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Leader (1850-1860), 10th September 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1031

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    • IFDIA, AND INDIAN PROGRESS.
    • . (jSuttC SU'lS. ^ +
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      Untitled Article

      No . 494 . Sept . 10 , 1859 . ] T H E X E A D E B . 1081

      Ifdia, And Indian Progress.

      IFDIA , AND INDIAN PROGRESS .

      Untitled Article

      THE CIVIL SERVICE AND ITS PROSPECTS . We have never seen the Civil Service as a body act with such inaptness as in this matter of reductions . Fither the introduction of competition has disorganised them , or they have lost their capacity for oifcerning the tendency of public afiairs . The elder members are either sulkily resigned , or disbelieved in the possibility of reductions . The younger are ¦ orowsing schemes based on a partial ignorance of the true position o 1 the question . The men of between ten and twenty years' standing , who will be most injuriously affected , are apparently quiescent . There is neither union nor energy , nor even plan visible in the entire body , and unless a very rapid change takes place , they will find themselves under the shears without having prepared a word in their own defence . The Sudder Court has protested

      against giving up a penny . Mr . Drurnmond , in a really clever paper which stops far short of the truth , Iras shown that Government contribute only 25 Q / . ayear to the pension . Mr . Money has prepared a memorial remonstrating against Mr . Ricketts' reductions on general principles . We publish to-day a circular sent anonymously to the whole service , entreating them , in most extraordinary grammar , to do something not explained , to secure some benefit not specified , in some method not made clear , for the Pension Fund . The service may depend on it , if their able men can show no more ability than this , if they are determined not to stir , or stirring stir in secret as if they were ashamed of their cause , their time will have

      arrived . It may possibly accelerate their action if we explain in plain terms , their true position . The six hundred members of the service throughout India out of college draw among them , while , in service , £ 1 , 200 , 000 a-year . They will be entitled , when out of service to . £ 600 , 000 a-year in pension and annuities . The bare mention of those sums in a Parliament accustomed to consider colonial allowances will appear sufficient reason for large reductions . The Secretary of State has every reason to encourage that view . Government wants money , wants it more bitterly than our readers would be apt to believe without official' confirmation . Within whereif the

      the next year money must be had some , State is not to adopt an expedient its servants would deem worse than Mr . Ricketts . The Council Of India has not the remotest interest in protecting men appointed by their own exertions , even if it had , as it has not , the power . Parliament has no civilian members . There is literally nothing to prevent English action of a most determined sort , except the interests of a class who at home have no votes , no boroughs , and no class at their back . Add that the Secretary of State stands pledged personally to reductions made from England , and that the next Indian budgpt will terrify Lombard street , and we may leave it to educated Englishmen to estimate their chance of retaining an average . / salary of

      £ 2 , 000 a-ycar . Under these circumstances the only feasible line of action scorns to us clear . It is useless to protest on the general ground , to talk of the difficulty of getting good mou , of the ' inferiority of the new aud under-paid class who may be introduced . A trained cook is bettor than a p lain cook , but to dilate on that fuot to an employer with the Court of Bankruptcy in immediate distance , is simple folly . Cooka will bo had of somo kind , and employers in distress must . iust put up with Inferior dishes , even if less healthy for then- children . Equally absurd is tho notion of standing on sorvico claims . Parliament has abojishod a hierarchy before now , and will care no more about a scream of wrath from the Boi'vioo than it did about tho demand for Lord

      Canning ' s recall . Tho reductions will be made , and tho only chance for tho sorvico is to devjso , if possible , some compromise by which they may submit to tho English diotate , without tho prospect of personal misery and ruin . The possibility of a compensation for salaries seems neverto have entered tho hoads of all tho officials who havo " remarked" and " romonstratod" and " protested" and " foarod" all through Mr . ltickotts' appendices . Yet that ia the claim which will address itsolf most readily to the English mind . Tho Houso of Commons coniprohends individual sutfbring . It will most oortainly not surrender its right of fixing tho salaries of the sorvantB Of tho Crown , but ijt may yield to tho ploa that Stato roforms should not ruin individuals . It has so yielded previously tlmo and again . Is It impossible to secure to the six hundred gentlemen who

