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    beaten tha Sepoys in hand-to-hand conflict before Delhi . They are a brave , hardy , warlike , and vigorous , though diminutive people . . They might at least have been the saviours of Cawnpore ; but they were ordered off the British territory . That fact we repeat , and . we , recommend the relatives of the slain to put Lord Canning upon his conscience , and ask him why he permitted a thousand Christians to . be murdered by the Najta Sahib . "Within a week he waa eager to obtain the assistance of the ten thousand allies whose

    friendly offer he had rejected . But it seems to be Xord Cannin g ' s doom to be a week , or a month , or three months behindhand . What did he know of India tli at he should dare to write home after mutinies had taken place , and assure the Cabinet that all causes for alarm had subsided ? The first blow was struck in January ; had he acted with sense or energy he might have had twenty thousand reinforcements with- him before July . But he expressed his confidence in himself and his

    Sepoys ; and the Imperial Government slept while during the months of February , March , April , May , and June the rebellion gathered force , and Parliament listened to satisfactory explanations from Mr . Vebkon Smith . Then we learned that the spectre of a Mogul had appeared at Delhi , and that Lord Canning ' s confidence meant anarchy and massacre . Here arose a double responsibilitythat of the local and that « f the supreme authorities . How did Lord Canning act ?

    Everyone knows by . this time . He took few or no precautions . At the very localities pointed out to him as centres of anxiety , he allowed conspiracies to ripen into actual revolt , and no one has yet ventured to calculate at what a sacrifice of human life—to say nothing of power endangered , or property destroyed — the Governor-General nursed himself in blindness and apathy . If the actual cost be incalculable , what of the interests he hazarded ? What of Calcutta itself

    m flames , half the Europeans murdered and the survivors flying to Fort William or ** the sea ? , Of Allahabad captured by the mutineers ? Of all Bengal Proper ravaged ? Yet it was not until the last moment that [ Lord Canning partially guaranteed the community against these horrible chances . The natives began buying arms in the bazaars with unusual activity .. Was this interfered with r . No . All the guns , pistols , and steel weapons for sale in Calcutta were bought . up , and the Governor-General allowed

    assassination to sharpen its knife in the open streets . He was at work in other quarters . He was bridling the press . He was shamefully confounding a number , of . public-spirited English journalists with a swarm of malignant and seditious Oordoo scribblers engaged in the avowed , occupation of hounding on the military rebels in their , murderous crusade against the British inhabitants of India . There wa . 8 , nothing to prevent ten thousand Mohammedan s and Hindoos from beginning i * fusillade , along < the wharfs of Qnlcutta ; Lord Panning was content when ho had gagged The , Englishman and the JInrkaru .

    ^ Ie . Jnjew , or ought , to have known , that General , Hjswctx was unfit to command at Meerut . He , knew ,, or ought to hare known , that four , regiments , at , Dinapore should , not be , Jeft under the ,. charge , of , an epileptic $ jji ent , seventy . years , of age , who had to be . rJtftgcUn , and out qf hia . saddle .. He cannot « XG . usB ,, hinifcGlf on . « thci ground tfiat . this waa ajmhtary . matter .. ,, JWd ? iq , eeorejb that . he 4 > r , $ tend , e , 4 £ o , bo Qo ^ mftii ^ Qr-ii ^ jQUiefjaa w ^ l l W ; , Ppyernor-Geneal , v m * d , , that r qven \ poor WenWUi A ^ n , . wasjHSQWQtmies , overruled -Wo .. he > . 49 fljrpd , to . Mho [ Y ^ wa measures . - i ?^ ' ^ w' *^ t : ^^ »^ ^» AN'i ! . was mhW . TptVWt to -MacW to wape 45 foi tt . the

    meddlesome tyranny of the civilian Viscount at Calcutta . It is Lord Canning , and Lord Canning alone , who is responsible for the fatal imbecility displayed at Meerut and Dinapore . Yet the General , seventy years old , is superseded , and ; "will be . tried ; the man who knew what he , was , and left him where he ought not to have been , is—who knows what we shall have to pay for it ?—the supreme authority in India . We should like to see the letters written

    by Sir James Outham and Sir Henry Lawhence from Lucknow . Did they recommend the disarmament of the Oude chiefs and their followers ? Did they point out tlie perilous situation of that territory long before the mutiny began ?_ ^ Who advised Lord Canning to watclT ^ tlie movements of Cheeb Singh in Berar—a man with a standing grievance and a standing army , who was permitted to maintain a little park of artillery , which he lent to the Dinapore rebels , and who is now in arms against us ? Bad symptoms were betrayed in Bengal and the North-West Provinces soon after the conclusion of the Eussian war . In fact , the mutiny had begun to develop itself . Peculiar organizations in the army were heard of ; the lotus and the cake passed through India like the bearded flame in the tragedy ; the native prints were insolent and exultiugin their language ; both Hindoos and Moliamtnedans talked aloud ,

    although vaguely , of certain coming events . Who cannot fancy a faultless British peer holding up an eyeglass , remarking , "How very curious !* ' and wondering what he had to do with it ? Mark , we are not jocular . This is exactly the light in which our representative men of the aristocracy regard a great public crisis . ' It is not laughable ; it is very

