The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-04 00:00:00

TUE GOVERNMENT OF

Sir CHARLES WOOD then rose to state the views of
the Govemment with regard to the future govern-
ment of India. Having alluded to the magnitude of
the subject with which he proposed to deal—a sub-
ject affecting, for weal or fur woe, 150,000,000 of
British subjects in India—he expressed his convic-
tion that, whatever difference of opinion there might
be with regard to the plan of the t;overnment, party
spirit would not be imported into the discussion. It
might be contended that there should be delay, or
that we should continue the present, act for another
year. He deprecated delay, considering the maimi-
tube of the subjects at stake, mid that the present
peaceful state of the world was favourable for legis-
lation. The plan of the Government would he small
in compass, and embrace only the question of the
government of India at home and abroad. To those
who contended for further inquiry he replied, that
inquiry upon many of the topics embraced had been
completed, and that what remained to be in-
quired into would consume a ranch longer time
than some anticipated. All testimony con-
curred in advising immediate legislation, and
in pointing out the danger of delay. Expa-
tiating at considerable length upon the various
featnres of Indian government as heretofore con-
ducted by the mixed authority of the Board of
Directors and Board of Control, Sir C. Wood
contended that a large portion of the evils which had
been alleged against it were merely supposititious, and
others were inevitable. That India must not, be
judged by an English standard, whether as regards
the administration of justice, the rapidity of action,
patronage, or public works, was a point on which
he insisted with much iteration. And on all those
topics he drew, from copious citations 4,f facts and com-
parisons
of result, the conclusion, that, under British
rule, the natives of India had attained a pitch of
prosperity, and enjoyed a degree of happiness and
security, such as they had never known under their
native princes. Advancing then to the question of
the night, he proceeded to develop the Minis-
terial scheme for the future government of India.
The double government was to be retained. The
Court of Directors were to be reduced from thirty to
eighteen, six to be nominated by the Crown from
persons who had served ten years in India. One
third of the board were to vacate every second year ;
lint the outgoing parties were to be i;ligible fir re-
electi He did not propose to make any change in
the constituency of the elective members of the
hoard. The change in the constitution of the board,
h ,wever, was to be gradual, and the board were to
serve for six years. It was not proposed to make the
new arrangement terminable, but any alteration was
to be left to the discretion of Parliament. In consi-
deration of the additional labour it was proposed that
each director should receive rpont. per annum, with
101110/. each to the chairman lit el deputy-chairman.
The present system of parOURRe %% as to be

THE PRESS.

done away with, as also the system of nomina-
tions. Merit alone was hereafter to be the
test of all appointments. With respect to the
administration of justice, the right hon. gentle-
man stated that the course of education would be
this :—That the examination for the civil service
should take place before the parties left England,
and should be conducted by independent judges.
The two law courts which now existed in India, the
Queen's and the Sudder Courts, were to be amalga-
mated, and presided over by judges not only con-
versant with the law of England, but with that of
India.
The address of Sir C. Wood was followed by a
speech from Mr. BRIGHT, in which he expressed
many objections to the Government plan. The house
then adjourned.
MINISTERIAL DISAGREEMENTS.—We are assured,
by parties likely to be well informed, that Messrs.
Keogh, Monsell, and Sadleir, have retired from the
places they held under Lord Aberdeen's Administra-
tion. What may have led to this Ministerial rupture
will, no doubt, be known before long ; but, for the
present, we shall content ourselves with saying that
we believe the statement mentioned above to be cor-
rect.—Morning Ilerakl.
TIIE CONFIRMATION OF THE COUNT DE PARIS took
place on Thursday morning, in the presence of the ex-
Royal Family of France and a number of the English
nobility, at the chapel of the French embassy, in
King-street, Portman-square. The Duke de Chartres
at the same time made his first communion. Car-
dinal Wiseman, Roman Catholic Archbishop of the
district, officiated.
THE SLIGO ELECTION COMMITTEE have unseated
Mr. Townley, on the ground that he was guilty of
bribery and treating by means of his agents, and
have passed some stringent and appropriate resolu-
tions on the conduct of the Roman Catholic priests
at the election.
JUDGMENT Was given in the celebrated WAGNER
CASE yesterday in the Court of Queen's Bench. Mr.
Justice Crompton said that the law of the case was
clear and simple. It was an admitted principle that
where one person contracted with another to perform
a certain service, the contract was, in fact, between
master and servant ; and where malicious interference
had taken place to prevent a servant, whether menial
or otherwise, from performing the contract, the per-
son inducing the breach of contract was subject to
an action, to the extent of the special damages. His
opinion was, therefore, that judgment should go for
the plaintiff. Mr. Justice Erie and Lord Campbell
also pronounced in favour of the plaintiff, and, Mr.
Justice Coleridge being the only dissentient, judg-
ment was given for Mr. Lumley.
HENRY GEORGE FRANCIS REYNOLDS MORETON, Earl
of Ducie, expired on Thursday at Tortworth Park,
Gloucestershire. His lordship MRS in the fifty-second
year of his age, and is succeeded in the title and
estates by his son, Lord Moreton, whose elevation to
the peerage creates la vacancy in the representation
or Stroud.
HER MAJesry has been pleased to give a donation
of OtMll. to the fund for the erection of the colossal
statue of Richard Cteur de Lion by Baron Marochetti
in a conspicuous part of the metropolis, and his Royal
Highness Prince Albert has contributed 1001. to the
same object.

