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    1314i fHB LEADER. [No. 404, Dnum 19,1857...

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    POLITICS OF THE INDIAN REBELLION. Nothin...

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    The Elections In Belgium. Thk Conduct An...

    augury of transtitatwnal freedom and national in * dependence . The behaviour of the King ~ H > he Protestant chief of a State officially and numerically Catholic — - has been , in ail respects * worthy of his high reputation as the sovereign of a free and intelligent people * Honesty is , perhaps ^ a somewhat vulgar—we do not inean a common—virtue for a king , but it has its merits and compensations . The contest in Belgium is the old story of civil and religions liberty on the one side , and ecclesiastical usurpation on the other . We are sufficiently famiwith the

    uar phases of a quarrel which , under various conditions , breaks oat from time to time in every European country where modern thought is at odds with obsolete authority . The attitude of the clerical party in Belgium has been precisely that of the clerical party all the world over ! All things to all men , the Church , which has nothing so much in common -with primitive Christianity as the name , is content to be servile and submissive for a season , until the good time coming' of domination is ripe . Suppliant and abject , it pleads for oppression m the name of liberty , and conspires for subjugation in the disguise of tolerance , In Belgium , for instance , after the revolution of 1830 , the clerical party was for a time liberal and national in its ¦ ¦ ¦>» ~] T ¦ ¦ kB h

    — ^ k V — — — ^^^ ^^ ^^ *^ ^ p ^^^^* 0 ^ J politics , and it was not until , in the unrestricted exercise -of all the opportunities of freedom , it had mastered a majority in the Chambers , that the eternal and universal lust of authority -was unmasked . The reflux of the great revolutionary tide of 1848 , the disappointment and prostration of continental liberalism , the distraction and apprehension created by events in . France , may be supposed to have facilitated the triumph of the Belgian Ultramontanists ; and it is perhaps fortunate that , if we may be pardoned the expression , they have had c rope enough / and that their vaulting ambition has teen suffered to overreach itself and to fall on the other side .

    In despotic Austria , where the Church is too good an ally t & be dispensed with , a state system represented fey battalions of bayonets culminated naturally in a Concordat imposing silence on free thought , where thought exists , and ignorance on the masses , Those happy lot it is to believe and tremble . But in Belgium , although dynastically allied to Austria , certain inconvenient institutions too deepl y rooted and too closely interwoven with the dynasty itself to be got rid of by decree , opposed a barrier whichj thanks to tie prudence of the King and the people , has not been converted into a barricade . The difficulty has not been forcibly cut asunder , but peacefully untied . The bill for placing charitable establishments in the hands of the

    priests , and the reprimand of a Professor for the expression of opinions disagreeable to ecclesiastical ears , had variously alarmed and aroused the intelligent population of Belgium . The honesty and high character of two Ministers , M . Dedecker and M . TitMN XIV ., were not sufficient to appease the gathering storm incessantly provoked by the rashness and infatuation of incapable intriguers such as M . Nothomb , and by the Coryphcei of the clerical party , MM . Malou and Dumo & tibr . The obnoxious Bill was forced into the Chamber ; obviously prejudged on both sides , it was fought over , rather than debated , for four weeks , when a division took place involving the principle of the measure . The Ministry obtained a majority , and that majority sealed their fate .

    It may be remembered that the House was cleared repeatedly , on account of vociferous demonstratiotta in the galleries ; that at length the public waa attracted to the neighbourhood of the Chambers , that * atttOKapements * were formed at the close of the sittings , that on the evening of the division a greater crowd tlian usual assembled and cheered the liberal members as they left the House , while the Government were hooted and assailed with

    abuse . It was hot June weather in those days ( so much depends on weather in politics !) , and a few University students began to parade the streets , accompanied by respectable bourgeois and a few blouses . Some windows were broken in a goodnatured beery Flemish fashion , the Jesuits and Capuchins took fright and bolted , whilst the Royal Family , who went to the Opera on one of the three nights of the demonstration , were cheered with equal zeal b y respectable citizens and mischievous gamins . r lhe then Minister of War made a foolish and

