The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

TORTURE IN INDIA.

AT a time when the Company are so hypocriti-
cally breaking through a solemn treaty with
the Government of Oude, on the ground of its
having failed to establish such a system of
administration as should be conducive to the
prosperity of the people of that State, it is not
uninstructive to see the mirror held up by
the Peers of England so clearly to themselves.
The general tone of the debate in the Lords
on Monday night was excellent—the only ex-
ception being that exhibited by the organ of
the Ministry, the Duke of ARGYLL He spoke in
a spirit of heartless flippancy of the sufferings

SATURDAY,

of the people that we are happily unaccustomed
to hear from the largehearted aristocracy of
these realms. It was a spirit very much
resembling that current among the French
noblesse about the Court just prior to the
first Revolution, and wNeh was as much as
anything the cause ofthla ferocity displayed
to astds them by the poo,p 1 e when these in
turn qo t the upper Wind: To tell the natives
in reply t theft Eeittleii Praying for protec-
tion aftinst cdltlitl that it was a time-
honottneil institution, not only necessary but
right in native eyes, and that it excited no ab-
horence, no astonishment, no repugnance, in
their miuda,—thin was to wieak ghoul witla a
hearltess and ill-timed pleasantry which de
served, and should have met With, a 'tern
rebuke. Does his Grace suppose that hone of
the sons of ADAM possess the feeling recog-
nised even in brutes but those of his own figure
and his own degree? He quotes, to be sure, the
Commissioners Report as his text for this libel
upon his fellow-men, but his quotations from
the same Report, a little further on, shows that
he perverts the sense of it and makes them
say what they never meant; for there they
tell us that, so far from being satisfied with
this state of things, the whole people were ay-
ing out to them for protection from the cruel-
ties of their brother natives in the Company's
employ—men, be it remarked, who would
have less inducement to torture were the
revenue requirements of our Government
less imperative on themselves, and who in any
case would be without, the power to Wain('
but for the support of their European in islet's
and the three hundred thousand bayonets
which these command.

The best proof of what the true feelings of
the natives are on the subject of cruelty, or
indeed ill-treatment towards them of any kind,
will be found in their• very summary resort to
a remedy whenever it is in their power to
obtain redress. No native, for instance, ever
submits to torture or ill-usage within the limits
of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Courts, as
many a European coming temporarily to
Bombay or Calcutta has learned to his cost.
Nor will any native hardly allow himself to
be ill-treated in a military camp, for there, too,
he knows that he is under the effective
protection of martial law. Nor is torture
so very frequent in the non regulation pro-
vinces which are ruled chiefly by military
men, who bring with them that intimate
knowledge of the natives which is never so
thoroughly gaine I as by serving in native
regiments, and that habit of listening to com-
plaints of all kinds, and front all persons,
which forms so essential a part of the business
of an Indian officer's life. If everywhere else
throughout India torture has been prevalent,
RS undoubtedly it has, the cause is to be
found in the explanation given to the Coaunis-
sioners by the people themselves. They said
that complaints to their civilian rulers were so
few because nobody listened to them, and
that they had not the slightest hope or chance
of obtaining redress. Perhaps the penalty
attached in the Mofussil to the failure to male
out a case against an official to the satisfac-
tion of his superior had also something to do
with the matter. If we mistake not, a heavy
fine or a public flogging and hard labour are
the prescribed punishment fora native making
what the superior of the official may choose
to call a false complaint, in addition to the
ruin he is pretty certain to incur. As soon as
this Indian prohibitive duty upon justice was
taken off, and Lord HARRIS showed that the
Government was in earnest in what it pro-
fessed, then there was no dearth whatever of
complainants against the system, many poor
men walking for the purpose a distance of
above four hundred miles.
The fact is, that, apart from the fiscal exae•
Lions of the Government (which, by the way,
are infinitely greater at the Presidency capi-
tals, where no torture is practised, than any-
where else), the true cause of the police and
revenue underlings in India exceeding their
powers and swelling their incomes by extor-
tion, is one that would under similar etreum-
stances operate equally in England too. Ab-
solve, for instance, our English tax collectors,
and policemen, and excisemen, from all amena-
bility for their acts to any one but their own

APRIL 19, 1856.

