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    the public lias come to the conclusion , that "Lord Canning was sent over to India , not that the Grovernment of India might be better done , but that another noble lord might be handsomely , provided for . We might never have heard any scandal , if India liad been perfectly tranquil . Unluckily it happened that the Hindoos chose

    the period of Loj-d Canning s government for the insurrection to which they had been put up by the Mussulmans . It is a proof of Lord Cakiting ' s magnanimity that , notwithstanding this great act of discourtesy on the p art of the Hindoos , he still shows them remarkable ' leniency , ' if not favour . Throughout his whole administration he has been distinguished by the extraordinary kindness , with which he has protected the Hindoos against harsh usage . If an officer of a regiment found the men insubordinate , even to the degree of mutiny , and punished them accordingly , he was sure to meet with his deserts . One officer arrested a native officer who insulted him , and the British officer was ordered to release the man . Another found a number of men insubordinate , he ordered them extra drill , and he was compelled to read on parade an order countermanding his order , and reprimanding him for his harshness . A . civil officer in a very high command endeavoured to check the corruption of native collectors , and compelled some of the chiefs of his Grovernment to dismantle their forts : he was reprimanded for harshness to the collectors , and reproved for taking upon himself to invade the rights of the native chiefs .

    That last incident happened in the Kingdom of Oude , where General HaveTjOCK found in these very forts the grand obstacle to his progress . During the outbreak the Sepoys have shown us the metal of which they were composed . Eiiad while they are held in subjection , affectionate as dogs , smiling to the lady of the family , caressing the children , —they have no sooner had the opportunity of rising against their rulers than they cut up their masters as butchers would an animal ; they seize the unprotected woman , subject her to every indignity , throw her bleeding into a well , and cast upon her , before she is dead , the little infant whom they have tortured into agonizing shrieks ; and thus they half fill a well with the still living bodies of the women to whom they have bowed their salaams , and children whom they have fondled ! The British soldiers are furious ; they long for the hour of battle to teach the Hindoos what is the vengeance for such murder ; but Lord Canning interposes . He has issued a kind of general order to civilians in command of all districts , great or small , bidding them be cautious of punishing unduly those who are not guilty of the heinous crimes ; laying down elaborate rules for the protection of the Hindoos ; and counselling nice distinctions for the benefit of the accused , and preaching ' leniency . '

    The British in India cannot take such a state paper by itself ; they connect it with what has gone before . They see in ifc the same spirit which has exposed officers of the Madras army to insult from their own Government before men whose insults they were forbidden to repel . They see in it the spirit which lias encouraged British officers to fall upon tho Hindoos , and has rebuked and degraded officers , whether in Madras , Calcutta , Bombay , or the North-West , who have supported discipline in the spirit ot ¦ Englishmen . Tho native army in Bengal has been entirely dispersed by treachery ; the British army lias been exposed to destruction from its treacherous allies ; British oiviliaua have been slaughtered , hunted , and subjected to outrageous indignities worse than death ; and at tho moment when victorv

    places retribution in the hands of the British , the Governor-G-eneral steps forward with this plea for leniency on behalf of tlie Hindoo ! Such a man is not only incapable of governing India—he is incapable of being . at the head of . Englishmen . He cannot discriminate between honour aud degradation . He is incapable of understanding how at some moments to proclaim mercy must sound like the flattery of the coward ; and how to teach brave officers and soldiers the duty of mercy in the hour of victory is alike to insult their , right . of vengeance and that just perception of duty which the Englishman never loses . For notwithstanding this wanton admonition to those who did not need it , it would be difficult for Lord Cawnin'G- to bring forward a single case in which the British have forgotten to temper justice with generosity . The civilians in India , the Avhole army , join with the English people in pro- ' nouncing that Lord-Canning- is unfit for his place , and ought to be recalled . Another authority may be given for the same opinion . If Parliament were sitting , some honourable gentleman would wring from the Government an answer to the question , What estimate has Sir Colin Campbell formed of the Governor-General ? "With all his discretion Sir Colin is a man who does not conceal his feelings , and the state of relations between the Cdmmander-in-Chief and the Governor-General is known in- this country . Very strauge conversations are reported as having passed . We do not venture to say whether these reports are correct or not ; such stories are usually exaggerated ; but they have passed current now for many days without any contradiction , nnd we believe that substantially they cannot be contradicted . It is understood that Sir Coxisr Campbell would have proclaimed martial law for the whole of the disturbed districts ; by his new state paper the Governor-General has most emphatically proclaimed the supremacy of civil law for the same districts . Such appears to be the state of relations between the Commamler-in-Chief and the Governor-General . It has not been stated whether Sir Colin Campbell , by his vigorous course of action , has forfeited the confidence of the Board of Control or the " War Department ? We know that he has not forfeited the confidence of the Indian army , or of the English people ; but how ia it possible that he can proceed freely to the execution of his arduous enterprise when he is met at every turn by the caveats of Lord Canning as counsel for the defendants ? The public , both in India and England , are rapidly coining to the conclusion that the continuance of Lord Canning is incompatible with the prompt and effectual restoration of order ; and if reports are circulated that other statesmen have been called to the post of Governor-General , if Lord Elphinstone is said to have had tho offer , Lord Eli / ennonouGir , Lord Granvillk , Sir John Law-KEN 01 :, Sir Geokgk Clicjik , or Sir Colin Campiiell himself , it is because the public expect the Government to put tho right man in the right place .

