The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-01 00:00:00

MARCH 1, 1856• rarsons. The madness of taking into council - Dien of broken fortunes and tainted characters was disgraceful, and the public fame of certain British statesmen must be grievously tarnished by the vile means used for overthrowing Lord DERBY ' S Cabinet. LIFE LORDS AND LAW LORDS. Tilts question has now reached a stage at uhich it may not be inconvenient to remind our readers of its original starting-point. When, some six or seven weeks ago, it was an nounced to the public that Sir JAMES PARKE was to be created a peer for life, there was little difference of opinion about the real meaning of the measure. Some thought the innova tion expedient, some dangerous, some useless, but few doubted that it was part of a much more extensive scheme than was allowed to appear. Certain of our Liberal contemporaries honestly, though we think indiscreetly, ad witted as much, and rejoiced in the prospect of the coming time when men like FARADAY, PLAYFAIR, and LANDSEER should take their seats in the House of Peers. We have dwelt upon this aspect of the question because we felt that the plea of strengthening the legal element in the House of Lords was a mere pretext, and that the Wensleydale Peerage was meant as a pre cedent for a succession of peerages resembling those of France, and created without doubt for a similar purpose. Government and its instigators, becoming slowly aware of the state of public feeling, en deavoured to back out of the undertaking, with as little loss to their reputation as pos sible. But they were not permitted to escape with impunity from their discreditable manceu- Tres Two damaging defeats in quick succes sion taught them a lesson which we trust they will not forget. Had they openly come for ward with such a measure as that introduced by Lord DERBY on Thursday night, they would have had the country with them. But their underhand way of proceeding, while it afforded incontestable evidence that their real object was something quite different from his, undoubtedly added much to the feeling of indignation with which their Lordships re jected it. A standing army of life peers would be bad enough, however established ; but an attempt to smuggle them in under cover of the judge's robe, is a piece of dishonesty which its authors must by this time be heartily ashamed of. The Government organs now declare that the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords has been the real question from the be ginning. If SO, Government took singular pains to disguise their intention. They must have a partiality for crooked dealings in the abstract, and a dislike to a straight road when it is open before them. But, in reality, such assertions are but so many attempts to throw dust in the eyes of the public. Had they wished only to strengthen and renovate the judicial powers of the House, the way was simple enough. The satisfaction with which all parties have received Lord DERBY'S suggestions shows very clearly that the Lords entertain no objec tion to the reform of their appellate jurisdic tion. Two long and energetic debates, there fore, and two divisions, were required to dis pose of a point for which nobody cared, while the important principle at issue has been agreed upon without any division, and after only one short evening's conversation ! Lord DERBY'S speech of Thursday last re quires little comment. It was a lucid and succinct statement of the condition in which the supreme court of appeal now found itself, and of the various methods which had been proposed to amend it. His Lordship com pletely exhausted the question, and investi gated every alternative. He stated that there were no less than seven objections to the court as at present cons tit ute d , b ut j u di c i ous l y re frained from the proposal of any definite re medy, merely holding out the example of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for the consideration of their Lordships. It is un necessary at present to say more than that the House seems fully to have concurred in the views of the Noble Earl, which will proba b THE PRESS. form the basis of some wholesome and perma nent measure. The Times calls his motion a triumph of public opinion ; and in this we perfectly agree. Public opinion has supported their Lordships in resisting an un just aggression ; and their Lordships will re• spect public opinion by amending whatever experience may pronounce defective. But, before this could be done, it was absolutely necessary to expose and throw overboard the suggestion of those who would have used the occasion for their own purposes ; to show the country that the question of life peerages was not inextricably wound up with that of legal reform, and that, though they might touch each other at certain points, the origin, character, and tendencies of the two were completely and widely separate. REAL STATE OF INDIA. ON the 10th of December last the Bombay Association forwarded a petition to the Go vernment of India on the subject of Public Works. It is a great deal toe long to admit of our transferring it in extenso to our columns, but we shall recapitulate some of the princi pal points which it contains. The Directors are so perpetually assuring us that they govern India entirely for the benefit of the natives, that tir'ere can be no harm in laying before the public what is said on►the subject by the natives themselves. In doing so, we shall quote as nearly as possible their own words. They begin then by saying that until very late years (that is, until the attention of the Legislature to the question was somewhat aroused) British India had been left almost entirely without assistance from Government in respect of public works of utility, a few lines of road for military purposes being all that it was thought advisable for the State to con struct. Tanks, works of public utility, works of irrigation, ports, and quays, were for the most part neglected, as out of the province of Government; and even the superb structures whose ruins attest the benevolence of former rulers, were allowed to fall into decay. They go on to state that it must now be considered as beyond dispute that all those works which in England would be