The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

inferior-but independent princes to whom I have already alluded, and they were more than touched, they were terrified to the last degree, when the annexation of the Raj of Berar took place. What man was safe ? What feudatory, what freeholder who had not a child of his own loins, was safe throughout India? (Hear, hear.) These were not idle fears; they were extensively acted upon and reduced to practice. The resumption of jagheers and of inams commenced for the first time in India. There have been, no doubt, impolitic moments when attempts have been made to inquire into titles, but no one hail ever dreamt of abolishing the law of adoption; therefore no authority, no Government, hail ever been in a position to resume jagheers and inams the holders of which had left no natural heirs. Here was a new source of revenue ; but while all these things were acting upon the minds of these classes of Hindoos, the Government took another step to disturb the settlement of property, to which I must now call the attention of the house. The house is aware, no doubt, from reading the evidence taken before the committee of 1853, that there are great portions of the land of India which are exempt from the land tax. Being free from land tax in India is far more than equivalent to freedom from the land tax in this country, for, speaking generally and popularly, the land tax in India is the whole taxation of the State ; and it is not a light impost, therefore, by any means. There are large portions of the land in India which enjoy this free dom. The origin of these grants is difficult to penetrate, but they are undoubtedly of great antiquity. They are of different kinds. Besides the private freeholds, which are very extensive, there are large grants of land free from the land tax, with which mosques and temples have been en dowed. One of the greatest sources of our success in India in old days was that whenever a tyrant, a Mussul man chief, seized and confiscated their lands and we were appealed to, we came in as vindicators of public right, and we invariably guaranteed the security of property, as in the case of the jagheeres and inams. However, an able, an amiable man, under the pressure no doubt of pecuniary distress in the public revenue, was so ill-advised as to question these titles. Our power was then supposed, as far as Bengal was concerned, to be established. The Governor General of that day was advised to institute an inquisition into those titles. It was alleged that there were fraudulent claims of exemption. There were fraudulent claims in England, and, no doubt, in India, the scene of so many revolutions and conquests, there may have been claims fictitiously made. But the house will recognise at once the wise policy which would Vrevent a Government at any time entering into the dangerous ground of examining the titles of landed estates in that country. ( Hear, hear.) Even in England, the process, if carried on, would produce revolution, and would, under any circumstances, arrive at results of the most startling character. (Hear.) Any person in possession of church land or of a royal manor, who could not prove that the land was rightfully held by the persons from whom he inherited it, might have his whole property confiscated. ( Hear, hear. ) For thirty years that system was tried in Bengal, and after some experience the discontent was found so great that it •.vas entirely dropped. But under the new system which was established in India that plan of investigating titles was at once embraced, as a proof of a powerful Go vernment, vigorous Executive, and most fruitful source of public revenue. Therefore commissions were issued to inquire into titles to landed estates in the Presidency of Bengal and adjoining country. They were also issued in the Presidency of Bombay, and surveys were ordered to be male in the newly-settled provinces, in order that these commissions might be conducted, when the surveys were completed, with due efficiency. Now, there is no doubt that during the last nine years the action of these com missions of inquiry into the freehold property of landed estates in India has been going on at an enormous rate, and immense results have been obtained. Ot course it is excessively difficult to arrive at very precise calculations on such matters, clouded in mystery, but from information placed before me, and in which I have great confidence, am induced to believe the amount obtained by the Govern ment of India in this manner—that is, by the resumption of estates from their proprietors—is not less in the Presi dency of Bengal alone than 500,0001. a year. Conceive what a capital is represented by such an annual revenue ! Conceive the thousands and tens of thousands of estates that must have been resumed by the Government from the proprie►ors to obtain such a result. (Hear, hear.) This is in Bengal alone, but the commission has also been issued in the Presidency of Bombay, and has been hard at work there. I have been informed—and I would not men tion the results unless I had a profound conviction that they are strictly true—that the amount of freehold land resumed by the Government of Bombay is not less than 370,0001. a year. The Presidency of Madras remains, of which I know nothing. The North-Western Provinces, mapped out and surveyed, would probably, but for the recent affairs, have been subjected to the same process. I ask the house for a moment to pause and consider what a revolution in property has been going on under the new system in India, when a sum exceeding two thirds of a million of pounds sterling per annum has been obtained by the Government as rental of land alma lutely taken from the proprietors of the country. (Hear, hear.) Again, the Government of India had further endea voured to better their financial condition by curtail ing guaranteed pensions, or by converting them into terminable annuities. Such conduct was pursued towards the descendant of the Nabob of Arcot, who now receives but 1501. a year in the room of the 4,0001. or 40,0001. his father received before him : Conceive 1501. being offered to a man who expected to receive as much as, according to what we have just heard, 40,0001. a year. (Hear, hear.) Let me