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004 The leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ju...
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POLITICAL DISHONESTY. IT will be a great...
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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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Lord Stanley On The India N" Army. The G...
marshals who have yet to see service , to the youngest ensigns who have an esprit du corps and do particular liking for the Company ' s troops , are , on such an important " matter , very dangerous advisers ; . . , ' Marines especially organized for service in men-of-war are indispensable ^ portions of the regular army embarked in our ships would be out of place , and between them and the sailors there would be perpetual discord . The Marines and the blue jackets , though not always in harmony , act tolerably well together , and accommodate themselves to each other . In fact , it was habit and US e—the accidental circumstance of some regiments having been
more frequently than others embarked—which led to their being so specially employed , and led to the establishment of the Marines . But while they have obtained golden opinions from all classes , the military aristocracy has been accustomed to look on them with some contempt , and though it would shirk their duties , it deems itself competent to dominate over them . Something of the same kind takes place with regard to the artillery and engineers . The peculiar functions of these bodies requiring hard study , they attract few or none of the scions of the upper aristocracy into their ranks . But aristocratic officers of the Guards and the Line obtain the highest places and command their more
efficient brethren . They are undoubtedly of opinion that these other corps ought to be subservient to them ; though they cannot be incorporated with them , the Indian army , they fancy , might be , and their importance proportionably increased . But since it is found necessary to organize and train men especially for the marines and the artillery , it is reasonable to conclude that a similar
training and organization of men , to be specially adapted foi service in India with an Indian army , is equally necessary . Such a provision is , in truth , only a species of that division of employment which pervades society . The formation of the Anglo-Indian army grew tip naturally from the circumstances of the -India Company and-the country ; and now to abolish it , merely in . deference to some notions of military authority , or the desires ot military - men , is to run counter to all experience . ¦¦ ' ; ¦ ' ¦ . ' . ' , ' ¦ ¦ .- ,. ¦ - ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ To enter into the Company ' s .. army "is to devote a life" to a particular occupation ; Officers and men go to India only to return with a fortune or a pension . The service is their life business—they have no other ambition , and they have performed it well . The Royal army , even when acting with the Company ' s troops , has been disposed to look down on them , and they have hot obtained equal rank and consideration in the nation . Treated as inferior they have hot obtained the -best men , and have , in consequence , not been quite as admirable as they might have -Jbeen--J &^ rJJieleg-S . . they have furnished a succession of very
able officers . "While General Elpiiinston , a royal officer , as Lord Stanley observed , led the army into the Cabul scrape , "Nott , Pollock , and Sale , Company ' s officers , led it out , and retrieved the national reputation endangered by the royal soldier . So the tide of the mutiny was turned , and Delhi fell by the instrumentality of Sir J . Lawrence and Generals Nicholson , Wilson , and Neil , Company ' s servants . The great merits of Lord Clyde , Sir Hugh "Ross , mid above all of Havelock , cannot be doubted ; but the Indian army , though small in number compared to the Hoyal forces , boasts many distinguished heroes . Where there is one Clyde , or one Havelock in the ltoval army , there are scores of Ouathams ,
WhJTELOCKS ; BURKARDS , NEALES , CARDIGANS , Olid IjUCANS . Prom the majority , who enter the service rather as a pastime than a serious life business , the same devotion cannot be expected as from the Indian officers , Many of the unny officers now in India are always wanting to come home . It is quite erroneous , then , to claim for the Koynl army , taken sis a whole , a more refined sense of duty , a more careful discipline , greater enterprise , greater energy , and greater devotion to its employer than has been displayed by the Anglo-Indian army . Though we all recognise some splendid exceptions to general ineptitude , wo feel astonished that on the strength of these exceptions those \ vho administer our military affairs should chum a great extension
of power , when tlieir grievous and proved deficiencies are tno subject of , ju . st , loudj and universal complaint . It scorns as it they thought that they can only b " e " ^ ve ¥ erved '''' l ) y ~'" tnkrng ''~ all power into their own hands , and ab extinguishing ot bneo comparison nnd competition . They must bo despotic , and considered infallible , or they may cease to -be . Sir Chaules Wood ' s own Council and nil competent authorities nrc against his plan . ; nnd it would be better , ns Lord Stanley proposes , to place the Anglo-Indian army on a higher footing under nn improved administration , keeping it entirely distinct from the Horse Guards , than surrender it to be monopolised nnd modolled by our military aristocracy .
004 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ju...
