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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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iMMMMMMM ^^ I These are statements of which every one will perceive the force . "We propose to deal separately with the judicature and legislature of British India , and therefore pass to public works . In the first place , hundreds of the tanks which are said to have fallen to decay under our rule were in that condition before our rule commenced ; many , indeed , had never been completed . A long and desolating anarchy preceded the erection of the Company ' s power . Again , the "Western and Eastern Jumna canals had been allowed to
become useless by the native governments . Both have been repaired and re-opened , the main line of one alone extending 445 miles . These works saved a thousand villages from famine . The Ganges Canal , 898 miles in length , furnishes irrigation for four millions and a half of square miles ; the canals of the Punjab and Sindh are of equal benefit to the people . In the Madras Presidency prosperity has been restored by the vast and costly works on the Coleroon , the Godavery , and the Kistnah , holding the waters of great rivers in suspense until they are needed to refresh the soil .
Roads in India are in their infancy . Neither the Hindoos nor the Mohammedans ever cared for them . The work had to be begun by the English . Indeed , in the dry season , the Indian plains may be traversed by carts , and even armies , without made roads , so that all that has been done in the formation of regular highways has been done by the
Company ' s government . The Grand Trunk Hoad , the Great Deecan Boad , the Agra and Bombay Road , the Dacca and Chittagong Road , are among the splendid lines undertaken by them . Even in Pegu operations of this kind have been actively carried on , in addition to an important series of similar works in other provinces of our dominions .
That the East India Company has discouraged railway enterprise is disproved by the simple fact that it has guaranteed the interest of twenty-three millions sterling for the construction of six great lines , four hundred miles of which have been opened , while three thousand six hundred miles are in process of simultaneous completion .. It has established three thousand miles of electric telegraph , and is- now engaged in doubling that length of wire .
The Corporate Administrators of India might have done more ; they may be compelled to do more ; but they , of all men , are the best qualified , at least for the present , to deal with the political and administrative requirements of the Empire . No other Government ever did so much within a similar space of time , and over so large an area ; and , in exchange for this system which has gained us bo much , and'cost us nothing , we are invited to accept a "Whig peer ; and a happy family of Whig relations . Lord Debby , in 1853 , repudiated the idea , and we hope he will remember his protest .
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SIR COLIN CAMPBELL'S CAMPAIGN . Thh lost ? two Indian mails have failed to throw a more satisfactory light upon the disastrous events * that occurred at Oawnpore towards the end of November last . Independently , however of all private accounts testifying to - ^^ the ^ ike ^^ ecVSir ^ Oo ^ i ^^ AMI ^ S ^ g ^ de ^ patches clearly evidence that , on his hurried arrival at the scene of action , the Gommnnderiat-Chief found the British entrenchments alosety besieged , and our garrison in a state of chaotic disorder . General Wjlkd ham ' s Official report' of the operationa which led ; to » result so undesirable has also appeared in Brink Sir Golin ( writing to the Goverm > r-© eneiral ) speaks of this report as a * document ; ' and . wo know very well what- aorbof
opinion the use of that quasi-legal term implies under the circumstances . General Windham has indeed cleared himself—and we are very glad that he has been able to do so as regards the grave imputation of having disobeyed positive orders . For it appears that , on receiving intelligence of the enemy ' s nearer approach to his position , he had despatched to head-quarters several successive requests for further instructions ; but none of these communications reached their destination , and consequently no fresh instructions were received . Windham was then left free to act
for himself ; and , if he did not act for the best , an error of judgment is the utmost fault that can be fairly alleged against him in such a ease . It is , therefore , the more to be regretted that , in the ' document '—which is , in fact , General Windham's ' defence' —an attempt should be made ( in at least tioo instances ) to screen the commanding officer at the expense of his subordinates . An unworthy slur is thus cast on the memory of Brigadier N . Wiison , who fell on the afternoon of the 28 th of November—omnium
consensu , the hero of that fatal day . - But let this pass . "We dare say General Win dham had not much hand in the ' document' after all . He may very probably have entrusted his justification to some one of those special pleaders who infest the military profession , and have at all times mustered strong in the Bengal army- The Commander-in-Chief , at
any rate , was far from being satisfied with the explanations tendered . He conferred the highly responsible charge of Cawnpore upon Inglis , who acquitted himself so well at Imcknow : and it was understood that Windham would forthwith proceed to Umballah , and there assume command of the peaceable division , to which he was formally posted in recent Government orders .