The Journal dot DZbabt says that Prince Menschi-
kotf, who arrived at Odessa on the 23r4.1 ult., left on
the following morning for St. Petersburg, which city
he was expected to reach about the 31st.
Russia demands from the Shah of Persia either
the immediate repayment of the loan of 50,000,000 f.,
or the cession of the territory of Asterabad, on the
shores of the Caspian. The Shah has refused com-
pliance with either demand.

(From Last Night's Gazette.)
WHITEHALL, Jttsr. 1.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint the Right Hon. Thomas
Berry Cusack Smith, Master of the Rolls of the High Court of
Chancery in Ireland ; Sir Creswell Cresswell, Knight, one of the
Justices of the Court of Common Hess iu England; John Mar-
shall, Esquire. one of the Senators of the College of Justice In
scothmti; George Valliant Wilshere Bramwell, Esquitv, one of
her Majesty's Counsel ; Jetties Anderson. Esquire, one of her
Majesty's Counsel; Kirkman Daniel Hodgson, .:squire; Thomas
Ilitzley, Esquire; and Hobert Slater, Esquire, to he her Majesty's
commissioners for inquiring into the expediency of assimilating
the Mereautile Laws of the United Kingdom.
WAR-OFFICE, JUNE 3.
.241 Regiment of Dragoon Guards—Mtdor-tionertd the Nola
Henry F. Compton Cavendish to be Colonel, vice General Sir
Ilionitts liege Montretior, K.C., deceased.
WAR-OFFICE, JUNE 3.
1,1 Regiment of Dragoon Guards--4:aptain George Briggs to
he Major; Lieutenant George John Bridge tube Captain; Cornet
Erebil I larpttr Crewe to be Lieutenant.
sth Dragoon Onards--Assistant Surgeon O'Connor DA reey,
M.D., front the 3d light Dragoons, to be Assistant Surgeon.
11th Light D..agoons--Surgeon Jahn Burton St. Croix Crosse,
from the 31st Foot, to be Surgeon.
15th Light Dragoons—Surgeon John Moore. ?A.D., from the
!lilt light Dragoons, to be Surgeon.
Ist Regiment of Fuot—Ensign Rupert George Brady to be
Lieutenant.
6th Foot—First Lieutenant John Swaine Hogge to be Cap-
tain (without purchase) ; Second lieutenant Legh Richmond
Parry to be First Lieuteneut ; Gentleman Cadet Frederick

SATURDAY,

James Mylins, from the Royal Military College, to be Second
Lieutenant.
15th Foot—Ensign Charles Jeffereys Watson Allen to be
Lieutenant; Lieutenant John Walinsley to be Adjutant.
31st Foot—Surgeon John Marshall, from 15th Light Dragoons,
to be Surgeon.
33rd Foot—Ensign John Thornton Rogers, from 81st Foot, to
be Ensign.
Foot—Gentleman Cadet Herbert Henry Moseley, from
the Royal Military College, to be Ensign (without purchase).
52ud Foot—Lieutenunt,Colonel Robert George Hughes, from
80th Foot, to be Lieutenant• Colonel; Lieutenant Francis William
Fellows, from 26th Foot, to be Paymaster.
53rd Foot—Captain William Bageuall, from Ceylon Ride
Regiment, to be captain.
both Foot—EttaignJohn Martley to be Lieutenant, by purchase.
63111 Foot—Major the Honourable Robert Alexander George
DisizeU, from etlbt Foot, to be Major, vice Allen, who exchaage,•,l
87th Loot—Ensign Charles William Pearson to be Lieu.
tenant.
Cifitli Foot—Lieutenant George Ernest Bulger, from half pay,
Royal Catiudian Ride Regiment to be Lieutenant.
73d Foot—Assistant-Surgeon Charles Walter Poulton, front
the stale, to be Aasiataut•Durgeon.
81st Foot—Major A. T. Allan, from odd Foot, to be Major ;
Ensign John Trent to be Lieutenant.
110th Foot—Lua;gu Henry Flower Every to be Lieutenout.
3rd West ludia Regiment—John David Blythe, Esq., formerly
Captain in 89th Foot, to be Paymaster.
Ceylon Ride Regiment—Captain Robert Huut, from 53rd Foot,
to be Captain.
lIREVET.—Major Walter Douglas Phillipps Patton, of 74th
Foot, to be Lieutenant-Colonel iu the Army.
s r(r r.—Jelin Mackenzie Kennedy, Eaq., Paymaster of the
18th Foot, to be Paymaster of a Recruiting District, vice Hood,
deceased.
HOSPITAL STAFF.--Jobit Matthew Biddle, Gent, to be As-
aistitnt•surgeou to the Forces, vice Poulton, appointed to the
73rd Foot.
Mwwassiunm.—The mane of the Captain on retired full-pay
of the Lath Foot, is Adam von Beverhoudt.
The following gentlemen, who were dismissed from the service
by the sentence of a general court martial in August, 1851, have
been reinstated in their former rank in the army, and placed
upon half-pay, without the admission of any claim to back pay,
vii.:—.lohn Henry Edward de Robeck, Esq., late Captain 4th
Foot; Henry Batson Riunsbottom, Gent., late Lieutenant 4th
Foot; George Frederick Corytou, Gent., late Lieuteuiwt 4th
Foot, June 3.

