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    Untitled Article

    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 .

    Untitled Article

    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 ©

    Untitled Article

    ls 4 i THE LEA BE K . [ N 6 » 4 H , ^ ebrttaby 6 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • 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/