The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-10 00:00:00

TIIE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS-'

ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

(Won tis DuUy Nero.)

There would be little use in criticising the
speeches on India delivered in the House of Lords
when the Premier moved for a committee on Indian
affairs. Lord DERBY'S was the prodaet'on of a
practised speaker, carefully crammed for the =ca-
m" on a subject ho has never thought of seriously.
Its statements ore in the main correct; its comments,
when not exactly just, are plausible; but the whole
is felt to be an accumulatiou of materials, supplied by
competent authorities, which the speaker has not
had time to make his own, or even completely to un-
derstand. Lord Eeeeemotountis harangue, on the
contrary, was all his own, and piquantly character-
istic--a strange mixture of cleverness with fatuity,
of ripe experience and good sense with vulgar imper-
tinence. Ili. exposure ot the anomalous constitution of
the body that elects the directors—a consti-
tution that enables the fundholders, the
public credkors of India, to nominate its
de liJeto rulers—was excellent ; his proposed remedy
—to swamp the proprietors, by adding to their num-
ber a majority composed of the civil and military
servants of the ('ompany—was ludicrous; his con-
fident, decided style ot speaking was imposing • his
personal attack upon Mr. PEACOCK was uncalled for,
irrelevant, and ungentlemanly.
The met it of these speeches is, however, not even
a secondary consideration. They had, in fact, not
the most remote bearing on the question imme-
diately before the House of lords. lord DERRY'S
was a statement of what he had been told by his
bureaucratic assistants or masters) he ought to think
about Indian affaira. -Lora likeeNuoioutvitt's was
an exposition of the system of Indian government,
recouirnended by the hero of the tiomnauth
gates. Hut the real question upon which the
house was called to decide was, whether a committee
to inquire into the tasks of India, with a view to
prepare the legislature for the debates that will
arise when the incorporating act of the company
corers to he renewed, ought or ought not to be ap-
pointed this session. The Lords, without discusidun,
voted the appointment of a committee, and yet the ,
question is beset with difficulties.
there can be nu doubt that inquiry has already
been too long postponed. Next year parliament
must legislate for the future government of India;
this year we arc to Lave a general election; and yet
it would he hard to say whether the greater igno-
rance of Indian affairs, mud the greater consequent
apathy regarding them, is to be found among mem-
bers of parliament, or the electoral body at large.
let enough is known to all who have paid any
attention to the subject to show that essen-
tial and extensive changes in our Indian system are
urgently =MA for. The machinery of government
is .iiinecessarily cumbrous. There are, in fact, three
governments—one in Leadenhall-street, one in
Cannon-row, and one at Calcutta—arid each of these
three is far more powerful to amid and paralyse the
action of the other two than to do anything itself.
Again, notwithstanding this superfietation of adini-
nwrative authorities, the government of India is in
point of tact inadequately provided for. There is a
local administration for each of the three Presiden-

