The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

JUNE 2, 1855.

The Fibrous Plants of India. By J Forbes
Boyle, M.D., F.R.S. London: Smith, Elder,
and Co.
Tins is a work on a subject always of great
interest, but which is of more than ordinary
importance, both in a social and a political
point of view, at the present moment. The
questions which Professor Royle has under-
taken to investigate are, whether substances
may not be found among the fibres of India
calculated to remedy in some degree the de-
ficiency in the material hitherto used for the
manufacture of paper; and whether in the
same quarter may not also be discovered sub-
stitutes for the flax and hemp which form so
large au item in Russia's export trade. In
each case his solution of the question is in the
affirmative. He shows with great clearness
that there are numerous fibrous plants of com-
mon growth in India, more especially the
plantain, which would produce excellent stuff
for paper; while in the jute, the musa textilis
(or Manilla hemp), and the fibres of the plan-
tain and aloe, he shows substitutes, to a great
extent, for the true hemp, were this deficient
in our Eastern empire. Of these fibres the
jute is already an article of considerable im-
port into England, though it is only of late
years that it has been known to European
corn rnerce.
But while such are among the substitutes
for hemp which Professor Royle points one, he
also shows clearly that in an empire every
province of which abounds in hemp nothing
is wanting but proper management in the
giowth and after-manipulation to produce the
hemp of commerce in a state in no way infe-
rior to that received from Russia. In India
the hemp is grown solely with a view to the
flowers and seed, which are valued for their
intoxicating qualities, the stalk, which con
tains the fibre, being thrown away ; while in
Europe it is the stalk alone that is looked to,
the production of both flower and seed being
sacrificed to obtain this in the highest perfec-
tion that it is capable of. In India, in conse
quence, the plants are placed wide apart, so
as to admit air and sun freely between them.
These afford to them that strong and healthy
development which throughout all animal and
vegetable nature such exposure produces ; but
in Russia the plants are grown as closely as
possible together, which gives the long, and
slim, and tender, sickly stalk, from which alone
the longest, and softest, and most valuable
fibres can be produced. The ordinary errors
of the natives, too, in respect to the extraction
of the fibre, and the defects in their mode of
preparing it for the market, are pointed out ;
and we have no doubt that, with a due atten-
tion to what the Professor tells them on this
subject, an article might he produced in India
of sufficient strength and firmness, and in
more than sufficient quantities, entirely to
supersede the importation of hemp from Rus-
sia. In the way of obtaining from the Indian
flax-plant flax equal to the flax of Russia there
appears to be more difficulty; but this lies not
in the nature of the plant itself, and may
therefore of course be overcome. The diffi-
culty lies chiefly in that more careful and
costly mode of preparing the fibre which
the more extended application of European
skill, aided by capital, is alone likely to secure.
Indeed, at every step the economist and the
statesman meet with the same difficulty
whenever their attention is turned to the de-
velopment of any of the vast natural resources
of India. There is no country in the world
more fertile and more possessed of a greater
variety of natural products adapted for corn-
merce, because especially calculated to supply
the wants of man ; but natural products can only
be made available for commerce by the applica-
tion of skill and capital, and skill and capital
require greater temptation than exists for
them in India under the present state of
things. Who, for instance, will embark his
capital in land or in raising the land's pro-
ducts there when no propert3 in land is recog-
nised by the Government beyond the right to
present occupation at existing rents—a right
which is equally recognised among the Irish
rackrent peasantry or the serfs of Russia? Or
who will lend money to the cultivators there
for the purpose of improvement when the title
to such a tenure is all the security they have

THE PRESS.

to give ? How can a man expect that such
borrowers will be able to fulfil their engage-
ments, however willing to do so, if he knows
that they are habitually subject to the most
shameless extortion and oppression by the
subordinates of the collector of the district
they live in, and that against such extortion
and oppression they have no appeal but to the
virtual author of the evils, because the wilful
conniver at them—the collector himself? We
hear much of the indolence, incapacity, and
occasional insolence of the persons who form
the Civil Service of England, and though we
believe the charge to be greatly exaggerated
there doubtless may be some occasional founda-
tion for it in fact ; but, at any rate, the evil is
confined to their own offices, for their power
of misconduct extends not beyond them.
But in India it is a much less carefully and
more irresponsibly appointed &Lyn service who
fill every office of the Government from first
to last. The Indian civilian who to-day was
whistling " Peter Dick " in the Treasury is
the collector and magistrate of a district
covering ten thousand square miles to-morrow,
and front his decision, or, as is more frequent,
his refusal to listen to a case, there is practi-
cally no appeal. Or, if found incompetent for
this office, he is turned into a judge, to ad-
minister laws he is wholly ignorant of, and to
give such decisions as the corrupt native clerk
of his records may have been bribed to sug-
gest. Tho only plan by which a capitalist can
get on in such a country is that followed by
the indigo planters and wealthy Zemindars in
Bengal. Bribes given periodically to the
understrappers, and dinners, loans of boats, and
of elephants and tents, and horses and houses,
and sometimes indirectly loans of rupees, to
the European functionary, are found effectual
where an appeal to law or reason would
utterly fail. And the official gets the character,
in the end, of being a good fellow among those
who condescend to yield to the system, while
every one is ruined who is possessed of a
spirit of hottest manliness and independence.
Such being the state of the case, it is need-
less to say that the Legislature must first reform
the government of our Eastern empire if it
would wish to encourage the preparation of
flax and hemp, or that of any other of the
natural products of India. Skill and capital
are largely required for all such ventures, but
capital will only go where, whatever be the
form of government, a capable and conscien-
tious administration of the law prevails. If
in India capital is collected in such enormous
masses at the Presidencies, and if commerce
flourishes at them, it is because there, by the
establishment of courts presided over by
Crown-appointed judges, this sine quci non has
long obtained. Extend the jurisdiction
of those courts—let them, at any rate, have
the power (a power in England possessed by
the Queen's Bench) of controlling and revising
the proceedings of the magistrates and district
judges in the Mofussil—introduce, in short,
law and justice and true Administrative Reform,
and the same scene will be witnessed of peace,
and happiness, and plenty throughout India
which are so conspicuously seen within the
limits to which the jurisdiction of the supreme
courts extends at present.
We have only a word to add as to the general
character of the work under notice, and that
is, that, though confessedly hurriedly written,
it is in every way worthy of the high reputa-
tion which the author bears—a reputation
which in this branch of subjects is too firmly
fixed to derive any addition or suffer any
diminution from anything that we could say.

