The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-26 00:00:00

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LONDON. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY M.

THE limit, so long the exponent of the East India
Company's policy, has at last found out that the
double tiovernment of India—first by means of a
Court of Directors, and then a Board of Control—is,
after all, a very clumsy piece of machinery; and
that, despite its many admirers and adherents, it does
not in practice work well. With us this is no new
opinion. We have for years shown the home govern-
ment of India to be defective in all those points
which make up good administration—responsibility,
fitness, promptitude, and purity ; whilst in India
the whole system, we have contended, is one
which, though reading well on paper, is never
verified ; and has resulted in enormous exten-
sions of territory that have conferred no real strength
on our India possessions—in land revenue arrange-
ments depressive of cultivation and production—in
the decay of native gentlemen and courts—and in
an expenditure far exceeding revenue. But now
that the Dimes, it is more than probable, may have
relations of a somewhat intimate character with the
Board of Control, it is pleasant and satisfactory
to see the light of truth beaming on its columns;
where, not long ago the Governor of India was
goaded on to absorb the great country of the Deecan,
simply because terms had been imposed on the
MLitt, which it was, and is, impossible for that
Prince to fulfil.
Sir CluaLas Woon, whilst Chancellor of the
Exchequer, ems to a pretty strong opinion on the
obstructive and selfish policy of the Court of Direc-
tors, in maintaining, against all rhyme and reason,
owe of the mail services in their own hands. And
sew as President °, the Board of Control he will have
further sad better opportunities of pursuing his
studies in this direction; and will quickly find out
- that there are in the Indian Government many other
invitee but patronage-creating services maintained,
besides the Indian Navy. And yet there can hardly be
a better illustration of how this deleptedgovernmental
. system works than in the existence of such a navy.
For the protection of India against all external
danger and attacks—to &sat in its wars
when that is pcmible—to repress piracy on
its wants, and to protect its commerce and mer-
cantile navigation, the English people keep a
great naval force in the Indian Bete. But, in addi-
- won, the Government of India persist in having a
small navy of their own, the source of gnat expense
' W its already exhausted treasury, no value in
*ass of peace,—and of little worth in case of war.
Bei then the Government of India is a semi-inde-
• pewleet government, and, as it has a great army of
• Its own, so it must have a small fleet, whether
wanted or not—a fleet being part, as it were,
of its regalia, evidence of its distinct and
separate existence; and an additional source
of patronage and power to the Court at home.
The folly and mischief of this no man knows better
than Sir CIIMILIS WOOD ; far he found this navy
obstructing all his plans for the improvement of the
postal service in India. The obstructive principle
which he, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had not
the power in that instance to overcome, will now,
as President of the Board of Control, meet
him in every direction. If be wishes to send
Lord DALHOUSIZ instructions of a political cha-
racter, he can only do so by confiding. their'
purport to the Secret Committee of the Court
of Directors, and going throeo the farce of
making three gentlemen issue a despatch they did
not prepare, never saw, before taking up their pens
to sign, and may heartily dissent from and &ap-
prove of. If be wishes to take a general survey of the
deplorable condition of the finances of India, he must
- have "rivets communications" with the " Chairs "
of Lea&nhaU-street, and provoke them to draw out
a document which, when presented to him, he can
draw his pen through, and then substitute his own
views, and oblige
.the Court, as a body, to append
their unwilling signatures. Whatever alteratioris
he may resolve to make—whatever suggestions he
has to offer—whatever animadversations hie sense of

