hour. He must superintend questions of detail, and look after the subordinate officers and servants in his department, and be answerable for the manner in which they and all others under him spend their time. He has to bear responsibilities which formerly rested upon the directors of the several sections into which the natural history is divided, and who have always discharged their duties in the most efficient manner. He is ordered to deliver twelve gratuitous lectures at Jermyn-street on certain days, which are attended by a crowd of ladies and gentlemen who are well able, and we dare say would be willing to pay for them, but for which the trustees are kind enough to pay on their behalf with public money; and should hedesire to deliver any lectures elsewhere, he must ask permission of the trustees. Is this the way to popularize science? Is this the proper position for a man like Professor Owen, who has spent his life in forcing nature to give up her secrets? Is it right that learning so extensive and so accurate should be confined to so narrow a sphere, and that the exercise of such rare powers of communicating information should thus be impeded? Let the natural history be elevated to its rightful dignity. Let it form an independent institution, with Professor Owen at its head, and let him have a temple of his own instead of being a lodger. Let him have leisure for giving the world the benefit of his vast knowledge by his writings and his lectures, and let him enjoy all the honour and distinction he so richly deserves by conferring on him an independent post, where he will be no longer trammelled by the obligations of an inferior office in what the Act of Parliament calls a 'general repository.' Having disposed of the point of expediency, the question yet remains as to the power of the trustees to dispossess themselves of any portion of the objects committed to their charge. But this need not detain us a moment. The separation of the natural history collections cannot take place without a grant from Parliament; and if any difficulty arose under the present Act, a single sentence would enable the Legislature to decree a divorce. But the memorialists ask, 'where are we to go?' To this we answer, either to Kensington Gore or Burlington House. Nothing can be better than the situation of the latter. It is healthy and central; it has a large garden behind and a large court in front; and here a building might be erected at a much less cost than would be required for the necessary enlargement of the British Museum, and far more commodious. The Museum is constructed in an expensive style of architecture and with a massive solidity which would not be necessary for specimens of natural history. Provision could then be made for the develop ment ment of the several collections to an almost indefinite extent. It is our conviction that natural science has no greater enemies than those who oppose the separation. Who will venture to calculate the injury it has already sustained by want of space? Who can say how much has been lost by the necessity of abstaining, more or less, for upwards of thirty years, from purchasing specimens or displaying those already in the institution? And surely the visitors who have recourse to the departments of literature, art, and antiquities in the British Museum, have also a right to complain that they look in vain for what they seek, because the space it would occupy is wanted for the collections of natural history. Each, in a word, is a detriment to the other, and the only effectual remedy is that one should go. ART. VIII.-1. The Indian Rebellion, its Causes and Results, in a series of Letters from the Rev. Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. 1858. 2. Notes on the North-west Provinces of India. By Charles Raikes, Magistrate and Collector of Mynpoorie. 1852. 3. British India, its Races and its History. By John Malcolm Ludlow. 2 vols. 1858. 4. The Administration of Justice in British India. By William H. Morley. 1858. 5. The Letters of Indophilus to the 'Times.' 3rd edition. 1858. Lo ONG before the last embers of the rebellion are extinguished, the question of the future government of India must force itself upon the attention of the country. We do not mean the home government-a subject which under its various aspects has occupied Parliament during the whole of one session, and has been discussed with all the virulence of faction and all the earnestness of conviction. It really signifies little whether we have a President of a Board or a Secretary of State, whether the council is to be nominative or elective, whether to consist of eight or fifteen members. These are matters of comparatively little importance when compared with the great question of' How is India to be governed in India?' The time is come when we should be prepared to lay down some great principles on which this country is willing that those vast dominions-acquired for her, let it always be remembered with pride, by an association of British merchants-should for the future be ruled in her name. We believe that, as far as India itself is concerned, it will matter matter little in what form the bill now before Parliament is finally passed. Fewer delays, greater energy at home, the more direct influence of public opinion, and the more ready appliance of the discoveries of modern science and civilization, may develope the resources of India, and may add to her material prosperity. But there are questions affecting the very basis of her government, our relations with the people, and the possibility of the duration of our rule, which can only be settled on the spot. The broad principles upon which our policy is to be founded must be laid down in England, but it is in India that they must be carried out. An incompetent minister may trifle with our Indian empire here, but that empire will be lost unless in India itself we have able and experienced statesmen and an efficient and wise system. It is essential, therefore, that the people of this country should clearly understand our true position in India, and should ascertain how far any misconduct or neglect on our part may have led to the terrible events of the last fifteen months. By a due estimate alone of the past can the recurrence of such disasters be prevented for the future. We are convinced that even yet we have not fully felt the prodigious weight of the task imposed upon us. The massacres and the desperate struggle have rather tended to make us forget the duties we owe to the peoples committed to our care. If they have weakened our sense of responsibility and substituted indiscriminate feelings of horror and contempt for the natives of India, the rebellion has indeed been a calamity, the worst results of which are yet to be experienced. The