ADMIRALTY, MAY "_A.

The following promotions have this day taken place, conse-
quence on the death, on the 27th instant, of Vice-Admiral of the
Red Sir Francis Mason, K.C.B. —Vice-Admiral of the White John
Ayecough to be Vice-Admind of the Red ; Vice-Admiral of the
litue Sir Edward Tucker, K.C.8., to be Vice-Admiral of the
White; Roar-Admiral of the Red Sir Charles Napier, K.C.8., to
he Vice-Admiral of the Blue ; Rear-Admiral of the White Sir
Joeltue Ricketts Rowley, Bart., to be Rear-Admiral of the
Red; Rear-Admiral of the Blue Sir John Hill, Kau., to be Rear-
Admiral of the White; Captain James Ryder Burton, KH.,
to be Rear Admiral on the Reserved Half Pay List; Captain
William Fanahawe Martin to be Rear-Admiral of the Blue; Re-
tired Captains William Henry Smith and Richard Satuuarez to be
retired Rear-Admirals, without increase of pay.

FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.
Tueßday, May N.

- - _
BANKRUPTS.—JAMES SHARP, Queeu'a-road, St. John's-wood,
builder—RICHARD WALErs Duty., Queen-street, Cheapside, City,
shoe factor—CHARLES PARKINSON BENJAMIN LAING, London,
and bland of Dominica, toaster mariner—WlLLlAM PULFORD,
Long Sutton, Lincolnshire. etirdwidner—JONATHAN
WADDINII-
't'ON, jUU., Wigan, l.atllcashire, iliMper—Juilbi MALLEY, LAD.
easter, silverantith.
DIVIDENDS.—Jime 21, 11. Prior and IL Atkinson, Wood;
street, t3heapside, Manchester warehousemen—June 24, W.
firlieorgo, St. John-street-road, draper--June 21, H. N. Ginder,
Fountain-gardens, Lambed ss alk, licensed victualler--dune 23,
C. Stanley, Hastings, SUM4ex, tailor—June 23, J. K. Vote, Al-
biou-square, Dulaton, builder—June 23, J. Spratt, Sloane-street
and E‘eter-street, Chelsea. coselibuilder—June 24, E. Moron
and 11. Marlyn, Aldgate Higimstreet, City, woollen drapers—
June 17, Scott, Nottingham, grocer—June 22,-hones,
Kingswinford, Staffordshire, draper—June 23, C. Keys, Liver-
pool, looking-glass manufacturer.
SCOTCH SEQUES'f RATIONS. Trim/As KAY, Dundee,
baker—MA:RAEDER HAtinART, BSlTtleed, bOOMMAIer—JAMES
LtaToN, Glasgow, oil manufacturer.
Friday, June 3.
BANK Re PTS.—CHARLEs PARKI!!SON JAMES LAING, London,
merchant—WrirrAn LONG, l'hilip-street, Back Church-lane, St.
George's-in-the-East, Beensed victualler-JOHN JOHNSON, Grea
Winchester-street, East India merchant-GEottoE HANDSO N.
JuTIAN, EXeter, coal dealer—EnwArin RIDLEY, Liverpool, tailor
—HENRY WARLAND, Counnercial-place, City-road, builder—
ALLAN STEWART HAY, Old Broad-street, shipowner Jolts
'Form, Newcastle-opera Tyne, distiller.

THE SCHOOL STATISTICS OF ENGLAND AND WALEri
arc thus set forth in a motion obtained by Mr.
Bright
Day Sunday
Schools. Scholars. Schools. Scholars. Population.
1818.-19,230 674,803 5,463 477,225 11,642,083
1838—.38,971 1,270,947 16,828 1,543,890 14,336,415
1851—.46,114 2,144,377 23,498 2,437,409 17,927,609
THE SLATE TRADE in Carnarvonshire, the great
staple of the county, is in a highly prosperous state ;
no stock is on hand, and the demand greater than
can be met. Some English capitalists have lately
opened extensive slate mines near Snowdon, and the
prospect of success is most encouraging. The la-
bouring population is fully employed.
THE GRANTS FOR HARBOURS OF REFUGE voted in the
present year are—Dover, 34,000/.; Harwich, nil;
Alderney, 02,0001.; Jersey, 40,0001.; Portland, 90,000/.
A SERIES OF CONCERTS FOR THE PEOPLE has been
set on foot in Birmingham. They are held in the mag-
nificent Town-hall ; the prices of admission being
threepence to the body of the hall, and sixpence to
the galleries. In the programmes are to be found
selections from the choral works of Mozart, Spolir,
and Mendelssohn, some of the finest English glees
and madrigals, and movements from the symphonies
and other orchestral pieces of the greatest masters.
The hall is stated to be invariably filled to the doors
with an attentive and delighted audience, chiefly of
the working classes.

JUNE 4, 1853.

Tittratart.

