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THE TWO AMERICAN DIFFICULTIES. In follow...
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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 New Government Fob India. As Ottf- G...
saries of the Bengal native army are , in great part ; , cancelled ; but not a word has been written , by inspired apologists , concerning the new European army for India . That will be the instrument in the hands of the Minister , or of his Royal Highness . The old system gave us Olive , Coote , Ochte : ri . ony , Nott , and the hundred officers who have sprung into glory since the rebellion exploded
in the North- " West ; will the new system give us Cabdigans , JDucans , Aibets ? Will it be necessary for high commands to be accompanied by ' weight '—that is to say , hereditary rank ? "Will merit be advanced as grudgingly as heroism and genius have been rewarded ? If so , then Mr . Cbawshatt has reason to dread the proposed change , for the sake of India , for the sake of Great Britain .
" We have no secrets to disclose concerning the plans of the Cabinet . It is dangerous to prophesy , and useless to guess . Bat-one thing is certain . The principle of the new measure will be one that will enable the grand offices of honour and emolument connected with the civil and military government of India to be held by the political favourites of the Minister , whether specially qualified or not , while the work will be done by subordinates—with respectable salaries , no doubt , but who ought to stand at the head of their
departments . For every Rowland Hill there will be a Duke of Abgyll ; for every Sir Geobge Clebk , a Mr . Yeejton Smith . Hitherto , in India , the Company has checked the Ministry even in its appointment of Governors-General ; while we do not find Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab acting as clerk to any Mr . Smith from Cannon-row . The Court of Directors has rendered immense services to the couutry by preventing political
jobbery . No * take care of Dowb' has been possible under their rule , unless Wellesley ' s instruction , " Give Abthttb an opportunity of distinguishing himself , " be so interpreted . Lord Canning or any other peer might take out a family as numerous and voracious as that of the Phippses , but any corrupt patronage exercised by him to the sacrifice of reasonable claims , would bring an appeal to Leadenhall-street , and there lies the power of recal .
The European dream of India is past . It is no longer . popularly believed that all her habitations are palaces , that her coasts are of mosaic , or her cities built of solid gold . We have ceased to think of the argosies that brought home gold for the roofs of Seville , and rubies for the diadem of Spain . We have a vast cotton-and-grain-bearing country , ¦ which enriches us and exalts us as a nation , and the problem is how to regulate its affairs so that our Government may be a blessing to the people and an advantage to ourselves .
To the people it Jias been a blessing . Their own military classes , in the midst pf profound peace , have torn up the roots of society , and interrupted the prosperity of India ; but , previously to the rebellion , where was the armed ploughman who dared not go far n-field from his walled village ? Where was the walled and moated village itself , a symbol of despotism and anarchy P or the Zemindar who trembled when he heard the tramp of horses , or the Thug ? Where did a whole population fly from its houses to caves , mountains , arid jungles ^ a disaster once so frequent that " it ' was repFeseritTd""F y a "'~ spocial word"in the language P Not . in the British dominions , territories formerly exposed to constant oppression and periodic ravage . If torture now exists in Madras , it was universal before the British supremacy was established . The Mahrattas and Pindarroes were subdued : but India was Btill exposed to Afl ' ghan , Sikh , Burman , And Nepulese invasions . To the Company ia duo the merit of closing this
long account of violeaee aad devastation . If the sharks aad alligators at Saugor could feed only on human flesh , ' there must have been a famine long ago in the Saugor waters . From another point of view , the system of the East India Company is to be commended . There is not one sinecure or one patented office throughout its enormous establishment . And , as Mr . Mebedith observes , where else is there a conquered country in which the
poorest subject may plead in an open court against the sovereign , and travel from border to border without a passport ? Other benefits have been conferred on the native populations by the rule of the East India Company , but it is unnecessary to recur to them . Without desiring to perpetuate the existing system free from modification or reform , we have consistently pointed to the monuments of British administration in the East .
Fontanieb , a French writer , bitter to an extreme in his criticisms upon our Indian Government , declares that , under the East India Company , it is all but impossible for abuse to flourish long , for every member of the corporation is eager to signalize himself as a reformer , and ' the Government perpetually occupies itself with projects and experiments of amelioration . ' It is this middle-class integrity and independence that forms the best security for the consolidation and welfare of our dominions in Asia . It is
to this we owe a splendid school of statesmanship and war , a prodigious trade , and political aggrandizement , exciting Jthe envy of all competing powers . Will , then , Parliament undertake to supervise every minute and subordinate detail of Indian £ > olicy ? Will it jealously and honestly guard the constitution of the Anglo-Indian army ? Will it conscientiously debate questions , surrounded by Oriental technicalities , with which the Court of Directors are familiar ?
