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566 THE LEAD E B. [No. 429, Juke 12,1885...
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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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State Of The Indian Question. Ri£E Debat...
day on which Lord Palmerston introduced his bill . Backed by a powerful majority , he then resisted the plea of the Conservatives and theCompany in favour of delay , and his position , it must be confessed , was superior to that of Lord Derby , who encounters greater chances of defeat . If it was impossible , then , to foresee the impediments to legislation when six months of opportunity expanded to the view of Parliament , it would be at all events presumptuous now , when the session , is waning , to pretend that to
postpone a final measure would be a surprise and a disappointment to public opinion . There are those , at any rate , who from the commencement have doubted the capacity and the intention of the House of Commons to revolutionize the home government of the British Indian Empire while Sir Colin Campbell is actually engaged in reclaiming several provinces of that empire from the flames of a revolt .
We make more ' military than legislative progress , it is true ; but even our troops are liable to the checks whici interrupt members of Parliament ox Ministers especially . They underrate the Opposition ; they march into ambush ; new enemies start up against them ; they expend their forces in diversions , and the cool season passes away while thej are still moving in a circle , with revolt m their front and rear , and amazing numbers in arms against them furnished inexhaustibly with the facilities of warfare . The rebels , it is true , have been gradually driven off the ground throughout large districts ; their capital centres have been taken ; the Grand
xrunk Jtoad , far into the interior , has been cleared ; the Goramander-in-Chief and his brigadiers are kemming ^ them in , and from the deliberate and systematic concentration upon Calpee and Bareill y will probably result a conflict which will crush two important bodies of the mutineers . But men returned from India within the last few days tell us that no visible diminution in . the numerical strength of the enemy appears to have taken place , nor do their resources of offence and defence ever seem to fail . They still count their thousands and tens of thousands ; they have still their cannon ^ ammunition , and cavalry . With their
tremendous power of marching , they impose upon our troops the most terrible and . often fruitless labours ; and , whether through the existence of some mysterious and productive organization , or from any other cause , in spite of captuied guns and convoys , and carnage in the field , they loom in immense proportions in the distance , following the flying horizon , and wearing out the Europeans by dmt of sheer evasion . Hyder Ali told the English generals that , refusing to fight them , he would match them off their feet ; and these seem to be the tactics of Sir Colin Campbell ' s enemy . It is not impossible , therefore , that , after being attacked , the rebels of Calpee and Bareilly may effect another series of retreats , and thus again widen the area of the .
insurrection . Nothing , at least , which has been reported from India within , the last two months ¦ would justify the Government in relaxing its efforts to supply Sir Colin Campbell with large additional forces . Officers on the spot state the number necessary to be not one man short of thirty thousand . No doubt the task of pacification is in progress . Lord Canning , instead of setting Oude in a blaze , has explained the practical import of his Proclamation by authorizing Mr . Montgomery- to re-establish the legitimate Zemindars , so that the country whicli was to liave been in despair by this time is being rapidly tranquillized by the Chief Commissioner , acting under the sanction of tho Governor-General .
We remember no instance in which so emphatic a lesson has been read to precipitate politicians and philanthropists at home . Those wlio knew Lord Canning best , and who had not been disposed to trust him too implicitly , felt assured that he had never designed to inflict the cruelty of unmitigated confiscation upon the proprietary classes in Oude . He made a display of authority , and he followed it up by a policy of moderation . Wo do not hear of a single disturbance , however slight or local , produced by the Canning Proclamation . It ¦
appears to have worked well as a part of tho Govenor-Gencral ' s system , and there is no question but that the course adopted by Mr . Montgomery formed quite as much a principle of the Calcutta polioy as tho memorable manifesto itself . Trom the beginning there has been precipitancy in reference to this Indian rebellion . Stories of atrocity have been too hastily circulated , and too sweepingly contradicted . Public opinion has blown hot and cold , by violent fits , upon tho conduct of commanders and civilians . Mr . Grant 1 1 I 1 t > 3 3 t
was at one time the victim of a private letter , and Lord Canning at another the victim , of a confidential despatch . Neither Henry Lawrence nor Henry Havelock escaped the impatience of misconception or calumny . The first and second Indian Bills came and went like shadows , though the r ormer threatens to return when a certain point has been reached in the progression of a particular planet . Lord Ellenborougli alarmed all sorts and
conditions of men by the velocity of his censures against the Governor-General ; and now , the House 01 Commons , still believing in the power of highpressure , insists upon immediate legislation , though , perhaps , without thinking too much of its own sincerity . But July , and August may possibly do what [ February , March , April , and May have done , and what the swiftly-revolving June is doing . The days and weeks pass more rapidly than Mr . Disraeli's resolutions .
