The Press. — London, England, 1853-05-28 00:00:00

PM MAY 28, 1853. Lion that " some admixture of Indian practical! k n owledge might be of great use." I n p lace of the present Court of Proprietors Mr. Campbell proposes to substitute a " Court of Experts," to consist of " all who atre, or have been, in at respectable position in India." " I would make the qualification as wide as possible." This is surely at somewhat rash proposal, when we remember that this same " Court of Experts" would have to elect a large number of " senators." Why, the humiliating process, as it has been called, of securing IL seat in the present direction, so much animadverted upon by some of our contemponnies, would be centupled : at candidate would have to eat as much dirt, and perhaps even spend as much money, as though he were trying to attain the dignity of representing lambed' or Canter bury. The election by the Court of Proprie tors may be bad enough, but the Court of Experts will never do. The author concludes his chapter on the home Government with some remarks on the distribution of patron age, and justly condemns any sale of appoint ments, a plan which has been lately proposed by some theoretical reformers. With r egard to selling civil appointments he says most truly and foreibly, that " the appointments should no more be sold than English judgeships." Under the head of " The Indian Government" Mr. Campbell insists much on the necessity of one central Goventntent, and on the aulvantage of conducting such Government in the name of the Crown. The project of establishing a centnd administrative power was proposed and enacted in 1833, but has not been carried out in practice. We think that the adoption of the regal authority by name is immaterial, but that it is to the last degree important to enforce the design of 1833, so far as regards the centralisation of power. It was as follows 4 ' First, to vest a complete central adminis trative power in at supreme Government, and thus to secure at uniform and effi cient administration throughout India. Se eond, to secure to the central tiovennuent co mplete a control over at management of the imperial finatnees as should ensure theirhealthy condition, and prevent one Government from spending what another saved." Whilst on the subject of the alterations in 1533, Air. Camp bell takes the opportunity of remarking severely upon that leviathan of Whig jobs, the Indiana Law Commission, prefacing 'them with the pithy observation that " the legislative failure "is the most complete of all." We are aware that much hats been said in the defence of the Commission and the Commissioners, but we think that Mr. Priusep has fairly summed up in the following words : The. Law Commission and Legislative Council, pro vided for India in 1833, have primed themselves hitherto quite incapable of dealing with these difficulties. The twenty yens of their experinwntalb•gislation has left the work of codification, for the establishment of one simple mad uniform eourse of prveibire, WOINV than invomplete— not even attAnupted. The advovates the AM el 1111 l 1414. 14011 Ilrelart , that they haul not fair play, because the legis lative Council and the Government refused implicitly to follow their suggestions, which were shalwil orilinarilY on the extreme principles of :Jeremy Bentham. lint these lawyers were not sent out to be ilecenivirs to override the Government; the hope was, that (lacy would assist the authorities in India in accomplishing a work avowedly desired by all. If they became the partisans of opiniurts opposed to those of Government, or of any extreme opinions, that circumstance alone was sure to Is tidal to the com pletion of the work, and an expedient liable to such an nevi dent was of very doubtful wimtam.* No doubt the Indian Law Commission was excellent in theory ; no doubt also that the commissioners have collected and published a vast hotly of most valuable information, but it is undigested and unarranged ; it is scattered through thousands of pages of blue-hooks, and moreover might have been obtained gratis. The result of their labours. so far as legislation is concerned, is ail. The cost of the Law Commission may be reckoned by hun dreds of thousands of sterling money the tangible benefits arising from its institution might be written on at sheet of foolscap. Yet Mr. Cameron tells us of the grand improve ments that are to come to pass, and what that ill-used body, the Law Commission and the Legislative Members of Council, mean to d 0,4. as thought the experiment were recent and pro. • The India Question in lead. Hy lieury T. Priusep., Esq. be°. Loudon, 1e53, Allen. 1). 