The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-04 00:00:00

CHARTER.

Mr. ANSTEY then rose to move an address to her Ma-
jesty, "representing that it is now necessary that the true
condition of the territories under the government or ma-
nagement of the East India Company, and the real wishes
and feelings of our fellow subjects inhabiting those tern-
tories, as to such government or management, be fully as-
I certained ; and for that purpose praying her Majesty to
i take measures fur the appointment of a commission of n-
! quiry, with full powers to take evidence in India as to the
operations and results of the laws now in force touching the
government and management of the said territories, and to
report such evidence, together with the opinions of the
commissioners thereon, to her Majesty in parliament." In
the resolution, he said, two propositions were involved.
The act of 1833, by which the government of our East
India territories was provided for, must soon be renewed,
either in its present form, or with such amendments
as in the wisdom of parliament should be thought
necessary, and it was, therefore, expedient and just that
preliminary inquiries of some kind or other should be made.
The other proposition was that such inquiries would
be useless unless they were conducted upon the spot.
Parliament had a right to demand in what way
the recognition of the political existence of a handrail
millions of people in India had received its practical value,
and he trusted they would inquire and on the spot. Fur-
thermore there were grievances in 1833 which were sup-
posed to be provided fur by the bill which then passed, but
there was nut one of those grievances which did not now
exist in all its original enormity, if indeed it had not
been aggravated by continuance. For instance, there
were the monopolies of opium and salt. When Mr.
Buckingham brought forward that question, Mr.'
Grant said it was a question fur the Governor-General in
council, but nothing had been done. Then there were
other practical grievances, such as the exclusion of all the
natives from every post of profit and power. if they had
no choice between the abandonment of the East Indies
altogether, or continuing the present system of government,
they ought in justice to abandon the territory altogether if
they were to believe the evidence that had been given as to
the working of the present government. It behoved them
to use all the time at their disposal between this and the
time when the act would expire in inquiring into the effect
of that government. The natives of India were alive to
this question; and, in order to show this, he would quote
from a remarkable document, a petition presented to lord
Elphinstone, the Governor of Madras, on the 12th of
February, 1840, signed by no less than 100,000 natives, in
which they said, •' We are the people of this country, inha-
biting
this land for thousands of generations; from our
industry its wealth is supplied; by our arms it is defended
from foreign foes ; by our loyalty to the established govern-
ment its power and safety are maintained." He held in his
hand the report of a committee which was appointed to inquire
into the growth of cotton in India, and in which a great
mass of informatics was collected, bearing on one of the
great questions of India, the land monopo4. The report
described the condition of the natives of India now under
British rule, in these terms, " the low abject condition of
the cultivators of the soil, the absence of capital, and the
extent of the government demand for rent and revenue, I
wens subjects which were brought prominently before our
notice, rendered it necessary for your committee to enter
at considerable length into an inquiry into the system of
land tenure, and to take the evidence of officers of tho
Indian government on the subject; and it appears,
(ran the evidence of almost every witness, that the as&