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OSTo. 392, September 26, 1857.] _ T HJB_...
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THE NOBLE TRAYTOUIL The Noble Traytour. ...
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JOURNAL OF A BASHI-BAZOUK. Journal of a ...
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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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Indian Pamphlets. The Best Days Of The P...
directed from a special point of view . One of the most interesting , though not the most disintei'ested , is Mr . Hyde Clarke ' s Colonization , Defe nce , and Hailncays in Our Indian Empire ( Weale ) . —Mr . Clarice describes the numerous English towns that have sprung up among the Himalayas and the ! N ~ eilgherries , to which invalids resort for convalescence , and shows that European colonization may be developed upon an ample scale—a possibility to which he justly refers as affording an excellent suggestion for the future security of the conquerors of India . We have never yet made the country our own . We are strangers among the people We have subdued them but not settled among them . But to sprinkle the peninsula and the mountains effectually with European towns we must develop railways and telegraphs , and it is as an advocate of these projects that - Mr . Clarke has avowedly compiled his ela-\
borate and useful publication . ' ~ Ve have no doubt whatever that every encouragement is'due to the promoters ; the only thing to be regretted is that they did not receive Government guarantees years ago ; had theMirzapore and Delhi line been constructed , the mutiny could never have assumed its present frightful proportions . Mr . Clarke , to illustrate the capabilities of India for English colonization , enumerates a large number of residentiary towns established within the last thirt ) ' years ; but while they remain unconnected by steam communication with the coast their progress must be slow , and their inhabitants comparatively unsafe ; what is now an eighty days ' march might be accomplished by railway within twenty-four hours ; thus , had ; the Northern Bengal Railway been completed , battalions might iiave been poured down in half a day from Darjeeling into the valley of the
( ranges , while , had the Simla line been open , European forces might have leen transported in six hours from Simla and Soobathoo to Delhi . We advise our readers to bestow careful attention upon Mr . Clarke's pamphlet . The Present Crisis in India ( John Chapman ) is a pamphlet of a totally different class , by the Author of ' Our ] North-West Frontier . ' In a history of British political and military progress in India , published some yeai'S ago , we find a chapter on the 2 vorth-West Frontier , containing passages from an xmpublished memoir written by Captain Bonamy for Sir John Malcolm , from inedited notes by Sir John Malcolm himself , and from an important manuscript memoir by Sir John Macdonald . The purport of ihe united argument was to show the necessity of guarding the AfFghanline , and converting into defensive battalions the predatory nations on that
frontier . The writer of this pamphlet urges the formation p f a host of Eastern Cossacks on the hills to render the Affghan passes impregnable . From that topic iie advances to the actual insurrection ., and traces , vigorously and suggestively , a theory of the causes which have provoked the Mohammedan and Hindu mutiny . He is obviously a man of practical local knowledge , familiar with all the workings of our Indian administration , and admirably adapted to discuss in any arena the military exigencies of the Anglo-Indian Empire . The aiithor of The Mutiny in the Bengal Army ( ^ Joha Chapman ) adopts as a motto Sir Charles Napier ' s exclamation , " Yes , the Sepoy is a glorious soldier . " Glorious in some respects , undoubtedly , as he amply demonstrates ; but in others despicable , as late occurrences still more conclusively
show . Apart from the moral influence of English discipline , the Hindu or the Mohammedan becomes a coward , a savage , and a monster . The pamphlet argues convincingly in favour of retaining a native force , a point on which all competent authorities concur with him , but he scarcely make 3 out his ease "when he contends to some extent in favour of a high-c : iste army . He assigns the insurrection , upon grounds which he explains from obvious personal knowledge , to three ruling motives—the alienation said to Iiave arisen between the Sepoys and European oflicers , the great expansion of territory without a corresponding increase of our military establishments , . and a vague fear of a desire , or even intention on the part of the Government , to subvert Hinduism and caste . We have already considered these . points , but we may counsel such of our readers as desire to analyze them jn detail to consult the publication under notice .
