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December 22 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER , 1227
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the states spared by the present Governor-General ; and yet Lord Dalhousie annexed or conquered the „ Punjaub , Nagpore , Sattarah , and Pegu , to say nothing k of minor states , nor of those he would have annexed , g such as Kurrowly , had he been permitted . The subsidiary treaties with native states , entered 2 into by the Governors-General Wellesley and Hastings , , were , at the time , thought admirable stroked of policy , earning for the named noble lords a " material ' guarantee" from the soil of India , though disbursed by the East India Company . By those treaties we ' pledged ourselves to perpetual friendship , never to look with the eye of covetousness on the possessions of our allies , which , generation to generation , we ' guaranteed them to . Have we , Sir , in the cases of Sattarah and Nagpore , fulfilled our pledge , kept our name unsullied ?—or have we made it synonymous t with falsehood in the mind of every native , and many Europeans , in India ? Falsehood is a strong word , , yet applicable , but to it the native , who deplores the gradual extinction of all nationality , would add the word " ci-aven ; " for he says we first induced the Princes to disband their French and other mercenaries , promising to supply their place—that we , in every instance , received , a large accession of territory for the troops to be thus substituted—that , when strong enough , we first questioned the propriety of giving the services of the force thus entertainedand that we finished by employing those very troops to overawe the ally in the first instance , concluding with the absorption of the ally ' s territory , already occupied by the troops he had handsomely paid us for retaining as a contingent to uphold him and his successors , according to ti-eaty and promise . And such a view of the case I contend is a correct one , borne out by history , gainsay it who may . We have increased our territories and our revenue , but at what a cost ? No native of India thinks that , as a government , we are other than perfidy itself . When weak we cringed to them , but in power we cast aside the mask , and appeared in our true colours—a people devoid of truth , a race that would do aught for gain . They know we mercilessly , and with malice aforethought , sacrificed their manufacturers , by prohibiting customs when we had acquired all the harbom-s , and allowed them not to trade with other nations ; and they know , too , that our steam-manufacfcured goods were admitted to India almost free of customs . Think you , Sir , that the native of India sees not that all worth having in situations we keep to ourselves—I that the act of Parliament , as to there being no distinction of colour , creed , or caste , was a practical lieor that he believes not there must be a deep subsoil of hypocrisy and assumption iu the civilisation and Christianity that would set itself up as perfection compared to them ; while we cared but for turning the hour to the best advantage , no matter at what cosfc , the inheritance of him whose offspring we by treaty pledged ourselves to uphold , and for which we were paid—or the entire manufacturers of the land that we might benefit those of our own civilised and Christian j island . j The Rev . Mr . Kingsley is roported to have said , in j a lecture on Mahomednnism lately , at Edinbxirgb , that I he hoped the day was not far distant when the Modern would no longer have grounds for saying , " There is a devil—in fact , there are many devils—but none equal to an European , in a round black hat . " Iu one sense wo have played the winning game iu India , and I feel certain the game will not bo played out until wo absorb all . TitleB and pensions , aided by the press and missionaries , will do the deed ; and we here , Sir , will rejoice at aftcr-diunor Bpeecb . es on tho growing prospects of peoples and nationalities . Allow mo to recommend to your perusal " Shore ' s Letters on India , " and " Bishop Heber ' s Journal , " though our affairs are now much better managed than they used to be when theao works appeared ; aud , regarding our respect for treaties , any chapter whore one ia involved you will , in tho death-dealing dia- tribes , as Black wood said of Jainea Mill , find abundance to bear out tho viow entertained of our honour by tho people of India . Iu tho chapter referring to Bhurt- poor you will « oo , by tho continuation to tho work by Profossor Wilson , you are quite wrong . Religious diacord iu Oudo , wiy you I Wh y , is there none olnowhoro—none in Europe —and has none existed for throo hundred yours in thi « country und in Ireland ? I am not palliating ; but I do not , thoro- foro , approve of your making the circuinstnuco a handle whoroou to build au annexation article . Tho ouuao of tho attack on brigadier MackenKio in sufficiently w « ll known to bo a neeenHary result of bis insulting languago to tho MahoinodauH . He is an European . —u civilinod Chrwtiun , very dosiroun of " waving bouIh . " Ilia iudiHcrotion ia covered by hia wouudu ; but a native , under like circumataucea , would be dismissed the norvioo . Ah for the murder of Mr . Couolly , the Mapthalfl , at ¦ whose hands he Buffered , are , and have ever been , a ruthless rooo , I boliove . They should bo diaarmod an tho SoikH and Soiiidees were . I have lived muoh in nativo Htates , and I doolaro to you my firm belief that the people , on tho whole , we
INDIA . —SUBSIDIARY STATES . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sin , —Tho article in the labt Leader has none of the lwizy style of tho lato Mr . Chapman , to whom , on his death , you stated the Leader waa indebted for muoh on Indian subject * . Thoro in no miHtaking your intention j for a long , and aomowhat vituperative , article ie closed by hoping Lord Canning will annex .
