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statistical society—even mischievous . Mr . Jerrold makes the sailor—who ig examined as to the moral qualities of the husband of Black-eyed Susan—specify that his shipmate " plays the fiddle like an angel . " Similarly , if Sir Benjamin Hall were required to state why he is created a great official , with a large salary and immense patronage , he would be bound to mention that he did not like bishops . The Coalition had other views , perhaps : wearied of the croaking of the frogs , in the sewers , that Stork Chadwick was too energetic , Government pitches to them—a log .
The appointment illustrates the aristocratic , as modified by the subservient Parliamentary , system . No reason whatever can be given why a Minister of Health , whose considerations cannot be political , should have a seat in Parliament . At all events , as it is obvious that . a Minister of Health should be a distinguished savant—the office being
distinctly one which should be opened to our great men of science and social philosophythe necessity might he met by appointing a savant , and afterwards finding a seat for himsuch , a seat as that which , was so ingeniously discovered for Mr . Gordon at Beverley . Or if we could not have a scientific or medical man , because of reasons which would occur to the
comprehensive mind of a Hayter , why shouldn't we have Lord Shaftesbury , who has learned the business of the Board of Health by five ; years' bard work there ^ and wbo has been guilty of the excessively ridiculous practical Christianity of so working as unpaid president ? We fully believe the Government has passed over JLord Shaftesbury merely because it really would not do to encourage such absurd precedents as tliat
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BRITISH PROGRESS IN INDIA . Tee amount of interest felt by Englishmen in the affairs of India is not to he estimated by the fact that only fifteen members were present on Tuesday night , when the Indian Minister made his first annual statement . It is scarcely credible that Sir Charles " Wood delivered to one of the thinnest Houses on record his account of the financial and social
condition of India . But so it was ; and we can only hope that the public are more anxious than their so-called representatives to learn how the new system of Indian Government has worked . " If we are to believe the few gentlemen who did stay to hear Sir Charles ' s statement , everything ia going on as smoothly as could bo desired . The lleform Bill , which cost so many weary hours of discussion , has achieved wonders . As regards finance , indeed , there waa a dp fie it last vear
of 872 , 335 ^ ., and no expectation was held out of any increase ia the revenues . But iu other respects , the prospect was gratifying in the extreme Ava and Nagporo had been added to the Hat of British possessions , the North-western tribes had been subdued , and the old despot Dost Mahomed was on the ovo of paying homage to Queen Victoria . Then , as to internal improvements , Lord Dalhousie had been vigorous . A scheme lms been laid before the Bengal Government for increasing the salaries of the native judges
and advancing them to a higher social position . The gigantic Ganges Canal , " an undertaking which surpasses all similar works in ancient or modern times , " has been opened ; the Punjab , hitherto tho pcrpotuiil aeeno of commotion and revolt , has been reduced to prder , and " nt this moment life and property are more secure thero than iu Bengal . " Then public works are advancing in Madras and elsewhere , railways arc in progress , and already ; an electric telegraph hns been laid down irom Calcutta to Bombay . It is pleasant , moreover , to loam that the Homo Directors performed tho bittor task oi
self-decimation with the spirit of heroic martyrs ; and the eighteen members of the New Court have worked together as cordially as if they had owed their appointment to the" same authority . " With regard to public works in India , we are henceforth to know , by means of annual estimates , the exact amount of progress that has been made . AVorks are to be completed by means of advances from the Treasury , instead of waiting for a surplus revenue ; and means are to be taken for
securing an adequate supply of superintending engineers . Last of all , attention has been paid to the qiiestiou of education : the Home Government is engaged in preparing a general scheme which will be applied as circumstances may require , and grants are to be furnished to every school irrespective of any religious instruction . We are to teach the natives without attempting to make proselytes . " We should be very glad to think that this picture was correct . We are not inclined
to exact too much from the Indian Government in the very first year after the establishment of the new system ; and if Sir Charles Wood ' s exposition were not glaringly exag < - gerated , we should be more willing to echo the eulogiums that vrere passed upon it . To tell the truth , the portion of Sir Charles's speech which seemed to please him least , was precisely that which , we read with the greatest satisfaction . Any one who knows the system under which the Indian revenues are collected ,
will be glad to hear of a smaller rather than of a larger surplus in the Treasury . There is work enough to be done in India to absorb more than a thousand times the surplus of which the Indian minister boasted ; and it is painful to believe that , in spite of all the cool-blooded rhetoric of Sir James "Weir Hogg , the natives still groan under the most shameful extortions . As for the prodigious