The didotinistratitm. of the East India Company
a History of Indian Progress. By John Nil
Ram Kaye. London : Bentley.
THZ title of this work is a " petitio principii."
Mr. Kaye styles it " a history of Indian pro-
gress ;" whereas the main question in dispute
between the Company and the public is,
whether India have made any progress under
our government or no. The work itself pro-
fesses to be one, not of controversy, but of
narrative—which latter is controversy dis-
guised in the most ingenious and plausible
form. It has been said of some great lawyers,
that their statement was worth other men's
argument ; and unquestionably the very as-
sumption of impartiality which is inherent in
the historical style enables an ingenious par-
tisan to employ it with considerable effect for
the diffusion of his particular views. This
privilege of the pamphleteer Mr. Kaye has
used, but not abused. His evidence is all in
favour of the Company ; but it is reliable as
far as it goes. It is the truth, though not
exactly the whole truth ; and, read with a
knowledge of the writer's bias, it contains
perhaps as useful a summary of the Indian
question as any work now in print. One
great merit Mr. Kaye possesses, and that a
rare one with modern political authors—he
carefully eschews superfluous statistics, opining
rightly " that it is principally by representing
men in action that the writer on Indian affitirs
must hope to fix the attention of the public."
In this sentence is contained the explana-
tion of a fact disagreeably familiar to the his-
torical student—the dulness, namely, of those
portions of history which treat of the working
of constitutional and regularly organised Go-
vernments in peaceful times. In proportion
as the action of a Government becomes more
mechanical, the influence of individual charac-
ter diminishes, and the narrative loses that
dramatic interest which nothing except indi-
vidual character can create or support. This
is to a great extent the ease with India, where
everything is done, or supposed to be done,
by rule and system ; and it has co-operated
with other causes to produce that singular,
and to foreigners almost incomprehensible,
apathy which prevails in England on Oriental
matters. The subject deserves a fuller analysis;
but we must return to Mr. Kaye.
Lord John Russell, early in the present ses-
sion, moved the House of Connnons to laughter
by gravely defending the Company's adminis-
tration, on the ground that it was, at all events,
better than that of the native princes whom it
had replaced. Mr. Kaye fastens on the hint,
and elaborates it into a chapter extending over
fifty octavo pages,wherein the Mogul Emperors
are brought into very unfavourable comparisoi
with their vice-regal successors. From this
clever review we can only select a few passages.
not as the best, but as the most characteristic
both of the author's style, and of his line of
argument. He is describing the Mogul Court
in the reigns of Akbar Jehanguive and Shah
Jehan:—
It would be tliffieult to exaggerate the idea which in those
days was entertained by our countrymen of the power,
wealth, and grandeur of the Great Mogul. Far above all
kings and emperors, iu the imaginations of men, ranked
this mighty Eastern potentate ; and two centuries later the
name of the Great Mogul, capped with its traditionary
magnificence those of all the potentates of the earth, in
the nursery sports of English children. Nor did the con-
ception owe much to the prodigality of the imagination.
The prince who covered acres of land with carpets of silk
and gold, who reared above them stately paN thous glittering
with diamonds and pearls, whose elephants and homes
were lustrous with trappings of jewels and gold, whose
crimson tents stretched out over long milesof level country,
and whose throne the practised eyes of European lapidaries
valued at six millions of English money, might well be re-
garded, as the most magnitieent sovereign of the earth.
But magnificence is not benevolence. It must be admitted
that the most lavish of our English v icero ys has never
been more than partially aullattated.* Our splendour is at
best but tinsel and tawdriness beside the lustrous magni-
ficence of the Mogul Courts. We have never attempted to
compete with them in this direction. Let credit be allowed
them for their royal progresses—their stately palaces—
their gorgeous tombs. The genius of our country does
not display itself in demonstrations of this kind. lint we
have far greater wonde!s to show—tar grander spectacles

*sir James Mackintosh !Spoke of Lori Wellesley as " anftas
f
tvd Governor-General." Lord Wellesley had as good an idea o
vice-regal pomp as any man who peer went out to India, but at
best ho was only a very little" Great Mogul."

THE PRESS.

