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NOTICES TO CORB-ESPOITOBNTS . Our Art-Galleries" is again unavoidably postponed by W ' fDublfn ) . —The communication will appear next week-Ithasbeen found impossible to insert » sooner , ou account of the pressure on our columns . No notice can be taken of aupnymous ^ correspondence Whatever is intended for insertion must be autk 6 ** ^* by the name and address of the writer ; n ° fc a n fS sarily forpublication . but as aKuarantee of his eoodfaitli . We cannot undertake to return rejected coinmunicatwns . Communications should always be ^ ffiZZg ^ gg&Sfc one side of the paper only . If long , it increases tne aimculty of finding space for them .
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THE BENGAL MUTINY . A fortnight ago we took occasion to enter a protest against the "twasn't-so-bad-afterall' fashion of extenuating rebellion , brigandage , and murder . The shocking details since received from Delhi quite justify our remonstrance , showing , as they do , that the conduct of the revolted Sepoys was not only to the full as bad as originally stated , but even much worse than could have been reasonably imagined . Contrary to all anticipations , the Imperial City continued to be held , at the date of our last advices , by the
mutineers , who had then for four weeks exercised undisturbed control over all within the circuit of its walls . The necessity , whether real or fancied , for bringing up a siege train , is a chief reason assigned for ' . the delay which has taken place . However that may foe—and however disgraceful the fact , that the capital of Upper India should for so long a period have been at the merey of thieves and cut-throats—this partial success of the insurgents will perhaps turn out to have been in no slight degree conducive to the eventual restoration of orderand the establishment of
, public security on a more permanent basis . 3 tfot to be suspected of dealing in paradox , let us at once explain our views on this point . Our readers will scarcely fail to remember that , in speaking of the discontents which have since culminated in open revolt , we from the outset proclaimed our firm belief that the whole Bengal Army was in a state of unhealthy excitement , and that dangerous consequences must at no distant date ensue . But such was not the view adopted by the local Government in India . It did not
consist with the policy of Lord Canning ' s miserable advisers to avow truths that would blazon forth their own ignorance and incapacity . The disease must be represented aa merely local ; the old hum-drum nostrnms are applied ; a favourable crisis supervenes ; and the authorities in England are entreated—whatever base reports may reach their ears —to admit no doubts
anent the loyalty , good faith , and devotion of their remarkably obedient army . This is , in brief , exactly what has been done upon the present occasion , and what has been doing , in like emergencies , for many years past . The Court of Directors , ever dreading the bill of costs necessarily attendant upon vigorous measures of improvement , are unhappily too notorious for the facility with which they are content to be imposed on by oouleur-cle-rose sketches from the realms of their ' paternal despotism . ' Such an expensive undertaking as the
reconstifcution of the entire Bengal ( native ) Army was not likely to be seriously considered , unless under the very extreme circumstances that have actually occurred . The Bengal Army has thought fit to meet its employers rather more than half way , about forty of the seventy-four regiments of regular infantry having either mutinied ( wholly or in part ) or laid down their arms , or been formally disbanded ; and the proportion we now gave will doubtless be much augmented on the arrival of another overland mail . Had . . - , , . /> " . J _ l _ . ___ . X- « n "DsMt / vni / -r \ *> +-i « r ^ k \
the mutineers failed in their attempt on Delhi , or been speedily deprived of their acquisition , the real temper of the Sepoys would not have been so openly demonstrated ; whilst on the other hand , every influence would have been exerted to persuade the world at large that the horrible outbreak at Meerut may be traced to special causes , and formed no part of any previously concerted scheme . But now—in the face of acknowledged facts— ' what trick , what device , what starting-hole' is left for those who might deem it for their interest to throw dust in the eyes of the public ? Again , the same
period of delay which , as we have shown , proved useful in elucidating the amount of reliance to be placed on the fidelity of the native soldier , has also done much to substantiate another position equally affirmed by us . In answer to those who will have it that the military discontents are but the reflex of popular feeling throughout British India , we confidently referred to the news that the next incoming mail should bring , in disproof of any such idea . And that mail has arrived , and the whole burden of the intelligence which it communicates is in distinct support
of an opinion which we should not have ventured to hazard , unless on what appeared to be very sufficient grounds . No prince , no man of note , has joined the insurgents . A silly landholder in the neighbourhood of Allyghur ( one of those titular ' rajahs' iu which that part of the country abounds ) , having made a treasonable demonstration on unceremoniousl
his own account , was y hanged by the district volunteers . The semi-barbarous G-oojurs , a sort of domesticated banditti , were naturally on the alert in every collectorate between Delhi and the Hills ; but these gentry do but pursue their natural and professional instincts , availing themselves of an opportunity too good to be resisted . Whenever the fall of Delhi becomes
