainly have imagined that at Meerut , if anywhere , the needful appliances would have been forthcoming on ati emergency like the present . But that they are not so forthcoming is too evident ; and , whenever there shall be leisure for deliberate inquiry , it is much to be feared that the facts adduced will tend to substantiate against the local Government a fresh case of blind security , mistaken economy , or reckless neglect . The military sedition , has in the meantime extended itself to nearly all the remaining stations comprised within the limits of the Bengal Presidency . The discontent which had for many weeks been smouldering in the cantonments of Rohilcund ( Bareilly , Mora-¦ dabad , and Shahjehanpore ) , had at length exploded in acts of open violence and bloodshed . The Calcutta authorities had tardily . adopted the example set them by the more energetic rulers of the North W ^? st and Punjab provinces , in disarming the native regiments at Barrackpore . The Bengal Sepoys have in fact done their worst ; and the game of mutiny is played out , so far as they are concerned . That game has been played in some respects boldly enough ; and the continued existence of our empire in the East is perhaps mainly due to the circumstance that unity of purpose and simultaneous action are all but impossible where Asiatics attempt to combine , whether for good or for evil : It is satisfactory to find that the Madras and Bombay armies remain true to their salt , and that a trifling emeutc in the Nizam ' s cavalry at Aurungabad had been * suppressed without difficulty . Neither does there appear i to be any overt sigu of wavering faith amongst j the native potentates ; and it is a singularly ] ¦ fV wf : ! i nnfcn pniifiir'i'Anpe I' . lml : + ; lif > t : \ vn f > . lii £ » f * si i

      whose friendship and resources ai-e most re- | lied on at the present moment should be ; those of Grwalior and Bhurtpore—both of whom are , as it were , foster-children of the ' British power . These princes at least may , be deemed sincere in their attachment to i the Government under whose auspices they have been , trained up to rule their own here- ( ditary dominions . Need we waste our in-1 dignation upon Wajid Ali , ex-King ofj Oude ? The poor fellow has been taken up as a conspirator . And no doubt he did conspire—for the very simple reason that lie couldn't help it . Treason came in . the honest gentleman ' s way — and he found it : that's the fact . If our Government desired Wajid Ali to keen clear of Dlots ,

      his ex-Majesty should never have been permitted to reside in such a locality as Garden Beach . How , in the name of twigs and birdlime , could a retired monarch amuse himself , being so situated , and at such an inviting crisis , in any other way than that adopted by Wajid AliSuauP But to regard such intrigues in the light of crime would be absurd . One might as well indict the last ily that fell in the trencle pot , or bring our cat Tipppo to a court-martial for misdemeanours committed by him when accidentally locked up in the dairy . No ; Wajid Ali is better lodged , for the present , in irorfc William ) for there he can be merry and harmless with his ' pipe and his pot and his nddlers three , ' whilst the storm without howls innocuously for him and Ins . And so once more the curtain drops ; but the , tteno & menf is yet to come . we arc ,

      moreover , still as far as ever from having de' cided on what principles our reconquered sovereignty shall be administered . The question in debate is , broadly stated , this : — " Shall the Laws , Customs , and ^ Rel igions of the East be henceforth respected by us ; or shall we again essay to rule by means of the ' instruments , ' which the Romulus Augustui-us of LeadenhalL-street , Mr . U , D . Mangles , * proposes to employ ?"

      The Indian Revolt. Another Overland Mail...

      * Vido hia opoocU ia tho House of Commons , Juno Hth ,

      No. 384, August -1,1857] The Lead E B. 7...

      No . 384 , August -1 , 1857 ] THE LEAD E B . 733

      New Epoch In India. These Is A Great Pro...

      NEW EPOCH IN INDIA . These is a great problem which will be little affected by whatever intelligence arrives within the next few weeks from India , and that is , upon what principles shall be based the future government of our great Eastern empire ? Three organisations exist from which the materials may be derived—the House of Commons , the East India House , and the Board of Control . But those three powers , upon which the destinies of British India have hitherto depended , must undergo j serious changes before the enormous mass of ] dominion appropriated by Great Britain in ^ A n ? n s * n > -i 1- % * - % . o Arwinricjfirvn / ari Tcn . t : ri finp /» paH r \ i + in + / Jk