566 The Lead E B. [No. 429, Juke 12,1885...
566 THE LEAD E B . [ No . 429 , Juke 12 , 1885 .
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only 250 . " Sir John Hall continues that , in . I 837 Lord Grey issued , in consequence of these reports * the most comprehensive series of queries that ever was issued as to everything connected with the economy of the army . So that it has taken exactly twenty years to wake up the authorities . The report of tlie Barrack Committee of 1855 was a tolerably loud one it had a certain effect upon the plans for any newbarracks , but it needed all the force of the inquirv before us to arouse the governmental eartot . C
awfully pernicious state of the old barracks ; and it is to be hoped "the authorities' * will never be allowed to slumber again till every old barrack in the kingdom has been thoroughly well routed out and set up well with every appliance of ventilation cleanliness , and comfort . * The general arrangement of barracks seems to he as a rule , about as bad as possible , as ill-adapted as may be to the purposes for which they are required . Cavalry barracks are generally built with the men ' s rooms over the stables—a plan , as pernicious to tlie
horses as it is to ^ the men ; the horses suffer from want of ventilation , because there are no proper means of obtaining it , and a false kind of ventilation positively exists in the effluvia of the stables being carried upwards into the men ' s rooms . So that what with the revolting expedient of the large wooden tubs for the men to make use of iu their bedroom , and the stable emanations , tlie poor fellows breathe a highly ammoniated atmosphere all night , because a soldier has a wholesome horror of an
SANITARY CONDITION OF THE ABMY . We come now to a set of causes affecting the sanitary condition of the army , whicli form the chief burden of the report so far as the inquiry has touched upon matters of army hygien ; and unquestionably they demand the earnest attention of the legislature . The mere mention of these , as stated by the report , is enough to create a feeling of disgust and indignation— " crowding and insufficient ventilation , and nuisances arising from latrines and defective sewerage in barracks . " When we consider that for several years past the community have been devising every means for accommodating the . crowds that must dwell in cities where space is worth its guineas per foot , for afford ing the thousands of labourers abundant means of cleanliness both in their houses and persons ; that for the very poor 3 the houseless , and the squalid— -the 16 , 000 nightly in London alone who have no home— -that for these even a wholesome refuge is provided where fever and cholera rarely enter ; when all this is compared with what has been done for the soldier , we are naturally surprised by the facts pronounced by the commissioners , " that a soldier never knows a healthy home till he commits some crime that brings him into the cell of a . military prison /' that he sleeps at the best of times "in a foetid and unwholesome atmosphere , " and notunfrequently in underground rooms with the beds closely touching . " Of the state of this atmosphere abundant evidence , though of a most disgusting nature , is to be found in the evidence before the Barrack Committee" ( 1855 ) . In this foul air he is compelled to take his meals , and spend his time when off duty . The report attributes the extraordinary prevalence and fatality of pulmonary disease in the army to this state of tilings . The Queen ' s regulations expressly order that the soldier shall have at least 450 cubic feet of air space to ^ sleep in . This is too little by half—at least so it is considered to be for Scotch paupers and felons —but by some most reprehensible laxity , barracks have been permitted to be constructed , with living rooms so confined and defective in every way , as no man . who keeps a good horse or a cow would ever think of constructing for his cattle . It appears by the returns of barrack space that " in a majority of cases this minimum of 450 feet is not attained , and that in a number of barracks there is a deficiency of one-third , and in some instances of more than one-half , of the space allotted by regulation . " Sir John M'Neill , who is at the head of the Poor-Law Board of Scotland , says , in reference to the poor-houses , some of which hold 2000 people , " Wo liave a minimum of space which we , never permit to bo transgressed , whatever the pressure may be "—484 ) cubic feet in the dormitories . ; but these sleeping . 