54. +An Address to Paritiunent on the Duties of Great itritaiu to By C. Hay Cam:o. t3vv. Loudvu, Lougiums. THE PRESS. milting, instead of being at titilttre of twenty years' standing. which hats involved the expen diture of upwards of half a million. We must piss on to our atuthos system of s upreme government in India. Il i re is at stilll mury of his Out : The Supreme Government to vonsist of the Governor. Generul cull the following respotthible inlvisertt:— Minister of ibolitiet4l atlratif , .. .. I to lbe members Of a 4• 0 1 - Miniater of the interior . • .. i wit tee et public attiirs. Minister of jostiet., to lie ‘ive•iiresidetit of a eolaiaitt,•4. orills,tiee. MiiliSter of agrioisot atttitiN • • . • I to be members ..f a Volll- M illiSter of tete . iota li ttttt ice • . I wittl.4. of reaouree , ... Milikter of military mat am al Adair% I to be w...eialw aar ra of a COM . The Couituitatter•iii-i'lliet. • .1 o T heio I wilt. o t . The govertior, deloity • 11. ItvoteloOtt•gotcrilor• of the place where the Supreme tote • ent may mooluble. The *bow io form the eAloittet council of the Governor. tielieral. 'lwo law eololaissioner4 50t...0101M0 I.• Ow minister of Josii...., ow 01. be itivoitik,r4.4 tile . tt.•.• of just 1 ,•,.. Four tvintnitnws (of public affairs jilstiee, resotirecs, and War) to be formed. each couttiotaA of the I ioveritur- I icileral and ii winbc Es 11.•sOititeal also e ; alid t Ile l ;to ericw. General tatty appoint a n y local governor a member of any committee within his terlitories. 'f he committee of justice to act as :t law commission. Ile proposes that the Governor -t i eller:it ;mil Commander-itt42ltief should Ile apt ' ted by the Senate, and that their appointments should be confirmed by the l'rown. Ile makes some just remarks on the actual plan of appointing to the highest offices in India : At present the minor goverliorSliiiel of Mittlras tual Bombay are literally the only ground t-, ttttttttttt to English and Indian SelNallita ; the I ;over...Mel iclitertil, I . 4% ttttt WWII . ernitt-Chief, and legislative councillors being e\ellisit el% English: all the rest exelusively Indian. Now, I think that, if we arc to hate English governors at all, it is of tin' very highest impolianee that her Majesty's Go% cite ment should have some men at their c, 1111 l Imo .1., know 1 .,5. not only their personal conntlenee, but already something of lulls and Italian atfairs;—that a new tiovernor-tieneral should not Deco:wilily commence the tumptisiti 111 l of the very rust gits of Indian knowledge et I . his appointment. It should be posNible to setet it rising item to India in a secondary ptist in the first instance, where, (wrfoniting a speeial thit, for whieli 111 . has speeial iptalitieations, he might acquire a general kiloWletlge of the county and this people, Riot of the general twining of all 41epailinelliS ; alai I also think it but fair and rtgeolitalile th.tt the best Indian servants should nut lw excluded by Mbe fl . Olll the Very highest appoint taunts, and woubl open everything to their honest multi lion, especially when, by serviee sir reSidelice at %wale, they beeonw pet-sunnily known to her Majesty's advisers. I would then arrange that between men rising in Eng land who hate seen service in India, and well who have risen in ludic employer' at home, it class of states men shiatld Is' irontO.ll, VOilitaloll tea thus MIA ill• r VI litittry and her great dependeney—a coiniceting link between them—who would intivmhire lute Eugland some know ledge of, and interest in, Indian affairs, and int 110 littlin swine English progres4 ; and flint gOVl•EllOrti 141111111 111. Mir 'Wed frl an this class ; SO that, on tie' OW hood, the English politicians 144.11 t to liolitt linty pi 0155.104 1.011111/4 g41.1A ktiOWll . ll . 4 l. and skill , and, ton tlw other, the hihest apointments may lw opcit to the best of Hum. Inalisti ser p vants who may migrant European progress on Indian exps•nslice. Why, it may be t•otItC1111Cd, should we staid tint Lord this Or that when such men as Mitleohn, Butterwt nth Bayley, laphinstone, or Metcalft., are available? If in this country the woolsotek liettomes vanilla, we take the 014'4 Malt intuit the rankm of the legal profession and give hint it peentge : the office earries with it the rank — the tank does not confer the office. is it not tut anomaly that because a man happens to be at peer, and perhaps even a statesman, that he should be appointed to the almost despotic government of a vast and distant country, ignorant of its people, history, and restottrees? IS it not an anomaly that, whilst Sir Edward Sugden is must judiciously promoted to a el In net and the Chaurellormhip, Sir Charles Met calfe, proposed by the Court of Directors as Governor-Genentl, and undoubtedly the most fitting man in the whole world at the time for the office, 'should be rejected. and bard Auckland appointed in his stead ? It is true that in that instance a sort of poetical justice was dealt out to the man : Sir Charles became Lard Metcalfe ; but what eould palliate; the injustice to the country which lost his services, stud received instead those of Lord Auckland—" a highly " perese table but by no means brilliant 1111111, as Mr. Campbell elsewhen. calls him.