constructed by private enterprise, or provided for by local rates, must in India be undertaken out of its own funds. This proposition is self-evident in the condi tion to which the Company have reduced landed property iu India by the annihilation of all independent proprietary rights, but it would no longer be tenable if those measures were taken to re-establish them which we have so often pointed out. An independent proprietary, with the consequent transfer of the construction of public works to private enterprise and local rates, is the only sure foundation on which the prosperity of any country whatever can be made to rest. The petitions proceed to submit that, while the population of Western India is vast, peace able, and industrious, its soil fertile, and its productive capabilities great and various, its resources from the want of the first necessi ties of a civilised country are almost wholly undeveloped. With some trifling exceptions, they observe that nothing has been done for its improvement since it became a possession of the British Crown. Its ancient construc tions, most of them the works of native and so•called barbarous rulers, have for the most part been suffered to decay, and nothing has been substituted for them. Most of its rivers are without bridges, and sand is left to choke up their channels; its roads mere fair weather tracks, impassable after a day's rain ; its ports are without piers or quays; its rich soil is allowed to remain waste for the want of irrigation. There is not a single port in the Gulf of Cambay, to which converge all the productions of the rich cotton districts of Western India, that has the ordinary accommodation for traffic that in other countries would belong to a mere fishing village A hundred years ago the mercantile navies of France, England, and Holland, might ride in the Taptu river—now the mouth of it is, from the neglect of our Government, 195 almost entirely filled up. The condition of Broach, a great cotton emporium, is still worse than Surat. Gogo, Dundooka, and the other so called ports of the Gulf of Cambay, are in the same state, and will probably in a few years be completely destroyed ; yet the value of annual imports and exports at these places ranges from three to four millions ster ling. The petitioners refer for a description of the roads leading to these ports to the work of the late Mr. MACKAY, the Commissioner whom the Manchester Chamber of Commerce sent out, and to whose complete accuracy they bear witness, notwithstanding that by India house organs it has been so unblushingly im pugned. They further allege that it is con• firmed by the statements of official persons in India, notwithstanding their natural disin clination to tell their masters in Leadenhall street disagreeable truths. They also quote from the Trade Circular of one of the most eminent cotton firms in India, who state em phatically that nowhere else in the world would this want of means of transit to, from, and within regions of great natural resources, be tolerated. Candeish, this firm says, yields a gross revenue of nearly a quarter of a million sterling, of which so small a pittance is allowed for outlay on roads, that it has been insufficient even to keep in repair those fair-weather tracks which have from time to time been made. Berar is said to have produced last year a magnificent cotton crop, and the quantity might be indefinitely increased, but it is use less, because there are no means of conveying it to the coast. In America, they aver that the cotton crop has nearly' doubled within the last eleven years—in India it has been nearly stationary for all that time. Why? it is asked. Because in America eleven thousand miles of railway have been made in the period, while in all India there have not been completed one hundred miles. It is impossible they say to increase the cultivation of cotton if the growers can find no sale for it, owing to the want of means of conveying it to the coast. With proper means of communication opened, they state that, not only in cotton, but in wool, hemp, linseed, and many other articles, they would be prepared to compete with America or any other country in the world. Even the few miles of road that have been made are stated to be utterly useless in a commercial point of view, having been con structed solely for the convenience of the Governors and their staff in their transit to their country seats, or for the passage to military stations of troops and military stores. Yet even on these the expenditure has been less than one per cent. of the revenue from the period since we first obtained possession. From the report of the Government's own revenue servants, the result is shown to be that the only effect of a good year to the far mer is to destroy his profits, the price falling proportionately; while the surplus corn over local consumption is inconvertible into cash in consequence of his being unable to trans port it to a more distant market. The expen diture on works of irrigation, roads, bridges, &c., over an area of nearly sixty-eight thou sand square miles, had been shown by a late Parliamentary return to be less than forty thousand pounds yearly for the four years preceding 1851—an outlay not much exceed ing that made by the Municipal Board of Bombay for roads, drains, and conservancy at the capital, within a space not exceeding nine teen square miles ! Could a more forcible contrast of the state of things in the interior, compared with that at the Presidency capitals, be by any possibility furnished ? Such are the main allegations of this impor tant petition of the Bombay Association, a paper well worthy the study and attention of every public man. The remedies they propose, though good in themselves, are however wholly inadequate to meet the evils they point out, which it is very clear can only be combated by putting all India on the footing of the Presidency capitals, by establishing competent and incorruptible legal tribunals, and a permanent well-secured property in the land. These are what have really raised Bombay to its present high state of civilisa tion and wealth. These are what induce its public to lay out voluntarily in roads, drainage, &c., for its nineteen square miles of area, as - it • 'Oa