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    566 fll ' LBAP1B, \Ho m 377, Biflnnm«»

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    < I ( Belgian Politics. Ooji Estimate Of...

    Parliament iapart of the life of a nation- —not its life : it must act in harmony with the other functions of the body politic- ^ -not paralyse Society and try to be a living point in a dead mass . We do not deny that what has passed in Belgium is abnormal . Foreigners have not yet learned the art of exercising ' pressure from without , ' whilst avoiding contact with the police . 3 N"or have we . Our Hyde Park riots were as irregular as anything that has happened in Brussels ; but they also enabled a

    government to escape from a difficulty , and were rather- considered as an over-healthy action of our constitution than as a sign of decay . In Belgium bones were broken as well as windows , and some blood was shed . X < et us hope that similar scenes will not soon recur , either there or elsewhere ; but we should prefer the alternative of a little lawlessness to the sight of elected legislators , taking

    advantage of their title of representatives and disposing with the recklessness of irresponsibility of the fortunes , the happiness , the honour of a country lying in abject submission before them . Parliaments , like women , are apt to take refuge too often behind the privileges which , opinion grants them—to meddle and torment and tyrannise because they think they can do so without danger .

    The events that have taken place in Belgium , and which have not yet found their catastrophe , sprang out of an untimely endeavour to re-legislate on a point long before settled . Instead of behaving as the representatives of the country at large , the Chamber made itself the representative of a corporation . Hven the Ministers gave up their free will and acted under the immediate

    direction of a party and interest outside the House . How they contrived to obtain a majority would be easy to explain . But this is now immaterial , as in the most unequivocal manner we have been told that that majority does not represent the nation . Not only have the populations of the towns declared themselves with , a unanimity and an energy never before known , but even in the country , among the ignorant peasantry , usually so much under ecclesiastical influence , most

    energetic declarations have been made that nothing that increases the power of the priests will be tolerated . It is true these bovine expressions of opinion are not to be much hearkened to . In Belgium , as in most other Catholic countries , provincials may often be heard to talk very loudly against priestcraft , even to retail free-thinking ideas , whilst at the same time they are under the thumb

    of the cure " , and may be detected now and then paying sly visits , with all the appearance of being en bonne fortune , to the confessional . " We may suppose , therefore , that the routed " Ultramontanes will be able to fall back on a considerable reserve ; and the [ Liberals must continue to harass them unceasingly in their retreat . It may be quite true that at the meeting that took place at the house of M . 3 XE MiiRODE the clericals resolved to abandon

    the law on chanties ; but we must not suppose they wiU so easily give up a struggle in which they have been so nearly victorious . We have not yet received news of any modification in , the Ministry . MM . T )& - deokeb and Vilain XIV . still keep to their posts , though , they are reported to be edging away from their colleagues ; and the great AiiEHONSE Nocbhomb haa nob yefc retired to

    Luxembourg . This last gentleman , after describing the semicircle of success — from extreme liberalism to extreme Conservatism - —the well-trodden path from opposition to favour—has not yet been awakened from his dream . Two years of office have left him as ignorant and as vain , as imperturbable and as abundant , as ever . The experience of the last month >; too , seema to have been loet upon

    him . M . MaIiOU , the Bishop of Bruges , showed greafi discretion when he entrusted to such a man the management of his Charity Bill .. M . Nothomb not only still clings to his post , but is reported to be preparing a fatally fluent dissertation for delivery to the Chamber when it meets again to discuss this projeet ; whilst every one is saying that the Catholic party , of which M . Notsomb is the tool , have at any rate agreed to put themselves in the hands of the King , and leave to him the responsibility of disposing of the

    obmeasure . It is difficult , as yet , to tell how the denoument of the drama will be brought about . If Jhe Ministry refuses to be modified—if it is bound together by pledges—and such may probably be the , case , if we may judge by the manner in which the Charity Bill was brought forward and supported—it is not likely that the King will venture on the experiment of dismissing it altogether , and endeavouring to carry on the Grovernment with a [ Liberal or Coalition administration in the face of a

    hostile majority . Kings know too well now the peril of such a course . Besides , they are but men after all—Men and Fathers . Excellent King XiEOPOLB was just about to have proposed to the Chamber a little bill for the dotation of his daughter ChablottE ;—a name dear to the memory of the heart and the pocket of England . He is about to give her in marriasre to the Archduke Maximilian

    of Austria ; and what Englishman is ignorant of the cost of these interesting transactions ? To convoke the Chambers for this purpose only would be impossible . Yet convoked they must be . According to the letter of the Constitution an adjournment cannot last more than a month . It is said the meeting is fixed for the 25 th—unless in the meantime the Grovernment determine on a dissolution .

