A PLEA FOR DELAY. and it has not made progress in the country to the west of Delhi. Even within that limit it is not the revolt of the people, but of the Sepoys, the theives, and the thugs. The villages that have risen against the Government are chiefly inhabited by Dacoits, or tribes who prefer robbery at all seasons and times to work. The exceptions are chiefly Mohamedan zealots, who form, even in the vicinity of Delhi, a haughty but a small minority of the population. Oude may be considered separately from the other provinces, because it has been annexed only for a short period; and the muting should have been more general if the grievances had been popular, in a country where the native landowners have been allowed to maintain armed retainers, to buy artillery and military stores in unlimited quantities, and to convert their homes into towers of great strength. The suppression of the mutiny now, would leave the memory of a mournful event-the most sorrowful in our history, without a tradition in native minds that it had been partially successful; but a change in the form of Government, effected during the struggle, would give to the vanquished a sense of victory. It would certainly allow agitators an opportunity of saying that if the rebellion of the Bengal army had effected great changes, the junction of the Bombay and Madras armies would have secured a complete victory. They would say that one object of their revolt was achieved, although the majority of the people were hostile to them, and only the adhesion of the greater proportion of the population was necessary for the expulsion of the Europeans. The remarks have, under any circumstances, truth in them; but we need not, in haste, to save one year or even two, give them a greater appearance of truth. We do not often propose the postponement of reform under any circumstances, but we do not know that this change is to be an improvement. A strong feeling exists in this country in favour of more active measures for the instruction of the Indian people. All classes of Presbyterians in Scotland have already formed a nucleus of a new combination for this purpose. The Evangelical Alliance have recorded their approval of this step, and resolved to consider the propriety of establishing there a large scholastic system. The bishops and friends of the English Church, acting through the Christian Propagation Society, express their anxiety for more bishops and cathedrals, in addition to more men of the class whom they lost most unhappily at Cawnpore and Delhi. A similar feeling exists in the Baptist, the London Missionary, and the Wesleyan Societies. This class of measures are not dependent upon any change in the form of the Government. They can be commenced without a revolution. We do not know that anything prevents now, or is hereafter likely to prevent, the establishment of an ndefinite number of industrial schools and mission ations in many parts of India. The presidencies 745 of Bombay and Madras, and one half of Bengal, are quite open to these philanthropical enterprises; and even those districts that are perfectly safe from revolt, might occupy all the strength that can be employed in them for a long period. The Government schools in India are reported to be nurseries of Atheism; and it is hard to say that no belief would be better than some of the Indian creeds; although it is true of several practices that have gathered around them a religious sanction. Many parties here propose that the Bible should not be excluded from these schools, as it has been hitherto. A question of this kind depends partially upon the native mind, and what the natives are likely to think of it. Certainly, it is an improper course, to use the religious books of the Hindoos and exclude the Bible, because it is a confession of inferiority, which might not be of any consequence here, and yet be very important there. The manner of its use is also a matter of some consequence. Its employment as a class book, in junior forms, is not calculated to increase a reverence for its contents, among a people who attach mystery to sacred writings. This subject can be as easily arranged under the present Government as under any probable successor. Many other subjects are in the same condition. A transference of the direct management of India to the Cabinet from the Company, is not necessary to secure complete equality to all castes in India, so far as the State is concerned; is not necessary to effect any improvement in the character of the schools; and is not necessary to bring legislation into accordance with Christian principles, since all recent legislation for India has been based upon that purpose, and has in a very marked degree been guided by that ten. dency. The re-organisation of the Bengalese army is one of the first measures that must occupy the statesmen of India. That army must hereafter contain in some form a far larger infusion of Europeans than heretofore, while the dangerous castes and ground must be avoided in recruiting for the service, and that to them will be a severe punishment. The financial question which arises naturally out of the existing calamity, claims almost an immediate settlement; but it will depend partly upon the pensions and the property that may be confis cated, and their bearing upon claims that must be compensated. The accounts will balance, probably, or more than balance, leaving a surplus towards the expenses of hostilities, and land on which any social experiment may be tried. The