The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Free Trade and the Cotton Question with reference to
India, tc. By FRANCIS CARNAL BROWN.

Whoever is interested in the prosperity of our
Indian empire, whether cotton manufacturer, ship-
owner, railroad proprietor, merchant, or legislator,
ought to buy this pamphlet. It is a lucid statement of
those facts which directly charge the sterility of one
part of our Indian territories, and the miserable condi-
tion of the Ryot population in others, to the system
of collecting the Company's revenue. The facts are
well selected and forcibly put; and notwithstanding
the intense interest which the exposure is calculated
te excite, we perceive no attempt to exaggerate. All
the assertions made are warranted by extracts from
published returns, or from statements made by men of
unquestionable veracity.
The writer introduces his statements with a peti-
tion, addressed to the Board of Control, to allow a
relaxation of duties sufficient to render the port of
Cochin, on the western coast of the peninsula, an out-
let for the produce of many native states under our
control, and consequently an inlet for English mann-
fat-tared goods. The petitioners, merchants at Coetie,
represent the sovereigns of the states of Cochin and
Travancore as willing to abolish the duties they levy
to the interruption of commerce, if the British autho-
rities will do the same, and draw an inviting picture
of the resources of the back country, which is acces-
sible from Cochin by means of navigable rivers.
Since Cochin actually was an emporium of the kind
which these petitioners desire to make it, both for
Portuguese and Dutch successively, there seems no
reason to doubt that the request will be taken into
immediate considee..'nn by the Board of Trade, to

whom we hear the Board Of Control has referred the
matter.

But as an Englishman, and one well acquainted
with the ins and outs of Indian policy, Mr. Brown
renders the country a service that no one in a less
independent position, and still less any native,
could attempt. Cotton has become an article of first
necessity to this country, as furnishing to millions
wherewith to buy their daily bread. We now draw
three-fourths of our whole 'supply from very question-
able allies across the Atlantic, at a price that would
make all India revel in wealth, and that would pour
the largest gains into the pockets of our own indus-
trious population. It has been asked " How is it,
that cotton is not grown in India ?" In the pamphlet
before us the answer is so distinct and emphatic that
we conceive the appeal to the good sense, the feelings,
and, above all, to the interests of the British public,
must be irresistible.

We have no desire to take off the edge of the
reader's anxiety to obtain full information on so im-
portant a subject by extracting copiously ; but, as a
specimen of tne weight of corroborative testimony by
which Mr. Brown supports his views (that indeed
are widely shared), we subjoin a few striking passa-
ges. First, then, in allusion to the waste lands of
great fertility in India, leaving the cultivated surface
out of the question :
" The extent of warm land capable of producing cotton, when com-
pared with that which producer, it at present, M very great In all the
province. enumerated (Kattivrar, Guaerat, Candeish, Occur, the
western part of the Nixam's dominion., the Southern Mahratta and
Cansrese countries). Large a. Is the quantity of cotton now produced,
the imprersuon of a stranger travelling through Beyer or Ceodeith
would be that the country WY very inarrfectly cultivated. Here and
there he would pawl large tracts of cult rated land, but he would also I
comrtantly travel through many miles of country fully equal in natural
resource', but destitute of population, which bad else-
where °obverted the ;angles into cultivated fields. He would
also find, if he inquired into the history of the villages, that a
very alight encouragement wan euilcient to attract cultivators
supplied with such scanty mew ma there milked for tillage, and that
they greeddy accepted terms which would be deemed hard by the
most enterprising farmers in England. His whole impression would
be, that a ootnparaUee trilling extension of the means now at work

would gt eatly multiply the produce of the country, and that without
any radical .snee of system. Where the district manager had given
out waste land on cony terms, or where the village moneylender had
advanced money for the purchase of sleek, the mine means would
prothue almost Indefinitely the same effect in bringing back to the
tihr zglioarz.ntiireldy. dese
not mrteed,.. ttohe cultivators whore
en .forefathers
terprlro
and lbgebuity may not effect a vast Improvement in the agricultare of
Whet lot I feel couvineed that if we were to follow op and In
I
tbs which India now pommies far encouraging and Improving
the seitvaties of waste land, we might extend her agricultural pro.
duo to a degree which would hardly becredited."—Letter from Thos.
Waimea% Am} late Revenue Commiasioner, Bombay, to Ind747"=llbeljnian of the Great reat Indian Peninsular Railway (tm.
But when Isle.
a collector once tried the experiment of
inducing natives to occupy and cultivate some of these
lands the effort wag met in the following manner:
The enlightened and patriotic writer deteribee coui.tries which he
himself tmverred and entirely superintended for many year. Ile did
more a. 1.12 this. Without dimlniabing by one farthing the Immediate
revenue he nett to collect from the land, but preparing a certain fund
for Its vast future tscreaer, he granted to the natives laws of waste
land, free from tat for a few years. for the ewer pupae of culti-
vating upon It cotton and the Mauritius sugar cane. The law, to
attain perfection, regains to be manured end irrigated, and corm-
quently demands a coesulembleprehmiruiry outlay. The satires joy-
fully accepted the leases, and set to work with the utmont alacrity and
industry. What did the directors of the Rant India Company do on
hearing of thla wise and prudent measure! The official gazette shall i
answer for them :