The History of the Corps of Royal Sappers anti
Miners. By T. W. J. Conolly, Quarter-
master-Sergeant of the Corps. London :
Longmans.

UP to the year 1772 the British army was
dependent for the execution of military works
(as it is in some degree just now in the
Crimea) on hired civil labourers—the
" navvies " of the time. At that period the
importance of the works at Gibraltar required
an attention that thoFe in command found
they could not obtain from mechanics hired
for no definite period; and having a right to
leave at their option. In this difficulty
colonel Green, the chief engineer at Gibraltar,

conceived the idea of a working military corps.
He made his suggestion ; and at that time it
seems useful suggestions had a fair chance of
being attended to, for a warrant under the sign
manual was issued for the raising of sixty-
eight men professing various handicrafts,
whose officers were to be selected from those
of the Royal Engineers. Such was the origin
of one of the most perfect and effective corps
in the British service—the Royal Sappers
and Miners.

Mr. Couolly, the author of this very inte-
resting history, was employed in 1836 to assist
a superior officer in making out a list of such
officers of the Royal Engineers as had at
different times commanded companies of the
Sappers and Miners. This occupation sug-
gested to him the propriety of getting toge-
ther a history of the corps, and this tusk we
think he has performed with singular success.
It is certainly the most varied and, so to
speak, personal of modern military histories,
conducting the reader not only through the
actual services of the corps in hostile warfare,
but through those undertakings to which it
was devoted in time of peace, and which went
very often far to solve the social problems of
the time. We may remark, for instance, that
there is to be found in Mr. Conolly's book a
more lifelike account of the actual state of
Ireland in the famine of 1846.7, when the.
Sappers and Miners were employed on the
public works, than all the blue-books of the
period could supply.
The book has the charm of being written
not only from personal communication in
many cases, but with a very cordial esprit de
corps, and embodying many of the traditions
of the service. It would probably be difficult
to find anywhere else so pleasant an account
as the following of the famous " galleries " of
the Rock of Gibraltar :
On a fine lay in May, l7tr2, the Governor, attended by
the chief engineer and staff, made an inspection of the
batteries at the north front. Great havoc had been made
in some of them by the enemy's fire, and for the present
they were abandoned whilst the artificers were restoring
them. Meditating for a few moments over the ruins, he
said aloud, " I will give a thousand dollars to any one who
can suggest how I am to get a flanking fire upon the
enemy's works." A pause followed the exciting exclameo
tion, when Sergeant-Major Ince of the company, who was
in attendance upon the chief engineer, stepped forward, and
suggested the idea of forming galleries in the rock to effect
the desired object. The general at once saw the propriety
of the scheme, and directed it to be carried into execution.
Upon orders being issued by the chief engineer, twelve
good miners of the company were selected for this novel
and difficult service, and Sergeant-Major ince was nominated
to take the executive direction of the work. On the 25th
of May he commenced to mine a gallery from a place above
Farringdon's Battery (Willis'), to communicate, through
the rock, to the notch, or projection, in the scarp under the
Royal Battery. The gallery was to be six feet high and
six feet wide. The successful progress of this preliminary
work was followed by a desire to extend the exca-
vation from the cave at the head of the King's
lines, to the cave at the end of the Queen's lines,
of the same dimensions as the former gallery. A body
of well instructed miners was expressly appointed for
the duty, and on the 6th July they began this new ta übter•
raneau passage. On the lsth the first embrasure was
opened in the face of the rock communicating with the
gallery above Farring.lon's. To effect this, the mine was
loaded with an unusual quantity of powder, and the explo-
sion was so loud that almost the whole of the enemy's
camp turned out at the report. The gallery was now
widened to admit of the placement of a gun, with sufficient
room for its recoil, and when finished a 24-pounder was
mounted. Before the ensuing September five heavy guns
were placed in the gallery, and in little more than twelve
months from the day it was commenced it was pushed to
the notch, where a battery, as originally proposed. was slier.
wards established and diatinguished by the name of St.
George's-hall
Of the unusual respect in which the new
corps were held at Gibraltar, and of the ex•
ceedingly unusual way in which it was pro-
posed to testify it from an unexpected quarter,
an anecdote is given to the effect, that the
Jews on the rock wished to decorate the men
with gold lace, instead of yellow braid, free of
cost, but the compliment was declined.
The narrative of the services of the
Sappers and Miners embraces an account of
the greater number of enginnring improve-
ments made under the auspices of the
Government during the last seventy years. It
is, therefore, a story full of interest, embracing
operations in the West Indies, America, and
at home—the masterly " Ordnance Survey of
Ireland " being one of the most important of
the latter. The Sappers and Miners, how•
ever, had a more disheartening work to per-