more satisfied and happy than they are under our own sway ; arid this I Bay after many years' residence in India , holding official appointments both in native states and our own much-lauded provinces . By your insertion or otherwise of this letter I shall be enabled to judge of your impartiality . If you insert it I shall ask the favour of a place for more letters on the same subject . An Old Indian . [ We trust that our correspondent will conform to our rule of brevity in any future letter he may desire to see inserted in our columns . The most generous impartiality cannot find space for inordinately long communications , to the sacrifice of other matters of equal interest to our readers . ]
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WHAT WOULD THE LATE SIR ROBERT PEEL HWE DONE—WITH THE BANK OF ENGLAND ? ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —What would the late Sir Robert Peel have done ? is a question which has already in more thau one case been asked and answered—but not hitherto , so far as I am aware , has the very natural question been propounded—What would the late Sir Robert Peel have done with the Bank of England ? To th : * t question the following is the answer : it was bis conviction that the Bank of England ought to be separated from the Sfcfite , and this , had he lived , it would have been one of the objects of his life to effect . My authority for this statement is Mr . John McGregor , M . P ., who communicated ifc to me iu the course of an interview I had with him . in London not long after Sir Robert Peel ' s death . That interview was sought by him with the object of inducing me to become trustee of a New Bank it was at that time proposed to establish in London j and thus it was the conversation took this turn . The conclusion as to the necessity of this separation I had already derived from intercourse with my accomplished friend and neighbour , Thomas Doubleday , and from reading iu MS . bis interesting Financial History of England ( since published by Effingham Wilson ) ; and I had moreover been led to suspect this conclusion iu tho mind of Sir Robert Poel from remarkablo passages in some of his ( speeches , indicating the terror in which ho lived us to tho action of the Bank of England . I therefore took the opportunity of questioning Mr . McGregor on tlio subject , and his reply waa emphatic and distinct ; that had Sir It . Pool lived , it would have been au object with him to have Beparated tho Bunk of England from tho State , and to this tie had looked forward . Of thin circumstance , so diHtinot ia my rocolloction , that I nnx prepared to inako affidavit of it . I givo publicity to it ; , in the hopo of thus stimulating inquiry , aud ' in the full conviction that , as in tho connection of tho Bank of England with tho State originated tho National Debt , and all our financial disorders ; bo in tho dissolution of that connection is to be sought tho only nouroo of remedy . Gh Cjiawshay . Gateshoiid , Doo . 19 tb , 1805 .
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¦ i ' i ^ The Ciiiustmab Holidays .--Several provincial and metropolitan tradesmen have determined to « ve * lwir assistant * a holiday from thin ( Saturday ) night till tho morning of Wednesday the 2 < Hh ; thu » Moving ttweo wUolo doya for repoae and recreation .