immediate superiors, no matter how outrage-
ously illegal those acts may be—allow these
superiors to tear up ad libitum the petitions
presented to them on the subject of such mis-
conduct, or to fine or flog and send to hard
labour those who persist in having their peti-
tions heard in the face of a cohort of hard-
swearing brother officials and a prejudiced
and interested judge—let this be the practice
here, and have three hundred thousand
soldiers, and sixty troops and batteries of
artillery, and four hundred thousand armed
Police to support the system and shoot down
at once the people of any town or county that
may dare to rebel—do this, and, notwithstand-
ing the difference between Englishmen and
Indians, it would not he difficult to play the
same game here as long as the thing lasted, and
enact in England what is enacted habitually
at Madras. DEMOSTHENES, in his third Phil-
lippic, tells us that one of the chief causes of
the decay of Athens was mercy to guilty men
and a hatred of those who denounced their
conies; and what was true of Athens in the time
of DEMOSTHENES is true of India at the present
day. The source of the evil being thus made
clear, the remedy is obvious, though it was not
so much as alluded to in the Loi d.s' debate.
Lord ALBEMARLE, indeed, proposed a remedy
that would have included it—extinction of the
Company—and there is not a peer who, if
asked for a verdict, on his honour could have
denied the justice of the decree. But the
remedy we would propose is more short and
simple, and one involving not an hour's delay.
It is merely to restore the jurisdiction of the
Supreme Court at each Presidency to its pris-
tine integrity, by making all persons in the
employment of Government amenable to it,
no matter where serving, as fully as they are
at the Presidency capitals at present It is
immunity that has been the real cause of all
the miseries inflicted on our Mofussil ryots—
miseries unheard of in the Presidency capitals,
where taxation is so much higher, and not
inflicted even in the Nizam's territory, as Lord
ELLENBOROUGH informed the House—the most
misgoverned, according to the Dalhousie theory,
of the native States. Immunity then, and
that alone, being the true cause of the evil, the
remedy is just to pass an act of three lines to
the purport we have stated. That is the only
Wactical measure that will insure its extinc-
tion; but, that measure taken, torture will be
f Fund to cease as by magic throughout the
whole length and breadth of our Indiam em-
pire.

THE KEOGH JUDGESHIP JOB.
A PLATFORM politician, raised to the Bench for
factious services, and vociferously cheered
by his partisans, is a sorry spectacle in a Tem-
ple of Justice. Such a sight is said to have
been witnessed, when Mr. WILLIAM KEoon
took his place this week amongst the Queen's
Judges at Dublin. " I am for that applause
" which follows, and not that which is run
" after," said the great Lord MANSFIELD, but
that sentiment could receive no approval in
quarters where political barristers without
standing are raised above their professional
brethren. We decline to accept the shouts of con-
federates as the credentials for a public magis-
trate. We recollect the language of the Earl
of EGLINTON, a nobleman of spotless honour.
We remember how that eminent personage
declined to retract or qualify his expression,
and we cannot forget the convincing speech of
the Earl of DERBY on that occasion. There is,
however, such a thing as artificial applause.
The "longshore men" in London, like the Irish
chairmen in the last century, are often drilled
for an occasion. It was only the other day
Ulla Mr. WILLIAM KEOGH experienced another
alrt of reception at Dublin. He was hooted
fit his prosecution of Father PETCHERIN ; and
fit opposing certain combinations of trades-
men the late W. DANIEL O'CONNELL had to
be giu!rded by policemen. So much for "popu-
larity at Dublin. But the appointment of a
Crown official cannot be deciAed upon by
hollow " demonstrations." The fitness of a

THE PRESS.

judge for his post must depend on his ante-
cedents and his professional pretensions.
Lucky adventurers are endurable in melo•
dramas, but the Bench of Justice ought to be
preserved from all haphazard calculations.
We frankly avow our sympathy with struggling
genius in every profession. We admire the
gallant struggles of humble merit making its
way against obstacles. But we scout the
claims of mere audacity and unscrupulous
designs to be counted in the list of triumph
under difficulties. The annals of the Irish
Bar preserve many a name associated with
generous self-sacrifices. ANTHONY MALONE
was no time-serving sycophant of the plat-
form—no glozing courtier of the antechamber.
HUSSEY BURGH, " the silver-tongued orator"
( whose eh quence determined Lord PLUNKET
to choose the Bar for his profession), gave up
his lucrative office rather than vote against
his opinions in 1778, as was recorded by
GRATTAN'3 saying " The gates of tiro-
" motion closed on him, while those of glory
" opened." Prime- Sergeant FITZGERALD
threw up his post rather than vote for the
Union. Mr. BUSHE, after having rivetted at-
tention by his classical eloquence, perused
with delight by scholars, and heard with ad-
miration by crowds, declined the Solicitor-
Generalship of Ireland, in 1799, sooner than
compromise his character. Mr. PLUNKET left
the English House of Commons in 1807, and
would not play the part of an " adventurer."
The affecting story of Cuatias'slearly struggles is
known to all. These were noble natures. Their
genius, like their moral character, was of the
first class. Their eloquence has survived their
careers. They were both " good and great."
Pity it is that their posterity should have the
sample of men elevated to lofty position, to
whom the word " exemplary " would be the
most poignant satire ! Pity it is that the Bench,
which should be as a haven for a vii tuous
(though storm-tort) course, should be converted
into a refuge fur foundering political buc-
caneers!
Looking at the facts of Mr. KEOGH'S per-
sonal career, unconnected with the conduct of
any one else, we tell the Cabinet that a more
reckless deed was never committed by any
Ministry than in nominating Mr. WILLIAM
KEOGH to a judgeship. If the Queen's Go-
vernment be allowed with impunity to set at
nought all judicial traditions, and to disavow
4.bligations of what is due to the public at
large, the Constitution is a mere farce, and
political responsibility a delusion But such
is not the case. This empire is still governed
by opinion, and we shall boldly appeal to its
moral power for its deliberate sentence on the
appointment of Mr. KEOGH. In ordinary cases,
we frankly admit that we should be disposed
to touch tenderly on judicial appointments;
but it is on account of our reverence for the
Judicature that we feel it incumbent upon us
to exclaim against so grievous a political job
as the elevation of Mr. KEOGH. Administrative
Reform is the great question in our domestic
politics, and it is a ludicrous instance of the
contempt of Lord PALMERSTON for public
opinion that he should choose Mr. WILLIAM
KEOGH for a judge, when at all sides there is a
demand for the " right man in the ri, ht
" place." Our military and naval administra-
tors have been called to account, and we,
therefore, have a decided right to direct the
people's attention towards this extraordinary
appointment.
To choose a judge in Ireland for his
mere political notoriety, without due regard to
his legal qualifications, or his professional
position, is an outrageous abuse of patronage.
Only a few months since two vacancies oc-
curred upon the English Bench, and Govern-
ment chose Mr. Justice WILLES and Mr
Baron BRAMWELL. Neither of these eminent
personages had the slightest political influ-
ence. They did not sit in Parliament, and the
public universally acquiesced in their eleva-
tion. But some of the Whigs have let out
part of the secret why Mr. WILLIAM KEOGH was
appointed. " Oh! It is only an Irish appointment,
"and you know that Indian and Irish appoint-
" ments rest on the same basis." Such, we are
sorry to say, has been the principle avowed and
acted on by the Whigs. 1 n other words,
they would provincialise Ireland for their own

