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Leader (1850-1860), 26th December 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, BRITISH DUTY TO INDIA. The public should...

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      The Staff School And Pu11ciiask System. ...

      ' they aTe not unwilling to send the officers of the Army to school . They will not have men of any but the purchasing class , with some exceptions , of -which much is made ; but as the purchasing class are not at all up to the mark in point of training and attainments , they do not object to < send men in commission to school . A minority of three in the Army Purchase Commission has expressed a decided opinion against any change in the present system . They -will not even have Lieutenant-Colonels selected for their proved abilities . Selection by merit , they think , would be dangerous ! Their principal argument however is , that ' theoretically' the whole system is bad , and it is absurd to make a reform only in the case of Lieutenant-Colonels ; so that it is better to make no reform at all . They stand by the regimental system , and say , look to the Staff . There is , indeed , a residue of guilty conscience even in the minority , where they say " Whether the adoption of other reforms and ameliorations , admitted on all hands to be necessary in our military system , may in the end place the army on the efficient and satisfactory footing expected by the country , oi whether it may still be necessary , at some future time , again to raise the question that has been submitted tc our examination , we do not pretend to anticipate . " So even the minority of three—Mr . Edtvaei Ellice , General Wthtabd , and Sir Henits Bentinck , are haunted by that ghost , the Abolition of Purchase ; but put it off , thej cry . And these three of the Commission aw evidently in official quarters the favourites . But the authors of the report have been to < clever not to put forward at least some pre tence of reason .

      " The principal complaint against our military system , " they say , " has been , not of the regiments , but of the manner in which they have been directed , provided for , and handled by the staff , on service and in campaign . Purchase cannot have given grounds for that complaint , for purchase has only influenced regimental , and never staff appointments or promotion . " They beg off onereform on the strength of another which is already taking place . The "Rr »\ r « l Milif . nrv Clr \ We > arp ! n . fc SnnrHniTst has been & ¦ t » ¦

      ^ flb ^ F ^^ . y ^ ^ m tf * . * - ^ a ^ m *^ m » j . ^»^ "v ^^ ^»^ a * ^^ ^ r * - » ^^ w ^ ^ — - — — - — — ™ — — — — converted into a Staff College , in which officers are to be trained in the mathematics , the French , German , and Hindostanee languages ; fortification and artillery ; military drawing and survey ; reconnoissance ; military art , history , and geography ; military administration and legislation ; elements of natural philosophy , chemistry , and geology ;

      riding , and even writing ! Jserore the officer enters the college , lie must show some attainments under several of these heads . Whether in or out of the college , the student need not make himself a proficient in all ; but he must study most of them : he must make considerable progress in mathematics ; French is ' essential . In short , he must be master of the

      ; military science and art , abstract and applied , } ethnographical and historical . Thus our ' i Staff officers will become masters for judging i the proficiency of others , will understand the j handling of anilitary tools whether living * or j inert , and will be masters in the business of > coercing classes or nations ; for such are the j duties of armies . { Thfi nnll « or « of ftftnrsfi . hUoiiIiI it be effectual .

      • 5 will tend to elevate tlie standard for officers i \ in the Army generally , and may , perhaps , i create a demand for enlarging the field of ; j selection ; but the efficiency of the Army is not J the only point to be kept in view . There is also ) a moral consideration . The service of the J Army is profitable , honourable , and congenial I to the disposition of men besides those who ' , are born in the upper classes ; and every man in ine \ uhbhw

      - country naa a rignt o an uquui . i in obtaining a share of tlie advantages . It may I suit royal commissioners to put this political ] and social point out of view , but it ia as essenii tial as the question of military proficiency . , 1

      No. 405, December 26,1851] T H E X E A D...

      No . 405 , December 26 , 1851 ] T H E X E A D E R . 1237

      The Jbtjfosse Trial. < This Curious Case...