to exhibit. When we hive got millions to spend we do not
lock them up in peacock-thrones.
And the question of public works—confess-
edly the weakest part of the Company's ease—
ls ingeniously, but not unfairly, treated in the
following sentences:—
The ground upon which we here tread is rough with
controversial asperities. They who, desiring to produce
strong contrasts unfavouraWe to the British-Indian
tiovernment, y extol and exaggerate the beneficence
of the Mogul greedy
are ever pointing to the remains
o f the great aqueducts and reservoirs which the traveller
in India stumbles upon and pauses over ; whilst another
party, perhaps, with equal want of candour, declares that
the Mogul princes were nothing better than selfish tyrauts,
and that all the roads which were made, all the trees that
were planted, all the wells that were dug, all the earavau-
serial that were erected. and all the canals that were ex-
cavated by them, owed their origin to nothing more
ennobling than a desire to render their journeys more
agreeable and their residences more habitable to their Im-
perial Majesties themselves. In all probability, the truth
is to be found midway between these two extremes. To a
certain extent, both parties are right. The Mogul Eat.
perms may not have been wholly umiak' of the interests
of their subjects. They were never unmindful of their own.
Fortunately for the former, the claims of the two were nut
wholly antagonistic. if the Emperor had shut himself up
in a single palace, it is possible that the tine causeways and
the noble aqueducts, over the remains of which we now
abed our archteologiad tears, would not exist to agitate the
sources of our regret. But as the Great Mogul was, by
nature, of the peripatetic class—es he delighted in change
of scene and change of residence—it was necessary that
there should be roads over which to move the material
MSS of his leviathan camp, and it was desirable that the
sultriness of his regal halting-plaeex should lie mitigated
by baths and fountains, supplied by a constant flow of the
refreshing element. The roads were made, mud they bene-
fited the people. The canals were dug, and they benefited
the le-ople. But, when the Emperor todered the construc-
tion of a nail, or the excavation of a canal, and determined
the direction which either should take, it may lie doubted
whether the line that was taken was always that which most
promoted the internal traffic or the agricultural inigation of
the country. The personal convenience of the Etuperor lane
self was of more account than the happiness and prnsperity
of the people. But the happiness and prosperity of the Iwo-
* were not wholly forgotten. The Mogul Etnperms some-
what reversed the sentiment contained in Barlow's' Mina.
top minute on the Regulations of " It is a source
of pleasing reflection," they thought, "to know that, in pro-
portion as we contribute to the happiness of ourterlyee and
the prosperity of the Cowl, the nearer we appowelt to tlwse
objects"—i.e., the welfare of the people. The " principal
object" of the Mogul tiovertmwtst was certainly not the
happiness of the governed.
Tills is true ; and equally so is the remark
of our author a few pages later—" That the
beneficence of the Mogul Emperors hail nothing
of it sustained character about it ; that it was
personal and accidental, dependent on nothing
more stable than the charneter of the individual
ruler." Aml Mr. Kaye, by way of heightening
the contrast, proeeeds to give instances of harsh
and summary punishments inflicted by order of
these Emperors, which he follows up with the
perfectly correct but rather trite comment,
that under our laws " the poorest coolie is
entitled to all the solemn formalities of a judi-
cial trial.- But there are two sides to every
question. A Weir and his successors were
arbitrary despots, after the Oriental manner.
But they were despots who knew the feelings
and participated in the habits of their subjects.
Under them natives of India rime to the highest
degrees of civil eminence. The Hindu and
the Mahometan were equally employed awl
promoted. No alien race monopolised the
great offices of the state, and levelled all be-
neath them to an equality f pauperism and
servitude. Mr. Kayo shallo himself bear us
witness here :
The Mahomedan conqueror rapidly became Hindonised.
He fused himself into the general mass of the peeple.
He was not a Tartar, or an Afghan, but a Mahomedin
Idian. India was his country ;he was not merely in it
hunt of it. He, or his father, or some more remote Knees,
tor. had emigrated thither, and lied forgotten the mutiny
he had left behind. But between the English conywror
and his Jlindo• subject therein an impassable gulf. There
is nothing in common between them. The British gentle•
men, who fill all the principal otlieea of the state, are tint
Christian Indians, but Christian Englishmen. They have
brought their own costume and their own enetoms with
them, and they keep them on the banks of the tiangee as
they would on the Lanka of the Thames. They livea al
o ate
e
—utterly separated from the mass of the people—nd
surrounded with a prestige of superior wisdom and se-
penor strength; but still, in many respects, an astonish-
ment and a reproach in the eyes of our benighted
brethren.
Our author, with a paradoxical ingenuity
which is really amusing, contends that this
ignorance on the part of English officials is an
advantage, inasmuch as it precludes them from
interfering despotically in the private affairs

• See ante, page 2.