    unnecessary display of troops , and even called back to their regiments the soldiers who htul been dismissed , but whose liability to scrvico had not expired , rudely and suddenly summoning men from ¦ i

    their traces and families at a time when the want of labour was severely felt in the agricultural districts . But the good sense of the King preserved the country from the fatuity of his advisers with no undue deference to clamour , he fairly recognized the force of opinion expressed by the communal councils of all the most important towns , and determined to appeal to the nation . The Bill was provisionally shelved ; then the Chambers were prorogued sine die . Thereupon the municipalities pronounced unequivocally against the Ministry , who resigned , 'M . Nothomb and one or two ] more incapables vainly

    protesting . The King , never swerving from constitutional moderation , sent for M . de Brouckere , and entrusted to-him the formation of an intermediate Ministry of conciliation . ; but in the face of a situation so extreme , and of a public spirit so decisively aroused , a Ministry of an ambiguous complexion was clearly impossible ; nothing remained but to constitute the materials of an administration frankly , resolutely , entirely liberal . M . CHAtoUES Rogijjr was therefore summoned , as preeminently the man of thesituation , and to him was lAmimnteu ot

    tup responsiouity conducting the victory of the liberal Cause to a legal , constitutional , and orderly solution . It was , of course , impossible for M . Rogier to carry on the government in the sense of the nation in the face of a hostile majority in the Parliament . He therefore advised the Sovereign to call tlie Chambers together only to prorogue them ; and the prorogation was speedily followed by a dissolution of the Lower Chamber . AH these measures , it will be observed , bear the stamp of honesty and discretion , and we are glad to find them so cordially approved by the Imperial journals over the border . The Belgian people , has responded to the invitation of the King and of his nev Ministry in an admirable spirit , and with a temper and prudence which have

    excited the indignation of the acrid / S ^ efotorand the bilious TJnivers . To Englisnmen who breathe the air of ordered freedom it seems absurd to be always talking of order and liberty , as if they , nonId ever ) e disjoined . The truth- is , perhaps , that in the minds of many who adopt the formula , order is a synonym for the tranquillity of arbitrary government , and liberty for the impatience oifrondeurs . M . Ro & iek has no doubt deemed it well to employ these words in their continental sense , rather for external than for home use . If there be any very advanced Liberals who are disappointed with his programme because it represents -the exigencies of the nineteenth rather than the dreams of the twentieth

    century , we frankly confess we are unable to sympathize with their disaffection . To our own more ardent friends at home , who indignantly hold that a leader of public opinion should never be in sight of contemporary realities , we have always replied that to-day is for to-day ' s work ; and we would , ' carnestly advise our friends in Belgium , to be satisfied with M . Hogier if he does all that can be done now for the freedom and prosperity of his country , and leaves to the Future the next blank page in the book , of perfectibility .

    1314i Fhb Leader. [No. 404, Dnum 19,1857...

    1314 i fHB LEADER . [ No . 404 , Dnum 19 , 1857 .

    Politics Of The Indian Rebellion. Nothin...

    POLITICS OF THE INDIAN REBELLION . Nothing is now heard of the idea that the rebellion in . British . India is a national movement . Events have rendered such a belief impossible . Of the numerous nations and languages not one has risen against the English rule except the military population of Oude , and that is but partially disaffected . Although in many provinces , especially iix the Dcccan , there are thousands of villagers who have never seen a European face , the native masses liavc stood apart from the Sepoys , and have generally allowed tlicir white masters to cope with the mutiny , umneriaced and unmolested . A few exceptional outrages committed by villagers reckon as nothing against the grand fact that our hundred and thirty millions of subjects have not yielded to the excitement of the struggle , or grasped at the temptation of becoming once more a ruling race in Asia . Ignorant as they arc , they know this , —that where torture , tyranny , and corruption have been practised , the worst complaints nave eoxnc from those districts in which tlic fewest European officials have been stationed ; and that where land has increased in value , where crops have become more abundant , and where commerce has prospered , it has been where annexation had made its mark . We arc within bounds "when we say that not one per

    cent , of the Hindoo and Mohammedan population - has sympathized with the revolt . Tfce theory that we have to contend with a national insurrection is tliereiore exploded ; but it is equally fallacious to regard the whole military population of India as hostile to our authority , and exasperated by our conquests . Assuming a large total , we will alow that , including every ruffian from tlie prisons and roadside Alsatias , two hundred thousand men have been in arms against us . But what is that figure in proportion to the total ? The number of men actually ranked in our own armies and those of the reigning