But we will quit this unpleasant subject , merely remarking that Sir Colin Campbell , by the mere eifect of his presence , soon restored order within the Cawnpore entrenchments ; and having , by a series of manoeuvres as skilful as those which marked liis advance upon Lucknow , discomfited and scattered the beleaguering force , he is now at liberty to resume the offensive , and follow out the detail of operations doubtless long since planned . Of these , Cawnpore is evidently designed to be the basis : the main object in view being the reconquest of Oude . This is « - work that
must necessarily be set about , as it were , de novo ; for within the ex-kingdom our possessions are now limited to the Alumbagh and its immediate precincts . This post is maintained by Sir James Outram , at the head of a force sufficiently strong for its own perfect security , but inadequate to do much more than repel any attack made upon its position . The present possession of the Alumbagh is nevertheless , beyond all doubt , a most important point gained with reference to ulterior undertakings . In the meantime , after freeing the neighbourhood of Cawnpore from the presence of the insurgents , the Commander-in-Chief ' s next active measure
had been to despatch a strong' column to Agra , under Brigadier Walpoxb . This body of troops ie , we apprehend , destined to intercept and deal with broken parties of the enemy who may be driven towards the North and East out of Central India , by the combined action ofTihe columns no-Nvntrdvatrcjngagainst them from the line of Nerbudda . The forces ) in . that quarter under the respective orders , of Sir Hugh Rose and Brigadier-General WaiTiiOOK , have each , by dint of constant additions , assumed the proportions of a small but completely equipped army . Sir OoLiw ' sowafiirat move in advance will be it is believed , against IPuttehghur , the re-establishment of that important post being
extremely desirable , as its possession by the rebels gives them every facility of making hostile or predatory incursions into the Ganges and Jumna Doab . Brigadier Chambeblain , with a division organized at Lahore , is next to make a dash at Bareilly , the capital of Rohilcund , where the ungrateful rebel Khan Bahadoob Khan ( late a pensioner of the British Government ) now holds his state . The reoceupation of Bareilly will be another great advantage
secured . And when it is further taken into consideration that , from the districts of Goruckpore and Aziinghur , the Oude insurgents are liable to be attacked by Juxa Bahadoob's levies , and by the troops gradually assembling tinder Brigadier Fbanks at Benares , it will be seen that those of the Sepoy rebels who have fled for safety to their own homes have unwittingly rushed into a net which will surely—however slowlyclose around them .
Such , we take it , is the rude outline of Sir Colin Campbell ' s plans .. It may take time to develop them : but the result may be looked on as secure . And much has been already done , in a quiet way , to render success both as certain and as easy as possible . Colonel Seaton ' s movements , and the advantages obtained by that gallant oflicer in his progress from Delhi towards Cawnpore , will
already have produced a marked effect in the Doab ; and the supply of carriage that he brings to head-quarters must have been sorely needed . "Upon the whole , regarding the relief of Lucknow as a casual—though brilliant—episode , we look upon it that Sir Colin is now , for the first time , setting seriously to work on the suppression o £ the revolt ; and we shall continue with undiminished interest to watch the effect of his measures .
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H . M . OPPOSITION . All humbugs are unwholesome , and it would obviously be a good service to destroy and sweep away whatever is the greatest humbug . We believe there is none greater than her Majesty ' s Opposition ; talk of abolishing the East India Company because it is functus offioio—why the South Sea Company is not more defunct than our Opposition . We retain the forms of alluding to it , or of representing it on the stage of the Commons with about the same reason that we retain allusions to the Pretender ' s heirs in the oaths
taken by members . There is no Opposition , and it would be a great advantage to the politics of our day if the English public would only make up its mind that the great and important post is actually vacant . Perhaps it might be filled if the nature ot the vacancy , and the reasons for it , were understood . In the first p lace , let any public men , who have a chance of constructing one , remember that the Opposition is heir presumptive to office ; so that if any members can get up a really effective Opp osition—one the ot
which can take its place iu House Commons , can do anything—that man will have a chance of being Premier of the Cabinet * We believe that the materials exist in vaa country , and gentlemen are only exolutlecfc from taking advantage of their opportunity ' by not knowing that it exists . . . The nature of their delusion is very simpi ©* It-is-cuBtomai ^ to-bolieve ^ thatAo ^ OKEOp " tion consists of those persons who sit on tn © benches which are p laced on the south side of the House of Commons ; and because those benches happen to be full at present ,
honourable members and intelligent poiiucians think that there is still an Opposition . The fact ia , that the persons who now occupy those benches have no mow rig ht to be considered her Majesty ' s Opposition , tlma tn ©
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ls 4 i THE LEA BE K . [ N 6 » 4 H , ^ ebrttaby 6 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 6, 1858, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2229/page/14/
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