    A dissolution ! This would then be the year of elections . After the brisk and noisy contest in . England—in which English constituencies , independent or corrupt , ignorant , prejudiced , enlightened , liberal , conservative , and servile , managed to arrive at an average representation of their want of earnestness —we shall have the muffled and unequal struggle of an exasperated minority in France , with the Government supported by its halfmillion of soldiers , and preceded by its flock

    of six or seven millions of electors—or lulleims ; and then . would come the deadly wrestling of two hostile parties in Belgium —the ghastly , but vigorous , cowled monk with the ripening modern man—the disciplined hordes of the convent with the enthusiastic crowds of Liberalism . But the probability is that the Jesuit party , with tlieir usual caution , will act according to the feeling of the meeting at the house of M . iDJS MfijtODE-WESTERLOO — do everything they can to prevent a dissolution of the Chambers

    or the breaking up of the Cabinet . Though defeated on one point they desire to preserve their position for future use . We may be sure , at any rate , that the struggle is not really over . An ecclesiastical party is nob so easily overcome . Much , of course , will now depend on the policy pursued by the King . If ho clearly see that his -power , or at any rate his popularity , is risked by these desperate Conservatives , who would throw everyin far the

    thing into confusion , he will , as as Constitution allows him , range himself on the Liberal aide . Every one feels that the contest will not be decided when the Charity Bill has been withdrawn . The advanced party in Europe , singularly enough , is waiting with jansLety for ,, the deoiaion of a King-ribaring that that decision will be a chock to monarchy—hoping that it will consolidate a throne and confound the calculations of whoever may seek advantage from anarchy .

    THE NATIVE ARMIES OF INDIA ' The-latest intelligence from India solves all doubt as to the reality or extent of disa & T tion in the Bengal Army . It is now certab that the whole of the native ¦(' reg ular ^ troops are more or less imp licated in a con spiracy against the State . The fruits of Lord " Wiliiam Benmnck's mad crusade against military discipline are no longer to be mis taken . The outbreak which has just occurred had been long predicted alike by soldiers and civilians f ordi Indian

    o nary experience . "What then , has been done towards meeting the threatened danger , if , indeed , it could not be altogether averted ? Nothing — absolutely nothing ! As for the feeble palliafcires glanced at in our last number , such , remedies could , at the most , be expected to have no better effect than that of from time to time postponing the evil day . An increase of European officers has , it is true , been doled out during the last twenty years ; but the increase of extra-regimental staff appointments has been far more than corresponding So that the addition spoken of would go for rather less than - nothing , were it not , in certain other respects , positively detrimental , as we can very soon show . The subjoined table exhibits the proportion of European officers allowed to a Bengal native infantry regiment , at a period immediately succeeding Lord William Bentinok ' s reductions , and again at the present day : — 1837 . 1857 . 8 companies ; G 40 privates . 10 comps . ; 1000 privates . Colonel ... ... 1 Colonel ... ... 1 Lieut .-Colonel ... 1 , Lieut .-Colonel ... 1 Major ... ... ... 1 : Major ... ... ... 1 Captains 5 j Captains 7 Lieutenants ... ... 8 Lieutenants 11 Ensigns ... ... 4 Ensigns ... ... 5 Total 20 Total 26 Hence it wil l easily be seen that , in 1837—excluding field officers—there were 17 captains and subalterns allowed for an establishment of G 1 O privates ; being at the rate of 1 officer to about 37 Sepoya . In 1857 , we find that the captains and subalterns have been increased to 23 : but the number of privates haa been augmented to 1000 ; and the result is , that the proportion of officers to soldier * is only 1 to about 4 . 3 . Tho vaunted increase of officers is thus proved to be an arithmetical fallacy . And how great the practical fallacy is may be gathered from tins fact that , on the strength of this imaginary augmentation , three , four , or five more individuals have been withdrawn , for staff employ , from regiment * state oi

    already much under-officered . This things is , as wo have already said , positively detrimental ; but still moro detrimental results must ensue from a persistence m the pitiful half measures hitherto adopted . Kelerring again to tho establishments oUW / and 1857 respectively , we observe # that a cadet of the former year , on joining lu » regiment as fourth ensign , had only seveuteea the regimental

    masteps between him and jority—the point , in fact , at winch wag military service begins to bo pretty uou remunerated—thoug h promotion was m from being rapid at that period . » f «* cadet , of 1857 , joiuing as fcftb on sign , hw twenty-three steps to win ere he can o oupy tho same desirable position ; and , as «« must rise by dint of sheer bmuoti ^ Jounny Nbwookb of tho present day ^ co , under ordinary circumstances , loolc wi better result than that of Hading ; «««

    half way up the list of capta . us at *« S when most general * are ripe tor ahch i * Here is an argument wh , cli , ^ oio _ o grounds wanting , is iu itself « ll-eufficiont ju establish tho necessity for reform . W the Bengal Presidency , at loasfc , 1 ; ° * \ demoralisation haa proceeded bo far lw *

    566 Fll ' Lbap1b, \Ho M 377, Biflnnm«»

    566 fll ' LBAP 1 B , \ Ho m 377 , Biflnnm «»

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 13, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13061857/page/14/