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^70 T H B LEADER. [No. 321, .-Sattfikday...
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A ~ NEW QUESTION WITH THE UNITED STATES....
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THE MARQUIS OF DALHOUSIE. On tho 19th of...
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Transcript
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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 Bead Not Dangerous Classes. The Supp...
operate in the preservation of order amongst themselves . The Hall reg ime has been superseded , to substitute the Gbosvenob regime ; and that astounding piece of imprudence is committed just a fortnight before the whole of the immense population of this metropolis is invited to come out into the open streets and parade the great town for many hours during the night . Good God ! what are our responsible Ministers at ?
^70 T H B Leader. [No. 321, .-Sattfikday...
^ 70 T H B LEADER . [ No . 321 , .-Sattfikday ,
A ~ New Question With The United States....
A ~ NEW QUESTION WITH THE UNITED STATES . If anything could justify the proposal of Mr . Quitmak , to repeal the Neutrality Act of the United States , it would be the onesided neutrality which our Government is observing in Central America . The official correspondence which has just been published between our [ Foreign-office and the agent of Costa Rica , will create a very unpleasant feeling in this country , but how much more unpleasant in the United States ! Everybody knows that Walkee , the General of the forces of Nicaragua , is an adventurer of an order exactly resembling that of General Houston , who is now put forward as one of the candidates for the presidency of the "United States . Mr . "Walker is a man of
education , who believes that the Central American States would be better if they were to act more in harmony with the politics of the great Anglo-Saxon republic . He has raised a force , and is acting in conjunction with a party in the State of Nicaragua ; he is in fact the generalissimo of one of the many contending factions in that district of Central America . His proceedings may be " lawless "; but it is the height of falsity and of folly to give him a character different from that which he really possesses . It is natural that he should draw recruits for his force from the
" United States ; but the Government of that republic has effectually stopped supplies both of men and arms . It has on two occasions arrested bodies of men who were setting forth to join the army of Walkeb . How does our Government act ? It is asked by Mr . Wallebstein , the agent for Costa Rica , one of the States of Central America , for a loan of muskets . Lord Cla .-bendon replied by offering a lot of muskets , 2000 in number , at 23 s ., or a superior article at 56 s . 8 d . This offer was made on the 9 th
of February . " What were the motives which induced Lord Clarendon thus to enter into competition with Birmingham ? Why was Mr . Wallebstein , who had the money of Costa Rica to spend , not referred to that natural depdt for fire-arms ? Perhaps it was considered that the republic would require them on credit ; but fair security would have enabled the agent to obtain credit in Birmingham as well as in " Whitehall ; and we do not understand why the British tax-payer should be called upon to pay for credit to our allies of Costa Rica in competition with Birmingham .
It is important to notice that this offer of ! Lord Clarendon ' s was made before the declaration of war between Costa Rica and Nicaragua , and Mr . "Wallkjibtein makes a very curious report upon the subject . Walleustein is a sharp iellow , and he considers that ho knew how to move the British Government . "When I was tolling Lord Clarendon that Costa
Itica already had an army of eight hundred men on the frontier of Nicaragua he was much pleased , und aaid , ' That was a right atop , " and I am perauadod that my having madjo that insinuation is one of tho roasons for giving us the musket * . Tho questions pending between this country and tho United Stutou are very complicated , but there will be no war , for this reason , that tho gentlemen in tho great Republic observe that , although tho British nation do not boost or nay much on the subject , they ore determined to punish the Yankees very seriously
for the least insult to the national honour . To the eyes of the whole world—of this country in particular—a war between the two nations would be one of the worst of evils ; but to Central America the case would be very different , as Walker and his associates would soon be kicked out of Nicaragua . " So here is the agent of Central America endeavouring to set England and America by the ears , confessedly against the opinion of this country , for the advantage of his own paltry little republic ; and lie succeeds by the cooperation of the British Minister ! The same mail that brings us this interesting correspondence , also brings the report of a frightful massacre inflicted by the natives of Panama on passengers who were on their way from the United States to California . The dispute appeared to originate in an accident : an intoxicated passenger was buying a water-melon from a native , but chaffered over the price ; the native , being much exasperated , drew a knife ; the passenger fired and wounded the man ; the natives mustered in strong forces , fell upon the passengers , killed twenty , wounded thirty or forty more , ransacked the offices of the Panama Railway Company and those of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company . Now who were the persons thus attacked ? They were men of the United States ; the officers and men of the railway and the steamship station were citizens of the Union , who had no other duties in that place than to safeguard the property of Americans . The natives of Panama , therefore , have committed a gross assault upon Americans . There are some circumstances which give to this outrage the appearance of premeditation . The natives seem to have been prepared for the attack , by the facility with which they mustered on the first outbreak . Now England and America are united under treaty in defending the neutrality of the whole of this district . The American Government has been very much embarrassed by the conduct of Walkeb and other adventurers ; but it has abided by its treaties , it has enforced the general purpose of its Neutrality Act , and it has done all that lay in its power to defend the property of the transit . It is in the face of circumstances like these that we find the British Government lending ammunition to one of the parties that are contending for local supremacy , before the declaration of war , though not before the Costa Kicans were preparing for a war upon Walkeb , in the course of which they thus make a brutal assault upon unoffending Americans . Of course our Government will say that it is no more answerable for the acts of the Costa Hican ruffians than it was for tho acts of IIebz and Sxrobel ; but why be mixed up with such matters at all ?
