The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

INDIA.

INDIAN REFORM LEAGUE.

A uoliwzNo contemporary on Wednesday published a
deUtiled report of the public meeting held at Calcutta
on the 26th of August last, for the purpose of con-
sidering the propriety of drawing up a petition to
the Home Government praying for a change in the
dministration of Indian affairs.
Mr. LoNouk.vu.LE CLARKE presided, and in ex-
plaining the object of the meeting alluded to the
paragraphs of the notice eonvening the meeting as
follows:

The first paragraph says:—
it is proposed to organise an association for the purpose of
promoting the improvement of the political condition and go-
vernment of India in connection with British interests, and to
encourage British enterprise and the employment of British
capital in this country.
- - - - - -•— -

-- •
The proposition, in short, is to establish an Indian Reform
League. The second paragraph of the notice says:—
These objects cannot, in the opinion of the originators of the
League, be attained unless the government of British India be
removed from the East India Company, and there be established
in this country the direct governrueut of the Crown, and an
open legislative council of Englishmen.
- - • •

. - -
That is the principle of this our petition, and the business
of this meeting will be to consider what details, what pro.
ceedings we should adopt to cam out this great object.
The notice continues:—

The primary object of the League will be, to urge upon the
attention of the British Parliament and our countrymen in
England, by all legitimate and constitutional means, the advan-
tages that will accrue to Great Britain and India by the placing
of British India urder the direct government of the Crown, in-
dependent of the Colonial-office, and the constitution of a legis-
lative council, to be composed of indepen.lent persons chosen
from the British community of India, in place of the existing
council, solely composed of nominees of the Court of Directors
and other official persons.
- - - - -

Besides this radical change, had I penned this, I should
have added some words. I should have said, " This be-
neficial and glorious change " in the government of India
the following measures will be advocated :—The uniform
and due administration of justice on the principles of
English law—the laws of Hindoos and Mahomedans in
matters of inheritance and contract being administered in
civil cases in which they may be defendants. All courts to
be presided over by properly-trained lawyers—feeling, when
I say that, it is a privilege conceded to all conquered
nations, by every conquering power who have not forgotten
justice or hanianity, to be governed by their own laws in
matters of inheritance and contract. That is a privilege
which was given to Hindoos and Mahomedans by charter
more than seventy years ago, and God forbid that there
should be any Englishman willing to take it away. It is
theirs, let them retain it. The notice proceeds :
The office of Ju Igo to be held during pod behaviour instead
of during the pleasure of the Government, and the English
lasguage to be the language of the court.
Another measure of reform to which the League propose
to direct its efforts, is the abolition of stamps and all other
taxes on the administration of justice, and the improve-
_
- - Rvatem. The

meat of the police system. Tin. next paragraph of the
notice describes another object of the League to be:—

The revision of the present fiscal regulations, with a view to
the adoption of a system which, while making provision for the
requirements of the itate, shall nut operate as a check upon
industrial euterprise.
Many gentlemen who hear me know more of those fiscal
regulations than I do, but I have seen enough to know
that they are so much abused that there must be some
ground for devnauding their revision. The tenth para-
graph of the notice defines another object of the League
to be :

The throwing open of all civil employment to all Europeans,
without distinction, who may possess the necessary qualiftea•
tions of character and education to hold them.
I shall conclude by reading to you the last paragraph :
It is conftdeutly expected that it these measures are carried
out, additional safeguards will be given to life and property, and
that they will, by affording in their results better security than
at present exists fur capital employed in the interior. lead to a
vast improvement in the facilities for transport by railway.
Mr. MACKINLAY moved :
That a society to be called the Indian Reform League be
formed upon the basis of the prospectus now read.
Mr. DAYNE, in seconding the motion, said :
It is proposed to establish a Reform League ; and I
have no doubt that that step will be fully attended with
the results which we all desire. It is for us to collate and
furnish facts b 3 which to enliyhten the extraordinary
ignorance and stimulate the indifference of people at home
with respect to India. Sure lam that if any person who
has kept a chronological list of the outrages that have been
perpetrated since the time we first heard of the outbreak
of the mutinies, and of all that the Government has done
and left undone, and I believe there are many such
amongst ns, should send those statements home to any
one who has a voice in the British Parliament, and who
would digest them, and plainly lay before Me house the
results at which he arrived, nothing more would be needed
to determine the question whether this country should
continue to be under the East India Company's adminis-
tration or whether it should be placed under the govern-
ment of the Crown. This, gentlemen, I believe, will be
one of the moat important employments of the Indian
Reform League, and to which I hope every one of you will
contribute something.
The resolution was put from the chair, end car-
ried unanimously.