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and elms, the trees are left to themselves; | sion, we rather wish to avoid offering

any opinion. The manners of great schools vary considerably from time to time; and what may have been true many years ago is very possibly not true at the present period. In this instance, every parent must be governed by his own observations and means of information. If the licence which prevails at public schools is only a fair increase of liberty, proportionate to advancing age, and calculated to prevent the bad effects of a sudden transition from tutelary thraldom to perfect self-government, it is certainly a good, rather than an evil. If, on the contrary, there exists in these places of education a system of premature debauchery, and if they only prevent men from being corrupted by the world, by corrupting them before their entry into the world, they can then only be looked upon as evils of the greatest magnitude, however they may be sanctioned by opinion, or rendered familiar to us by

the strong plants live, and the weak ones die; the towering oak that remains is admired; the saplings that perish around it are cast into the flames, and forgotten. But it is not, surely, to the vegetable struggle of a forest, or the hasty glance of a forester, that a botanist would commit a favourite plant; he would naturally seek for it a situation of less hazard, and a cultivator whose limited occupations would enable him to give to it a reasonable share of his time and attention. The very meaning of education seems to us to be, that the old should teach the young, and the wise direct the weak; that a man who professes to instruct, should get among his pupils, study their characters, gain their affections, and form their inclinations and aversions. In a public school, the numbers render this impossible; it is impossible that sufficient time should be found for this useful and affectionate interference. Boys, therefore, are left to their own crude conceptions and ill-habit. formed propensities; and this neglect is called a spirited and manly education. In by far the greatest number of cases, we cannot think public schools favourable to the cultivation of knowledge; and we have equally strong doubts if they be so to the cultivation | is certainly of eminent use, particularly of morals, though we admit, that upon to a young man of rank, that he should this point the most striking arguments have lived among boys; but it is only have been produced in their favour. so when they are all moderately watched It is contended by the friends to by some superior understanding. The public schools, that every person before morality of boys is generally very imhe comes to man's estate, must run perfect; their notions of honour exthrough a certain career of dissipation; tremely mistaken; and their objects and that if that career is, by the means of ambition frequently very absurd. of a private education, deferred to a The probability then is, that the kind more advanced period of life, it will of discipline they exercise over each only be begun with greater eagerness other will produce (when left to itself) and pursued into more blameable a great deal of mischief; and yet this excess. The time must, of course, is the discipline to which every child come, when every man must be his at a public school is not only necesown master; when his conduct can sarily exposed, but principally confined. be no longer regulated by the watchful Our objection (we again repeat) is not superintendence of another, but must to the interference of boys in the forbe guided by his own discretion.mation of the character of boys; their Emancipation must come at last; and we admit, that the object to be aimed at is, that such emancipation should be gradual, and not premature. Upon this very invidious point of the discus

The vital and essential part of a school is the master; but, at a public school, no boy, or, at the best, only a very few, can see enough of him to derive any considerable benefit from his character, manners, and information.

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character, we are persuaded, will be very imperfectly formed without their assistance; but our objection is to that almost exclusive agency which they exercise in public schools.

After having said so much in oppo- of a parent who is blest with a child of sition to the general prejudice in favour strong character and pre-eminent abiliof public schools, we may be expected ties: to be the first scholar of an obto state what species of school we think scure master, at an obscure place, is no preferable to them; for if public very splendid distinction; nor does it schools, with all their disadvantages, afford that opportunity, of which so are the best that can actually be found, many parents are desirous, of forming or easily attained, the objections to great connections for their children: them are certainly made to very little but if the object be to induce the purpose. young to love knowledge and virtue, we are inclined to suspect, that, for the average of human talents and charac

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DISTURBANCES AT MADRAS.

(E. REVIEW, 1810.)

Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Dissensions at the Presidency of Madras, founded on Original Papers and Correspondence. Lloyd, London, 1810.

Account of the Origin and Progress of the late Discontents of the Army on the Madras Establishment. Cadell and Davies, London, 1810.

We have no hesitation, however, in saying, that that education seems to us to be the best which mingles a domes-ters, these are the situations in which tie with a school life, and which gives such tastes will be the most effectually to a youth the advantage which is to formed. be derived from the learning of a master, and the emulation which resalts from the society of other boys, together with the affectionate vigilance which he must experience in the house of his parents. But where this species of education, from peculiarity of circumstances or situation, is not attainable, we are disposed to think a society of twenty or thirty boys, under the guidance of a learned man, and, above all, of a man of good sense, to be a seminary the best adapted for the edu- Statement of Facts delivered to the Right cation of youth. The numbers are Honourable Lord Minto. By William sufficient to excite a considerable degree Petrie, Esq. Stockdale, London, 1810. of emulation, to give to a boy some in- THE disturbances which have lately sight into the diversities of the human taken place in our East Indian possescharacter, and to subject him to the sions would, at any period, have exobservation and control of his supe- cited a considerable degree of alarm; nors. It by no means follows, that a and those feelings are, of course, not a judicious man should always interfere little increased by the ruinous aspect of with his authority and advice, because our European affairs. The revolt of he has always the means; he may con- an army of eighty thousand men is an nive at many things which he cannot event which seems to threaten so nearly approve, and suffer some little failures the ruin of the country in which it to proceed to a certain extent, which, happens, that no common curiosity is if indulged in wider limits, would be excited as to the causes which could sttended with irretrievable mischief: have led to it, and the means by which he will be aware that his object is to fit its danger was averted. On these his papil for the world; that constant points, we shall endeavour to exhibit control is a very bad preparation for to our readers the information afforded complete emancipation from all con- to us by the pamphlets whose titles we trol; that it is not bad policy to expose have cited. The first of these is una young man, under the eye of superior derstood to be written by an agent of wisdom, to some of those dangers which Sir George Barlow, sent over for the will assail him hereafter in greater express purpose of defending his meanumber, and in greater strength-when sures; the second is most probably the be has only his own resources to de- production of some one of the dismissed pend upon. A private education, con- officers, or, at least, founded upon their dacted upon these principles, is not representations; the third statement is calculated to gratify quickly the vanity | by Mr. Petrie,-and we most cordially