introduction of more British planters seem to be essentially necessary for the strength of the British connexion. A vast range of country on the mountain slopes will be connected soon by canals, railways, and rivers with the ocean, and would afford a healthy outlet for a larger emigration of men with some capital than we can spare for 746 FINANCE-PATRONAGE—STABILITY. many future years. They would form the best garrison of India, and become ere long a powerful people. interests are connected, necessarily, with the solvency of then debtors. Thus they become advocates of law and order; but if the Indian debt be completely identified with the British, it is more than probable that its value will rise by the purchases of British capitalists, and this hold upon the country will be destroyed. The revenue of India is equal to one-half of the revenue of Britain, and the amount raises several very important questions; because, for a long period, we cannot look upon this great country, almost equal to continental Europe in extent, and greater in population, as a crown colony. Patronage is the second of the three. Govern These improvements or any other reforms in detail, or in principle, need not necessarily wait upon an act to extinguish the East India Company, and to transfer all the powers and privileges to a branch of the Government at home. They can be effected by a simple resolution of one or both Houses of Parliament, because the directorate of the Company will not now offer any opposition to the clearly expressed will of Parliament. The extinction of the Company, the settlement of all claims connected with their existence, and the transference of all their business to the Governmental patronage is too large; but if India be thrown ment, require longer eonsideration than can be into the mass, it will be more than doubled. The given to them in a single, and probably in a short patronage of the East India Company has been, we session. Two or three points are also presented believe, administered without any party purpose. for preliminary consideration. Not only are the Their military service has offered employment to details too great for a careful analysis and arrange- young men who could not have commanded any ment in a month, in two, or even three; but the consideration at the Horse Guards; and we do not principles on which they might be based could, find that the patronage of our domestic Government and they probably would, be rendered very dis- has produced men like the Malcolms, and the Lawadvantageous, if a measure was passed without rences, like Outram; or, at this juncture, Greathed long consideration and discussion. and Nicholson. We cannot doubt that soldiers of equal bravery and skill exist in the regular army. The Crimea, and India itself would furnish an answer to that doubt, but General Havelock is a man of advanced years. The Minister, his friends and supporters come to the discussion with the great advantage of knowing what they want to be done. The opposition, however that may be composed, would require time to examine the probable working of these proposals. Three subjects, can indeed be considered at any time, now as readily as at any subsequent time. Finance is one of the three. The revenue of the Anglo Indian-Government is chiefly derived from land. The rent of the land is described as a tax, but is in reality what the tenant pays for its use; and is not of the nature of the land tax as we understand it at home. Some persons propose that the rent of the land should be commuted into a single payment. The proposal proceeds upon the supposition that the present rent is equal or fair, but that is an error. Many of the zemindariats, especially in the lower regions of Bengal are held at a nominal rent, while the zemindar squeezes a rack rent out of the peasantry. It would be very convenient for these wealthy men at twenty years purchase to turn their leases into freeholds; but looking to their conduct it would be very inconvenient, both for the peasantry and the state. This consideration is one of detail alone-and many other important details have to be considered; but the principal difficulty rests in the real consolidation of the British and the Indian debt. If India is to merge into a part and parcel of the British empire financially; its sixty or seventy millions of debt will be absorbed by British capitalists. The Government pays four or five per cent. for money in India, and three per cent at home. The security of the Anglo-Indian empire depends partly upon the opinion of native capitalists. That opinion is formed partly by their interests. These The common idea that youth is in itself a good qualification for a general officer, is absurd; but equally absurd, at least, is the notion that age and decrepitude qualify. Age and vigour will qualify where they can be found in union. We all know that examples of that union are not very numerous; and if we find that one service brings forward men of superior talents in greater numbers, and more rapidly than another service, we object to the substitution of the patronage that has produced the bad, for that which has produced the better system. The civil service presents, we believe, an equal superiority with the military to our own; and the Indian services give to men of ability, without "friends" or money, a fairer field than any other in the empire. Therefore, we should object to the transference of all this patronage to the Government, from a conviction that it would be