The Marquis Of Dalhousie. On Tho 19th Of...
THE MARQUIS OF DALHOUSIE . On tho 19 th of January , 1848 , the Earl of Daluoubie arrived at Calcutta , and assumed tho reins of government . Although the youngest Governor-General to whom tho welfare of India has ever been entrusted , he had already established a high reputation for administrative capacity . He found the country in a state of apparent tranquillity , which , in reality , was nothing more than the exhaustion consequent on severe and protracted struggles . It was no new thing for a British soldiery to contend for victory , but of luto they had fought for their very existence . Tho destruction of the military power of the Mahrafctas , tho subjugation of Scinde , and the establishment of tho river Indus aw tho lino of demarcation between tko British and tho Sikhs , appeared at last to have secured for tho Government leisure- to undertake tho more profitable labours of poaco . Such a respite had become almost indiMponBubio . The constant hostilities in which it hud bo long
been engaged by the ambition of its neighbours , or by the policy ^ of the Imperial Government—never by its own spontaneous action —had seriously impaired its finances , and withdrawn its attention from internal improvements . But peace had rewarded their past sacrifices , and a military Governor-General had pronounced all further wars to be impossible . Belying on such high authorit y , the army had been reduced by 50 , 000 men . Everything promised a tranquil career to tho newly arrived viceroy . These dreams were illusive . Officers of the British Government were murderously assaulted at Mooltan , the banner of rebellion
was unfurled by Moolraj , and Lahore invested , while the Sikh soldiery avowed their intention to march upon Calcutta and expel the Feringhi from Hindostan . In those days there was no electric telegraph . Lord Daliiousie , therefore , proceeded at once to the scene of action , ordering up reinforcements of men and supplies of warlike materiel with an energy and foresight rarely exhibited in the East . The crowning victory of Gujerat
opened the Sikh territory to the British army . The Indus was crossed , and the military kingdom so long swayed by llunjeet Singh ceased to exist . " Without waiting for authority from home , Lord Daliiousie adopted the bold initiative of annexing the Punjab . It was not a measure to be effected by a proclamation . There was much work to be done , and it was done rapidly aod well . The Sikhs were not a nationality , not a
people , in the European sense of the term . They rather resembled some of the old religious orders of knights . They were the followers of a fanatic , had certain initiatory rites , and preached religion by the sword . Their numbers were recruited by daring adventurers rather than by the slow process of generation . Perpetually at discord among themselves , save when united for the purpose of j > lundering a neighbour , they wore dreaded in their strength by adjacent Powers , and unpitied in their fall . Lord Dalhousie applied to them the only law they themselves had ever recognised—the law of conquest .
In an incredibly short space of time the population was disarmed , the country meted out into districts for financial and judicial purposes , roads and canals were constructed , steam-vessela launched on the Indus , gang robberies suppressed , and a greater degree of personal security established than even in tho old province of Bengal . The Government , in the first instance , was entrusted to a Board , which was afterwards replaced by a Chief Commissioner responsible to the Governor-Genoral alone , and assisted by Commissioners of Justice and Finance . The Sikh soldiers ,
having acquitted themselves so gallantly as foes , were invited to become the comrades or their late conquerors . They readily responded to tho appeal . Some wore enrolled into entire regiments , inferior to none in tho service ; others were drafted into tho different luitivo regiments ; and others again formed mto irregular corps of horse and foot , to servo as an armed police . Tho result may be briefly summed up in a happy and prosperous people , aud a surplus revenue , l'or tlua great achievement Lord Dalilousiis was justly rewarded by a stop in tho peerage . While tho work of regeneration in the Punjab was in progress , a war with Burma !' l- » n . < "ji ' inn imminent . Grievous outrages huU
been inflicted on British subjects by tho Uovornor of Rangoon . Apology and indemnity were alike refused . There remained no alternative but such a chastisement aw Bliouiu deter tho . Burmoao for tho future from humiIui violations * of international law . Thcro \\ n *> alno another motive for tho adop tion oi prompt and vigorous mcasurcu : an America
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17051856/page/14/
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