Will it not abandon India to the ascendant faction of the day ? Better retain the East India Company than arm the Crown with unlimited patronage , introduce the principles of Chelsea Hospital into our Indian army , and consign an empire won by middle-class genius to the keeping of those who would probably send some hundreds of unqualified favourites annually to gorge themselves upon Indian civil and military emoluments , to the
great satisfaction of a Ministerial majority in Parliament . Lord Clanricabde , they said , was to have been Indian Minister . Assuming that ho has no such expectations , ho is , nevertheless , ia the Cabinet , and can tell us what are the principles of Whig patronage . For example , had he been appointed as sucoessor to the East India Company , there would have been a fine opening for Mr . Davis , or any other gentleman familiar with the name of O'Neill . But if the peerage is to be conciliated , must India be the sacrifice ?
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The Two American Difficulties. In Follow...
THE TWO AMERICAN DIFFICULTIES . In following the adventures of a hero of the General Walker type , one of course expects to find him subject to many romantic , and even unromantic , turns and vicissitudes of fate and fortune ; but we must confess that when , a fortnight ago , we posted up the buccaneer chief ' s accounts to the latest mom ^ nTlo ~ v ^ ich ~ tliey ~ li 5 ( i " ~ been reride'feaT ^ w ^ did not anticipate that the balance which then appeared in his favour would so soon require to be struck anew . Fortune seemed to smile . upon her adventurous son . He had run the gauntlet of New Orleans law courts and Federal Government cruisers , and there ho stood on Nicaraguan ground , at the head of a band of one hundred and fifty resolute state-founders , styled by kiin the ' army of
Nicaragua , ' himself claiming the titles of * < 3 otamander-in-Ohief' and ' President' of the country : there he stood , as we said a fortnight back , * in spite of treaties , and neutrality laws , and Mr . Bttohanan ' 8 message . ' That Walkee , in fitting out his filibustering expeditions , was acting in a manner wholly illegal , is not for a moment to be denied—he himself would admit the fact : what he has done he has done at his own proper peril , and the Government of the United States had ample power to call him to account at any moment it had chosen while he was upon United States ground . But the Federal Government suffered him to
escape , and even a warrant for his apprehension , after he had forfeited his bail at New-Orleans , could not have been served upon him at Greytown without the consent and assistance of the Nicaraguan Government That is , it could not have been done legally . In theory , the Nicaraguan Executive was the only power on the face of the earth that could directly claim satisfaction of General Walkeb .
Now , in an unlucky hour , this little fact , which seems to stare in the face of everybody who cares to see it , has been carelessly or wilfully overlooked by a Commodore of the United States navy , with results which will probably be as unpleasant to himself as they will be embarrassing to his Government . What has happened is this : — After his adroit evasion of the Saratoga and successful landing at Greytown , General Walkeb hoisted the Nicaraguan flag at his head-quarters at Punta Arenas , by the mouth of the San Juan river . That proceeding appears to have raised the ' dander' of the
commander of the evaded Saratoga , who proceeded to make a demonstration with his guns , and sent an officer to parley with the audacious General . But Waikee carried things with a high hand , and warned the States captain that if his men approached ' camp' otherwise than with regular military question and answer , they would be fired upon—a proceeding which . Captain Chatabd declined to provoke . Tbe Nicaraguan Government offered no sign of opposition ; and so things went on for some days , Walkee making good his ground by seizing various military positions , a steamer
or two , and so on . But on the 6 th of December , the United States steam-frigate Wabash , with Oommodore Pauxdin © on boandf , cast anchor off Punta Arenas , and on the same day arrived the British ships Leopaad and Brunswick . These vessels were , a few days later , joined by the Fulton , another United States steam-ship of war , It waa a demonstration , but in no way , alarming * o General Walkeb , protected as he was by the neutrality laws , which forbid the uninvited landing of an armed force upon the territory of a friendly state . But we know that , where angels fear to tread mortals commonly ri *» h in without hesitation . Commodore
Pauitding had not come to Nicaragua merely to note the direction of the wind from the flauaftinga of General Walker ' s flag . Tbe Filibuster , he knew , ought not to have been allowed to hoist his flag at all ; and in spite , **? disregard , of international laws and conventions , he determined to have it down . So he landed four hundred men from the "WabaBh r-and ^ sunimoned-W-A-TjKBB-to-lay-down
his arms and surrender . There is no room for discussion when the arguments are all on one aide . Walkeb hauled down his fljg , and , with his army , gave himself up—um < h » protest . Commodore Pauljding released him on parole , on condition that he should proceed to New York and deliver himself over to the custody of the United States Mausliftl ; * condition which Walkeb at once fulfilled .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 16, 1858, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16011858/page/11/
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