known , every rat will make for his hole ; and the mutineer troops who were on their march to reinforce the besieged will disperse like morning mists at sunrise . AVe have consistently maintained—however scant our sympathy for rebels and murderers — . that the Bengal Army has drifted into mutiny under the influence of long-continued mismanagement . In military as in all other matters , the rulers of India seem to have been afflicted with a mania for ' assimilation , ' oi ' , to speak more correctly , for forcing upon the reluctant Oriental sundry uncongenial refinements of Western civilization . The Articles
of War for the Native Army aro a pitiable example in point ; and their author , a man devoid of military knowledge or experience , and ( as we gather from the lato Sir C . JSTapjjsr ' b report of him ) animated by tho soul of a Jew attorney , has virtually commanded the Bengal Army since General Tucker ceased to be its Adjutant-General . Sir Pat . Gra . nt , however , is well acquainted with the character and merits of Colonel Biroh ( Government Military Secretary ) , tho officer to whom our observations refer . Tho newsletters , from Delhi inform us that tho 3 rd Cavalry mutineers , after glutting themselves with slaughter , would , point to their lower limbs , and ask the spectators ( alluding to tho
fetters they had worn ) , " Had we not-good cause ? " It is related also , that these same men scorned to plunder ; * they wanted only blood ! ' Eighty-five men , it will be recollected , of the 3 rd Bengal Light Cavalry , were tried and convicted at Meerut of disobedience ^ amounting ( as there was . a distinct combination ) to the crime of mutiny ; and the punishment of mutiny in all standing armies that ever existed is simplydeath . But the ridiculous Bengal Articles of War necessitated the prisoners being ¦/ Vi ^ -A . rt . u a . - — . T "I ; _ . V i . t * TT J — J _ * .. _ Jt
tried by native officers , their secret confederates . These , of course , would not pass a death sentence ; but they did not object , for form ' s sake , to sanction the cruel and insulting punishment ( quite a common one in the Bengal Army ) of twelve years' hard labour , in chains . Those only who know the feelings of a respectable Asiatic can appreciate the horrors such a prospect would present to him . Instant death , in any shape , he would regard as a comparative mercy . Now , had these offenders been brought before a European eourt-martial , a sentence of death would have
been undoubtedly recorded against the whole ; but probably no more than the odd Jive would have suffered , either by lot or selection . The rest might have been simply discharged , or , on expression of penitence , have been allowed to resume their duties , with the sense of having had a narrow escape . But where punishment involves needless insult and disgrace , it degenerates into mere revenge . Our space forbids the prosecution of this topic at present ; but it could be easily shown that our relations with the people of India are replete with instances of ill-judged innovation such as we have quoted .
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THE LIBERALS AND THE LORDS . The constituency of London must not be deprived of its representation in Parliament because the Lords are in the way . The Commons may decide to admit Baron Boths child ; he may take his seat by virtue of an instruction to the Clerk of the House . Next year Lord Dbbbi may be told that the obnoxious form of path is not only unnecessary , but ineffectual , and we really think that the hereditary and prelatical majority can comprehend no other argument . It would be degrading the Legislature to keep up the burlesque of au annual vote in one House , and aa annual veto in the other . We may
tolerate a pause . in legislation , but we have come to a dead-stop ; it is useless to negotiate with political obstinacy or religious prejudice , with Lord Derby , Lord Winohelsea , or the Bishop of Oxford . The foremost parliamentary Liberals , we are glad to see , have adopted this view . They desire to admit Baron Rothschild through the needle ' s eye , and they are right . The main thoroughfare is choked by the peerage and episcopacy . Last Monday , at ti preliminary meeting of Liberals , it was resolved to attempt a decisive movementand in the course of the week the
, names of a hundred and . thirty-nine Members of Parliament appeared at the foot of an invitation to a general conference in Pnlaceyard . There is a break in the stagnant surfaco ; but what if thirty-nine of these gentlemen — sinking the hundred — could agree to act in concert and introduce a policy into tho discussions of the Legislature ? Thoy would constitute a power which no Minister could afford to df epise . Thirty-nine Reformers have now , we may suppose , one object m common : to cut tho Peers adrift , on the . Tmvisli ruination nt lonst . stud uurge intolerance
out of tho Houso of Commas . Tins , then , is a starting-point . Tho end may not bo reached by a single vote ; but the impetus will be given , and there aro grounds for tho appeal to tho constituencies suggested by tho member
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There is nothing so Tevolutionary , Tbecause thereia nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed -when all the -worldis by thevery law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Abhoiu .
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SATTTBDAY , JULY 18 , 18 S 7 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 18, 1857, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2201/page/13/
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