read upon this subject a passage from those minutes which are the key- THE PRESS, AUGUST 1,1857. atone of the new Indian system. The 43rd paragraph of the minutes is in these words : During the last autumn the Nawab of the Carnatic very sudlenly died. As the treaty by which the Musnud of the Carnatic was conferred on his highness's predecessor was exclusively a personal one, as the Nawab had left no male heir, and as both he and his family had disreputably abused the dignity of their position and the large share of public revenue which had been allotted to them, the Court of Directors has been advised to place the title of Nawab in abeyance, granting fitting pensions to the several members of the Carnatie family. Very shortly after the death of the Newel) of the earned° the Rajah of Tanjore deceased. He left no son and no male heir, direct or indirect, who bore his name. The Hon. Court was therefore advised to resume the large stipend which the Rajah had enjoyed as a lapse to the Government, pensions being granted to the members of the family, as In all similar cases. The house will see, therefore, with reference to the second point, how far the Government have disturbed the settle. ment of property by their conduct with regard to the re sumption of lands, by abolishing the principle of adoption, and by changing into annuities those pensions on condi tion of paying which we became lords of the sovereignties. That, then, is the second great cause which has produced general discontent throughout India, and has estranged numerous and powerful classes from that authority which I think on the whole they were disposed to regard with deference. Mr. Disraeli now approached the third head under which he Ilassed the cause of these mutinies—viz., tampering with the religion of the natives. A great deal had been said about the ill effects of missionary enterprise, but he should hesitate before he ascribed this rebellion to the exertions of the missionaries I think very great error exists as to the assumed pre judices of Hindoos with regard to what is called missionary enterprise. The fact is that the Hindoos, and the Indian population generally, with the exception of the Mnssul mans, are educated in a manner which peculiarly disposes them to theological inquiry. There are no people who take such interest in religious discussions as the Hindoos. They are a most ancient race ; they have a mass of tra dition on these subjects ; a complete Indian education is in a great degree religious ; their laws, their tenure of land, depend upon religion ; and there is no race in the world better armed at all points for theological discussion than they are. Add to this that they can always fall back upon an educated priesthood, prepared to supply them with arguments and illustrations when they require such assistance. So far from the Hindoo looking with sus picion upon the missionaries, I am convinced from what I have read and heard that the Hindoo is at all times ready to discuss theological questions with the missionary. I remember reading years ago a history of the Roman Catholic mission in India, written by an abbe who was a man of admirable piety, of great knowledge, and of imma culate character, who, I believe, had spent the whole of his life in India; and no man who has read that impartial and able work can suppose for a moment that missionary enterprise, whether conducted by Roman Catholics, Pro testants, or any denomination of Christians, would ever cause any serious dissension between the Hindoo popula tion and this country. But what the Hindoo does dread —what he regards with the utmost jealousy—what he looks upon with undying apprehension—is the union of mis sionary enterprise with the power of the Government. (Hear, hear.) With the idea of Government he associates power; he associates with power only one idea—violence; he remembers the missionary enterprise of the Musani mans, who bore the Koran in one hand and scimitar in the other; and, although he is perfectly ready to live upon the beat terms with the missionary pure and simple, and to enter into interminable theological arguments with him, the moment he suspects the missionary is sanctioned by the Government—that authority anticipates conversion— the most sensitive feelings of the Hindoo are outraged. (Hear, hear.) No taxation, however grievous, no injustice, however glaring, acts so dangerously upon the Hindoo character as the persuasion that the authority of the Crown is exercised to induce him to abandon the religion he pro fesses. Now, have the Government of India lent a sanc tion to that suspicion of the Hindoos? Have the Govern ment taken a course which has led the mass of the people to believe that there was ground for such a suspicion ? Now, there were recent acts of the Government which had produced the most evil consequences. One enacted that no man should lose his property on account of changing his religion ; the other per mitted a Hindoo widow to marry a second husband. Both these acts had spread the greatest alarm and disturbance among the Hindoos. It was under these circumstances, with the great body of princes alarmed and the most powerful classes of the pro prietors smarting under grievances, that the annexa tion of Oude took place : For the first time, the Mahomedan princes felt that they had an identity of interest with the Hindoo Mahrattas. From that moment they set aside the sullen pride of former conquerors, who would not condescend to sympathise with the victims of Sattara. They saw that from a system founded upon a violation of Hindoo law they were not to be exempted. The moment that the throne of Oude was declared vacant, and English troops were poured into the territory, the Mahomedan princes understood what would be their future fate. You will see how the plot thickens. Yon have the whole of the Indian princes—men of diffe rent race and different religion—men between whom there were traditionary feuds and long and enduring prejudices, with all the elements to produce segregation—become united—Hindoos, Mahrattas, and Mabomedans—seeretly feeling a common interest and a common cause. (Hear, hear.) The princes and the proprietors are against you in their hearts. (Hear.) You have an active set spread all over India, alarming