      now fill the service an individual compensation , which while sparing the" State shall ' spare them too ? . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ It is a difficult point , but we believe one kind of compensation is possible . The crave to live in England almost balances the desire for large salaries , and niay be made the basis of and arrangement . Suppose , as an extreme example , the average of salaries were reduced thirty-five per cent ., and the sufferers allowed after fifteen years' service to return to England on three hundred a-year , or after twenty on five hundred , and the value of whatever sum they had paid up to the Fund . The" loss to Goyerment would be at the uttermost but half the gain , an

      continue only for the difference between eighteen and twenty-five years . For the future service any terms * if frankly stated beforehand , are just . We do not mean that these figures in any degree represent the precise object to be sought . We give them only as indicating the line in which , and in which only , a working plan of compensation may possibly be found . It is by balancing a small sum enjoyable in England , against a large sum to be sweated for in India , that alone the necessities of the State ca , n be made compatible with the interests of the service . At all events , the time for combined action is passing ; and if the service simply await the decree , or meet it by a declaration of their right to more than they already have—and that is what all proposals at will fail tavert the blow

      present amount to— -they ¦ o . Mr . Ricketts' ten per cent , reduction could be met . There is room in most establishments for that amount of paring down . A shorter bill with Wilson , a horse the fewer , a little determination to make servants devote their energies to work instead of to swindling , would pretty nearly reimburse that loss . Staff officers live well enough on half the remainder . But if we do not utterly mistake the condition of the finances , Mr . Ricketts' report will be laughed at . There are difficulties ahead , difficulties due chiefly to the monstrous management of the past three years , before which all private or class interests must give way . Twelve months more , and the most kindly of secretaries must act like the most nnlfl-hlnoded of doctrinaires . —Friend of India ,

      Untitled Article

      ^• r Tn& artists of Britain may point with triumph to the records of the twelfth day ' s sale of tho Northwich collection , which consisted , with but few exceptions , of works of native school , and realised a sum of about £ 12 , 000 . One of the most prominent pictures was the " Marriage of Strougbow , " by D . Maclise , which brought 1 , 710 guineas . The late William Leslie ' s " Christopher Columbus and the E «* -g , " brought 1 , 070 guineas : E . M . Ward's " Fall ofClarendon , " 805 : Maclise ' s " Ivanhoe , " for which

      the master was paid 500 , brought 1 , 305 guineas ; the famous " Athens , " by W . Muller , an artist who died all too soon , 520 guineas ; a Sidney Cooper " Meadow with Cattle , " £ 472 10 s . ; Frost ' s " Diana and Nymphs , " for which he is said to have received but £ 3 G 5 ,. was bought greedily for £ 708 15 s . ; a Wilson , a Creswick , a Danby , and a Redgrave , each found a purchaser , after spirited competition , for about 300 guineas ; and F . Goodall ' s " Departure of tho Norman Conscript" passed into the hands of tho enterprising Mr . Gambart for £ 603 . the various metro

      The number of pictures in - politan exhibitions of 1859 . was a few more or less than 4 , 300 ; while the total of catalogued works at tho French National Exposition in the Champs Elyecos was not more than 4 , 000 . The sales at tho Society of British Artists' Gallery in Suffolk-street , wero 159 , and the gross receipts wore , # 0 , 000 . With the take at the Academy wo are not acquainted , butf' rumour says that there was a falling off . Tho young Society , who havo mado a homo of tho Portland Gallery , wero singularly fortunate . At their private view they sold moro than £ 1 , 000 worth . This may bo partly duo -to tho fact that the affair being in somo sort a commonwealth , almost every subscriber or member can command tho satisfaction of being seen . ' No tyrannical academician

      may there hoist tho buds of genius to tho ceiling , to make room for portraits , without being called to account ; and so groat is tho anxiety among tho middle classes of tho day to possoss oil paintings , that no merit can blush unseen or unbought so it bo hung within seeing distance . Of the 290 pictures at the Old Water Colour Socioty , 180 wero disposed of . With ono or two rtJmarkablo exceptions , which wo noticed in a former article on this gallery , every work of real merit or attraction was swept off by the fashionable attendants at tho private view : and wo imagine that littlo but decided rubbish had occasion again to encumber the studios ot tho painters . At tho Now Wator Gallery , which was as far above tho general average aa was the OKI Water Colour below it , 105 drawings , including tho

      Haghe , the Warrens , the Tidey , and the . Cocks were sold in the room , and brought a sum between £ 3 , 000 and £ 4 , 000 . . A gra ' nd series—some 200 in number—of drawings by RafFaelle and Michael Angelo , the property of the Taylor Museum , at Oxford , have been lehi for exhibition to the London public—or , we oughi to say , to the S . W . London public . They are mos remarkable as exhibiting the wondrous skill o hand , and the matchless knowledge of anatonij wherewith those masters were gifted . The Michae Angelo set comprise studies for his great fresco " The Last Judgment , " and others for his decora tive paintings in the Sistine Chapel . We nee ( hardly say the collection is worth more than oni visit , or that the instruction department would en hance the value of the boon in an educational poin of view , were they to lay on an . accomplishec cicerone .