    Rajahs , amounted , before the outbreak , to not less than seven hundred thousand , Had these adopted the rebel cause , the English in India would , if not exterminated , have been driven to the ships , or . within the walls of two or three fortified places on . the coast . We doubt even whether the empire Would have been reconquered . Of the two hundred indepen ^ deat or protected princes , not more than four . ' . or " five—and those the most insignificant—have joined the enemy ; we do not include the King of Dei » hi > since he was simply the despot of a palace , withoWfc a battalion at his command , or the Nana . SauiBi

    who is nicrelyanobie , and was only recognized in his private capacity . A few great Zemindars have rebelled , but these are not to be confounded with chief tains possessing sovereign riglits of any description . Instead of declaring "themselves unfriendly , the * , most powerful of the native Rajahs have allied themselves with us , —' the Princes of N 4 * paul and Cashmere , with Holkar , Sindia . h , the Nizam , and the other conspicuous feudatories , whose hostility might have taxed the genius of another Clive , and consumed a series of British armies . This mighty danger we have escaped . Nor have all the Sepoys mutinied . The Bombay and Madras armies , of a hundred thousand men , have ^ scareely been tainted ; the great central Table Land and

    the Mountain Foot have had their peace unbroken 5 iu Scinde the disturbance was faint and momentary j Guzerat and Orissa have escaped , « veii Rajpootana has not been generally convulsed ; the Punjab Was restored to tranquillity by its own garrisons and by native levies ; west of Delhi the rebellion never made any progress ; in alL India it notf possesses not a single strong- place . In Oude alone is it so concentrated as to offer any formidable re * sistance to a large and organized force . AH the important cities , excepting Lucksiow , are iu our hands- —Agra ., Delhi , Allahabad , Benares , Calcutta * Madras , Bombay . There is not a-n enemy within one of the immense fortresses that stud the penin * sula—in truth , the political power of Great Britain has never -for an hour been shaken in the slightest

    degree by the rebellion , fierce and terrible as it has been . From . Scinde to Arracan the immense and varied population gazed at the few clusters of Englishmen fighting hand to hand with myriads'of armeq , disciplined , aud well-equipped rebels ; b « . t when two-thirds of the army had dissolved , not a fragment was torn from the empire . Not in the Ghaut valleys , the wilds of Malwa , the swamps of Eastern Bengal , where a Saxon voice has never been heattJ , did a popular opinion exist for a moment that the Raj of the English . wa 3 at an . end . When the Bheel archer 3 came out of tneir fastnesses , the peaceful population looked to the Europeans for succour ;

    when the petted Santals betrayed their disloyalt y * the agricultural tribes refused to join them , and were plundered . The people of the Dcccan looked at the works of irrigation on the Cauvcry , which have made a Lombardy of their Arabia , and they wisely preferred the administration of the English to thtt chance of a Sepoy monarch , glutting himself _ with blood and luxury , and devastating India until the phantom melted ' away in anarchy and ruiu . Thus the rebellion was , from the first , a failure , in a political sense . Its promoters have been , foiled in all their designs , and the double result lias been to gratify a blind hatred , and a thirst for debauch aud plunder , and to create in . the English mind a determination to work the administration of India , in

    future , by means of a more powerful machinery . Reform has already touched the army . Sir Comn Oammjelu hus broken several unworthy oflicers , has removed sundry superannuated generals from the active list , and has otherwise given proof of las intention to effect a change in our Indian military system . Tho Horso Guards , we hope , will not intorferc . Another political consequence of tho rehellion will be a now principle ot British rule in India ; but to establish that principle firmly and safely public opinion must inform itself , and not bo led away by lecturers , who toll thorn that Our Asiatic dominions arc relapsing into wildernesses , ruin , and solitude .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 19, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19121857/page/14/