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No. 405, December 26,1851] T H E X E A D...
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THE JBTJFOSSE TRIAL. < This curious case...
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BRITISH DUTY TO INDIA. The public should...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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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-
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Citation
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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/
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