On this page
-
Text (3)
-
No. 897, October 31, 1857.] THE LEADER. ...
-
LABOUR AND COTTON SUPPLY The Manchester ...
-
LOUD CANNING. Why is not Lord Canning re...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The New Aspect In India. The Operations ...
one . Did an altercation arise between Lord Cashin g and Sir Colin Campbeli concerning tbe military arrangements in Fort William ? Did Sir Patrick Gbant , by suspending General Hewitt , commit an act offensive to the civil supremacy at Calcutta ? Have the magistrates , Sandys , Pai / mek , and Ibving , been rebuked for the summary justice they executed upon captured assassins ? Were the civilians who displayed so much
courage and promptitude at Patna and MTonghur removed , to appease the milk-and-honey viceroyalty at Calcutta ? Has Mr . J . P . Gbant , with his two confidential Mohammedan colleagues , informed General Neii / l that no further punishments should take place without his sanction ? Is there , in tact , a split between the civil and military authorities ? If so , how is the rebellion to be stamped out ?
There seems no reason to doubt that Mr . J . P . Gbant released a hundred and fifty of the Cawnpore malefactors , of course without consulting General Neill , who had seen the blood two inches deep upon the floor . Every European in India and in England , except the clique which finds its beatitude in its admiration of Lord Canning , is at a loss to understand this proceeding- —premature , to say the least of it . Were the rebels in . want of reinforcements , that Mr . Grant should
send them a hundred and fifty of his hostages ? We submit that he might have waited for the relief of Lucknow . It is useless , we well know , to protest . An article from this journal , reprinted in the ' Englishman , would subject it to a week ' s suspension . Lord Cankin g governs without the aid of public opinion , and in defiance of it . He will allow no one but himself to bring the administration
into contempt . To a thorough distrust of his countrymen he unites a miraculous reliance upon the Sepoys , who have seen , in Bengal alone , nearly a hundred thousand examples of sedition . We still hear of-native regiments entrusted with arms , and marching over to the enemy . There is no dominant principle at work at Calcutta . Caprice is supreme . If our commanders had not been made of
stem stuff , we might have " been expelled from our Oriental dominions . We have Laweence , who seems too far away to be interfered with ; we had his relative , who was killed at Lucknow , and whose death gave Lord Canning an opportunity to hint that to certain military functionaries ( names suppressed ) hanging , shooting , and blowing from guns were congenial tastes ; we have Nicholson and Wilson , but they are rebulced by a ' civil' circular ; we have Neill
but Mr . Grant domineers over him ; Hatelock is in the field , whither none of Lord Canning's civilians may care to follow him ; consequently , ho is at liberty for a while to follow the precedent established by Wilson , in his admirable General Order , and prohibit his men to grant the rebels quarter on the field of battle . The effect may easily bo traced . At Calcutta , under civil law , largo classes oi the natives are insolent and threatening ; at Benares , not a Baboo or a Coolie passes an Englishman without a salute .
Wo do not believe that India is in safe hands . If mere strategy and courage would restore it to prosperity and peace , the army might accomplish the work , although hampered by Calcutta proclamations , and tho jealousy of tho Governor-General in Council . But tins ia not all that is necessary It is far-sighted and fearless statesmanship that is required . What was the foresight that allowed tho mutiny to creep on in spite of a thousand oral and ocular warnings ? What was tho fearlessness that hesitated at every step , and was only rash when it dictated the Leniency Circular ? Tho late
Adjutant-General of the army in Bengal distinctly accuses the local government , and prays for a Koyal Commission to proceed to India and investigate the charges against Lord Canning and his colleagues . Let the appellant be easy if his demand be not granted . A commission would not be ' royal' if it failed to exonerate ' my noble friend' and the ' of the highest character' acting with him .
No. 897, October 31, 1857.] The Leader. ...
No . 897 , October 31 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 1045
Labour And Cotton Supply The Manchester ...