004 The leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 30 , 1860 .
Political Dishonesty. It Will Be A Great...
POLITICAL DISHONESTY . IT will be a great relief to journalists when some public men are discovered in high p laces whose integrity is unimpeachable ; but whue hoping and longing for a purer political - atmosphere ^ we mus t , perhaps , rejoice at any indications of disturbance which bode the coming of a corrective storm . The origin ol the revolutionary attempt of the House of Lords to overthrow the Constitution , and make itself a taxing power , may be clearly traced to the dishonesty of the Cabinet and the House of Commons . Lord PalmebstoiV , who can no more live without tricks than a fish without water , was obviously the ringleader of the cabal against the liberal men of his own party ; and when he found
that the legality of the Lords' behaviour could not fail to be brought into prominent discussion , he packed a Committee of Tories and malignant Whigs , together with a slippery Peelite , and a very small minority of men likely to maintain the dominion of law and liberty ' against the aristocratic branch of the Legislature and its minions in the Lower House . Having secured a jury of accomplices , the next step was to limit their inquiry , so that it could not lead to a full exhibition of the legal grounds upon which the privileges of the House of Commons and the rights of the people rest . The inquiry ought to have started from the period at which it terminates , and to have gone back at least as far as the reism of Edward I . Had this been
done the House oi Commons and the people would have been m possession of a most important series of precedents , dearly leading down to the famous declaration of 1678 , " that all aids and supplies , and aids to his Majesty in Parliament * are the sole gift of the Cornhidns . " This was precisely what the reactionary cabal did not want ; and from the firstmeeting of the Committee the issue was easily discerned . After a considerable expenditure of time , a mass of cases were collected , for which the Chairman of the Committee , Mr . Walfole , appears chiefly responsible ; and which lays all parties cohcerned in its concoction open to very grave and serious charges , as it is . not-a . full , fair , and complete statement 6 f the facts which it pretends to describe . Founded upon an imperfect - —we fear wilfully imperfect collection of precedents , Mr .
Waipole framed an _ " oily garnmori " sort of report , the effect of which would be to slur over the matter , and leave the virtual victory on the side of the conspirators in the Lords . In opposition to this , Mr , Bright , who- had been well primed by an . able constitutional lawyer , prepared a clear and explicit statement of the law and facts of the case , in which he was supported by Mr . Gladstone and Lord John . Russell . Lord Palmerston , of
course , supported Mr . Walpole , and then agreed to a . compromise which binds him to nothing , although it is evident he wishes to go wrong . If he finds his tricks exposed , and liable to punishment by loss of office , he can , with
his admirable facility of vermi ( rtIlTrr-wi ^ gglrrrg 7 ^ nsilr- ~ hirii-tUt other way . Sir James Graham , as of old , repudiates the politics of manly honesty for that Jeremy Diddle it expediency of which Sir Robert Peel was the chief apostle ; but although he opposed the constitutional side when his voto might have turned the scale , lie too can twist and wriggle if adequate pressure be applied . In a day or two the Government intentions will bo known , and the debates will commence ; but all parties concerned may make up their minds that no compromise will answer , and that all attempts to make matters smooth and pleasant will only lead to further exposure and strife . We observe the Constitutional Defence Committee have advertised their intention
of originating an investigation into the whole lutittoiy if the people are betrayed by the partisan jury to whom Lord Palmerston has confided the question ; their words are that they intend to appoint a " sub-Committee for the purpose oi searching ; all the requisite documents , nnd making known to the people those laws of public liberty which the accomplices in the usurpation committed by the House of Lords are anxious to conceal . " This is the right course j and if , upon inquiry , it turns out that the precedents laid before the House of Commons
Committee were garbled or incomplete , such nn incident cannot be treated witli mildness or moderation . The mutter must he thoroughly searched out , the guilty parties traced , nnd in some way suitably punished . A large proportion of the Commit tee arc Privy Councillors , nnd if it should-unfortunately prove true that they have , by negligence , or culpable action , allowed or caused a serious misrepresentation to take place , the people ought to combine to lay tUeir conduct before the Queen , and pray that she will dismiss them from the office which 'they hold !
There are two sorts of falsehood , one the anppresnio vrri , and the- other the sugpestio falai . In point of morality one is as bad aa the other , unless , indeed , the former be considered the morn base , because the more hypocritical , crime . The conduct , of oil parties concerned , in this dispute should be tried by tliti
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1860, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061860/page/4/
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