100 ms arc not allowed to be occupied iu tho day 5 " the inmates are in tho day-rooms , in the workshops , in the yards . " Colonel Jcbb , Chief Engineer of Military and Government Prisons , says , in answer to Mr . Sidney Herbert ' s question — whether , " so far as n inan ' s comfort is concerned , he is really better provided for in prison than in barracks ?*'— « Yes ; I have no doubt that his matonal comforts arc better provided for . " Sir John Hall , late Principal Medical Officer in the Crimea , and who had thirteen years' service in the West Indies , says , " I can state that I wrote , I suppose , a quire of paper about the accommodation of the 92 iid llegimcnfc in the barracks at St . "Vincent , which contained , I think , a cubic space of about 250 feet for each man , and I recollect making use of that very expression , and saying that tho felon was allowed his thousand cubic tact , and tho soldier
open window when he's asleep . The rooms are usually rather long aaid low-pitched , with windows , on one side only ; they are so narrow , that with the iron bedsteads at the sides and the tables down the middle , there is just room left to pass . They contain from twenty men to perhaps a whole company of eighty or a hundred . But rooms are constantly over full , in consequence of the necessity o £ making room for married men . There are in some old
barracks common ventilators'in the ceiling , which , unless the medical officer keeps a sharp look . . but , " the men will most perseveringly plaster over with paper . But one of the great defects in construction is the almost universal plan of a narrow staircase with small landings , upon which , right and left , opens on each side the one small door of the barrack-rooms . Thus each room is a cul-de-sac , and there ' s ' -nothing'to'lead a free current of air—no corridors or passages . In most rooms you find one or even two married couples , whose presence is not only a nuisance to
the men , but , as Sergeant Sotheron says , " a soldier will sometimes say foolish things , and let words slip , that , perhaps , are not fit for a married person to hear . " The couple endeavour to ward off the conversation of the room , however , by a curtain ; but no curtains are ' permitted in the daytime . All this would seem ludicrously bad were it not so seriously demoralizing to all concerned . Decidedly a barrack-room is not the place for women , and we have our doubts whether all soldiers should not be compelled to leave the service when they take upon them , the exacting ties of wedlock . Women
ana children are always a great encumbrance to a regiment , without being any commensurate advantage . . jn fortified places the rooms , if they may be dignified with the name , for they arc much more like cells or bad stablcs 3 aresonxc of them what is called " casemated ; " they arc probably under tho ramparts , and resemble a small railway brick arcli , at one end a door , with a small square window 011 each side , and a fireplace at the other cud , the floor of stone , and the brickwork -whitewashed . Here you would find from twelve to twenty men , and in some of them nrobablv four families—man and wife , and
three or four children . Ii is not to be wondered at ; if fever is found to prevail in such healthy situations as Dover Castle and Plymouth Citadel , with such arrangements as these , And we have no hesitation in claiming , for bare humanity ' sakc 3 that our soldiers should no longer be condemned to dwell in these horrid casemates , the haunts of fever and rheumatism , and never surely intended to be used except as places of safety during a siege , when we are prepared for horrors of every kind .
lhe report and tho evidence necessarily with tho generalities of barrack arrangements than with any particular instances , consequently , the case against the authorities is not made out with that unsparing hand that we could wish . There arc barracks where the men aro " put up , " as they call it , in a manner so altogether regardless of their health , and even safety , tU at it would bo utterly incredible unless it wcro notorious . Take , for example , tho Linen Hall Barracks , in Dublin ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 12, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12061858/page/14/
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