B,;+;;bii -G",;;;;nment Gazette, 20th June, 1838.—" The Honourable
the Court of Directors having been pleased to disapprove of the notifi-
cations of the 24th Fehr**, y and Ist August, MS, and of the let and
17th November, 1036, issued under the authority of government by
the revenue ootmlasioner, granting certain esemptions from axons-
ment (land tag) to land cultivated with conoa and the Mauritius
mum cane, and to direct that such notifications be immediately re-
called; the right honourable the governor to pleased hereby to cancel
the said notifications from this date." In conformity with this
pervraptory order, teams of waste land granted nearly four years
helm by the authority of ms governor in coursed of Bombay, and
upon the faith of which the keen had borrowed and spent their all,
were cancelled at a moment's warning, and the Mama were turned
out of postulation.
If the reader ask why this should be done, the
answer is that the system of East India revenue col-
lection is so vicious, and consequently so unsafe, that
any inquiry exposes its authors to disgrace, and the
success of any improvement is sure to lead to the
question, why is not a better system introduced else-
where? But a better system is only practicable
where merit, and knowledge of the language, man-
ners, and interests of the people, are sought as qualifi-
cations in appointments. But who could ever start
so preposterous a notion as to make these a standard
either for the patronage of Leadenhall-street or of
Cannon-street? Take, for instance, the qualifications
for a collector. Can a man who has ever heard of
Adam Smith be a good instrument in drawing up
documents like the following, or in enforcing them
when diaobeyed:

(Translation!.—Notice is hereby given by the principal collector in
the province o Malabar. to the Mookhisthans ;headmen`, inhabit-
ants, and all persons reeding in the Division of Terooreengad, in the
Tellicherry Nobler, of the Tale* of Cottyem, that the following lest-
bandy (tag-table), shall be Is force, in Aging the ffiretz (government)
asserswients of the ensuing Malater year

Percent. Pa cent. I Percent. Per Per cent ofun
on
3talahar on on .
levuts.4. Rice Coma Nut' hotel Nut J°:* 11"tLilu'
Lynda. Tray They True. impk..c.n„
Canvey — 10
Toolaum l5 10
Verrehretun 15 10 10 to
Dhanoo
20 20 10
Coornbum
Meenuln
Mehdunt
Pedantry
Tdeadunum 2O 25 10

flaring regulated the kids (revenue Mina
forwarded the kbtbund chits (tai ;vipers), the and
!Vote are to receive the NM!, and pay the amount of their respective
kits !instalments) into the bands of the village Monegar, from the Ist
within the 15th of each month, to COllll3l/41ce from the ensuing month
of Canoe, (August and September), obtaining a receipt for payment of
the same.

Notice is hereby further given, that any person failing to discharge
the demand of am one month against him, within the 15th of that
month, shall forthwith be served with a summons, committed to gaol,
and his property distrained and wild or satlifsetion of the public de-
mand wanted him, and that the defaulter shalt likewise be subiceted
to all lows aridos from his failure; via.: Batts, interest (at 12 per
cent.) on the sum due by him, tram the day of its failing due, and the
charraurtending the distraint and rule of his property.
17th of Chingum of the •
Malabar year 999, corre- I Signed
sponding with4be 21st Aug., Principal ColleCtor.
1824.
To against Its being supoomed that there is ything pe-
culiarharsh in this prochmation, issued in Malabo:, In
annex an-
other, booed in another Mediae proTinea:—