recommend it to the perusal of our readers. It is characterised, throughout, by moderation, good sense, and a feeling of duty. We have seldom read a narrative, which, on the first face of it, looked so much like truth. It has, of course, produced the ruin and dismissal of this gentleman, though we have not the shadow of doubt, that if his advice had been followed, every unpleasant occurrence which has happened in India might have been effectually prevented.

field-the report proceeds to state the following observation, made on the authority of six years' experience and attentive examination.

"Thirdly. By granting the same allowances in peace and war for the equipment of native corps, while the expenses incidental to that charge are unavoidably much greater in war than in peace, it places the native corps in direct opposition to one interest and duty of officers commanding another. It makes it their interest that their corps should not be in a state of efficiency fit for field service, and therefore furnishes strong inducements to neglect their most important duties."-Accurate and Authentic Narrative, pp. 117, 118.

In the year 1802, a certain monthly allowance, proportioned to their respective ranks, was given to each officer of the Coast army, to enable him Here, then, is not only a proposal for to provide himself with camp equi-reducing the emoluments of the prinpage; and a monthly allowance was cipal officers of the Madras army, but also made to the commanding officers a charge of the most flagrant nature. of the native corps for the provision The first they might possibly have had of the camp equipage of these corps. some right to consider as a hardship; This arrangement was commonly called but, when severe and unjust invective the tent contract. Its intention (as the was superadded to strict retrenchment pamphlet of Sir George Barlow's agent very properly states) was to combine facility of movement in military operations with views of economy. In the general revision of its establishments, set on foot for the purposes of economy by the Madras Government, this contract was considered as entailing upon them a very unnecessary expense; and the then commander-in-chief, General Craddock, directed Colonel Munro, the quarter-master-general, to make a report to him upon the subject. The report, which was published almost as soon as it was made up, recommends the abolition of this contract; and, among other passages for the support of this opinion, has the following one:

"Six years' experience of the practical effects of the existing system of the camp equipage equipment of the native army, has afforded means of forming a judgment relative to its advantages and efficiency, which were not possessed by the persons who proposed its introduction; and an attentive examination of its operations during that period of time has suggested the following observations regarding it":

After stating that the contract is needlessly expensive-that it subjects the Company to the same charges for troops in garrison as for those in the

when their pay and their reputation were diminished at the same time-it cannot be considered as surprising. that such treatment, on the part of the Government, should lay the foundation for a spirit of discontent in those troops who had recently made such splendid additions to the Indian empire, and established, in the progress of these acquisitions, so high a character for discipline and courage. It must be remembered, that an officer on European and on Indian service, are in very different situations, and propose to themselves very different objects. The one never thinks of making a fortune by his profession, while the hope of ultimately gaining an independence is the principal motive for which the Indian officer banishes himself from his country. To diminish the emoluments of his profession is to retard the period of his return, and to frustrate the purpose for which he exposes his life and health in a burning climate. on the other side of the world. We make these observations, certainly, without any idea of denying the right of the East India Company to make any retrenchments they may think proper, but to show that it is a right which ought to be exercised with great

delicacy and with sound discretion-remonstrance of Colonel Capper, the that it should only be exercised when adjutant-general, and before three days the retrenchment is of real impor- had been given him to substitute his tance-and, above all, that it should own plan, which Sir George Barlow always be accompanied with every had promised to read before the publimark of suavity and conciliation. Sir cation of Colonel Munro's report. Nay, George Barlow, on the contrary, com- this great plan of reduction was never mitted the singular imprudence of stig- even submitted to the Military Board, matising the honour, and wounding the by whom all subjects of that description feelings of the Indian officers. At the were, according to the orders of the same moment that he diminished their Court of Directors, and the usage of emoluments, he tells them, that the the service, to be discussed and diIndian Company take away their allow-gested, previous to their coming before ances for tents, because those allowances Government. have been abused in the meanest, most profligate, and most unsoldier-like manner: for this, and more than this. is conveyed in the report of Colonel Manro, published by order of Sir George Barlow. If it were right, in the first instance, to diminish the emoluments of so vast an army, it was certainly indiscreet to give such reasons for it. If any individual had abused the advantages of the tent-contract, he might have been brought to a courtmartial; and, if his guilt had been established, his punishment, we will venture to assert, would not have occasioned a moment of complaint or disafection in the army; but that a civilian, a gentleman accustomed only to the details of commerce, should begin hs government, over a settlement with which he was utterly unacquainted, by telling one of the bravest set of officers in the world, that, for six years past, they had been, in the basest manner, sacrificing their duty to their interest, does appear to us an instance of indiscretion which, if frequently repeated, would soon supersede the necessity of any further discussion upon Indian