111

of those whom they govern. Our answer is a
simple denial of the fact. They do interfere—
they are despotic—and, though welbmeaning.
they arc, in the majority of instances.
profoundly unacquainted with native ideas and
habits. That they mean well is an apology
individually for them, but does not make min-
ters better as regards the people. Nor is there
much more weight in Mr. Kaye 's plea, that the
exclusion of a few natives from office fails to
affect the happiness of the masses. Again hear
the counsel now quoting with approval the
language of his clients
It is small consolation to the husbandman whom crops
are destroyed, or to the artisan whose house is burnt to the
ground, that there is no law against his sitting as a juilge, or
commanding a regiment of horse. It is of far more an-
portauee to hint that they who romuland regiments of
horse should protect instead of oppressing, and that they
who sit as judges should conscientiously Stin.lllll/441 jilst
to the people. It appears to me that the view taken of
this matter by the coon of Dirertors of the East India
Company is pre-eminently wind. " Facilities of official
intercourse," they atom in an admirable letter to the
Surreal° tiovernment of India, enunciating their opinions
respecting the interpretation of the I shorter Art of 11431,
" can little affect the bulk of the peoph• tinder any Govtio•
meat, and least under a good Government. It is not by
bolding out incentives to official ambition, hut by nprpg.•
ing crime, by securing and guarding property. by creating
confidence, by ensuring to industry the fruit of its
by putecting uwn in the 'undisturbed enjo, meta of theme
rights, and in the unfettered swieise of their facultios,
that tiovernment best ministers to the public wealth awl
114111111110Sti. In effect, the toms *mess to ottiee he chatty
valuable when it is a part of general freedom....
In the above argument the whole point in
dispute is assumed. It is contended that the
welfare of the ninny and the official enspio -
ment of the few ale things igeompatible, and.
therefore, that the latter must give way. lint
is this so'? All history, all experience, prate`
the reverse. Half the miseries of the buttons
race, in every age and country, have arisen
frs an rulers believing that they understl/01. the'
interests of the people better than the leeople•
itself did. Were this axiom of politics kerne
in mind, the world might be happier than
it is.
Finance is proverbially a (lull subject, and no
amount of literary skill can make it otherwise.
Mr. Kaye devotes to it 130 pages ; anti it is
justice to him to say that his entolysis is clear,
concise, and unencumbered with needless de-
tail. We cannot attempt a regular summary
of his arguments, but a few isolated dicta de-
serve transplantation. "It is too much," he
says, " a characteristic of modern Indio ad-
" ministration to exalt the revenue branch of
" the public service at the t•xpense of the Judi-
" tint I believe this opinion in showed by
" many of our ablest intlion ittiministrittors."
A remarkable admission this, 811141 011 e 111411•44
than borne out by the facts inliliteed in Mr.
Norton's celebrated pamphlet. lie dwells
also, with force and truth, on the differenee
between English end Indian taxation—that
difference being, that whereas in England
a Chancellor of the Exchequer wishing to hr
popular must propose some financial noel city,
were it only for variety's sake, and to show
that he is earning his salary, the. !aleph. of
India had rather put up with 1111 elleiCllt in-
justice than risk a change which they will out
easily believe to be designed for their benefit.
The reason is plain. They lustre• been too little
accustomed to kindness tee understand, far less
to expect, it. For them there an' no public
instruetors, and, knowing little of the inten-
tions of Oovernment, they are naturally prone
to suspect the worst. This is it truth which
well deserves to be borne in mind, and which
will lieeome even more important us the (lima
power of Parlintnent over India increnses.
The principal items of Indian revenue 11111
lee classed its follows :
Land tax l4 titillions sterling.
t:nstono, . • • • .
salt 1
1011/81 • •
Stamps sled miseellaneous
items
Akhaeree, erten on licences
to spirits . . . 1

Total . . . 26 millions.
Ti, which must he subled the revenues of home
newly-sicquired provinces, and from which
must be dedueted the charges of collection.
There remains after both operations a nut

• The. Court of Direetnrs to the Gmeenot
Council, December 10, leaf. MS. Records.

of laths la

revenue of about 244 millions. The total ex-
penditure exceeds this amount by about half a
million on the last estimates. But the result,
as announced in December, 1852, is somewhat
more favourable, leaving a slight surplus. It
is worth notice that the proportion of military
charges to the total outlay, notwithstanding
the enormous regular army kept up, is less
than in England. It slightly exceeds 104
millions on an average, taking years of war
and peace together. We agree with Mr. Kaye
in his conclusion, that, if peace could only be
secured for a few years to come, an overflowing
treasury and a diminished debt would afford
ample resources both for material and educa-
tional improvements. But is this consumma-
tion probable?. We fear not. No change in
the depositaries of power, however advisable
on other grounds, can remedy one fatal fault
inherent in the despotic government, from
home, of a distant and alien dependency.
Those who vote for Indian war cannot be made,
either personally or through their constituents, to
feel the cost of such war. Would the Afghan
folly ever have been perpetrated if the price of
its accomplishment had been paid out of the
pockets of English electors? It is true Sir
R. Peel warned the House of Commons that
ultimately the revenues of England must be
responsible for those of India. But this
responsibility is distant—it is little under-
stood, perhaps little believed in—it appeals
to no man's immediate interest—it touches no
man's purse. In this matter especially, as in
many others, the want of an Anglo-Indian
public is felt. India may be less badly go-
verned than hitherto : but well governed it is
scarcely in the nature of things that she
should be, until she has some public opinion
of her own, and can make her wants known.
The local press, us at present constituted, re-
presents not India, but merely the English
colony there established. With one or two
exceptions, it is devoted to European interests
and topics ; nor is it likely to be otherwise,
until it knowledge of our language becomes
so generally diffused as to make it worth the
while of journalists to consider their native as
.well as their English subscribers. When those
on whom the burden of supporting 300,000
armed men have the tneaus and will to make
their complaints listened we shall perhaps
hear less about the necessity of annexation,
and the manifest destiny and duty of subju-
gating all Asia. Mr. Kaye does not, of course,
admit that any one of the Anglo-Asiatic wars
could 'WM* been avoided. But he acknow-
ledges that they have been the cause of the
internal mahtdministnit ion of India
The finances of India have continually been in no em-
barrassed condit• , because the Company have continually
been, in spite of themselves, engaged in great. and engitiph-
lug wars. Tlw policy which they have avowed and 1 stly
endeavonred to maintain has been pacific to the very core.
Hut they have seldom been permitted to see the disturbance
of their Fotcheipwr more than readjusted before they have
been again called upon to MO honey to proseente a new
war. Under these repeated pressures they have been com-
pelled from time to time to borrow money at a high rate of
interest., and by so doing have created a permanent embar-
rassment which has kept them, and stillieeps them, poor.
So circumstanced, so impoverished, they cannot be gene-
nuts—they can brely aivl to be just. They tire com-
pelled to take a fin aancial fl
vewn of almost every question that
is presented to them. They art compelled to repress hu-
mane instincts and kindly impulses—to narrow enlarged
schemes of policy.and to give themselves up to petty shifts
find temporary expedients. They our condemned on the one
hand for exacting so notch from the revenue-payers, though
they exact harely enough to keep themselves from bank-
ruptcy. And they are eittlaellttlell, till the other, for not
spending more of the revenge which it is said to be shame-
ful to collect. indeed, as far as I understood it. the whole
thrift of the popular clamour which in 50111 e quarters is raised
against the existing Government of India is that they
ought. to have less money, and ought to spend mom.
The next division of Mr. Kaye's work treats
of the land revenue, and the respective merit
of the ryotwar. zemindary, and what we may
call the north-western systems. Into these
disquisitions, full of interest, but not easily to
be condensed within our narrow limits, we
shall not attempt to follow far. Most readers
know at least the leading features of the three
systems in question. Few, even among Indian
residents, know much more than their leading
features. In truth, the intimacy of the sub-
ject, the discrepancies of the native tenures in
different parts of the country, the uncertainty
of • the -law itself. and the extent to which
general rules have been superseded by local
custom, render minute investigation a most