      XjLOltV UiVU . U \ S tVUlllAlilU VVJ . WU . T » * w *_» yuvvxww v * . * - * . security . The fault of Parliament has been that it' has totally neglected India . Unless when some terrible disaster , such as the Afghan massacres , has startled the nation into intense but transient solicitude , the House of Commons has invariably voted India a bore—that is the Parliamentary expression ; and even , when , three years ago , the Charter was discussed , which conferred for ten years a new lease of power upon the political proprietors of a hundred and fifty millions of people , the House was frequently on the point of beiug counted out . An ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer—a Yorkshire gentleman , who never once broke the reins of routine —being suddenly placed , to suit his ) arty , upon the virtual throne of three territories , each considerably larger than France , poured forth for five hours to the Speakeb , the clerks at the table , and from twenty to thirty British representatives ; and upon that night was voted , by a majority made up

      from the lobbies , the coffee-room , and the theatres , a Charter which gave over to twentyfour gentlemen , to their deputy in Calcutta , and whatever Whig or Tory might happen to find himself President of the Board of Control , a region greater than ever Alexander conquered , and the authority to raise armies , to levy taxes , to interfere with the religion and the religiously-loved social habits of thirteen considerable nations . Among those nations are scattered a fewhandfuls of Englishmen—about one individual to every seventeen thousand of the population ; but verily , until the English public heard that a terrific mutiny had taken place in Bengal , and that the Europeans at Delhi and several other cities had been slaughtered , the country thought

      infinitely less of the British Indian Jilmpire than of the Crystal Palace or the Empress Eugenie ' s bonnet ; and we say that this ia the reason why Bengal has been , bathed in the blood of insurrection . There are local , political , and administrative causes which we shall carefully examine ; but before all , and beyond all , has been the great cause—apathy at home . The Board of Control , the Court of Directors , and the Governor-General have been entrusted with a power which has not been watched or controlled , a power most difficult to exercise , almost boundless as it is , and yet one that at any point of time or place may strike the spark which kindles a war or a rebellion . Lord Dalhousib annexed four extensive kingdoms , and brought sixteen millions of

      people under British rule , and yet what attentioa did his proceedings excite compared with the attempts of Sir Thomas Wilson to enclose Hampstead Heath ? It is as when Btxuke said a bramble at your nose seems greater than an oak at five hundred yards ' , distance . And what if , while we are squabbling over Finsbury Park , we should hear a report from across- the Indian Ocean that we had forfeited our rank among empires ? It is our rank among empires which is at stf . nlrft T ^ vftrv milifn . rv mipstinn—tlift fall nf

      Delhi—the actual quietude of Madras and Bombay—the numerical strength of the mutineers—all becomes a matter of insignificance when weighed against the necessity of a radical change in our statesmanship bearing upon India . A sudden triumph over the military insurgents would be the worst event that could happen . It might lull us into pernicious security . We have to face more than one formidable obstacle in the way of reform , and ret reform must be carried out . The East [ ndia Company is an institution which has jroWn old in the service of the empire ; but T * y-fc + it-Mrt lina s * r \ yv \ cx "Pm * AnnnOPA "WA fiCt "Hill " .

      mean blind , unhesitating change—but the evidence is irrefutable , that the present double government of India is an unwieldy mechanism , the parts of which can never be brought to act harmoniously together , and the spirit of which is wholly irreconcilable with the progress that has been effected in the other institutions of the realm . For the colonies we have done much , for India little or nothing . It would not be difficult to show , by a plain statement of facts , that ; our Indian possessions have outgrown the capacity of Leadeuhall-street , even when aided by the collective wisdom of the Board of Control ; but at this point occurs the question by what process and in what form to remodel the Home Government of India , so as to release it from complex obsoletisms without throwing it iuto the hands of a Minister . To create a secretary of state for Indian affairs is a suggestion which we think the House of Commons could

      not for a moment entertain , since it is a proposal which would invest a corrupt Cabinet with a power of despotic patronage sufficient to taint every source of legislation . The salaries at the disposal of the Premier would suffice to secure him—so long as politicians are to be bought and sold—an amount of influence which could be tolerated in no constitutional country . Of what use destroying Old Sarum if corruption is to riot ia Bengal ? A hundred golden prizes would be entrusted to the Premier of the day , and this wo conceive is not a desirable result . Xet there must be responsibility , there must bo patronage , and it appears to many who have studied the exigencies of our Indian empire , that the Board of Control might be merged

      in a court similar in constitution , to that in Leadenhall - street , but appointed by Parliament , and retiring by rotation . An idea of this kind should be taken for what it is worth ; but it is obvious that the existing system has failed . In the past it was triumphant , and wo believe much glory accrued to England through the conquests and acquisitions of the East India Company ; but the question is one of development . TJnhappily the Company has not grown with the growth of the State . It is scarcely consonant with a period of diminished prerogative , of reform , of pure parliamentary government . The first point to bo considered-, therefore , apart from the physical repression of the mutiny , is the plan by which tho Homo Government ot India may be remodelled , in connexion with Parliament , yet not in dependence on tuo Minister .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 1, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01081857/page/13/