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E i ins the face of all of the Paris No....
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PRANCE O3ST THE DANUBE. The new Eastern ...
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A PLOT IN PARLIAMENT HOUSE. Before the p...
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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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The Bengal Terroll. The Bengal Mutiny Ha...
have to ascertain by what influences , while thirty-five millions of the-population have remained tranquil , if not content , seventy-eigiit regiments , within thirty-six days , melted away from under the British flag . The mutiny can be no accident .. Some mortal offence must have been given to that army which is the chief in India , being more costly and upon a grander scale than the united establishments of Bombav and Madras . " We will lay aside here
the assumption of foreign influences , ± is more than one power interested in undermining our Eastern dominion ; Russian agencies have frequently been detected to the south of the Afghan mountains ; moreover , there has been at times a sudden influx of gold among the Sepoys , who have been observed to communicate with those mysterious traders in money , whose written dialect is less intelligible than the Konxowpax ofEi / Eirsis ;
t 3 _ — -m " 1 1 T _ "I _ J possibly the stamped cakes and the lotus flowers indicate more than a local conspiracy ; but the evidence is vague , and we do not care to exaggerate its importance . Why , then , have the troops of the Bengal provinces revolted , and not revolted only , but breathed the bloodiest vengeance against their English commanders , violating women and ' young girls , and then subjecting them to cruelties more atrocious and unnatural than ever were
invented by Roman emperors , Tartar conquerors , or Spanish priests , and carrying their ferocity to such a pitch as even to strip children , flog and torture them , cut oft * their hands and feet , and prick them to death with bayonets and tulwars ? We need not go far for an explanation of these hideous outrages . The Asiatic , in a state of desperation , is a remorseless fatalist , and his propensities tempt him to run a muck of slaughtef ~ until overtaken by the doom , which he sullenly
anticipates . The crew of a sinking ship have been known , when all hope was lost , to ravish every woman on board and murder every child ; their frenzy took that bestial form as to their terrified fancies the moment of annihilation drew near . So , in India , the garrison of Delhi , with no prospect before it except an interval of unlimited lust and rapine , has literally grovelled in human blood , and enjoyed a licentious satiety of violence . When aud wherever in history armies have burst into revolt or lost the spirit of
subordination , they have signalized themselves by similar ebullitions of fury , which an observer finds it difficult to understand . We do not think that any special reason is to be traced to account for such acts as cutting off a young girl ' s breasts and a child ' s feet near Delhi , the scourging of a lady to death at Shahiehanpore , or the reported tragedy iu the Raj of the spectral Mogul , who is said to have ordered an English girl to be stripped in his presence and slowly divided limb from limb .
But there must have been , deep-seated and widely-spread causes , resulting in the mutiny Unhappily our military administration in Bengal has been so rotten that few persons have been astonished at' its collapse . We have raised a vast and powerful army from the proudest population in the East , containing one European to every twenty-four natives ; we have confided this tremendous organisation principally to the care of
subalterns ; we have placed striplings who ride at the head of infantry companies , and dandies who disdain the service , in command of magnificent battalions of grenadiers , of whom every one was a giant and a Brahmin , physically and morally far the superior of any Addiscombe youngster or spiderwaisted loiterer from Pall-mall . We have allowed these soldiers , while their captains , colonels , and lieutenant-generals were doing clerical duty , to imbibe the teachings of
libellous and ribald nat ive prints ,. inspired in some cases by abandoned Europeans , paid and pensioned for calumniating the British Government in the interest of the dethroned princes . Worse than all , we have preserved the false titular distinctions of conquered dynasties ; we had a Mogul in Delhi ready to become the puppet of an insurrection , and should a storm ever arise among the Mahrattas , they still have their Hoikar and their Sinjjiah to proclaim . The Indian troops thei ^^^^™ _ _ . •¦ • .
have had facilities for comparing r own low rank and humble allowances with those of their-European officers ; they have measured their relative strength ; the Parsee priests have absolutely instigated them to revolt ; they know that Bengal never con ^ - tained . so much opulence as now . Ever since 1792 , anonymous letters have been disseminated by unknown hands through the Bengal cantonments , urging the men to kill their officers and resume their independence . Those were the seeds ; in 1857 we reap the
harvest . Without denying the defects of the general police system in Bengal , the danger of interfering with old and almost sacred tenures , and the pernicious influences of ignorant missionary zeal , we are convinced that the military outbreak has a distinctly military origin . If not , why are the great cities peacethe of the
ful , the villages loyal , masses population undisturbed ? It is true that the retired and pensioned Sepoy almost invariably retreats to the place of his birth , and forms a link between the army and the people ; but after losing seventy-eight regiments , we have not lost the allegiance of a single province ; even in Delhi , it is believed , the inhabitants will gladly welcome the entrance of the
besieging army . If it can ' be shown that the discipline of a great army has been radically vitiated , that it has been weakly officered , that disaffection has been allowed to ripen unchecked , and that a Bengal mutiny has long been predicted by men whose observations have been purely military , we think that more will be gained by a close inspection of our military system in India , than by wandering among the exaggerations of Mr . Malcolm Ijewin , or believing that a rebel King has been enthroned at Delhi because we put an end some time ago to the crapulous despotism of Oude .
