The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THE COUNCIL AND THE PUBLIC OF
CALCUTTA.
WE regret much to see by the late Indian
papers that a serious difference has already
sprung up between the Legislative Council
and the public of Calcutta ; and the more so,
because we think it is a difference which
might have been very easily avoided had the
Council, or those who guide it, felt inclined to
show a little more courtesy to the people for
whose benefit ostensibly their labours are in-
tended. The Legislative Council, in its pre-
sent shape, is new India; it was the creation
of the act lately passed for the renewal of the
government in the hands of the Directors,
and it was intended to supply for a period the
place of the representative system, for which
India is confessedly at the present moment
unprepared. To give such an institution a
chance of success it was necessary that much
care should be exhibited in the handling of it
at the outset : a servile regard to the opinion
of every section of the community was, of
course, not required, but its proceedings
should have been conducted on the states-
manlike plan of showing a due attention to
the wishes, and feelings, and interests of
those classes on whose intelligent support
the government of all countries, no matter
what the form of rule, must ultimately and
mainly rest. It is not uncommon for people
in England to suppose that there exists no
such class in India; but no idea can be more
erroneous. In point of wealth, civilisation,
and the degree of mental cultivation necessary
for the highest success in the affairs of life,
there are few countries which possess such a
class in a larger degree than Bengal and the
capital of Western India.

On the establishment of a Legislative Coun-
cil for India it was not unnatural in this class
to hope that at least some three or four selec-
tions for the office of councillor should be
made from among them ; yet when disap-
pointed in this they showed no resentment,
but only expressed a trust that all publicity
might be given to the proceedings of a body
in whose deliberations they were so vitally in-
terested. In the expression of this wish all
the rest of the community joined, and it was
understood that the point was one which the
Council itself would yield. The Council after-
wards, however, proved so exclusive and so
stringent in the rules promulgated by it for
admission to be present at its deliberations,
as to render the privilege inaccessible or
nugatory ; and, in consequence, none but the
Council themselves and its officers and the
officials having business with it now attend.
That the result will be most injurious to the
Government and to the Legislative Council
itself it is not difficult to foresee ; for the first
element of success for such a body is, that it
should have public feeling and opinion with it,
while its present course will array the public
and the whole newspaper press in irreconcile-
able hostility against it. Its best measures
will thus be received with suspicion, instead
of accepted with thankfulness, and in every
case in which it makes an error it will be sub-
jected to a criticism so unsparing as very
soon to destroy all respect for it in the public
mind.

The fact is, that the day is past when such
attempts to obviate what are thought the in-
conveniences of publicity could even in India
have any permanent chance of success. There,
as here, it is now felt that candour and open-
ness in all public proceedings afford the
surest evidence of a desire to do right; and
there, as here, concealment has but one ten-
dency, and that to increase tenfold the ulti-
mate difficulties of those who resort to its
use. With some persons, however, all teach-
ing is fruitless ; they are so wedded to
ancient forms and abuses that reforms con-
ceived in even the most Conservative spirit
are opposed by them, simply because they
involve a change ; and in no public body is
this feeling more perceptible than among the
East India direction and their servants in the
East, many of whom are not wanting either in
the power to see the defects of their govern-
ment, or in an anxiety to remove them, though
their good intentions prove almost always
utterly fruitless, because they have not the

SATURDAY,

courage to enforce the adoption of them on
their colleagues, and compel that attention to
the social questions springing up in India
which day by day they more and more require.
In England we speak of Parliament's short-
comings if even a single session passes with-
out some large measure of improvement in a
social system which has long since arrived at
a degree of high perfection ; while in India,
with everything to do as it were de novo, we
stand idly doing nothing; or, what is worse,
engaging in petty squabbles with the natives
about their style of dress, and the terms of
their admission to the Legislative Council
room, as if to show them that at heart we are
as perfect despots, and that, war apart, we
are as arrant triflers, as the most contemptible
of the native princes whom we have de.
throned.

THE NEW LAW OF BILLS OF
EXCHANGE.
THE continentalising, so to speak, of the laws
of England requires more attention that it
seems of late to have commanded. Scarcely
an alteration has been made of late years in
our code without exhibiting a further-
approach to that despotism in small matters
which always characterises the legislation of
the Whigs. The whole system of the county
courts, and the luckless bankruptcy statutes,
are evidences sufficient of this, and might
have acted as a warning against any attempt
to push the practice farther. A bill has, how-
ever, been read a second time in the Commons,
and agreed to be referred, with another, to a
select committee, which tends to enable the
holder of a bill of exchange to dispense with
all the ordinary tribunals, and by the aid of a
new jurisdiction to obtain an undue, and in
most cases a fraudulent, preference over all
other creditors whatsoever. Should this bill
or anything approaching it become law, not
the slightest provision will have been made
for the possibility of the acceptor of any bill of
exchange being disappointed in the receipt of
his profits from lands, houses, or business.
The acceptance will operate ns a judgment,
and all other creditors must allow the pro-
perty of the debtor to be swept away by the
holder of the bill of exchange. The bill is
rather freely denounced in certain quarters as
" a job," awl certainly there is nothing in
the appointments following upon the creation
of patronage under new acts from the same
source to negative such a supposition. How-
ever this may be, we cannot but agree with
Sir FREDERIC THESIOER that while we have a
law in England by which in some eight days
judgment may be obtained on a bill of ex-
change, it is scarcely necessary to import the
law of Scotland, and create a new tribunal, for
the purpose of giving the holder of such bill
the advantage of oppressing his debtor to his
inevitable destruction, and defrauding all
other creditors of their dividend of his estate,
or, what may much more reasonably be ex-
pected from distressed persons, enabling such
holder to collude with a particular debtor, and
sweep away all his goods to the defeat and
loss of all other claimants.
With the details of the bill it is to be hoped
that the committee will render it unnecessary
to deal. At the present moment all persons
granting bills of sale and mortgages have their
names distributed over all parts of the country
by means of registration, and so-called socie-
ties for the protection of trade ; yet, after all
this publicity adopted so as to give additional
value to the securities referred to, a bill of
exchange given by the same debtor condi-
tioned for payment at a shorter date, may
enable the holder to prevent all remedy,
either to the mortgagee or vendee, or any
other having claim on the estate.
We have adverted to this proposed act
because its real effect may be very easily mis•
taken, and the consequences to all who may
receive bills as a security, or give them as a
convenience, in however certain a hope of
meeting the responsibility, are of so serious a
nature as to demand strict attention to this
last of the recent wanton attempts at legis-
lation.