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[ RETRIBUTION
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the soldiers and the residents . The troops to "be assembled have been estimated at 80 , 000 or 100 , 000 men . It is , in fact , to be at once a great counterpoise to Aldershot , a Bign to any of the Prench people who think of new fashions of government , and a testimony to foreign countries , that the Emperor of the French has the instrument to ao a little- in the way of contestation if they desire to provoke him . But the officer of artillery Who has ascended the French throne is not content -with the mere blind mustering of instruments . It is understood that in this
new camp a new system of military manoeuvres is to be initiated , in which all three arms , infantry , cavalry , and artillery , will act together , at once , on the same word of command . The First Napoleon struck out a new manner of handling armies , and Wei ,-IiIngton found the key to his strategy ; .. Third INTapoxeoit has a fresh invention , and we are not certain that we have any WieIiidNGTON amongst us . It is after visiting Osborne , that Louis Napoleon founds the order of St . Helena .
It is before visiting Darmstadt that he founds the camp of Chalons . It is before entering upon the difficult year of 1857 that he establishes this great Ministry of the Interior on the plain of Champagne . From , the high hill , from his pavilion of blue and white silk , he probably intends to dictate equally to * la perfide Albion , ' with whose zealous
cou-Bins across the Atlantic he has always been cultivating a close friendship ; to the Pope , that tame spiritual potentate upon whom he is fastening new "bondages ; to Austria , whom he has just beaten on the natural ground of Austrian encroachment—Italy and Northern Turkey ; and perchance to Russia , whose Imperial Majesty he is just about to meet at Darmstadt .
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THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION . The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science undertakes an ambitious enterprise , and we augur no small advantages to the country from the fact that men of so much intelligence and influence as those who are here ; gathered together think it necessary to investigate the subject at all . If they do but scratch the surface , they will perform a useful duty ; but it is not improbable that many of them will be inclined to go somewhat further than the surface ; and if so , although they were to settle nothing , they would raise such discussion as must
contribute to promote a better insight into important truths . At present the association is divided into five departments—jurisprudence and amendment of the law , education , punishment and information , public health , and social economy—a classification which implies that the subject will be handled
superficially in its generalizations more than in its intimate nature . We might apprehend that the new professors of social science will deal with it rather in a doctrinaire sense ; that is , that they will collect tho most intelligent opinions of the present day , arrange them into a formula , and call that their' science This is tho rock ahead . On tho other band , in some of these departments lie questions that might lead direct to tho moat essential truths . Under tho amendment of tlie law , for instance , as wo have already seen , even in the enactments of the past session , lies the question respecting the true relations of tho family , of on © member of tho family to tho others , of the family to society , to tiio State , and to the law . Under education and punishment lie tho profoundor questions of training and teaching , which have as yet been so slightly ox-
[ Retribution
monuments of high-bred Sepoy chivalry We see a young girl , naked , mounted upon , a cart , paraded through the streets of a city , subjected to the last humiliations , and torn limb from limb by gangs of black satyrs . We see a noble Englishman and his wife defending a tower . The "woman loads her husband' s pistols ; he fights the ruffianly legion until it swarms up the walls . Then the
brave fellow , kissing his wife , slays herwhich he does for her sake , but which a Rajpoot would have done for his own—and then himself * and they die as the infernal pirates rush upon them . Instead of trite anecdotes of Chelonis and Clcexia , our children may in future learn , from the victims of Bengal , how nobly an English , woman may die—how Mrs . Skbne fought by her husband's side—how Miss Jenninos offered
to sacrifice herself to save her father . And upon , these country women of ours—matrons , virgins , tender girls—and upon delicate children , have been practised the vilest tortures ; things to be remembered , not told ; to be punished , not descanted upon ; infamies which the Greeks would have called The Unutterable , failing to describe them . The revolt has not been pusillanimously encountered . Everywhere the British inhabitants of the Bengal Presidency , driven to bay , encircled
by danger , startled and astonished , have turned with the courage of lions upon their assailants . Sir Hugh "Weeeleb was their type , grea | in battle as any Roman ; and the English , women . have been ' worthy of Greek and Roman fame . ' For them the public voice requires retribution . To sack and level Delhi , plough the site , and build there a solitary monument a memorial of revenge ; to cut to pieces myriads of men , and to set up the ' groves of gibbets' about which crazy
versi-BETEIBUTION . The prior and paramount duty of the British Government is now retribution—a duty to the dead and living , and to our own cause and power in the world . By a retributive policy is not meant simple vengeance . That may be left to the British soldier when lie stands face to face with the murderers and cowards who Iiave turned the strength of men against the innocence of women and
infants . We may trust to the spontaneous action of bayonets and sabres to leave a mark upon the assassins of Delhi and Cawnpore . Even in those cities there is no call for blind and savage fury . Bub it is for Great Britain , as a state , to exact reparation , to compel an atonement for bloodshed and ruin , the work of the Mohammedan and Brahminical mutineers . They cannot pay in gold the price of their guilt , nor can . we demand life for life , or retaliate upon
imprisoned women and unconscious children the crimes against nature by which the Bengal Presidency has been converted into more than the parallel of that * Dark and Bloody Ground , ' drenched by Red Indian slaughters during the American war . But , if we are resolved to restore our supremacy , the insurrection must be rnade to recoil upon tlioso who have mainly instigated it . We shall never again occupy a high ground in India until we have put a yoke upon tlio Brahmins .
