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protest * against the institutions at present existing ; and not only so , but that they are not to be * made aninstrument of disturbance and annoyance ? The last word is very comprehensive and very eloquent . ¥ e know what the Imperial Government would consider an * annoyance . ' From the precaution it has taken to exact the appearance of a candidate to give in his signature , it is quite sure that none of the exiled chiefs of parties can be chosen ; but there area few persons remaining in France who might make themselves verv disagreeable . " We suspect that M . would
Cabwot would be an ' annoyance *—so M . GtoTTDCHATix—so certainly would be General Cavakmtac . At any rate voters are warned that if Power be offended Justice will be severe . Excesses will be ' repressed ' —without any attack on universal suffrage . ' The imperceptible minority of hostile parties' is ' dared' to show , itself . All this is as undignified as it is unjust . No one doubts that riots will be put down , whether they occur in this month or in any other . But when were French elections ever , even during the most stormy periods , made the occasion for ' riots V Never that we know of . The ballot
is at any rate effectual for that purpose . Then we are all aware that no committee , no meetings , no hustings addresses are allowed . " Where is the opportunity for any display that would call for the intervention of force ? The French Government , as well as the French public , knows that at this season , even if there were in the country an inclination to active measures , nothing of the kind
is to be apprehended . Against whom and against what , then , are these threats directed ? " We are afraid they are directed against the opposition which the Circular professes to encourage , against the electors who may come up with hostile or equivocal faces to the election urns , against the candidates who may be so bold as to come forward against the Government list , and so rash as to challenge a majority .
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THE NATIVE AHMIES OF INDIA . There can be no doubt that the discipline of our Sepoy forces has been seriously impaired . A dangerous crisis has indeed just ended favourably . But it is impossible to conceal the fact that a favourable result is solely due to the energy and sound judgment evinced by the divisional commandant at Barrackpore . Had General Heabsey ' s post been filled by an officer less equal to the situation , the event might have been truly lamentable . The
crisis , we now say , is to all appearance over ; and , so tar , there is good reason to rejoice . But will the Indian authorities be content to have simply , and narrowly , escaped a present danger ? And will no attempt be made to trace out , and eradicate , the causes of disaffection ? "We hope for the best , yet almost fear the worst in this respect ; for it has always seemed to us that the Court of Directors are strangely averse to divulging tine real state of affairs . Why they should
be so averse , we pretend not to say : latet causa , vis eat notiaavma . But to us , at least , the revelation is not forbidden : and we shall endeavour to make it as briefly as possible . In the first place , it is both a fallacy and an injustice to suppose that the native soldier has per ae degenerated . The Sepoy of to-day is juat what his great-grandsire may have been in Oiiivjs ' s time ; but everything around him has changed , and his own position ia materially altered . A Sepoy battalion of the old school was very much what an ' irregular' regiment should be * at the present
period . In the old time , a comparatively small number of European officers waa borne on the regimental roll ; but these few were all strictly effective , and their regiment was their home . Officers were selected for employment with a Sepoy corps ; they were then the elite—instead of being , as now , designated ' the refuse ? There existed no ' Sanataria' in those days ; a return to Europe involved retirement from the service—the
absentee ' s place being immediately filled up ; and no man dreamed of soliciting leave of absence , unless on really * urgent private affairs . ' The Sepoy officer of old was neither eminently moral , nor , in general , highly educated ; but he was centuries ahead of those committed to his eharge . His domestic arrangements were ordinarily such as we would not now-a-days undertake to countenance ; but this very circumstance engendered a knowledge of Oriental ways and habits of
thought , to which very few attain in modern times . The ancient intimacy of association between officers and men ( an intimacy never abused by the latter ) has . long since ceased to subsist : —such a state of things being alike opposed to modern ideas , and inconsistent with the rigidity of European discipline . Now we should be very sorry to appear to advocate a return to the moral standard of bygone generations ; nor is anything of the
sort necessary . The improved tone of Anglo-Indian society is a blessing , of which we are by no means disposed to speak in qualified terms . It is only to be regretted that , almost simultaneously with his voluntary abandonment of semi-Oriental habits , the Sepoy officer has found his consequence and authority , as such , reduced almost to nil through the operation of other concurrent causes . These causes are three , viz .:
—1 . The application of an English system of discipline to Asiatic troops . 2 . The withdrawal of the only machinery by which such a system could possibly be maintained . 3 . A mania for centralisation ; which necessitates reference to army head-quarters on the most trivial details , and deprives even the regimental commandant of all power either to punish or reward . As regards the first cause above alleged , we believe it will be readily conceded that the old proverb , ' Let well alone , ' might have been remembered with advantage . In respect
to the second ground stated , it is notorious that the Bengal army has been for years in a state of shameful inefficiency , through the constantly increasing demand for officers to be transferred from regimental duty to staff employ . And this complaint has of late been rapidly extending itself to the other presidencies also . As to the third grievance , it probably results from a sort of morbid con-Bciousness in high places , that the inefficient machinery below can hardly be expected to work with precision or even safety .
