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sion, that the whole will assume the appearance of the most perfect symmetry and order. This compact adhesiveness, this solidarity of union, between elements so conflicting, surely affords a lesson by which the Liberal party ought to profit. Their opponents, though separated from each other in their religious and political policy by the whole diameter of thought and feeling, yet manage to meet in harmony at the same council board; to vote in the same lobby, and to carry on by concerted action the government of the country: while the Liberals, undivided by any broad constitutional differences, are split into cliques, and allow frivolous conventional jealousies to act as impassable barriers to united counsels. Doubtless between the two extreme sections of the Liberal party there is much to forget and forgive. The aristocratic portion have been too much in the habit of governing by family connexion; of allowing the rising talent in their own ranks to flicker out in obscure situations, while coroneted feebleness monopolized the great departments of Government, and through its blundering inaptitude brought down disgrace upon the entire body. They have also, when secure in Downing-street, been too much in the habit of abandoning their former professions. These errors they must now assuredly unlearn if they wish again to become the official exponents of the will of the country. We would, however, suggest to the democratic section of this body the expediency of not requiring too much condescension at the hands of their great Whig colleagues as the price of their adhesion. Because the right honourable member for Ashton-under-Lyne when he chooses to head a deputation is not ushered by the under-secretary with obsequious bowings into the chamber of the principal; or because the honourable member for Birmingham is not occasionally fêted at Cambridge House; or because couriers are not continually kept running between his town residence and the Foreign Office with copies of important despatches, we see no reason why the Whigs should be publicly lectured on the want of proper decorum and refined manners. If individual actions are to be too closely scanned, there is an end of political union as well as private friendship. In the former case, still more than in the latter, it is necessary to practise the maxim of the poet if we would keep up anything like permanent association:

'Siehst du, an einem freund sich einen Fehler zeigen,
So denk an deren zwei, die dir sind selber eigen.'

For no great cause could be advanced whose defenders allowed its interests to be postponed to the consideration of what was due to their own selfish feelings and vanities. At the shrine of the

Absurd Policy of Disunion.

515

great liberal interests of the country we would invite both sections to make a generous sacrifice, the one of its censorious captiousness, and the other of its oligarchic bias, and its political inconstancy. Let them by no means think they will promote the cause of progress by prolonging their own disunion, and giving their opponents an increased tenure of power. Whatever be the character of the measures of the present Government, each successive day of their existence adds to the adherents of Toryism in the church and magistracy, on the judicial and episcopal benches, and delivers some stronghold of the Whigs into their hands. It is foolish to think of strengthening the army by surrendering the camp. The leaders may support liberal measures, but so long as they continue to harass each other's flanks, and refuse to give effect to their principles by the adoption of any concerted line of action, they as virtually abandon the cause as if they went over to the enemy. How long will the country allow its liberal instincts to be neutralized by chronic dissension? How long will country gentlemen register; artisans and mechanics leave their looms and anvils for the polling-booth, and busy townspeople perspire in close committee-rooms, to return a Liberal majority to Parliament, which virtually annihilates itself as soon as it gets into Westminster? If these divisions continue, the country, at the next general election, which cannot be far distant, will not only have to secure a majority of Liberal members, but to take upon itself the functions of those members, in organizing a party, prescribing a policy, and naming a leadership. The public interests suffer when the weak rule by the dissensions of the strong.

OUR EPILOGUE

ON

AFFAIRS.

WE are sorry that we cannot congratulate our readers on a purer state of the political atmosphere. Our public men are still exposing constitutional freedom to the taunts of its enemies abroad; and are hoarding up for themselves a vast amount of distrust and discontent at home. Everything is hollow. Conservatism is figuring in a mask. Some of its old foes are becoming expert in that art, and are helping on the game. Toryism is proud, but can stoop to much for the sake of power. Demagogues are vain, and may be oiled to a purpose. How long is this to last?

The rumour now is, that the promised Reform Bill is to be introduced by Lord John Russell. In that case, its failure, it is supposed, will not involve the fate of the ministry. But we shall see.

One effect of the good offices of our Liberals in handing us over to our present masters, may be seen in the greater boldness of the Romanized section among our clergy. What priest ever failed to see the value of the confessional? Grant that, and you have granted all but everything and are the men who now govern us the men to resist encroachment in that form? Every day is putting the citadel more and more into the hands of the enemy.

Assuredly we have not deserved that our policy should be successful either at home or abroad. Yet have we much in this way for which to be grateful. The Indian Mutiny is quelled. The Empire of China is opened. When has a single year been signalized by greater events in the history of any people?

But even to these events we have to add another, which, in its influence on the future, will probably be still more memorable. The magic of science, which has linked the New World to the Old by a new tie, is a magic from above, not from beneath. It is a light that has come in its season to make two worlds feel how near they are akin.

The note struck at Cherbourg is still reverberating among us, and cannot be hushed. Since the naval application of steam-power, we have almost ceased to be islanders. Unwelcome as the prophecy may be, we venture to predict, that England will become more military than she has been since the days of the Plantagenets, if she is to remain England.