363

party purposes. While the Conservatives have
endeavoured to raise Ireland to the imperial
level, the Whigs oppose the " Agitators " in
words, and then secretly subsidise them.
But the case of Mr WILLIAM KEOGH carries
the system to an extravagant length. He was
at every side of the question in politics, and
such another whirling tergiversator does not
figure in Hansard, or in the memorandums of
Mr. HAYTER. Addressing Colonel SMITH on
the 2tsth of March, 1848, he wrote, " I have
" given up my profession and its prospects to
" achieve this victory, and the result is that I
"am embarrassed." Then he turned exclu-
sively to politics, coquetted with all parties,
and rushed to the head of the Brass Band

Now, taking these simple facts, we raise the
question at once, " to what was it that Mr.
KEOGH owed his elevation?" His law? Minis-
ters cannot indicate in the reports of the
Irish Courts the names of any legal arguments
exhibiting his claims to be placed over the
leaders of the Irish Bar. His eloquence ?
Show us a single speech from which a solitary
passage could be quoted as a specimen of
genius He was a furibund declaitner ; a
roaring rhetorician of the most rancorous
school of mob oratory ; he shouted out school-
boy harangues garnished with scurrilous
epithets. The poetry of invective, the subtle
gift for intellectual sarcasm, which a scho-
lar and a gentleman might utter, were entirely
beyond his compass. When was he taken
special in a leading case of great importance ?
Where are the proofs that the attornies of
Ireland highly appreciated his forensic powers?
If it was not his law or eloquence that got him
his judgeship, we suppose that it must be
ascribed to his influence with his " party."
We cannot describe that " party," but we
recollect how the late HENRY GRATTAN de-
nounced adventurers who " indulged in a ter-
" magant vulgarity debasing to a plebeian
" level courts and senates, canvassing for
" Insh infamy, on speculation of British
" promotion."
Let the consequent effects of public opinion
in Ireland be observed by all. In Sligo the
Premier's " bosom friend " was left in a de-
cided minority At New Ross Sir THOMAS
REMINGTON was hopelessly beaten. At Athlone,
last week, after the Conservative candidate
had actually retired, a number of Roman
Catholic electors spontaneously called on a
Conservative again to come forward, and the
Honourable Captain HANDCOCK obeyed the sum-
mons, and was triumphantly elected. These
events took place not all at once, but seriatim,
with the full delil eration of the Roman Ca-
tholics and (quondam) " Liberals" in those
boroughs.

But it may be urged that neither Sir THOMAS
REIHNOTON, nor Mr. JOHN ENNIS, nor Mr.
SOMERS, were members of the Brass Band.
True ; but they were attached to the Liberal
Irish party, which returned seventy members
in 1852, and which ignominiously disgraced
itself by choosing persons whom we need not
name for their " leaders " The popular op!-
nion in Ireland now revolts from that party.
Yet Mr. WILLIAM KEOGH'S chief political con-
nection was with the least " reputable " section
of that body now so discredited in Irish popular
opinion So that it would be absurd to say
that it was legitimate political influence ob-
tained for Mr. KEOGH his unmerited elevation.
Then what could have been the power
that raised him to a post which was not
conferred upon such brilliant orators as Mr.
SHAW or Mr. SHELL, in character gentlemen
of spotless honour, in eloquence orators
whose language was worthy of the best days of
Ireland. An answer to that question will
require more space than we can spare to-day.