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towards him ? But . t hese unstatesmanlike and unseemly phrases , thoug h I doubt not sincerely employed by Lord Palhousie , were not even reasonable or true . Able at all times to command the resources of that § tate , to control its acts , and to dictate its policy ,, it is not true that we could have ' crushed it at our will , ' at least not ¦ with , safety or impunity . There are many Indian statesmen who would have told Lord Dalbouste ( probably have told him ) that the existence of the Hyderabad State is a most valuable guarantee of the peace of Southern and Western India . All the most experienced officers of the Hyderabad Contingent , long before any
extensive disaffection in our Native Army was dreaded , were well aware that their men could not be relied on to fight cheerfully against the Nizam himself . One distinguished officer , the lamented Brigadier William Mayne , whose opinions on military affairs were not despised by lord Dalhousie , used to say that an open war between the Company and the Nizam would be quite as difficult and bloody a business as the Punjab campaign of 1849 ¦ was . But could Lord Dalhousie have crushed the Nizam at his will in 1857 ? Or if he had crushod him at his will in 1854 , 1855 , or 1856 , what would have been the state of the Deccan during the rebellion of
1857 ? I allow that Lord Dalhousie was justified in enforcing , -was bound in duty to enforce , by all legitimate means , the payment of the debt due by the Hy derabad State ; I know that in his minute of the 27 th May , 1851 , which immediately precedes in the Blue Book the letter from which I have just quoted , he expressly disavows all intention or wish to interfere in the Nizam ' s affairs , or forcibly to assume the administration of his dominions , as had been recommended by the Resident ,
General Fraser ; and yet the sole object of this threatening letter , and of the negotiations which followed it , was to obtain from the Nizam the cession in full sovereignty of nearly one-third of his territory ; and the result was that the desired districts were assigned and transferred to our management for the support of the Hyderabad Contingent , and the payment of the interest of our- debt . But those transactions are not at present under discussion ; it is solely against this overbearing tone , and against this language , so irritating and so alarming to a friendly power , that I protest .
But this seems to be one of Lord Dalhousie ' s favourite formulas ; he appears to have considered its application to our most faithful allies peculiarly appropriate and impressive . We meet with these very words in the 7 th paragraph of his farewejl minute reviewing his eight years' administration , applied to the pvesent Rjijah Run beer Sing of Cashmere , son of Ghoolab Sing ,. who was then in a declining state of health : " And when , as must soon be , the Maharajah shall pass away , his son , Meeati Ruubcer Sing , will have enough to do to maintain his ground against rivals of his own blood , without giving any cause of offence to a powerful neighbour , which he well knows can crush him at his will . ' " In July , 1857 , Rajah Ghoolab Sing did puss away , and Eunbeer Sing , instead of wasting his resources in fighting any rivals , managed somehow or other to advance fifty lakhs of rupees ( 500 , 000 / . ) to Sir John Lawrence , and to send 3500 of his ow . n troops to assist in the siege of Delhi .
At Hydsrabad also , in the same critical period , the usual agitation and disorder of a succession occurred—Nasirood-dowluh , the late Nizam , having died in July , 1857—yet the nrmuess of the present young Prince restrained the warlike and turbulent population of his dominion . * , and facilitated every movement of the Madras Army ; while more , than one-half ol' that Hyderabad Contingent , which Lord Dalhousio politely informed the Nizam ' s father , in the letter alreudy quoted , was the main support on which depended tho stability of his throne , ' was pushed forward beyond the Nizam ' s frontiers into our own provinces , to uphold tho stability of our empire against our own inuLiuous troops and our own rebellious subjects .
Suincliu , llolkor , tho Guicowar , tho Rajah of liowah , and others , have resisted all attacks mid temptations , and tho persuasions of their own relations and vusauls , anil have remained faithful to um ; the liajabs of Puttiala , JUeead , ami Jlhurtporo have given us timely and sealoud assistance in men and money , The despised depondunta , tho useless incumbents , havo proved our best fciendw in the hour pf need ; and we must bo truly blind if wo hiive failed to rumark how formidable they would havo been us enemies . They themselves cannot have lost sight of tho moral advantage tUoy havo gained by the events of JL 8 o 7 , uml by tho part that thoy have played therein .
