THE ORIENTAL HERALD.

No. 9.-SEPTEMBER 1824.-VOL. 3.

SPEECH-SPEAKING AND SPEECH-WRITING-OR
SIR JOHN MALCOLM versus HIMsElf.

"That Government which has nothing to disguise, wields the most powerful instrument that can appertain to sovereign rule.-If our motives of action are worthy, it must be wise to render them intelligible throughout an empire, our hold on which is opinion.”—MARQUESS OF HASTINGS.

“I am, and ever have been, the advocate of publicity in all affairs of Government. I hate concealment and mystification: good and wise measures will ever gain strength from daylight."-SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

ALTHOUGH the sentiments of the gallant General, which we have quoted here, are not expressed with the elegance that distinguishes those of the noble Marquess-his brother soldier; there is, nevertheless, a coincidence between them, which renders them worthy of being placed side by side. When the venerable Knight of the Garter uttered his admiration of "public scrutiny," we put the sincerity of his professions to the test, and found, at length, that though the professed end of this publicity was to render the motives and acts of Government intelligible throughout India, the only " Empire our hold on which is Opinion," yet it was in England alone that the scrutiny was to be allowed free exercise-and even then, not to be republished in our Empire of Opinion, for fear the intelligibility aimed at should become too plain and unequivocal. When the honoured Knight of the Lion and the Sun uttered his admiration of "free disclosure and full discussion," from which he anticipated so much good to India, and the repression of which he characterized as a return to the Oriental Tyranny which we ought to have destroyed, we put the sincerity of his professions also to the test; and found, as in the former case, that the speaker by no means meant what his words implied; or at least, that he subsequently disclaimed such meaning. Thus, though all the world conceived that the gallant General and the noble Marquess each intended their sentiments to apply to that country for whose especial benefit the said scrutiny and discussion were intended, yet they themselves now insist on putting a different construction on their previous declarations, and limiting the operation of their pretended love of publicity to England alone! Whether there is not some "concealment and mystification" in this, the reader will judge. Be it as it may, however, we shall take Sir John Malcolm, as we have before taken Lord Hastings, at his word; and give to his inconsistencies that "daylight" from which, if there be wisdom in them, they are sure to gather strength :-if folly, weakness.