half of artillery, to our one regiment, I found it totally impossible to carry the business to the same length, particularly as any tumult among our own corps would certainly bring the people of Travancore upon us. "It is in vain, therefore, for me, with the small force I can depend upon, to attempt to stem the torrent here by any acts of violence. "Most sincerely and anxiously do I wish that the present tumult may subside, without fatal consequences; which, if the present violent measures are continued, I much fear will not be the case. If blood is once spilt in the cause, there is no knowing where it may end; and the probable consequence will be, that India will be lost for ever. So many officers of the army have gone to such lengths, that unless a general amnesty is granted, tranquillity can never be restored. deeply into the consequence of his own measures than those who were about him; for unless Mr. Petrie has been guilty, and repeatedly guilty, of a most downright and wilful falsehood, Sir George Barlow had not the most distant conception, during all these measures, that the army would ever venture upon revolt. "Government, or rather the head of the Government, was never correctly informed of the actual state of the army, or I think he would have acted otherwise; he was told, and he was willing to believe, that the discontents were confined to a small part of the troops; that a great majority disapproved of their proceedings, and were firmly and unalterably attached to Government."-Statement of Facts, pp. 23, 24. In a conversation which Mr. Petrie "The Honourable the Governor in council had with Sir George Barlow upon the will not, I trust, impute to me any other subject of the army-and in the course motives for having thus given my opinion. of which he recommends to that gentleI am actuated solely by anxiety for the public good and the benefit of my country; man more lenient measures, and warns and I think it my duty, holding the respon-him of the increasing disaffection of the sible situation I now do, to express my sentiments at so awful a period. "Where there are any prospects of success, it might be right to persevere; but, where every day's experience proves, that the more coercive the measures adopted the more violent are the consequences, a different and more conciliatory line of conduct ought to be adopted. I have the honour, &c."-Statement of Facts, pp. 55, 56. "A letter from Colonel Forbes, commanding in Malabar, states, that to prevent a revolt in the province, and the probable march of the Company's troops towards Seringapatam, he had accepted of a modification in the test, to be signed by the officers on their parole, to make no hostile movements until the pleasure of the Government was known.-Disapproved by Government, and ordered to enforce the former orders." -Statement of Facts, p. 61. It can scarcely be credited, that in spite of these repeated remonstrances from officers, whose loyalty and whose knowledge of the subject could not be suspected, this test was ordered to be enforced, and the severest rebukes inflicted upon those who had presumed to doubt of its propriety, or suspend its operation. Nor let any man say that the opinionative person who persevered in this measure saw more clearly and troops-he gives us the following account of Sir George Barlow's notions of the then state of the army — "Sir G. Barlow assured me I was greatly misinformed; that he could rely upon his intelligence; and would produce to council the most satisfactory and unequivocal proofs of the fidelity of nine-tenths of the army; that the discontents were confined almost exclusively to the southern division of the army; that the troops composing the subsidiary force, those in the ceded districts, in the centre, and a part of the northern division, were all untainted by those principles which had misled the rest of the army."― Statement of Facts, pp. 27, 28. All those violent measures, then, the spirit and wisdom of which have been so much extolled, were not measures of the consequences of which their author had the most distant suspicion. They were not the acts of a man who knew that he must unavoidably, in the discharge of his duty, irritate, but that he could ultimately overcome that irritation. They appear, on the contrary, to have proceeded from a most gross and scandalous ignorance of the opinions of the army. He expected passive submission, and met with universal revolt. So far, then, his want of intel ligence and sagacity are unquestionably | A little increase of attention and emoluproved. He did not proceed with useful ment to the head of that army, under measures, and run the risk of a revolt, the management of a man of rank and 18 for which he was fully prepared; but talents, dissipated appearances which he carried these measures into execution, the sceptred pomp of a merchant's firmly convinced that they would occa- clerk would have blown up into a sion no revolt at all.