various races of India have already been sufficiently set against us. Few persons, except those who have made India a special object of inquiry, are aware how critical our position has been, we may say still is, and how our rule has been sbaken to its very foundation. The English people have been too long inclined to give credence to the assertion of a few Calcutta civilians, who, unwilling to admit the failure of their favourite schemes for the class government of India, have declared the rebellion to be 'a mere military mutiny.' They have been ignorant that the presidency of Bombay has only been saved by the energy, foresight, and judgment of Lord Elphinstone, although its army was on the eve of revolt, and its population, especially that of the Mahratta country, ready for insurrection. In the presidency of Madras, notwithstanding the admitted misery and discontent of the people, there has been, it is true, comparative tranquillity, attributable to the mixture of castes and religions, including the Christian, in its army, and to the fact that the real Hindu and Mussulman elements are found comparatively speaking to a very small extent in the population, which is Vol. 104.-No. 207. Q composed composed mainly of aboriginal races, forming a poverty-stricken and long oppressed class. Every additional despatch from the seat of war proves that the inhabitants of the North-western Provinces, and of Central India, are almost to a man against us; that, to use the words of a well-known describer now with the army, 'like a field of corn stricken by the wind, the population bends as we pass but to rise again.'* We are nowhere willingly furnished with supplies; in information as to the movements of the rebels we are utterly deficient; our 'Intelligence Department' gets no tidings; our columns and detachments are under the guns of the enemy before they are aware of his presence; bands cross and recross the great rivers with the connivance of the very guards set to watch them; our officers are attacked and government treasures captured within a few miles of the Governor-General's residence at Allahabad. Nor must it be supposed that the war is yet coming to an end. The latest accounts received from the North-western Provinces, Bengal, and the Mahratta States, are such as to cause deep anxiety. The rebels broken up into bands, and in most places aided and maintained by the population, are harassing our troops and adopting a system of warfare which must entail upon us great sacrifice of life. Unceasing efforts must still be made, not only to send out men to supply the places of those who fall victims to battle and the climate, but to despatch reinforcements to India. Every letter from that country asks for more troops.' It is principally to the fidelity and prudence of native princes and native statesmen that we owe the tranquillity of part of Central and of Southern India, as it is to the courage and faithfulness of two Sikh chiefs, the Rajahs of Puteeala and of Jhind, that we owe the opportune aid of our first Sikh levies. Salar Jung, the Minister of the Nizam of the Dekkan, acting under the able guidance of Colonel Davidson, the Resident at the Court of Hyderabad, restrained, at the imminent risk of his own life, a fanatical Mohammedan population eager for Christian blood. The steady devotion of Scindia and Holkar left the Mahrattas without a leader of skill or influence, and has hitherto rendered harmless that formidable race. Whilst thus bearing testimony to the friendly conduct of these native princes, we must not forget that there were special causes for it; nor must it be overlooked that their subjects were with difficulty restrained from open hostility against us, and that, * Letter of the Times Correspondent,' June 4. It must be borne in mind that the description thus given of the ill-will and opposition of the mass of the people' does not apply to Oude, but to Bundelcund, Rohilcund, and part of Central India. except in the Nizam's dominions, their troops joined our revolted subjects. It is very important, when considering the Indian question, to keep these facts in mind. Those who know India best were not unprepared for this state of things long before the rebellion broke out. The Protestant missionaries of all denominations established in Bengal, described, in a petition to Parliament, dated in December, 1856, and presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Kinnaird, the deplorable condition, the sufferings, and the demoralization of the people; and declared that a spirit of sullen discontent prevailed amongst the rural population,' and that measures of relief could with safety be delayed no longer, as from information they had acquired, they found that the discontent of the rural population was daily increasing, and that a bitter feeling of hatred towards their rulers was being engendered in their minds.' Mr. Halliday, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, in his celebrated Minute upon the state of the Police, dated 30th April, 1856, gave a nearly similar account of the condition of the people, and admitted that the Government appeared indisposed to make any real effort towards reform.' The disasters that have since fallen upon us have unfortunately proved that the fears expressed in these documents were not unfounded. Rare have been the instances in which an unhappy fugitive from the massacres has received help or sympathy from the population. Englishmen and Englishwomen, when not murdered, were driven with insults and blows from village to village. If horrible mutilations have occurred, and, thank God! there is good reason to believe that there has been gross exaggeration, if not wilful misrepresentation, on the subject, it would seem that they were perpetrated by the villagers and felons escaped from our jails rather than by the sepoys. The sepoy has never put forward a military grievance. He was well paid, and well cared for, and received an ample pension when he could no longer serve. He might have been recently deprived of a few privileges, or exposed to a few irregular and harassing duties, but, on the whole, no soldier of any nation had less cause for complaint. In many intercepted letters, he wrote of the kindness of his officers, and justified the mutiny by national and religious wrongs.* The conduct of the native regi A striking instance of this feeling may be mentioned. When Holkar was remonstrating with one of the contingent regiments which had murdered its officers, the Sepoys, exasperated at his refusal to place himself at their head, cried out, What should prevent us shooting you? Have we not killed our own father?' alluding to their colonel, who had been from youth upwards in the regiment, and was much beloved by the men. Q 2 ments |