COLONIAL POLITICS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, 25 November 1857, Page 4

COLONIAL POLITICS.

[From the Sydney Morning Herald],

In our last Summary we informed our friends at home that the prospects of Responsible Government were not very flattering. The colonies had been smothered by very fondness ■of the patriots, who embraced them with such disinterested ardour. We read the complaints of English newspapers of the scarcity of public men, of the dearth of statesmanship, and the languor of political parties. Mysterious and fantastic are the tricks of fate and fortune ! Here we abound — every colony is thronged with candidates for Premierships — willing for a time perhaps to take a side place ! Could not some arrangements be made to draw off our superfluity and to replenish the parent country now drained to fill up our excess of public virtue. Then there is a facility in developing statesmanship of which England could not dream. We have no slow gradations Our statesmen rise at once from all sorts of miscellaneous pursuits — from whittling wooden pegs, filling wheelbarrows, and selling milk by •the pint, and that neither pure nor full measure, to wielding the helm of Government, and deciding how men and things are to hang together. Out of this wonderful aptitude for Statesmanship, and a freshness of appetite for a salary, which would even astonish a Northcountryman, arises a very considerable competition. The colony is addressed on all hands with the most earnest oratory. On one side you hear perhaps an old acquaintance in the j butter line, in a stentorian voice, telling the people carrying home bottled ale and mutton chops for luncheon, that they are poor halfstarved, destitute, and ground-down " fellowcountrymen." On another side you listen to the pleasant insinuations of a smooth-tongued flatterer, who tells the same people that they are the most high-minded, intelligent, and at the same time the most fleeced and pillaged people in the world. Then from another point peals forth the well-worn "Hereditary bondbinen ! know ye not, "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow ?"

The colonists are overdone with patriotism and statesmanship, and would be glad indeed if their superfluity of talents could be drafted to succour the poverty of Downing-street. Our English readers would be astonished at •what a number of persons have been already "sent for" in the Australian colonies, and what a prodigious multiplication of official men has followed the establishment of Responsible Government. In the four colonies during the last two years or so there have been sixteen Cabinets. We can reckon up five in New South Wales— Mr. Riddell's, Mr. Donaldson's, Mr. Cowper's, Mr. Parker's, and again Mr. Cowper's. In Victoria there have been four — Mr. Foster, Mr. Haines, Mr. O' Shan assy, and Mr. Haines again, all Premiers, with every prospect of an increase — if the report of the of the Opposition be true. In Tasmania we have had at least three sets — Mr. Champ's, Mr. Gregson's, and Mr. Weston's. At Adelaide they have had four, without reckoning miscarriages. Giving six Ministers for each of these Cabinets, they would consume, besides sixteen Premiers, eighty secondary Ministers. As a matter of fact they have not amounted to quite so many. There has been a little scenic illusion ; they have marched more than once over the stage, and so quickly, that it is difficult to recognize them. The English reader, if he shall obtain a list of our notorieties, will be struck with the vast flock of Honourables — not honourable gentlemen in the parliamentary sense merely — but claiming to have " Honourable " on their cards. Not only have we in the different Legislative Councils upwards of one hundred, who have ; this distinction as members of the various Upper Chambers, but every member of these Ministries once sworn in a member of the Executive Council, even though in five minutes he lose his office, slicks to the title of "Honourable" with Yankee tenacity. It is quite clear that we shall have more honourable people in proportion to our population than the most favoured countries under the smile of Queen Victoria.

With such changes frequent in Cabinets the Governors of these colonies must be liable to fall into very awkward mistakes. They 'can hardly know their Ministers by sight. There •must be the greatest possible risk of personations. The ministers have the ordinary look, and are in great danger of being turned back by all sorts of doorkeepers and lacqueys. Then as to their political opinions, a Governor must be utterly bewildered ; what was black yesterday becomes white to-day, and the carping, scowling, mendacious, and vulgar partisan of the past, now sits jovially by his side, or winks at him from the bottom of the table.

Sir William Denison began the game of Responsible Government. He had gained some experience of colonial life, and therefore lost many illusions. Had a new man, fresh from the clubs, or enthusiastic for political ideas, initiated our constitutional system, he would have been likely to flounder. He would have either deapised the colonists for the smallness of their number, and the vastness of their pretensions, or, affected by their enthusiasm, he would have endeavoured to mould the system of administration after a plan. Sir William Denison had learned to take an observation, and the use of the compass, before he possessed himself of the helm, and to do him justice, he has managed to keep his course with ah adroitness which has not been lost on his vice-regal brethren. The proceedings of our different legislatures ■have from time to time displayed all the comicalities of politics. There appears to be a peculiar tendency in them to condense into two grand divisions. Thus our standing majorities range from three to one. If any supporter of Governme.it he sick or sulky, or have lost his horse; or if a steamer gets on the flats, or if the floods are out, the life of a Ministry is in imminent danger. From this remarkable equalization arises the factious, peevish, exacting temper of manj? of the semi-neutrals. They know that they poetess the power at any time, if not to upset the coach, to let the coach be upset. What then are the politics which divide all these gentlemen? the English querist will ■inquire. This is a question which it is impossible to answer. "We have read almost everything written to expound them. "We have published some fourteen or fifteen columns

of debating in a single issue, professing to shed light upon them. We know personally as many of the public men as it is likely for an ordinary memory to recall. We have often heard the old English watch-words; party cries which now rarely appear in British papers ; but what the difference of opinion is in these colonies in reference to the proper principles of Government, of the objects it should aim at, we certainly cannot tell. We have no doubt the material for a Government and a country worth governing are here, aad perhaps we shall some day find the right men in the right place. In the meantime, although many of our statesmen vow an eternal attachment to " the country of their adoption," they would doubtless place themselves at the disposal of her Majesty should Palmerston and his miscellaneous colleagues really leave the Queen without official advisers. We have abundance of raw material sent out from England, out of which we could work up an unlimited vaiiety of Cabinets. Plutarch celebrates the filial spirit of Carthage which sent to Tyre succour in the day of her decline. What present could we make dear Old England more acceptable than a small collection of our statesmen entirely colonial. In the meantime we have abundance of room for brickmakers, sawyers, and ploughmen, of whom England has too many.