clutycci4e ls iTniTielid- out—the game cumbrous,
lumbrous, absurd, and not very moral form must be
gone through. Nor is this the worst of this duplex
compliosted system. It necessarily really and irre- ,
sistibly begets carelessness, compromises, and boat
-
• tendon ;it perpetuates what is bad, and it averts lin-
povements; it neutralises the power of the guile's
Government, and it represses any capacity for useful-
use that then maybe in the Court ciDirectors; and ,
it reduces the home administration of the affairs of ,
India in dignity, responsibility, and in prwiptitude.
It would, of course, never do for the Court of
Directors and the Board of Control to differ,
dispute and quarreL So, though the two sepa-
rate pieces of the same whole an really
sejealow of each other as two rinl beauties, they
avoid differences by feeling their way, by sounding
sash other, by seeing whet one will do and the other
will unction, by compromises and yielding. And the
conesqlesse is, that India is sot governed on the
. fell sense of responsibility of either, but by accom-
modation and anangernent, to keep a system radi-
cally defective down_ tly and creditably going.
The results to India us not merely delay and
expense, but the perptnation of an incubus on it,
the weight of which is ingrowing ; and which, obli-
aNative Courts, destroys all demand for the
of Native art and high skill ; which,
priscipslities, swallows with them the'
g•sain et eultivabsd, hit • sad able men, to
" when they hirniabed . weri which is
gradually reducing India to one dead level of poor
sad helpless cultivators. And so long as we pre-
serve the doable machisery, so long as we shalt abet
this system-4er its extension is productive ofrtro-
wage sad of power all distributed and en oyed,
not by the GUIMIIe• Ministers, responsible to arlia-
meat, bet by the Directors, responsible to no one.
Uwe an am swagged with India—men of
the Wert character mid the largest experience—
who the evils of such a system. But
those men can Lind no place in the duplex ma-
ehisery that now governs India. They are
too pond, sad too full of self-respect, to
condescend to the arts and practices which are
necessary to wows election to the Court of Directors,
and they have useelly returned home too late in life
to secure acme by parlor means to the Board of
CootrvL And, under the existing organisation, the
. knowledge, the experience, the high thoughts of
men like the late Lord MaTcaLen—like the late Sir
WILLIAM RUMIELL—Iike Mr. MOUNTITUAIIT EL-
PSIMIITQAMMIr. HOLT Mammtwit, CoL Dicitaxsos,
and Mr. Suitsysn--are lost to India and to Eng-
land, and in their stead we have been surfeited by
such a set of =wadi= as no rational being would
entrust the cars of his private affairs to.
While such. sapiens se this lasts at home, the
Empress Governor of India is there powerless for
great good. The Crown may send out the ablest of
its subjects to fill that Vice-Royalty, but his ability is
cramped by the existing system at home ; ho carries
en correspondence of all sorts with all kinds of
people, to explain why he has been forced to do
this, end cannot do that; he has in India services
which are not thoroughly under his control; and hb
has in England two masters to serve. No wonder
then that people in high places are beginning to
find out that such a system cannot last, or that the
Times should now join in the cry for Reform long
ago raised in the columns of the Express.

Pr is the privilege of wise men to learn from dis-
aster. We are under disaster now; and it would
Madden many people in our country to think that
we should make the wisest use of it. The rains
continue, or rather, they incessantly recur. If we
rejoice in a touch of frost or a sparkle of sun one
day, wind comes in the night, and rain the next day,
and the farmer's spirits sink again. In some parts 'I
of the country, where a single flood is the talk of
after years, the flood has come twice, three times,
sad sow bar times within a few weeks. Ireland is,

to a large extent, almost underwater;
low-lying parts of England, wlylneser thre
Mill a flood, the pastimes will ipit
treed of cattle, nor areble land th,jkolort4eof
man. The sheep heltsgtlClaniatst rots d
fur the moat part, Oot soirerind where-ft 14.11
springing wheat is pronounced by the labourer
be spoiled by the " wet-stunt," which is, he say.
worse than the "cold-stunt." All the while, there
are old people saying that they don't understand it ;
that there used to be rain when they were young,
and there used to be a flood occasionally; but—they
deal know how it is—they have seen as much rein
as there has been this season, without anything like
as much flood. Younger people smile, and say,
" How should that be?". and the curious look about
for reasons for all this. Scientific people
talk about volcanos and earthquakes, and
other perturbations which, happening at the
same time, may somehow be connected with
our disaster. However this may be, and however
true It is, that no mortal can help so much rain
falling, the old people may be right in saying that
the floods are out of proportion to the rain; and if
we can Sod out how this is, we may be able to pre-
vent its happening again. If we are wise, we may
learn from &aster.