of the province of Ma-
dura, to all merchants% traders, and others, inhabitants of the town of
Krelacurry.—.. The merchants of Keelacurry are required to enter into
n rwermnent bond and cotenant with the clerk of the customs, the
renter of the above town and district, making themselves responsibie
for their good conduct, that they will not emuggle, nor caw any
theft, nor incur any suspicion of fraud in the Castorn-honae duty, and
they will act as follows i.-Ist. When dyers receive clothe from the in-
habitants in order to be dyed, they must bring them to the Cu. tom-
house and have them entered in the accounts, and after the cloths
hare been dyed, the dyers are to bring them bock to the Custom-
boom in order to pay the duty on dyed cloths, and have them damped.
—god. Weavers mast bring the cloths that have been wore everyday to
the Custom-house, pay the duty upon them according to reguLotion,
and after the cloths have been stamped, the weavers arc liberty to sell
them.--3rd. Cbaonars, who climb palmyra trees (to draw the juice)
must enter into the custom+ amount the quantity of mares sugar they
manufachire, and having paid the duty upon It they are then at li-
berty to sell it to the merehanta.-4th. New cloths which wasbermen
receive to wash are to be stamped with the government stamp. More-
over, when wasbermen receive coloured clothe, they are to see that
the cloths had the fired stamp (before dying;, and also the stamp after
they were dyed. If the cloths have not been so stamped the writhe...
men are to bring them immediately to the caatome oltlcer.-3th.
Those persons who disobey this order, and those who act contrary to
It, shall be Imprisoned as booing evaded paying the government dues,
and nth persona are liable to puniahment by the honourable govern-
ment, according to certain clauses Mid down in Regulation I, of 1812.
p(tari lfeed) bob-collector and magistrate.—Dated Mootco-
[By
rely
11823,
1912, sm. 21, clauses 1 and 2, magistrates are
empowered to determine charges against persons defrauding the cus-
toms% to fine the offenders to the extent or re. IC*, 101., and in default
of payment to andante them to hard labour for three months.
Where the customs arc not rented, the criminal judge has the same
power.]
Let us conceive an assessment of a similar kind
applied to cotton. What must be the result? Messrs.
Forbes, of Bombay, write as follows :
Bombay, Dec. I, 161 The crop of Surat and lISTOSSIS cotton this
year will not be large, and 8,000 acres in the Baroaeb district alone
are believed to be taken out of cotton cultivation, the prices now ruling
not remunerating the cultivators." In 1848, three yearn later, the
thnibilation of the staple trade of Bombay roused the go-
vernor in council to assemble the committee mentioned in the text,
composed of merchants and company's servants, before whom it has
been establirbed, that upon every candy of Surat cotton, mating 80
yaws, or 61. at the port of shipment, the company have taken 46
rupees, or 41. 16s. as land-tax and sea-duty, leaving to the grower in
Otherat 39 rupees, or 3/. 45., lea than one penny per pound (I 43-49 d.)
as the whole return foe his eubeisteace, his labour and profit of culti-
vation; and that in other cotton provinces, where the land-tax to not
so entendre as in this, the roads are on execrable, and the transport to
the sea is rendered ro dilatory and costly, that the expense, together
with the land-tax superadded, makes the production of cotton hams-
dble.
Can any one wonder that a plant grown under
active competition should go out of cultivation when
60 per cent. is deducted from the gross return by the
crown ?

When fine spinning was perfected in Lancashire,
inquiry was made for Dacca cotton; what was the
answer ? . . . .

•
The towline of Dacca, that beautiful manufacture which wee to
Bengal what the manufacture of steam-engines is to England, abso-
lutely unsurpassed, has, withiraming memory, become utterly extinct.
I passes positive proof that the cotton-plant from which It was fabri-
cated, grown immemorially on the rich beaks of the river Mune, hoe
become extinct with it, and that the weavers have been swept elf the
face of the earth. Well might Bishop Reber, writing from the city of
Dacca In 1824, record : Race►, Mr. Masters the collector says, is, so
I supposed, merely the wreck of its ancient grandeur. Its trade is
reduced to one.eixteenth part of what it was; all its splendid build-
ings, the palates of its ancient Nawaithe, the factories and ehurchee of
' the Dutch, Be., all sunk into ruin."—Vol. 1., p. 185, 314 ed.
Great part of the oppression exercised in India was
permitted on the plea of keeping up the export trade
to China. We extract the returns of the imports into
Canton for four years.
Bombay. Bengal. Modena American. Total.
IR t 6 Bales. 200,255 13,371 32,108 2,098 250,632
1415 183,719 31,102 60,151 3,015 278,587
IBW 229,123 40,126 08,561 6,192 858,005
lath 231,540 231,540
The decline M oar cotton trade deserves particular attention. The
commtapton of the raw material in no doubt seriously Interfered with
by the Meresedog import of manufactured goods; but there is 4 much
greater drawback In the exemsive land-tax imposed on the producer
by the End India Company. The shipments of this article are now
yearly decresalag.
How does the revenue stand under these circum-
stances ?
- - -. • . - -•

------ -
According to the parliamentary figures of the directors in the
account shore inentioned, the total chino upon the revenues of India
for the year 1843-6, is eatlinated to amount to 18.991,8611.; the total
receipts, also estimated, to 17,519,7431. deficit, 1,461,1161. Between
the years 30th April, 1836. sod 30th April, 1817, the public debt of
India has been increased by ■ sum of
On the Ist of May, 1836, the cash balances
in India and England were
On the lot of Hay, 1846, they was 10,887,938
Diminution