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Shortly after the promulgation of this very indiscreet paper, the Commanderin-chief, General Macdowall, received letters from almost all the officers commanding native corps, representing in terms adapted to the feelings of each, the stigma which was considered to attach to them individually, and appealing to the authority of the Commander-in-chief for redress against such charges, and to his personal experience for their falsehood. To these letters the General replied, that the orders in question had been prepared without any reference to his opinion, and that, as the matter was so far advanced, he deemed it inexpedient to interfere. The officers commanding corps, finding that no steps were taken to remove the obnoxious insinuations, and considering that, while they remained, an indelible disgrace was cast upon their characters, prepared charges against Colonel Munro. These charges were forwarded to General Macdowall, referred by him to the Judge Advocate General, and returned with his objections to them, to the officers who had preferred the charges. For two months after this period, General Macdowall appears to have remained in a state of uncertainty, as to whether he would or would not bring Colonel Munro to a court-martial upon the charges preferred against him by the commanders of corps. At last, urged by the discontents of the army, he determined in the affirmative; and Colonel Munro was put in arrest, preparatory to his trial. Colonel Munro then appealed directly to the Governor, Sir George Barlow, and was released by a positive order from him. It is

necessary to state, that all appeals of dignity of Government was attacked

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Soon after Sir George Barlow had shown this reluctance to give the complaining officers an opportunity of reestablishing their injured character, General Macdowall sailed for England, and left behind him, for publication, an order, in which Colonel Munro was reprimanded for a violent breach of military discipline, in appealing to the Governor otherwise than through the customary and prescribed channel of the Commander-in-chief. As this paper is very short, and at the same time very necessary to the right comprehension of this case, we shall lay it before our readers.

officers to the Government in India by the proposal of the court-martial, always pass through the hands of the or to what other remedy those who Commander-in-chief; and this appeal, had suffered from his abuse of his power therefore, of Colonel Munro, directed could have had recourse. Colonel Munro to the Government, was considered by had been promised, by General MacGeneral Macdowall as a great in- dowall, that the court-martial should fringement of military discipline. We consist of king's officers: there could have very great doubts whether Sir not, therefore, have been any rational George Barlow was not guilty of suspicion that his trial would have another great mistake in preventing been unfair, or his judges unduly inthis court-martial from taking place. fluenced. It is undoubtedly true, that no servant of the public is amenable to justice for doing what the Government order him to do; but he is not entitled to protection under the pretence of that order, if he have done something which it evidently did not require of him. If Colonel Munro had been ordered to report upon the conduct of an individual officer, and it could be proved that, in gratification of private malice, he had taken that opportunity of stating the most infamous and malicious falsehoods, - could it be urged that his conduct might not be fairly scrutinised in a court of justice, or a court-martial? If this were otherwise, any duty delegated by Government to an individual would become the most intolerable source of oppression he might gratify every enmity and antipathy-indulge in every act of malice- vilify and traduce every one whom he hated and then shelter himself under the plea of the public service. Everybody has a right to do what the supreme power orders him to do; but he does not thereby acquire a right to do what he has not been ordered to do. Colonel Munro was directed to make a report upon the state of the army: the officers whom he has traduced, accuse him of reporting something utterly different from the state of the army-something "Such conduct, on the part of Lieutenantwhich he and everybody else knew Colonel Munro, being destructive of subto be different and this for the mali-ordination, subversive of military discicious purpose of calumniating their reputation. If this were true, Colonel Munro could not plead the authority of Government; for the authority of Government was afforded to him for a very different purpose. In this view of the case, we cannot see how the

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"G. O. by the Commander-in-chief. "The immediate departure of LieutenantGeneral Macdowall from Madras will prevent his pursuing the design of bringing Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, Quarter-Master-General, to trial, for disrespect to the Commander-in-chief, for disobedience of orders, and for contempt of military authority, in having resorted to the power of the Civil Government, in defiance of the judgment of the officer at the head of the army, who had placed him under arrest, on charges preferred against him by a number of officers commanding native corps, in consequence of which appeal direct to the Honourable the President in Council, Lieutenant-General Macdowall has received liberate Lieutenant-Colonel Munro from positive orders from the Chief Secretary to

arrest.

pline, a violation of the sacred rights of the Commander-in-chief, and holding out Lieutenant-General Macdowall, in support a most dangerous example to the service. of the dignity of the profession, and his own station and character, feels it incumbent on him to express his strong disapprobation of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro's unexampled

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