* rebellion in three weeks; and yet the The fatal nature of this mistake is Bengal army is at this moment in as best exemplified by the means recurred good a state of discipline, as the English to for its correction. The grand expe- fleet to which Lord Howe made such dent relied upon was to instigate the abject concessions-and in a state to Batives, men and officers, to disobey be much more permanently depended their European commanders; an ex-upon than the army which has been so pedient by which present safety was effectually ruined by the inconveniently cared at the expense of every principle great soul of the present Governor of pon which the permanence of our In- Madras. dian empire rests. There never was Sir George Barlow's agent, though the world a more singular spectacle faithful to his employment of calumthan to see a few thousand Europeans niating those who were in any degree governing so despotically fifty or sixty opposed to his principal, seldom loses millions of people, of different climate, sight of sound discretion, and confines religion, and habits-forming them his invectives to whole bodies of men into large and well-disciplined armies-except where the dead are concerned. and leading them out to the further Against Colonel Capper, General Macsubjugation of the native powers of In-dowall, and Mr. Roebuck, who are now dia. But can any words be strong no longer alive to answer for themenough to paint the rashness of provok-selves, he is intrepidly severe; in all ing a mutiny, which could only be these instances he gives a full loose to got under by teaching these armies to his sense of duty, and inflicts upon them act against their European commanders, the severest chastisement. In his atand to use their actual strength in tack upon the civilians, he is particuoverpowering their officers?-or, is larly careful to keep to generals; and any man entitled to the praise of firm- so rigidly does he adhere to this prinDess and sagacity, who gets rid of a ciple, that he does not support his present danger by encouraging a prin assertion, that the civil service was epie which renders that danger more disaffected as well as the military, by frequent and more violent. We will one single name, one single fact, or by vetture to assert, that a more unwise, any other means whatever, than his or a more unstatesmanlike action was own affirmation of the fact. The truth never committed by any man in any (as might be supposed to be the case Country; and we are grievously mis- from such sort of evidence) is diametaken, if any length of time elapse before trically opposite. Nothing could be the evil consequences of it are felt and more exemplary, during the whole of deplored by every man who deems the the rebellion, than the conduct of the Welfare of our Indian colonies of any civil servants; and though the courts importance to the prosperity of the of justice were interfered with though mother-country. We cannot help con- the most respectable servants of the trasting the management of the discon- Company were punished for the vertents of the Madras army, with the dicts they had given as jurymen manner in which the same difficulty though many were dismissed for the was got over with the army of Bengal. | slightest opposition to the pleasure of We should have been alarmed to have Government, even in the discharge Been Sir G. Barlow, junior, churchwarden of of official duties, where remonstrance George's Hanover Square,-an office so was absolutely necessary-though the nobly filled by Giblet and Leslie: it was a the head of the Indian Empire. haze affliction to see so incapable a man at greatest provocation was given, and the greatest opportunity afforded, to the civil servants for revolt there is whom he was to command, that he not a single instance in which the shadow of disaffection has been proved against any civil servant. This we say, from an accurate examination of all the papers which have been published on the subject; and we do not hesitate to affirm, that there never was a more unjust, unfounded, and profligate charge made against any body of men; nor have we often witnessed a more complete scene of folly and violence, than the conduct of the Madras Government to its civil servants, exhibited during the whole period of the mutiny. Upon the whole, it appears to us, that the Indian army was ultimately driven into revolt by the indiscretion and violence of the Madras Government; and that every evil which has happened might, with the greatest possible facility, have been avoided. himself possessed no sort of credit with his superiors. As to the tour which General Macdowall is supposed to have made for the purpose of spreading disaffection among the troops, and the part which he is represented by the agents to have taken in the quarrels of the civilians with the Government, we utterly discredit these imputations. They are unsupported by any kind of evidence; and we believe them to be mere inventions, circulated by the friends of the Madras Government. General Macdowall appears to us to have been a weak, pompous man; extremely out of humour; offended with the slights