      THE JBTJFOSSE TRIAL . This curious case , lately tried before a French tribunal , has ceased to have the interest attached to causes cklebres in general . There is no doubt about the facts—no mystery about the motives of the accused . Ma- dame Jetjfosse , annoyed by M . Gtjlllot ' s prowlings about the house—knowing him as a man who had tried to seduce a governess and had made love to her own daughtercharged her servant-man to shoot all trespassers , and by the tone of her instructions evidently meant him to shoot Guillot as he would shoot a dog . Guillot was shot , and he was left to die like a dog within a few hundred yards of the house . This was terrible retaliation for the profligate impudence of the man , but it lacks one quality of revenge—it was not l wild justice . ' It "was calmly concocted , and persistently urged upon a reluctant menial . Gttillot certainly contrived to accumulate claims to contempt and hatred . He was a coarse and . confident ¦ sinner , boasting of shameful conquests , pro-; bably a liar , and without even the miserable ' merit of being a hypocrite . He had not even \ . the grace of being a clandestine lover ; he comes more like a burglar than a thief ; he intentionally alarms the neighbourhood , and manages ¦ to have the Jeueosse family seriously coin-\ promised . It was certainly hard on Madame . Had he been a secret seducer she might have \ hushed up the affair , but he was a wolf in ' wolf ' s clothing . She did not commit to the two young men , her sons , that mission of ' avenging honour which Frenchmen so ¦ fre - "" ' quently assume . Like the mistress of an ordered household , she charged her servant J J _ . 1 _ . _ . ' ___ _ . l . _ ¦ Wv * . J 4-1 * j ~ i wv « ¦¦¦» nH /\ n « - «» rt ra ^ 1 Ar » * "k tuc uiuluci vivtic

      IO U . O Her wyrhj UUU ; « u . o . French justice considers it justifiable homicide , and iu this French justice merely reflects French manners . "We must not at once denounce a sentiment so different from our own . The French retain in their social life something of the individual independence of earlier times , when every man was the guardian of his own life and

      honour . The duel , extinct in England , lingers in France , and has some of its old prestige . The husband who avenges the outraged honour of his bed is always acquitted by French juries . It is curious to contrast the tone of French and English society towards offended and offenders . The lover who quietly attempts the honour of a married woman is in . France illicit lovera

      an interesting scamp , ana xne are pitied for the misfortune of the lady being married . In England the seducer of a married woman is regarded with general loathing , and for the fallen wife there is no redemption . But let the husband avenge himself , and , strange to say , all is changed . In France , the homicide is made a hero ; in England , he

      is tried at the Old Bailey , and can only hope to be transported . In France , the murdered lover loses all popularity with his life ; in England , he obtains the sympathy we always give to the victim . W © can only account for it by supposing that Frenchmen love outlaws . Whoever takes the law into his own hands , whether it be the laws of honour , of morality , or of polities , is admired by the French .

      They have the respect of revolutionists for violations of law ; while Englishmen idolize law , and have a prejudice against all' prisoners at the bar . To English law and practice the French verdict in this Jeufobse case would be entirely impossible . Suppose Madeleine i Smith admitted that in an access of fury she poisoned her lover who had threatened to ^ w «* ..-vrw-v l >/\* i rk % 4 * t *^\ i"t ft \\ 1 II It If urAll I f \ \~\ O \ T £ \ * l rf ^/ 1111 I * . — li /

      L'A IJUot / IIUJ . j U J . 1 « J ** WH I HI J ¥ » l / UAU All * V ^ IA ^* j *» - ted her , for her crime would have less guilt than the premeditated murder of Guillot by order of Madame Jeujfosse . Judged by I a French verdict , all the Irish agrarian

      mur-< ] ; ders are pardonable , for the murderers could possibly prove much stronger provocation than any received by the Frenchwoman . But justice , which is truth in action , is most true when it acts according to circumstances , and we must not condemn French law for a decision which merely carries into action the tone of French society . The j ury at Evreux took into consideration not only the extenuating circumstances of the immediate case , but the extenuation which the education and habits of every French family suggest .