E I Ins The Face Of All Of The Paris No....
No . ««* *™™ t 8 . 1857 . 1 THE LEADER . 757 ¦ : i " - " ~ - ' ——^ ^^ m ^^ w ^^^^^^^ ¦
Prance O3st The Danube. The New Eastern ...
PRANCE O 3 ST THE DANUBE . The new Eastern question is of a somewhat complex nature . The Treaty of Paria contained a clause by which it . was agreed that the authorities in Moldavia and YVal lachia should convene a Divan ad hoc to express the wishes of the people with reference to their future institutions . The elections have taken place under every circumstance of injustice , exclusion , and corruption , and the immediate result is favourable to the
policy of England , Austria , and the Ottoman Porte . France , Russia , Prussia , and Sardinia refuse to recognize the vote , and insist upon a new election . They threaten to withdraw their representatives from Constantinople should the Porte reject their demands ; and this violent diplomacy , although it has not yet led to concessions , has produced a
modification of the Sultan ' s Cabinet . Austria , England , and Turkey are opposed to the political union of the Principalities under one government ; Trance , Russia , Prussia , aud Sardinia are in favour of it . The three Powers object that the union would be injurious to the Ottoman Empire ; the four Powers deny this . But of what value is the Austrian objection ? Has not Austria , under the signature of the Treaty of Paris , secretly proposed to Russia a joint occupation of Moldavia aud Wallaohia , a challenge in
the face of all Europe , a rupture of the Paris Convention ? And did not Russia betray this proposal to the j > artieipating Cabinets ? We may suspect the policy of Russia , but it does not follow that we should confide in Austrian integrity . We believe that the union of the provinces is desired by the inhabitants -themselves , chiefly upon the ground that it would erect them into a free and independent state , with a capacity for self-defence , but connecting itself with the public law of Europe , by acknowledging the modified sovereignty ot til- /* n 11 -w ~ m ' t -- /•¦•¦ - ¦ - *
the Porte . No doubt the Assemblies elected last month are hostile to this project ; but they are the mere mouthpieces of Prince Vogorides , an agent of the Porte , who is known to have expressed his contempt for popular suffrages , and to have said that as the Emperor of the Trench nominated his candidates to seats in the Assembly , and manipulated the elections , lie , as Kaimakan , was justified by precedent and by example . Public opinion , in truth , has not been allowed to act , and the returns took place" amid the protests of the majority . Of
course we are bound to congratulate the French Grovernment upon its devotion to electoral purity , a sentiment which , stifled at home , breaks out upon the Danube , and proves that although Louis Napoleon despises the people of France , he respects the people of Moldavia , and will not countenance in a Voqoimues that which is divine in a Bonaparte . In a general sense , perhaps , it is well for mankind that , although the French are treated as infants , the Roumans find their rights defended by no less a person than M . dk TirouvjENEL . r But if we were Frenchmen
we miglit feel disparaged . Bucharest , under these influences , has been converted into a Babel of intrigues , with the agents of the several powers carrying on a contest of crinoline diplomacy , in which , up to the present moment , France has been signally successful . Not that Priuce Yogorides has deferred to her ; but that she has taken up the popular policy , and is making manifest advances , while ground is proportionately lost by England , a Power ,
we are sorry to say , very indifferently represented throughout the Principalities . Neither the French , Russian , Prussian , and Sardinian league , nor the British , Austrian , and Turkish , appears inclined to give way ; but the causeries of Osborne may prove too many for M . be Tjuouvenel ; we have , at all events , the materials of a new and instructive commentary upon the preamble to the Treaty of Paris ' , " There shall be perpetual peace and amity , " & c
A Plot In Parliament House. Before The P...
A PLOT IN PARLIAMENT HOUSE . Before the public accepts the Report of the Judicial Committee upon Mr . Beutolacoi ' s case , let us recal the circumstances iinder which that Report has beeu made . When Mr . Coninouam moved for inquiry , the CJovernment acquiesced , and five gentlemen , some of them mutual friends , were nominated by the Committeo of Selection to investigate the charges in the petition . The members named wore not onl y in some instances mutual friends , but generally personal friends of ! the two Earls and the Baron implicated . They
received evidence , and they framed a report ; the report is before the public , but where is the evidence ? Kept back for three weeksprobably until Parliament has risen ^ -and we beg to hint to our contemporary , the ZHnies , that it has , with excusable precipitation , founded an article upon threo or four pages of official whitewashing Avithout waiting for the blue-book , which would have enabled it to judge between ' the decision of Mr . SornjOBA . fr Estooukt and his colleagues , and the testimony of Mr . BEjaa'oiiAOCU and his colleagues .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 8, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08081857/page/13/
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