more corruptly and less efficiently administered than it has been by the Company. Stability is less desireable than virtue, but not much less desireable in an Asiatic government; and the government of India, by whomsoever administered, has to deal with Asiatics. Are the ministers for India to be changed with each change in the Cabinet? Already grave complaints have been made of changes in the Colonial Office, upon politics that had no direct interest to the colonist. Scandalous stories originated in these changes. The colonial minister was described most disrespectfully, as a sort of Guy Faux, or man of straw, or a scarecrow. It was supposed that he was totally ignorant of his business; and that the real power in the matter was vested in a very able THE GREATEST SOCIAL EVIL. elerk, who never "went out," in the political and technical sense of going out. This evil would be immeasurably increased if the Government of India were liable to change upon a subject of local interest, such as the appropriation clause for Ireland, although that is now out of fashion, or a municipal bill for Scotland. Other points will occur to many minds, but they might be twisted in under one of the three we have mentioned; and the only means of meeting them is, by the organisation of a commission for the colonies, not very numerous, with salaries, and the idea of selection from all parties in the two Houses. The scheme requires much consideration, but some such system is absolutely necessary to the absorption of India. The members of the colonial cabinet might hold the usual responsibility to Parliament upon colonial questions, and those alone. If the commission were confined to Indian affairs, the members would be considered liable to expulsion upon votes on Indian business, and upon these only. We retract nothing that we have previously written respecting the blunders of Indian Government. They have been extremely painful; but they may be traced yet, rather to the general than to the Leadenhall-street department. Who is to blame for Delhi-its defences, and its magazinecommitted to the keeping of native soldiers alone? Who is to explain the delay in employing military law where powerful parties had appealed to the sword? Who can say that the East Indian Company are censurable for the selection of slow ships to carry reinforcements round the Cape, when steamers might have been procured? Who can tell that they are culpable for the utter neglect of the overland route, which, during June, July, August, and September, might have conveyed, without any new appliances, four thousand men to 747 India? We need inquiry into all these and many other matters, because it is unjust to cast all the blunders of a divided responsibility upon one of the partners. The representatives of the people are not so stern as their grandfathers in the discharge of duty; and, therefore, we are not to have any inquiry that can be avoided. A captain in our naval service cannot lose a ship without being subjected to trial; but statesmen may almost lose an empire, and no questions will be asked. The existence of blunders do not justify their multiplication. We need not lengthen a string of errors by adding another. The absorption of India by the Home Government without provision to keep men out of the temptation to make political capital from Indian patronage, would be a crying shame and sin against the honesty of people who have difficulty in keeping quite honest at present. It is one of those measures that may be hastily adopted, unless its possible consequences are foreseen. We have not the slightest reason to consider the present Government more anxious for patronage than their predecessors, but nothing comes more naturally to men in office than mere power. They love it. They live on it. Collectively and individually, they are made stronger by it. To them, therefore, the temptation is very thin-very transparent. They expect to live for ever- -for ever to live in power. They know that they would not abuse a public trust for party gain. They know that others would be less scrupulous, but they never count upon any others; for there is nothing that statesmen are more certain to forget than their political end-no personages of whose character they think less than of their successors. It is courteous, therefore, always to say that it is the next and not the present Government whom we fear upon a matter of patronage. THE GREATEST SOCIAL EVIL.* The social Sphinx, That sits between the sepulchres and stews, exacts a word, at least, From each man standing on the side of God.-Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Oh! blind, shirking Like a hideous parasite, it has swollen into rank luxuriance in the shade thrown over it. hypocritial criers of "Peace!" when there is no peace-who is it reaps the harvest - The Lancet, Nov. 7, 1857. We are well aware that the subject over which we propose to glance is, from its very nature, an unpopular theme for disquisition. We are at least equally well assured that this is but a poor reason for its being thrown into the shade, by all grades of society, too long, in spite of the warning voice of the press. There is a manifest, undeniable evil before our eyes; there can surely be no dishonour in endeavouring to trace its causes and effects, with a view towards its prevention, amelioration, or cure. We may be met on the very threshold of our argument by the stale objection-which, however, is one of Satan's best and most used sophistries-that any notice