      British Duty To India. The Public Should...

      BRITISH DUTY TO INDIA . The public should be on its guard against one great danger . It would be a fatal error to allow the Sepoy mutiny to create in the popular mind at lionae a sentiment of hostility to the Indian races . They are generally guiltless of the English blood that has ' flowed in so many cities of our Eastern empire . " When the insurrection disappears , we have a work of generosity , if not of gratitude , to perform ; we have to establish , for the benefit of the people of India , an improved administration . The undertaking branches into three divisions—public works , revenue , and police . These must be separately discussed ; at present we would refer to some points connected with the actual condition of the natives , and the possibility of ameliorating it . Able writers have shown that , whatever philanthropy and . wisdom may attempt , it is out of the question to convert India into another England , ripe , rich , and brilliant . It may have its glory , but its briglitest plains will never afford one glimpse of Kent or Devonshire . When Indian agriculture is at its highest point , tlie farmer , accustomed to Yorkshire loams or Essex clays , would be disappointed . He sees athinjieasant with a rag about his loins loitering la . te in Jiiue behind a pair of attenuated bullocks , which , drag an implement resembling a crooked stick ; the ground i < = q conrlir -wacfp +. ljp . hnf wind lias scorched the

      surface into blisters ; hut , upon the fall of a shower , the peasant goes to work ; he has no guano or bonedust , no three-horse plough , no patent machinery . Return , however , in November , and the district is one waving mass of grain , each plant nine feet high , and each ear of corn weighing from six to eight ounces . Many a dismal sketch of India has been taken from the one phase of this landscape , uncompared with the other . We must stipulate ,

      then , for moderation in the rhetoric of Indian reformers . It is not everywhere that the village has its mango grove , its tank , and its shrine ; it is not at all seasons that the summer bloom hears its promise of abundance ; but it may be at once conceded that a cumbrous and often cruel revenue system has depressed the agricultural classes , whose necessities cry loudly for more benevolent laws . It is highly desirable that a new system of collection cli / - > iiT / 1 if » % *••» /» fi nn \ -An lir » linivfrcnllv nrlrkntpd nl _ && JW IWtWMUJ £ ww ««

      * 3 ll \/ mU , A . UUVUAVUULVJ » UU . »*^^ Mr , vmm . though in Bengal it involves the delicate task of abolishing the powerful order of Zemindars , the middle men , -who pay a fixed assessment , and extort as much , in the shape of surplus , as they can wring out of the ryot by terror , and , in some districts , by torture . The Indian peasant has an undoubted claim to be relieved from this extortionate despotism , heartless and implacable as it is . The case of the non-proin

      pnetary classes , provinces waerc me ^ emmaary principle remains at work , is one of peculiar hardship . But where , as in Madras , their thraldom has been abolished , and where merchants , ryots , and officials form the three principal classes , the universal feeling of the poor—in spite of the torture atrocities —is in favour of the British Government , on the ground that its policy has for many years been entirely in their favour . Why not extend the operation of these beneficent reforms * t The evils in Madras are traceablrather to tne uianto tnc

      e ponce revenue system ^ but in the Bengal Presidency both sources of mischief are combined . The Zemindars arc extortionate ; the peace officers incapable and cruel ; the courts inefficient ; while the land , never completely surveyed or distributed into registered estates , is made the subject of perpetual vexation . We do not accept as authentic all the individual grievances showered from India by men who have failed in litigation , or who have been pe rsecuted by the Pagoda people , or have been unable to avenge themuncnsiauardui

      selves upon sonic arbitrary ; xnc conspicuous and indisputable truth is this—that , taking British India generally , the securities of life and property are defective , public works have progressed partially and slowly , industry has not re-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 26, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26121857/page/13/