Mr . Malcolm Lewin is a pessimist , and in The 7 Fs / y to Lose India ,, with Illustrations from Lciidcnhall-drcct ( llidgway ) , delivers himself of a lengthened groan . He talks about universal poverty and misrule , the social degradation of all classes , insult and oppression , in a manner that proves him to be declaiming with his eyes shut . He says the existence of the Indian native , tinder . British rule , has been " but a passage to another state . " " The condition of all classes of society is hopeless . " '" You have drained the country of its wealth , " and left it richer than at any former period . Really , Mr . Malcolm Lewin is by no means a safe counsellor in the midst of
a crisis . His sympathies are with the Sepoy . He would hardly object , we anight almost imagine , to let loose Nona Sahib and bis Mahrattas in Lendenhall . « trect . We are sorry that he despises the strength that lies in moderation , and prefers a virulent tirade to a calm and attested statement . When , however , we found upon his title-p . ige the hack quotation Solitudincm faciunt paccm appellant , we anticipated nothing more nor less than the outpourings of a man whose advice has not been appreciated by the Court of p roprietors . Wo , as our readers know well , are not the apologists of . Leadenhall-street administration ; but we can have nothing to do with onesided and reckless declamation .
3 'he Crisis hi India : its Causes and Proposed Remedies , by a Military Officer of Thirty-two Years' Experience in India ( Bontley ) , appeared originally , tve think , in the Daily News , in the form of successive letters signed Caubulee . The "writer has a thorough acquaintance with his subject , iie understands India ; he understands the Court of Directors ; he sees to the bottom of Mr . Vernon Smith . Ho complains that while such men as Mr Mansell , lute resident at the Court of Nagpoor , Mr . William Henry ¦ Elliot , und Sir George Clark are kept in subordinate corners , Whig nondescripts uro thrust into x * esponsible positions , where they make a farce of their responsibilit y . We do not sanction all t \ u \ assertions of' Cnubulee , ' but Ave « avo been deeply interested in his series of rapid , reflective , pointed ( statements , abounding in practical suggestions , as well as in aharp criticism of jnen and measures . Among other ' hint . s , hu propones the establishment of n ^ roverntnont organ in the vernacular , to bo circulated among the native troops , to refute ialao and irritating rumours propagated by seditious
malignants . Such an organ , unlike the French Moniteur , would be exposed to public contradiction were it to be guilty of prevaricating or misleading the minds of the Sepoys . He exhibits , moreover , the historical growth of an assimilation in sentiment and interest between the Mohammedans and Hindus—a very important aspect of the question , and one which has nowhere been so ably discussed as in the letters of ' Caubulee . ' A speech on Bengal : its landed Tenure and Police System , by the Hon . Arthur Kinnaird has been published ( llidgway ) in a pamphlet form . It advocates with
temper and spirit , a reform and extension of the police administration in the Lower Provinces of Bengal , and a parliamentary investigation into the system of landed tenures , and the dispensation of justice in that populous region . It will suffice to mention the titles of two other valuable publications on similar topics—Minute of the Honourable F . J . Halliday , Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal , on the State of the Police and of Criminal Justice in the Loicer Provinces of Bengal , and Disaffection in the Native Army : a Minute writlen by Sir Thomas Munro Thirty-Jive Years ago . ' Scrutator' publishes , in . a neat form , a sensible and interesting review ( Kent and Co . ") of The Indian
Mutiny . We may add a notice of a pamphlet entitled Corrections of a Few of the JErrors contained in Sir W . Napier ' s Life of his Brother , Sir Charles Napier . By George Buist , LL . D . ( Smith , Elder , and Co . ) . —Dr . Buist convicts Sir William Napier in a style which disposes of that gentleman ' s claim to be ranked among historians or biographers .
Osto. 392, September 26, 1857.] _ T Hjb_...
OSTo . 392 , September 26 , 1857 . ] _ T HJB _ JLJ ^ A . D E K ,. 931
The Noble Traytouil The Noble Traytour. ...