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    THE DISPERSION 01 ? THE AllT TREASURES . We cannot allow tho priceless treasures which have for the last six : months adorned the brick palaco at Old Traflbrd to be dispersed without one word of retrospective inquiry as to the rationale of the whole business . In spite of tho lukowarinness of royal or princely patronage , and in the face of what may be termed a commercial failure , we believe that the men of Manchester have reason to bo satisfied with their achievement .

    The modified patronage to which we have referred was to he predicted . The Peince Consort is a prudent man , rightly conceives that his popularity stands upon too flimsy a basis to be able to * afford many failures , and therefore insures himself against accident by never connecting himself with anything of which the absolute success is not previously insured . This . is wise , according to the wisdom of this generation ; but it is apt to make those who look beneath the surface of things inquire curiously into the real value of the Prince ' s interference in any undertaking whatsoever . The man * who only enters the field when autumn is come , and the golden ear bends in expectation of the sickle , can scarcely take to himself much credit as an agriculturist . The Manchester men may feel assured that if their Exhibition had been a great and striking success ( we mean a success proved by those symptoms which affect common understandings)—if all ' the world , had gone to Manchester in croAvds , and if the balance-sheet had exhibited a surplus to be disposed of , it would suddenly have been discovered that the Prince Consort had suggested the whole business ; his Hoyal Highness would have paid not two but twenty visits to the capital of Lancashire ; he would , have found it convenient somehow or other to be present at the closing of the Exhibition , and we should have had another speech full of the spirit of humanitarian expansiveness to add to the next edition of that valuable

    contribution to our oratorical literature which has lately been published by the Society of Arts . As the matter stands , however , it was left to plain Mr . Faibbaibn to close the Exhibition , and Mr . J . C . Deane is not deprived of the credit of its conception . But the commercial failure of the Manchester Exhibitionwill perchance be a stronger argument against its success than even the cold shade of princely indifference . In the eyes of some , it may be so . Before the men of Liverpool , for instance , who judge of ever vthing , Art included , by a pecuniary staudni'd , and who have , from the beginning , regarded this experiment on the part of Manchester with a jealous and unfavourable eye . The men of Manchester will , however , easily console themselves for this misconception of the truth . Indeed , we believe that many among them who subscribed the guarantee fund expected when they did so that they -would have to pay at least one half of the sum guaranteed . This proves ab least that they did not expect an immediate remunerative result ; and such a result they have not got . But , on the other hand , they have a result upon which some of them perhaps did calculatewhich was , in fact , inseparable from the great conception of the thing itself—a result not manifest in the vulgar shape of a balance to be jobbed away in some way or other , but a tangible , ay , and a remunerative result for all that . The seed has been cast upon the waters , and the harvest will ensue not after many days . The glories of Art , the gems of the Italian , the Dutch , the French , the German , and the English schools , have not been taken to Manchester in vain . Not in vain has Kaffaelle appeared in visions of angelic beauty upon the walls at Old Trailbrd ; not in vain have Titian , CoiticKGio , and Kukicks betrayed the secrets of colour , or Mumllo and VkijASo , uisz taught what is the perfection of dignity in form and expression . These lessons have sunk deep into the iniuds of those who have learat them and by that fact arc- the planners and tho executants of tho Art Treasures Exhibition abundantly and tangibly remunerated . 3 ? or who are they that have learnt these lessons ? Not idlers , such an they who took

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    No . 396 , October 24 , 1857 . ] T H E L E A P E B ,. 1021

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 24, 1857, page 1021, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2215/page/13/