THE PRESS.

laborious and repulsive task. And Mr. Kaye
has done good service in extracting from
voluminous despatches, full of unintelligible
Anglo-Indianisms, just so much information,
and no more, us to the majority of English
readers is likely to prove interesting.
The first great experiment tried by the
Company,• in its double capacity of landlord
and sovereign, was the " permanent settle-
ment" of Bengal under Lord Cornwallis.
This nobleman, more remarkable for his
career than his character, more distinguished
for industry and public virtue than for
eminent talent or success, had commanded
armies beyond the Atlantic and served in
English Parliaments, but at the time of his
acceptance of the vice-regal office knew nothing
of Indian administration. He was the first of
our untrained Governors-General ; and it
must be admitted that, if the system had
always given us equally good men, little
fault could be found with it. Strange and
manifold were the vicissitudes of his long
political life. In America a defeated general ;
in Bengal an applauded financier; Viceroy of
Ireland during the most turbulent period of
her annals ; a second time invested with the
Asiatic proconsulate, which he accepted only
to die, he has given his name to a trans-
atlantic festival, and, dying in old age, but
amidst labours which to the last moment en-
gaged him, now sleeps among the people whom
he ruled, at Ghazeepore, on the banks of the
Ganges. He was not, as we have said, a man
of genius ; but he had those qualities which
go far to compensate for the want of genius,
and which in England are sometimes preferred
to it—patience, caution, love of labour, de-
votedness to public duty, and a conscientious
sense of responsibility. His financial arrange-
ments occupied for their completion the six
years between 1789 and —92. Their principle
may be described in few words.
In the confusion consequent on the break-
ing up of native government in Bengal, and
the substitution of that of the Company, one
set of men, and one only, had profited. It
had been the policy of our predecessors to
collect their revenues through the agency of
a particular class, whose position might be
defined as that of tax-farmers, privileged to
raise what rent they could from the peasantry,
and bound in return to pay a certain fixed
amount into the hands of their employers.
Practically, they were used as sponges—first
allowed to suck in all they could, and then
squeezed without mercy. They began by
plundering the ryot, and the ryot had, if not
compensation, yet revenge, in seeing them
plundered in their turn. Custom, and the
balance of power thus created, did something
to mitigate the hardship of this abominable
system. The ryot learnt the art of conceal-
ment ; and the zemindar, or tax-farmer, knew
well the danger of seeming too rich. But
with the downfal of the native dynasty came
a change. Both our ignorance and our
scruples operated against us. We had no means
of checking the extortions practised by the
zemindar against the ryot ; and we did not
profit by it. The peasant was robbed, Go-
vernment impoverished ; the middleman only
enriched. His status became at once more
secure and more honourable ; and thus it
chanced that, when Lord Cornwallis seriously
set to work on the investigation of the land
question, not he alone, but all his advisers,
and the Company at home, concurred in the
propriety of adopting and recognising this
class as bowl fide landlords, proprietors of the
soil, subject only to a fixed payment or tribute
to tiovernment, and to certain regulations.
limiting in sonic measure their power over the
ryots. The working of this remarkable law is
very variously described. Perhaps the best
evidence in its favour is that both the classes
affected object to it as hostile to theirinterests.
By the old landed proprietary it was com-
plained of as tending to despoil them of es-
tates which had been for centuries in their
possession. By others it was said that it had
given an artificial strength and stability to a
class whose claim rested solely on successful
usurpation. Both these charges cannot be
true ; we incline to attach most weight to the
latter. But, if the Cornwallis settlement be
not faultless, its results have .on the whole
been such us to give less cause for complaint