of some evils tends rather to diffuse a vicious knowledge and to pander to prurient immorality, than to effect any good Vide The Times of May 6th, 1857. We take leave to dissent from the opinion, implied or expressed, and trust to prove its fallacy, as we proceed. The evil, in one or other of its bearings, affects, directly or indirectly, the welfare of every man, woman, and child of our community. Its maguitude is appalling; its patent, daily workings disgusting; its dire effects felt by many, known to more, seen by most. We do not write on this important question in any vein of careless indifference as to the truth or falsehood of our inferences; and we are not to substitute guesses for facts, or individual assertion for argument. The statistics of the subject are more vague than those regarding any other topic, and, to a great extent, all is conjectural; but we may safely take the statistics furnished to us by the secretary to the Society for the Rescue of Young Women and Children-Mr. Daniel Cooper-as correct in one department. The number of known street-walkers in London is, he says, at least 28,000. That, however, cannot comprehend near the extent of this evil, if the fearful statement, recently put forth in the Lancet, be correct. We know, on the best authority, that one house in sixty in London, is a brothel, and one in every sixteen females (of all ages) is de facto, a criminal in this respect. Mr. Talbot and other careful observers calculate the number of brothels in London, at 5,000, and the number of prostitutes 80,000. The supineness of the public in this grievous state of things must be admitted, and should be deplored. But men, who dare to think for themselves as well as for the "unfortunates," who, scorned and self-scorning, beguiled and then beguiling, roam hopelessly over these streets-are not, therefore, to be deterred from looking truth in the face. Several well-meaning, but illinformed people, say "Oh, our capital is not worse in this respect than that of any other nation." Is it not? Let any man walk down Regent-street, with his eyes open, from four to six in the afternoon of any fine day; or up the Haymarket, any night, between the hours of eleven at night and one in the morning; or in Princesstreet of Edinburgh, or in Sackville-street of Dublin, at these hours, and he may see enough to make his blood run cold. There-amidst the flare of gas-lamps, with painted cheeks, eyes burning with evil fires, and that loud, discordant laugh, where mirth is not, and despair may be-will he see the "great sin of great cities" as rampant and as seductive, if a little more decorous than of old. Of what avail are police regulations when morality is thus set at defiance by thousands of persons nightly? How can we presume to call ourselves a moral people when we tolerate, in the heart of England's metropolis, scenes which would never be allowed to disgrace, for a moment, by night or day, the streets of any continental city? Let us glance in imagination down that same Haymarket, for a few moments. The time is twelve at night. Crowds have poured, or are pouring, out of the West End theatres. Regent-street is filled with noisy pedestrians en route for a stroll up and down the Haymarket, or an oyster-supper, possibly with the usual disgraceful accompani ments of an hour spent in that locality at that time. Look around you: that woman, flaunting in silk and satin, with which she has been supplied by "the tallyman," at an exorbitant price, to be paid off by instalments deducted from the wages of iniquity, was once a happy country girl, with the flush of health upon that now brazen cheek-it is her "fate" to beguile many, being beguiled by one. Many a raw youth, fresh from home and innocence, with the memories of the friends just left behind even then haunting his thoughts, has met some such lost being at the corner of this street-been lured to a tavern-then to an infamous den of iniquity, till virtue's first barriers were overthrown, and vice became habitual. Then followed-if the youth was, as is too often the case with half the young fools who throng the Haymarket, a clerk in some house of business-expensive habits, late hours, succeeded by a distaste for his lawful calling; then debt-then embezzlement or felonythen the trial at the Old Bailey-the sentencethen the House of correction, or New South Wales-and all this, in great part, because prostitution is allowed, in this Christian country, to prowl about our streets unabashed, seeking whom it may destroy! Although the metropolis, for several reasons, seems to be the centre of this sin, yet other places, besides London, are infamous by its extent. Even in 1840, there were in Glasgow, 1,800 females living in 450 houses of ill-fame, kept by as many landladies; in Leeds (in the same year) there were 700 of these unfortunates in 175 houses, besides the mistresses of such houses; in Manchester, 1,500 (and here as in the case of Liverpool, we think the statement must have been, even then, greatly under the mark); in Liverpool, 2,000; in Hull, 300; in Paisley, 250. Tait, in his valuable work on this evil as existent in Edinburgh in his day, said that there were, besides 800 known prostitutes, more than 1,200 females in that city, living on the wages of concealed prostitution. We wish that these fearful facts were in any way overstated; but at the time when these compilations were made, the population of the above-mentioned places was much smaller than now; care was taken rather to understate