      The French Academie des Beaux Arts has decreei its annual sculpture prize to the following students l . 'M . Falguiere , of Toulouse , pupil of Jouffroy 2 . M . Cugnot , of Vaugirard , pupil of MM . Dure and Diebolt ; 3 . M . Samson , of Nemours , pupil o : Jouffroy . The subject was "Mezentius Avounde ( preserved by Iransus . " Mr . Dyce , R . A ., has been awarded their firs prize of £ 50 by the Council of the Liverpool Firic Art Academy , for his beautiful picture , " Tile Good Shepherd . " n . . The annual vacation at the National Galleries commences this day , and -will end on the 23 rd o \ October . During the recess the collections a 1 Marlborough House will be transported to the Brompton Galleries , as the house is to be set id order for the reception of the Prince of Wales . the

      It will be . remembered that the Council of Society of Arts made an abortive effort some months since to rouse the manufacturers pi this country in favour of a Great Exhibition foi 1861 . Three hundred gave in their adhesion , but the feeling was , on the whole , against the project ; not * we believe , as alleged by our contemporary the Observer , and those journals who have heedlessly adopted and endorsed his error , in consequence of the threatening aspect of political affairs , but because many long-headed manufacturers were of opinion ,, after the Exhibition of 1851 , that , putting aside all nonsensical palaver about " gratitude to a certain Royal Highness , " " national glory , " " blessed concourse of nations , " the " bond of fraternity , " and " a' that , " the game , as one of advertising , not only " ne valait pas de chandelle , '' but was a very losing- one , inasmuch as thej' gave a great deal more than they received , in the way of broth of the

      knowledge and power , from their ers hour from beyond sea . But the potterers in Johnstreet are , we read , about to return to the charge . They have adopted the notion of peaceful rivalry thrown out so ingeniously by the Count de Moray , and are itching to rally the manufacturing interest round that standard . It is too soon . The industry of this country and of foreign countries has not made such giant strides during the last ten years that a comparison of notes is demanded by the interests of civilisation ; while the cost to exhibitors is enormous , and the proposal now made smells horribly of a job . The Society of Arts are , we take it , but a pavissc to mask some new Bromptonborn sohome , and its managers are , we believe , seeking distinction they might acquire far moro legitimately by hanging to the skirts of tho Royal Commission . The best part of tho fudge is that the O bserver affects to think the venerable society indiscreet for anticipating the department whose function it is agreed should be to ( alee up and carry the project . Nothing could show more clearly than does this ingenious surprise of our contemporary , the strings that work the good old niunonctto xn ^ A ^ uSg ' polish sculptor , Boryczowski , who not long since Executed a bust of Von Humboldt , , for the Imnorial Academy at St . Petersburg ^ has juat modeUod one of Sir Roderick Murchison , destined to adorn the same , institution . Before passing into ne hands of tho actual carvor , or , as ho s irreverentlycalM , tho marble maaon , the model has been Placed for exhibition in tho Museum for Practical Geology in Jormyn-atroot . ,

      Untitled Article

      MUSIC , DRAMA , ENTERTAINMENTS . _ a

      . (Jsuttc Su'ls. ^ +

      $ ine gWs .

      Untitled Article

      — ' ' 'T Madamw LiND-GoLBaoiittui > T , as wo informed our roadors not long since , is about to take part in tho performance of the » Messiah " at Dublin for tho bonc-Ht of Morcora' Hospital there . And it komg , moroovor , announced that sho aitorwards will sing at sundry concerts in tho Irish-provinces , not a few of tho Irish public havo been curious to learn , whothorthe Swedish Nightingale had it really in ton temptation again to ontor public Wo , lho t , mvrich , Tipporary , and Water / ord JUxuintitm- partook of this foultug , and , having expressed It in print , re-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1859, page 1031, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2311/page/11/