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    468 > THE LEADER, [No. 425, May 15,185SL

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    THE INDEPENDENT LIBERAL PABTY. A. hundre...

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    Was Originally An Intrigue, And As Such ...

    of Oude should be guaranteed in possession of their estates and rewarded , that actual murderers should be excluded from mercy , that persons of all classes making their submission , early should be secure of "life and honour , " that those who aided 4 he Government would be entitled to its . superior consideration , and that , with certain exceptions , the territory was conditionally confiscated , or rather held in pledge , until the authority of the British

    Commis--Sioner had been completely re-established , and due investigation made into the armies of the rebellion . We dare not be so rapid in our verdicts as Lord Elxenborottq-h , and are therefore unable for the present to weigh every point in this manifesto ; our information , to say the truth , is vague and unsatisfactory . It may prove that the menace of confiscation was impolitic , or it may be shown that Xiord Canning- followed the wisest course 6 j > en to him . That is a problem not yet to be solved

    by political critics at home . But there are certain known facts which may help ns to a conclusion . In the first place , a number of the great landowners in Oude are not of that class for whom any appeal can legitimately be made on the ground of hereditary possession . They had acquired their estates at a period comparatively recent by the plunder and murder of their weaker neighbours , and , as Colonel Sleeman ascertained , these were the favourites and most strenuous adherents of tTie dethroned dynasty . The assumption

    of the country by Lord Dalhocsii ! , and the exaction of aTrears from the territorial lords , arrayed against us a large proportion of that powerful order , and this hostility was of course aggravated when the G-overnor-Greneral proposed to supersede the talookdar by the village system . The scheme was never very largely developed , and Lord Gan " - niitg , upon his accession to the administration of India , set his face against it . It was not until after the revolt , with its accumulation of horrors and atrocities , that he believed himself entitled to resume for the

    Government the disposition of the land—a privilege which , we are convinced , he never intended to employ to any oppressive extent . Why , however , did he send home without explanation a document so easy to misinterpret and so stire to be attacked ? This , we think , was a "blamable omission . We are in a position to speak of Lord Canning with candour and independence . We have not at all times approved his policy . At the commencement of the mutiny he

    was demonstrably wanting in foresight ; he dealt perversely witli the suggestions of " men who were competent to instruct him ; lie confounded the English with the native press ; he appeared to parade his contempt of the European community ; he contracted a fatal habit of undertaking too much , and was dissatisfied if , in addition to being his own council , he was not also his own clerk ; but we are forced to Bay ttiat he met the appalling difficulties of liis situation with cool

    and steady courage , and it is a testimon y to his consistent calmness that those who once inveighed against his clemency at present denounce his rigour . Ho has kept an even course , and has therefore offended extreme opinions on both sides . So far as to Lord Canning . Taken for all in all , hia policy has been sound , and its wisdom has been

    evidenced by its success . To Lord EilenlOBOuan no such congratulations apply . Ho came into office when the worst of ttie crisis Lad passed ; ho found Lord Canning with the most delicate and complex of all responsibilities upon his hands— that of following with vigorous and cautious acts of administrative policy the subsidence of tho insurrection . Sir Colin Campudlij and his

    brigadiers were beating the rebels . The Governor-General was taking charge of the rescued provinces . He issued , a Proclamation designed to quell the turbulent and win over the timid , and , whatever flaw that document may contain , Lord Canning neither did , nor could do , anything so rash or perilous as was done- —and done in good faith , no doubt— - fry the Earl of Eluenbokottgh . His despatch to Lord Canning was an edict , and a

    propensity to edicts has been , his official ruin . It was a mistake to impose a . check so abrupt upon the administration of the Grovernor-Gteneral , who might have been presumed to act with full knowledge of the circumstances , and of the influence likely to be exerted by his Proclamation . But to pass the " secret " despatch from hand to hand , to raise a discussion upon it , to transmit a copy to Mr . John Bbight , and to announce emphatically in Parliament that Lord Canning had been

    visited with an official censure , was a , complicated act of weakness and folly committed by Lord ELiiENBOROTTGH in . common with the other members of the Cabinet . It was the President of the Board , of Control who made himself responsible for publishing the state - paper in which he went far in an argument to justify the Oude rebellion and

    exalt it as a patriotic war ; but Mr . Disraeli declared from his place on the Treasury bench that the Canning Proclamation was by him , and by his colleagues , " condemned in every sense , " so that , straightforward , manly , and generous as the conduct of Lord lEiii / Ezsrborotjgh has been , we cannot think that he has exonerated the rest of the Government