During the last quarter a distinguished French statesman has wished to consult our pages. The copy sent for his perusal has been seized by the officials of the French Government. France has seen better days, and will see them again.

OUR EPILOGUE

ON

BOOKS.

LITERATURE.

(1.) Notes on the Revolt of the North-West Provinces of India. By CHARLES RAIKES, Judge of the Sudder Court at Agra. Longmans.

(2.) The Crisis in the Punjaub, from the 10th of May to the Fall of Delhi. By FREDERIC COOPER, Esq., C.S., Deputy-Commissioner of Umritsur. Sinith, Elder, and Co.

(3.) Personal Adventures during the Indian Rebellion in Rohilcund, Futteghur, and Oude. By WILLIAM EDWARDS, Esq., B.C.S. Smith, Elder, and Co.

(4.) An Account of the Mutinies in Oudh, and of the Siege of the Lucknow Residency, with some Observations on the Condition of the Province of Oudh, and on the Causes of the Mutiny of the Bengal Army. By MARTIN GUBBINS. Bentley.

(5.) A Chaplain's Narrative of the Siege of Delhi, from the Outbreak of Meerut to the Capture of Delhi. By J. E. W. ROTTON, M.A. Smith, Elder, and Co.

(6.) Eight Months' Campaign against the Bengal Sepoys during the Mutiny of 1857. By Colonel GEORGE BOURCHIer. Smith, Elder, and Co.

(7.) Service and Adventure with the Khakee Ressalah, or Meerut Volunteer Horse, during the Mutinies of 1857, 1858. By R. H. W. DUNLOP. Bentley.

THE works with the above titles are the most important of their class that have recently appeared. Taken together, they furnish a large amount of information concerning the origin, progress, and suppression of the most memorable mutiny in history.

Mr. Raikes is a gentleman who has been high in office under the Company for more than a quarter of a century, and his home during all this interval has been in the north-west-the seat of the revolt. Mr. Raikes's account of what took place at Agra during the early stages of the mutiny is deeply interesting. It was well for the multitude of Europeans who were crowded in that place, that the counsels of the mutineers were divided, producing inaction until action was too late. Mr. Raikes describes the causes of the mutiny as being almost entirely military, and states that the ambitious schemes of the sepoys may be traced as far back as the time of our disasters in Cabul. The

honest and industrious classes of the population were generally on the side of the English, and such as looked hopefully to the exemption from taxation which the mutiny promised them, soon began to feel that even taxation may be much less costly than anarchy. The Mohammedans were the most disaffected-so much so that had the people largely sympathized with them he should have felt obliged to despair of governing India for the future.' Mr. Raikes writes dispassionately, but our sentimentalists will account the policy which he recommends for the pacification of the country nothing less than Draconian. He would inflict capital punishment on whole regiments, if they have been guilty of murdering Europeans, and those who have mutinied or deserted, without being parties to murder, should all be transported. He is a firm believer in the doctrine, that in such circumstances, these Asiatics are only to be governed by terror, and the sign of the strong hand. We should be sorry to think a course so horrible absolutely necessary. It were better not to have India to rule at all, than to have it at such costs. Mr. Raikes's counsels, in other respects, as to the future composition and distribution of our army, education, and matters of civil administration, seem to be for the most part wise, and the result of thoughtful experience. We should add that Mr. Raikes served for some months as civil agent to Sir Colin Campbell, of whom he is a great admirer.

Mr. Cooper's Crisis of the Punjaub is a work of considerable literary ability. It describes the various risings in that province, and the means employed to counteract them. Those means were characterized by wisdom, promptitude, and firmness. Lahore was the centre from which Sir John Lawrence brought his administrative power to bear on the whole of that district. By a skilful disarmment of the disaffected, by a wise discrimination in regard to others, and by a sedulous collection of men and material to meet the exigeney, Sir John was, in fact, the man who recovered Delhi, and in so doing may be said to have saved the north-west provinces to British rule. Persons who wish to see how these things were done should read Mr. Cooper's volume. But Mr. Cooper, in common with Judge Raikes, belongs to the severe class of Indian politicians. As regards the revolted sepoys, judgment without mercy, or something very like it, seems to be his maxim. His account of the wholesale executions, and the Black-hole horrors which overtook the insurgents at Ujnalla, betrays a state of feeling which we are surprised to see surviving as it does to appear in print.

Very different in this respect is the narrative of Mr. Edwards's Personal Adventures. Mr. Edwards was magistrate and collector in the district of Rohilcund, a country which has been in the hands of the mutineers from the time of the outbreak until the march of Sir Colin Campbell upon Bareilly. The collector's residence was about thirty miles distant from the latter place. In common with the Europeans at Bareilly he had sent his wife and family to Nynee Tal, on learning the course taken by the rebels at Meerut and Delhi. His own escape, described with modest good sense and real Christian feeling is one

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