THE NOBLE TRAYTOUIL The Noble Traytour . A Chronicle . By Thomas of Swarraton , Armiger . 3 vols . Smith , Elder and Co . The dulness is beginning to disperse . A new novel breaks in upon the stagnant season . It is an Elizabethan masquerade . Shakspeare , the Queen , Essex , Italeigli , and a hundred nobles , knights , and Indies of the land appear on the stage , -which presents a close and elaborate copy of the Elizabethan fashions . The author has imbued himself with the spirit of the times which he embodies ^ perhaps , too quaintly and formally . But his studies have not been without their value in preparing him , for the composition , of a semi-historical romance , garnished with fancy , and carved and painted with infinite industry , so as to revive the characteristics of a past age ., the favourite field of the novel and the drama . The story needs no
description . It is that of Elizabeth and Essex , as handed down by chronicles , and is , of course , a tragedy . The writer adopts the theory that the Queen murdered her favoiirite ( for it was a murder ) in order ' to wreak her jealousy upon himself and his beautiful countess . He is particularly successful in his pictures of the Court ; but his dialogues are artificially modulated , and are sometimes wearisome . With what freedom he deals-with incidents and personages may be imagined from a single sentence , descriptive of the scene after the condemnation of Essex : "And now the Lord High Steward of England brake his staff , Sir Walter Raleigh drew a long breath , Shakspeare wept , and the Pursuivant declared that the court had risen /' We advise our readers to send for The Noble Traytour , since it is the only novel of any merit they are likely to have for some weeks ; at least it is a pleasant interruption to the monotony of the political and literary recess .
Journal Of A Bashi-Bazouk. Journal Of A ...
JOURNAL OF A BASHI-BAZOUK . Journal of a Bashi-Bazoul : By Hugh MuUeneux Walmesley , Lieutenant-Colonel in . the Turkish Horse . Groombridge and Sons . Like the ground-swell of the sea after a storm , comes the volume of Lieut .-Colonel Mulleneux " Walmsley , after the discussions which have been raised upon the merits or demerits of the Bashi-Buzouks , or Beatson ' s Irregular Horse . The principal merit in the book is that it establishes the possibility of utilizing these Arab and Arnaouts tribes , and conlirms the impression that General Beatson has , upon the whole , been harclly used . Like Captain Money in one respect , he assumes to write impartially , but unlike him in another , he lets us see that the superseded General Avas not recalled until the heat and burden of the day were passed , and the rough natures of these Arab Cossacks had felt the taming influence of European command , and
were becoming amenable to discipline . General Smith ' s work was therefore comparatively light ; he had but to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor , which he wisely did ; and finding the irregular soldiers under him more tractable and submissive , to put on a stronger curb than would have been possible on the first formation of the regiment . We conceive that great injustice has been done to General Beatsoa by the disregard of this one fact . Tul ' U alter honores . At first , doubtless , strange scenes occurred amongst these untutored troopers . When on parade , for example ., the men would smoke , sing , and laugh ; and occasionally an officer in command of a regiment would sue his whole corps dash suddenl } ' away in a headlong charge after an unfortunate hare , at other times a few of the men would decline to be drilled on some particular morning . This was on the banks of the Dardanelles . The moral perceptions , too , of these wild sons of the desert were not very keen . They would break into i \ baker ' s shop , plunder it , and feel surprised that a noise was
made about it . Some allowance had also to bo , made for the customs and practices of their uncivilised life , as the following anecdote will show : — Two troopers of a regiment quartered at Rasgrud had committed some minor offence , and a native officer was sent to arrest them , lie met them neat tlie house of his bimbashi , and demanded that they should be given up . Ue was followed by several of his friends , troopers in the same regiment ; and whilst the men he was in search of appealed to the himbuslii for protection , high words ensued . In a moment—and why no one knew , nor could afterwards any reason be assigned for it—the room was filled and darkened with pistol smoke , and the whole party ruwhod into the open nir . Every one had fired because his neighbour hud firoii . On inspection , when the smoke had cleared away , it was found that one trooper hiy Btone dead , having been eliot through the head , while a second , clovo to the chin by the keen sabre and vigorous arm of the bimbashi , dyed tho ground with a puddle of brains and gore . Still no oao knew why this Ij-ueae had occurred or who had begun it . These sudden frays wore one o )
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 26, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26091857/page/19/
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