* A very impatant alteration pn•posed b f y o ur ur author is. the removal if the seat o Supreme Government from Calcutta: he sup ports his views with considerable ingenuity. and discusses the relative merits of the pre sent capit id, of 13onnbay,DAB, Agnt, and Simla, and concludes in favour of a place that pro bably M few of our readers have sp ever hearof, usso orie. We have not a ce to c utter • Modtru luau, V. IV3. 91 into his arguments, but there is one against Calcutta which he has overlooked. The advo. eates for things its they are, and amongst them Mr. I'6nm), it high autlunity, consider that t 'aleutta should remain the metropolis of India. as being the only port for the whole of the iangetie plains ; but the frequent changes of the bed of the Ganges render it very possible. if not pri.huble, that in u few years the City of Palaces" will no longer he a pOrt. In ale year 1757 Admiral Watson took five ships of war up to Chandernagore : the river at that point is now only navigable for hosts and small waft. Ever,y day the *tern& of the Ganges lessens its depth, and the Aver break ing through its banks fiirms fresh Asttnels itself. At any unforeseen moment Calcutta may per be found on the banks iif an hi considentble stream, and the mighty rher Way send its tribute to the ocean, through what now is a narrow waterciawse, many utiles &dant from the metropolis. This is au niaportallt eonsnterat ion.nua, combined with the unhealth iness of the climate, would lead ns to think twice over any proposition for removing dn• seat of government. We confess, however. that we hardly appreciate the numerous supposed advantages urged by Mr. Ounpbell in favour of Mussoorie, which, by the way, wants water, and the chief of these, the fiteility 111 fortifying the plare, with us weighs nothing. The moment our safety in . India de 1101111 M upon befit ietei.relll/ehts , taut e it i lidebt. we lutil better make our salaam and go. A milt tary friend of ours who has traversed India the new valiant; and if a healthy climate, a central situation, and the vicinity of one of the finest harbours in the world ttliat of ilombily) br revoutmemlat ions, certainly no better spot could be chosen. lbw author proposes the division of the British territories into tine local t iovernMents , viz.: Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Hindustan (the term North-Western Provinces having beeomo inappropriate), and the luaus terri tories ; each to lie presided W `errand Managedit by it governor, a deputy-gove instead of couneil, and secretaries. All such local Govern ments to be in subordination to the Supremo iovernment. This seems to us to be a rational proposition, and worthy of serious attention. The enormous extent of the Bengal presidency at present renders it absolutely seeessary adopt some measures for dividing it. 'We, however, have much diotlit as to the propriety of Mideititlit ileputy-goventi•rs for the ei But, we must conclude. India, though a question of vast importance, is not the all. absorbing topic of the day, and our readers will perhaps blame its for trespassing so much upon their attention. Mr. Campbell's work may not, however, be dismissed in a few words, and ehopeto be able to return to it, ere long. w We a re compelled with regret to leave untouched the auth4ll'.l4 valuable remarks I the native states, the civil administration, the supreme courts, the East India College, and especially the great subjects of ednea re tion and the spreading 47f Christianity. Withregard to the last topic, Mr. Campbell aptly rontrasts the success of Ninak, the Sikh apostle, with the failure of our niissionaries, ad points ouit, t to the hitter a line of conduct wh n ih, though l it perhaps might prove unpalatable to many of the reverend gentlemen. wltuld doubtless tend to produce the most benetieial results. lo taking leave of " India as it. May BO" for the present, we again reeommen d with soun it %oust eordiasenselly to Our readers. It is re p lete d , and we think that many 44 the emenda tions proposed might, be carried into effect with advantage; for although we are far from being in favour , 4 •t* such sweeping reformation as that suggested by the author, and, indeed, would Wildly raise our Voice against the pub lic outcry, and say of the Kowa system that "It works well," still we may not hint our eyes to the filet that there is great room for im provement. We ma add, in what sy stem of evernment is there i n ot ? Who shall eastthe Hest st•ate? The History of fiermany, and the Austria's Empire, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. By Miss Corner. London : Dean and Son. of 'fist: authoress fairly acknowledges the difilculty 414 s.