THE INDIAN ARMY.

The following extract from a letter from General Sir C. J. Napier to the Duke of Wellington, dated Simla, June 15, 1850, was issued on Monday, 10th August, in the form of a return to the House of Commons : —

" I must now come to the Bengal Native Army, which is said to have much fallen off from what it was in former days. Of this I am not a judge ; but I must say that it is a very noble army, and with very few defects. The greatest, as far as I am capable of judging, is a deficiency of discipline among the Euro- 1 pean officers, especially those of the higher ranks. I will give your Grace an instance. The important order issued by the GovernorGeneral and the Commander-in-chief to prepare the Sepoys for a reduction in their pay, I ordered to be read and explained with care to every regiment. With the exception of three or four commanders of regiments, none obeyed the order; some gave it to pay-serjeants to read, and others altogether neglected to do so; such is the slackness of discipline among officers of high rank, and on an occasion of such vast importance. This want of discipline arises from more than one cause. A little sharpness with officers who disobey orders will soon correct much of this; but much of it originates in the great demand made upon the troops for civil duties, which so breaks up whole regiments, that their 'commanding officers lose that zeal for the service which they ought to feel, and so do the younger officers. The demand also made for guards is immense. These guards are sent too far off to be relieved, mount for weeks, and more frequently for months ; of course every man not on sentry goes to bed. I will not lengthen this letter by entering more into such details, but enclose, as a sample, a report made to me a short time ago by Major Rowland Hill. His corps has lately been made over civil duties, and each in its turn of these regiments so employed and so ruined, in executing duties for doing which I have reason to believe that there are from 300,000 to 400,000 " Chuprassae Burkindauses," paid by Government. However, whatever the exact number may be, it is enormous, and under proper arrangement, more than sufficient to execute all the civil duties which are thrown upon and injure the troops both in health and discipline. I cannot believe that the discipline of the Bengal army will be restored till it is relieved from civil duties, and those duties performed by police battalions, as was intended by Lord Ellenborough. The next evil which I see in the native army is, that so many of the senior officers of regiments are placed on the staff or in civil situations, and very old worn-out officers command regiments ; these carry on their duties with the adjutant and some favoured native officer. Not above one or two captains are with the regiment, and the subalterns being all young, form a society among themselves, and neglect the native officers altogether. Nothing is therefore known as to what is passing in a native regiment. It is difficult to apply a remedy to this evil, but I think it can be done. With regard to drill, it is very far from good among the majority of native regiments. This is the fault of the officers who command divisions and brigades. I am doing all in my power to correct this evil, and I have been well aided by many of those commanders. The last and most important thing which I reckon injurious to the Indian army is the immense influence given to "caste;" instead of being discouraged, it has been encouraged in the Bengal army. In the Bombay army it is discouraged, and that army is in better order than the Bengal army. In this latter the Brahmins have been leaders in every mutiny. In the last mutiny about pay, which I may say was general through the Bengal army, though it seemed in six regiments only, all appeared to be governed by the Brahmins ; and seeing the great danger which existed then, with the permission of the Governor-General, I disbanded the 66th Native Infantry. I seized the opportunity which accident produced, and transferred a regiment of Goorkas into the vacancy ; had I not done this, it would have been vain to disband the 66th Regiment, for plenty more were prepared to revolt had I not shown them that other troops were ready to take theiv places. The mutineers had said openly, "Wait till we all act together ;" others had said, " How can they replace us V 1 It was a crisis of great peril, and I thought a strong measure alone could meet it ; I therefore showed the Sepoys that we could "replace them," and that if they all "acted together" I had the force to coerce them, for they dread the Goorkas. Lord Dalhousie said that I ought to have consulted the Supreme Council at Calcutta before I introduced the Goorkas. My Lord Duke, when 40,000 men were in a state of smouldering mutiny, and many in open mutiny, and 60,000 armed Sikh soldiers ready to rise, how could J lose five weeks to consult the Supreme Council at Calcutta? And what advice could

these gentlemen have given to me in a moment of so much danger? In all I did to quell that mutiny, I had no choice bat to act on the spur of the moment according to the best of my judgment. I believe that the sudden and (by all) unexpected appearance of the Goorkas at the fortress of Govindghur put an end to the danger; but for that step, some twelve or twenty regiments would have piled arms and demauded their discharge. Had this happened, blood must have ensued. I was successful — the army is now quiet — and a good spirit reigns in it. But as at any time there may be some change made in the pay or allowances, I cannot say that such may not reproduce disturbance. The greatest deficiency in the Company's army, and it daily becomes more important, is the want of a sufficient number of engineer and artillery officers. It is notorious, and must soon be remedied."