    There are grounds for a parliamentary vote of reprobation ; but it must be mortifying to public opinion in a constitutional country to observe the frenzy of selfish excitement into which tlie expectant factions are thrown , when , through a gap in the Indian policy of the Ministers , they perceive a chance of . rushing back to office . This has been the discreditable aspect of the week's discussion , and

    we are sorry to believe that Mr . CahdweijL went to Cambridge House to enrol himself among the men whose desperate fidelity to Lord Paimerston far surpasses their loyalty to any public interest or political principle . This we say with the less reserve , and with the more pain , inasmuch as , whether witli or without a dissolution of Parliament , a new Government is all but inevitable—as

    the Daily News has explained— -within the next few months . It is impossible that Lord DEttBr can long cling to office at the head of a minority , scarcely numbering more than one-third of the House of Commons , and at variance with the majority on so many important questions . We have a Premier who admitted to Mr . Spoofek , that Maynooth had failed , yet declined to support his motion for inquiry ; who objected to Mr . Locke King ' s County Franchise Bill

    yet instructed his lieutenants in the Lower House not to divide against it ; who is a champion of church rates , and sees the majority led by Sir JonH Tk . ela . wn y ; who considers marriage with a deceased wife ' s sister incestuous , and cannot prevent the second reading of Viscount Buby ' s bill ; who bolievea that the Legislature will be unchristianized by the admission of a Jew , and is to

    meet Baron Hothsohij / d in conference , under the compulsion of a parliamentary vote ; and who , having abandoned his India Bill , abandons his India Minister . What is the result , but that both Housoa are stultified , and that , while factions aro gravitating-, now to Lord Pa : lmmr 3 ton , now to Lord John Bubseli , , all possibility of honest and effective legislation is destroyed ? India lias been totally sacrificed in tho midat of these party squabbles , these throats of censure ,

    these evolutions of political leaders , these Cambridge House gatherings , these calculations by Sir William : Joliffe and Sir William Hayteb , these doubts of the Liberals whether they shall wear the Londoa or Tiverton cockade .

    468 > The Leader, [No. 425, May 15,185sl

    468 > THE LEADER , [ No . 425 , May 15 , 185 SL

    The Independent Liberal Pabty. A. Hundre...

    THE INDEPENDENT LIBERAL PABTY . A . hundred and orwkNTY members of the House of Commons consider themselves to be sufficiently agreed upon the principles of a Liberal policy to cohere as an independent party . They now understand , we should imagine , of what importance it is + o them that their strength and unity should be manifested . Already , tlie demonstration they have made has produced a visible impression in and out of Parliament . The Conservative prints insinuate tlie most flattering appeals to the Hundred and Twenty not to throw away their support upon the Whigs . The Whig oigans point to the process of

    Liberal organization as a sign that , if there be one growing party in the House of Commons it is not tlie Conservative . And the Hundred and Twenty -well know that not only the present but any future Cabinet must depend upon tnem . if only they ' have a common basis , an intelligent and indefinite course of action , and such a systematic method of representing themselves and public opinion as will not only give them weight in the House , but render them the nucleus of Liberalism throughout the country . Allowing the Conservatives two Lundred and seventy votes in the Commons , the liberals

    number three hundred and ninety . Eromtlic latter take the hundred and twenty now endeavouring to organize themselves , and resolved , as they declare , to insist upon a Government of progress and sincerity , and what is left to the Whigs ? Two hundred and sixty-five votes—a combination which , without tlie aid of the hundred and twenty who enrol themselves as independent members , the Conservatives might at any time o-verthrow . There is no necessity for drilling a Brigade or a Brass Band to exercise a domineering terrorism over Ministers by threatening to Leave them in a minority whenever a Liberal proposal is refused , but we do say with Mr . Headlam that the party has been unfairly 4 . m ^ tfm ^* i d * . * "J ^^ tf 1 ^ ¦> I >^ . Y ^^ *^ — - 1 ^ ' _^ __ * . | l _ _ . . ' ' ' I > A . % ncaicu mm

    ^ , wuuc wo f ^ u ueyunu . m saying ; , that the party deserves what it has suffered . Even now public opinion is so incredulous of any uni on or persistency among tlie Liberal members of the House of Commons , that in many quarters it is whispered that Mr . Headlam ' s complaint was the cry of a stormy petrel , and that independent legislators have been fluttered by tlie fear of a , dissolution . And well may they dread to go before their constituents with an account of their good and evil works since the lust general election . Who of the

    new men lias distinguished himself ? "Where are all the promises , prophecies , and hopes that , in 3 S 57 , showered from thekustings ? Where is . the organization that was predicted ? and what liavc the Liberals done for themselves or the principles they are _ supposed to represent ? They are only now beginning to remember that they form the materials of an influential party , and they might do something for their cause if they were not jealous , divided , and indifferent .

    At the first meeting of tlie independent members resolutions were earned declaratory of their intention not to support any future Government established on the narrow Whig basis . It was proposed to vote that " more earnest zeal" in favour of Heform must be displayed by the next Cabinet appealing to the confidence of the Liberal party ; but the word " more , " upon a motion to that effect , was struck out , and a hundred and twenty members of the House of Commons thus declared unanimously that no liberal zeal whatever had been exhibited by Lord Paimerston or Lord John Jlusscll . This important resolution— "That no future Govertfmcut will bo worthy of support which docs not

    manifest earnest zeal and sincerity in . promoting measures of improvement and reform "—might operate as a warning and stimulus to the chiefs of the Opposition , could they be convinced that the movement is not a mere Hash in the pan—could they sec a party organizing mid a policy developed by the independent Liberals—could they see them communicating directly and regularly with 1 'ie public , as other sections do , with fnv more conlidenco in themselves , though with far inferior claims to popularity . What docs Mr . J . Clay confess p That lie and his friends have hitherto pursued a course which has rendered them " useless m the Houao of Commons . " and must partly

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15051858/page/12/