remains with this army, and wherever I may be, and as long as I live, I shall be its friend.. How strangely does this address contrast with the aspirations after peace, tranquillity, and social improvement, breathed forth by his Lordship at the London Tavern! Nothing is found here about imitating the magnificent benevolence of the Mahomedan Emperors of India, in the construction of works of public utility. Nothing is found here about conciliating the natives of India, by a cautious regard for their feelings and prejudices. No, it is but a prose version of Othello's lamentation, Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! All my regret at leaving India, says his Lordship, arises from the thought that I shall be separated from the army." Why, my good Lord?" Because the most agreeable, the most interesting portion of my life, has been that which I have passed here, in cantonments and in camp." If any proof were wanting of the utter unfitness of Lord Ellenborough to rule India, it is furnished in the speech before us. Sad, indeed, is the fate of that people whose destinies depend upon a man who can find no agreeable hours save those which are passed in cantonments and in camp: who, disrelishing the occupations of peace, and the unostentatious labours of a man devoted to the patriotic objects of tranquil times, can find no pleasure but in arranging military spectacles, or heading armies in their attacks upon weak and unoffending neighbours. Most truly did the great Lord Clarendon say:-" They who delight in war, are so ashamed of it, that they pretend to desire nothing but peace." His Lordship, while displaying a school-boy fondness for the game of war, seeks to hide his strong propensity by a reference to the blessings of peace, and claims for himself the merit of being the friend of peace, with the bones of 10,000 slaughtered victims around him, and no just plea in the sight either of God or man, for the destruction of one of them! Yet he has obtained the praise of Wellington "Murder upon a small scale-No! that is and a step in the peerage. not good. Why? Because we see men hanged for it. Murder upon a large scale-oh! that is most excellent! Why? We have seen men crowned for it." So said Jeremy Bentham, and he spoke like a sage. Lord Ellenborough is now in England. His acts has been freely discussed in his absence, we shall see if they are as freely canvassed in his presence. We have little doubt ourselves that, as in the case of Lord Auckland and the Affghan war, so in the case of Lord Ellenborough and the war in Sinde, there will be an understanding between parties, and the voice of those whose blood crieth from the ground, as well as the voice of the living victims of injustice, will be unheeded, when the purposes of faction are sufficiently accomplished. The Friend of India speculates in the following manner, upon the causes of Lord Ellenborough's recal :— "Lord Ellenborough has invariably acted upon the principle of governing India without any reference to the wishes or views of the Court of Directors. Having used them as his Cabinet Council while President of the Board of Controul, whose suggestions he was at liberty to adopt or reject according to his own judgment, he was not disposed to submit to them, as his masters, when he became the Board of Controul on "deputation to India." It was a simple struggle for independent power between Lord Ellenborough and the Court, evinced on one occasion-if universal report may be depended on-by the actual return of an unpalatable dispatch, with a sharp reprimand to the Directors for having gone out of their province. Latterly,—we are again embodying public rumours-when his Lordship found that the Court had endeavoured to trip up his heels, and had even asked the Duke's and Sir Robert's assistance for that purpose, and had been peremptorily refused it, his communications are said to have borne a sterner character, and contumely was added to hauteur. The Honorable Court were vividly reminded of the humiliating insignificance to which they had been reduced. They felt that unless they could control or displace the contumacious Governor-General, who, firm in the support of the Ministry and Lord Brougham, set them completely at defiance, they might as well cease to exist as a public body. They took up the gauntlet which he had thrown down, and, calling into exercise the powers they possessed, which had lain dormant half a century, they prostrated the Ministry and the Governor-General, and again established their own legitimate influence in the Government of India. It was an open stand up fight between the Court and his Lordship, and he has been floored by the touch of that magic weapon which Parliament had put into the hands of his opponents. We question whether, in such circumstances, and with such abettors, his Lordship feels any great humiliation at the result of a crisis which he has himself hastened. It is even possible that he may find some consider ations in the struggle and its issue, which, with his particular temperament, imparts a peculiar zest to both. "There were, doubtless, other causes for the recall. The uncertainty of his Lordship's movements, the eccentricity of his career, the abolition as far as possible of Minutes, and the impossibility of comprehending the reason for the changes which were so rapidly and so suddenly introduced into the frame-work of government; the profuse liberality with which lakhs upon lakhs were given in gratuities, beyond all previous example; the dread lest his Lordship should again abandon his Council, and proceed to the North West, and adopt measures, which, however unintentionally, might render a collision with the Punjaub inevitable,—all these circumstances have doubtless had great weight in this resolution. There is no reason to doubt that the Directors did not consider the empire in a safe state while Lord Ellenborough presided over its destinies, and that they regarded his simple removal, without any