Wo havo hitherto plaood ourselves in all sorts of iiuoxnaloitb and confused relations with tho Nativo States ; W « havo originally treated , with aouio of them us equal and luilopoudout poworn , and havo gradually ttoprosaud them into tributaries , and virtual thoug h , not aokuow"lttapi ~ TolTdat " orIoa : —i \ rml" ~ flHs ~ T ? £ atFo"f "' tlIlugs lias '" lio'f Ufiouglit with it tho genial paUiurolml tiotj and mutuul f tyn » piul » y of lord and vassal ; but , on tho contrary , wo Uwye tntaui ovorytUlng that wo could got—ooatiions of tasDitory , tribute , loans contingent troapu—and havo fiivon nothing , in return oxoout tliat general military proteotfon provided for by truatios , and ibr tho ujxpoiJdUH of which wo havo alwuys exacted a full equivalent ;
while during the lost thirty years tlusy have , seen us watching to take advantage of any excuse or pretext for exercising our assumed right of general succession and of deposition . Now I think this state of things mast cease ; the relations of the paramount power and of the minor sovereignties of India must be p laced on a more definite and a more equitable basis ; and the bonds of federal amity and mutual obligation must be drawn more closely . The native princes must be taught no longer to regard us with alarm and suspicion , as a haughty , inscrutable race , whose interests and objects are totally incompatible with their own , and who , however long the evil day may be deferred , are their destined and determined spoilers aud successors ; and we , ou our part , must loarn to recognize the native monarchies as forming an essential condition and a main security in the development cf the full power , resourcesand wealth of our Eastern Empire .
, But for the inauguration of ourimperial . status among this congeries of princes , and chieftains , and nations , a name more significant and more imposing than that of the Honourable Company , is required . The Queen ' s name would be indeed a tower of strength in India . For loyalty , and wonder , and child-like confidence , and all the ' cheap defence of nations , ' remain available in that excitable and productive stage of civilization through which India must pass , to be replaced by other , and , as we think , higher sentiments and motives , in a more advanced and deliberative social state . It will ba very long before any important number of the hundred and fifty millions attain to that independence of thought and will on which we pride ourselves in England . And , in the meantime , complicated interests will have sprung up , closer tie 3 will have been formed between the two
countries , and will be maintained and strengthened by every dictate of inclination and reason . We have not hitherto appreciated the sources of power that lie in the peculiar phase of civilization and sociallife in India . We have hitherto neglected to guide , to mould , or to encourage the political sentiments of the natives , which are thoroughly monarchical and conservative , but have , left them to feed on the memories and glories of bygone davs and fallen dynasties . It is our fault that they have " continued to gaze for the centre of their national existence , interests , arid honour , anywhere but towards the British Sovereign ; nothing lias tended to impress them with the grandeur of forming an important part of the British Empire . There , never was a more favourable time than the present for inaugurating a nobler , a more consistent , and a truly imperial policy . 15 . V .
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THE BOMBARDMENT OF CANTON . The Canton correspondent of the Times seems to have succeeded to , or to have shared , the vigorous and vivid powers of description of Mr . Russell . He has furnished an account of the bombardment of Canton which reeals tho striking pictures of warfare which used to reach the public three yours ago from the Crimea . Tims , on Tuesday , December 29 th , does he chronicle the progress of tho fiery tempest directed against the walls of Canton : — " 1 mark tho change of daj's , but they aro not divided by repose . All night the city was girt by a line of name . The approach of morning was indicated by a suspension of the rocket practice , and by the reopening of the mortar battery with redoubled onorgy . As the
day broke the ( lames sank down and tho aim rose upon a perfectly sinokelosscity . The charges of powder must havo beeii increased , in the mortar batteries , for tho shells mow flow high up to tho hill forts . Ono of . ^ liem at duybreuk burst upon an embrasure of Fort Grough , and another wont rig ht over it . The ships that had been enfilading the eastern wall now ceased firing . It was tho moment for tho assault . In tho neighbourhood of tho east fort , tho three divisions form oil , and the rush was made . For two hours , nothing b visible but smoke—nothing id hoard but the rattle of musketry ami . loud cheering . What deetb are done among this broken ground — among these trees and brushwood—on tho tops and in t ' lio interstices of these grave-eovorod hillocks—how fare those forces , spread over more than a inilo of attack , what diviniontt aro first , who fall and who survive—I
must tell hereafter . At eight o ' clock , tho wall is gained , and I soe tho blue-jackets , English aud Ficnch , racing alaug it northwards . Houg h ' s Fort givos out its tiro , let us hope without pfleet , but , woU-scivod , its guns might rtu'eop tin ) wall . There is a check and tillotico for half an hour . I o . n recogni / . e the bluu troupers of ono of the division * of our naval brigade . Tlio lenders are probably touching them how to take Unit ilve-Htoriod pagoda upon the north-western wall . Along tho city wall , ami protected by its buttleiuonttt , thuy pass ( 1 JjMnkujyLyi&M ' j ^ their right , and come in front of a glauming white battery , now . ly built , and full of guns urooted upon a lodge of tho rock upon which the wall and the 11 voatoriod pagoda here stand . If tho assailants would only 140 to u proper distance , how these guna would riddle tuuin I UiU with u ruttU and a oheor a . detachment strikes from tho cover of tho wall , which the guns do nut command , aud uouao * itself safely at tUc loot of the
very rock which bears the battery . Not a shot can . vi fire . The riflemen from the walls now ply this halfmoon for some minutes , and in a quarter of an hour the detachment at the foot of the rock has gone round , and taken the position from behind . Relieved from these guns , which mi ght have swept them down by hundreds ,, our men in serried masses are now swarming along the wall . The five-storied pagoda ( which is no more a pagoda , according to oar notion of a pagoda , than it iff a bum-boat , but an old square red building divided into stories ) is carried by the bayonet , and the French and .