SATURDAY,

than exists in Madras and Southern India.
True, the ryot is poor ; true, he is dependent
to a great extent on the will of his landlord,
though not more so, after all, than .the Irish
oottar ; and though, unlike the latter, he is
not exposed to eviction. True. also, that of
the zemindars many have been tined and dis-
possessed fur non-payment, and some indi-
vidual suffering created ; but how are the
people at large affected?—
When, in Psltt, Malcolm wrote that the visible result.,
of the settlement were of the most satisfactory description,
he only wrote what now, fifty years afterwards. every
traveller through Bengal would cheerfully endorse. The
aspect of the country, under the operation of the perpetual
settlement, seems to give the lie to the assertion that the
people are ground down and depressed. There is hardly a
rood of laud not under cultivation. The jungle has entirely
disappeared. A nun," says a recent writer, may go for
miles in any direction, east and north of the metropolis,
and see plains succeeding to plains, where there is not one
bigak of unproductive soil, and where many thousands of
biguh.s give their return of two crops in the year, without
irrigation, and without that careful labour which seems
indispensable, in the upper provinces, to successful
agriculture. More new bazaars will Le found to have been
established within the last thirty years than old bazaars to
have decayed. The circulation of money in the interior of
such districts is very considerable. The number of men
who derive competence and consequence from the soil is
large. Is it fair to say that all these results are inde-
pendent of the perpetual settlement?
It would seem, then, that, if the old aristocracy have been
ruined, the country has not been ruined with them. The
provinces under the perpetual settlement are the most
thriving provinces in India. It is u great thing 1 know
that they have enjoyed, under British rule, nearly a
century of unbroken peace. Nature, doubtless, too, has
done much for them. Their natural fertility is great.
They are independent of aitificial irrigation. But it is
only since the permament settlement was introduced that
the country has been exempted from the curse of periodical
famine ; and some of the ablest men who have ever given
themselves to the study of Indian affairs, foremost amang
whom were Edmonstone and Tucker.+ have declared their
opinion that it mainly is to the settlement that this ex-
emption (under Providence) is to be attributed. This in
itself is no small thing. It is no small thing to know that
the peasantry of Bengal are never starving. As to the
poverty and misery of the actual ryot," says the writer I
have quoted above —one of the ablest men now in India—
" so much insisted on by several writers at the present day,
we deny that matters are as bad as represented. What
strikes the eye most in any village, or set of villages, in a
Bengal district, is the exuberant fertility of the soil, the
sluttish plenty surrounding the grihasta's (cultivator's)
abode, the rich foliage, the fruit and timber trees, and the
palpable evidence against anything like penury. Did any
man ever go through a Beugallee village and find himself
assailed by the cry of want or famine? Was be ever
told that the ryot and his family did not know where to
turn for a meal ; that they had no shade to shelter them,
no tank to Lathe in, no employment for their active limbs?
That villages are not neatly laid out like a model village in an
English county. that things seem to go on, year by year,
in the same slovenly fashion, that there awe no local im-
provements, and no advances in civilisation, is all very
true. But considering the wretched condition of some of
the Irish peasantry, or even the Scotch, and the misery ex-
perienced by hundreds in the purlieus of our great cities
at home, compared with the condition of the ryots, who
know neither cohl nor hunger, it is high time that the
outcry about the extreme unhappiness of the Bengal ryot
should cease."
There is some truth here ; hut Mr. Kaye,
ignoring America and Switzerland, goes on to
argue that the peasantry in every country are
poor, and, on the principle of justifying one
evil by another, draws comparisons between the
Bengali villager and the occupants of crowded

• Caketta Review.
4. Sir Henry Huasell says in his published letters:—
"In one of my last conversations ou the subject with Air.
Eduionstone, to whose guidance and in 1 owe anything
that I may have learned in India. and whom I have looked up to
all my life with reverence and affection. he ascribed the present h
it
exemption of Bengal from those periodical famines, to whic
was formerly subject, and by which other tracts are occasionally
visited, to the influence of the permanent system. In this I
cannot concur, without depreciating the value of good govern.
meat, uniform protection, and shelter behind a wide and secure
boundary. Unquestionably many able men, besides Mr. Eamon.
stone. have been from the first, and still are, the advocates of the
zentioularry !system. The fact is. that we all of us lean to
the doctrine of the school we have been brought up in. Ins
dependently of the force of habit, we cannot easily bring ourselves'
to think that that which we have spent our lives in learning is of no
substance or effect. The advocates of this system have all been
brought up in Bengal, where they have seen no other iu action.
Among the eminent authorities ou this subject, Mr. Hodgson is
the only one I remember, who, having made himself conversant
with both systems, gives the preference to that of Bengal. With
this single exception, as far as I am aware, the whole of those
who have witnessed the working of the two are in favour of the
native machinery of the nintwor system."
The testimony of Mr. Tucker may be added :---- 1 never:* he
wrote to a brother director, "can be persuaded that the Ilegtda-
Sons of 17. t i were not framed ou sound and just principles—but
no person will contend that the permanent settlement was not
concluded with undue haste, and upon defective materials ; but. if
the measure had not been prosecuted at the time, it would pro-
'misty neverhave been undertaken,anti the country and the people
would have remained in the wretched condition to which they bad
been reduced under short and corrupt settlements. If this great
measure had no other merit, I would say that (under Providence)
the absence of that frightful scourge, famine. with which the
eounu-y had been periodically visited, is mainly to be attributed
to it."—)lB. Corropoadeere.