the ryot, the peasant, respeoting :- 741 his religious faith.fiNever mind what were sour intentions ; the question is what were their thoughts—what were their inferences ? In our Bengal regiments there were no fewer than 70,000 natives of Oude, who, in returning to their villages, found them in the possession of the East India Company, and that the severe system of our land revenue was about to be applied : But the annexation of Oude brought more than that. The Oude aepoy finds himself subjected to a hard and novel system of taxation and revenue. He finds ho has lost political privileges and the territorial position which he occupied, and, for the first time, the great body of the Bengal army is disaffected. How does that act? With the princes, the proprietors, and the religions classes, all for a long time distrusted and disaffected, the opportunity occurs, and the only class which can keep them in order is angry and discontented. Hon. gentlemen opposite will tell you that I have no evidence that there was any combi nation among these classes. It is a sadden impulse, says the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He may as well have told you that the income tax was a sudden impulse. (Laughter.) The annexation of Oude took place early in 1856. rids is only the middle of 1837. Is it true that there has been no evidence of combination and conspiracy in India? There may have been evidence which the Government has not understood. There may have been symbols which perplexed them. There may have been conduct, the motives of which they could not penetrate ; but that there is no evidence of combination for the last twelve mouths, especially in Bengal, seems to me a posi tion which cannot for a moment oo maintained. (Hear, hear.) The house has heard of the circulation of myste rious cakes in India, or, if not, allow me to tell them what hss taken place and was taking place in India nearly twelve months ago. This took place. A messenger comes to the head man of a village and brings him six pancakes— chupaitie-s, such as the natives make of wheaten flour, and he says, " These six pancakes are sent to yon; you will make six others, and send them on to the next village." The head man obeys, accepts the six cakes, makes six others, and sends them on to the head man of the next village with the same message. How (lid it begin ? It is a mystery. If we knew the village whence the pancakes were first circulated, we might get very valuable informa tion. Bat in the coarse of four or five months the whole of Bengal and the great part of the contiguous country have been subjected to this process of a man going from village to village, from head man to head man, from police station to police-station, leaving six pancakes, with no other order than that six other pancakes should be made and circulated. Suppose the Emperor of Russia, noose territory in extent and character has more resemblance to our Eastern possessions than the territory of any other power—suppose the Emperor of Russia were told, " Sire, there is a very remarkable circumstance going on in your territory ; from village to village men are passing who leave the tail of an ermine or a pot of caviare, with a mes sage to some one to perform the same ceremony. Strange to say, this has been going on in some 10,000 villages, and we cannot make head or tail of it." I think the Emperor of Russia would say, " I do not know whether you can make head or tail of it, but I am quite sure there is some thing wrong, and we must take some precautions, because, where the people are not usually indiscreet and trouble some, they do not make a secret communication unless it is opposed to the Government. This is a secret commu nication, and therefore a communication dangerous to the Government." This sending of cakes went on. Ido not say that the Government could penetrate the secret ; I do not find fault with them because they did not find it out. What I want to show is that there were outward and visible signs of confederacy. There was also an indication of conspiracy among the military which must have been known to the Indian Government. I allude to the cir cumstance of the lotus flower. A. man came with a lotus flower and gave it to the chief of a regiment. It was cir culated from hand to hand in the regiment, and every man who took it looked at it and passed it on, saying nothing. We must understand that every man who passed it on was acquainted with the plot. When it came to the last soldier of the regiment, be disappeared, and took it to the next station. The process was gone through in every regiment in Bengal. There was not a regiment, not a station, not an escort to which the lotus flower was not sent. All these things took place after the annexation of Oude. (Hear.) An hon. gentleman reminds me that last year the Bengal regiments refused their furloughs. That was certainly a significant circumstance. I ventured to say that I would show a state of society in India which proved the existence of general discontent, and, difficult as it might be to prove conspiracy, that I would offer to tho house facts and circumstances sufficient to convince them that there was conspiracy. I think I have said enough to induce the house to pause before they form too precipitate an opinion upon the causes of the disasters in India. I think I have said enough to make the house at leant feel that it is not by saying that we have to deal with a mere military mutiny that we shall save India. (Hear, bear.) The truth is, as I have shown, that the people of India were only waiting for an occasion and a pretext. That occasion was famished, and that pretext was soon devised. Now, it was impossible to believe that the Indian Government could have been ignorant of the state of the Bengal army. The mind of India during the war with Russia was known to be disquieted, and what measures did the Government take upo the conclusion of peace with Russia to devote all their energies and resources to the settlement of India ? The first policy should have been one of profound peace —a policy suggested by the disitnetude which prevailed, according to Lord Canning hims elf, during the war between England and Russia. What was the course . Was it of a sedative and tranquillising nature ? ri:A