Deep-seated evils need active remedial measures . But what has the Government of India been about ? In Bengal , so far as we can understand , it appears to have become the fashion to pet and coax the Sepoys , in order to induce their putting on a semblance of that discipline which no longer exists . In Madras , we are assured that the means adopted for keeping matters ia some degree hthas been to work half of the
straig , onenative army to death in order that the other half at least may be quiet and contented . In th © Bombay Presidency , it is satisfactory to believo that the progress of demoralisation has been less rapid than elsewhere , owing partly to local causes , but chiefly to the fact that the . pretensions of oast a aro altogether ignored . Groat , therefore , was our astonishment at lighting upon the following passage in a Bombay journal of recent date : ?• A jiropoa to tho subject of discipline in the nativo avmy , wo cannot but notice with muoh dissatisfaction ft
circular that has been recently addressed to the conT manding officers of the Bombay regiments by th ~ Adjutant-General , on the subject of the enlistment : nf recruits , in which directions are issued that a preferenr is to be given to high caste applicants over low ones . A more mischievous or inopportune innovation could nr * well , have been made . It is well enough- known that the high state of discipline maintained in the Bombav army is traceable entirely to the utter oblivion of c mte ia its ranks , and the attempt to Bengalise the Bombav army in this respect cannot be too strongly repro bated We trust that some attention will be excited to the matter . "
We trust , in common with our Indian contemporary , that such a matter may receive the instant and earnest attention that it calls for . As to the nature of the remedies proposed , we have no present space for discussing them , but we beg to enter our most decided protest against the Bombay Adjutant-General ' s inoculation scheme .
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THE DEMONSTRATION IN BELGIUM . Representative institutions have just been put to a somewhat severe trial in Belgium , but may , we think , be considered to have been rather strengthened than shaken by the result . The Chamber of Kepreaentativea elected under peculiar influences , and stronglyworked upon from various quarters , was se ^ duced into discussing , and actually accepting , one of those measures which the Catholic
party from time to time propose in order to carry out their cherished desire of bringing modern society gradually back to a resemblance with the society of the middle ages . The Catholic party in Belgium is exactly the same as the Catholic party in Piedmont ; and both obey the impulse and imitate the policy of the great Catholic party of France—in a word , whilst professing to have national objects at heart , their whole aim is to serve the purposes of the Court ofEome . One feature in which all these factions of the
Ultramontane army more especially resemble one another is , that they all have equally a keen appreciation of money-power ; so that whenever you see the fight waxing more furious , and the conflict more deadly , you may be sure that pounds , shillings , and pence are concerned . In this particular case in Belgium , where charity seems always to have been very well looked after by laymen , the clergy have determined to disturb the existing order oi things ; and have done it , by proposing that the Church shall be allowed to administer
property bequeathed for charitable purposes . The bill introduced into the Chamber having ostensibly no other object than to release testators with benevolent views from a certain restraint , was supposed by a few liberals—who have apparently lost in the
struggles of political life that keen sense of coming danger which distinguishes the masses when ecclesiastical encroachments are concerned to be an advance towards freedom , it » even said that the balance was really turnea by the votes of a few mistaken conscientious men . But the people of the towns at once Mk Mia roal meoninar of the measure , me /
saw themselves assailed in the oontoaswMJ by the domestic hearth , upon the death . De ^ oy priests persuading or threatening them . vaxo leaving property to bo administered by we Cnui ' cfi-nominally for charitable purpgj but in reality as an instrument of dom ^ JJJ It was thiaprospect that goaded them into wW has been called a riot , what might have b on a revolution , but what in reality was an posing demonstration of the wtellifignl j ^ of the towns , supported by a few ^ iwrtunj parties , who made use of stones andl m *¦» several windowa . We are so »<^ fc ^ aeo Continental people resort to violence wi ^ they should merely show etaength , ti ai of thoeo who have remarked upon
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* Wo Bay should W adviaqdly ; for pipaeloy « nd routine are already exhibiting' their soul-destroying Influence , even amongst tho * Irrogulara . '
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64 & THE IEAD 1 B , [ No . 37 ft , Saturday ..
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 6, 1857, page 542, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2196/page/14/
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