form in the same country in 1846, when the
Whig project of "reproductive" (of loss)
" works" was being carried into effect. The
civil overseers and clerks were intimidated by
threats ; and it was only by introducing mili-
tary discipline and exactitude into their
dealings with the labourers that the sergeants
and men of the corps were able to check
abuses and carry on the works with some kind
of order. A great improvement was made by
enforcing taskwork, though at first the system
was riotously opposed :

The labourers received from 4d. to 81. and Od. a day, and
the rough wall-builders Is. Bd., in strict proportion to the
work executed. When taskwork was introduced it was
difficult to remove the prejudices which set in against the
change, and quicken into zeal the indolence which fol-
lowed. To carry out the instructions of the Board
of Works, Private Baker selected some of the mildest
men of his party to work at easy tasks, by which
they earned lid. a day, 3d. more than formerly. At the
end of the week the overseer made a point of this, and
paying his choice men first, made suitable remarks as they
received their money. Next came the day-men, who, being
checked for wet days and lost time, only averaged about
35. 2d. a week. The disparity of the payments had a
wonderful effect, and ever afterwards the system of task-
labour was eagerly preferred by the peasantry.
Deception, however, soon crept into the tasks, which it
required some tact and alertness to detect. In excavations
the labourers frequently came in contact with stone, and
for such quantities as they dug out and heaped up they were
paid by the cubic yard; but often these heaps were merely
superficial. In every such case Private Baker had the mass
pulled down and solidly repiled. Acts of repetitition were
followed by the dismissal of the delinquents, despite the
danger it involved. When this cheat failed they resorted
to another, by rolling large stones into the heaps from adja-
cent places, but, as these always bore unmistakeable evi-
dence of exposure to rain and wear, the private never
omitted to reject them from the pile.
We have not directed attention to the mili-

tary narrative in these volumes, as they relate
to events of general notoriety, ani as the
efforts of the Sappers and Miners in civil
departments are less known and appreciated.
It is enough, however, to say that as the
materials on which Mr. Conolly had to rely
were varied and valuable he has made of
them a very excellent use, and there are few
books whose subjects extend over so small a
period and embrace so limited a space which
present so much variety and information.
The illustrations, also, are very creditable to
the artist, Mr. Campion, Professor of Land-
scape Drawing at Woolwich.

Moore's Poetical Works. New Edition. One
Vol. London : Longmans.
Ir Lord John Russell in editing " Moore's
Diary " has, as usual, sustained his right to
Goldsmith's epitaph reversed, and done any-
thing but adorn his subject, Moore himself
seems in the selection of his fugitive political
pieces to have exercised little better judgment.
The Whigs in his collected edition are allowed
an impunity which he did not accord them in
the daily papers, and some of Moore's best
and most notorious epigrams and squibs are
entirely left out. Here and there, to be sure,
one stumbles across a general attack on the
party when they have been forced to compli
ment their Irish supporters with a coercion
act to moderate their enthusiasm for libe-
rality.
Even these gentle reflections, however, are
only made with the amount of severity that
would reckon Whigs as being as bad as
Tories. "My friends the Whigs," as Moore
calls them, had not at that time been favored
with his other friend O'Connell's celebrated
alliterative description, and were gently rated
thus in a " moral " to the Joe Miller tale of
the Irishman who thought the negroes his
countrymen coloured by the climate :
'Tis thus—bat alas ! by a marvel more true
Than is told in this rival of Ovid's best stories—
Your Whigs when in office a short year or two
By a haus nature all turn into Tories.
And thus when I hear them " strong measures" advise
Ere the seats that they sit on have time to get steady,
I say, while I listen, with tears in my eyes,
" Good lord ! only think ! black and curly already ! "
The entire collection of Moore's works,
however, would have certainly been made
much more various and amusing by a little
more impartiality in the selection of his
political verses. One we remember, about
1836, which we look for here in vain, alluding
to the well-known soubriquet of "Cupid "
applied to a surviving statesman. It ended,
as Hamlet says, somewhat thus t--