city; but the local administratim of Bengal is cum-
bered with the general business of the whole of
British India, and has at the same time a Presidency
under its charge which has grown too big for its
management.'llie council of Calcutta must either neg-
lect its local or its general duties; and in such cases it
is generally found that both arc neglected. Again, the
civil ufficialv in all the presidencies arc so few, that
military officer. arc systematically employed to sup-
ply the deficiency; thus taking away soldiers from
th. it neemary duties, and tainting civil government
with the mat tame despotic spirit of military command.
It is a hackneyed answer to ail criticisms on ill-
constituted governments, that •• in practice they
work well." But this cannot be said to be the case
in India. Loud and well-louuded complaints are
m: do of all departments of government. The de-
mcralisation which pervades both the civil and mili-
tary services is notorious ; and it is demonstrably the
result of the manner in which appointments are
made. A large proportion of the appointments are
in the hands of directors, and arc avowedly qiveu as
the price of the votes which made them director..
These appointments have of late been mach sought
after as means of ridding respectable families of
their enfant, terrible, and maned, sales. Young
officer. dismissed from the QUEEN'S army have been
sent out as cadets to India. Again, the officers of
the Indian army, who arc on.y promoted by the
slow rale of seniority, arc tempted to seek diplo-
matic appointments; and these have been multiplied
far beyond what is necessary or expedient. The residents
at native Indian courts are compelled to make busi-
ness, last the residency should be suppressed as use-
less: they plunge into all the petty, disreputable
intrigues of barbarous courts; and they are the
causes of those incessant collisions with native
powers which have so alarmingly extended oar Indian
dominions. Again, the paucity of civil servants leads
constantly to the appointment of raw lads, ignorant of
the native languages, to provincial judgeships.
Their ignorance places them at the mercy of venal
and cunning native practitioners, and the character
of the provincial (M,fitssil) courts is perfectly scanda-
lous. Throughout Is justice is tainted at its source.
European settlers are oppressed by the slowness and
expensiveness of legal proceedings in the supreme
courts—their privileged jurisdiction ; yet they re-
claim with well-fouuded apprehension against being
banded over to the arbitrary and corrupt provincial
scene. For the poorer class of natives, justice is unat-
Woad& There is no redress. The higher officials of
revenant either have not leisure to attend to re-
wasablesses er are too bigoted to their own
eretabsts to extend a remedy. Virtually irrespon-
sit* even when of benevolent intentions, they will
be guided only by their own &rhino, inlipmat.
Law mast gm way to policy;upens who
have bees evened hare their bullied
backwards and forwards between Inallsvern
meets, the supreme council at Clebnlbs the Rant of
Direetan and the Board of Gated, midi before
they an obtain *tire. Of the hremealib sear
teed primes scattered through bib. >lw b not
ens who does not at this swewt lea& for the
emiwity of his treaty-guarsatissil
Sews it COMB that a of dis-
menent and diesneetka pmemilas the 'of India.
And the law's dohs and
_owl the in-
assorily of titles, in dabbl interprise
and ward the of soonross.
This oil to arnimembod as eztoom4ore.lealieenilo
system at fleanas; by profuse VI coupled
with rainless, Se by eat money or damonstratedly
Weida welootekiese
EN* les been meld to show IMO r lir-
goadr nowlod. tan area the : Is
r eirilematesasaw: a Paallaaleniss7
remieasnenittee of
, in ambling cifeens,
the seastiblienal seeseitiss of ibwithpOtbmn P Or
is it peal& that in salmi elesaambnees
any istydry essiested by a tary com-
mittee saes be at the slightest an daring the
peessat soden P There is no &nit that the
mining is anxious to hays Wan onewit-
teas aggoinloi by both houses, for the (ewe
Wei sot the smoies. But it will seaaasao wh to
land Mesa mesh a pretest for pengenbe
da=
idea. Again, if partimill- bis
as on is it of to be, the soadaellow d ownott-
tees will be a mare farce. They will Yen so time
he brift and even if Amy haves Sr minds of
Oak lare will be so aneb with elee-
tiosseei pedasb sad intolowe killialle inquiry
will sem te esehisg.
In this dlimma, it has beim stamested that a
inquiry dandide mat out to
India. Osewisioes of this bird have Use so mul-
tiplied of kb that they have rather Wes late disre-
pute. Waist there are two slimed= of nee
wet& to the proposal of seeding one le India In
&DUI phi% it would camas Ise awe time : in
Me seesed esnalwinwo see vaginally se-
Nralda India weld be Me is alt egrs-
ndshabes r and semmimisners already ac-
gambled with indla wadi le esemeoly apt to re-
pet only their own broom amineless.
At the name time -It mot be admitted that

els— viiinsy sit laTit;iri .171—ti; Wiwi mem
disk -mist lbr sot gipoistlag Essikosalsry
simmillos sionysiooden=s St the ir
sing sr a Tlast sessio-
alsit idift_ bearar, assomilleh In this ssuds,
dl dat add la idea is steamy tints Iffiffallorres
samba ssm thes ipsodily. Its
mint lo bid ssa sad yelswidis
astssiustat it @Woos i awl, at die ilmstits the

g an outline of the future government of
rieg:rilflor the considemtion and sanction of parlic.
meat and the public at large. There are many gentle-
men in this country who are not members of parlia-
ment, but who possess as high, or higher qualifica-
tions for such a huh than any living member of
parliament. And there aro many gentlemen in this
country admirably fitted to give important evidence;
and to them might be added in the course of three
0: four months, parties specially delegated from all
parts of India to express tho opinions, wants, and
wishes of any special interest or clam of society in
that country•. Even the most prepossessed against
commissions may in these circumstances be inclined
to admit that, at the present crisis of affairs, • royal
commission would be preferable to parliamentary
committees, and to advocate its appointment on the
ground that inquiries should be begun without lam of
time.

SPORTING.