    . Lord Canning , in the latitude of Oriental ruby-and-diamond beds , kept himself- remarkably cool while insurrections and slaughter did their work in the "U pper Provinces . . Coolness was also the prevailing characteristic of the departments at home . They resolved so to order the departure of troops that they should arrive in India in the cool season . Havelock might couduct a July campaign , Wixson a July siege , Whuexeb and Lawkenck a July defence ; there were midsummer massacres ;

    while heavy transports were plunging across the Atlantic , the aun burnt deep stains of blood iuto the Indian soil ; therainy , season washed them away , while fclie . frightful conflict added new blots to nature itself ; and the light August breezes played upon the sails that were slowly bringing succour round the Cape . Nothing could then be done with the overland route . And yet something is now to be done with ib . It was absurd to talk of sending , artillery men vid Egypt ; and . yet via Egypt artillerymen are to go . The Peninsular and Oriental and the Australian , steam

    vessels are to carry them . It is four months since this was suggested , and the Government has only just discovered it to be practicable . A thousand bluejackets might have gone , up to Delhi before the ¦ end . of June ; Captain Pbel is now taking them up , but he may be too late : at all events-he is too late

    to , prevent much that has happened and that might have been pi'evejatedv I » . Jndm , responsibility is concentrated—Lord Canning is . master . At homo it . is divided ,, we' suppose . Mr . Beiinai . Osjjojinej Cor instance , may be held responsible » p au Admiralty ollicial for uot diiBcpvieriugi , until , la . » fc ; waek ^ jbhat a ftnv gmVbQftts . migUtrbo . usqfulmJndift . ' i „ ¦ „ ,. ¦

    , I he Governm © ut jis ,. getting , , » 6 ; mope , than fail ? play , w , q , ajto . tojd ^ , , \ Me » . question whether the , ¦ , 9 »\ iiiQ ,- » aqri ,. o-f tutr . pilay iwiHr laeto much longer . ; v , Thereifmay . ( b $ > encouraging , now-a fpv > m i India ,, 'but nve vtte / to , Qoud ^ ne , criminal

    neglect even while its results are spreading in a circle of bloodshed and' disaster ? We have always insisted upon fair play towards public men ; we were alone , perhaps , in dealing justly with the Duke of TfEwcAs'ix . E during the Crimean war ; we feel nothing but contempt for the bungling and impertinent criticisms passed upon the strategy of Haveioce , who , we are told , ought to have marched upon Lycknow and relieved the garrison ! But if a Governor-General of India is not to he held responsible , if an Administration is not to be blamed for dilatoriness when , every Tiour calls for earnest and vigorous exertion , we know not why public opinion should exist , or why , indeed , General Haveiook should have made forced marched from Allahabad , to Cawnpore . We want something like a forced march at home ; somebody like . Eawsencij at Calcutta . Taic play by all , means towards thg ^ Ministers of the Crown ; but next session , let them burst the walls of Parliament with their oratory , they cannot remove the fact that Lord Canning , their representative , was amply warned , and that he neglected to . take even the slightest precautions . If" they support him , they undertake bis responsibility ! .

    Untitled Article

    MR . BIJCHANAN AND THE FORTY PRIESTS . The case of ' bleeding Kansas' was presented to Mr . Buchanan by Professor Silliman and forty-two other persona of Connecticut , who made their appeal in the name of Divine Power ; prromising , however , that in any event the memorialists would exercise their influence to procure the Divine countenance for his administration . Their case is so well summed up by Mr . Buchanan himself that we may quote the abridgment of it from his replv : —

    " You first assert that the ' fundamental principle of the Constitution of the "United States , and of our political institutions , is , that the people shall mak e their own laws and elect , their own rulers . ' You then express your grief that I should have violated this principle , and through Governor Walker have employed art army , ' one purpose of -which is to force the people of Kansas to obey laws not their own nor of the United States , but laws which it is notorious and established upon evidence they never made , and rulers they never elected , ' and as a corollary from the foregoing , you represent that I am ' openly held up and proclaimed , to the great derogation of our national character , as violating in its most essential particulars the solemn o * ath whicb . the President has taken to support the Constitution of this Union . ' "

    These , as Mr . Buchanan says ,. are heavy charges , which ought , if they are well founded , to consign his name to infamy ; or , if they are made without having been duly verified , they ought to rebound with withering ; condemnation on their . authors .. Now , what are the facts ? When he entered upon the presidential office , the Territory of Kansas had been organized under an act of Congress ; it had a Governor , Territorial Secretary , Judges , and executive officers ,

    appointed by hia predecessors , a code of laws enacted by the Territorial Legislature , and a whole . nublic machinery in , full working . It .. is true . that there had been a controversy respecting the validity of th , e legislatorial election , and of the lavvs passed , by the Legislature , ; bub Congress had recognized the Legislature , more ; than once . That dplegato elected , by the , House of llepresen .-tatives at the . Congress had completed his term of service before Mr . Buchanan ' s

    inauguratioaj ... In-short , , t ] io president njight aa well have eoHwninod into tho tenure and relation of , any other Territory in the ITmipn ,, . But ( jiliiB itj npt . a ¥ ; there was unojther -fucj ; , ' / Within the * . Territory of iCanaaq | t 3 > era , A ^ two p / u'tiqs , on © upholding fc | u > oatab ) ishecj sy&tpui , another insisting thi \ t ttnpppopi % syatom ought ; to . have been eats *

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    K < k : 394 Qgimm 1 % 1857 . ] 3 ? H ^ S Ij'BA D ^ n . 973

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 10, 1857, page 973, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2213/page/13/