reference to the person who might be his successor, a sufficient guarantee for its outliving the Charter. There is a world of meaning in that simple sentence,- The removal of Lord Ellenborough they had been endeavouring to accomplish, not for a day or a week; that object they had in view, and that they had accomplished. They had no desire to do anything more.' They cared little who succeeded him, for the empire must, in their view, be in comparative safety under any other ruler. Still one of the main causes, if not the main cause, of his removal, was the openly avowed assumption of independent power by our Governor-General,' with the concurrence of the Ministry. It was, therefore, a struggle, not simply with the Governor-General, but with the united body, composed of his Lordship and his supporters. The blow that brought Lord Ellenborough down, was indirectly aimed also at the power which the Duke had assumed in the administration." Her Majesty's Government have at last declared that the produce of Mysore shall in future be treated, in Great Britain and India, as that of a British possession. This is a step in the right direction. Hitherto the sugar and coffee of Mysore have been treated as products belonging to a foreign country, although, since 1831, the administration of the affairs of that territory have been wholly in the hands of the British Government. This foolish and injurious distinction is at length abolished, and we trust its consequences will be, to increase the growth of the articles we have named, and lead to their exportation in much greater quantities to this country. The province is well adapted for the cultivation of articles largely demanded here. After a brilliant career of three years in China, Sir Henry Pottinger has returned to his native land, where doubtless honours and emoluments will be conferred upon him. In circumstances of extreme difficulty, he has manifested talents of the highest order, and has been fortunate enough to see his measures crowned with complete success. To him belongs the merit of having compelled the Chinese cabinet to enter into relationship with a foreign power on terms of equality, an event which has not occurred before, during the present dynasty. The Union Bank of Calcutta appears to have prospered greatly under the management of the new secretary, Mr. Stuart, and to have placed its business upon a much more stable and satisfactory basis. Its losses, by the insolvency of several houses, is stated at £100,000. The profits, during the last half-year, have been nearly nine per cent. The shareholders have consented to a dividend of seven per cent., carrying the surplus to a reserved fund for the liquidation of losses. By so doing, they have increased the confidence of the public in the integrity and permanent stability of the bank. The news from India is singularly unimportant. At present, there seems no prospect of a war with the Sikhs. The Minister, Hera Singh, has, by the profuse distribution of money, gained over a sufficient body of troops, to place him in temporary security. We are very sorry to perceive that the Government of India, in settling the affairs of the Holkar state, have set aside the claims of Martund Rao, and elevated to the throne a youth destitute of any pretensions. 119 GOOD GOVERNMENT FOR INDIA. An Englishman may surely be forgiven if he sometimes indulges in a feeling of patriotic complacency, when he surveys the mighty empire which this country wields over distant lands. In the East, the sceptres of fifty princes have been gathered into one, and that one placed in the hands of the representative of the monarch who adorns the throne of this rocky island. In the West, we are the rulers of an assemblage of the most rich and picturesque islands in the world, studding the bosom of the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribean Sea. On the continent of America, our rule extends from the Frozen Ocean to the Falls of Niagara, and along the western borders of the mighty lakes, even to the shores that are laved by the waters of the Pacific; and if we may not call the sixteen millions of enterprising men who dwell between the Saint Lawrence and the Mississippi our fellow-subjects, we may call them by a still more endearing name—our brethren. In many interesting and important respects we are one-our origin is the same-and we know that they are what they are, because they are the offspring of her, who has become the mother of nations. Our religion, our language, and our literature are the same, and the commercial interests of the two countries are inseparably blended. In every other section of the globe, we possess territorial dominion, and are linked by citizenship to almost all the varied tribes of mankind. The British flag waves over the lofty table land of the Cape of Good Hope: it floats upon the shores of Western Africa: it rises above the spicy groves of Ceylon: it occupies the summit of the impregnable rock of Gibraltar: it is paramount over the face of New Holland and it is now recognised and feared in the Celestial Empire, where it casts its shadow over British territorial settlements. Our fellow-subjects! Who are they? The philosophic Brahmin, the stately Mussulman, the roving Arab, the listless Bengallee, the fiery Coromantine, the peaceful Eboe, the warlike Rohilla, the predatory Beloochee, the manly savages of the Oronoko, the untamed children of the North American forest, the haughty barbarians of New Zealand, the debased and wandering hordes of Australia, the Bushmen and Hottentots of Southern Africa, the Mandingoes and Jaloofs of the West: all these, and millions more, are our fellow-subjects. With us, they are under British dominion and law-like us, they are entitled to British protection-and, with us, may rightfully claim to participate in the benefits and blessings which flow from a just and impartial administration of that constitution, which is the pride of our country, and the palladium of its liberties. |