The Press. — London, England, 1858-08-28 00:00:00

j/hH rtA At LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST `:8,1858. No. 278.—V 0L . VI. STAMPED ....SIXPEN.'E. UIsISTAMPED—FIVEPENCE. OUR INDIAN POLICY. WHEN we have reconquered India, there will remain a greater task behind in the question, ]low shall we govern it ? What line of policy shall we henceforth pursue ? What principles shall we determine to apply? This will be the rock on which India will be wrecked and lost, or the anchor by which she will be held fast and saved. We have pawed a " Bill for the Better Govern ment of India." But the passing of a Bill, and the applying of principles, are two very different things. The Bill referred to rather provides the agencies than lays down the principles by which India is to be governed. Again we ask, then, What is the policy intended henceforth to be adopted in the government of our Indian empire? Is it to be the timid, no-principle, "traditionary policy," which has resulted in the late insurrec tion or mutiny? Or shall we henceforth adopt a bold, honest, decisive, Christian policy ? These are important questions, pregnant with great issues either for good or for evil,—and if mooted at all, ought to be well weighed and soberly dis cussed. It is in no spirit of rashness or presump tion we take them up, but with a sincere desire to contribute the small fractions of our own reasons towards their solution. It will be only candid in us to confess at once that we strongly incline to the bolder policy as the wiser. We believe that timidity has been our trap, and that, now at least, the time for timidity has gone by. Hitherto, we have ruled India by sufferance,—henceforth, we must rule it as conquerors, or we shall not long be permitted to rule it at all. Such is our decided opinion. But we shall be expected to give our reasons for coming to these conclusions. The first ground that we take is, that any other than a bold, un hesitating, authoritative system of government now will be liable to make us misunderstood by the natives—it will be interpreted into fear on our Part. This will encourage to fresh conspiracies, to fresh combinations for our overthrow. But daunt them by our decision, awe them by the signs of our power, and they will crouch submission. There is nothing so impresses a Hindoo as authority. It is the ideal before which he has always bowed. lie reverences nothing that does not wear the outward form and aspect of Des potism. It is the form of Despotism—not, of course, its spirit—we advocate for India. By a stern, prompt, decisive course of action in the Government at this crisis, the Mussulman will be overawed, the Ifindoo will quietly acquiesce, and all the Native Princes will feel that they are muter the rule of one who must be obeyed, and so will submit. A fearless course, then, it is that will be far more likely than any other to have the effect of permanently quieting India. Our second reason is, that it is in the nature of all Asiatics to despise moral weakness; to uspect treachery in others ; to double upon LATEST EDITION. duplicity. Any want of open, honest dealing on our part they will impute to some sinister design. They know us well enough now in our institu tions, in our principles, in our religion, in our own country, to know what to expect of us. By attempting to impose upon them, we shall only impose upon ourselves. Our policy with them ought to be as open as the day. Anything like mystery, or ambiguous expressions, or half avowals of our intentions; are specially to be avoided in our public action with such a people. Suspicion, distrust, cunning, weak artifice, are indigenous qualities in Asiatic minds. Such minds always despise those most who exhibit the same infir mities as themselves. All weak nations, indeed, as women, are best controlled by, because they most respect, the strong and manly qualities of frankness and decision. We must teach our Indian subjects to trust us; and to teach them to trust us, we must have the manliness to be per fectly truthful. There is a third ground—and obviously by itself a sufficient one—on which we advocate a bold course, and that is, because a different policy has failed, and always, we believe, will fail in India ; whereas a bold course has in re peated instances succeeded. In proof of this we have only to call to mind what CLINE, and DUNCAN, and BEXTINCK, and NAPIER, and other worthies of past days, achieved by daring yet prudent action ; or what LAWRENCE, and En wAnus, and MosToommtv, have accomplished in the way of government lately, without any suppression of their Christianity. Would Bengal be now a British province if Cuvr. had faltered ? Would infanticide have been put a stop to if DUN CAN had listened to pleas for respect to age-long pre judices ? Would Sutteeism have been put down if 13F.NTINCli had been deterred by the threat of insurrection ? What brought Scinde so soon into subjection but NAPIER'S sternness ? Would the l'unjaub be still our quiet possession if Sir JOHN LAWRENCE had exhibited indecision ? But what is most worthy of remark is, that almost all of these governors innovated upon the religion of the natives ; they more or less aban doned a dishonest "neutrality," and made the religious principles of England to be the govern ing religious principles of India. The fear, then, that a bold avowal of our Christianity would risk the loss of India appears to be only the bugbear raised up by our own unbelief. A Christian system of government—that is, a system of government based upon Christian principles — is what we ought to resolve now to establish in India. But we shall be expected to explain more fully what we mean by a Christian system of govern ment. This we will endeavour to do. First, the Queen of England is, we presume, to be proclaimed as the Queen or Empress of Hindostan. Let this be in her Christian, and not merely in her Sovereign capacity; that is, let the proclamation run, " Her Christian Majesty, " the Queen of Great Britain, hereby makes it " known to her Indian subjects, &c:' Second, as to the principles of government that shall be avowed, let it be declared that the moral law of England shall henceforth be the moral law of India—that is, in all questions of crime, or of social right, or of justice between man and man, or of civil order, or of religious toleration, let the same principles be applied to India as are applied to England. By thus establishing the law of England, the question (one of extreme difficulty iftiniidly dealt with) of the public recognition, within the provinces under our sway, of Ilindooism or of Nlahometanism, as the State religions, would be indirectly yet decisively resolved. All open demonstrations of idolatrous worship, as of Popery in our own country, in the forms of public processions, licentious festivals, and indecent exhibitions, would become unlawful, and would in due time cease. It is not the com pulsory adoption of Christianity, be it observed, or the adoption of Christianity at all, except upon conviction, that we advocate, but only the State patronage of Christianity, so far as regards Go vernment approval. To attempt to make con verts of the natives by force or by fraud would indeed be as futile as it would be foolish. Let it be distinctly proclaimed that it is no part of Christianity to propagate itself by the arm of power; that it has respect to the rights and feelings of all men, and will constrain none ; that it will impar tially protect all, while it can patronize no religion but its own. Such a policy as this the natives would ' understand, and, we believe, appreciate, because it would be honest. They never believe us if we profess absolute neutrality, or adopt a reverse line of policy, in what may be termed political coquetry. We cannot help thinking, too, that it would add greatly to our influence instead of a Governor-General, a Viceroy were appointed, to be aided by a local Council, pre sided over by a Lord Chancellor as the highest legal adviser. The pomp, and splendour, and ce remonious circumstance of a Viceregal Court— representing to Eastern eyes the majesty of the absent Sovereign—would have a prodigious effect upon the Asiatic imagination, and tend power fully to secure contented submission. The hold policy which we advocate will, how ever, involve something more than negatives. Schools and colleges, for the inculcation of sound knowledge and correct morals, should everywhere be established, gradually , silent work of sapping and perstitions of the native these should, of course, neither bribery nor force The State should here act the Ruler. This would, truly merciful course. with injustice, even if Can religion were added, F and quietly, to do their nd undermining the cu- res. Thg atiklialie_..lsl ,be quite.. ;(. , , k ._' L• 11 - 1 T ghoul , , , , •,' 0! " • . :.....; act the P . tir.4o ~ I , in the ... L .,. t . 1 - iii „. o oc ,-- it cow ....11 - • • . 1. "'' ft. I A ;4,10 instrUCtita Ni - TT : .4 tit.,