than overstate, so as to avoid the hazard of exaggeration; and this evil has increased with population. From the second annual Report of the Rescue Society, for the year ending March 31, 1855, we gather that of 101 fallen women admitted into the Houses of Refuge of the Rescue Society, 88 had been domestic servants; 5 were at home, being too young to be at service; 1 had been a bookfolder; one had been a passer of base coin; six had been engaged in uncertain occupations— making a total of 101. CAUSES OF THE EVIL. From the Third Annual Report, for the year ending March 31, 1856, of 148 admissions, 103 had been domestic servants; 23 had been living at home, and were generally too young to have been at service; 13 needle women, 1 bootbinder; 1 furclipper; 1 clergyman's daughter; 1 daughter of a Baptist minister; 1 ditto of a hotelkeeper; 4 in positions similar to the formermaking a total of 148. From the Fourth Annual Report, of 194 admissions, 153 had been domestic servants; 23 living at home; 8 needle-women; 2 governesses; 1 barmaid; 1 waitress; 1 factory girl; 1 milk-maid; 1 field-labourer; 1 fur cutter; 2 above the working class-making a total of 194. It therefore appears that, of 443 persons ad. mitted during the last three years, 344 had been domestic servants—a fact which may be, perhaps, partially accounted for in this way: The society offers a home and a chance of a domestic situation; but women whose grade in life was above that of a servant, will not enter the homes to mingle with servants, and become servants themselves, probably because they are unacquainted with their duties. Still, the above must stand a fact-borne out by a painful array of figures. where too often they meet evil examples; they are induced to spend their money in amusements, &c.; then they pawn their clothes to defray rent. A night walk is insidiously suggested by an evilminded acquaintance, and, in such cases, who can estimate the force of example? We could cite many cases of girls lured from happy homes to London, by the arts of women who exist on infamy, under the patronage of hoary-headed miscreants of rank and wealth. The victim fears to return home, even if she could, which is improbable; and if she do return, it is often too late. When the shameful house, the night, The feeble blood, the heavy-headed grief In looking to the ages of these unfortunate persons, we come to what is the most painful part What!" seduced"'s your word P of the subject-Of 148 in the year 1855-56, 15 were under fifteen years of age; 86 were above fifteen, and not exceeding twenty. The rest average somewhat less than one above, to two under, twenty-five years of age. Of 194 in the year 1856-57, 16 were under fifteen; 117 from fifteen to twenty; 45, twenty to twenty-five; 16 above twenty-five, who are, as it were, bred up to vice from their infancy. Undoubtedly one great cause of the evil is the indiscriminate herding together of the sexes, whereby decency is utterly abolished, and filth, moral and physical, degradation well nigh incredible, ensue as a certain consegnence. Orphanage, if we may judge from a few statistics before us, is another great cause:-Of the 194 females before-mentioned, 45 had lost both parents; 41 were fatherless; 49 were motherless, and 59 only had both parents living. Ignorance is not always a chief cause, as may have been supposed. The education of these 194 females was quite up to the average of female society; 123 were able to read and write (fourteen of whom were well educated); 43 could read only; 28 could neither read nor write. Of these 194, 158 had attended Sunday schools (1 had been a teacher). 36 had not attended Sunday, or possibly any schools. Not a few of the servants owed their ruin to the evil influence of their masters; more to being thrown out of a situation; and here we would remind our readers that there are nearly one million female servants in the kingdom; more than one hundred thousand in London; and of these ten thousand always out of place, or changing places; they take lodgings, Do wolves "seduce" a wandering fawn in France! There Another cause among many, is the fact that men, in a great degree, monopolise certain occupations, which could be better filled by women. are, comparatively speaking, in this country, very few things that a woman can do to get a living. To the educated daughters of reduced affluence, the situation of governess is open; and we all know, or ought to know, how bitter a lot that too often is. To the imperfectly educated girlservice; or (and this is seldom, for the reason above stated), a place behind the counter-or, the weary life of a sempstress; and here we have about exhausted her possibilities. There are far more temptations (which moreover, occasionally assume the attitude of dire necessities), to make a woman immoral than a man dishonest. Ought these things so to be? We talk about our chivalrous respect for the female sex. We write verses, as Shakespears says, to our "mistress' eye-brow;"-Yet we are the first to call her hard names, if she in any way try to vindicate the dignity of womanhood by seeking to obtain a livelihood through any other channels than those so narrowly prescribed for her by the self-styled "lords of the creation." Of a truth, in too many cases, "we are verily guilty concerning our sister." Another cause of the evil is marriage late in life, in onr artificial state of society. Let it not be for one moment imagined that we are here advocating hasty marriages, in which there is but |