THE TURNING - OF THE' k fIDE . , 1 .q7 •11 ,

1 .q7 •11 is India the tide is turning. Vet tile so7,calted " brightest

jewel" still veils her splendours in the hues of blood. We fair that measures of severity have become too much the fashion, 'too much a mere matter of custom, and regarded as a standing urdsir. But physicalforce is not the solution ofthe great Indian diffi- cult}-. If a Sikh movement be apprehended, it will have to be averted by statesmanship, and not by massacre.

Certainly M. Youtalembert is no unfriendly censor of this country. The praise which he baS awarded, to us is no common praise, fur it is the expression of an. insight which can he.gained myby generous admiration and sympathy. It would be unjust unwise, therefore, to accept the pleasant half of his savings and to neglect the other half. We mast not refuse to listen when he tells us that in our severities in India the " just limits of repression have been overstepped," and that this will "imprint au ineffaobable stain upon English rule in We fear, indeed, that he has spoken something like the truth. It is useless now to return to the unalterable past ; except, in- deed, for the purpose of guarding Against a spirit of contempt for the native population, and of indiscriminate severity, which ap- pears from the latest accounts to be even yet too prevalent, and which, in fact, may constitute a great barrier to the proper pacifi- cation of the country. It was, no doubt, exceedingly difficult to judge, at this distance, when mail after mail brought tidings of a fresh mutiny, what was and what was not demanded by the in- exorable necessity of the situation. We could not see with the eyes of those who were onvironed with the peril. Possibly this reason might have retarded English journalists in expressing the opinions they ninst have held. But we doubt whither the press and people of this country have donh_ their full duty in this particular. We ought to have interposed, at the risk of being thought presumptuous. Voices should have been lifted up more plainly against courses of indiscriminate severity, as impolitic as they were unchristian. We hope and believe that in some of the worst instances, and especially in that of the suffocation of mutineers which occurred under the direction of Mr. Cooper at tmritsir, the horrible catastrophe occurred by negligence rather than designedly. But even so it called for reprehension and for protest, nor is the manner in which Mr. Cooper himself describes the events in which he took part, such as to disarm our sorrowful indignation at such a proceeding. It has also not been borne in mind, that a system of severity put in motion, as in India, by strong and vehement incitements, contrary to the nature of the men, and which required such atrocities as those of Cawnpore and Delhi to arouse it, must naturally require a strong exer- tion of moral power to stay it. It was a sad consequence of the pervading pressure of calamity, that, severity was erected into a habit. But severity become habitual is but too likely, without any positive intention or act of will, to transgress the needful limits, through the mere on-going of the system. This is all the apology we could offer to M. Montalembert for events which we regret equally with himself. It is unfortunate for the credit of the Eng- lish press that a timely protest was not interposed from England. We could not take upon ourselves to judge of dire necessities ap- preciable only on the spot. But there was room, at any rate, for upholding in some manner the common feelings of humanity, more emphatically than we did. Especially was this needful, especially is it still needful, if we desire to proselytize India.

It has been the great merit of Lord Canning, that he has done his best to oppose the excesses of the vindictive spirit. His de- meanour at the outset of the mutinies showed, indeed, how weak was his appreciation of the gravity of the events that were arising. He went on the principle, common to his school of states- men, that nothing extraordinary would, could, or should happen, or should ever be admitted to have happened, under the govern- ment of which they formed a part. His attitude resembled too nearly that of a man who in the midst of the very billows of the deluge should observe that it was beginning to rain. And it will ever remain inexplicable how the unseasonable lenity of his early proceedings can be reconciled with the equally unseasonable seve- rity of the Oude proclamation. Still it must be owned that Lord Canning has taken a noble part in repressing an unchristian frenzy.

We should not advert to this subject in the present stage of affairs, were it not that the most recent letters from India, (for instance, those in the elforniny Star, and not those in the Morn- ing ,S`tar alone,) plainly indicate this violence of antipathy to- wards natives as the great difficulty in our way. We know that men cannot be reasoned out of such antipathies. But in spite of the obscurity into which it has fallen, in spite of the mass of prejudice accumulated by recent events, we must continue to as- sert the principle that India cannot be held without winning the confidence of the natives, and that it can be held in that manner.

It- may be convenient, as covering the faults of our own governing

Plusses, to declare that the mutiny proves nothing but the Se- Poy's depravity. We hold, that it also proves the blunders of our executive, the decay and decadence ot 'a system. Revert to the true system, and the old confidence will -flow back again. The fidelity of 'the. Scinde Horse, which withstood- traitorous temptations, is proof, that tinder a right system even the .ap-

t° their religions prejudices wou/fl be as idle wind to

MI

00 or Mahometan. Severityis a resource of the inceimpe-

I

t:ent ; too often it but a clumsy expedient. Let if then *he

t!Ilperseded by the fine tact and great soldierly and human qualf- ties such as were elicited in the schools of Malcolm, Monro; or

Males „Napier; such as should be elicited intro thane ever I_ now,.

In a mord it is vain to expect that the one great primiple 44111 ,goVernments,ivill be reversed in: our favour, and that WQ, a1,0110i0f all nations hall be permitted to retail), subject-populatione simply .hy, the, power of the sword.. Without some , such change em that which we -areadvocating iu the tone and temper. of Euglisli

thoritie$ in it is scarcely to be supeweed that mitesionsevy enterprise will effect much for the propagation of our faith,

first step:towards this, as towards all that is desirable-fur Iaelia, is that we Shoal/deo:far be trusted and confided in by the natives as to be aided and supported by them iu the establishment cf the secular Government: It may be that Christianity is to make its way in India; by-the manifestation, in the first 1IIStalle%; Of a dirleet secular superiority.. The revelatiou•of true science, lseitleits manifold applieatioas in the domain of human life; may Rome to he viewed by the Hindoo as an offgrowth of the true religion. More easily by the Hindoo than by some forms of European in- tellect. And Christianity, with heavenly constitution, may prevail finally . over all absolutism, and every form ' of Asiatic -faith. But, without anticipating that epoch, it is right to ap- preciate the true nature of the prohlem•which is before us

Its difficulties are now only beginning to be felt, and they will be increased beyond management by yielding to the inhu- man notion that they can be solved by physical force.