activity in public works , it is startling to be told that in this same year , 1854 , Bombay is once more in danger of drought , and only at the last moment hav . e extraordinary exertions been made by Lord Elphinstone to carry out a plan proposed in , the daj ' s of Sir George Arthur . It is true that Sir Jamesetjee Jejeebhoy has again come fonvard to meet the present need ; but it is infamous in the extreme that the Government has suffered another
year to elapse before adopting sufficient precautions . In the first year after the Indian Reform Bill , thousands are famishing by drought at Bombay . These two iustancesone exhibiting false notions with respect to Indian economy , the other u highly-coloured statement of facts—will cause our readers to look with soino suspicion on the exposition of Sir Charles AVood , accoptod though it was by a select body of Indian Reformers , The great hope for the future prosperity
ot Indm lies in the vigorous promotion of public works . Tho expense is wonderfully small when compared with tho results that will surely bo produced , and we hope to boar , next year , that tho Government has fulfilled its promise of providing moans from tho Troasury . Then , again , as rogards tho elevation of natives to offices of importanco in tho Government and Courts of Law , It is
possible that the pictures of native intelligence , with which wo are aomotimes favoured , are considerably exnggoi'ated , but wo cannot forget the petition drawn up by natives at Bombay , and which excited an unusual amount of public attention , last year , in this country . The Indian ItoConnors should remember that ; thoir task ia by no means finished . It will never do for ' tho
administration of tho most splendid ompiro in tho world to fall onco more into tho power of a clique . Wo Imvo sent forth our fleets and armioa with tho avowed purpose of destroying a despotism iu tho cast of Europe . Ia it true
that other British troops are employed in supporting a despotism scarcely less oppressive and unjust ? This is a question which must form a portion of the programme of an organised Radical party .
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AUSTRIA—FOB AM ) AGAINST . Whatever a few blind or mendacious persons may pretend to the contrary , it is as certain as anything can be , that the chief cause of the great interest which the British people have taken , in the present war , and of the extraordinary enthusiasm , with which they have cheered it on , has been a vague expectation of £ ood likely to arise out of it to what are called " the distressed nationalities . " Mystify it as you like , that is the fact . Strike
this element of interest out of the war—make it plain that Hungary , Italy , and Poland , are not lik e ly to derive any benefits" ) from the war ; in other words , that the war is not likely to subserve the cause of continental revolution—and the enthusiasm , for the war , now felt from Cornwall to Caithness , will fall seventy per cent , to-morrow . Set down twenty per cent , to direct hatred of Russia ,
and ten per cent , to independent affection for the Turks , and you make a very fair allowance for these elements . All the rest , we maintain , consists of pure , though vague , longing to see the Italians , the Hungarians , the Poles , and tHeir brethren " up and doing . " We will not yet say that the main element of interest for the British people has . already been , extracted out of the war—for it is
impossible to calculate the spontaneous issues of so large and uncontrollable a business ; but we do fear that so far as the diplomatic management of the war by the Grovemments who conduct it is concerned , the " friends of European freedom" may now begin to give up hope . Translating the vague popular expectations from the war into what they precisely meant , they amounted to this—a wish for the partial dissolution or dismemberment of the Austrian
Empire . This was not the phrase used ; but , just as six pennies united make sixpence , so the desire to see Italy free , the desire to see Hungary independent , and the desire to see the Poles restored to nationality , meant , when put together , the desire to see Austria made small by degrees and beautifully less in Europe . Accordingly , the universal wish at the beginning of the war—universal , at least , out of official circles — was that Austria would facilitate her own destruction , by
taking open part with Russia . Then , of course , almost by consent of the Governments of Great Britain and France , the democracies would have been let loose upon her ; she would have been torn to pieces ; and the war -would have gone in tho groove of tho European Revolution . Austria , however , wise iu her generation , did not go with Russia . A sen so of solt ' -intorost , aided by the earnest entreaties of the Western Powers , anxious to their wit ' s oiul that tho war should
not go in tho groove of the . revolution , brought her to tho occidental side of tho controversy . She- gave in lier adhesion , with necessary Germanic modifications and by-troaties , to tho policy of Grout Britain and JYunce . Thero was rejoicing over this event in Downing-street ; ; Austria anil "her magnanimous young emperor" were eulogised by Ministers iu Parliament ; and now diplomatic eonxing
went on at a givnt rate . The hope— -for it really whs u hopo—of the lovers of European freedom then -was that ; Austria was insincere , niul would , at some turn of tho war or other , show the cloven hoof . That hopo failed also . ¦ Whether tho oiirm'stnosB grew or not as fortuno became inauspicious for her old protector , ia no matter—Austria was earnest in tho part she took ; sho did find it her interest
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August 12 , 1854 . ] THE LEADED 757
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 757, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2051/page/13/
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