Hides and skins, 1,251,000 Jute, maunds 67,805 Linseed, Mustard seed, Opium, chests 12,006 Rice, maunds 2,667,000 Wheat, 114,365 Other grain, Saltpetre, 187,673 that - by studying the cons as well as the pros the public is likely to arrive at the truth. Some extracts from Mr. Luard's work we shall 1855-56 lay before our readers, in order that they may 44,702 see the notion as to the causes of the out27,995 break that he has formed. His introduction 47,974 20,221,000 is as follows: 173,908 9,187,000 787,273 4,788,000 "Whenever the reconstructors of our Indian 1,194,000 2,588,000 empire succeed in getting through the mass 1,307,000 of garble which will as usual be interposed 44.987 to mislead them, they will find that the 950,086 present disasters in India are the inevitable 665,558 consequences of the culpable apathy of the 290,263 1,221,000 British nation, the utter indifference it has always manifested to the affairs of that country, and its consequent ignorance of what population numbering one-seventh of the most concerns the happiness and welfare of a whole human race. NOTE.-A maund is 80 lbs. English. The increase of the production of silk and indigo has been also upon a very large scale, and flax is rapidly becoming an article of extensive cultivation. In 1852-53 the value of it exported from Calcutta was £7,300, and it rose in 1854-55 to £38,000. Now it is impossible to look at these facts From The Press, 19 Sept. THOSE who are inclined to think with the "At the close of the charter granted in 1833 for twenty years, the people of India, groaning under the most galling tyranny the world ever beheld-a tyranny which has been ably depicted by the late Sir Charles Napier, in a letter which appeared in the Times of August 17th, 1857-at the close of that charter the people of India did endeavor by every means in their power to rouse the people of England to a consideration of their wrongs. The press teemed with accusations against men in power; names and facts were brought forward; it was confidently foretold that unless the requirements of the people of India were attended to they would at last take matters into their own hands; that they could no longer submit to be robbed by process of law; to have their homes desecrated and their religion insulted, with the fullest approval of men who proclaimed themselves The charter, however, was renewed, as usual, to be quite irrespective of right and wrong. with indecent haste. The natives of India saw that they were once more leased out to their former tyrannical masters: and as this renewal has always been a signal for the officers of Government to throw aside all decency, I can only suppose the doings in India in 1854-55-56 to have been pretty much what they were in 1834-35-36, and subsequently, until inquiry, such as it was, came round. after year submit to be plundered and sneered "No people, not even Hindoos, will year at; to have such violations of the law as I have witnessed brought home to every man's house, to be denied all justice on the spot; to be referred to England, and then to spend the rest of their lives between the Court of Directors and the Board of Control-which latter upon one occasion (Meer Jaffeer Alee's case) informed them coolly, by the mouth of its president, that if the petitioner succeeded tyranny. in obtaining justice it would induce numbers government, and corruption that prevail. He of other natives to follow his example, and winds up these by telling us that one of his the India Board would then be besieged by own assistants, a Bombay civilian, caused the etitioners for redress; to find in short, that death of a native by beating him and having although the British Parliament enact laws they do not take care that these laws are not urine put down his throat by the lowest caste made, as they have been, instruments of that could be procured, having previously with his own hands dragged him to prison by "So outrageous is the villainy which I have a rope tied about his heels, beating him with witnessed, that, next to the inhuman conduct a bridle on the back all the way. And for of the natives in these mutinies, nothing gave doing this he adds that the civilian escaped me so low an opinion of their characters as scot-free. He says that a commander-in-chief the manner in which they quietly looked on and saw whole communities pillaged by the in India once ordered his aide-de-camp to officers of Government, European and native. shoot a trooper of the Bengal cavalry, and I was at one time judge and magistrate of a that the trooper was shot accordingly and place so pillaged, and by such means reduced the case hushed up. He affirms that he has to an utter mass of moral and physical de- known respectable native officers tied up and gradation; and Sir Charles Napier has proved flogged before. the whole regiment, and then that my experience was not, as it could not dismissed, without any sort of inquiry; and be, singular, by declaring that the GovernorGeneral of India did not know that his own that, though they complained, the commanding camp was at once a scene and a cause of officer was related to Lord Dalhousie, and curses on our very name. that of course there was no redress. "Who, then, shall wonder at an outbreak which practical men declared imminent unless India were better governed? When we hear of outbreaks in native States (an opportunity which we always seize to appropriate them to ourselves), we invariably impute them to tyranny. If the people of a country throw off one Government, it is with the hope of obtaining a better; and I can take upon myself to say that a worse they never can have than that which has brought matters to this pass with us. per Such are some of the charges brought by Mr. Luard against our rule, and he winds up his pamphlet as