We have conceded too much to the insolence of caste . Not one high caste man should henceforward be entrusted with a sword . Disqualify him for bearing arms . Subject him . to his religious inferiors . Crush his pretensions , Which have ao long degraded into Helotry the humbler orders of Indian society . He has been trusted with power , and how has he betrayed it ? The graves of a hundred English women nnd children—worse , the unburied bones of those poor victims—are the
could not . The crime of the Sepoys has been unparalleled ; Nena Sahib , we fear , will die amid tlie havoc ; could they take the miscreant and hang him in chains upon the top of the Himalayas , the people of India , would witness a salutary exhibition . It is not blood for blood for which the nation thirsts . It is for reparation , and for an example that shall be a guarantee for the justice . If we set our heel upon this rebellion , our reputation , instead of being lowered , will rise immeasurably ; but to suppress the mutiny and not to punish
it would be to indemnify treason , and to confess that we have gained only half a victory . We do not hesitate to encourage the retributive spirit , for we feel assured , whatever may be the fury of the English soldier , the Sepoys will not have to say that we hung their women or mutilated their children . If not retribution—what ? Conciliation , perhaps . Legalize Suttee and infanticide . Dismiss the nuns from Sirdhanna , and the Americans from Loodhiana . Forbid . ' Young India' to eat beef and drink champagne ; suppress the female schools in Agra . What would be = the result ? To show the natives
that we are to be terrified . But confiscate the property of every Mohammedan and Hindoo who has connected himself with revolt ; take from tlie Mohammedan even his armlet , and from the Hindoo the nose-ring of his wife . Grant distinctions and rewards to the faithful regiments and native chiefs ; but vigorously punisli the mutineers , and hang
or imprison , the treacherous princes who have paid rebellion out of British pensions . An act—generally unnoticed—was passed before Parliament rose , ordaining the' exemplary and speedy punishment' of the Bengal mutineers . The nation will not be satisfied unless , in the spirit of that act , retribution falls heavily upon the authors of the foulest crimes known to history .
fiers spout , would not be to take satisfaction , for the unnatural outrages that have blackened two-thirds of our Indian territory . We have suggested , we think , the most overwhelming retribution to be exacted from the high-caste Sepoys , when , after the day of personal vengeance has passed , they return under our rule : declare a , state of siege in every city throughout the Bengal Presidency , disarm the Brahminical classes , put a lowcaste curb upon them . They will then be
powerless , and the mutiny will have been expiated . " Whatever princes and men of station have co-operated or publicly sympathized with them should be unmercifully mulcted of their possessions , in order that restitution should be made , to some extent ., to the surviving sufferers . This would be a retributive policy more than equivalent to any Gothic slaughter . It is true that no one with nn English heart can deprecate a grand act of vengeance to be performed whenever the British troops enter Delhi or come up with tlie blood - stained cowards who
assassinated the two hundred and forty women and children of Cawnporo . Who will venture a word of blame if , when the British trooys enter Delhi , they Bhoot or bayonet the garrison at every step , follow them with fire and sword , burn them out of their hidingplaces , hunt them into the river , and hurl after their reeling and plunging masses indiscriminate volleys of artillery ? Whatever tho orders of the Comrnander-in-Chief may be , tins will be the instinct of the English soldier . Ho will kill in all directions . Why , even the letters of the women who write
home breathe tho most deadly desire to sec the murderous wretches hung by hundreds and sliot by thousands . Tho wish will be > gratified . Imagine General Have lock and liia battalions confronting in a fair field Njsna Sahib and tho JNTeemuch mutineers ! Could wo cry out if they went to work determined not to snare ' a mother's eon of thorn ? ' We
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No . 389 , September 5 , 1857 . ] THE LHADER , 853
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 5, 1857, page 853, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2208/page/13/
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