he had experienced; and whom any man of common address might have managed with the greatest ease: but we do not see, in any part of his conduct, the shadow of disloyalty and disaffection; and we are persuaded that the assertion would never have been made, if he himself had been alive to prove its injustice. We have no sort of doubt that the Governor always meant well; but, we are equally certain that he almost always acted ill; and where incapacity Besides the contemptuous treatment rises to a certain height, for all practi- of General Macdowall, we have great cal purposes the motive is of very little doubts whether the Madras Governconsequence. That the late General ment ought not to have suffered Colonel Macdowall was a weak man, is unques- Munro to be put upon his trial; and tionable. He was also irritated (and to punish the officers who solicited that not without reason), because he was trial for the purgation of their own deprived of a seat in council, which the characters, appears to us (whatever the commanders before him had commonly intention was) to have been an act of enjoyed. A little attention, however, mere tyranny. We think, too, that on the part of the Government—the General Macdowall was very hastily compliment of consulting him upon and unadvisedly removed from his subjects connected with his profession situation; and upon the unjust treat-any of those little arts which are ment of Colonel Capper and Major taught, not by a consummate political Boles there can scarcely be two opinions. skill, but dictated by common good In the progress of the mutiny, instead nature, and by the habit of mingling of discovering in the Madras Governwith the world, would have produced ment any appearances of temper and the effects of conciliation, and em- wisdom, they appear to us to have been ployed the force of General Mac- quite as much irritated and heated as dowall's authority in bringing the army the army, and to have been betrayed into a better temper of mind. Instead into excesses nearly as criminal, and of this, it appears to have been almost infinitely more contemptible and puethe object, and if not the object, cer- rile. The head of a great kingdom tainly the practice, of the Madras Gov- bickering with its officers about invitaernment to neglect and insult this tions to dinner-the Commander-inofficer. Changes of the greatest im-chief of the forces negotiating that the portance were made without his advice, dinner should be loyally eaten the and even without any communication obstinate absurdity of the test-the with him; and it was too visible to those total want of selection in the objects of 1 punishment and the wickedness, or negligence-turnpike roads so shamethe insanity, of teaching the sepoy to fully neglected and public conveyrise against his European officer- the ances illegitimately loaded in the face contempt of the decision of juries in of day, and in defiance of the wisest civil cases-and the punishment of the legislative provisions? We confess juries themselves; such a system of our trepidation at seeing the Toleration conduct as this would infallibly doom Act in the hands of Lord Sidmouth; any individual to punishment, if it did and should be very glad if it were not, fortunately for him, display pre- fairly back in the statute-book, and the disely that contempt of men's feelings, sedulity of this well-meaning nobleman and that passion for insulting multi- diverted into another channel. tades, which is so congenial to our present Government at home, and which passes now so currently for wisdom and courage. By these means, the liberties of great nations are frequently destroyed-and destroyed with impunity to the perpetrators of the crime. In dstant colonies, however, governors who attempt the same system of tyranny are in no little danger from the indignation of their subjects; for though men will often yield up their happiness to kings who have been always kings, they are not inclined to show the same deference to men who have been merchants' clerks yesterday, and are kings to-day. From a danger of this kind, the Governor of Madras appears to us to have very narrowly escaped. We sincerely hope that he is grateful for his good luck; and that he will now awake from his gorgeous dreams of mercantile monarchy, to good nature, moderation, and common sense. TOLERATION. (E. REVIEW, 1811.) The alarm and suspicion of the Dissenters upon these measures are wise and rational. They are right to consider the Toleration Act as their palladium; and they may be certain that in this country, there is always a strong party ready, not only to prevent the further extension of tolerant principles, but to abridge (if they dared) their present operation within the narrowest limits. Whoever makes this attempt will be sure to make it under professions of the most earnest regard for mildness and toleration, and with the strongest declarations of respect for King William, the Revolution, and the principles which seated the House of Brunswick on the throne of these realms; and