LABOUR AND COTTON SUPPLY The Manchester Chamber of Commerce is engaged in bringing before the public a very important question—that of the Cotton Supply . For many years our commercial classes have acknowledged the evil of depending upon a single country for the raw material of oar greatest branch of industry . Not even the Indian mutiny could be compared , as a national disaster , with the sudden stoppage of
the Lancashire mills by a failure of the crop . The misfortune is not probable , but it is possible ; and it would be madness to continue , year after year , without guarding against so formidable a danger . But we need not adopt a point of view so extreme . Without supposing the total or partial cessation of the American supply , it would assuredly be advantageous to increase our resources , to cheapen the staple of our manufactures , and to enrich some of our own
possessions with a few annual millions of the purchase-money that no \ v fills the pockets of the Transatlantic planter . British India offers an immense scope for the cultivation of cotton . Hail way and river carriagethe latter upon the plan of Mr . Boubne—to bring the produce to port , would considerably quicken the movement ; but the simple truth is , that agricultural enterprise is wanted
for India . Five hundred new settlements of Europeans , besides creating thousands of private fortunes , would act as a powerful impulse in promoting the mutually beneficial intercourse of Bengal and Lancashire . Why should not Manchester fabrics , made of Indian materials , replace the famous cottons of Balasore ? Again , a large surface of soil is applicable to cotton cultivation in Borneo . 111 his letter to the Manchester Chamber of
Commerce , recently published in the daily journals , Mr . Sphnceh St . John , the British Consul-General , has entered into some very remarkable details , inviting the attention of traders , manufacturers , and adventurous capitalists , to the singular advantages enjoyed by the vast island among the' independent princes and chieftains of which he acts as the representative of the English Government . Happily , the political and social relations thus established are of the moat
amicable character ; the capacities of the soil have been variously and systematically tested , and it appears certain , from the evidence accumulated , that a great cotton crop could speedily he raised in the maritime districts of Borneo . There is no doubt , moreover , that the West Indian group , if cultivated with energy , might yield a large supply , which would go far to redeem the shattered West Indian interest . In the Virgin Islands , the present governor has carried out some very satisfactory experiments , and expects to send home , in the next
winter or spring , about ton bales , the growth of six acres . Next year ho intends to plant tho best Sea Island seed , in sufficient quantities to introduce it as a permanent production of the islands , which , it is believed , with a proper complement of labour ,- might annually ship twenty thousand bales of cotton of a iirstrate description . Yet , lust year , the amount of only about ten bales , or twenty-nine hundred weight , was exported . Tho reason is , that tho land lies fallow . Naiturally prolific , it only waits tho touch of agricultural art to
spring into abundance . . Where are the workmen to be found ? It is useless to think of Englishmen . They may be masters , but not servants , in the tropics . With Australia and North America open to him , no emigrant will think of competing with the West Indian negroes . The idea of
such a thing is preposterous . Another project has been conceived—that of transporting a large number of the captured Sepoys to the Atlantic cotton-fields , and there allowing them to atone for their offences by hard and profitable labour . It would be better than hanging them . They would be far more useful than Coolies . It
would matter little whether or not they belonged to the agricultural class . It would be as easy to make Brahmins dig as to compel them to lick the blood on a stone pavement , as the British soldiers did at Cawnpore . Nor would the transfer from the rice and poppy plains of the East Indies to the sugar and cotton plantations of the West Indies be injurious to the Sepoy constitution . We have reason for thinking , in fact , that this suggestion has been received with favour by those
who might assist in carrying it out , provided that the Government interposed no obstacle . Something must be done with thousands of the captured mutineers . They cannot be pardoned , and they cannot all be hanged . Mr . John P . Grant , it is true , would discover an easy plan of dissipating the difficulty by letting the cut-throats loose ; but his is not exactly the principle that will save the British dominions from prolonged anarchy .
It might . be worth while , at all events , to test the value of the proposal by selecting one of the smaller groups as the scene of an experiment conducted upon a regular plan ; for the West ladies want nothing but labour to render thena more prosperous than ever , and we have at our disposal thousands of vigorous arms belonging to men born in a hot climate , who have no right to complain of transportation .
Loud Canning. Why Is Not Lord Canning Re...
LOUD CANNING . Why is not Lord Canning recalled ? That seems to be the question which naturally rises when the public witness such acts as his minute of council on the treatment of natives , and the appointment of Mr . J . P . Grant to paralyze General Neill and the other military commanders . The release of the hundred and fifty prisoners is the last exemplification of Calcutta fatuity . But why was Lord Canning sent out at all ? How
is it that he retains the implicit confidence of his patrons at home ? Nothing ; could be imagined more mischievous than his show of indulgence to the rebels at the very moment that the generals are straining their utmost energies ; yet the Governor-General not only proceeds uninterrupted in this compromising career , but appears to enjoy the unbounded
admiration of the chiefs of the Cabinet . The public naturally has some difficulty in understanding how such a man can be so trusted , or how a man who can be trusted can commit himself to such extraordinary courses . But the mystery is solved if we look to tho circumstances \ inder which Lord Canning was appointed , and to his personal character . Lord Canning is a man of conscience and .
of average intelligence , and ho really possesses that sort of ostentatious energy which ingratiates him with tho Ministers at home . He is superficially active . No sooner did he attain to tho government ia India than , knowing of the existence oi' much abuse , he inquired into everything for himself , sought to make himself master of every department , and of every branch in every department ; and ho has carried out that principle of ga-
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 31, 1857, page 1045, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_31101857/page/13/
-