English colours are hoisted simultaneousl y . Now , Gough' -s Fort opens out sulkily upon its late ally ; but the assailants , not waiting to reply , hurry along the intervening wall westward . I can follow them for soms time from my position , and I hear them cheering , when . I lose them in the hollow . A few minutes of sharp fusillade , and blue-jackets emerge from the trees and buildings upon Magazine-hill . A moment after , and up go the two bits of bunting' which tell that this key of Canton is our own . " In the Overland Register we read : —
" The French aud English Naval Brigades advanced on Monday forenoon ( December 28 th ) and took Fort Lin j one French officer was killed , and several French , casualties ; some English wounded severe ^' .. The troops then advanced towards the south , and bivouacked , for the uight off the south-east angle of the city wall . We believe Lieutenant ITackett was acting as aide-decamp to General Straubenzee , and while at some distancefrom any corps , carrying despatches , was set upon by a party of Chinese , who overpowered and slew him . "The advance on the Magazine or City-hill Fort , asit is variously termed , took place at nine a . m . on the 29 th . Captain Bate was killed and Lieutenant Lord Guildford wounded there . Captain Bate , as usual , everforward ^ where duty called , was volunteering to place the scaling-ladders , whsu he was shot from the wall through the stomachy- He died as he had lived , a Christian hero , with the sounds of victory ringing in his ears .
" Mr . Hackett wa 3 a young promising officer , much esteemed by his immediate commanding officer , aud beloved by his regimental companions . His dgath is much . regretted . Be = i . ies Bate and Hackett we hear ouly of the loss of Mr . Thomas , midshipman , of . the Sanspareil . " Some official despatches from General Van Sfcraubenzee and Admiral Seymour have been published . In a despatch from tlie latter , dated "Her Majesty ' s ship Coromandel , at Canton , Decembsr 28 th , 1857 , " w <» Wild : —
" On the 18 th I received u , communication from the Earl of Elgin and Baron Gros , stating that the reply of the High Commissioner [ to tlie ultimatum of the Powers ]] had been received—that it was most unsatisfactory , and inviting the naval and military Commanders-in-Chtef to a conference on board the Auducieuse , to consider what further steps should be taken in consequence of Yell ' s determination to resist the very moderate-demands of the two Governments . " The conference was held on the 21 st inst .,. when it was determined that tlie Plenipotentiaries should address
a letter to the Imperial High Commissioner , informing his Excellency that , in consequence of his non-compliance with the demands submitted for his consideration , tho further settlement of the question hud been transferred to tho naval and military authorities , and that we should also address a letter to his Excellency stating the above fact , and that if ait tho and of a further term of forty-eight hours tho city should bo peacefully surrendered into our hands life and proporry would bo respected ; but that , if tho terms were not accopted , the city would be attacked . "
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THE ORIENT . CIHCASSIA . The Nord of Brussels ustierts that Sehatnyl is still uuconquered , although a considerable- portion of the p lain of Tchetehuia has bcou cleared by the Russians of tho inouutainuors , aud is ocuauiuil by Russian columns . Schamj'l , accompanied by the mountaineers , who still uliug to his fortunes , lias retired Lo . the rocky retreats beyond the plain . » ¦ PKIttflA . Mr . Murray , cuir envoy at Touaran , is recovering from liia late , buvoco illness . -
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PUBLIC ^ HOISTINGS . FAIIUWKI .. L 1 IJANlJUia I'U I > K . UIVISasiTONU . A grand banquet was givon last 54 atimluy evening at the Freemasons' Hull , to L > r . Livingritono , previous to his return to Africa . CuiialJorubly more than throo httudw . d _ gontlt » i » u »^ aaaoinW ^ il ,-fcUouul ^ cov , oi " j » -lnul-.. oul ! jr _ -, been laid for two huudrud mid sixty . In many oaaos ,. 5 / . wore ott ' ored for a suut \ . but numbers wuro tumble toobtain admission , tho room , as it wiw , being crammed . Tlio chair was Ukoii by air ltodwriok Miuohbon , nndi hovoimI puimm . i of the hiylioat omliiouuo in aoluuoo aiul art wore present , lu his opoulng mwuooIi , Sir Uodoriojt alluded to the appointment of Dr . Livitittfrttono to tho English oonaultthiy i » «•"" Porlutfuaao colonies in Africa » .
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No . 413 , Februaby 20 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 175 ' . ¦ ^ — _ . *< n ^ nz ^ t .
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 175, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2231/page/7/
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