follows: : "Colonel Sykes says an inquiry into the causes of this mutiny must take place. It ought; but no inquiry ever has taken place yet into Indian crimes, simply because they are too disgraceful and too numerous; but the affairs of India have now become history. they never would have done had we governed Its people have thrown off our rule, and this "In no Government that ought to be them better than their native princes: nor mitted to exist, or that can possibly exist for would anything have caused the Hindoos and any length of time securely, can outrages and Mahomedans to combine saving a great comjudicial robberies, such as I have witnessed, mon cause; and no other cause yet assigned be perpetrated and upheld. Yet the British would affect the prejudices of both. This Parliament and the British public have suffered outbreak has been foreseen for years. Sir such a Government to flourish unquestioned. Charles Napier foretold it; so did the free Now, however, that the spectacle afforded by press; so did the natives themselves; so did that country has at last turned the eyes of; so did every honest, practical man who the world towards Indian matters, the truth had courage to speak his real opinions. The may perhaps leak out, in spite of the Court annexation of Oude was the last inciting of Directors and the Board of Control, who cause of it by bringing so large a number of have been so long playing into one another's Bengal sepoys under our rule; but the ori hands, and been corrupting everybody. At gin of the revolt is to be found entire in these all events I will lend my assistance to the pages, and need not be sought for elsewhere. promulgation of the truth, and only regret "And now, reconstructors of the Indian emthat I cannot (to quote the language used of pire, say what shall be done with this people me in the London Mail of January 9, 1854) of whom rightly or wrongly you have a reveal, under circumstances which would in- sumed the government and all its fearful re sure a wide publicity and extensive perusal sponsibilities towards God and men? Shall the of my evidence, those monstrous perversions sun which never sets on our dominions only of justice to which I have been for years shine on this portion of them to display a endeavouring to direct the public attention." scene of suffering, degradation, and brutality, Mr. Luard then proceeds to make a on the one hand, and crime, corruption, and ber of statements, as he avers, on his own rarely seen equalfed and-in its atrocious deknowledge, regarding the iniquities, and mis-tails of misery-never surpassed? Shall we has 3 But once it has been allowed to pass away. If, then, who proudly consider ourselves the salt of this revolt has been occasioned by their own to any The appeal to the imagination is indeed fear- is not wholly suppressed, by false tradition as more probable and more reasonable than such a wretched meaningless distortion and chaotic dream as that which composes the prospects and destinies of the Hindoo believer. How fully strong. Still, even apart from the plain promise of revelation, reason itself tells us that it is quite impossible that we can pronounce against the capacity of the Hindoos for civilization and Christianity. As a matter can a monstrous system of endless transmiof fact individuals among them do become grations, or eternal nothingness, compare in sincere Christians. And when we talk about point of naturalness and beauty with the the capacity of a race as such we talk of what simple creed of the Christian, of a life of we know nothing about. Who can possibly trial here, and endless bliss beyond the grave? tell what there is or is not in a race, and what Can the two creeds be compared for a momay be made of it ? It is a hidden vein ment, in point of interest and consolatory which facts only can ultimately disclose. And power, in point of harmony and congeniality in the meantime we are bound to act with a with our natural feelings? This reasonable view to the very highest result, which may, religion, then, must, according to the prin for anything we know to the contrary, be ciples so well laid down by the great author ultimately attained. of the Analogy, have a natural tendency to But how are we to aim at the conversion of supersede the wild and distorted schemes of the Hindoos to Christianity? Here is a Orientalism,-schemes which have no real puzzle indeed. The Gospel and the enlight- root or basis in our nature, but which depend ened morality of modern times alike forbid wholly on the external pressure of a system of us to use force, and the sun must roll back to observances. The true inward light of natural the East again before we can recall to life faith must have a tendency to supplant the the old theory of persecution, which effected darkness of mere credulity, believing in what such wonders of conversion in the middle it is told simply because it is told it, and ages. Charlemagne and his Saxons are gone swallowing any monster of a fiction which the forever. We are deprived of that mighty human brain can conceive, engine of conversion, and what have. we in These are our means, then, of conversion its stead? We have the appeal to the ordi- for India, but we need not say that hitherto nary evidences of Christianity, and to the they have failed to produce any effect worth great fact of modern Europe, which is a mentioning. Nor do we think that this in result of Christianity, and which an intelli- itself need be any ground for self-humiliation, gent Hindoo must appreciate. He must see or be among the facts for which we are to that Christianity is, as a matter of fact, the reproach ourselves to-day, Some excellent great civilizing and renovating principle in people think it in itself a ground for the. the world, that all the greatness and power