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v P a ; ^ ° " " a v " > l PEACE AND WAR . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —Your correspondent , " Arthur H . Elton , " deserves credit for the very ingenious and original expedient by which he proposes to put an end to the present war . Certainly , nothing can be more simple than for the Allied armies to retire from the field of battle , and thus , by ceasing to fight , to obtain a peace . To ensure the success of this very simple project , however , it is necessary that the Russians Bhould be equally content to retire from the scene of hostilities , simultaneously with Generals Pelissier and Codrington . It is usually held that there must be two parties to a peace , as to a war ; and , unless Sir A . Elton can assure us that the Russians will reciprocate our pacific dispositions , he will hardly persuade the Allies to run away from the field of battle . Setting aBide the minor considerations of honour and glory , as matters not comprehended in the philosophy of a peace apostle , let me be permitted to point out to Sir A . Elton the chief impediment to tho success of his Bcheme > viz ., the extreme improbaibility that the Russians , struck by the magnanimity of our retreat , will emulate our forbearance , and for ever refrain from the rights of aggression . Are we to believe that we can secure by flight that which we have been unable to achieve by fighting—or that our retreat is to effect what our victories have failed to produce— " the humiliation of our enemies ? " Sir A . Elton declares that Russia " now knows our strength , and recognises her comparative weakness . " But what evidence have we that Russia has arrived at this knowledge ? What has happened , iu the course of this war , to impress Russia with any newer or higher idea of our strength , and any clearer conviction of her own weakness ? The utmost efforts of the two greatest and most enlightened nations of the world have been for two years directed against the single barbarian power of ' the North ; and yet , what have we done , in that interval , to prove our high superiority ? It is true Sebastopol ie in ruins , but at what cost to us , and with what fruits ? That siege , if it has proved anything , haB proved tho indomitable valour , the fertile genius , and the admirable discipline of our barbarian enemy , and has exhibited ^ hia superiority to uh in every military qualification , except mere animal courage . The siege of Sebastopol will be , to history , an illustration not of our strength but of our weakness . As for the other achievementsof the Allies , they are too insignificant to be matter of congratulation to them , or of discouragement to the enemy . In short , we have done nothing by which . RusBia may form a higher notion of our prowess than she doubtless entertained before she oommenoed thiB war ; and , entertaining it , did not fear to provoke our hostility . It is pj-eposteroue to assert , therefore , that Russia only waits tho retreat of our own armies to withdraw from the prize aha has so long courted , and still oourts . It in probable , indeed , that f » ho would not immediately renew her uttempts in Turkey ; but who shall guarantee us , in tho event of a present peace , against a revival of RuHflian ambition , and . another crossing of the Prutu ' ( And who Bhall onuuro us , in tho next lluHsiiin war , a second Anglo-Uallio alliance ? Sir , I am no thick-and-thin BUpportor of the present war . Thoro ifl nothing in it , indeed , that I approve , except itH object , and tho nooosmity of puiwiing tlliat object to a definite and honourable end . The alliance witli Franco I regard aH a political necessity—not an an unmixed good . It iB a necessity which must for the present override the claims of the nationalitieH ; nor do I think that any greater miuchief cun be done to tho cause of Hungary and Poland , than by a peace under present cirouinstance * , and OHpooinlly « uott a peace am Sir Arthw H . Ifilton reoominonHs—a peaoo which demand * the unconditional retreat of our BoldiorH from tho field ot battle , which loaves tho Crimea in the hand * of Ituwila , and the Principalities in tho keeping of Anntria . I urn , Sir , yourH faithfully , ^
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| THEORY OF CONSUMPTION . ( To tJte Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —If an Irishman , now , like myself , were to re view , or propose to review , a book which he had no at hand to refer to , as Dr . Balbimie does by mine , w < should set it down to that peculiar obfuscation of in tellect for which my dear countrymen so often obtaii credit . Let Dr . Balbiraie sustain his theories as h < is able . I desire to fling no discredit on him or them He has , however , mis-stated , or rather understated , mi own views . Thi 3 is doubtless through inadvertence or rather the singular pretension of reviewing a worl without taking the trouble to look at it—a feat whicl even you , Mr . Editor , with all your critical experience would find it difficult to emulate . At page 23 of mj work on Consumption occurs a passage which em bodies my presumed discovery : — "An imperfect respiratory process fails to purify and renew the blood , wJiich , thus loaded with excre tions and foulnesses , has , as it were , no alternative but to deposit them as tubercles , with , all their consequent train of evils , in the different tissues . " The detritus of the tissues cannot possibly be got entirely rid of so long as respiration is conducted in foul air . This detritus accumulates in the cleansing vessels or veins , passes into the arteries , and finally , as I have aaid , unless happily eliminated , is deposited as tuberculous matter throughout the frame . The inadequacy of a vitiated atmosphere to . purify the blood , and the identity of tuberculous matter with the waste and dead excretions , I have fully pointed out elsewhere . This briefly I claim as my discovery in phthisis aud the cognate maladies—a discovery which brings the theory of consumption within the pale of natural science , tears the disease out of the hands of empiricism , promises immunity to the myriads whom festering rottenness and premature decay now hurry to the tomb . I am , sir , very respectfully , Henry M'Cormac , M . D ., Consulting Physician to the Belfast General Hospital . Belfast , Dec . 12 , 1855 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 22, 1855, page 1227, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2120/page/15/
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