The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

LORD bIF_MGUND ON INDIA.

LORD MELGUND, M.P. for the counties of Clack-
mannan and Kinross, was entertained at dinner on
Friday evening last, at Kinross, by the electors of
the counties to the number of above one hundred.
In the absence of tho Lord Advocate, Mr. Adam, of
Blairadam, presided. In his reply to the toast of
the evening,
Lord MELOUND alluded to his recent election, and
to some domestic events of subsequent occurrence,
and then proceeded to speak of India. Having re•
marked that it was a remarkable instance of human
want of sagacity and foresight that such an event
should have taken place, and that it should have been
so little foreseen, Lord Melgnnd said :
I think there is a very great disposition just now, and a
very natural one no doubt, to attach blame to the East
India Company ; and I am certainly very far from saying
that they have acted with wisdom throughout their pro-
ceedings. But, at the same time, I think we ought to
bear in mind that one of the most wonderful instances of
a rapid conquest, and, to a certain degree, of a permaner.t
conquest, that the world has ever seen, has been exempli-
fied by the policy and through the agency of the East India
Company. That Company is now tiFon its trial, and there
is no doubt that great changes are likely to be made in the
manner in which India shall be hereafter governed. There
is a strong disposition, I think, in many quarters at once
to bring the government of India under the influence of
the British Government. I must say that I think there is
great danger in following up this principle too fat. I have
heard it said by persons who have known India pretty well,
that the electric telegraph will lose us India. The meaning
of this is that the Government will think that they know a
great deal better how to govern India than the people who
have been brought up to do so, and who know the character
and prejudices of the people, and that by too much inter-
ference with the government of the country they will
disgust them, for undoubtedly we ought to govern as far as

possible according to their wishes. This is a question
which will no doubt occupy the attention of Parliament at
all events next year and probably for some years to come,
and I have therefore thought it right that I shonli say
thus much on a subject which is exciting so much interest
in the minds of us all.

MR. LINDSAY, M.P., AT TYNEMOUTIL
Mn. LINDSAY addressed his constituents at Tyne-
mouth on Monday last. After alluding to several
matters of local interest, Mr. Lindsay touched upon
a topic just now interesting to the public, " The
Leviathan ":

If that ship answered it became a question how they
would stand with their small vessels. It was a matter of
great interest to all, but particularly to those directly or
indirectly interested in shipping, whether the ship was
likely to answer commercially or not. He had strong
opinions on the subject commercially; but first let him
say she would be a great triumph of mechanical art. He
be lieved no finer or stronger ship was ever put together.
With regard to speed, he doubted whether she would attain
to what had been stated, though he fully believed that she
would attain a greater speed than any ship ever yet launched
in the waters. Our nation had reason to be proud of such
a great triumph of mechanical skill. But commercially, it
to them was a most important question, because, if such a
ship as that answered commercially, then all their property
in shipping must in a short time go to the wall. His
experience, however,—And he believed it would coincide
with theirs,—his experience was that they had found they
had, in fact, been building their ships too large. The
Americans, who were a farsighted people, had discovered
this fact. They said a 3,000-tons ship was too large for
the ordinary purposes of commerce, and it had been found
that a ship of from 800 to 1;200 tons for the East India
trade was the most profitable description of ship, while
from 1,5(10 to 1,800 tons was about the limit. The course
of commerce was, if a Manchester merchant had 1,000
bales of cotton to send to Calcutta he did not send the
whole in one bottom, because that might overstock the
market. The merchant did what was called " feed the
market." The same thing would hold good as to passen-
gers. They did not go altogether, or in masses, but at
intervals, to suit convenience. So for the purposes of war,
politicians found it the wisest policy to send out their
troops—not 1,000 in one bottom, much less 10,000, but
send them out in numbers of 40U or 000 at the very most.
That was the policy. Imagine, then, a whole army sent
out in this Great Eastern. He did net say anything of a
wreck, he did not contemplate any such fearful tragedy;
but suppose her engines went wrung; he said it was not
policy to send so many troops, so that, looking at the
matter both politically and according to the ordinary
course of commerce, he was of opinion that the ships we
hail had nothing to fear from the competition of such vast
leviathans as the Great Eastern.
With respect to India, Mr. Lindsay doubted
whether our government of India after all had been
more advantageous to the people of India than that
of the 'Endo° princes. We had drawn an enormous
revenue from the country, and done nothing fur
public works:—

‘Vhen he looked at the enormous revenue derived from
India, he asked how much was spent in public works ; and,
taking Glasgow or Manchester, he found that one of these
large cities,—namely, Manchester—had spent more in a
year in institutions for the benefit and elevation of the
people than the Court of Directors of the East India-house
had done for the whole of India in the same period. Ile
said we had not governed India wisely, and we had not
done it well. To him there seemed a sort of fatality to
follow this course of aggrandisement—grasping vast ex-
tents of territory without taking the means to govern well
the territory we had already. It seemed to him it would
have been much wiser if we had limited our territory and
governed it better.
•

He thought from this that there should be a great
change in the government of India:—
What that change should be it would be presumptuous,
to a certain extent, for nitn to say; but it struck him if
they were to govern the people of India well that the
Government ought to be in India itself. He said, let
them send out a Governor-General, and let there be a

Council, though not such as at preseiit, inasmuch as some
might be sent from this country, and the others chosen
from among the European residents ' • and let them be
the executive residing on the spot, and be subject to the
cheek of the House of Commons, one member of which
should be Secretary of State for India. They would then
have some one whom they could hold responsible if India
was misgoverned. He hoped that in future, by the changes
which would be introduced, a great deal would be dune
for India and to develop its immense resources.