then will follow the clauses for whipping Dissenters, imprisoning preachers, and subjecting them to rigid qualifications, &c. &c. &c. The infringement on the militia acts is a mere pretence. The real object is, to diminish the number of Dissenters from the Church of England, by abridging the liberties and privileges they now possess. This is the project which we shall examine; for we sincerely believe it to be the project in agitation. The mode in which it is proposed to attack the Dissenters, is first, by exacting greater qualifications in their teachers; next by preventing the interchange or itinerancy of preachers, and fixing them to one spot. It can never, we presume, be intended to subject dissenting ministers to any kind of theological examination. A teacher examined in doctrinal opinions, by another teacher who differs from him, is so very absurd a project, that we entirely acquit Lord Sidmouth of any intention of this sort. We rather presume his Lordship to mean, that a man who professes to teach | folly and inexpediency of it rest prehis fellow creatures should at least cisely upon the same grounds. have made some progress in human learning; that he should not be wholly without education;-that he should be able at least to read and write. If the test is of this very ordinary nature, it can scarcely exclude many teachers of religion; and it was hardly worth while, for the very insignificant diminution of numbers which this must occasion to the dissenting clergy, to have raised all the alarm which this attack upon the Toleration Act has occa-sition, the Scottish and Catholic Uni sioned. Would it not be a singular thing, if the friends of the Church of England were to make the most strenuous efforts to render their enemies eloquent and learned ?-and to found places of education for Dissenters? But, if their learning would not be a good, why is their ignorance an evil?—unless it be necessarily supposed, that all increase of learning must bring men over to the Church of England; in which suppo versities, and the College at Hackney, would hardly acquiesce. Ignorance surely matures and quickens the progress, by insuring the dissolution of absurdity. Rational and learned Dissenters remain:-religious mobs, under some ignorant fanatic of the day, become foolish overmuch,- dissolve and return to the Church. The Unitarian, who reads and writes, gets some sort of discipline, and returns no more. ledge and education are required for religious instruction, why be content with the common elements of learning? why not require higher attainments in dissenting candidates for orders; and examine them in the languages in which the books of their religion are conveyed? But, without any reference to the magnitude of the effects, is the principle right? or, What is the meaning of religious toleration? That a man should hold without pain or penalty any religious opinions and choose for his instruction in the business of salvation any guide whom he pleases; -care being taken, that the teacher, and the doctrine, injure neither the policy nor the morals of the country. We maintain, that What connection is there (as Lord perfect religious toleration applies as Sidmouth's plan assumes) between the much to the teacher as the thing zeal and piety required for religious taught; and that it is quite as intole-instruction and the common attainrant to make a man hear Thomas, who ments of literature? But, if knowwants to hear John, as it would be to make a man profess Arminian, who wished to profess Calvinistical principles. What right has any Government to dictate to any man who shall guide him to heaven, any more than it has to persecute the religious tenets by which he hopes to arrive there? You believe that the heretic professes doctrines utterly incompatible with the true spirit of the Gospel;-first you burnt him for this, then you whipt him, then you fined him,-then you put him in prison. All this did no good;-and, for these hundred years last past, you have let him alone. The heresy is now firmly protected by law; -and you know it must be preached: -What matters it then, who preaches it? If the evil must be communicated, the organ and instrument through which it is communicated cannot be of much consequence. It is true, this kind of persecution, against persons, has not been quite so much tried as the other against doctrines; but the A dissenting minister, of vulgar aspect and homely appearance, declares that he entered into that holy office because he felt a call; - and a clergyman of the Establishment smiles at him for the declaration. But it should be remembered, that no minister of the Establishment is admitted into orders, before he has been expressly interrogated by the bishop, whether he feels himself called to that sacred office. The doctrine of calling, or inward feeling, is quite orthodox in the English church; and, in arguing this subject in Parliament, it will hardly be contended, that the Episcopalian only is the judge when that call is genuine, and when it is only imaginary. |