The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 21

adze oil, and the breeding of fettle had *petted to agri-
otd.ure new and abutdaut sources of profit Thelprefect,
in proposing "The Deparlammt," pre as outlissai of the
progress made of late years in the Eleioe-st-Oise. Nearly
65,000 children of both sexes. be said, frequented the fres
schools, and while the number of children not receiving in-
struotions was a few years back 4,000, it is now only 1,050.
The produce of the land in the department, estimated in
1830 at 33 millions, has now inoreasei to 58 millions, end
the direct tale. have risen from live millions to ten ma-
llow. The evades passed over most agreeably, and the
urbanity end teat et the obainatia were universally ad-
mitts&

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Doily News.)
Among the constituencies which are awaiting
the approaching elections, how many are thinking
of a competency to discuss Indian affairs as an
important qualification of any candidate f If an
answer to this were possible, we should be rather
afraid to hear it. We need not repeat what we
have had too much occasion to uy before in regard
to the great national misfortune and difficulty of
India being subjected to parliamentary govern-
ment, while Parliament is still ignorant, indifferent,
and wrong-headed alike in its ignorance and indif-
ference about Indian questions of an importance
actually inexpressible. To those who are aware of
the calamity involved in this fact, it is one of the
most anxious questions of the time whether the
interests of India will be better or worse treated in
the new Parliament than in the present. Will the
Minister of that department have no better check
in the House than hitherto ? Will he be j usti-
fied henceforth in scorning the criticism, and jest-
ing at the mistakes, and t►king advantage of the
apathy, and complaining of the scanty attention he
meets with there ? Or may we hope that there
will be some few members who understand his
business at least as well as he does, and who will
lead on others to support him where he is right,
to keep watch over his relations with his Council,
to represent that Council where that body needs
support, to strengthen the heart and bands of the
Viceroy and his administration, and, in short, to
make the responsibility to Parliament a real thing?
The Minister ought to desire the presence of such
members in the House, and to feel, as the best
men in India do, that even half-a-dozen such men
would be an inestimable element in a new Parlia-
ment, both in regard to present service and as a
sure prophecy of a future increase in the proper
governing power of the greatest dependency in
the wink'. The Westminster electors, if they
choose Mr. MIL', will have done their duty in
this matter in a way which few constituencies can
hope to rival. There are not many other possible
candidates who can have so much to say about
India, and can say it with such authority ; but
there must be among us gentlemen qualified for a
seat in the council of the nation who might save
us from the danger with which we are threatened,
of being even worse off for exponents and judges
of Indian questions in the new than in the present
Parliament. There is evidently a vague uneasiness
prevalent, within and without the House,
about the increasing tyranny of the Horse Guards
as the Indian army dwindles and repines under
the scarcity of subaltern officers; and about the
uncertain and arbitrary treatment by the Govern-
ment of schemes of public works ; and about the
inconsistencies and caprices of the financial
management ; and about the insecurity of the
prospects and promises held out by the autho-
rities, whose statements pass unchecked because
they are made to a thin House, or to a public
unqualified to explain the grounds of its now ha-
bitual distrust. The present time—the coming
election—will determine the fate of India, and of
British interests in connexion with it, as far as
these depend on our redemption or forfeiture of
our pledge of a real parliamentary government for
the vast country whose destinies we have taken
into our own hands.
When we consider for a moment what that coun-
try is, and what its destinies might be, even at the
present rate of development, we can understand the
taunt of officials who ask what we would have,
and recommend that ignorant M.P.■ should
look at and admire the progress of the country,
before they find fault with its rulers. They point
to the favour with which capitalists have for some
time past regarded Indian investments. They
point to the multiplying Agricultural Societies, and
the throng of natives which attends the shows.
They point to the waterworks (the successful ones);
to the produce which chokes the railways ; to the
wild activity of commerce at Bombay ; to the de-
mand for more currency ; to the opening of roads,
the reclamation of waste lands, the new and
spreading growth of tea and coffee on the spurs of
the mountains, and of flax in the Punjab, and of
cotton in a thousand valleys and plains. They
point to the diminishing mortality at the military
stations, and to the improving character, health,
and happiness of the soldiery where workshops
have been opened and gardens laid out.
They point to the absorption of all the
labour of the country, so that only a'
few restricted portions can spare any coolies
for emigration. They point to the spread
of education among the natives, and especially
among the girls, and to the advanced rate of
wages, and its effect among the people ; and then
they ask how any country could get on better,
and, once more, what we would have? This is
the question which perplexes our representatives,
and which impels them to avoid Indian debates
which only perplex them further.
If better qualified members enter the House,
the proper answers will be given, and certainly
there will be questions put on the other aide. It
will be ascertained what terms the Secretary for
India is on with successive Viceroys, what reason
they have for their complaints of forfeiture of pro-
mises, of their best acts being overruled, their
best aims baffled, their recommendations
sneered at or neglected, their lives doomed
under the dreadful climate of Calcutta, and their
endeavours to escape the common fate censured
or ridiculed. It will be ascertained why there is
a growing distaste for an Indian career, military
or civil, why the opening of the telegraph line is
dreaded, as still further enfeebling and embarrass-
ing the really capable rulers on the spot ; and how
it is that companies engaged in the prosecution of
public works are usually in a mood of irritation
with the Socerruir for INDIA, and fall of com-
plaints of disappointment, or obstruction, or ne-
glect. It will be insisted on that sound financial
principles shall be adopted ; and once adopted,
adhered to ; and that India shall neither be
governed for the benefit of any English interest on
the one hand, nor played fast and loose with on
the other in regard to its own manufactures, and
the prices of commodities, exported or imported.
In the course of any discussion, worth the name,
it must become known to ell who care to learn that
such development as is proceeding and projected is
mainly due to the authorities on the spot. To the
VICEROY is due the credit of great actual reforms,
and of many more that he desires but cannot
&thieve. To the military authorities belongs the
honour of the redemption of a multitude of soldiers
from idleness, intemperance, debt, disease, and
death, by means of profitable industry permitted and
encouraged. The chiefs of departmental Govern-
ments are opening up wild regions by new roads,
and planning to establish a trade with Central Asia
by rendering the mountain passes and Thibetan
valleys practicable for traffic. Some are opening
schools, themselves, or by native patriotism. Some
are turning fever nests into seats of health. Some
are raising agriculture to its due place in the mind
and life of the people. Companies are at work in
the same way, opening boundless prospects, through
public works and the establishment of new in-
dustries, front the ridges of the mountains to the
depths of the mines.