deepest humiliation that we have not already we see in the world are connected with it, converted a large part of India. We do not and that whatever that vigorous and strong agree with them here. We do not at all element may be which makes great nations know what was possible to be done in this and successful ages, and which produces way. We are not responsible for results, but growth and progress among mankind, it is we are responsible for any actually bad part never found except in combination with Chris- of our policy and administration. It must be tianity. This is a remarkable fact which allowed, we think, that for a long time we speaks for itself, and which must make a very took undue advantage of the necessity powerful impression upon Hindoo intelligence. were under of leaving the Hindoos unre It must do so by the inevitable laws of reason, stricted in their religion positively to encour and the more it is dwelt upon the more must age and flatter them in it. Those were merit impress. There is besides this a higher cantile days, in which the only idea of India appeal to the rational religious principle in was that of a source of revenue. The nation the human mind as distinguished from the was stupidly afraid of interfering even with blind and animal faith on which Hindoo the most inhuman customs, with the Suttee idolatry depends. It is impossible that the system, with the Juggernaut self-immolations. view which Christianity presents of human Nothing was to be touched, for fear lest the life, its purpose, and its results, should not whole native population should rise up against strike any mind in which the light of nature us on the suspicion that we were going to we overthrow their religion. This was a gross time. There are many past periods in the world's history in which a century does not figure as a very active or productive agent. A century did not do very much in the Nineveh period, or the period of the Shepherd Kings of Egypt. A century did not do much between the reigns of Saxon Egbert and Saxon Athelstan; or between Saxon Athelstan and Hardicanute; a century did not do much even between King John and Edward II., or between Edward II. and Richard III. A century did not do very much in Europe for the six centuries preceding the Reformation. There were seeds sown throughout those times which afterwards bore fruit, but no great actual progress was made from one century to another, and the world was much the same at the end of a century as it had been at its beginning. It will be said that a century does a good deal when the world has once begun to advance, but the Eastern world has not begun its march, and we are concerned now with the East. A century then, is no test of India's susceptibility of change. The seeds of the Reformation were sown during many stationary centuries, and came up in an active and eventful one at last. It is contrary to true philosophy to despair about India. An unknown future is before us, which, under God's providence, may mature and develope the seeds of truth indefinitely, and produce movements of thought in that part of the world of which we have now no conception. We may hope, however, now, in spite of the cloud at present over our heads, for better things. Our line is clear with respect to India, and made more clear by experience. We must not force our religion upon them, but we must at any rate show them that we think our religion true and theirs false. This is the very first step in the conversion of a people, and yet up to a comparatively recent period this was hardly done; indeed, it seemed as if we aimed at producing the very contrary impression upon the Hindoo mind, as if we wanted the popular impression to be that we were indifferent on the subject. When this first step in the conversion of a people has been taken we may begin to think that we are doing something, though it may still be long enough before any results follow. The future of India is hidden from us, and a veil is before our eyes. All we know is that great causes, and causes which have a bearing upon religion, are now in operation in the East. It is a new experiment altogether in history, the propagation of European ideas in an Oriental population, and we cannot possibly tell what time may be required for the working of such an experiment. The instructive. With unconscious instinct he is experiment has hitherto, indeed, sadly failed, but we cannot judge at all of its ultimate success from the working of one century. A century is a long time to those who live in it or near it, but it is not a long time in the history of the world. If English rule-with all the influences, religious, social, and intellectual, accompanying it goes on in India and is not stopped, nobody can possibly tell what the effects of such a Government and such influences will be. It seems to stand to reason that it cannot go indefinitely on for all time and produce no effects, and if time is in our favor here we have a strong ally, for future history, like past geology, is rich in From The Times, 7 Oct. THE NAVY AND INDIA. SIR CHARLES NAPIER is always amusing, and no man was ever amusing without being playing a useful part, and rendering to his country that service which his own element denies. He represents the pent-up, thwarted, crossed, half-blighted energy of our race, and so starts the grand question how to give it free vent and turn it to good purpose. He wants to be at Lucknow or Delhi, with anybody to back him-with 4,000 Bury artisans if he cannot have sailors or soldiers. That is everybody's feeling wherever you go. Our continental neighbors taunt us with not sending out volunteers, but they forget, first, that our whole army and navy are volunteers; then, that those people who have not embraced these professions have generally some |