We have done a great deal of drainage within a
few years ; and it seems clear that, in some parts of
the country at least, the floods are owing to oar not
having done the work thoroughly. Proprietors and
farmers have carried the water off their own soil ;
but where have they carried it to P To some outfall,
which may be all-sufficient in dry weather, or
for a fifth part of their number in wet,
but which, being inadequate to such a seams
as this, returns the mischief upon their
hands in the most mischievous way possible.
Over hundreds of square miles in England the water
which would formerly have taken weeks to dribble
through the soil now streams out through the
drains—very happily for the land in the first in-
stance, but unfortunately for the neighbourhood, if
the whole country round has been droned too, with•
out any deepening of the outfall. We hear nothing
of any examination of brooks and rivers to see if they
can bear their share in disburdening our fields mil
=of superfluous water. We might hem
than this, whichever way we look. If we
lab to ear own hilly regions we may take a lemon
*ea nature, and if we look abroad we may take a
Wen from man. Among our mountains the pri-
mary rills flow into the tarns, high up among the
Moo ; and the tarns are filling while the streams
bdow are, in rainy weather, swelling the rivers which
tied the lakes. By the time the tarns begin to over-
flew at one end of the chain of waters the Wm
are overflowing seawards at the other, and the dis-
tribution and flow of water are gradual. When art
comes in, and men drain bogs and till the alluvions,
they must deepen and widen the outlets from the
lakes, or their valleys are flooded. The men in the
valleys of the Jura can show them what to do. With
wise foresight, they expend their labour and means
in good time—to prevent floods, instead of ret2
the mischief of then. One may see their
blasted in the solid rock—long tunnels, which eat
no little money and toil, but which are certain is
intercept the floods of a thousand years to 001100.
One would think that Holland would be floodedie
long as floods endure; but the Dutch let their fields
be flooded at nobody. pleasure but their own. If
they wish to irrigate their pastures, they can do it
at any moment; but if any tempest comes
up against them, it must have • fight
with their windmills, and be wonted. Those
deep.lying basins, which have no outfall bat one
that would work the wrong way if allowed to work
at all, lie green and solid, in comparison with ours,
because the wind which comes with the rains sets
the mills to work to baffle the clouds. We most do
something to the same purpose, if oar improved
drainage is not to become a frequent curse. We do
not want windmills—unless in newly-reclaimed
lands, like those bordering on the Wash; and we
can hardly need tunnels, though we can make them
as well as anybody where needed. What we do
want is a complete system of arterial drainage, pro.
perly finished off by securing the capacity of our
rivers and harbours. We want such a system of
drainage as may authorise each farmer to be a
CANUTZ on his own land, and forbid the waters to
a certain line. We ought to be able
transgress
that, in all our country, none
but tidal waters shall henceforth flow back upon
the land. It is not so very long since a
man's hair stood on end to see water run up hill : and
we hope it will not be very long before our rural
dowse will call to one another to come and look, if
such a wonderful sight should offer itself as wane'
returning when it has once flowed away. This arte-
rial drainage is a thing that the farmers cannot do
for themselves. Each one may find the best outfall
within his reach, and drain down to it ; and, if it is
not enough, he may make a pond and ditches on the
lowest part of his land, and grow alders and poplars
and willows there as absorbents; but be can do no
more, unless it be to unite with his class to urge upon
Parliament their right to a good system of arterial
drainage. And this is the stage at which the farmers
should be joined by the town populations, who have
as much interest as the farmers can have in the
matter, seeing that their health and the lives of many
of them depend upon it—to say nothing of their in-
terest in the welfare of their rural friends and
matoiners.

It is to be feared that some of the worst consequences
of the rains are yet to come. The most serious mis-
chief to health occurs when the ground dries again
after floods. Then comes fever. And, considering
the prodigious number of human dwellings and
plasm of resort that have been flooded and kept long
under water, we cannot venture to say that much
eiekeess may not be looked for. Under this expeo-
fallen, we look again for knowledge to Holland, as
the dampess known country ; and- also to Scotland
and to Ireland, and elsewhere, even nearer home.
I The Dutch make holes in their peat mosses, and bring
tip the peat mud from below, just as they and we
clean oar canals. Of this they make peat charcoal,
finding io much benefit from it that they have used
op neatly all their peat—cleared out their bogs,
which, In regard to Holland, is saying a great
deal. It has saved coal; it has distufected their
atmosphere wherever it was scattered about, or found
its way into dirty places; and its ashes have made
their clover fields the richest in the world. About
half a century ago, Lord MRADOWRARII made an
experiment in Scotland of very high importance. He
bad discovered that dried peat deprives dung and
offal of their unwholesome properties as regards
human health, becoming, by the very process, the
finest manure then known. He made the best com-
post heaps seen at the beginning of our century. In
a far part of Ireland, at this moment, there may be
seen a tall chimney rising from a group of buildings
on the forlornest hill-side of those peaty wastes
where O'Contutu. used to hunt in his holiday
seasons. It is some way from Cahirciveen, and is
visible hom Valentin. There is peat charcoal made,
with every prospect of being more and more in de-
mand, while there is peat enough within reach to
last, apparently, till all men are cold—past warming
—in their graves. Warmth, health, and fer-
tility are, no doubt, in attendance there, as
wherever peat charcoal is intelligently used.
To come nearer home, it is believed that
Prince ALBERT was among the first who saw the
advantage of using peat charcoal systematically in
oonnexion with our sewerage. However that ma
be, an experiment has been tried,—receutly enough
to have been little heard of, but long enough to
leave little doubt of the facts, which may be of great
use in releasing us from some of tho consequences of
our present disaster. The Bucks iterald introduced us
to this story. The drains at the end of Aylesbury,
on the Hartwell-road, used to bo a dreadful nuisance,
and most injurious to health. A proprietor of land,
six miles distant, urged the Board of Health to try
a peat-charcoal tank, at the entrance of the sewer,
isforming them of the value of the saturated peat
as manure. The Board was sure that the Vale of
Aylesbury was so rich that it wanted no manure, and
nobody would buy their charcoal, for which they
must pay 31. a ton in the first instance. The proprietor
offered to give the charcoal, if allowed to carry it
away as often as would be necessary—that is,
monthly—but the Board thought it could not afford
to give the wood. The proprietor gave the wood
and the thing was done. But the proprietor has not
got the manure—at least very little of it; only the
I two first emptyings of the tank, for the farmers are
' scrambling for it at a high price. The price as it
i
comes out of the tank s, we believe, 61. a ton. From
, , the obvious effects of the experiment, in eveetening